Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1868-04-18
mAsUFACTUREs N TEE WEsr.
WAteh'makt king I'm uIlnoIs-A MetropoI-
htan Tribute 10 Prairie state Enter
prise and sl<ill-sixty Watches a Day
from the EIsia Factory.

from the EIgiA Factory.
From the New York Tribune, March 2s,h
Making watches by steam, fifteen hundred
a month, out on the prairies OF Nortbern
Illinois Bishop Berkeley should havelivsd
to see the day
Four years ago Chicago jaweler CHANGED
TO visit the American watch Factory in Mas
sachusetts. He became interested in its
processes. He returned home and talked
ABOUT them. Now Chicago believes
profoundly that she can do snything which
New England can, and many things which
New England can't. Her capitalists turned
their attention to the subject. Young Amer
lca-the Lake City contains no Old America
Chicago.
Leading business men went he rtiIy into
tne enterprise. 1t WAS uphill work brt
these gentlemen were accustomed 10 o5sta.
Giles. One was B. W. Raymond, who IA years
before had lnaugurated Chicago's first rail-
way, which started for that Swiss-like town
90 the Upper Mississippi, where Captain
leather store. They organized the Nation.I
MsSfb Company. With paid in capital of
sl9O ,UOO. The first point was to secure goo5
workmeD. Several leading employees OF the
eastern company gladly accepted their pro-
posals. tempted by novelty aud the larger
remuneration which new enterprise is com
pslled to offer.
Next, where should the factory be buiIt
Matchmaking by machinery is not fond of
the pavements; 1t finds visitors too plentiful.
and the atmosphere too impure Ii bailbles
of green fields. IT seeks some cool. geoues-
tered vale of life, free from dust and bures.
Elgln, little city OF 5, 600 people, on Fox
river, 40 miles west of Chicago, had an ex-
cellent population, a healthful climate,
pleasant surroundings, and the best water
power in Illinois. Already it boosted sever
al manufactures Moreover Elgin offered
10 the Company, as free gift, 35 acres of
land, mile from her business center and
subscribed for $4,000 OF stock to secure the
factory; and therein wa1 Elgin wise in her
day and generation. In November, 1864 the
first blow was struck. Charles s. Mosley was
placed IN charge OF the new establishments
He had been engaged 10 the incest processes
OF watch making for ten years; Was an in
ventOr Oninstinct, and one of the very first
machinists of the United States Several
skilled and efficient helpers also went with
bin from the East. spacious three-storv
factory of brick arose beside the shining
river The works we're moved IN, and finally
after two and half years of energetic labor.
thew completed their first watch in Nav.
1867.
Now. the mandatory sWarms with busy
life. 1t turns out sixty watches per dav.
The works are driven by steam engine of
thirty horse power. The machine shop, con-
tanning thirty workmen, is a mechanical mu,
scum. Here are whole generations OF tools
not only the implement OF to- day, but the
father and grandfather used ia its construc-
tion-and the size of each measured 20 the
thOusandth part or an inch.
The Elgin factory employs $50 persons.
half OF them women. The latter are chiefly
farmers daughters. One rode alone in \
buggy thirty miles to Elgin to find what so
many of her American sisters are looking
fOr-OppOrtunity. They receive from 80 cents
to 81 30 per day. They show special capacity
for the work, look tidy and cheerful, and find
pleasant homes in the pleasant town.
The company now employs a capital of half
million dollars. The managers and pro-
prietOTs include Il. w. Raymond, q. +. Law
renee, g. NJ Wheeler, Ii. z. Culver, Il. Fl
Taylor, j. 4. RVersOn, 7 NJ. Avery, and
other leading business men Of Chicago |
They make six different grades of which the |
"B w. Raymond" is the best. They seU
only movements" leaving the local dealer |
to case the watch according to the purchas- |
er's taste They propose TO supply all re- |
putable houses in the United states with |
their watches.
Do these watches keep time? Thrt of |
course is the alpha and omega We are con-
fident that they do-from tie character of |
the men. machinery and wOrkmen, and the 1
testimony of disinterested dealers and rail- |
way engineers. Several dozen locomotives /
on the Pennsylvania Railway are already run /
in the products OF their Own section are be- /
ginning to introduce them.
+ But where will our watches be made Thus /
lar the Elgln Company nave shipped more /
than half their work to the East. Capt. al Is
worth more In Illinois than in Massachusetts,
but labor Is as cheap, and living cheaper
If the Northwest can compete successfully
with New England in making watches, she
can in making anything else; and the Great
Valley will become the center of manufac-
lures as we'll as the seat of empire. A. DIR.
The Chicago Republican of the I'd instant,
in copying the above article from the N. Y.
Tribune, says of the National Watch Com
pany:
1t is not too much to say that their watch
es are accorded the highest place in the
trade, and among those whose appreciation
Of the excellencies for the time-keeper is
by the necessities for extreme &C.
C rscy. watch upon whose movements
is TO hang the safety of the lives and property
to flying train must be nice in
its adjustment indeed. The model of all
roads in pendulum, like regularity, is the
Penn sylvania Central, whose Superintendent
has this to say Of our IllinOis-made watches:
Gan of The watches purchased Of your company,
without single exception, are performing sdmra-
bly,, they very correct tmekeepers, in fact fully
equal to y of the fine watches led by some Of
our officers. All who carry them pirze them very
highly. and indisposed to exchange them for
those of aOy otuer manufacture"
veterTn conductor on the same road,
sps sking of one of the watches above refer
red to, says:
al can cheerfully testify that during period of
fifteen years as conductor of passenger rains, have
SEvERHAD ITS EQUAL for accuracy in keeping time.
During the time 1 have carried it (about three
months), do not think it has Uarizd one minute"
These are testimonials we'll worth the place /
We give them, and they belong to a numer- L
Gus class that constitute the key to the result /
whereof we set out to speak, the success of
this Elgin Watch Company. This new estab'
in line OF products the surest to
encounter prejudice, has met with unparal-
leled success. and the National Watch Com
pany to day fnd themselves behind their Or
ders. Their movements are sold in the best |
houses at the East aud West even finding /
their largest sale among the oldest and most l
dealers in New York, Philadelphia
and Boston. Ii is not too much to say that |
the trade are delighted with the Illinois
watches. making careful comparison of their
10 eTits with the most celebrated watches IN
the world. The enterprise, with it's present
production and not up to the full capacity of /
the factory Is thus, 10 one year, an estab
lshed financial success We are led to this /
reference by finding the works and career of |
this company made the subject of an elabo- |
rate sketch in the New York Tribune, from |
the pen of A. ID Richardson, a portion of |
which we reproduce elsewhere.
ERIE RAILwAY.-The sympathies of the en- |
tire Northwest are with the officers of this |
road in their controversy with Vanderbilt, |
who seeks to control it that he may dictate |
high tariff to the trade and passengers over |
it. The fare over the Erie road is now re- |
duced to 81 90, aud a corresponding reduc- |
tion in freights. The Michigan Southern is |
to lay down an extra rail to Toledo, this |
season, so that there will be continuous. |
broad six feet euage, from CHICAGO to New |