Gouverneur Kemble Gouverneur Kemble ( January 25 , 1786 – September 18 , 1875 ) was a two - term United States Congressman , diplomat and industrialist . He helped found the West Point Foundry , a major producer of artillery during the American Civil War . Kemble was born to a prominent family in New York City , the eldest son of prosperous attorney and merchant Peter Kemble . He was educated in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1803 , then engaged in the mercantile business . He was friends with Washington Irving and other members of city society , who enjoyed socializing at Cockloft Hall ( an old family mansion on the Passaic River inherited by Kemble ) . He was sent to the Mediterranean as a naval agent during the Second Barbary War with Tripoli . As a young man with political connections , in 1816 he was appointed United States Consul at Cádiz in Spain , where it is said that ( on little authority ) his attention was attracted to the Spanish government ' s state - of - the - art process of casting cannon . Returning home , he saw an opportunity to introduce the process in the United States . Along with other partners including his brother William and a consortium of investors including General Joseph Gardner Swift of the U . S . Army , in 1817 he founded the West Point Foundry Association to produce artillery pieces following the War of 1812 . The foundry was built across the Hudson River from West Point in the village of Cold Spring , New York , and soon began to make cast iron steam engines for locomotives , geats , water pipes , and other iron products , as well as artillery . Despite the lack of local artisans and craftsmen skilled in ironworking , Kemble and his partners succeeded , especially after they hired William Young , a native of Belfast , Ireland . Robert P . Parrott became superintendent in 1836 and the Foundry weathered the Panic of 1837 . Kemble continued to be president of the association until the expiration of the charter . He became known as the " Patriarch of Cold Spring " for his charitable activities in the village . In 1823 , Gouverneur Kemble leased land in Orange County , New York for the mineral rights to mine iron ore . Four years later , the Kembles acquired most of the nearby Greenwood Iron Foundry and related industries . In 1839 , the brothers sold the foundry to Parrott . A year later , his sister Mary married Parrott . Kemble was an active member of the Democratic Party and became involved in politics . He was elected to the Twenty - fifth and Twenty - sixth Congresses representing Westchester and Putnam counties , serving two terms during the presidency of Martin Van Buren . In 1840 , he declined a nomination for a third term . He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1840 and 1860 . He was elected as a delegate to the 1846 convention for the revising New York ' s state constitution . In his later years , he was interested in the promotion of the Hudson River Railroad and the Panama Railway , and was a lifelong art collector and patron . Kemble died in Cold Spring at the age of 89 and was buried in Cold Spring Cemetery . Famed Civil War general Gouverneur Kemble Warren , born in Cold Spring in 1830 , was named for Kemble , a close friend of his father , Sylvanus Warren .