1808 - Yes, date unknown
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Name |
Sperry Douglas Brower |
Birth |
21 Oct 1808 |
Troy, Albany, New York, USA |
Gender |
Male |
Death |
Yes, date unknown |
Person ID |
I84077 |
My Genealogy |
Last Modified |
11 Oct 2019 |
Family |
Harriett Putnam, b. 21 Jun 1811, Troy, Albany, New York, USA d. 20 Oct 1843 (Age 32 years) |
Marriage |
7 Apr 1830 |
Albany, New York, USA |
Children |
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Family ID |
F30905 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Last Modified |
11 Oct 2019 |
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Notes |
- S. Douglas Brower was what was called a spoon, or flatware, maker. By the 1850s, when he went into business on his own, Americans were no longer content with plain spoon work and preferred what were generally termed fancy, figured, or ornamental patterns. As a role, the makers who survived in business at this time required large amounts of capital to purchase the machinery necessary to respond to the changes in taste, particularly dies and die-stamping machines. Brower was one of these; a writer in 1856 described him as: "giving . . . especial attention to tableware, his designs of which are of the latest and most approved styles. This department of the business . . . has undergone a great change within a few years, in consequence of an increasing demand for variety and a desire for ornament. Mr. Brower has not failed to note this change in public taste, but is constantly renewing his patterns, improving his designs, and perfecting his machinery."
The extent of Brower's success can be further gauged by his listing in the Federal census of industry of 1860, which records that on an annual basis his business produced sixty thousand dollars worth of "spoons, forks, knives and ladles" using thirty thousand ounces of silver valued at thirty-eight thousand dollars. The finished goods were made by a workforce of fifteen men and four women employing the "motive" power of a five-horsepower steam engine. [Federal Census of the Products of Industry for 1860, Albany County, Fourth Ward]
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