History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, 1887



Barton Family - ISAAC BARTON Biography

Isaac Barton, vice-president and superintendent of the Keeler Company of Williamsport, is numbered among the oldest and most prominent of the ironmasters in the state, his useful activity having extended over the long period of a half century. During this time he has witnessed an entire revolution of working methods and the introduction of various improved types of boilers as they supplanted each other from time to time, and he has been a prime factor in the industry at all stages of its development. An accomplished mechanic, he is at the same time possessed of those larger business qualifications and traits of personal character which mark the ideal citizen, and which have endeared him to all with whom he has been at any time associated. The story of his career is of peculiar interest, exemplifying, as it does, a life of such toil and persistent endeavor as is seldom experienced, but which bears splendid fruit in the formation of a sterling type of character, and accomplishments of the highest value to the community at large.

Mr. Barton is a native Pennsylvanian, born in Berks county, May 2, 1838, the only child of Isaac and Mary Ann (Maitland) Barton. The father was the village blacksmith and general mechanic, and was, moreover, a man of strong character, who took an active part in all community affairs, and was a devout Christian, as was his wife.

The son, Isaac, was left fatherless by death when he was only two years old, and was taken into the home of his great-grandfather, John McGowan, in Union township, Berks county. He was there cared for, reared to habits of industry, performing such labor as he was capable, and attending the poorly equipped schools of that day until he was eleven years old. Mr. McGowan dying at this time, the lad came under the care of his grandmother, Martha Maitland, and from this time on he earned his own living. His protector almost immediately removed to, Reading, and there he worked the first summer on the canal towpath. Large for his age, he was then entrusted with the duties of mail carrier between Reading and Phoenixville, making his journey of thirty miles on horseback every clay except Sunday. So faithful was he and so heedless of exposure or fatigue that during a period of two years he did not miss a single trip. In 1854, when fifteen years old, he was apprenticed to Thomas, Corson & West, boilermakers at Norristown, in whose establishment was his relative, Thomas Maitland, who had charge of the department to which the young workman was assigned. Having mastered his trade he worked as a journeyman in various parts of the country-in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the south. He was in Memphis, Tennessee, when the rebellion broke out, and his sturdy patriotism moved him to leave a region where treason ran rampant. Returning to the north, he took employment in the shops of the Dixon Manufacturing Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he found as fellow workmen his former foreman, Thomas Maitland, and his brother William.

October 1, 1864, Mr. Barton came to Williamsport, which was destined to be thenceforward the scene of his life work. While apprentice and journeyman he had devoted his spare hours to the study of mechanics and kindred subjects, and the knowledge which he had acquired, with his mechanical skill, afforded him ample equipment for entering upon a career of his own. He, with the two Maitlands before mentioned and Joseph Heathcote, opened a boiler shop' on the site of the present Williamsport Machine Company's plant. He well combined the abilities of the business man with those of the mechanic, and he was made superintendent. Originally known as the firm of J. Heathcote & Company, the works were continued on the first location until 1868, when they were removed to the site now occupied by the E. Keeler Company, which was organized in 1878, and which was incorporated in 1890. This at present is officered as follows: C. LaRue Munson, president; Isaac Barton, vice-president ; S. A. Corson, secretary ; F. T. Moore, treasurer; I. B. Maitland, general manager; W. E. Gray, assistant manager.

The history of this company is in large part that of Mr. Barton, who directed its affairs through various critical periods, and even saved it from extinction. Its establishment cost a heroic struggle to begin with. At the outset Mr. Barton laid down as a foundation rule that it was better to hold the goods of the company in stock than to take risk by selling them to customers who would burden the company with poor book accounts. He was not, however, permitted to carry his ideas into effect, and in a short time after its entering upon business it found itself indebted to two of the local banks in the sum of $27,000 entailing the payment of a large interest account. This was too heavy a burden to be borne, and, notwithstanding the creditors extended every possible leniency, the company was finally obliged to confess failure, the banks assuming its paper and taking a collateral judgment against its property. This disaster, it is to be said, might have been avoided had it not been that during the financial panic of 1873 the company incurred a loss of $12,000 on bad debts of which it could collect but seven hundred dollars. Another event which entered into the failure was an experiment on the part of one of the partners of Mr. Barton, who in 1878 became impressed with the idea that money was to be made out of petroleum, and who undertook to liquidate the affairs of the company with oil-an experiment which was entirely disastrous. To the time of the failure of the Heathcote Company Miss Ella Keeler was bookkeeper, and had become familiar with all the details of the business, and when the property of the company was brought to sheriff's sale it was bought in her name. At this juncture William Rhoades, of Philadelphia, who reposed the utmost confidence in Mr. Barton, extended to him the privilege of drawing upon him to the extent of $10,000, and upon this capital the Keeler Company made its beginning. With this pecuniary aid also came encouragement of another sort which was almost as helpful. There were friends enough who had implicit confidence in Mr. Barton, such as Professor Davis, who remarked that " that man did not know how to achieve success until he had once failed." At another unpropitious moment, another friend of Mr. Barton, George W. Sands, extended timely aid by associating himself with him. As soon as the company was once established it unexpectedly received an order for six boilers, and before these were completed other orders came, and the business gradually developed into its present large proportions. At the first hand work only was employed, but Mr. Barton and his colleagues were quick to accept improvements, and introduced every practicable innovation as it appeared. It is also worthy of note, as a contrast to the methods of to-day, that Mr. Barton and his early partners bore their relations to each other without written contract or agreement, relying implicitly upon each other's unsupported verbal assurance. Mr. Barton has witnessed the growth of the business of which he was the prime founder, until, through various additions, the property of the company has come to cover all the ground between West Third street and the canal, and the company is known throughout the length and breadth of the land as one of the largest boiler makers in America.

Mr. Barton's long connection with the business epitomized above was fittingly celebrated on October r, 1904, a date which signalized the fiftieth anniversary of his beginning with it. He was surprised by a summons to the boiler room of the Keeler Company's works, where he found the officials and employees gathered about a handsome leather chair. Mr. C. LaRue Munson was to have made a presentation address, but he was unexpectedly called out of the city, and the paper which he had prepared was read by Mr. Ed Quay, one of the company's employees. The response of the delighted recipient is worthy of preservation, not only as expressive of his pleasure, but as affording a glimpse of the change in manufacturing conditions during his lifetime. He said:

" I have always regretted that I could not make a speech. I can write out my thoughts and can express myself all right in conversation, but when it comes to addressing a gathering I am at a loss. And I may say that never in my life have I more keenly felt this deficiency than at the present moment. It would give me unbounded pleasure if I could just express to you the feelings which thrill me at this evidence of your good will and esteem. As your spokesman has said, this occasion is one of a good deal of interest. I am the oldest member of this Company, and I have watched its development from a weak beginning to the great proportions which it has assumed to-clay. During that time I have seen many changes which the boilermaker of this advanced age would find it hard to realize. We do things now with much greater facility than in the early (lays of the industry, and yet it is true that in those early days there were boilermakers of better all-round capacity than any of to-day. A boy coming into a shop now cannot hope to become a boilermaker in the strict sense of the term ; indeed, it is considered sufficient now for one to become expert at riveting, or some other branch of the business. Not. that the young men of to-clay are not as well supplied with brains as we were. but they have not the opportunity to learn all of the business."

" It is especially pleasing on this occasion for me to consider that the relations existing between the employees of this Company and myself are so pleasant. I believe that I have always had the good will, yes, I will say, the affection, of the men under me and associated with me to as great an extent as any employer in town. That is a thing that I have always been proud of. I thank you sincerely for this ovation, and hope that you will be a long time in the present Company's employ, and that I may be spared many years longer to work with you."

Mr. Barton married, in 1866, Miss Susan A. Keeler, daughter of John Keeler. She was born July 23, 1841, and died February 6, 1881. She was a woman of noble character and lovable traits, and was to her husband all that a real wife could be, sharing with him in all his endeavors, and giving her encouragement when disaster and sorrow seemed impending. The great sorrow of their life was in the sad death, by drowning in the Susquehanna river, of their only child, a bright boy, William H. Barton, who was born May 10, 1867, and who was lost to them May 29, 1882, when little more than fifteen years of age.

Mr. Barton preserves a fine physique, and his mental attributes are at their best. A gentleman of the old school, he is held in sincere regard throughout the community. He is an exemplary member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics is a stanch Republican. He holds membership with the Odd Fellows, the United Order of American Mechanics, and the Patriotic Order of Sons of America. During the Civil war he served in an emergency regiment called out by Governor Curtin to repel the invasion by the rebel army under General Lee, and bore himself as faithfully as a soldier as in the peaceful pursuits of life.


Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Lycoming County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1906.










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