Inventor Name
Savery family
Repository
Hagley Museum & Library
Manuscripts & Archives Department
P.O. Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
1.5 linear ft.
Summary
The Savery family of Chester County, Pa., produced two generations of eminent mechanical engineers. Thomas Savery was born on May 31, 1837 in Philadelphia, Pa. After attending the Friends Select School and the Westtown Boarding School in Chester County, he then became apprentice machinist at William Sellers & Company of Philadelphia. After finishing this apprenticeship he was employed as a foreman in the shops of the Columbus, Piqua & Indiana Railroad. He then became superintendent in the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona shops. In 1864 Savery became shop foreman for Pusey, Jones & Company, in Wilmington, Delaware, shipbuilders and manufacturers of papermaking machinery. In 1874 when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy he was named general manager, chief operating officer, and vice president. He later became president. During the 1880s and 1890s Savery became more interested in the production of paper and wood pulp. He patented several papermaking machines which were widely used, and Pusey & Jones became a leader in the industry. With several associates Savery bought several properties on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in 1884, including the site of the famous ante-bellum armory. He first established paper mills on these sites and in the mid 1890s began building electric power generating facilities. He organized the Harpers Ferry Electric Light & Power Company. Savery had the engine house used by John Brown as a fort exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. In the 1890s, Savery invested in a new sulfite pulp mill and a paper mill near Denver, Colorado. Savery poured much of his own money into this venture, but it proved to be his only failure. Around 1900, Savery helped to organize the York Haven Paper Company and the York Haven Water & Power Company on the Susquehanna River. In his later years Savery held a number of corporate directorates. He was president of the Wilmington Savings Fund Society. He retired from Pusey & Jones in 1907 and died three years later. William Savery, the son of Thomas Savery and Sarah Pim Savery, was born on October 24, 1865 in Wilmington, Delaware. He was educated at Haverford College and later went to work for his father at the Pusey & Jones Company. He was president and general manager of the Parsons Engineering Company. He was also president of the Harpers Ferry Electric Light and Power Company, the York Haven Paper Company, and the Shenandoah Pulp Company, enterprises that had been started by his father in the late 19th century. He was active in the Technical Association of Pulp and Paper Industry. William Savery died on December 25, 1946. The largest series is William H. Savery's diaries (1919-49) which contain records of both his business and personal life; including his work with his father's papermaking and machine building enterprises and his activities in the Society of Friends. There is also correspondence relating to papermaking at various places, including lists of Pusey & Jones machines at Jay, Maine, and at Lloyd Mill in London. There are also notes on W. H. Savery's papermaking machine patents. The Thomas H. Savery materials are a collection of letters, notes and ephemera relating to his career as a mechanical engineer and executive, his membership in the Society of Friends, his investments and real estate holdings. Among the more interesting items are a sketch-notebook of machinery designs (1859-61), and a letter referring to the Friends' opposition to building warships for the Civil War. There is also a farm notebook of Richard Pim, Savery's father-in-law (1857). The real estate papers consist of deeds, and wills tracing the ownership of the Savery family land holdings near Longwood, Hamorton and Parkesville in Chester County, Pa., from 1713 to 1909. Also of interest is a copy of a commendation to those citizens, including Thomas Savery's grandfather, who stayed in Philadelphia to care for the sick during the great yellow fever epidemic of 1793.
