John A. Roebling (1806-1869), founder of the firm bearing his name, died from lockjaw (tetanus) contracted in an accident while surveying for the Brooklyn Bridge. His son Charles G. Roebling (1849-1918), a recent graduate of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, soon became president and made the company an economic powerhouse.
One of its customers was the Dent Hardware Company, incorporated in 1894 by Henry H. Dent (1861-1940) as its president, and George H. Brightbill, Charles C. Kaiser, Henry P. Newhard, and C.W. Wackernagel. Based in Newark, N.J., the company shortly thereafter relocated to Fullerton, Pa., a suburb of Allentown, where they employed 30 workers in the manufacture of specialty hardware primarily used in refrigerators and cold storage units.
Sometimes I “accidentally” acquire a rather interesting ephemeral item, most recently as the high bidder on an auction lot of ephemera that included this Pennsylvania Railroad Co. shipping receipt of September 17, 1897, for the shipment of steel wire via the Lehigh Valley Railroad from John A. Roebling’s Sons Company to the Dent Hardware Company.
John A. Roebling and Charles G. Roebling are interred here at Riverview Cemetery, and Henry H. Dent is interred at Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.
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| Pennsylvania Railroad shipping receipt Author’s collection |
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