Preliminary thereto, however, a brief historical statement should be
made of the beginnings of the enterprises to which the Company
succeeded.
[Illustration: Paul Revere & signature]
In January, 1801, Colonel Paul Revere[3] bought the old powder-mill at
Canton, where during the Revolutionary War, largely by his
instrumentality and agency, the Colony and State had been supplied with
powder. He and his son, Mr. Joseph W. Revere, under the firm-name of
Paul Revere & Son, erected and adapted the buildings necessary for the
manufacture of copper into sheets and bars.
In the years 1804 and 1805 Mr. J. W. Revere spent considerable time on
a visit to England and the continent for the purpose of obtaining all
the information possible in the prosecution of their undertaking.
Colonel Revere claims, in letters written by him at the time, that their
mill for rolling copper was the first erected in this country.[4] And it
may be said in passing that the copper trade in England was hardly more
advanced there than here.
Their business grew slowly, but it made a steady progress until
substantially established. Colonel Revere died in 1818, but the son, Mr.
Joseph W. Revere, continued on with the manufactory started at Canton
until it became a part of the incorporated Company.
* * * * *
Singularly coincident with the events already narrated, Mr. James
Davis, but five months younger than Mr. Joseph W. Revere, had come to
Boston from Barnstable, his native town, and acquired here a trade,
reaching his majority in 1798.
In the very first years of the present century he established himself on
Union Street as a brass founder. Here he continued, gradually expanding
the business until the admission of his son, Mr. James Davis, Jr., as a
partner, January 4, 1828, when the firm-name of James Davis & Son was
adopted.
* * * * *
These two enterprises naturally ran along very much together in certain
respects. For instance, in their trade with shipbuilders, which was an
important feature with each; while the foundry was turning out
composition castings required for fastenings, the mill was preparing
copper in its various forms for use on the same vessel.
It was therefore to be expected that the rapid revival of our mercantile
marine after the close of the second war, giving to both these firms a
largely increased trade, would bring them into very intimate relations
and suggest to them the wisdom of a more permanent union.
* * * * *
Out of these conditions finally grew the incorporated Company, taking
the family name of its real founder, and known since as the Revere
Copper Company.
[Illustration: Paul Revere and Son, Boston]
The card on the opposite page is printed from the original copperplate,
which must have been engraved earlier than the year 1804. In that year
the foundry described as "at the north part of Boston," which was on
Lynn Street,[5] was so seriously damaged in a severe gale that it was
not afterwards repaired nor occupied; its contents and the work done
there were transferred to the copper-mill at Canton.
The plate is in possession of the present Mr. J. W. Revere, son of the
late Mr. John Revere, and has been kindly loaned for use here.