An Update...

Many thanks to the more than 20,000 who have visited and continue to read this blog.

My hope is that it will be of help to the descendants of the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Several of you have related that The Club and The Flood were never mentioned in your homes as you were growing up, and that it has been through other, serendipitous ways that you first became aware of your connection to these fascinating people.

May I suggest that if you do have family information about your ancestor's membership in the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, especially if you have old photos or other artifacts, that you consider making these available to the outstanding Johnstown Flood National Memorial. It is situated at the farm of Colonel Elias Unger, near the remains of the failed dam. If you have not visited there and toured the Clubhouse which is still standing, you really should.

To see what The Club looked like before The Flood, don't miss the outstanding photos by Louis Semple Clarke:

Louis Semple Clark Collection

Also, I am incorporating your newest comments as time permits.

To All Who Have Commented...Thank You!

Thank you to each and every one of you who have made comments during the past two years.

I am so very grateful for the kind attention you have given to this blog since the initial postings were put in place in 2007, as well as for the corrections, insights and questions that your comments have provided. I am especially grateful to have heard from family and friends of those who were part of the Club--how good of you all to take the time to respond!

In the next few weeks I will try to respond to them all. Thank you for being patient--I have been busily otherwise occupied and it has kept me from the South Fork research as well as reading and responding.

David McCullough* has said that once the South Fork Fishing & Hunting Club and the Johnstown Flood gets hold of one, it is for keeps. True. It is my intention to add to and make this blog more helpful to South Fork Club family members, researchers and those who have a compelling interest in this gripping story.

*The best book about the Flood with many fine insights about the Club is McCullough's "The Johnstown Flood". I encourage you all to read it. It is a treasure.

JOHN JACOB LAWRENCE

John Jacob Lawrence
March 7, 1827 – March 27, 1898

John Jacob Lawrence was born on March 7, 1827 in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the son of Congressman Joseph B. Lawrence and his second wife, Sarah (AKA Marie) Bucher. (More about Congressman Joseph B. Lawrence: In 1838 he was a candidate for Congress, defeated by seventeen votes, but elected in 1840. He died in Washington, D. C., April 7, 1842.).

John Jacob Lawrence served during the Civil War, to whit: JOHN JACOB LAWRENCE Captain 125th Penna. Infantry Aug. 15, 1862; Major Aug. 16, 1862; honorably mustered out May 18, 1863. Colonel 46th Penna. Militia Infantry.

John Jacob Lawrence was involved with paint and color manufacturing and was for a time a partner of Moses B. Suydam. The parent factory was located on Rebecca (Reedsdale) Street. Originally engaged in the manufacture of Dutch-processed white lead, other products of the paint industry gradually were added as the firm expanded under a series of reorganizations. Successively it became W. G. Stockton and Company; Suydam, Lawrence and Company (1878); M. B. Suydam and Company (1885), and the M. B. Suydam Company (1900). Each company in turn prospered and each served as the spring-board from which the next was formed. The paint products of the M B Suydam company were used by many of the largest bridge building firms in Western Pennsylvania, including, Carnegie Steel and Jones and Laughlin Steel.

John Jacob Lawrence was a director of the Masonic Bank, along with SFF&HC members Robert Pitcairn, E. A. Myers, Aaron French and John Caldwell.

At the time of the Flood, Colonel J. J. Lawrence, was Vice-President of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.

John J. Lawrence married Anna E. ?

Here is their Allegheny PA household in 1880…(the enumerator misspells the last name as “Laurence”)…

Household:

J J Lawrence – age 53 – Lead and Oil Manufacturer (born 1827)

Anna E. Lawrence – age 50 – Keeping House (born 1830)

W. W. Lawrence – age 21 – Clk Manufacturer

Teresa M. Lawrence – age 19 (born 1861)

Anna M. Lawrence – age 16 (born 1864)

J. J. Lawrence Jr. – age 14 (born 1866)

Mary S. Lawrence – age 12 (born 1868)

* * * * *

John Jacob Lawrence, Jr. married Louise Andrews.

Their children include:

Louise Lawrence ()

John Jacob Lawrence III ()

William Watson Lawrence ()

Miriam Lawrence ()

Their home in Sewickley was called “Glen Osborne”.

John J. Lawrence was involved with railroads. On Feb 20, 1870, the Allegheny Valley Railroad was opened to Oil City proper. And two years later extensive terminal facilities were acquired. In 1873, Colonel William Phillips was still president of the road, and J. J. Lawrence was its general manager.

He was also listed as a general superintendent of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad. President-W. L. Scott. General Superintendent--John J. Lawrence. General Ticket Agent--J: A. Burch. General Business Office-Erie, Pa.

* * *

William Watson Lawrence...

Q. When was the Paint and Varnish building at the foot of the Duquesne Incline abandoned, and what's the plan for it? -- Dennis Bateman, Corliss

A. At the turn of the century, William Watson Lawrence was probably Pittsburgh's most respected paint manufacturer. But today he is remembered not for the buildings his paint protected and beautified, but for the building he left behind -- a once-handsome structure whose badly weathered exterior is now perhaps the worst advertisement imaginable for "W. W. Lawrence & Company Paints and Varnishes."

There's a lesson for us all in this little irony. Lawrence founded his company in 1884, and enjoyed considerable success: A 19th-century advertisement boasted that in addition to various military contracts, "Last spring by order of the Secretary of the Treasury every Light House on the Atlantic coast was painted with The Lawrence Paints."

By the late 1800s, Lawrence was himself a beacon of Pittsburgh business. He expanded his operations into a massive South Side factory, which was completed in 1902. Topped by a white wooden tower containing water tanks for the paint and the building's sprinkler system, the facility boasted six floors and 100,000 feet of floor space. Those floors were some 10 inches thick, supported by oaken columns each more than three feet square. Such heavy construction was necessary to support the massive vats needed to mix and store the paint -- which in those days contained large amounts of lead.

The paint factory closed in 1973, and at first developers were anxious to renovate it. The site, after all, is ideal: Its view of the Point makes it perfect for luxury apartments or offices, while its proximity to the Duquesne Incline makes it a natural site for a restaurant or tourist attraction such as a museum or urban mall. The interior offers exciting possibilities as well. Developers wistfully spoke of the "forest of wood" inside the building. In a 1988 treatise on the factory kept on file by the Heinz Regional History Center, Carnegie Mellon student Natalie Gillespie observed that its interior was dominated by "massive oak pillars and high balconies or mezzanines with circular openings for paint vats" -- gaps that "could be incorporated in the building design for dramatic effect."

So far, however, what's been most dramatic about the building are the failures of those who've tried to renovate it. It's as if once they set foot inside, they contract the lethargy that comes from snacking on too many lead paint chips. Plans to turn the building into luxury condominiums, office space, a history museum, and shopping destination for tourists have all languished, largely because the sheer mass of its wooden floors and beams have made it too costly to renovate .

Nor has there been much progress since Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises acquired the factory along with the Station Square complex in 1994. The company did once tell the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette it hoped to decide what to do with the building "soon" ... but that was in 1995. "We really haven't even addressed it yet," confirms Eve Bursic, Forest City's Station Square general manager. She does say there are no plans to tear it down -- which, given the building's history and appealing facade, would be a terrible loss -- but beyond that, "nothing has been decided."
So for now, at least, the future of the W. W. Lawrence Paint factory looks to be about as exciting as watching paint dry. Or, in this case, fade. -- Chris Potter, "You Had To Ask";

Source: http://incline.pghfree.net/asklawrencepaint.htm

JAMES McGREGOR

James McGregor
1835? – After 1895

James McGregor is one of the more elusive members of the Club in spite of the fact that he made one of the most callous comments to the press immediately following the Flood. The National Flood Memorial says he was an attorney and had obtained the rank of major. If that is so, then the other historic records of Pittsburgh’s contributions to the Civil War indicate that Pittsburgh lawyer James McGregor was mustered in on April 24,1861, enlisting as a lieutenant and rising to the rank of major.

In addition, here is what we do know about James McGregor…

The SFF&HC member James McGregor was a director of the Allegheny National Bank along with fellow SFF&HC member John Caldwell Jr.

James McGregor married Margaret Mackey, who was born in Scotland in 1852. Margaret was the daughter of William (born 1823) and “Sabilla” (probably Isabella) (born 1820) Mackey, who with their family had immigrated to Pittsburgh sometime after 1860 but before 1870. They lived in the City of Allegheny, where William was enumerated as a skilled professional saddler.

James and Margaret Mackey McGregor had at least the following child:

Lyda “Lide” G. McGregor (born circa 1875) She married George L. Farrell (born circa 1872) of Columbus Ohio on October 7, 1896 in Pittsburgh, PA.

In the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Blue Book of 1895 Mrs. James McGregor (nee Margaret Mackey) and her daughter Lide G. McGregor are listed as living at 362 Highland Avenue, in the East End. Mr. McGregor is not listed with them, which suggests that either he had died or they had divorced by this time.

A separate listing for James McGregor in the 1880 census has him in a boarding house on Penn Avenue, enumerated as a self-employed lawyer and as married, even though no spouse is listed at the same address. This suggests the possibility that a short-lived marriage between James and Margaret may have occurred, sometime after 1870 and was over by 1880.

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If James and Margaret were indeed divorced, there is a possibly that James McGregor had sometime after 1889 (when we KNOW he was in Pittsburgh, given his idiotic comment to the newspapers about the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club's dam), gone west to Utah, as there is a James McGregor who served a director of the Crescent Mining Company in the 1890s, as the following indicates…

“The annual meeting of the Crescent Mining Company was held on Wednesday the 15th at Salt Lake; James McGregor, who has been superintendent of the company for the past year, is now elected also to the Executive Committee. (Pitchard, Park Record, Park City, 18 October 1890) ...”
”An item which notices that James McGregor is the managing director of the Crescent Mining Company. (Pitchard, Salt Lake Daily Herald, 22 March 1891)”

These would be in keeping with the fact that earlier a James McGregor had been superintendant of the Loyalhanna Mine of the Loyalhanna Coal and Coke Co. in Western Pennsylvania.

* * *
Further speculation…

The census records for Pittsburgh and Allegheny are interesting but not specifically helpful.

If we look at the records for the 1870 census we find a James McGregor who is in charge of the U. S. Pensions Office in Pittsburgh, an important post coordinating the pensions of Civil War survivors and their spouses. He is enumerated as age 35 (so would have been born in 1835) and married to an Eliza ? with two children: Frances age ten (born in 1860) and Margaret age eight (born in 1862). If this is one and the same as the SFF&HC member than he was married twice, first to Eliza and then thereafter to Margaret Mackey.

In the 1880 census James is enumerated as a self-employed lawyer, as mentioned above and living at a boarding house on Penn Avenue. This having been said, he is also listed as age 49, which would mean either that one of the census records is incorrect or that one of these is not the SFF&HC James McGregor.

JOHN KING EWING

JOHN KING EWING
1857- after 1904 (?)

John King Ewing was the son of John K. and Ellen L. Ewing. They made their home in Uniontown, Fayette County. There, John K Ewing began his career in the real estate business, but by 1884 he had removed to Pittsburgh and continued his career there.

Mr. John K. Ewing established himself in the business of real estate, rents and loans in 1884, the firm later becoming John K. Ewing Co; the members of which are John K. Ewing and his cousin, James C. Ewing. They have handsome office premises at No. 64 Federal Street, Allegheny, and advertised themselves, creative, as “Authority on Allegheny real Estate.”

John King Ewing married Mary B. “Birdie” Stockdale, the daughter of Jackman Taylor Stockdale and Mary J. Calhoun. (Jackman Stockdale held interests in Standard Oil).

John K and Birdie Ewing had at least one child:

Mr. John King Ewing, II ()

In 1904 their home was at 1023 North Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh.

HILARY J. BRUNOT

Hilary J. Brunot
July 24, 1824 – June 9, 1900

Hilary Jackson Brunot was born on 24 Jul 1824 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA. He died either on June 9, 1900 or on June 10, 1899 in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA, depending on sources.

Hilary J. Brunot was educated in Sewickley Academy and Western University of Pittsburg. Leaving school he was engaged for a short time in the white lead business. In 1845 he engaged in civil engineering and assisted Nathan McDowell to make test surveys for slackwater navigation on the Monongahela river. In 1849 he went with a Pittsburg company to California, where he remained two years.

In 1851 he returned to Pennsylvania and helped locate and survey the Allegheny Valley Railroad. In 1854 he resigned from the engineer corps and went to Indiana, where he married and then purchased a stock farm in Rock Island county, Illinois, upon which he resided for five years.

In 1859 he removed to Fayette county. Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in farming and speculation in coal lands until 1873, when he came to Greensburg. Since then he has been dealing in coal, oil and gas lands. He was one of the pioneers of the natural gas business, and with the Haymaker brothers put down the first well at Murrysville.

In 1883 he started the Daily and Weekly Press, one of the leading papers of the country, which now has far more than a local circulation. During the late war, Mr. Brunot was mustered into the service of the United States at Camp Howell., July 2, 1863, and served until August 16, 1863, when the. regiment, the fifty-fourth, Pennsylvania Volunteers, was disbanded and he was discharged.

Hilary J. Brunot married, at Boone Grove, Indiana, July 12, 1855. Mary Bissell. Mary Bissell was born on 27 Jul 1834 in Mercer Co, PA, the daughter of Sarah Cory and William Bissell. Mary Bissell Brunot died on 5 Sep 1910 in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA.

Mary Bissell and Hilary Jackson Brunot were married on 12 Jul 1855 in Boone Grove, Porter Co, IN.

Their children were:

- Ann Elizabeth, wife of Hilary B. Brunot, Brevard, North Carolina

- Mary Caroline, widow of Dr. I. P. Klingensmith, of Blairsville, Pennsylvania

- Hilary Sanson, United States consul at St. Etienna, France. He was born on 4 Jun 1860 in Fayette Co, PA. He died on 14 Aug 1928.

- Sarah Louisa; William B., died at the age of nineteen years. She was born on 4 Jun 1860 in Fayette Co, PA. She died on 7 Mar 1932 in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA.

- Felix R., a broker of Greensburg, Pennsylvania

- Melusina B., wife of Joseph K. Barclay, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania

- James Thompson, died in 1902, and was survived by his wife, Rose Latta Brunot

- (and an infant son), James T. Brunot

- Indiana Traner, died in infancy. She was born on 21 Jul 1876 in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA. She died on 2 Nov 1877 in Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, PA.

- John Breton, of whom later.

* * *

Hilary J. Brunot died June 9, 1900.

* * *

John Breton Brunot, son of Hilary J. and Mary (Bissell) Brunot, was born at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, November 6, 1878, and received his education at the high school, Grove City College and University of Michigan. At the last named institution he took a three year law course, graduating June 19, 1902. He was admitted to the practice of his chosen profession in Westmoreland county, May, 1904. Shortly thereafter he became associated with J. R. Spiegel, under the firm name of Spiegel & Brunot, whose office is in the Press building at Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Politically Mr. Brunot is a supporter of the Republican party, and in church affiliations is an Episcopalian. He married, August 26, 1903, Alice E. Turner, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, daughter of John B. and Mary B. Turner. The father was an early settler and prominent business man of Cedar Rapids. Mr. and Mrs. Brunot have one son, John B. Brunot, Jr., born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1904.

Source: Page(s) 135-137, History of Westmoreland County, Volume II, Pennsylvania by John N Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906.

* * *

Brunot Family Ancestry, from the same source...

THE BRUNOT FAMILY is one of the old families of France, which first came into national prominence during the period of the religious wars in that country in the sixteenth century. Major Sanson Brunot (great-great-grandfather) was a distinguished officer in the French army and has a coat of arms (still in possession of the Brunot family), which was bestowed on him for meritorious conduct on the field of battle. His son, Dr. Felix Brunot (great-grandfather), was born in Parish Morey, France, January 9, 1752, and was a foster brother of General LaFayette. He was originally intended for "orders" by his uncle, a Catholic bishop, but experiencing an aversion for that calling he was permitted to enter upon the study of medicine. After graduation from one of the first medical schools of France he joined General LaFayette in his espousal of the patriotic cause in America. He came to this country in 1777, was appointed surgeon in the Continental army under Washington, and rendered invaluable service at the battle of Brandywine and on many other battle fields during the revolutionary war. At the close of that great struggle he was recognized as one of the most successful physicians and skillful surgeons in the new-risen Republic, in whose cause he had patriotically risked his life, and with whose destiny had unhesitatingly cast in his fortunes. No warmer hearted and more earnest friend of freedom than Dr. Brunot ever came to this continent, and no man's service was ever rendered in the cause, of American independence more devotedly than his. After the declaration of peace between Great Britain and the "Thirteen Colonies." Dr. Brunot located at Annapolis, Maryland, but soon removed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he enjoyed a large practice and remained until 1797. In that year he came to Pittsburg and selected his place of residence on a beautiful island (now known as "Brunot's Island") in the Ohio river, a short distance below that city. At his island home he entertained his foster brother and comrades in arms, General LaFayette, and George Rogers Clarke and Herman Blennerhasset and many other prominent characters of American history. He subsequently removed to Liberty street, Pittsburg, where he died May 23, 1838. He was a public-spirited citizen, and after coming to Pittsburg always took a great interest in the growth and prosperity of that city. Dr. Brunot was twice married. His first wife was a lady of Annanolis, by whom he had one daughter, who married but died without issue. His second wife, Elizabeth Kreider, of Philadelphia, whom he married December 17, 1789, bore him six sons and one daughter. Of these sons, Breton and Casper were physicians: Sanson was a prominent minister in the Episcopal church and at one time was in charge of the church at Greensburg: Hilary served as a lieutenant in the United States army, and the other two, Felix and James M., became lawyers and settled in the southern states. James M. Brunot was the father of Hilary B. Brunot, now practicing law in Brevard. North Carolina. Susan Louisa was the only daughter.

Lieutenant Hilary Brunot (grandfather) was the fourth son and was born July 14, 1795, in a house that is still standing in Philadelphia, on the bank of the Schuylkill river. When quite young he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and was a member of one of the early classes which was graduated front that institution. After graduation he was commissioned as lieutenant in the United States regular army, and was wounded in the sortie at Fort Erie during the war of 1812, and was promoted to first lieutenant for gallantry in this battle. After the close of that struggle he was stationed respectively at Fort Snelling, Mackinaw, Green Bay and Newport. From the latter place, Kentucky, he was stationed at the Allegheny arsenal in Pittsburg. In 1825 resigned his command in the army and was engaged in the manufacture of white lead for many years. His works occupied the entire square upon which the Union depot in Pittsburg now stands. Lieutenant Brunot retired from active business in 1850, and died March 26, 1872. He was an earnest Christian, a man of great force of character, and was very active in politics. He was a Whig and later a Republican, and served for many years as a member of the city councils of Pittsburg. He married, May 6, 1819, Ann Tankard Reville, a daughter of Randell and Margaret Reville, of Newport. Kentucky. The Revilles were early settlers of Somerset county, Maryland. To Lieutenant and Mrs. Brunot were born nine children, of whom none are living. Felix R. Brunot, of Pittsburg, one of the children, was one of the most noted philanthropists of his day. (This Felix R. Brunot was the SFF&HC Hilary J. Brunot’s brother).

JESSE H. LIPPINCOTT

JESSE H. LIPPINCOTT
February 18, 1842 - April 18, 1894

Jesse H. Lippincott was a millionaire who had made his fortune from the glass industry.

He was born on 18 Feb 1842 in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania the son of Joseph Lippincott and Eliza Strickler. He died on April 18, 1894 in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. He married twice, first to Mary Richardson () and secondly to Lily Richardson (). With his first wife he had at least two children.

Jesse H. Lippincott served in the Union Forces during the Civil War, as recorded: Jesse H. Lippincott, 28, B, Private, Transferred to Company H, 28th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers on April 29, 1864.

Lippincott was engaged in the glass making business. The Rochester Tumbler Company, which was the principle employer in Rochester, for 27 years, was organized in the spring of 1872. J H Lippincott was secretary and treasurer of the company as well as a director. At the peak of its success the company was making 150,000 tumblers a day and employed 1100 people. In 1899 it was taken over by the National Glass Company. On Feb 12, 1901, the entire factory was destroyed by fire.

Lippincott was associated with the Banner Baking Powder firm which became part of Nabisco (see the page on S S Marvin).

He was a director of the First National Bank of Rochester, in Beaver County. Jesse H Lippincott and P C Knox were directors of the Fifth National Bank of Pittsburgh, located at 16 Sixth Street, founded in 1871. And he was on the board of the Fifth National Bank of Pittsburgh along with another SFF&HC member: Jesse H. Lippincott, Geo. W. Huff, James C. Clark, John Lloyd, Richard Coulter.

In 1888, Jesse Lippincott for a million dollars took over the commercial exploitation of the Phonograph and the Graphophone (Alexander Bell’s invention) for a franchise of dictating machine companies. The North American Phonograph Company.

Edison’s laboratory, by 1887, had a workable prototype, based on a glass cylinder with a compound of steric acid, beeswax and ceresin as the recording medium. This attracted the interest of Jessie H. Lippincott, who was already in the glass business and saw an opportunity. Lippincott pulled off what Alexander Bell could not. After reaching an agreement between Gilliland, Bell and Tainter, Lippincott formed the North American Phonograph Company on March 29, 1888. In the process, he put the rivalry between Edison and Bell on the back burner, along with any patent issues.

MinutesOF THEThe North American Phonograph Company

CERTIFICATE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN PHONOGRAPH COMPANY. RECEIVED in the office of the Clerk of the County of Hudson on the 14th day of July, A.D. 1888 at 12 o'clock M., and recorded in Book 8 of Clerk's Records for said County, page 229, (Signed) Dennis McLaughlin, Clerk. Filed July 16, 1888.(Signed) Henry C. Kelsey, Sec'y of State.

CERTIFICATE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN PHONOGRAPH COMPANY.

THIS IS TO CERTIFY that we, Jesse H. Lippincott, Thomas R. Lombard, George S. Evans, George H. Fitzwilson and John Robinson do hereby associate ourselves into a company under and by virtue of the provisions of an Act of the Legislature of New Jersey, entitled "An Act concerning corporations" approved April 7, 1875, and the several supplements thereto, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, and to that end we do by this, our certificate set forth:

FIRST -- That the name which we have assumed to designate such Company, and to be used in its business and dealings, is THE NORTH AMERICAN PHONOGRAPH COMPANY.

SECOND -- That the place in this State where the business of such Company is to be conducted is the City of Jersey City in the County of Hudson.

THE PRINCIPAL part of the business of said Company within this State is to be transacted in the said City of Jersey City in the County of Hudson, which is to be the principal place of business of said Company, and the place where its principal office is to be located. And the places out of this State where the same is to be conducted are the City of New York in the State of New York, and elsewhere throughout the United States and Canada.

AND THAT the objects for which the Company is formed are to manufacture, trade in, buy, sell, rent, lease and otherwise acquire, hold and dispose of Phonographs, Phonograph-Graphophones and Instruments of every other kind or description designed, made or used for, intended for the recording and reproducing of sounds and any or either of them or any part thereof and any and all supplies, appliances, materials and articles now used or required and that may be hereafter used or required in the manufacture, use or operation of said Phonographs, Phonograph-Graphophones and instruments and any and either of them and also for the purpose of renting, leasing, selling or otherwise disposing of to other firms, persons or corporations, the right or rights to manufacture, trade in, buy, sell, rent, lease or otherwise dispose of said Phonographs, Phonograph-Graphophones or Instruments or either of them or any part thereof or of the right to use the same either generally or in any specified State, locality or territory or in any general or limited manner; and also for the purpose of acquiring, receiving, owning and controlling by lease, rental, purchase, invention or otherwise any patent, patents, applications for patents, contracts devices, designs, instruments and formulas or any or either of them, relating to the art or science of recording and reproducing sound and for the purpose of purchasing materials therefore and any other purposes incidental to the business, trading and manufacturing aforesaid.

THE PORTION of the business of said Company which is to be carried on out of this state is the manufacture, trading in, buying, selling, renting, leasing and otherwise acquiring and disposing of the Phonographs, Phonograph-Graphophones and Instruments above described, and the supplies, appliances articles and materials, as above specified so far as the business of said Company may require, and the renting, leasing, selling or otherwise disposing of rights as above specified and other business incidental to the business of the Company which must necessarily be transacted outside of this State.

THIRD -- That the total amount of the capital stock of said Company is SIX MILLION, SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS; the number of shares into which the same is divided is SIXTY SIX THOUSAND; and the par value of each share is ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. The amount with which the said Company will commence business is FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, which is divided into FOUR HUNDRED SHARES of a par value of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS each.

FOURTH -- The names and residences of the stockholders and the number of shares held by each are as follows, to wit:

Jesse H. Lippincott, New York City, Eighty (80) Shares.Thomas R. Lombard, New York City, Eighty (80) Shares.George S. Evans, New York City, Eighty (80) Shares.George H. Fitzwilson, New York City, Eighty (80) Shares.John Robinson, New York City, Eighty (80) Shares.

FIFTH -- The period at which said Company shall commence is the Fourteenth day of July, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, and the period at which is shall terminate is the First day of May, A.D. one thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight.

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Businessman Jesse H. Lippincott assumed control of the phonograph companies by becoming sole licensee of the American Graphophone Company and by purchasing the Edison Phonograph Company from Edison. In an arrangement which eventually included most other phonograph makers as well, he formed the North American Phonograph Company on July 14, 1888. Lippincott saw the potential use of the phonograph only in the business field and leased the phonographs as office dictating machines to various member companies which each had its own sales territory. Unfortunately, this business did not prove to be very profitable, receiving significant opposition from stenographers.Meanwhile, the Edison Factory produced talking dolls in 1890 for the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Co. The dolls contained tiny wax cylinders. Edison's relationship with the company ended in March of 1891, and the dolls are very rare today. The Edison Phonograph Works also produced musical cylinders for coin-slot phonographs which some of the subsidiary companies had started to use. These proto-"jukeboxes" were a development which pointed to the future of phonographs as entertainment machines.In the fall of 1890, Lippincott fell ill and lost control of the North American Phonograph Co. to Edison, who was its principal creditor. Edison changed the policy of rentals to outright sales of the machines, but changed little else.Edison increased the entertainment offerings on his cylinders, which by 1892 were made of a wax known among collectors today as "brown wax." Although called by this name, the cylinders could range in color from off-white to light tan to dark brown. An announcement at the beginning of the cylinder would typically indicate the title, artist, and company. Advertisement for the Edison New Standard Phonograph, in Harper's, September 1898.In 1894, Edison declared bankruptcy for the North American Phonograph Company, a move that enabled him to buy back the rights to his invention. It took two years for the bankruptcy affairs to be settled before Edison could move ahead with marketing his invention. The Edison Spring Motor Phonograph appeared in 1895, even though technically Edison was not allowed to sell phonographs at this time because of the bankruptcy agreement. In January 1896, he started the National Phonograph Company which would manufacture phonographs for home entertainment use. Within three years, branches of the company were located in Europe. Under the aegis of the company, he announced the Spring Motor Phonograph in 1896, followed by the Edison Home Phonograph, and he began the commercial issue of cylinders under the new company's label. A year later, the Edison Standard Phonograph was manufactured, and then exhibited in the press in 1898. This was the first phonograph to carry the Edison trademark design. Prices for the phonographs had significantly diminished from its early days of $150 (in 1891) down to $20 for the Standard model and $7.50 for a model known as the Gem, introduced in 1899.

Source: Scripophily .com (note that his signature is on the stock certificate showing clearly that the last name is spelled with an I not an E although it appears both ways in contemporary works).

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