Mahlon Betts
{{Short description|American legislator from Delaware}}
Mahlon Betts (March 16, 1795 – March 4, 1867) was an American carpenter, railroad car builder, shipwright, businessman, banker, and legislator who helped found three of Wilmington, Delaware's major manufacturing enterprises: the Harlan and Hollingsworth Company, the Pusey and Jones Company, and the Betts Machine Company.{{cite web | url=http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/2179.xml | title=Betts & Seal records | publisher=Hagley Museum and Library | year=1998 | accessdate=September 18, 2013 | author=Adams, Warren | archive-date=March 3, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230456/http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/2179.xml | url-status=live }}
Biography
Born in Attleboro in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on March 16, 1795,{{Cite book |last= |first= |title=1836. Semi-centennial Memoir of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. |date=1886 |publisher=The Harlan & Hollingsworth Corporation |location=Wilmington, Delaware |pages=127 |language=en}} Betts came to Wilmington in 1812. On November 8, 1818, he married Mary R. Seal at the Wilmington Friends Meeting. In 1828 (or 1829),[https://books.google.com/books?id=cmjVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA127 Betts' bio] in "1836. Semi-centennial Memoir of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company" he built a foundry at 8th and Orange Streets, which would operate as Betts & Seal until 1867.{{Cite web|title=Collection: Betts & Seal records {{!}} Hagley Museum and Library Archives|url=https://findingaids.hagley.org/repositories/3/resources/976|access-date=2022-01-20|website=findingaids.hagley.org|archive-date=2022-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120150625/https://findingaids.hagley.org/repositories/3/resources/976|url-status=live}} There he installed the state's first stationary steam engine. His company also manufactured a variety of wheels as well as pinions, shafts, pulleys, cogs, and other castings.{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=Ross |title=Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological Innovation in the United States, 1790–1865 |publisher=JHU Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8018-9141-0 |pages=146 |language=en}}
On March 1, 1836, Betts joined Samuel N. Pusey, who was a machinist in Wilmington, to launch Betts & Pusey.{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Greg H. |title=The United States Merchant Marine in World War I: Ships, Crews, Shipbuilders and Operators |publisher=McFarland |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4766-6703-4 |location=Jefferson, NC |pages=317 |language=en}} The company built railroad cars at a plant at Water and West Streets. He eventually leased the foundry to his son Edward (1825–1917), who carried on the business.
In 1837, Mahlon became a director of the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad.[https://books.google.com/books?id=lOg6AAAAMAAJ&dq=%22mahlon+betts%22+rail&pg=PA34 Railway Locomotives and Cars, Volume 6 (1838)] The railroad soon merged into the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, which thenceforth operated the first rail link from Philadelphia to Baltimore. (This main line survives today as part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.) Betts became a director in the merged railroad,{{cite web | url=http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1842%20May%2004.wd.pdf | title=1842 (May 2004 Edition) | publisher=The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society | work=PRR CHRONOLOGY | date=May 2004 | accessdate=13 September 2013 | archive-date=14 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014023820/http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1842%20May%2004.wd.pdf | url-status=live }} and his service as a railroad executive is noted on the 1839 Newkirk Viaduct Monument in Philadelphia.
He was also a director of the National Bank of Wilmington and Brandywine, the president of the Mechanics Bank, and the president of First National Bank of Wilmington.
In the 1840s, he served in the Delaware General Assembly, first as a representative and then as a senator.
Mahlon Betts died in Wilmington on March 4, 1867. The ship named after him, the Mahlon Betts, is claimed to be the first iron sailing yacht built in the United States.{{Cite book |last=Federal Writers' Project |title=The WPA Guide to Delaware: The First State |publisher=Trinity University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-59534-207-2 |language=en}}
Notes
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External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100613170709/http://www.math.udel.edu/~rstevens/datasets/nccprobate/betts_mahlon.html Probate inventory], performed April 2, 1867, by the Borough of Wilmington, New Castle County
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Category:American industrialists
Category:Members of the Delaware House of Representatives
Category:Delaware state senators
Category:People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Category:People from Wilmington, Delaware
Category:19th-century American businesspeople
Category:19th-century members of the Delaware General Assembly