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User:JPRiley/Sheldon

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{{Infobox person

| name = Frank Perry Sheldon

| image = File:Frank P. Sheldon, engineer, 1911.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Frank P. Sheldon, circa 1911

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1846|2|16}}

| birth_place = Providence, Rhode Island

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|8|17|1846|2|16}}

| death_place = Providence, Rhode Island

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation = Mill engineer

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works =

}}

File:Greystone Mills.jpg, 1904 et seq.]]

Frank P. Sheldon (1848-1915) was an American mill engineer based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Life and career

Frank Perry Sheldon was born February 16, 1846 in Providence, Rhode Island to Jeremiah Angell and Mary (Burbank) Sheldon. The attended the public schools of Providence, and after graduation from Providence High School attended courses in engineering at Scholfield's Commercial College. He first worked in the office of civil engineer Niles B. Schubarth, where he remained for about a year. He then worked as a draftsman for the American Screw Company in Providence and the machine shops of James S. Brown in Pawtucket. Brown soon recommended Sheldon to Foster H. Stafford, treasurer of the Union Mills of Fall River, Massachusetts. For Stafford Sheldon drew the plans of Union Mill No. 2. He then worked for Edward Kilburn, engineer of the Lonsdale Company at Lonsdale, Rhode Island. With Kilburn, in 1869 he designed Wamsutta Mill No. 4."Frank Perry Sheldon" in [https://archive.org/details/lambstextileindu01brow/ Lamb's Textile Industries of the United States], vol. 1, ed. John Howard Brown and E. N. Morris (Boston: James H. Lamb Company, 1911): 383-384.

After designing several mills, Sheldon established his own practice as a mill engineer in Providence. He gave his entire time to this business, gradually encompassing all areas of industrial engineering. From 1887 to 1896 his assistant was Dwight Seabury, who would practice mill engineering in Pawtucket from 1896."Dwight Seabury" in [https://archive.org/details/lambstextileindu01brow/ Lamb's Textile Industries of the United States], vol. 1, ed. John Howard Brown and E. N. Morris (Boston: James H. Lamb Company, 1911): 392. He was a private practitioner until 1903, when he formed a partnership with his eldest son, Arthur Noyes Sheldon,

{{efn|name=ANS|Arthur Noyes Sheldon was born December 27, 1878 in Providence. He was educated at English High School in Providence and Harvard University, graduating in 1899, after which he went to work in his father's office.[https://archive.org/details/n4secretarysre1899harvuoft/ Secretary's Fourth Report, Harvard College Class of 1899] (Quincy: Harvard College Class of 1899, 1914) He died April 16, 1973 in Cranston, Rhode Island.}} practicing as F. P. Sheldon & Company. In 1907 they were joined by his younger son, Frank Lawrence Sheldon,

{{efn|name=FLS|Frank Lawrence Sheldon was born August 1, 1883 in Providence. He was educated at Riverview Military Academy in Poughkeepsie and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, after which he went to work in his father's office. He died June 22, 1925 in Providence."Obituary," [https://archive.org/details/sim_textile-world_1925-07-04_68_1/ Textile World] 68, no. 1 (July 4 1925): 155.}} and the firm name changed to F. P. Sheldon & Sons. The firm practiced under that name until the elder Sheldon's death in 1915, his sons continued the firm under the name F. P. Sheldon & Son. Frank L. Sheldon died in 1925, but Arthur N. Sheldon continued to operate the firm under the same name until his retirement in 1964."Deaths," [https://archive.org/details/brownalumnimonth739brow/page/n3/mode/ Brown Alumni Monthly] 73, no. 9 (July 1973): 49.

Chief engineer of the firm after the death of Frank L. Sheldon was Wendell S. Brown,{{efn|name=WSB|Wendell Stimpson Brown was born February 22, 1889 in Providence to Charles Henry and Isadora Lizette (Stimpson) Brown. He attended Brown University, graduating in 1911, and immediately joined Sheldon & Sons. He became an engineer in 1914. After leaving Sheldon & Son he joined C. A. Maguire & Associates. He died March 23, 1966.}} who had that role in the firm from 1926 to 1940."Brown, Wendell Stimpson" in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 55 (New York: James T. White & Company, 1967): 284

Sheldon and his sons were often engaged in the research necessary to provide superior engineering services.Betsy Hunter Bradley, The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999): 19.

Personal life

In 1900 Sheldon was appointed director of textiles to the United States Commission to the Exposition Universelle in Paris. He was also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the National Cotton Manufacturers' Association.

Sheldon married in 1877 to Nellie Noyes. They had three children, two sons and one daughter. She died in 1883. He married again in 1892, to Mary Elizabeth Lincoln, but had no additional children. Frank P. Sheldon died August 17, 1915, at the age of 69, in Providence."Obituary," [https://www.google.com/books/edition/America_s_Textile_Reporter/GPtYAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 American Wool and Cotton Reporter] 29, no. 35 (September 2 1915): 1316.

Legacy

In 1921 the firm published a retrospective, entitled A Half Century of Achievement, to commemorate the firm's fiftieth year of business.[https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Half_Century_of_Achievement/nfcoAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 A Half Century of Achievement] (Providence: F. P. Sheldon & Son, 1921) This book also contained summaries of the firm's research. Research activities were covered more thouroughly in the 1926 publication Miscellaneous Scientific Papers of F. P. Sheldon & Son, comprising papers presented by members of the firm."An Interesting Book," Cotton 91, no. 6 (April 1927): 609.

In 1923 Sheldon & Son was recognized as one of the major mill engineering firms of the United States.J. P. H. Perry, "Architects and Industrial Building," [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Concrete/UjgyAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Concrete] 23, no. 5 (November 1923): 189-191.

Projects

Gallery of projects

{{Gallery

|title=|align=center

|File:Union Mill No 2.jpg

|Union Mill No. 2, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1867.

|File:King Phillip Mills.jpg

|King Philip Mill No. 1, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1871-72.

|File:Berkeley Mill RI.jpg

|Berkeley Mill, Berkeley, Rhode Island, 1872.

|File:North Grosvenordale Mill.jpg

|Grosvenor Dale Company Mill No. 2, North Grosvenor Dale, Connecticut, 1872.

|File:Paramount Knitting Company Mill Front.jpg

|Beaver Dam Cotton Mills, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 1881.

|File:Church Street Pawtucket.jpg

|Slater Cotton Company New Mill, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 1881-82.

|File:Providence Dyeing Bleaching Calendring Company, Providence RI.jpg

|Providence Dyeing, Bleaching, Calendring Company Mills, Providence, Rhode Island, 1885 et seq.

|File:LincolnRI LonsdaleAnnAndHopeMill.jpg

|Ann and Hope Mill, Lonsdale, Rhode Island, 1886 et seq.

|File:Berkshire Mill.jpg

|Berkshire Mill No. 1, Adams, Massachusetts, 1889.

|File:Gorham Manufacturing Co., Providence, R.I. Library of Congress ID4a13621a.tif

|Gorham Manufacturing Company Factory, Providence, Rhode Island, 1889-90 et seq.

|File:Cornell Mill FR.jpg

|Cornell Mills, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1890.

|File:Greystone Mills.jpg

|Greystone Mills, North Providence, Rhode Island, 1904 et seq.

|File:Fitchburg Yarn Mill, Fitchburg MA.jpg

|Fitchburg Yarn Mill, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 1907 et seq.

|File:Davol Rubber Prov.jpg

| Davol Rubber Company Factory, Providence, Rhode Island, 1913 building.

|File:Gardner Building, Providence, Rhode Island.jpg

|Gardner Building, Providence, Rhode Island, 1914-15.

|File:Opelika Textile Mill.jpg

|Pepperell Manufacturing Company Mill, Opelika, Alabama, 1925-26.

}}

Notes

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References

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