Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Thomas Taylor TASKER
Thomas Taylor Tasker
retired iron master of Philadelphia, and probably the oldest living business man in the State, and well known as a citizen of Philadelphia, was born at Nottingly, Yorkshire, England, May 12, 1799, and came to America in 1819. He was the eldest of the nine children of William Tasker and Mary Taylor his wife, both respected residents of Nottingly, at which place William Tasker combined the callings of school-teacher and land surveyor. His education was carefully supervised by his parents, and although it closed when he was but fourteen years old it had already advanced to a point much farther than is usual with boys of that age. The trade of iron and coppersmith caught the boy's fancy, and after leaving school he was duly apprenticed to it for the regular term of seven years. At the expiration of his time he concluded to try his fortunes in the New World, and bidding good-bye to his relatives and friends, he took passage in the ship "Triton" from the port of Hull, and on the fourth of June, 1819, landed in Philadelphia, his capital at the time consisting of a fair English education, a sound constitution and a thorough knowledge of a good trade--no mean equipment for the battle of life in his new home. His first employment was as a skilled workman in a stove manufactory in Philadelphia. In 1820, having acquired some little knowledge of the ways and customs of the country, he opened a modest establishment of his own at Westchester, Pennsylvania, which he conducted for about three years. In 1824 he removed to Philadelphia and almost immediately obtained employment in the establishment of Stephen P. Morris, which had been founded in 1821. The principal idea of Mr. Morris at the time of starting his business was to make and sell grates adapted for the burning of anthracite coal, which had then but just been introduced as a fuel. The experiment proved a successful one, and a large amount of other manufacturing was done in addition. In 1828, seeking the facilities that were necessary to meet the increasing demand for his wares, Mr. Morris removed from his old place at Sixteenth and Market Streets to new shops which he had erected on the east side of Third Street, between Walnut and Pear Streets. Here a general foundry business was conducted, together with the manufacture of grates, heaters, ranges and stoves as specialties. Mr. Tasker, being an expert designer and mechanic, was placed in full charge of the mechanical department of the business at the outset, and in 1831 was admitted to partnership with his employer, who took into the firm at the same time his own brother, Henry Morris, who had previously attended to the books and shipping of goods. After a few years of constantly increasing success the head of the firm retired from business, selling out his interest to another brother, Wistar Morris, who had been with the firm some time in a clerical capacity. The firm now consisted of Henry Morris, Thomas T. Tasker and Wistar Morris, and adopted the style of Morris, Tasker & Morris. About this time illuminating gas, which had already demonstrated its usefulness and become popular in England, was being
introduced into Philadelphia, and a sudden demand sprang up for cheap pipe for conveying gas through various manufactories and dwellings. Prior to this time pipe suitable for the purpose had been made by hand and was very expensive. In the emergency old gun barrels were in part employed, which were screwed together on the ends, and made a very serviceable tubing for the purpose. But as the stock of old gun barrels was soon exhausted a new means had to be
devised. Mechanical genius soon brought forth machine-made butt-welded pipe, invented in England; and the method of doing which being made known to Mr. Tasker, the firm finally adopted it and were for years the only makers of wrought-iron pipe welded by machinery, in the United States. The rapid growth of the demand for this piping and the normal increase in the sales of their manufactures, which now included tubes for water, steam locomotives, boilers, etc., as well as stoves, heaters, ranges and grates, and general castings, made additional facilities necessary and the firm bought the square of ground now bounded by Tasker, Morris, Fourth and Fifth Streets, which was a portion of the old Morris property, owned in Revolutionary times by Captain Morris, who commanded the First City Troop at the battle of Trenton, in 1776. Upon this ground, located in the District of Southwark, the firm, in 1836, began building the Pascal Iron Works, to which, when completed according to the original intention, were added other buildings rendered necessary as the business grew in volume. In 1846 a large mill, four hundred feet long by eighty feet wide, was built fronting on Morris Street, for the purpose of manufacturing lap-welded tubes,
which were intended for boiler tubes, and for work where a greater steam or water pressure was used than butt-welded pipe could sustain. A few years later Mr. Wistar Morris retired from the firm, and Mr. Charles Wheeler and Mr. Thomas T. Tasker, Jr., were admitted to membership in it, the firm name then becoming Morris, Tasker & Co. In 1856 Mr. Henry Morris retired, his interest
passing to his son, Mr. Stephen Morris. Two years later Mr. Tasker also retired, and his interest was divided between his son, Mr. Thomas T. Tasker, Jr., already a member of the firm, and a younger son, Mr. Stephen P. M. Tasker, who then entered it. Shortly after this Mr. Henry G. Morris succeeded to one-half of his father's (Henry Morris,) interest, which had been till then represented by his brother, Mr. Stephen Morris. Mr. Charles Wheeler retired in 1864, and Mr.
Henry G. Morris in 1869; and upon the death of Mr. Stephen Morris, which occurred in 1871, the interest of that gentleman was bought by the remaining partners, the two sons of the subject of this sketch. Business by this time had increased to enormous proportions, and the works gave steady employment to over two thousand men. Finally it became necessary to have railroad
connections direct with the works, or to locate the heaviest portion of the establishment on the line of a railroad. The failure of the attempt to secure the passage of a bill in the Philadelphia City Councils, allowing a railroad connection to be built to Fifth and Tasker Streets, was followed by the erection of a mill at New Castle, Delaware, where adequate railroad and water facilities were
found. This mill, which was commenced in 1872, and has a daily capacity of four hundred tons of finished tubes, was designed and constructed under the management of Mr. Stephen P. M. Tasker, who, in 1876, became the head of the firm consequent upon the sale of his elder brother's interest and the admission to membership of the purchasers, Mr. Charles Wheeler and Mr. T. Wistar Brown. In 1883 Mr. Wheeler died, and it became necessary to wind up the business
of the limited partnership at its termination, February 8, 1888. A corporation was then formed under the laws of Pennsylvania, which succeeded to the business, under the style of Morris, Tasker & Co., Incorporated. The mill at New Castle, Delaware, although necessarily under another organization, is owned principally by the stockholders of the Philadelphia mill, and the two are run harmoniously. The present officers of the corporate company are Andrew Wheeler, President:
Jonathan Rowland, Vice-President: T. Wistar Brown, Treasurer: H. C. Vansant, Secretary, and Stephen P. M. Tasker, Consulting Engineer. Its manufactures are the same as formerly, and consist of lap-welded and butt-welded pipe, boiler tubes, gas and steam fittings, and all kinds of gas works machinery. A general foundry and machine business is also done. The substratum of honesty and reliability upon which the business was founded, has enabled a superstructure to be reared which is as a beaconlight to all who seek the real causes of success, and a noble and enduring monument to the integrity and capability of its worthy founders. Just previous to retiring from active business as an ironmaster, Mr. Tasker bought over four hundred acres of land in Ridley Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and until 1885 devoted his leisure to farming and the introduction and breeding of blooded stock, first making a specialty of Durham cattle and later of Ayrshires and Guernseys. This tract was divided into three farms, known respectively as the South Kedron, Middle Kedron and Roadside Farms. The latter he still retains, and with it his love for the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, in which, as in the more stirring channels of the iron industry, he has achieved notable success. With every incentive to enter polities Mr. Tasker has steadily turned his face from its allurements, preferring to devote his whole energy to the development of the business in which he was engaged, and in which he was so competent and skillful. Formerly he was a Whig, but after the formation of the Republican party he took his place in its ranks and on national questions has since given it his cordial support. The opening of the Civil War found him ranged patriotically on the side of the Federal Government, and throughout the struggle he was one of its most earnest helpers and enthusiastic supporters. His services to the Union soldiers during the war are a matter of public record. He was one of the founders and the President of the Citizens Volunteeer Hospital at the northeast corner of Broad Street and
Washington Avenue, established for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers arriving in Philadelphia. Under his administration this institution was conducted on a broad and humane basis, and the suffering Confederate soldiers as well as the sick and wounded of the Union troops here found the tenderest care. During the war the enormous number of two hundred thousand sick or wounded soldiers were received at this hospital, cared for during their stay, and forwarded to their destinations. The entire expense of supporting the institution was derived from
voluntary contributions mostly from citizens of Philadelphia. The need for the institution was so pressing and its usefulness so apparent that it remained to the last a favorite with people in all walks of life and, with the hospitality which is a proverbial characteristic of the Philadelphians in their treatment of strangers, was liberally sustained. Its affairs were so admirably managed that
when all need for it had ceased and it was discontinued there remained a balance of $6,000 in the Treasurer's hands, $4,000 of which was promptly turned over, in 1865, to the Soldiers' Orphans Asylum, in Washington, D. C. Mr. Tasker's co-operation has been freely given to other humane labors, both before and since. At the funeral of President Lincoln in Philadelphia he was appointed a pall bearer, and acted as such. The success which has rewarded his ability in
business enabled him to gratify his Christian impulses as well as the humane promptings of his heart, and in the field of religious effort he is and long has been a liberal giver. Connected from early manhood with the Methodist Episcopal Church, he holds the position of elder, and exercises the functions of a local preacher in that denominational body. In the labors of tract distribution,
church extension and church building he has taken a prominent part and rendered liberal assistance. He was one of the prime movers in founding the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church and several others. The Tasker Methodist Episcopal Church, at the corner of Fifth Street and Snyder Avenue, Philadelphia, bears his name as an honor to him and in appropriate recognition of his services to the cause of religion. Mr. Tasker was scarcely of age when, on
February 3, 1820, he married, in Wilmington, Delaware, Miss Elizabeth Hickman, a daughter of Joseph Hickman, of New Castle County, in the same State. His married life covered the unusually long period of fifty-seven years, and was blessed with nine children, of whom six survive. Mrs. Tasker was a woman of exalted nobility of character, and sincere piety. In the fullest and best senses of the word she was a help mate to her husband, ably leading him in private deeds of charity and religion, and as ably seconding his own public labors in both these fields. She died in 1877, and was sincerely mourned, not only in her family, but in a wide circle in which her merits were well known and warmly appreciated. Were there nothing else to draw attention to Mr. Tasker, his excellent health and marvellous activity of mind and body at the patriarchal age of ninety-one would in themselves be truly remarkable. Without any appearance of the infirmities which man rarely escapes after passing the limit of "three score and ten," he busies himself daily with his affairs and often gets through an amount of work between the rising and going down of the sun which would astonish many a man much younger. Much of his vitality is doubtless
inherited from a race of sturdy progenitors, but it cannot be denied that his even, temperate, and God-fearing life has had its influence in prolonging his years and preserving him in health and vigor to continue in works which will miss him when in the providence of God he shall be called to his reward.
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