Mahlon Betts (March 16, 1795 – March 4, 1867) was an American

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

, railroad car builder, shipwright, businessman, banker, and legislator who helped found three of

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

's major manufacturing enterprises: the

Harlan and Hollingsworth Harlan & Hollingsworth was a Wilmington, Delaware, manufacturing firm that built railroad cars and became one of the first iron shipyards in the United States. It operated under various names from 1837 to 1904, when it was purchased by Bethlehem ...

Company, the

Pusey and Jones The Pusey and Jones Corporation was a major shipbuilder and industrial-equipment manufacturer. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, it operated from 1848 to 1959. Shipbuilding was its primary focus from 1853 until the end of World War II, when the comp ...

Company, and the Betts Machine Company.

Biography

Born in Attleboro in

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the List of counties in Pennsylvania, four ...

, on March 16, 1795, Betts came to Wilmington in 1812. On November 8, 1818, he married Mary R. Seal at the Wilmington Friends Meeting. In 1828 (or 1829),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. There he installed the state's first

stationary steam engine Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam car ...

. His company also manufactured a variety of wheels as well as pinions, shafts, pulleys, cogs, and other castings. On March 1, 1836, Betts joined Samuel N. Pusey, who was a machinist in Wilmington, to launch Betts & Pusey. 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. The railroad soon merged into the

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad, headquartered in Philadelphia, that operated in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland from 1836 to 1902. It was part of an 1838 merger of four state-chartered railr ...

, which thenceforth operated the first rail link from Philadelphia to Baltimore. (This main line survives today as part of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...

.) Betts became a director in the merged railroad, and his service as a railroad executive is noted on the 1839

Newkirk Viaduct Monument The Newkirk Viaduct Monument (also, Newkirk Monument) is a white marble obelisk in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was installed in 1839 to mark the completion of the Newkirk Viaduct, the first permanent rai ...

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 The Delaware General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Delaware Senate with 21 senators and the Delaware House of Representatives with 41 representatives. It meets at Legi ...

, first as a representative and then as a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

. 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.

Notes

External links

Probate inventory
performed April 2, 1867, by the Borough of Wilmington, New Castle County {{DEFAULTSORT:Betts, Mahlon American industrialists American carpenters American shipwrights American bankers 1795 births 1867 deaths Members of the Delaware House of Representatives Delaware state senators People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania People from Wilmington, Delaware 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century members of the Delaware General Assembly