Elisha Peck (1789-1851) was a Massachusetts-born merchant who formed a partnership with Anson Green Phelps. He ran the British side of their business from Liverpool for about thirteen years. The partnership ended in 1834 after an accident at their New York warehouse claimed the lives of seven people. Their assets were divided and Peck took ownership of the metal manufacturing plants at Haverstraw, New York. Phelps continued with the mercantile business that he had developed with Peck, forming a new company called Phelps Dodge.
Early life
Peck was born in Lenox, Massachusetts; his parents were Lucretia Pattison and Elisha Peck, whose ancestors had landed in America from Essex, England, in about 1635. Peck left Lenox at an early age and moved to Berlin, Connecticut, becoming involved in business with his uncle, Shubael Pattison, a tinsmith and trader. He also married Pattison's daughter, Chloe, in about 1814.
Shubael Pattison was the son of Edward Patterson, a tinsmith of Scots/Irish Presbyterian descent, credited with bringing the manufacture of tinware to America. Before this time tinware utensils were normally imported from Britain. In addition to making and selling tinware, Shubael Pattison also ran a general store in Berlin and dealt in furs.
Partnership with Anson G Phelps
Anson Green Phelps was born in 1781 and served an apprenticeship in the saddler's trade in Hartford, Connecticut. He found a market for his leather goods in South Carolina and expanded his business by shipping cotton from there to New York. The cotton was then sold to England and in return Phelps imported manufactured goods for sale in America. He also started to run a small shipping company and moved his business from Hartford to New York, where he formed a partnership in 1821 with Peck. In America the partnership was called Phelps & Peck, located at 179/181 Front Street, and in Britain it was called Peck & Phelps, operating from Liverpool. The company imported metals but also diversified, selling such things as furs, feathers, and tobacco. They distributed goods along the Atlantic seaboard using their coasters, and peddlers took their wares to sell at inland settlements. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the rapidly expanding West also provided an unlimited market for their manufactured goods. Between 1821 and 1824 their annual average profit was approaching forty thousand dollars.
Peck moved to Liverpool, England, with his wife and children in about 1821. At this time, 80% of all cotton exported from America to Britain came into the country via Liverpool, from where it was transported to mills in Manchester and beyond via the canal system. Coastal shipping also delivered manufactured metals to Liverpool, such as tin-plate from Wales, for export to America. By 1830 Peck was almost certainly the largest exporter of tin-plate from Britain, shipping about 51,000 boxes in that year.
Return to America
Anson G. Phelps's daughter, Elizabeth, married Daniel James in 1830 and he was invited by his father-in-law to join the Phelps, Peck company. James was from a farming background and had moved to New York to start business in wholesale groceries, so his knowledge of the metal trades was limited. He and Elizabeth were sent to Liverpool to work for Elisha Phelps, arriving in June 1831 with their new baby. In September of that year Peck left Liverpool with his family on the ship Sampson and returned to America leaving his assistant, Thomas Morris Banks, and the inexperienced Daniel James in charge of the business. James would eventually take over the Liverpool operation, remaining in Britain until his death in 1876. Thomas Banks was his chief clerk and became a partner in about 1838.
Sampsondale
Anson G. Phelps had purchased land at Haverstraw, Rockland County, New York, adjacent to the Minisceongo Creek and Hudson River, with the intention of starting an iron works. Peck obtained the machinery for the rolling mill in Britain and employed Welsh engineer, Rhys Davies, to install and commission the equipment. The mill opened in about 1833 and Peck named the works Sampsondale in reference to the ship that brought him and his family back to America in 1831. In addition to the rolling mill, other production on the site included the manufacture of screws, wire and chemicals such as sulphuric acid. The New York office for the company was 21 Cliff Street.