Andrew Derrom (November 30, 1817 – July 15, 1892) was an English-American civil engineer, industrialist, inventor, and military officer.
Early life and education
Derrom was the second of six children born to Richard Derrom, a member of the British army originally from Manchester, England, and Mary (Winders) Derrom, originally from Leeds. He accompanied his father when Richard was stationed to Malta, Corfu, and Cephalonia. In Cephalonia, Derrom began his schooling with both private instructors and religious missionaries in Greece. He also met Lord Byron, who at the time was outfitting a fleet on Cephalonia to participate in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. When the Greek war began in earnest in 1824, Derrom was sent to Plymouth to begin formal schooling, eventually moving to grammar schools in Glasgow and Derry, Ireland, where his father had been stationed as a member of the civil service, followed by mathematics studies in Deal, England.
Immigration to the United States
Derrom immigrated to the United States in 1836 at the age of 18, eventually settling in Paterson, New Jersey, where he worked as a civil engineer, surveyor, and builder. By 1844, Derrom had opened his own construction business, employing up to 400 workers. His business grew over the next fifteen years into one of the largest building firms in the state.
Civil War
When the Civil War began in 1861, Derrom became a supporter of the Union cause. When President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to the Union Army in 1862, Derrom conducted a volunteer drive in Paterson and filled the city's volunteer quota in three days. Derrom originally hoped that a regiment of Passaic County volunteers would be led by a citizen from the county, but when that failed, Derrom lobbied Charles Smith Olden, the governor of New Jersey, to form a regiment of five companies from Paterson with five companies from southern New Jersey. Olden agreed, and when the 25th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed, Derrom was elected colonel of the regiment.
During their existence between September 1, 1862, to June 20, 1863, the 25th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment fought in several engagements as part of the Army of the Potomac. These engagement included the Union loss in the Battle of Fredericksburg and the inconclusive Siege of Suffolk. Despite the losses, Derrom was cited by several of his superiors for exemplary engineering and bridge-building assignments, although his name now appears in Civil War databases incorrectly as "Andrew Derron".
Business ventures
When his original nine-month term of service with the New Jersey 25th ended, Derrom returned to Paterson but intended to rejoin the volunteers when they reformed. To his surprise, however, Derrom found his business interests in Paterson in complete disarray, which forced him to remain in the city. Derrom spent the next three years restoring the financial stability of his business while also building some of the largest textile mills in the "Silk City".
Derrom was also known as an inventor. He created a system of building in sections that allowed his construction teams to complete a section before transporting it and setting it up in place after transport, which modern authors have described as an early version of the mobile home. Derrom himself called it the "Derrom Cottage", whose component parts could be moved from place to place with relative ease. The smallest Derrom Cottage cost $25 in 1870 (roughly $440 in 2016 dollars), while his largest models (the "Italian villas") cost $5,000 (roughly $88,000 in 2016 dollars).
Derrom was able to weather the Panic of 1873, a financial crisis that led to a six-year depression in the United States and much of Western Europe, by selling the Derrom Cottage to the United States Army and to home builders in Venezuela. Derrom himself traveled to Venezuela and worked for four years as a supervisor and architect of Derrom Cottage projects in Caracas, Venezuela.
Civic improvement
When he returned to Paterson in 1879, and with the success of the Derrom Cottage making him a wealthy man, Derrom began purchasing large portions of the Eastside section of Paterson, and eventually owned a 66-acre parcel of the city. Derrom was able to develop this section of the city to his own design, including dividing lots for sale, laying out streets, building houses (accordingly many Derrom Cottages), and building his own mansion and club house in 1880.