Voices of the Foundry
Click the links below to listen to first-hand accounts of what life was like during the hey-day of the West Point Foundry.
Beginnings
Fred Dunseith (1880-1977) was born and raised in Cold Spring, where his father had been a foreman in the Foundry blacksmith shop, and his uncle helped to install the boilers that the Foundry built for the warship USS Merrimack in 1855. He learned a lot about the Foundry’s earlier years from his family members. Read by Dan Anderson.
A New Kind of Workplace
Vertical Integration
Marvin Wilson (1804 – 1888) was born about 30 miles east of Cold Spring. He moved here shortly after the Foundry began operating and lived here for the rest of his life. His memories of Cold Spring and the Foundry were published in 1886. Read by Bryan Dunlap
Paternalism
David Wylie (1818 – 1890) was born in Belfast, Ireland. He came to New York City in 1849, and soon found a job at the West Point Foundry blacksmith shop, where he worked for almost a decade before moving to Paterson, New Jersey with his wife Agnes and his sons James and John. Read by Cathal Stephens.
Growing the Cold Spring Community
Success!
This journalist covered the 1864 strike by Foundry employees. The account provides a unique perspective on working conditions at the West Point Foundry otherwise not addressed by local authorities. Read by Andrea Bauman.