WILLIAM BARNES BEMENT was bred on a farm where the felling of forest timber mingled with the sounding anvil. He secured the educational advantages common to the New England rural community of that period, meanwhile displaying the bent of his mind by the employment of his leisure hours in the construction of a variety of rudimentary machines. This inherent love of mechanics, supplemented by practical experience in the working of iron in his fathers' forge, developed an inventive faculty, which was the corner-stone of his subsequent eventful and successful career.

In 1894, he left the hills of Bradford, New Hampshire behind him and, going to Peterboro, in the same state, entered the employ of Messers. Moore + Colby, manufacturers of cotton and woolen machinery, Mr. Colby, the junior partner, being his brother-in-law. Here, his natural talent for work upon which he had entered was apparent from the outset, and in less than two years, and before his majority was reached, by the withdrawal of Mr. Colby, he was made a member of the firm, which became Moore + Bement. This position he relinquished after three years to seek a wider field at Manchester, New Hampshire, where with the Amoskeag Machine Company he remained from 1840 until 1843. In the latter year he was called to Mishawaka, Indiana to superintend a woolen machine shop which was consumed by fire on the eve of his arrival. He found himself adrift with little capital, save energy, mechanical skill, and experience.

Quite equal to the emergency thrust upon him, he at once established himself as a worker in iron, and as a gunsmith. While following the latter calling, in which branch of industry his ability became especially manifest, he was tendered the superintendency of the St. Joseph Iron Company's Machine Shops, which by his suggestion were enlarged and supplied with new machinery. Scarcely had this been accomplished, when a fire demolished the entire establishment. The company was, however, able to re-build upon a plan designed by Mr. Bement, within twenty-four hours after the disaster. During the years he was engaged at St. Joseph, he invented and constructed a variety of machines and tools, one of which, a gear-cutting machine, the first ever manufactured in the West, attracted market attention from machinists.

With a growing reputation he returned to New England in 1847, and at once undertook contracts to build cotton and woolen machinery for the Lowell Machine Shops, ultimately assuming the management of the pattern and design departments. Full scope was here afforded to his genius as inventor, designer, and draftsman; and the importance of his connection therewith, which continued for four years, was amply attested by a rapid enhancement in the reputation and popularity of the goods produced.

In 1851, came the opportunity of his life, when Elija D. Marshall of Philadelphia, then conducting a machine shop of moderate capacity, secured him as a partner. He accepted the new opening much in opposition to those with whom he had been associated, and also against the advice of his friends, but with a foresight that the outcome fully justified, he went to Philadelphia in September of the year named, accompanied by his nephew, Gilbert A. Colby, and for three years the firm was known as Marshall, Bement + Colby. In 1853, Mr. James Dougherty, a practical and thorough iron founder, became a partner, and two years later Messers Marshall and Colby retired from the firm and Mr. George C. Thomas, Sr. entered it, the firm name then being Bement, Dougherty and Thomas. The connection of the latter was but of short duration, for in 1857, Mr. Bement and Mr. Dougherty became sole proprietors. This continued until 1870, when Mr. Dougherty retired, and gave place to Clarence S. Bement, the eldest son of the senior partner, the firm becoming William B. Bement + Son. In July 1874, John M. Shrigley entered the firm, and in July 1879, William P. Bement, another son of the senior partner, was admitted. In 1885, a consolidation of this firm with the Machine Tool Works conducted by Frederick B. Miles was effected, and thenceforth the house was known as Bement, Miles + Co.

Immediately upon assuming charge in 1851, of what was later known as the Industrial Works, Mr. Bement devoted himself to the invention and manufacture of machine tools, and gradually developed the original small shop into an extensive manufacturing plant, whose specialties stood second to none in America, and only to Whitworth's in Manchester, England, perhaps not second to that, and which established the reputation of the firm.

As evidencing the growth of the enterprise with which Mr. Bement's name and personality were so long identified, a letter from him to his nephew, William Walker Bement, of Mishawaka, bearing the date of 15 Aug 1852, described the works and the then business outlook.

In 1888, Mr. Bement transferred his interest to his sons, and withdrew from the business to enjoy the rest and recreation to which his years of active service entitled him, the Works covered a full city block. They extended form Twentieth to Twenty-first Street and from Callowhill Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, with a frontage on Callowhill Street of 497 feet, and on Twenty-first Street of 265 feet, and embraced a machine shop, smith shop, foundry and completely equipped brass foundry. Branches of the Philadelphia + Reading Railroad entered the premises to deliver coal and iron at convenient points. The pattern store-house, a fire-proof building, nearly one hundred feet long by forty feet wide, contained on its three floors, the patterns of more than one hundred and eighty machines, which represented the best practice of that day. The machine shops were among the best equipped in the United States, and their productions were to be found in almost every locomotive, car building, railway, ship building, steel and ordinance plants in the country. (For a full description of the Industrial Works, see the Manufactories and Manufacturers of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century Supplement in the Chronicles of the Bement Family in America, 1928, pp. 273.5, i-vii).

In his particular line of mechanics, as a designer and draftsman, Mr. Bement had few equals. Others might, with scientific skill, elaborate a great design; but his was the swift vision, and the almost as swift execution of genius. There are instances in his career, of designs furnished under the spur of time and necessity, which are still masterly.

The victory of Mr. Bement's life had been accomplished. In the practical end, toward which he progressed with the exercised might of an earnest and conscientious manufacturer, he was assisted by his partners, who shared his faith in the success of real merit, for it was this which made him a leader, and the Industrial Works of Philadelphia a power.

He was a lover of the fine arts, and their generous patron, as the well-stored galleries of his residence amply testified. His artistic treasures were accumulated during years of observation, and were placed at the service of artists, art students, and of the interested public. Among them were not only masterpieces of foreign artists, but works indicating his appreciation of native talent, and his determination to foster it. For many years he was a director of the School of Design for Women, and of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, contributing liberally by his means and counsel, to the accomplishment of the many benefits these institutions are still conferring upon the community.

Mr. Bement was an Independent Republican in politics, and served one term as a member of Common Council, being elected from the Fifteenth Ward on the Republican and Citizen's Committee tickets, by a decisive majority. He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, Union League from 1866, and the Manufacturers' Club. At the time of his decease, he was a director of the Bank of the Republic, and of the Sagamore Hotel Company of Lake George, at which beautiful spot, he had for many years established his summer home. His religious convictions were strong, he was a regular attendant at the services of the Universalist Church of the Messiah and the Restoration, an a generous contributor to the furtherance of their work.

His was a strong personality, the embodiment of the best type of the Christian gentleman of affairs. Modest in bearing, a respecter of the opinions of others, with a high regard for the ties of kinship and friendship, he was a man of catholic soul, persistent optimism and large hospitality. The words of the old classic, Biden Urbanitas et Humanitas, very well described Mr. Bement's characteristics. He saw life clearly, and as a whole; was tolerant in his judgements; one who enjoyed the esteem of his business associates and subordinates. In a word, he was what his workmen called "straight." Chronicles of the Bement Family in America; 1928, pp. 269-275 ______________________

He resided with his son, Clarence Sweet Bement, at 1814 Spring Garden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1890. (Source: 1890 Philadelphia City Directory)