Alexander Purves

Conditions in Scotland brought the Purves family to America sometime around the War of 1812. Alexander preferred to say in his later years that he was born in Andover, Massachusetts, but early records show it was Scotland, just as it was for most of his eight siblings. From New England, most of the family migrated to upstate New York before eventually settling in Wisconsin.

Alexander chose a different route, coming to Philadelphia in the 1830s, where he was engaged in the iron business before he was engaged to his future wife. It was the buying and selling of it, not the making of it, that became his life’s work. The business was originally located where South Street meets Front Street to provide access to transportation via the Delaware River. Success forced a move slightly west for more warehouse space. 

Locally-born Sarah Ann Lykens joined him in marriage in 1837. From their home just below South Street in what was then called Southwark they would have eight children. 

Alexander’s younger brother, Hugh, came south in 1846 and they started a partnership under the name, “A. & H. Purves, Stove Manufacturers.” After a few years it was under Hugh’s ownership for the rest of his life. Both brothers lived the rest of their lives just a few doors apart in the 700 block of South 10th Street. 

Riding the wave of the Industrial Revolution, it was a good time to be a “metals dealer,” as Alexander described himself. In the 1860s iron had a critical role, not only in the weapons of war and ironclad ships but in the burgeoning railroad industry. After the war, a new method of manufacturing steel (the “Bessemer process”) brought the cost down and that industry became the backbone of America’s economy in the latter half of the century.

The advertisements shown here illustrate the types of products bought and sold in the 1860s. “Alexander Purves & Son” was the new name for the firm when oldest son Lewis began working as a clerk. That was interrupted by the son’s tour with the 183rd Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War. He joined as a corporal when the regiment was assembled in early 1864. He must have been injured during the Siege of Petersburg in the last half of the year, and was discharged due to a disability in January of 1865.

Lewis died at age 30 in 1869 but the company name remained the same since his younger brother, Charles, was already working there. As more ships were made with iron, the salvaging of that metal expanded Alexander’s business.

The last part of this excerpt from Alexander’s obituary confirms that, but the first part of it is absolutely wrong. No scrap metal was ever taken from the 1862 ironclad warship, USS Monitor, since it sank off the coast of North Carolina later that year and wasn’t found until 1973.

Sarah died in 1890 at age 73, with son Charles following her in 1893. He was in line to take over his father’s business. Shortly after this, Alexander wrote to Charles Jr. stating his intention that he take his father’s place. But that wasn’t what was written in his will.

After 90 years of life, Alexander succumbed to kidney disease in 1897. Charles Jr. contested the will and lost. The estate was left to the two remaining daughters but they didn’t liquidate the business, asking instead that Charles Jr. take over.

The new president renamed it Purves Machinery & Iron Company, but he liquidated it in 1920 and when he died, his estate was somewhat bigger than his grandfather’s. Alexander Purvis was, with his business, worth $296,000 or about $11 million in current dollars. 

Section 43 in Mount Moriah is part of the large Circle of St. John, where Alexander and Sarah are buried with son Lewis, daughter Sarah, plus son Charles, his wife, and four of their children. Nearby is Elizabeth Purves Savery and her husband and five children. 

The other surviving daughter was Fannie Purves Bernard, buried with her family across the creek on Mausoleum Hill. Her daughter married Dr. Jay Hammond, who was an early pioneer in kidney transplant surgery. Alexander’s brother, Hugh, died in 1900 and his family plot is just outside the Circle in Section 30.

A final word from a 21st century study: “…people and firms that purchase, process, and broker old materials to be manufactured into new products in America provide 531,510 adults with good jobs in the United States and generate approximately $109.78 billion annually in economic activity.”

As might be expected, the study was commissioned by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, but Alexander Purves would certainly be proud of those numbers, and could look back and be pleased about what his one business had accomplished.