W. H. Davies, who left the Albion Iron Foundry in 1854, completed and managed his own foundry on the Pictou waterfront in 1856. William H. Davies’ sons George and Charles carried on the foundry’s operation until the late 1800s until they sold it to Joseph Robb and Douglas Hannon. In 1906 Allan A. Ferguson bought out the interests of Robb and the business was renamed to the Pictou Foundry and Machine Company. In 1910 Douglas Hannon died and Allan A. Ferguson became the sole owner and head of the business.
During his twenty-five years of management of the foundry, it was diversified and expanded the operation of machine, moulding, boiler, carpenter and pattern works. This allowed for the lease of machine shop facilities to early auto-mobile mechanics. During 1913 the plant was equipped with electromotive power and was the first in the area to change from steam. After the outbreak of the Great War the company participated in the war effort and machine finished thousands of shells forged in Trenton, Nova Scotia. Once the war was over and peace was enjoyed for another two decades, the primary work for the Pictou Foundry and Machine Company was both steel and wooden ship and dredge repairs.
Allan A. Ferguson died 1932, and the business was then taken over by Allan A. Ferguson’s eldest son, Robert A. Ferguson and upon the outbreak of war was joined by his three brothers Allan A. Ferguson Junior, Thomas Ferguson and James Ferguson. Before World War Two there had not been a ship launched in Pictou since the barque Orquell in 1879...
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