The Chase & District Museum & Archives is now housed in what was originally Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. On the grounds of the museum are some quite interesting historical items. Among the large artefacts to be found around the museum/church building are a 1923 Franklin Touring Sedan, housed in a garage with one glassed side for viewing, a heritage homestead cabin, a large stone cairn topped with a bell from a Canadian Pacific Railway engine and this water pump, sitting beside the International Harvester stationary gasoline engine which once powered it, in a small pavilion.
The nameplate on the pump reveals its manufacturer to be the
Goulds Manufacturing Company of Seneca Falls, NY. It refers to itself as a "Power Pump", Size "6X5" which we take to indicate the single cylinder pump's bore X stroke, in inches. A Gould's catalogue tells us that they were making pumps of these exact dimensions as early as 1889, possibly much earlier. At that time a preferred "Engine" was the horse. The pump appears to bear serial number 4655. The stationary engine alongside was manufactured in 1947, but we can't say with any certainty when this pump was built.
Founded in 1848 as Downs, Mynderse and Company, Mr. S.S. Gould, then associated with the company, changed the name to Goulds Manufacturing Company. Goulds grew to become one of the largest and most respected manufacturer of water pumps world wide. Today a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Industries, Inc.,
Goulds continues in operation today as a
Xylem Brand.
Following is a history of Goulds, now a bit dated as it was written in 1904. A more complete history can be found at
Encyclopedia.
Goulds Manufacturing
The Goulds Manufacturing Company is the outgrowth of the firm of Downs & Co., which was the first pump factory established in this place in 1848 at the "Old Stone Shop" at the corner of Ovid and Green streets.
From this small beginning employing only twenty-five to thirty-five men - and under the guiding influence of Mr. S.S. Gould, who in 1852 became connected with the company - its prosperity and success was continuous, and its business interests increased until it was necessary that a larger shop should be provided. The Company, therefore, purchased the old Tillman hotel and tannery property on Ovid Street. Here were erected what were regarded at the time as large and extensive works in which the Company continued the manufacture of pumps which had acquired a very extensive reputation throughout the whole country.
In 1864 the name of the Company was changed from Downs & Co. to the Goulds Manufacturing Co. The business continued at the same location with ever increasing success; new building, machinery, etc., were added to its plant; and the Company continued to develop until 1870, when its factories were destroyed by fire.
Immediately, thereafter, however, the works were rebuilt and extended more largely than before. Almost each year since that time has seen some new building planned or executed, until The Goulds Manufacturing Company, which had started from so small a beginning, now had increased so that every available foot of the ground that it owned between the canal and river had been built upon, as well as a large seven-story warehouse on Bayard Street. In many instances buildings had been erected extending over both the canal and the river, to such extremes was the Company subjected in order to provide manufacturing facilities for their large and increasing business.
In 1900 the business of this company had increased to such an extent that new property was acquired in the western part of the village, covering ten acres, and here was erected another large and entirely independent plant for the manufacture of Triplex Power Pumps, for which this company had in the previous years acquired a very extensive and world wide reputation.
During all these years the business has continued to grow; new buildings have been planned and provided and new machinery has been purchased until The Goulds Manufacturing Company of the present time employs 656 hands, and its wares are known not only in every part of the United States but in all parts of the world, the company having agents and connections in every important city in the world.
The affairs of the company are managed with a large corps of able engineers and efficient and honorable men in its various executive departments, and the Company is without doubt not only the leading industry of this village, but one of the largest and most prominent manufacturing concerns of the state, and indeed, of the whole nation.
From Seneca Falls