Owner: John Morton Poole
Industry type: Machine shop
Location: Rockford
Active dates: 1839-1847
Summary: John Morton Poole, the son of Brandywine Village miller William Poole, trained as a machinist in upstate New York during the early nineteenth century. In 1839, he started the J. Morton Poole Company in the basement of his brother-in-law Joseph Bancroft's mill at Rockford. Poole's machine shop later expanded into the boilerhouse of Bancroft's Rockford Bleaching & Dye Works. In 1847, Poole moved his operation, which produced roll milling equipment, to a site at the foot of Orange St. on the Christiana River in downtown Wilmington.
Citations: Boatman, Roy. The Brandywine Cotton Industry, 1795-1865. Hagley Research Report, 1957.Dixon, Stuart Paul. The Wilmington Waterfront Analysis Area Intensive Level Architectural Survey. Delaware Department of Transportation, 1992.Matson, Cathy and Wendy Woloson. PEAES Guide to Manuscripts and Print Resources for Research: Historical Society of Delaware.Zebley, Frank R. Along the Brandywine. Wilmington: William Cann, Inc., 1940, 179.