San Francisco County
William J. Brady
William. J. Brady, proprietor of Eureka Boiler Works, at 113 and 115 Mission street, is one of the oldest boiler-makers in the city of San Francisco. He is a natural mechanic, and his younger days were passed in carpentering, blacksmithing, boiler-making and as a locomotive engineer in Canada and the East. In 1860 he came to San Francisco to join his brother, John Brady, a pioneer of 1849, and who in 1860 was foreman of the Union Iron Works. Under him William J. at once secured the occupation of boiler-making, and remained with Union Iron Works for eight years, during the latter years as assistant foreman. In 1868 he secured the position of foreman in the boiler department of the Risdon Iron Works, who were makers of the heaviest boilers manufactured on the coast. Mr. Brady was highly respected for his skill in all mechanical work, and in 1870 superintended the laying of three miles of heavy pipes to carry water to the Cherokee mines, crossing the Feather river and rising at an elevation of 830 feet, at an angle of 45o. The pipes were thirty inches in diameter, made from three-eights-inch iron plate, with three-fourths-inch rivets, the first heavy iron pipes made by the Risdon Iron Works. The successful laying of the pipe was considered a great engineering feat. He has also laid miles of pipes for the Spring Valley Company, and to facilitate operations he has invented and had patented a device with which to determine the construction of bends and angles for metallic pipes, and thus avoiding a long mathematical calculation, which has proved practical and a great saving of time and money. He remained with the Risdon Company until 1887, when he established the Eureka Boiler Works at 113 and 115 Mission street, where his shops are fully equipped with suitable machinery for the manufacture of every variety of boiler, ship work, and general blacksmithing and machine work, with skilled mechanics in every department. He makes a specialty of manufacturing the traction–engine boiler for burning straw, and of wrought and sheet iron works. Mr. Brady has also had a long experience in the manufacturing of all kinds of marine boilers.
Mr. Brady
was married in San Francisco, in 1863, to Miss Mary Ann Buckley, a native of
New York, and they have had nine children, viz.: Mary A., now Mrs. Philip Hyde;
Edward; Gabriella, Mrs. John Traynor; William J., Lisette, Thomas W., Emma A., Lottie
J. and Retta.
Mr. Brady has given his children a fine education, and his sons are all
learning mechanical trades. He is a
member of the A.O.U.W., and is a genial, pleasant gentleman, watchful of his
interests, and honorable in his business transactions.
Transcribed
by Joyce and David Rugeroni.
Source: “The Bay of
San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 378-379, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Joyce & David
Rugeroni.