June 1, 1843, to No. 97 State
Street; again July 1, 1867, to No. 47 Kilby Street; and still again,
November 1, 1888, to No. 369 Atlantic Avenue, where they now are. In the
conflagration of November 9 and 10, 1872, the building Nos. 45 and 47
Kilby Street was destroyed. During its reconstruction, just one year,
building No. 113 (later 117) State Street, corner of Broad Street, was
occupied.

[2] Mr. James Edmiston Brown came into the office February 8, 1873. He
deserves special mention here for his faithful, efficient, and valuable
services.

II.

Preliminary thereto, however, a brief historical statement should be
made of the beginnings of the enterprises to which the Company
succeeded.

[Illustration: Paul Revere & signature]

In January, 1801, Colonel Paul Revere[3] bought the old powder-mill at
Canton, where during the Revolutionary War, largely by his
instrumentality and agency, the Colony and State had been supplied with
powder. He and his son, Mr. Joseph W. Revere, under the firm-name of
Paul Revere & Son, erected and adapted the buildings necessary for the
manufacture of copper into sheets and bars.

In the years 1804 and 1805 Mr. J. W. Revere spent considerable time on
a visit to England and the continent for the purpose of obtaining all
the information possible in the prosecution of their undertaking.

Colonel Revere claims, in letters written by him at the time, that their
mill for rolling copper was the first erected in this country.[4] And it
may be said in passing that the copper trade in England was hardly more
advanced there than here.

Their business grew slowly, but it made a steady progress until
substantially established. Colonel Revere died in 1818, but the son, Mr.
Joseph W. Revere, continued on with the manufactory started at Canton
until it became a part of the incorporated Company.

* * * * *

Singularly coincident with the events already narrated, Mr. James
Davis, but five months younger than Mr. Joseph W. Revere, had come to
Boston from Barnstable, his native town, and acquired here a trade,
reaching his majority in 1798.

In the very first years of the present century he established himself on
Union Street as a brass founder. Here he continued, gradually expanding
the business until the admission of his son, Mr. James Davis, Jr., as a
partner, January 4, 1828, when the firm-name of James Davis & Son was
adopted.

* * *