Harvey A Moyer

Biography

Harvey Allen Moyer was raised in Clay, New York. There he built a carriage shop at the age of 13 in his father's orchard where he built his first carriage and spent $4 to produce it. Moyer later sold the carriage to an uncle for $40.

He was the son of Oliver Moyer and Maria E. Abbott (died 1907).

In 1867 Moyer began his career installing water pumps in the village of Bridgeport, New York with his partner, David H. Brown of Main Street who operated a wagon and cutter factory. The partnership continued for some time until Moyer moved to Cicero, New York and established manufacture of the Moyer Carriage in 1876. He started the business with only $20 in his pocket.

Personal life

By 1884, Moyer was living next to his factory in Syracuse at 99 Bear Street.

Moyer was married to Rosamond Wilcox who died at a young age leaving him a widower. She was the daughter of Cheney Wilcox who died on February 20, 1907 at age 81 at the home of his son, Charles Wilcox, of 1618 Park Avenue. Wilcox had worked as manager of his son-in-law's farm north of Syracuse where he had moved 15 years earlier. He was buried in Baldwinsville, New York where he was a resident for 45 years.

His mother, Maria E. Abbott Moyer, died at her residence at 714 Bear Street on February 16, 1907 at age 74. For 29 years she had been a resident of Cold Spring near Baldwinsville. She was buried at Pine Plains in the town of Clay.

Moyer, automobile manufacturer and cattle fancier, moved to Moyerdale near Liverpool, New York on October 1, 1915 having sold his home at 1312 Park Street at the corner of Danforth Street to Abram S. Nellis, a silk manufacturer of Phoenix, New York. The house was sold for $23,000 was considered one of the fine places of the city. It had large grounds landscaped with shrubs and flower gardens.

Moyer son

Bert W. Moyer was born in Cicero, New York on March 19, 1873. He entered the automobile business with his father at age 17 in 1900 and was associated with him in the manufacture of carriages and later automobiles for 25 years.

He was married to Edna Cholet Moyer and lived in the First Ward of Syracuse for nearly 40 years and served as a member of the Board of Education for eight years beginning in 1914 and was president of the board for two years. Bert had a daughter named Rosamond Moyer and two sons, Harold A. Moyer and H. Edward Moyer.

Like his father, before the advent of the automobile, he owned some of the best horses in Onondaga County.

He died at age 62 on May 31, 1935 at his home at 701 Bear Street after an illness of five months and predeceased his father. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Syracuse.

Moyer daughter

Maude Moyer (died 1961) was married to a prominent Syracuse architect, Ward Wellington Ward. The two met while she was a student at the Boston Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Maude's husband, Ward remodeled a farmhouse for the Moyers on Old Liverpool Road called Moyerdale and designed a factory complex for the Moyer company on Wolf Street that is still in existence. In 1916, Ward designed and built his own home across the road from Moyerdale, on a 5-acre (20,000 m²) lot overlooking Onondaga Lake and named it LeMoyne Manor.

Ward died in 1932 and Maude Ward later sold LeMoyne Manor and moved to a house on her parent's Moyerdale property, now home to Breese Chevrolet. The Ward home was converted to a restaurant and motel, however, still resembles the original structure.

Carriages and automobiles

Harvey A. Moyer founded the H. A. Moyer Carriage Company in Cicero, New York in 1876. The original shop was on the Moyer Farm which consisted of several 100 acres (400,000 m²) on Old Liverpool Road.

By 1880, Moyer moved his carriage factory and equipment to Syracuse where he became nationally known as the "father of the Moyer Carriage." He achieved fame and a substantial fortune which he used to establish an automobile enterprise in 1908 and the company was renamed to H. A. Moyer Automobile Company. Both companies were run by father and son, H. A. Moyer and Bert W. Moyer (1873–1935).

In 1914, Moyer Automobile Company joined Sterns-Knight which operated for only a short time before merging with Willys-Overland.

Typewriters

In February, 1905, Harvey A. Moyer announced that he was engaged in the manufacture of a "new feature visible" typewriter which was invented by E. G. Latta. By 1909, Moyer was "assigner of one-half" with Latta for the patent on the ribbon mechanism for type-writing machines.

During that period, Syracuse was home to four typewriter companies including L. C. Smith & Bros., The Monarch Typewriter Company, Remington Typewriter Company and Smith Premier Typewriter Works. All together, they supplied 1,200 jobs to Syracuse area residents.

Moyer inventions

Moyer applied for several patents on various devices between the years 1882 and 1898. The list of patents includes:

Farm owner

By 1900, Harvey A. Moyer owned a working farm on the west banks of Onondaga Lake in Liverpool, New York off the old Cicero plank road which comprised 158 acres (640,000 m²) of choice land and all the buildings "face this beautiful sheet of water."

The old farm had a large barn with tenant houses. In its heyday, the Liverpool farm stretched a quarter-mile on Liverpool Road and the same distance on Buckley Road. It was noted for its yellow buildings, trim fencing and thorough tillage of all available space in "the English style".

Holstein cattle

The founding of his Moyerdale Herd came with "rigid regard" for certain fixed principles in breeding, one of which is that no female may qualify for admission whose dam has less than a 20 pounds (9.1 kg)" butter output per week.

In September, 1903, Moyer advertised his Moyerdale dairy cows in the annual Holstein-Friesian register. He discussed how the two previous years he had made a careful selection from a large number of herds in the United States, in order to secure a uniform type of dairy cow and that they were from the best butter and milk producing families of the breed. Lorenzo J. Smith was superintendent of the business.

By May 1, 1904, fifty thoroughbred Holstein cattle, the largest importation from European countries to the United States, which were consigned to Harvey A. Moyer, were expected to arrive at his farm, Moyerdale, on the Cicero plank road. The herd was selected and purchased for Moyer by Ward Stevens from the provinces Friesland and North Holland and cost $17,000 not including shipping and custom house expenses which were more than $100 per head.

On June 3, 1904, one of the largest private sales of Holstein-Friesian cattle in the history of the breed was consummated when Stevens Bros. of Lacona, New York purchased the entire Moyerdale herd owned by Harvey A. Moyer of Syracuse consisting of 69 head of registered thoroughbreds. The consideration was not made public but the animals were purchased by Moyer in different parts of the country and cost from $500 to $1,000 each. Stevens Bros. purchased the cattle to strengthen their Brookskie Herd established in 1876. In the Moyerdale herd are ten heifers whose dams have official butter records of from 20 pounds (9.1 kg) to 28 pounds (13 kg) for seven days.

Champion cows of the world were presented at the New York State Fair in Syracuse in September, 1908. New York State had more valuable breeds of cattle for dairy purposes than any other state. It had come to be known as the home of the Holstein-Friesian cattle breeding industry. During the year 1908, the purchase prices of Holstein cattle in the territory within a radius of 30 miles (48 km) of the state fair grounds, totaled over $150,000, according to the officers of the Holstein-Friesian Breeders' association.

For the previous two years, New York's Holstein-Friesian cattle were in demand in foreign countries. A few months earlier, a breeding establishment near Syracuse shipped a herd that had been purchased by the Japanese government.

The herd from Moyerdale Farm was headed by King Segis. He was the only sire of the breed with four, 20 pounds (9.1 kg) junior two-year-old daughters. Their names were: Belle Segis at 21.18 pounds (9.61 kg), Pontiac Duplicate II with 21.10 pounds (9.57 kg), Brookside Segis Korndyke with 20.08 pounds (9.11 kg) and Netherland Segis at 20.13 pounds (9.13 kg). The Moyerdale Herd included the four greatest 30 pounds (14 kg) record cows of the breed as follows; Betty Lyons Netherland, Blance Lyons De Kol, Segis Aggie De Kol Beets and Grace Fayne II, Homestead.

During 1909, Moyer's Holstein cattle were listed in the Holstein-Friesian register, Volume 27, Part I. Some of his cattle included Betta Lyons Netherland who produced 27.76 pounds (12.59 kg) of butter fat and Beauty Pietertje who produced 518.8 pounds (235.3 kg) of milk and champion King Segis who was the "world's greatest five year old sire, the sire of the world's record junior two-year-old, Princess Segis and the sire of the world's record junior, Leila Inka Dekol and 18 other officially tested daughters."

In March 1909, H. A. Moyer and James Gillett, superintendent, offered sire services from the Moyerdale Herd.

That same year, the world's record for mature cows was broken by a six-year-old named Grace Fayne 2d's Homestead. The record was made under supervision of Cornell University experiment station and showed a yield at 6 years 23 days of age of 35.85 pounds (16.26 kg) of butter in 7 days. This cow was valued by Moyer at $10,000.

On March 29, 1909, Moyer received telegrams of congratulation from E. E. Cady of Goshen, New York and D. W. Fields of Brockton, Massachusetts, the latter stock raiser having recently paid the record price of $8,000 for a Holstein-Friesian cow.

The Moyerdale Herd numbered 150 that year. Moyer had been in the Holstein business for almost 9 years and the official records indicated that sales "average him between $20,000 and $25,000 a year and that the milk and butter end of the business barely pays expenses."

The second record at Moyerdale in March, 1909 went to Princess Segis, a daughter of King Segis, for a 7-day record of 24.45 pounds (11.09 kg) of butter.

Moyer had several cattle listed in the Advanced Register Year Book of the Holstein-Friesian Association. This was a record of all entries received between May 1, 1916 and April 30, 1917 and contained a "complete list of sires, with all daughters of sires that have been admitted to advanced registry and the milk and fat productions of such daughters, etc."

By January 20, 1914, the Moyerdale Farm was noted as having "the greatest producing cows of the Black and White breed." The superintendent and overseer of the herd was William B. Simpson. Some of the big names in the herd that year were King Lyons, Colantha Johanna Champion, Blanche Lyons Netherland and Prilly. Nine year old, King Segis was the grand sire of the breed and had 82 officially tested daughters, 365 officially tested granddaughters, 417 officially tested daughters and granddaughters."

Only two sons of King Lyons were left for sale, however, there were a few other choice bred bull calves available that spring. Interested parties were requested to contact H. A. Moyer by mail and he would "be pleased to send you by mail a large sized, beautifully gotten up tabulated pedigree printed on linen back paper showing photographs of the great ancestors which are contained in the breeding of King Lyons."

The names of Moyer's Holsteins in 1916 included; Segis Ekster Pontiac, Segis Pride Pontiac and Segis Isabella.

Moyerdale dairy

During December, 1917 advertisements appeared in daily newspapers for Moyerdale Special Inspected Holstein Milk which had been sold for the previous two years by J. C. Gillett of 509 Turtle Street in Syracuse and would now be sold by H. D. Slawson of 415 East Fayette Street in Syracuse after January 1, 1918.

According to the proprietors, "If your baby is not thriving on your present milk supply, try the Moyerdale Special Improved Holstein clean, raw milk and your troubles will soon be at an end."

The claim was made that the Moyerdale milk was made under a different process from any other milk offered for sale. The first quart of milk which the cow gives is taken out separately and kept for the calves. The first quart of milk taken from the cow contains about one-half the butter fat per quart that the balance of the milk contains and by keeping this first quart out it increases the fat and total solids and decreases the bacteria in the rest of the milk."

Patrons were encouraged to call "Mr. Slawson at Warren 4222 to order a sample of the milk."

By March, 1922, advertisements in the dairy newspaper indicated that Moyerdale Dairy "wanted a milk customer for 300 quarts a day for 365 days." The milk was from a thoroughbred herd of cattle that had been tested for tuberculosis and that the milk "was made in a clean barn, by an experienced clean man, who knows how to take care of milk. Clean milk from clean cows.".

On April 3, 1922 the Moyerdale Dairy placed its thoroughbred herd of dairy cattle up for auction. The collection of cattle took 20 years to build.

By May, 1929 an advertisement published in newspapers around New York State for Bull Brand Feeds printed an endorsement from Moyerdale Farm in Liverpool, New York who brought up 145 chicks on B-B Feeds. The hens started laying at 4 months and 10 days.

Automobile sales

By 1935, Harvey A. Moyer and his son Bert W. Moyer, joined together in an automobile sales agency named H. A. Moyer Inc., of which H. A. Moyer was president and Bert W. Moyer was treasurer. They were affiliated with Bresee Chevrolet Company and were located in their old headquarters at 259 Wolf Street at the corner of Park and Wolf streets in Syracuse.

Bert Moyer died in March 1935, however, by June of that year, the company was still operating and advertised that the automobile salesroom of the company would be turned into a "moving picture theater on Monday night, when a program of films and vaudeville" were presented. The affair was open to the public. Included in the entertainment were movies illustrating "modern methods of automobile manufacturing and acts by the Four Rhythm Boys and the Three Girls, artists who are heard on the Syracuse radio stations."

Later life

In August, 1918, Moyer entertained five of his aged uncles with an automobile ride and a fish, frog and chicken dinner at Cicero. The uncles had a good time and Moyer also had a good time. The only regret was that one of the uncles, William Abbott, 84, of Phoenix, New York, was unable to attend because of illness.

The average age of six uncles was 80 years. Asa Abbott of Baldwinsville, New York was the oldest at 89. Moses Abbott of Syracuse was 82, Abram Moyer of Clay was 82, John Abbott of Fruit Valley, New York was 78 and Irving Moyer of Clay, New York was 72. The men were all well known in their communities and in good health despite their years.

In later life, Moyer went into business raising chickens from his Moyerdale Farm which was known for its Moyerdale eggs and chickens.

Moyer was director of the Syracuse Savings Bank and of the old Third National Bank. By March 1888, he was also a member of the committee that was appointed to raise money for the purchase in Syracuse of property for a permanent site for the New York State Fair grounds. Members of the committee included R. V. Miller, W. S. Peck, Lyman C. Smith, C. C. Bradley and Dennis McCarthy. The group addressed a letter to Mayor Kirk which announced they had raised $23,000 out of the $30,000 necessary and that the remaining $7,000 must be raised "at once" or the fair "will be located elsewhere." The mayor held a special meeting in City Hall to inform citizens.

Death and descendants

Harvey Allen Moyer died on October 9, 1935. He had been in ill health for two years. He was buried on October 12, 1935. The family plot was located in the oldest section of Woodlawn Cemetery, on the west, along Grant Boulevard. The cemetery opened in 1881. The cemetery lot covers a mound of land crowned by a 40-foot (12 m) obelisk marked "Moyer." Daughter, Maude's husband Ward Wellington Ward, who died in 1932, is also buried in the plot which is close to many prominent citizens in Syracuse including several mayors, beer brewers and candle makers.

After his death, Harvey A. Moyer, a former carriage manufacturer and for many years a leading industrialist in Syracuse left the major part of his estate to his daughter, Maude Moyer Ward of Liverpool Road. She received her father's 130-acre (0.53 km²) farm, Moyerdale, including stock and machinery. She also received Florida real estate, whatever remained of stocks, bonds and mortgages after the estate was settled, and all household furnishings, jewelry, automobiles and personal effects of her father. The residue was divided into four equal parts, one for daughter, Maude, and the rest to grandchildren, Harold Moyer, Rosemond Moyer and Edward Moyer, all of Syracuse.

The Moyer Farm in Liverpool, New York was still in the family in July, 1961 when a direct descendent who was living there died. Moyer and his family had collected a large number of valuable artwork and antiques that were sold at that time.

The Moyerdale farmhouse was torn down in late March, 1966 to make way for a 76,000-square-foot (7,100 m²) building for Breese Chevrolet.

Recognition and memorials

Moyer Carriage road in Cicero, New York was named for Harvey A. Moyer and his carriage company.