GWYNEDD TOWNSHIP. 

WEST POINT ENGINE AND MACHINE COMPANY.
The works of this company are located in the village of West Point, a thriving village
along the line of the Stony Creek Railroad, eight miles north of Norristown, Montgomery Co., Pa.

    At a meeting of the citizens on January 6, 1880, called for the purpose,
the project to organize a company and establish works to manufacture the
Kriebel engines was favorably considered.  On January 26, 1880, the
subscribers to the capital stock of the company convened and elected
Joseph Anders, Jr.
John S. Heebner
Frederick Light, Sr.
I. R. Cassel
Charles K. Kriebel
Aaron Kriebel
William L. Heebner to constitute a board of directors.  Of the above named
stockholders, Charles K. Kriebel resigned in 1883, and William S. Schultz
was elected to fill the vacancy in the board.

    H. K. Kriebel was selected as general agent, and Frederick Light, Jr., as
general superintendent.

    Application through the proper channel was made for a charter, and the
same granted by Governor Henry M. Hoyt on March 13, 1880, with an
authorized capital of eight thousand dollars.  A building twenty-five by
fifty feet was erected, containing office, drawing-room and pattern-shop.
Increasing business demanded increased facilities, and the management
erected, in March, 1881, a two story building, the first floor used for an
office and the second floor for draughting-rooms.  In September of the same
year, finding the room inadequate, a two-story brick shop, thirty by
seventy feet, with boiler-house attached, fourteen by fourteen feet, was
built, and all machinery transferred, and new and improved machinery
purchased to facilitate the workings of the company.  The first shop was
remodeled for a boiler-shop, and an addition, twenty-five by twenty-five
feet, added thereto, making the building twenty-five by seventy-five feet;
also a blacksmith-shop, twelve by fifteen feet.

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    In March 1883, an addition was put to the machine-shop, thirty by
twenty-five feet, adjoining the office, making a total frontage of one
hundred and forty-five feet.

    The capital stock of the company was increased in December 1882, to
twenty-five thousand dollars, and again, by a vote of the stockholders, to
an authorized capital of one hundred thousand dollars in February 1883.

    The working force of the shop in its infancy was two men, and when the
boiler-shop was completed the pay-roll called for two additional names, and
by the energies of laudable ambition the force was increased to thirty-four
men, -twenty in the machine department and fourteen in the boiler-shop.

  The company added the manufacture of portable engines in July, 1881, and
to-day the Kriebel engines are known far and near as the most durable, most
simple in construction, as well as the most economical engines in the
market.

  The prospects are unusually bright, and the demand for these
justly-celebrated engines is so steadily on the increase that, if so
continued, the company will be necessitated to add additional buildings and
augment the working three to meet their increasing trade.

    The success of the company is mainly due to the determination to do
naught else but first-class work.

    The company is likewise manufacturing mounted engines of two and a half,
four, six, eight and ten horse-power, and for beauty of design, combined
with strength and simplicity, are destined to stand in the foremost rank of
that class of engines.

  To the boiler department the manufacture of submerge boilers has been
added; the superheating steam chamber, lately invented by Mr. H. K. Kriebel,
and used in the vertical boilers, adds greatly to the safety and durability
of the same.  By the peculiar construction of these boilers steam is
superheated, which produces dry steam, the benefit of which is well-known
to all practical engineers.  The company has been awarded a bronze medal at
the Pennsylvania State Fair, a gold medal at the Alabama State Fair, first
premium at the Louisville Exposition, at North Carolina State Fair,
International Cotton Exposition, Atlanta, Ga., and Media Agricultural
Society.

    The buildings now occupy an area of nine thousand nine hundred and
ninety-five square feet.  The floor space originally was twelve hundred and
fifty square feet.  A yard-track has been constructed, large scales put in
and all goods are moved around the works on the company's own trucks.  A
large derrick to facilitate the loading and unloading of goods has also
been erected, and the Railroad Company lately constructed a side-track
along the works, thus aiding materially their shipping facilities.

    WEST POINT STEAM SAW-MILL.  -0n the turnpike road from West Point to North
Wales, in Upper Gwynedd, stands West Point Steam Saw-Mill, Alan Thomas,
proprietor.  Everything about this old place supports its claim to
antiquity, for tradition gives the date as 1717.  It has been frequently
repaired and partially rebuilt, and still bears all the marks of great, but
sound and healthy, old age.  The mill property formerly belonged to the
Dannehower estate and was operated for several years by Jonathan Lukens,
previous to becoming the property of the present proprietor.  The power is
furnished by a fifteen-horse engine, and with two saws the old mill still
produces ten thousand feet a week of sawn timber, oak and hickory,
principally grown in Gwynedd Township.

    BRICK-YARD.  -Within a mile of North Wales, on the West Point turnpike, are
the brick-kilns and yard of William Constantine, who has operated them for
fourteen years.  Seven hands are employed, and about five hundred thousand
bricks a year are manufactured.