Betts & Seal

The Betts family of Wilmington, Delaware, produced three generations of innovative founders and machinists. They played an important role in the founding of three of the city's major manufacturing enterprises: The Betts Machine Company, the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company and the Pusey & Jones Company.

Mahlon Betts was born in Attleboro, Bucks County, Pa., on March 16, 1795. He came to Wilmington in 1812, where he married Mary R. Seal at the Wilmington Friends Meeting on November 8, 1818. He built a foundry at 8th and Orange Streets in 1828. On March 1, 1836, Betts formed the new partnership of Betts & Pusey with Samuel N. Pusey for the business of manufacturing railroad cars at a plant at Water & West Streets. He leased the foundry at 8th and Orange to his son Edward, who carried on the business as Betts & Stotsenburg. Mahlon Betts died in Wilmington on March 4, 1867.

The foundry then passed to Mahlon's oldest son, Edward (1825-1917), who operated it with a succession of partners: as Betts ? as E. Betts ? as Betts, Pusey, Jones ? and as Betts & Seal, 1857-1867. The foundry closed in December 1867.

Edward Betts and his brother Alfred (1835-1918) also built a machine shop in 1860, which they operated under the name of E. & A. Betts, and later the Betts Machine Company, until 1917.