1)Marriage-Abby Walton (1864–1918)
24 Sep 1885 • Belmont, Ohio


2)Marriage-Margaret E Stehle (1880–1921)
30 August 1919 • Pennsylvania

3)Marriage-Anna Lydia Willits (1892–1979)
2 September 1922 • San Jose ,Santa Clara County, California

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CHILDREN:
(FIRST wife)
Alfred Walton Elkinton 1892–1969
md. Anna F Trimble

Anna Walton Elkinton 1895–1979
md. William Cope James

Henry Thomas Elkinton 1898–1983
md. Doris Frances Ludinghouse

(THIRD wife)
Lois Elkinton 1924–1990
Ruth Elkinton 1927-?

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Philadelphia Quartz Company
http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/1865.xml

Historical Note
The history of the Philadelphia Quartz Company has been inextricably linked to that of its founding family, the Elkintons, for most of its 154-year existence. George Elkinton, a Quaker blacksmith from Oxfordshire, England, immigrated to the united states in 1677 as an indentured servant. After serving out his time, he was given a small land grant in Burlington, New Jersey, where he settled, raised a family, and attempted to earn a living as a farmer. George Elkinton died in 1713, and his son Joseph inherited the family land. Five years later" however, he was forced to sell it, and the Elkintons once again began earning their living as artisans. The family remained in southern New Jersey for 75 years until Asa, George/s great-grandson, his wife Latitia, and their four children moved to Philadelphia.

For more than 15 years, Asa struggled to earn a living as a tailor. Finally, in 1810, he was forced to abandon his trade, and he opened a grocery store on Front Street. When this business did not succeed, he set up a small shop to manufacture candles and soaps. George M., Asa's youngest son, joined his father as a partner in the family business. Joseph, the eldest, apprenticed as'a silversmith. When he finished his training in 1816, he moved to Tunessassa, New York, where he spent the next 15 years of his life working for the society of Friends as a missionary among the Indians. Joseph returned to Philadelphia in 1831. By this time, Asa had died and George had taken over the business. Joseph set up another candle and soap shop at 377 South Second street.

While George's business stagnated, Joseph's immediately prospered. By the end of the 1830s, his trade had expanded far beyond the Philadelphia area. Sales records document shipments to New York, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and North' Carolina. Though it produced only soaps and candles, the Elkinton firm dealt in a wide variety of commodities. Early daybooks record barter transactions in coffee, cordwood, coal, flour, hay, butter, salt, and bricks. By 1842, Joseph Elkinton had accumulated enough capital to build a three-story brick factory. Shortly thereafter, he brought his sons, JOSEPH SCOTTEN and Thomas, into the business.

Thomas Elkinton was an amateur chemist with an inquiring and innovative mind. At first, he applied his talents to developing a diversified product line of "fancy and specialty soaps." After these were successfully marketed, he turned his attention to the development of a synthetic detergent. By reading German chemical journals, Thomas became acquainted with European efforts to synthesize soluble silicates. In the 1840s, German scientists had discovered that these silicates, which were produced by the fusion of sand and soda ash, had a variety of potential industrial applications. Thomas hypothesized that they could be used as a possible substitute for rosin, the key detergent agent in soap. In 1857, he built a furnace capable of manufacturing large quantities of soluble silicates. After a series of experiments, the Elkinton firm began producing soaps with a silicate base. The timing could not have been more fortuitous. During the civil War, supplies of rosin from the South were cut off, leaving Northern soap makers without an essential raw material. The Elkinton firm thus found a huge market for its synthetic soap. By 1862, when JOSEPH (SR.) Elkinton retired and his sons took over the business, the firm was marketing soluble silicates throughout much of the Northeast and Middle West.

To meet this increasing demand, the company constructed a second factory at Ninth and Mifflin Streets. This facility was built in partnership with John Greacen and Samuel Booth, who provided the necessary capital.

The Ninth and Mifflin factory was called the Philadelphia Quartz Company, since it was devoted to the manufacture of soluble silicates. In 1868, the Elkintons bought out Greacen and Booth, and the firm came under family control.

The Philadelphia Quartz Company steadily expanded. By the late 1870s, it was marketing 16 grades of silicates. In 1875, the Elkintons hired Charles W. Goudy as their first sales agent. Goudy was extremely effective. During this twenty years with the company, sales of soluble silicates increased from 8.7 to 14.8 million pounds per year. Thomas Elkinton continued his laboratory work, exploring a variety of new uses for industrial silicates. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Elkintons were selling their product to manufacturers of lye, fertilizers, detergents, oils, greases, adhesives, fiber, and wall board. During this period, the company built seven plants outside Philadelphia. The Anderson, Indiana, factory was constructed in 1889 and represented the company's first attempt to locate a plant near an important market.

In 1904, after a third generation of Elkintons (William Tilman and ALFRED COPE) had assumed control, the company abandoned the soap business in order to focus all its resources on the industrial market.

World War I created an array of opportunities and opened up new markets for soluble silicates. Dr. James Vail, who came to the company as a young chemist in 1905, played a key role in its research and development effort. In 1918, as head of the Chemical Department, Vail discovered that silica gels, made from sodium silicate, could be used as a base for the catalysts that were needed to crack crude oil molecules to make high-octane gasoline. Vail also developed a potassium silicate that was soon adapted for use in cathode ray tubes. This innovation had important implications for the emerging television and radar industries. However, the Philadelphia Quartz Company was a small firm and faced competition from the E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Allied Chemical Companies. Although it managed to carve out a portion of the market for itself and continued to retain a reputation of a technological innovator, it could not hope to compete with the larger firms in the industry.

Nevertheless, Philadelphia Quartz continued to grow during the World War II and immediate post-War periods. By the 1960s, however, it became clear that as a traditional family firm the company had grown increasingly conservative and was unable to take advantage of all its potential market opportunities. A restructuring led to a rational integration of the sales and marketing departments. Also, as part of this new approach, affiliates and subsidiaries were fully merged into the parent company. In the summer of 1973, Philadelphia Quartz Company moved out of Philadelphia in order to occupy a new facility in Valley Forge. Its name was officially changed to PQ Corporation in 1978.

I. Elkinton Company, 1831-1888
Scope and Content

Records of the Elkinton firm include commonplace books and research notebooks (1849-1874) which summarize the company's daily operations in detail. The results of the firm's early experiments with soluble silicates, marketing, and investment strategies are described. Thomas Elkinton's notebook documents his research and laboratory experiments. There are copies of Thomas Elkinton's letters to German scientists, patent information, and research notes. There is also a detailed diagram of the company's first furnace. The commonplace books contain a good deal of information on the relationship between the Elkinton family and its employees.
Daybooks, account books, ledgers, cashbooks and journals (1830-1888) document payments for machinery, raw materials, and wages, as well as income from sales. Profit or loss statements are meticulously recorded on a monthly basis. The financial records document the company's founding by Joseph Elkinton with $1,697.33 of capital, and its steady growth and development during the 1830s and 1840s. The expansion during the civil War period is clearly recorded.
Letter books contain copies of letters to customers which document the firm's various sales campaigns. These books trace the company's expansion during the Civil War period and its successful marketing of silicate of soda.

VIII. Elkinton family papers, 1733, 1827-1970, 1983
Scope and Content

Elkinton family papers include and official genealogy compiled by David Cope Elkinton and extracts from letters and diaries of various family members (1830-1940). The 51-page biographical sketch of Joseph Elkinton describes his Quaker missionary work and the early years of the company. It contains excellent descriptions of the political and social climate of mid-19th century Philadelphia.