Frank P. Sheldon (February 16, 1846 – August 17, 1915) was an American mill engineer based in Providence, Rhode Island, and active from 1870 until his death in 1915. In his capacity as a mill engineer Sheldon designed cotton mills and factories for a variety of industries.
Life and career
Frank Perry Sheldon was born February 16, 1846, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Jeremiah A. Sheldon, a patternmaker, and Mary Sheldon, née Burbank. He was educated in the Providence public schools and at Scholfield's Commercial College. He first worked in the office of Providence civil engineer Niles B. Schubarth. He then worked as a mechanical draftsman for his father's employer, the American Screw Company, and in the machine shops of James S. Brown in Pawtucket. On Brown's recommendation Sheldon then went to work for Foster H. Stafford, treasurer of the Union Mills of Fall River, Massachusetts, for whom he drew the plans of the company's no. 2 mill. He then worked for Edward Kilburn, engineer of the Lonsdale Company at Lonsdale, Rhode Island, and with him designed the no. 4 mill of the Wamsutta Mills in New Bedford.:383–384
By 1870 Sheldon felt comfortable enough to go into business independently as a mill engineer.:383–384 The idea of a "mill engineer" developed alongside the American textile industry and was at this time only just being professionalized. Such an engineer was responsible for the design of all of a mill's machinery and systems as well as the building that housed those systems. Some of these engineers, including Sheldon, carried out the original research required to provide these services.:18–21 He was sole proprietor of his business until 1903, when he formed a partnership with his elder son, Arthur Noyes Sheldon (1878–1973), practicing as F. P. Sheldon & Company. In 1907 they were joined by his younger son, Frank Lawrence Sheldon (1883–1925), and the firm name changed to F. P. Sheldon & Sons.:383–384 After Sheldon died in 1915, his sons continued the firm under the name F. P. Sheldon & Son. Frank L. Sheldon died in 1925, but Arthur N. Sheldon continued to lead the firm under the same name until his retirement in 1964.
Sheldon married in 1877 to Nellie Noyes. They had three children, two sons and one daughter. She died in 1883 and he married again in 1892, to Mary Elizabeth Lincoln, they had no children together.:383–384 He died August 17, 1915, at the age of 69, in Providence.
Legacy
Sheldon's employees included Charles T. Main and Dwight Seabury, who left to establish their own practices in 1893 and 1896, respectively.:345–347:392
In 1921 the firm published a retrospective, entitled A Half Century of Achievement, to commemorate the firm's fiftieth year of business. This book also contained summaries of the firm's research. Research activities were covered more thouroughly in the 1926 publication Miscellaneous Scientific Papers of F. P. Sheldon & Son, comprising papers presented by members of the firm. In 1923 Sheldon & Son was recognized as one of the major mill engineering firms of the United States.
1234William H. Jordy, Buildings of Rhode Island, ed. Ronald J. Onorato and Wm. McKenzie Woodward (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
↑Candace Jenkins with Brian Pfeiffer, Berkshire Mill #1 National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form (1982)
↑Wm. McKenzie Woodward and Edward F. Sanderson, Providence: A Citywide Survey of Historic Resources, ed. David Chase (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, 1986)
↑Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson, Buildings of Vermont (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013)
↑"Another new building. To be erected on Pine Street between Page and Richmond," Providence Journal, October 26, 1895.
↑"The new Warren mill. Cotton was started through the machinery this week," Providence Journal, August 27, 1896.
