Perth Amboy Dry Dock Company
PERTH AMBOY DRY DOCK COMPANY
T
HE Perth Amboy Dry Dock Company has developed from a marine railway established about i860 by Runyon & Phillips. The enterprise was bought by John Runyon and colleagues and incorporated January 10, 1887, with Mr. Runyon as president. Since incorporation four drydocks have been installed, with capacity up to 2,500 tons, eight piers 370 to 400 feet long, floating equipment, electric and air- welding plants, complete power equipment, derricks, blacksmith and machine shops, sawmill, etc. Adjoining property recently purchased makes the full water frontage now about 1,000 feet, with riparian rights.
The company is now preparing plans for a new sectional self-docking dry-dock, capable of raising 2 vessel 500 feet long or about 14,000 tons; and, raving sufficient upland, will equip the plant for building any kind of ships, and dry-docking and repairing them. They also build tugboats complete, carfloats, etc.
The president, Walter Parker Runyon, son of John and Anne (Beck) Runyon, was born in New Brunswick, N. J., December 3, 1861, was educated at the New Brunswick Public School and Rutgers College Preparatory School and the New Jersey Business College, Newark, N. J., graduating in 1880. He is a descendant of Vincent Rognion, a French Huguenot who settled near New Brunswick in 1678. Vincent Runyon, grand- father of W. Parker Runyon, started a shipyard it Xew Brunswick, in which John Runyon became partner, and in that yard the early boyhood of Parker Runyon was spent. He was afterward for four years with Fairbanks, Martin & Company, woolen commission merchants in New ork; two years with the Metropolitan Insurance Company, afterward entering the employ of Vliet Dalmer, manufacturing clothiers in New Bruns- ::k. which concern was soon absorbed by Mr. Snedeker and Mr. W. Parker Runyon. In 1894, with Mr. Charles D. Snedeker, he purchased the trolling interest from his father's estate in the Perth Amboy Dry Dock Company.
Mr. Runyon has been a member of the Demo- Executive Committee in New Brunswick and Perth Amboy; delegate to the National,
State, County and Municipal Democratic Con-ventions; was member of the New Brunswick Water Board, was a member of the Perth Amboy Water Department Commission. He was ap-pointed to the New Jersey State Harbor Com-mission by Governor Fielder in 1913, and to New Jersey Board of Navigation in 1915 (still serving). He was appointed by Governors Fielder and Edge to represent the State at the Atlantic Deeper Waterway Conventions, and was president of the Wilson Business Men's League in 1916. He is a member of the National Security League; New Jersey Historical Society; United States Chamber of Commerce; Young Men's Christian Association; Perth Amboy Hospital Association (vice-president) Manufacturers' Association of New Jersey; Maritime Association of the Port of New York; is vice-president of the Raritan Trust Company; director of the Perth Amboy Trust Company and New Brunswick Fire Insurance Company; member of the Colonia Country Club, Lake Placid Club of New York, the East Jersey and Raritan Yacht Clubs of Perth Amboy and the Union Club of New Brunswick.
Charles Dippolt Snedeker, secretary and treasurer of the company, was born at New Brunswick, July 17, 1861, the son of Cornelius and Mary (Stonaker) Snedeker. He is a descendant of Jan Snedeker, who came from Holland in 1642, and was a "patentee" or farm owner in Flatbush, Long Island. Charles D. Snedeker was graduated from the New Brunswick High School in 1877 and from the Newark Business College in 1878. He began as a clerk in a New York wholesale house, and since 1894 has been joint owner with Mr. Runyon of the Perth Amboy Dry Dock Company. He is vice-president and director of the First National Bank of Perth Amboy; member ten years and president eight years of the Board of Water Commissioners; director of the First National Bank of Roosevelt, N. J has served on the Board of Health, and as trustee of the City Library of Perth Amboy; member Holland Society of New York, fellow American Geographical Society of New York, member New Jersey Historical Society, East Jersey Club, Union Club and the Colonia Golf Club.
