It can be difficult to present local history to the public. Thankfully the Niagara Gazette and Union-Sun & Journal regularly print historical articles from the Niagara History Center’s Ann Marie Linnabery and other contributors. These articles are available in the newspapers, at our local libraries and often online, and it is not unusual for the articles to get responses years after they were published.
I recently received an inquiry from Suzanne Monnes of Westbrook, Connecticut. Suzanne is a Western New York native and a relative of the Dussault family of Lockport. She was responding to my Nov. 30, 2021 article, “Lockport: Niagara County’s Detroit During the Motor Buggy Age?” which she found through a Google search. The article mentioned her great uncle, Albert H. Dussault, the owner of the former Dussault Foundry at 2 Washburn St. Suzanne sent me a section of a family album that provides further information about Dussault’s involvement with the development of automobiles. The album was created by her mother, Lockport native Lillian Dussault Dodds. Lillian was the daughter of Hector Dussault, who worked with his brother Albert at the Dussault Foundry.
The unique dynamics of Lockport’s automobile manufacturing industry at its height need to be more fully explored. This was a special time when all the ingredients were there to craft and innovate. Siting along the Erie Canal ensured the availability of ample water power, then steam and inexpensive electricity. Add ambitious skilled immigrants into the mix and Lockport was a Silicon Valley of manufacturing innovation on the internet of its time, the canal.
The Dussaults, originally from Canada, left a successful family-held foundry in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, to the management of a relative and moved one family at a time to booming Lockport, where they started the Dussault Foundry and other businesses.
The narrator of the Dussault family album, Lillian Dussault Dodds, wrote of Lockport in 1913, when she was a child: “My earliest recollection in Lockport is living on North Transit Street. This section was known as Pioneer Hill. … Our neighborhood was mainly an Irish neighborhood. … Most of the people had large families like ours. In fact, two of my best friends were cousins and counted up how many cousins they had in town and came up sixty-three, mostly in the Fire and Police Departments… .”
Having grown up in the north end myself, I think Lillian’s recollections are accurate.
Her narrative then went on to describe the lifelong relationship of her uncle Albert H. Dussault and John J. Raskob, who grew up at his family home / cigar manufacturing business at 43 East Ave. (the location of the former Castle’s Dairy), and Raskob’s contribution to Dussault’s automotive experiments. Raskob became a wealthy entrepreneur and an early investor in many growing businesses including General Motors, Harrison Radiator, DuPont and the Empire State Building. For more detailed information about Raskob see Ann Marie Linnabery’s excellent article in the May 8, 2021, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.
The Dussault family album states: “Albert and Joseph (Dussault) had become good friends with a young man who had a lot of the same interests they had. His name was John J. Raskob, who later became one of the developers of General Motors of Detroit… .”
“Albert spent most of his time with Raskob, building their own car. …They would start up their so call automobile every Sunday morning and drive it downtown, scaring all the horses in the streets. Later they would be seen pushing it all the way home. This happened most every Sunday, amusing the neighbors who watched the proceedings. Albert’s friendship with Raskob lasted all his life”.
Records indicate that Albert Dussault worked first for the Lockport-based Covert Motor Vehicle Company before starting his first automobile business at 19-22 Buffalo Ave., which was just south of the Big Bridge. He also worked at the Dussault Foundry but was, according to the family account, “spending less time there, having become interested in automobiles”.
Newspaper articles reference that Albert Dussault built the first gasoline-powered car in Lockport and then opened a garage and automobile agency at 53-55 Richmond Ave. (now Canal Street).
The family album states: “He carried all makes of cars. I remember Buicks, Cadillacs, Willys Knights, Stutz Bearcats, Marmon’s, Franklins, Reos, Jordans etc. … The garage was located on Richmond Avenue, adjacent to the Erie Canal. It was opposite the locks, so that one could cross the street, lean on the railings and watch the barges go through the locks. … People in town who owned cars then didn’t have garages at their homes and housed their cars at the garage, where some owners had uniformed chauffeurs who sat around hours at a time waiting to be called by their employers when they were needed… .”
“Horseless carriage” manufacturing thrived here in the late 19th century and early 20th century. This was a region of transportation pioneers. According to my limited investigations, risk-taking, hands-on engineers in Lockport created early parts and automotive companies: Lockport Bicycle Works, 1895; SBM Steam, 1901; Covert Motor Vehicle Company, 1901; American Motor Truck Company, 1904; Dussault Auto Works, 1904; and Harrison Radiator, 1910. These companies developed quickly because they were near the Erie Canal.
I use the example of the horseless carriage to illustrate the creativity of the manufacturing concentration in Lockport. A partial list would also include the fire hydrant, the steam fire engine, steam heat, water pumps, the honeycomb radiator, aluminum and firearms. The Lockport-based Manufacturers’ Association, organized by Charles T. Raymond, reported in the 1880s that there were 33 factories, with 1,881 workers, using water power from the canal mill races and Eighteen Mile Creek.
All that creativity was thanks to the convergence of water power, concentrated manufacturing skills centered on the Erie Canal as a means of transportation and information flow, the energy of capable immigrants, a small town with easy communication, and the spirit and innovation that created the canal and the Flight of Five locks. That hard cut through the bedrock started it all — always leading Lockport forward, it will forever be a symbol of its grit and energy.
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Thanks to Suzanne Monnes for sharing her family album, Ann Marie Linnabery at the Niagara County Historical Society, the Niagara County Historian’s Office and historian Craig Bacon, and Lockport Public Library for their assistance with this report.