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WILSON BROWN 



THOMAS DOLAN 



Thomas Dolan was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, October 

 27, 1834, and died at Torresdale, Philadelphia, June 12, 1914. He received his 

 education in the public schools of Montgomery County, which he attended 

 until fifteen years of age, when he secured a position in a retail dry goods 

 store in Philadelphia, where he remained until 1856. He then formed a con- 

 nection with a large importing commission house which handled English 

 hosiery and Germantown knit goods, in which he built up a large business 

 for his finn. 



The depression in business following the outbreak of the Civil War led 

 to the failure of the firm, and Mr. Dolan thus lost his position. In May, 1861, 

 he arranged with one of the creditors of his former employers to rent a small, 

 but completely equipped mill which had been left on their hands, agreeing to 

 purchase the property at the end of the year. The new enterprise was es- 

 tablished under the name of the Keystone Knitting Mills. Despite the pre- 

 carious state of trade the business was trebled in three years. In 1872 Mr. 

 Dolan installed in his mill machinery for the manufacture of coating worsteds, 

 which was continued until 1897 under the firm name of Thomas Dolan & 

 Company, becoming one of the most important manufacturing enterprises of 

 the city of Philadelphia, with four thousand employees. 



Mr. Dolan was one of the organizers of the Brush Electric Companies of 

 Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, and the first to install an electric plant 

 in a factory. He and his associates were the pioneers in the introduction of 

 electricity for street lighting purposes. 



On February 26, 1892, Mr. Dolan was elected president of The United 

 Gas Improvement Company, and during his presidency the lease of the Phila- 

 delphia Gas Works was effected, in 1897. Under municipal management the 



