J & W Van Duzen & Company, was a 19th-century, Philadelphia shipbuilding firm. It was formed in 1834 by brothers John, Mathew and Washington Van Duzen and their brother-in-law Captain Christian Gulager. The three sons of an earlier Philadelphia shipbuilder, Mathew Van Duzen who came from New York in 1795. The New York genealogical and biographical record, "New York Genealogical and Biographical Society; Greene, Richard Henry, 1839-1926, ed; Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett, ed; Morrison, George Austin, 1864-1916, ed; Mott, Hopper Striker, 1854-1924, ed; Totten, John Reynolds, 1856-1936, ed; Pitman, H. Minot (Harold Minot), 1888- ed; Ditmas, Charles Andrew, 1887-1938, ed; De Forest, Louis Effingham, 1891- ed; Mann, Conklin, ed; Maynard, Arthur S., ed
Washington Van Duzen patented the first marine railway in Philadelphia, in 1834. It was subsequently built by J. & W. Van Dusen & Co., at Kensington, Philadelphia in 1834-35.
Mathew Van Dusen was mentor to Domingo Marcucci who later became an important early shipbuilder in San Francisco. San Francisco Call, Volume 87, Number 99, 9 March 1902, p.6 FIRST BOATBUILDER ON THE PACIFIC COAST by J. M. Scanland
References