Joseph Walker Binney
of Binney and Smith (USA)
Joseph Walker Binney was born in Wakefield, England on 2 December 1836.
At 18 he served in the army in the Crimean War.
He emigrated to the USA, and in 1864 he started the Peekskill Chemical Works.
1888 Binney and Smith established by Binney in partnership with his nephew C. Harold Smith.
The company produced a wide range of products, including 'CRAYOLA' crayons, introduced in 1903.
The above information is condensed from 'CRAYOLA's Peekskill History'[1]
The 1851 British Census shows Joseph as a scholar living at 50 Springfield Lane with his father, Richard Binney (born in Worksop), share broker, Eliza Walker (sister in law of Richard), five brothers (Edwin, George, John and Charles) and two servants.
The 1861 British Census shows Joseph as a stock and share broker, living at Otley Road, Leeds, with two servants.
'Genealogy of the Binney Family'[2]
Joseph's father, Richard, was born in 1796. He married Jane Walker, who died in 1842. Their children are listed below, in order of date of birth.
Eliza was born in 1824 and married Ambrose Smith, a stockbroker. Their youngest son became a partner of Joseph's son Edwin in the business of Binney & Smith.
The other children were Jane (d.1846)
Frederick (1827-1885)
Thomas became a stockbroker and died c.1880
Richard Henry (b.1831)
Edwin (b.1832) emigrated to Australia and then moved to New Zealand
George William (b.1834) also emigrated to Australia and then moved to New Zealand.
Joseph Walker was educated in Rochedale College and in Germany. After emigrating to the USA he married Annie Eliza Conklin of Westchester, where he lived on the 'old farm' in 1865 and 1866. In 1867 he became an insurance agent in NY City, and then a 'paint and color importer'. They had eight children, Annie, Edwin, Jane, George, Ethel, Ambrose, Frederick, William. Edwin, born in 1866, joined the family paint and colour business, along with his cousin.
John Septimus (b.1838) became a sea captain. He and his wife and one child died when his ship 'Bosphorus' sank in the Japan Sea
Albert Octavius(1841-1842)
Charles Albert (1842) emigrated to Auckland, NZ, and becaame a farmer.