Goss & Nichols' Iron Works, 1857

In 1855, Leonard Goss was a partner in Goss & Nichols, which operated the Sacramento Iron Works on I Street between First and Second Streets in Sacramento; their products included steam engines and sawmills. Nearby was the Lambard Flouring Mills, operated by Allen Lambard, and there was some relationship between the two companies. Allen's son, Orville Dewey Lambard, seems to have been involved in both businesses. There is some connection between the Lambard and Nichols families: Dr. H. L. Nichols, the first medical doctor in Sacramento was a nephew of Allen Lambard, and it was due to Lambard's influence that Nichols moved West to Sacramento to set up his practice. It is possible that the "Nichols" in Goss & Nichols was none other than Dr. Nichols. There was also a Charles P. Nichols who was appointed as a notary public in Sacramento in July 1853, and he was still there in 1855.

By 1860, Leonard Goss and O. D. Lambard were partners in Goss & Lambard which operated the Works, and with a similar list of products being manufactured. The partnership was dissolved in April 1871. The Works eventually passed into the hands of the Central Pacific Railroad and became their Sacramento Shops.

In 1868, a longtime former employee and friend of Messrs. Goss and Lambard, Horace Adams, was a partner in a mining company that was heavily indebted to Goss & Lambard for mining machinery and tools. To settle the debt a complex agreement was made where Goss & Lambard received title and claim to the mine; the partners were to operate the mine until they had covered the debt and subsequent expenses, and then they were to convey one-third of the mine and claim back to Adams. Goss & Lambard operated the mine until April 1871 when their partnership was dissolved; as part of the dissolution, Lambard assumed complete ownership and responsibility for the mine and the agreement with Adams. Over the next decade Lambard made good money with the mine but was evasive with Adams in providing an accounting of profits and expenses. In July 1880 Lambard sold the mine and claims without notifying Adams. When Adams discovered what had happened, he sued Lambard. His suit was successful and Lambard was forced to pay restitution, including a generous amount of interest due to his bad faith.

Information Sources

• 1855 California State Almanac has a full-page ad for Goss & Nichols.
• The 1857-07-15 Marysville Daily Herald has an article on "The Steam Wagon" being built in Sacramento. The article notes that the machinery for the wagon was being built by Goss & Nichols.
• 1860 Annual Report of the Controller of State lists a payment of $40 to Goss & Lambard, for "Engineers (four men)". They are also listed as exhibiting a steam engine at the State Fair ("ten inch bore, and twenty inch stroke"), which was awarded first premium. "Goss & Co., Sacramento", exhibited "Blake's Patent Hydrostatic Amalgamator, by Hydrostatic Pressure.—Manufactured by Goss & Co. Sacramento. Price two hundred dollars. In this machine the pulp is made to pass through a high cylindrical receiver into a reservoir below, whence the gold is brought up through a succession of seives to a surface of quicksilver, in which a "stirrer" is made to revolve by water power. The construction is very simple."
• 1864 Knight's Hand-book Almanac for the Pacific States lists Goss & Lambard as a foundry in Sacramento.
• 1862-05-06 and 1864-09-04 and 1865-02-04 Sacramento Daily Union.

  Sacramento Iron Works.
  I Street, between First and Second Streets, Sacramento,
  GOSS & LAMBARD, Proprietors.
  Manufacturers of Steam Engines, Machinery for Saw, Flour and Quartz Mills, Horse Powers, Windmills, Car Wheels, Suction and Force Pumps, Cast Iron Riffles and all kinds of House Castings, at reduced prices. Gas Pipe of all sizes, and all kinds of Brass and Iron Steam Fittings, with Hemp and Rubber Packing, constantly on hand. Wrought Iron Work and all kinds of Brass Castings done to order.
  We are the Sole Agents in this State for the celebrated Worthington Pump, an assortment of which we keep constantly on hand. We have just received from the East a fine assortment of Cast Iron Fence Patterns, suitable for yards, balconies, cemetery lots or graves. We shall continue to do our work in the best manner and at the LOWEST CASH PRICES, hoping thereby to receive a just share of public patronage.

• The 1864-5 Transactions of the California State Agricultural Society lists a payment of $31.50 to Goss & Lambard for a band wheel.
• 1868 Draper's Sacramento City and County Directory.

  Sacramento Iron Works, Goss & Lambard, proprietors, on I street, between Front and Second, was erected in 1852. The proprietors have, notwithstanding the heavy damages sustained by them from the fires and floods, which have more than once brought Sacramento to the verge of irretrievable ruin, continued to enlarge their shops and to add new and convenient machinery to their works. At the present time it is in the front rank of that class of establishments on this coast and can make anything of brass, copper or iron, from a faucet to the most powerful steam engine. This establishment has a capacity to work a hundred hands. It is well known, not only in California, but also the State of Nevada can bear witness that much of the stamping and crushing of quartz within her precincts is done by engines and pestles made at Goss & Lambard's.

  Listed as employees of Goss and Lambard are George A. Clunie (machinist), John Esh, Theodore Hilyer (blacksmith), S. T. Paul, E. B. Silliman (machinist), ,
• 1868 Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly California Legislature lists prizes awarded at the State Fair, including of $5 to Goss & Lambard, for "best iron and brass work". The results of the fair mention an honorable mention to Goss & Lambard for "Exhibit of brass work, consisting of safety valves, throttle valves, steam whistles, etc." for which they received a first premium. "We also award a first premium to the Corliss engine, Goss & Lambard of Sacramento, for economy in the use of fuel, for the ease and certainty with which its motions can be regulated, and recommend it for mining mills, flouring mills and heavy work." The State also paid them $1,269.37 for "merchandise".
• In the case of Adams v. Lambard, heard by the Supreme Court of California 1889-09-03, involves defendant O. D. Lambard. "In 1868 the defendant and one [Leonard] Goss were engaged in carrying on a manufacturing and foundry business in the city of Sacramento. Until the dissolution of the copartnership of Goss & Lambard, Horace Adams continued to be an employee in their foundry, and his relations to the members of the firm were, and for a long time had been, and until after the dissolution of the partnership continued to be, of a close and confidential nature... Adams & Grissim were indebted to Goss & Lambard to a very large amount for milling and mining machinery, tools, etc., furnished for the use of the mining claims, and the firm held a lien... on June 27, 1868... Adams, Grissim and Waters executed and delivered to Goss & Lambard a deed of conveyance of the whole of the mine... Goss & Lambard agreed...that in consideration thereof they should cancel the indebtedness... it was also agreed that...Goss & Lambard should work and develop the mine...upon the further condition that whenever they had realized sufficient from the mine to reimburse themselves... they should reconvey to said Adams the undivided one-third of the mining claim and property... In pursuance of this agreement, Goss and Lambard commenced to work and develop the mine, and continued the same until April 21, 1871, with varying success, when the firm of Goss & Lambard was dissolved; in the distribution of their partnership property, Goss conveyed his interest in the mine to the defendant, Lambard, who accepted the same with full knowledge of all the conditions of the agreements between them and Adams; Lambard continued to work, develop and operate the mine... until the thirtieth day of July, 1880, when, without consultation with or the knowledge of Adams, he sold and conveyed the same, and delivered the possession thereof for a valuable consideration to an innocent purchaser". Lambard was found by the lower court to have deliberately defrauded Adams and was ordered to pay losses plus compound interest. In a 3-2 decision the Supreme Court rejected all of Lambard's arguments for a reversal.
• The 1890 book, An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California, by Winfield J. Davis.

  Lambard Flouring Mills.-In 1853 these mills were established on the north side of I street, at the head of Second street, and for about two years were run in connection with the Sacramento Iron Works. The original building was of brick, and only 20x40 feet in size. In 1856 it was enlarged, and a most substantial foundation placed under it, by James Kerr, a superior millwright from Boston. This man afterward lost his life on the ill-fated steamship Central America. Additions were made to the building, and the capacity increased to five run of stone. But this mill has long since been discontinued, and the building has for some years been used as a warehouse.
  ...William Gutenberger, prominent among the enterprising manufacturers of Sacramento, was born August 25, 1828... in the spring of 1855... he came to Sacramento and for seventeen consecutive years was enployed in the Sacramento Iron Works, and now in the G. & N. Foundry. Commencing here as a journeyman, in less than two years he was promoted as foreman, which position he held during all the fifteen years following. Then he started in business for himself...
  H. L. Nichols, A. M., M. D., is the oldest practicing physician in Sacramento... graduated from the medical department of the celebrated Bowdoin College, in the class of '45, subsequently taking a post-graduate course at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia; he returned to his native city and at once commenced upon the practice of his profession. In the meantime his maternal uncle, Allen Lambard, had emigrated to Sacramento, in 1852, and had, in connection with General Redington, established the Lambard Flouring Mills, located on the corner of Second and I streets, and also the Sacramento Iron Works, where the driving wheels of the first locomotive ever used on a California railway were turned. And it was owing to Uncle Lambard's enthusiastic description of the opportunities to be had in California, that the Doctor concluded to migrate to the Golden State, which he did in 1853, landing in Sacramento in January of that year, and, opening an office at Second and I streets, began the practice of his profession, which has been continued without interruption, except by official duties as will appear further on, for over thirty-six years...

• 1897-11-07 Sacramento Daily Union.

  DIED IN THE EAST.—O. D. Lambard Passed Away in New England. All old Sacraraentans remember Orville D. Lambard, who in early days operated the Lambard flouring mill at Second and I streets in the building now occupied by the Sullivan-Kelly Company as a warehouse. Some twenty-five years ago Mr. Lambard removed to the East and made his home in Massachusetts. A. A. Redington a day or two since received a copy of the Kennebec "Journal" of Augusta, Me., containing the following notice of Mr. Lambard's death, which occurred on October 25th: "Orville Dewey Lambard died at the residence of his niece. Mrs. Lucius Hubbard, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday noon. The body was brought to Augusta Tuesday, and the funeral will be from St. Mark's Church Thursday morning at 11 o'clock. The Rev. Dr. Upjohn of Philadelphia, former rector of St. Mark's, will officiate. Mr. Lambard was born in Augusta in 1830, and was a son of Allen Lambard."

• July 2016 newsletter of the Amador Sawmill & Mining Association (PDF) "Many of the remaining items donated by Bud Lindau were retrieved from the old Andreason sawmill. These include ...the Globe steam engine. ... One surprise was the Globe steam engine. We've called it that because 'Globe Iron Works' was cast into the side of the steam chest. However when the engine was lifted out 'Goss & Lambard - Sacramento Iron Works- 1860' was found cast into the side of the bed. This engine ran a flour mill in Ione before it was moved to the sawmill. There is a similar engine at the El Dorado county museum. Goss & Lambard Sacramento Iron Works was located at the site that is now the California State Railroad Museum. They became the first shop for the Central Pacific Railroad. The Governor Stanford, CPRR's first locomotive, was assembled there in 1862."
• FindAGrave page on O. D. Lambard.