Cyrus Alger (1781-1856)

He was born in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He began his career as an iron-founder at an early age and established a business at Easton, Massachusetts. In 1809, he moved to South Boston and in 1817 founded the South Boston Iron Company having won a contract to supply a large number of cannon-balls to the government during the War of 1812. His foundry quickly gained a reputation for manufacturing cannons of excellent quality and he became known as one of the best practical metallurgists of his era. He took out numerous patents, always improving on his inventions and the first gun ever rifled in America was made at his works in 1834, as well as the first perfect bronze cannon for the United States Ordnance Department.

The mortar " Columbiad," the largest gun of cast iron that had then been made in the United States, was also cast under his personal supervision. He was responsible for inventing numerous improvements in the construction of time fuses for bomb-shells and grenades. In 1811 he patented a method of making cast-iron chilled rolls, and in 1822 first designed cylinder stoves. He was elected to the City Council of South Boston (Alderman in 1824 and 1827) and was the most extensive land-holder in South Boston. He lived at 48 West Fourth Street, South Boston, which stood three stories over a basement with 20-rooms in addition to the kitchen and bathrooms. In 1804, he married Lucy Willis and they had seven children, two of whom (Eliza and Cyrus Jr.) married two of the grandchildren of Holmes Hinkley, New England's largest manufacturer of locomotives. His sister married John Reed, 17th Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and their daughter (Alger's niece) married James F. Joy, of Detroit, President of the Michigan Central Railroad. By 1851, he was among the wealthiest few hundred men in Massachusetts, reputed to be worth $400k.