ABSTRACT
Dayton Samuel Morgan, senior partner in D.S. Morgan & Co. of Brockport, New York, was a leading figure in the harvesting-machinery industry in the 1860s. Mapping out Morgan’s networks of contacts and analyzing the relationships involved shows how he mobilized extensive networks in support of his enterprise. Morgan managed his business responsibilities from Brockport, a small community offering few services to manufacturers and weak agglomeration economies. From Brockport, Morgan traveled and corresponded widely to develop a geographically-extensive network of agents and contacts. In 1867, he made repeated trips to New York and Chicago. Postal workers delivered his letters to addresses from San Francisco to Paris. Lawyers conducted company business from offices in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. Other agents prosecuted Morgan business throughout the Manufacturing Belt and Midwestern states. Legal contracts structured most of his relations with far-flung individuals, but Morgan knew and often met with many of his correspondents.
