In 1873, a young man by the name of Thomas Allin Stevens, just 23 years old, opened a plumbing shop with his partner William Turner on Richmond Street, in London, Ontario. Stevens was a skilled maker of brass valves, gauges and fittings. Then In 1876, the business became Stevens, Turner and Burns, with the addition of James Burns, and their services were expanded to plumbing, gas fitting, and brass finishing. When the municipal waterworks went out for tender in 1878, it was an opportunity for the small shop to think big. Competing with more than 120 tenders, Stevens, Turner, and Burns was awarded the job by the London Public Utilities Commission. They were paid $194,000 for the reservoir, hydrants, valves, pipes, and pipe laying. They worked hard for it, literally carving the waterworks out of the wilderness as they built London’s very first reservoir, pump house, piping system and hydrant network.
By the early 1880s, the company was in the steam engine business. Their Western Empire portable steam engines were widely advertised in The Farmer’s Advocate as early as 1880. The advent of the steam engine launched Stevens, Turner and Burns into a whole new venture. Engines were built in the foundry and machine shop on Richmond Street to power the waterworks that Stevens, Turner and Burns had installed just a little more than a year before. After that, the company turned to manufacturing steam engine powered farm machinery for the Canadian northwest. In 1887, Stevens, Turner and Burns had their first taste of “branching out”. Tom Stevens’ oldest son, John, moved to Winnipeg and established The John Stevens Company, which sold the mobile steam engines and plumbing supplies in western Canada that his father’s company manufactured in London, Ontario.
The operations of Stevens, Turner and Burns ceased in 1894. Then in 1908 the Empire Manufacturing Company opened, established by Tom Stevens and partners J.R. Minhinnick and George Trudell. In 1920, the company’s name was revised to Empire Brass Manufacturing Company (Emco) and 1946 the company went public.
Source: The Stevens, Turner And Burns Co Page | Canadian Fire Hydrant & Waterworks Museum
