admin PLINY BARTON McNAUGHTON, Vice-President of the German Rock Asphalt & Cement Company, the Buffalo Expanded Metal Company and the Continental Engineering Company, and General Manager of the Buffalo Dredging Company, is one of Buffalo’s foremost men in the general contracting business.
Mr. McNaughton comes of a family which lived for many generations in or near Campbelltown, Scotland, where his father, Daniel McNaughton, was born in 1824. In 1834 he emigrated to America, where he first went to Detroit, but shortly afterward came to Buffalo. There he was apprenticed to the ship-smith’s trade, in the old Vulcan Foundry, afterward forming a partnership with Charles Delaney in the general forging business. In 1855 Mr. McNaughton engaged in business for himself, his foundry being located in Prime street, near Evans, where, with other forging he made a specialty of iron work for sailing vessels. In 1865 he removed his establishment to Lloyd street, where he continued in business until his death, which occurred January 8, 1902, at Battle Creek, Mich. Daniel McNaughton was a very successful business man and accumulated a fortune. He was esteemed for his ability and respected for his upright life. He was a member of the Unitarian Church. In 1854 he married Pamela E., daughter of Pliny F. Barton, who owned the Vulcan Foundry, then one of the largest machine shops in Buffalo. Their surviving children are: Pliny B. McNaughton of Buffalo, and Harriett (Mrs. Joseph H. Defrees) of Chicago.
Pliny Barton McNaughton was born in Buffalo August 17, 1855. He attended public and private schools in his native city where he was prepared for college. In 1870 he entered the University of Notre Dame, Ind., where he remained three years and pursued a liberal arts course.
On leaving college, Mr. McNaughton entered his father’s establishment, where he continued three years, and then went to work for his uncle, William I. Williams, a prominent contractor and builder. In 1881 Mr. McNaughton went into business on his own account, and for three years successfully engaged in general contracting. In 1884 he formed, with Frank L. Bapst, a partnership for the purpose of doing general contract work, under the style of McNaughton & Bapst. This firm was largely engaged in laying stone pavement and in street railroad construction, and also did a great amount of underground work. In 1892 Charles E. Williams was admitted to the firm which became Williams, McNaughton & Bapst, an association identified with many of the principal engineering and general contract enterprises in Buffalo and vicinity. Mr. McNaughton is General Manager of the Buffalo Dredging Company, an important concern which does much submarine work for the Government and State. He is Vice-President of the German Rock Asphalt & Cement Company, one of the leading asphalt paving companies of Buffalo. He is one of the principal officials of the Buffalo Expanded Metal Company, and of the Continental Engineering Company, and a stockholder in the Buffalo Sanitary Company, all of which concerns do a large amount of public work.
Mr. McNaughton is a 32d degree Mason, and is affiliated with Ancient Landmarks Lodge and Ismailia Temple. He also belongs to the Elks, and is a member of the Buffalo and Ellicott clubs, and the Fine Arts Academy. He is an exempt fireman, having served with old Liberty Hose, No. 1.
In 1893 Mr. McNaughton married Mrs. Frances (Dambach) Iffer, a daughter of John Dambach of Buffalo. Mr. and Mrs. McNaughton have one child, Harriet Ruth, who was born December 18, 1894.
SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I