In the late 1880s, J. W. Dennis, 14 West Seneca St., Buffalo, manufactured a couple of metal lathe accessories: a center grinder and a traverse grinder. He also made a patent overhead belt shifter. Beginning in 1889, Frank A. Shoemaker and Joesph W. Dennis of Buffalo were granted three patents related to double-cylinder steam engines. But so far we have not found any evidence that they ever manufactured such an item.

Illustration of J. W. Dennis's center grinder and traverse grinder, from an article in 1888-02-15 The American Engineer

Information Sources

• Buffalo City Directory for 1863 lists "Dennis, Joseph W. pile driver, b. 352 Swan."
• Buffalo City Directory for the Year 1880 lists "Dennis, Joseph W. contractor, 62 Main, h. 458 S. Division". Jacob Critze and George Taylor, both of profession "pipeman steamer" are listed as an employee of Dennis. Dennis Danihee, stoker steamer, was also an employee. In the business directory section, Joseph W. Dennis was listed under contractors and pile drivers.
• The 1884 edition of Statistics and Information Relative to the Trade and Commerce of Buffalo lists Joseph W. Dennis, "Contractor, etc." with place of business at 118 Water street.
• Report of the Chief of Engineers U.S. Army has this mention in a section about improving Milwaukee Bay, Wisconsin: "At the date of the report, June 30, 1882, 200 feet of the substructure of breakwater remained to be built under the conditions of the contract of Joseph W. Dennis, of Buffalo, N. Y., of date June 20, 1881." Dennis's bid for 1,600 feet of crib breakwater was $82,606.89.
• Articles in 1888 issues of The American Engineer and The Mechanical News
• The 1890 book, History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania.

  C. W. DENNIS, a member of the firm of Spence & Dennis, dealers in tor pedoes and nitro glycerine, Bradford, was born in Buffalo, N. Y., October 30, 1853, a son of Joseph W. and Delia (Tolles) Dennis, who were also natives of New York, of English descent. Joseph W. Dennis is still a resident of Buffalo, and is aged sixty-two. Mrs. Delia Dennis died in Detroit in 1858, and in 1867 Mr. Dennis married Lucy M. Newman, of Nunda, N. Y. After hi.s mother's death our subject lived with an aunt, sister of his mother, several years, in Albion and Marion, Ohio; then lived on a farm near Kenosha, Wis., for eight years, and then returned to Buffalo, N. Y., in 1869; he had good educational advantages, and after leaving school clerked for his father, who was a government contractor. In 1877 he came to Bradford and engaged in the oil business, adding the torpedo interest in 1878. In 1883 Spence & Dennis obtained the agency for the Torpedo Company of Delaware, and have met with good success in this line. Mr. Dennis was married January 24, 1883, in Buffalo, to Miss Jennie, a daughter of Capt. James W. Moore. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Honor, as well as of the Royal Arcanum.

• A web page lists attendees at an 1893 convention of spiritualists, including Joseph W. Dennis of 120 Thirteenth Street, Buffalo.