Thomas Charles McDermott, who was at the head of the Mohawk Valley Brick & Supply Company, at the time of his death, was born in Utica, New York, December 22, 1870, his parents being Bernard and Mary (Hickey) McDermott. His education was obtained as a public school pupil in his native city. Prior to incorporating the brick company of which he became president he conducted an extensive business as a contractor of Utica, erecting many of the large and important structures of the city. Among the numerous edifices which stand as monuments to his skill may be mentioned the Crouse building, the Academy, the Mandeville Street school, the Thorn Memorial church and the warehouse of the Skenandoa Cotton Company. As president and treasurer of the Mohawk Valley Brick & Supply Company he developed a business of extensive proportions and gained a position among the prominent and prosperous manufacturers of his native city.
The plant of the Mohawk Valley Brick & Supply Company, Incorporated, is situated on the outskirts of the city of Utica and covers twenty-seven acres of land. The company, which was incorporated in 1906 with Thomas Charles McDermott as president and treasurer, furnishes employment to forty men and has a brickyard of forty-two thousand capacity. There are three drying kilns. The plant, which is modern in every particular, is conducted throughout by electricity supplied by the Utica Gas & Electric Company. The most efficient and up-to-date methods are utilized in every process of manufacture from the raw material, which includes digging the clay and moulding and drying the brick. The output of the company, which includes building supplies of every description, is shipped to all parts of the Mohawk valley. The firm produces every kind of brick used in building and has a patent on a particular hollow brick of its own.
Mr. McDermott had been married twice, his first union being with Miss Ada Murphy, who passed away in 1903, leaving a son, Thomas Edward. For his second wife Mr. McDermott married Miss Edith McIntosh of Montreal, Canada, and they became the parents of three daughters: Mary Mildred, Anna Kathleen and Mary Edith. Thomas C. McDermott passed away on April 18, 1924, of lobar pneumonia, after an illness of ten days.