Henry Disston (May 24, 1819 – March 16, 1878) was an
English American industrialist who founded the
Keystone Saw Works in 1840 and developed the surrounding
Tacony neighborhood of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
to build housing for his workers. His company became the Disston Saw Works and was the top manufacturer of hand saws in the United States during the late 19th-century and early 20th century.
Early life and rise to prominence
Disston was born May 24, 1819, in
Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
The family moved to Derby, in Nottingham, when he was four for the father's work manufacturing machines that produced lace. His father invented a machine to make a special fine lace and was invited to introduce the machine to a mill in Albany, New York. He arrived in America, as a boy of 14 with his father and 16-year-old sister, Marianna. Three days after arriving in Philadelphia they were orphaned by the sudden death of their father. Henry Disston was taken in as a
saw
A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and mov ...
-maker's
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
at Lindley, Johnson & Whitcraft. He left that company in 1840 and started his own saw-making business.
[ He married Amanda Bickley but she died after giving birth to twins who only survived a few hours. He later remarried to Mary Steelman in 1843.
By 1850, Disston's saws were renowned in the United States, even compared against the English manufactures that were considered superior. Disston encouraged emigration from England to staff his factory with skilled workers. By 1859, Disston had 150 people working for him. During the ]American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, a protective tariff
Protective tariffs are tariffs that are enacted with the aim of protecting a domestic industry. They aim to make imported goods cost more than equivalent goods produced domestically, thereby causing sales of domestically produced goods to rise, ...
on foreign manufactured goods helped expand Disston's enterprise, and despite a fire that ruined the factory, Disston prospered through the 1860s.[ During the war, Disston had success when he switched some production from saws to war supplies such as Sabers, bayonets and guns. Disston also became a supplier of steel to the William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company which had switched their ship designs from wood to iron vessels and had become a main supplier of ships to the Union war effort.
]
Move to Tacony
By 1871, Disston's saw mill had outgrown its factory and he moved the business to the outlying neighborhood of Tacony, in what is now Northeast Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending ...
. At the time, Tacony was a small outlying area of Philadelphia, but it was located near the railroad and the Delaware River, and provided Disston with room for his saw mill to grow.[ Disston constructed homes for his workers, and designed them in an effort to improve their surroundings from their former dwellings in Philadelphia. The Disston family owned more than 600 homes that were rented to workers and many others were built and sold to workers. This area of Tacony, known as the Disston Estate, was designed to bear Disston's imprint in the fashion of true Victorian ]utopianism
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
.
In 1879, U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
visited Philadelphia and toured the Disston Saw Works factory.
Later life and death
Disston was an early settler of Atlantic City, New Jersey. He built a summer cottage for his wife and multiple business such as a bakery, a coal and brick yard, and a saw mill.
By the late 1870s, Disston's business and social enterprises were succeeding, but his own health was failing. Despite his failing health, Disston generously supported the founding of a homeless shelter, Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission
Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week.
For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sunday i ...
. After falling ill in 1877, he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died at his home in Philadelphia on March 16, 1878.[ His oldest son, ]Hamilton Disston
Hamilton Disston (August 23, 1844 – April 30, 1896)"He Died Without Warning", ''The Washington Post'' (May 1, 1896). was an industrialist and real-estate developer who purchased 4 million acres (16,000 km²) of Florida land in 1881, an are ...
, succeeded him as president of the company.
Disston is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery
Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
The cemetery is ...
in the largest mausoleum in the cemetery.
Citations
Sources
*
External links
Disstonian Institute
on-line reference for collectors of handsaws
{{DEFAULTSORT:Disston, Henry
1819 births
1878 deaths
19th-century American businesspeople
19th-century philanthropists
American company founders
American manufacturing businesspeople
British emigrants to the United States
Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Businesspeople from Philadelphia
People from Tewkesbury