A New Arrival: Henry Disston Lands in America

Henry Disston's arrival in the United States has been portrayed as if it were the starting point of a Horatio Alger story.  Therefore it seems fitting to use it as a juncture from which to begin a blog that looks into topics related to the Disston and Sons company, but are not widely known. 

By 1919, the centennial of Henry Disston's birth, only one of Disston's sons, Jacob, was alive.  He had never worked for his father, being only 15 years old and a student when Henry died in 1878.  The generation of men who worked directly under the Disston and Sons founder had long been dying off, so it became the project of one of his grandsons, a nephew, and a cousin to assemble a family history, which was published as a typed manuscript in 1920.
More under the fold...


The family story of Disston's arrival was not publicized in advertising or with the publication of the Disston History, which was intended only for the Disston family.  The story had some circulation outside the family when it was retold in a 1950 presentation at the Newcomen Society of England's dinner observing the 244th birthday of Benjamin Franklin and celebrating the 110th anniversary of the founding of Henry Disston and Sons, Inc.  The guest of honor was Jacob S. Disston, Jr., company president and grandson of the founder.  The arrival was part of the life story of Henry Disston presented that evening and printed in a booket distributed by the Newcomen Society.

Five years after the Newcomen address, the Disston family sold the company after 115 years of ownership, and the Disston brand soon lost most of its prestige.

The arrival story was resurrected in 1994 by A Place to Live and Work, the Harry Silcox history of Disston and Sons and the Tacony area of Philadelphia.  Silcox referenced both the family history and the Newcomen address, and newspaper articles as well as internet discussion groups have spread the arrival story to the extent that those with interest in Philadelphia history or tool collecting are familiar with it.

Here is the arrival story as told by Jacob S. Disston, Jr., at the 1950 Newcomen dinner:

Henry Disston, Mr. Chairman, was born in Tewkesbury, England, on May 23, 1819, the third child of Thomas and Ann Harrod Disston. When Henry was about four years old Thomas moved his family to Derby, in Nottinghamshire, where he engaged in the manufacture of lace machines. There, Thomas invented a machine for making a certain fine, rare, and beautiful lace, and as Henry grew up he instructed the boy in his business and in the general principles of mechanics.

Since no lace of the kind produced by Thomas Disston's machine was then manufactured in the United States of America, a group of business men made him a tempting offer to bring his machine to this Country and set it up in a mill at Albany, New York. Thomas accepted the offer and, taking with him his machine, his son, Henry, and his daughter, Marianna, he sailed for America. After a tedious 60-day voyage they landed at Philadelphia, early in 1833, where as stated, Thomas died of apoplexy, three days later. The fate of Thomas' lace machine is not known, beyond the fact that it was taken from the ship and sold, the money being sent to his widow in England.

Marianna found refuge in the home of friends, and in due time was happily married. Henry, remembering his father's advice that a skilled tool maker always could earn a good living, apprenticed himself to Lindley, Johnson & Whitcraft, a firm of sawmakers in Philadelphia, where he learned to make saws and the tools required in their manufacture. When he left the firm, in 1840, his accumulated savings and the tools and raw material he had accepted for wages due him, amounted to about $350.

The story is quoted nearly verbatim from the 1920 family history.  What was not known by the Disston family was the date of Henry's arrival in the United States.  The Disstons had it as early 1833.  My research turned up the exact date because a record of the ship's passenger list exists.

Thomas Disston is listed on the handwritten document as Thos. Distant, age 42, occupation fram smith [sic].  He was accompanied by "Mary" (daughter), adult, age 16, and "Henery", child, age 14.  They arrived in Philadelphia from Liverpool, England aboard the General Brown on August 3, 1833.

Below is a facsimile of the document.

This is a detail of the first column, one third down the list.

References:

A place to live and work : the Henry Disston saw works and the Tacony community of Philadelphia. Harry C. Silcox. University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, ©1994.
 
Henry Disston (1819-1878):  Pioneer Industrialist Inventor and Good Citizen.  Jacob S. Disston, Jr.  Newcomen Publications, Princeton University Press,  © 1950.

www.Ancestry.com database:  Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945.  Detail
 Microfilm roll: M425_48; line: 12.