User:Gatoclass/SB/Esler

Background
Henry Esler was born in White Plains, New York, in about 1810. Little is known about his early life and career, other than the fact that he trained as a machinist. According to a letter published in the Railroad Gazette, Esler was unofficially the first person to run a locomotive in the United States. The letter states that Esler was sent to Honesdale, Pennsylvania, in 1829 to assemble the locomotive Stourbridge Lion, and after doing so, tested it by running it for a few feet along the rails. Officially however, the honor of running the locomotive for the first time went to Horatio Allen, for whom Esler had prepared the machine. The account indicates that Esler was at the time an employee of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, which owned the locomotive.

By 1840, Esler had joined forces with another engineer, Jeremiah S. Bunce, to establish the firm of Esler & Bunce. This company was initially located at No. 26 Washington Street, Brooklyn, but later added a second facility at 17 West Street. Esler & Bunce specialized in the production of high-pressure stationary steam engines, the only type of engine it built. Though it built no marine engines, it did construct boilers for all applications including marine. It also made boiler repairs, and at one stage was evidently engaged in regular maintenance of the boilers of the leading coastal steamers Empire City and Crescent City.

Henry Esler & Co.
In 1852, Esler resigned from Esler & Bunce to establish his own firm, Henry Esler & Company. Esler's partners in this concern were William H. Mason, former foreman of the boilermaking shop at Esler & Bunce, and an investor from White Plains, New York, Joseph H. Anderson. The new firm's plant was located at the corner of Washington and Morris Streets, and consisted of "an extensive Machine Shop, with the most improved Machinery and Tools". This plant was originally named the Atlantic Steam Engine and Boiler Works, but was later renamed the Atlantic Dock Iron Works. From this premises, the company declared its readiness "to execute orders for Stationary, River and Marine Engines of every description, Sugar Mills, Mill Works & etc." and for a wide range of boilers. As the plant was located dockside at the city's Atlantic Basin, it was also in an advantageous position for making repairs to steam vessels.

There is scant record of Henry Esler & Co.'s activities in its early years, but the company is known to have made small production runs of stationary and portable steam engines of from 4 to 50 hp, which were sold as far afield as Georgia. In 1859, the company built at least four marine engines, including one for the Stamford Line steamer Ella (later the dispatch boat USS Ella (1859)). The company also built the engines for a sugar mill in Puerto Rico in 1859, along with an 80 hp steam engine for a stationary Brooklyn grain elevator. In 1861, the company built the engine for the steamer USS Flambeau (1861), originally intended for China service, but requisitioned by the Union Navy in November 1861 for use as a gunboat in the American Civil War which had broken out the previous April. 1862 was a most productive year for the company, during which it completed no fewer than seventeen marine engines. Five of these were for five large merchant screw steamers ordered by the Neptune Steamship Company, but all were requisitioned by the Navy while still on the stocks and converted to gunboats for service in the ongoing civil war. Five new ferryboats of the Union Ferry Company with engines built by Esler & Co. were also acquired by the Navy and converted into gunboats during this period, while another steamer, Henry Burden, was requisitioned by the war department for use as a transport and as the personal dispatch boat for General John A. Dix. In all, twelve vessels powered by Esler engines were requisitioned for wartime service.

Esler & Co.'s workforce by this time had expanded to 350 employees, with the company set to expand its workforce by another 180 in a newly opened facility. In August 1862 however, the company abruptly failed. The reasons for the failure are unknown, but many marine engine and shipbuilding companies in this period are known to have had difficulties with high wartime inflation, which made contracts signed earlier in the conflict unprofitable.

After the failure of his company, Henry Esler appears to have done no more work of historical interest. There is some evidence that he later rejoined Jeremiah Bunce in another company. A company called "H. C. Esler & Co.", which limited its work to "boilers only", is listed in an 1874 business directory, but a link with the earlier Esler has not been confirmed.

Reuben Riley, co-founder of the later marine engineering firm of Riley & Cowley, served his five-year apprenticeship as a machinist and engineer with Henry Esler & Co.

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refs

 * small engine runs 1854
 * standard engines to savannah
 * 3 pine steamers, excelsior
 * stationery elevator 1859


 * p. says 4 boats built in 1862 in addition to union, america, hamilton, and whitehall. Boats taken: somerset, fort henry, 1st hamilton and whitehall?
 * p. says took 4 boats in 1862, plus atlantic and unnamed boat in 1863


 * aug 62, american, union "recently completed", could mean anything.
 * union, america completed jun 62
 * aug 62, hamilton, whitehall purchased by gov just after completion.
 * 2 ferries at webb&bell 582 tons 15 nov 62 other builders
 * 2nd hamilton launched 18 nov 62
 * 2 more purchased 25 nov 62, one to be "commodore porter"
 * building, oct 62 - engines for hamilton, whitehall (both gov chartered). 2 more engines for two new ferries, unnamed. somerset, fort henry engines completed "since january". no mention of america or union.
 * somerset inclined engine


 * two ferries and 3 steamers, latter for china, sep 1862 nov 3 china steamers jul 1862
 * fulton ferry
 * official records

(No full search yet for plain old "henry esler)"


 * description of works, new boiler shop 1862 -htrust
 * marriage? -htrust
 * burdon, esler, continental, others, comprehensive directory 1874 -htrust
 * blog on esler d date etc esler logo esler starts first train engine in us -htrust business fails 1863 -htrust
 * the elusive may 1863 steamer list -nyt longer list van deusen promise -nyt


 * esler & bunce 46 washington 1841 -htrust jeremiah bunce same directory 1841
 * engravers??? 1850 26 washington
 * marine boilers ca. 1851 -htrust
 * high-pressure stationary engines only, but marine boilers; boiler repairs for washington, empire city, crescent city; testimony oct 1850 -htrust
 * 26 washington and 17 west 1851-52 -htrust
 * same 1851-52 directory published 1851 -htrust
 * check other dirs for possible larger advert -htrust
 * 1857 directory jeremiah S. bunce still at washington and west - esler obviously went independent -ancestry


 * esler failure aug 1862? Sale of land jun 1864 -fulton
 * esler fails "before the (van deusen) steamers were completed (ie last three) -htrust


 * search string "henry esler a co" fulton:
 * established, formerly esler & bunce, 1852 -fulton alt 1854 alt jul 1854 (bottom column 3)
 * small advert, alt name, address etc 1856 -fulton alt
 * ella, st johns r. steamer, small steamer s. america, dredge 1859 -npc
 * unnamed steamer for stamford 1859 -fulton alt ella -fulton alt
 * steamboat kiang-tze, ferries america, union; all completed by aug 1862; other builders, engineers -fulton
 * vandeusen ships, engines "being built" oct 1862; also collyer boats, dry dock iw -fulton alt
 * Oct 1862 - ferries hamilton, whitehall, two others; vandeusen ships, elevator excelsior; steamers somerset, fort henry, kiang-tze, henry burd?en, sze-chuen; new boiler shop, 350 employees to be expanded by 180; also mcleod iw, delamater -fulton


 * htrust search "esler & co"
 * franklin institute 1863: kiang-tzse, sze-chuen, excelsior, flambeau, henry burden, hamilton ferry
 * franklin 1865: neptune


 * h c esler & co same firm? 1874 -htrust


 * neptune details; also james t brady (stack), isonomia, others 1865 - htrust
 * flambeau, other builders etc -htrust
 * flambeau trial trip 3 nov 1861 -npc
 * flambeau engine vb? -htrust


 * 1862 brief description of works etc -archive


 * esler dd? -fulton


 * steam nav china ship list etc -htrust


 * fort henry bore and stroke
 * fort henry somerset
 * whitehall hamilton webb & bell engines etc
 * the earlier whitehall purchased from union fc
 * webb & bell yard? for sale 1864
 * webb & bell established 1856
 * webb & bell steamer also seth grosvenor allaire
 * g w bell 1885
 * e webb obit another
 * primeria
 * burtis does coffer dams
 * bell director fire insurance co
 * eckford obit another
 * bell half brother of englis
 * eckford street
 * conversions


 * union america finsiehd june 1862
 * hamilton whitehall done august; purchased by gov. "for gunboats"; company about to commence two more to replace! - they became uss commodore morris and commodore mcdonough (see official records) but which was which?
 * second hamilton! launched by webb & bell november 1862
 * ferry "commodore porter" purchased by navy, one other, 18 nov 1862
 * alleged ferryboat histories part ii inc. ft henry prizes
 * c morris/clinton prang 1916
 * ellen whitehall (1850?) commissioned late 1863 no 1861 filed under wrong date at the site

h burden

 * launch?
 * trial trip may 16? 1862
 * deployed by war dept virginia 1863
 * flag of truce boat, dix transport, mid-1863
 * december 1864 transport
 * burden government service summary 1865


 * for sale jan 1866 still for sale march jul
 * 1866 h burden back in private hands jul
 * charleston towboat? 1868
 * runs between st. aug and jacksonville 1870 3x per week, description safe and comfortable
 * 1871 baltimore to providence, accident


 * dredge 1872
 * gov charter 1873
 * channel work 1880
 * savannah harbor improvements 1880
 * improvements 1881
 * sinks sep1883


 * with engineers 1875 or earlier; used as dredge
 * henry burden sidewheel tug sold by US engineers dept 1884
 * under charter to the us 1871, purchased 1873
 * dredge brief description another
 * description of "rebel" steamer h burden "very fast"; see also other pages
 * prisoner exchange
 * summary rebels
 * John Adams Dix
 * burden bringing prisoners to lafayette