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The Life and Influence of Hamilton Disston
By Louis M. Iatarola
Hamilton Disston, the eldest of Henry Disston's four sons,
is best known locally as the namesake of Tacony's seventy-eight
year old public school, located at Knorr and Cottage Streets.
His father's legacy is well known, having risen in the span
of fifty-nine years from immigrant apprentice to owner and
operator of the largest saw manufacturing firm in the world
and founder of the community of Tacony as we know it today.
Although the life of Hamilton Disston would span seven less
years than that of his father, his influence extended well
beyond Philadelphia to the once barren reaches of Central
Florida.
On August 23, 1844 Hamilton Disston was
born to Mary and Henry Disston. At this time, the twenty-five
year old Henry Disston had just rented a shop in Philadelphia
and borrowed $200.00 to equip it with the first steam-powered
saw machinery in the country. Unfortunately, Henry was unaware
that he was a sub-tenant and soon saw his equipment seized
for his landlord's unpaid rent. The undaunted Disston promptly
went to work at home, making tools until he could buy back
his equipment.
Prompt responses to crises, decisive
action, and above all, an insistence on quality and fair treatment
of employees were factors that led to Henry Disston's Keystone
Saw Works fast becoming the local leader in its industry.
In addition, Henry's collaboration with brothers Charles and
Thomas plus frequent contact with brother William in England
helped keep the company ahead of its competitors when it came
to the latest tool-making techniques.
By the time Hamilton Disston began his
apprenticeship at his father's firm at the age of fifteen
in 1859, the Keystone Saw Works at Front and Laurel Streets
employed 150 people, more than any of Disston's local competitors.
Company custom, as implemented by Henry Disston, was for each
son to apprentice for five to seven years before assuming
an executive position.
This ensured that each future leader would have first-hand
knowledge of most operational methods at the plan and have
greater familiarity with his co-workers. This tradition also
included lavish parties in his respective Department to celebrate
the son's admittance into partnership. This practice continued
into the 1940's, when William Leeds Disston as the last family
member to apprentice at the firm. The only exception during
that time span was Jacob, son of Henry, who attended Business
School at the University of Pennsylvania.
As Henry Disston's eldest son, it is
certain that Hamilton benefited the greatest through observation
and imitation of his father's administrative skills and technical
proficiency. At the rapidly expanding factory, Hamilton was
the only son to witness and fully participate in the resultant
boom in business from the outbreak of the Civil War. The factory's
expansion was heightened given an immediate need to manufacture
materials for the Union Army. A rolling steel mill was constructed
and Henry Disston appealed to workers in the national interest
to report defects and suggest possible modifications to enhance
their war products, which included knapsack mountings, scabbards,
swords, and guns, among many others. In addition, Disston
offered employees who joined the Union Army 50% in addition
to the government's pay plus a secure job when returning from
the war.
Hamilton Disston, an apprentice at the
time of the Civil War outbreak, was a charismatic and energetic
young man who had made many friends and acquaintances in his
short time at the Saw Works. Sharing his father's patriotic
spirit, Hamilton wanted to enlist in the Union Army when President
Lincoln made an appeal for volunteers. Although he attempted
twice to enlist, both times his father paid an enlistment
bonus insisting it a necessity that Hamilton attend to his
duties at the business.
Not to be stifled in his civic duty,
Hamilton Disston, or "Ham," as the was affectionately
known, became a member of the Northern Liberties Volunteer
Fire Company and would frequently leave the factory to help
fight fires in the area. In addition, he organized approximately
one hundred fellow workers in forming "Disston Volunteers."
This was a youthful group of men so motivated by the young
Disston that his father reluctantly gave permission to the
volunteers even equipping their entire unit for the war effort.
Upon returning from the war in 1865, Hamilton Disston was
made partner in the firm that would be known for a short time
as Henry Disston and Son.
The tenure of Hamilton Disston at the
upper echelon of the Disston Company began with some of the
firm's most prosperous years. The demand for many types of
saws intensified as new lines of products were introduced,
including a whole line of steel files. Modifications were
routine as the Disstons always stayed ahead of their competition
when it came to design technology. Their success led to a
need for more space which the cramped Laurel Street facility
could not accommodate, prompting the Disstons to search for
a site large enough to build a new factory.
Hamilton Disston's Uncle Thomas had purchased
several lots on the Delaware River near what is now Cottman
Avenue in 1855 and built a summer home. The land had been
sold by the Tacony Cottage Association, who sold the lots
along with others to build St. Vincent's Catholic German Orphanage.
Henry Disston, familiar with the area's transportation sources
and envisioning an area west of the railroad tracks ripe for
settlement of his workforce, chose in 1871 Tacony as the new
site of what was then known as Henry Disston and Sons. Henry
Disston eventually purchased 390 acres of land on both sides
of the railroad tracks, reserving for the new factory forty
acres between the railroad and the Delaware River.
The paternalism fostered in the Disston
Company was thrust on the new community of Tacony, where by
1876, forty-four twin and twelve row style homes had been
built west of the railroad tracks. Funds were set aside for
a park along Keystone Street, as school, independent water
works and a benefits package for workers. Favorable terms
were available for workers to buy or rent homes. Deed restrictions
promoting a stable, family-oriented atmosphere were incorporated
into lot sales. Funds were made available and land donated
for churches, a music hall, library, and scientific society.
These practices were reinforced and perpetuates by Hamilton
Disston and his three brothers after the death of Henry Disston
in 1878. less than seven years after his Tacony land purchase.
The entire Laurel Street facility would
not be moved in its entirety to Tacony until 1899, attesting
to the size and scope of the company at this time. Hamilton
Disston became President of Henry Disston and Sons upon the
death of his father in 1878. Hamilton Disston was a likeable,
effective president; however, his interest in politics and
real estate often diverted his attention from the day-to-day
operations of the factory.
Because volunteer fire departments were
disbanded in 1870, Ham's social venue became on of Republican
politics. Besides using politics as a fruitful social outlet,
the firm was staunchly in favor of the protective tariff on
imported goods, and Hamilton was sure to make his Republican
allies aware of this. In 1875, he was the Ward Leader of the
City's 29th Ward, and helped one of his Northern Liberties
Volunteer Hose Company friends, John A. Loughridge, to the
post of Prothonotary to the Court of Common Pleas.
Upon the firm's move to Tacony, Hamilton
Disston struck up an immediate kinship with his cousin and
Disston land agent Thomas W. South. With Disston's assistance,
South became the local Magistrate in 1875 while doubling as
the real estate agent for the properties within the Disston
Estate. Because South lived in Tacony, and Hamilton resided
near his father on North Broad Street, South virtually oversaw
the implementation of Henry Disston's orderly industrial village
at Tacony. As a result, South eventually wielded significant
power himself. If became common knowledge that nothing went
on in Tacony without the approval of Disston and South.
Although never elected to public office,
Hamilton Disston served for a time as the City's Fire Commissioner
and became the City's first Fairmount Park Commissioner in
the 1870's. It was during his tenure that Disston Park was
extended from Unruh Avenue south to what is now Levick Street.
He donated land charitably, including the plot where Tacony
Baptist Church was built in 1884 and expanded thirty-one years
later. At the firm, Hamilton incorporated the business in
1886, and stock was distributed among family members.
It became clear that Hamilton Disston
virtually controlled Republican nominations in the City during
the 1870's and 1880's. Early alliances with the City Gas Works
"Czar" James McManes as well as William Leeds, United
States Senator Matthew Quay, and David H. Lane reaped bountiful
political rewards, even enough to eventually help unseat McManes
over a disagreement about who would run for the the City's
Receiver of Taxes post. In addition to controlling Tacony's
water source, Hamilton Disston was the major investor in the
Tacony Fuel Gas Company when it formed in 1888. Ten years
later, the company was wholly owned by Henry Disston and Sons
after Jacob Disston bought the company outright.
Hamilton Disston's interest in real estate
extended well beyond his family's significant holdings in
Tacony and Atlantic City. Through his ever-expanding roster
of political allies, he was able to forge partnerships with
various power brokers including Samuel R. Shipley, President
of Provident Life and Trust Company, Thomas Scott, Jr., the
heir to the Pennsylvania Railroad fortune and United States
Senator Matthew Quay for the purposes of real estate investment.
It is generally understood that the inner workings of the
plant during Hamilton's tenure as President was left to his
Uncle Samuel and younger brothers. Ham's role was more ceremonial,
as in the time President Rutherford B. Hayes visited the plant.
Hamilton Disston reportedly showed the President a rough piece
of steel at the outset of the visit and less than forty-five
minutes later presented him with a finished saw emblazoned
with the President's name.
It is believed that Hamilton Disston's
first trip to Central Florida occurred in 1877. He became
fascinated with the possibility of reclaiming swamp land to
facilitate agricultural and possible residential development.
By 1879, he and some investor friends formed the Atlantic
and Gulf Coast Canal and Okeechobee Land Company to work on
the drainage of the upper portions of the Everglades. Although
railroad had begun to open up new areas of Florida development,
Civil War debt had left he state in dire financial shape and
would be unable to oversee any railroad development until
the 1890's. The drainage contract called for the reclamation
of some twelve million acres of land, which would be deeded
in plots beginning after the reclamation of the first 200,000
acres alternately to the State and the Land Company, which
issued 600,000 shares of stock at $10.00 per share.
This contract received immediate attention
nationwide and the Florida land boom began. The New York Times
reported on February 18, 1881:
The reclamation of 12,000,000 acres of
land, or one-third of the States of the Union, has been undertaken
by a company of Philadelphia gentleman with every prospect
of success...The project of reclaiming this wonderfully rich
country has been talked of for years, and it has long been
considered feasible by many noted engineers...The leading
man in this enterprise is Hamilton Disston, a young gentleman
of great business energy and ample fortune, and present head
of the great saw-manufacturing firm of Henry Disston &
Sons.
In June, 1881, Hamilton Disston purchased
four million acres of land from the State of Florida, promptly
bailing the state out of its debt and becoming the largest
single land owner in the United States at the time. Disston
also developed railroad interests and bought half-interest
in the St. Cloud Sugar Plantation formed on reclaimed land.
Towns such as Kissimmee City, Southport, Narcoosee, and Runnymede
sprung up on reclaimed land.
It was estimated that by 1893, Disston's
Land Company had conveyed nearly 1.2 million acres of land
and the level or Lake Okeechobee had been lowered 4 1/2 feet.
By that time, additional towns such as St. Cloud, Tarpon Springs,
Fort Myers, and Anolote among others in Pinellas County were
formed. Disston's search for a resort town led to the founding
of Disston City, on the Boca Ciega Bay, today's Gulfport.
A Waldorf Hotel was built on its shores where a wharf extended
into the bay and a Mississippi paddleboat christened the "Mary
Disston" carried freight and passengers to and from the
Tampa Bay area.
By the mid-1890's, it began to appear
that Hamilton Disston's Florida investment may never reap
the benefits envisioned. Although substantial lands have been
reclaimed, more of Disston's acreage remained unclaimed than
claimed. The true cause may have less to do with Disston's
foresight and more to do with an ill-defined definition of
"swamp and overflowed" land as established in the
Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act of 1850. This Act allowed such
lands to be sold if they were deemed drainable for use in
agriculture. This definition applied to Disston's surveyed
sections of land and created whereby some of the land would
never be suitable for development, agricultural or otherwise.
In addition, overdrainage in some areas led to more severe
drainage problems in other areas.
Other problems plagued Hamilton Disston
at this time. A business-friendly bounty of two cents per
pound instituted in 1890 to assist the domestic production
of sugar was removed by an unfriendly Grover Cleveland administration
in 1894. This factor, combined with a nationwide economic
panic of 1893 and severe freezes in 1894 and 1895 which devastated
Florida's citrus industry, created cash flow problems at the
Florida Sugar Manufacturing Company. Land prices plummeted
as a result which did not bode well for Disston's interests.
Also to Disston's disadvantage was the fact that the new railroad
constructed by Peter Demens in the interior of the state stopped
at downtown St. Petersburg and did not extend to Disston City.
Many businesses moved from Disston City to St. Petersburg
as a result, and by 1905 it's name was changed to Veterans
City in an attempt to lure aging Civil War veterans. By 1910,
its name was changed to Gulfport.
Back at the Saw Works, the firm was forced
to reduce wages as a result of the 1893 panic. A note of $1,000,000
drawn on the business which was due on Hamilton Disston's
Florida investments painted a bleak economic picture by 1895.
It was becoming increasingly evident that Disston's concept
of canals and steamboats was becoming outmoded as the railroad's
ever increasing presence opened up more and more parts of
Central Florida. Many of Disston's investors would never see
their anticipated returns.
Although Hamilton Disston was widely
credited for bailing Florida out of tremendous debt, few reminders
remain today of his far reaching influence. Gulfport Junior
High changed its name to Disston Junior High before closing
in the late 1970's. The area of St. Petersburg known as Disston
Heights has an elevation of forty to sixty feet and is centered
at 49th Street, formerly Disston Boulevard. The Disston Community
today boasts an active 250-member civic association, a large
shopping center, and at least a handful of businesses with
Disston in it's name. The 150,000 acres on the Pinellas Peninsula
founded by Disston is the county's highest ground, the modern-day
destination for residents in lower lying areas in times of
a hurricane.
It is widely accepted that the underlying
reason behind Hamilton Disston's untimely death was his anguish
over the economic implications of the ill-fated Florida investments.
Confusion abounds, even to this day, surrounding the physical
cause of his death, which occurred on April 30, 1896. Although
there were no eyewitnesses, on Philadelphia newspaper and
a distant nephew of Disston reported Hamilton's death a suicide
in his bathtub with a single gunshot. All other newspapers
across the country reported that he dies at home of a heart
attack. An acquaintance of Disston's, Alfred Chandler, confirmed
this in his book, Land Titles and Fraud. The official coroner's
report read that Disston died, "...by natural causes,
probably a weakened heart."
Upon the death of Hamilton Disston, his
brother William took over the Saw Works and promptly borrowed
the $1,000,000 from friend James Stokesburg of J.P. Morgan
to pay off Hamilton's Florida debt. Short-term case flow problems
persisted at the factory, but recovery and further expansion
would occur by the turn of the century. Hamilton Disston's
estate was divided between his wife and three sons, Henry,
Frank, and Albert. Twenty-seven years after his death, the
Hamilton Disston Elementary School was opened on land donated
by the Disston Family. Hamilton's brother William helped unveil
the stained glass windows and hand-painted auditorium murals
that make the building so unique.
In conclusion, the undeniable and
ubiquitous impact of the Disstons upon the Tacony community
is still alive nearly 150 years after the arrival of Thomas
Disston at his summer hamlet on the Delaware River. Their
deed restrictions in effect to this day have positively influenced
the quality of life in the community while the school and
recreation center erected in their memory still thrive with
the daily exuberance of Tacony's youth. In Central Florida,
Hamilton Disston is recognized as its savior and pioneer whose
vision paved the way for modern-day development. Imagine the
value of Disston's land holdings today in and near the Walt
Disney World Resort area. This exercise should bring into
sharp focus the true visionary that was Hamilton Disston.
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