Henry Warrington (1817-1904), Founder of Vulcan Iron Works

Henry Warrington was originally from Manchester, England, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1842. He came to Chicago and worked as the shop foreman in the boiler shop of James W. Cobbs, whose plant was located at Canal and Kinzie Streets. In 1852, he founded what ultimately became the Vulcan Iron Works Inc. This is the same year that Marshall Fields was founded in Chicago, making Vulcan one of the pioneer companies in the Chicago area.

In the beginning, the company was known as the Vulcan Foundry. The factory was then located at 83 Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, IL. In the early years, the principal products produced by the company encompassed many and varied items ranging from sewer covers and lamp posts to plough shares and drop pile hammers. Henry Warrington operated the company as a sole proprietorship from 1852 until 1864 when he decided to retire. Upon retirement he disposed of his interest to a firm known as Atkins and Burgess who operated the company from 1864 until 1876.

In 1876 Atkins and Burgess went bankrupt and sold the company to O.B. Green. During O.B. Green's tenure, the operation proved unprofitable so he decided to sell the company.

Henry Warrington and his wife Isabella MacArthur Warrington (1822-1904) had three sons, William Henry, George and James Nelson Warrington, who survived to full adulthood. They decided to buy the company from O.B. Green, which they did in 1881. On 12 December 1881 they incorporated the company in the State of Illinois. They issued five hundred shares at $100 per share for an initial capitalisation of $50,000. William H. Warrington held 498 of those shares, with the other two brothers holding one shares each. The first shareholders meeting took place 0900 24 December 1881 at the relocated plant at 86 North Clinton Street and 59 Milwaukee Avenue (same location). This corporation survived continuously until it was merged into the "Tennessee Corporation" created by Cari Capital in 1996.

The new corporation continued and expanded on the business of the old, with a varied product line. Sometimes things didn't turn out as planned with non-pile driving equipment, as was the case with the Caldwell Snow Plough.

Below: The Clinton Street/Milwaukee Avenue facility, with machine shop and foundry. The photo on the right is unusual in that it was scanned directly from the glass negative.

The 1903 Supplement to the Directory to the Iron and Steel Works of The United States (issued by the American Iron and Steel Association) listed Vulcan Iron Works as follows:

Vulcan Iron works, (Incorporated,) 59 Milwaukee Ave., Chigago. Product, light iron and steel engine and machinery forgings and heavy iron and steel forgings for hammered shafting up to 6 inches, crank shafts, connecting rods, etc. Also make pile drivers, dredging, bridge, and ice machinery, etc.

Next: The First Pile Hammers