Prior to 1871, Henry J. Cordesman (then going by Harry J. Cordesman, Jr.) and brother Clemens A. Cordesman were working for their father, Harry J. Cordesman, who owned a foundry and machine shop. In 1871 or 1874, depending on which source you believe, the brothers established the firm of Cordesman & Bro. to make woodworking machinery. In 1875 they were joined by 28 year old Thomas P. Egan, a skilled designer who had been at Steptoe, McFarlan & Co.. (Egan maintained a cordial relationship with his former employer: when John Steptoe died in 1890, Egan was the executor of his will.) The firm's name became Cordesman, Egan & Co. The company incorporated in 1882 as Cordesman & Egan Co. In 1884 Henry sold his interest (so far as we know, his brother had long before sold his interest) and the firm became The Egan Co. In 1893 that firm merged with its crosstown rival, J. A. Fay & Co. to create the behemoth J. A. Fay & Egan Co.

Ad from November 1883 "Carpentry and Building"

In 1886, two years after selling his interest in Cordesman, Egan & Co., Henry J. Cordesman established Cordesman Machine Co.

Information Sources

• A posting by Mike Burian about the first J. A. Fay & Egan Co. catalog mentions the catalog's claim that the Egan Co. was founded in 1874. That date denotes one of the two supposed founding dates for Cordesman & Bro.
• First appearance in the city directory is 1875; it was not there in 1873.
• 1877 catalog, 20 pages long.
• The Sept. 2, 1882 issue of Furniture Gazette carried the following news item:

  The well-known manufacturers of woodworking machinery, Messrs. Cordesman,Egan, & Co., of Cincinnati, U.S.A., have organised a stock company, called the Cordesman & Egan Company, all the members of the late firm being represented. The facilities have been largely increased, and many new standard tools and improvements introduced. The new company occupy newly-erected buildings at Nos. 234 to 250, West Front-street, Cincinnati.

• An 1883 Supreme Court decision, J. A. Fay and Company v. Cordesman Brothers, provided the name of the two brothers. The lawsuit related to the John Richards scrollsaw patent of 1862.
• Articles in November 1883 and January 1884 issues of Manufacturer & Builder. An article in the September 1884 issue refers to "The Egan Co., successors to the Cordesman & Egan Co."
• Batory's first book, Vintage Woodworking Machinery Volume I elides Cordesman, Egan & Co. in his history of Fay & Egan, referring only to the Egan Co.
• Mike Burian reports this sentence from the introduction of an undated Egan Co. catalog: "Thanking our patrons who have so liberally favored us in the past, as CORDESMAN, EGAN & CO., THE CORDESMAN & EGAN CO., and lately THE EGAN COMPANY..."
• The EAIA Directory of American Toolmakers has a listing for this firm: "The company made a jigsaw with a 21 Feb. 1874 (invalid) patent date." See patent 147,913 (24 Feb 1874) for the most likely match.
• A January 1919 obituary of Henry J. Cordesman provides some of the key dates.
• Used-machinery ad in a 1920 issue of "The Wood-Worker" from "Harry J. Cordesman". We believe that this was Henry J. Cordesman's son. There was yet another Harry J. Cordesman who was active in the book publishing business in the '30s and '40s.
• Carriage and Wagon Makers Machinery and Tools by Kenneth L. Cope, 2004 page 44