In 1884 Cordesman, Egan & Co. split into two companies, The Egan Co. and Cordesman Machine Co. Though their crosstown archrival J. A. Fay & Co. was bigger, The Egan Co. was an aggressive innovator, receiving a slew of patents over the next decade. Company president Thomas P. Egan was granted a healthy share of those patents.
In 1893, the Egan Co. merged with crosstown archrival J. A. Fay & Co. to form J. A. Fay & Egan Co. Thomas Egan became the president of the company.
Although J. A. Fay & Egan Co. was born in 1893, the two predecessor companies appear to have operated fairly independently for about a decade after the merger. The organizations continued to advertise separately and build machines separately, still carrying the old names.
For more information on the history of this company, a 1924 article that originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer is worth a read.
Information Sources
- Thanks to OWWMer Mike Burian for figuring out the transition from Cordesman, Egan & Co. to Egan Co., based on ads in February 1884 and July 1884 ads of "The Saw-Mill Gazette".
- See Dana Batory's first book for a history of this and related companies.
- Carriage and Wagon Makers Machinery and Tools by Kenneth L. Cope, 2004 page 85