Henry F. Willson was an inventor who patented, and may have manufactured, a reciprocating cross-cut saw intended for cutting firewood. The patent was issued in 1857 and was jointly assigned to Willson and Henry B. West. The saw was exhibited at that year's Ohio State Fair, where it was awarded a diploma.

The following year, Willson and West were jointly granted a patent for a sewing machine. The firm of West & Willson Manufacturing Co. briefly manufactured a double-needle version of their design. When the U.S. Civil War began, Willson became Captain of Company I in the Eighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. After the war, Willson received patents related to carriages, wagons and horse tack; a sewing machine; and a grain scoop.

Information Sources

• Patent records provide much of the information given here.
• Fifth Annual Report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, 1857. "A reciprocating cross-cut saw, was exhibited by H. F. Wilson, of Elyria, Ohio. It may be made useful, and we therefore give it a diploma."
• An ad in the 1 July 1860 Ohio Cultivator gives the company name as West & Wilson Manufacturing Co., and report that they had acquired the patent rights to the West & Wilson sewing machine.
• The Sewing Machine: Its Invention and Development, by Grace Rogers Cooper, 1976, mentions this maker and has a photograph of a West & Willson double-thread sewing machine from the Smithsonian collection.