Henry Hathorn started his foundry business in Mason City, IA in 1890. By 1905, he had moved to Grinnell, IA and by 1907, Chicago, IL. In 1908, he sold the rights to his Helve Hammer to the West Tire Setter Co. of Rochester, NY.

      “The foundry and machine business at Mason City, la., heretofore carried on in the name of H. W. Hathorn, will be continued by the Hathorn Foundry and Machine Company. The officers of the company are Wm. H. Hathorn, president; Chas. H. Edw. Hathorn, vice-president and Wm. H. Hathorn, secretary and treasurer. They propose to enlarge the business and consider the general outlook for the season exceedingly favorable. Among the company's products are the following: Cast iron columns. door plates. thresholds and lintels, steel I beams, channels and angles, iron stairs, sidewalk lights. fire escapes, balcony railings and brackets. coal hole covers, vault doors, rods, bolts, anchors, sash weights, shutter eyes and cresting, pulleys, boxes, shafting and hangers, brass castings and pattern making and manhole rings.” (Quote from 1902.)

Information Sources

• 1897-09-11 The Engineering and Mining Journal. "The entire stock of the Hathorn Foundry & Machine Company, Mason City, Ia., has been purchased by Mr. Hathorn, his former holdings being one-third. The business by established by Mr. Hathorn nine years ago, and since then different parties have held varying interests, all of which are now consolidated in the original founder of the company."
• 1904-01-23 The Improvement Bulletin. "Hathorn Foundry and Machine Co.—Prominent among the enterprising houses is the Hathorn Foundry and Machine Co. This house makes a superior brick dryer car, which has been placed in the local plants where it gives the best of satisfaction, as well as in yards elsewhere. They also make fire escapes in any style and general iron work. Their plant is kept busy on out of town work. Their hard hitting helve hammer has a high standing. They have recently opened an office at 152 Lake St., Chicago."
• 1910 book, History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, by J. H. Wheeler, excerpted from a biography of William H. Hathorn (son of our Henry W. Hathorn).

  ...Henry W. Hathorn was reared and educated in his native state [Wisconsin], and there he learned the trades of both carpenter and blacksmith. In 1879 he removed with his family to Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, making the overland trip with a team and covered wagon, and he located a short distance north of Clear Lake, where he erected a blacksmith shop, which served as the family abiding place until the completion of the regular dwelling house. Henry W. Hathorn successfully conducted his shop and also operated his farm, but finally he returned to Janesville, Wisconsin, in which city the subject of this sketch was born. In 1882 the family returned from Wisconsin to the home farm near Clear Lake, and there the father continued to reside until 1890, when he took up his residence in Mason City, where he founded and conducted a successful business, under the title of the Hathorn Foundry & Machine Company. With this substantial enterprise he continued to be actively identified until 1904, and it is now conducted under the title of the Vulcan Iron Works. In the year last mentioned Mr. Hathorn disposed of the business and removed to Grinnell, this state, whence he later went to the city of Chicago, and finally he removed from the great western metropolis to Rochester, New York, where he and his wife now maintain their home. There he is engaged in the manufacturing of a trip-hammer that was invented and patented by him and that has found a ready demand not only throughout the United States but also in foreign countries, owing to its superiority over the types formerly used. He has fine mechanical and inventive ability, and among a number of his valuable inventions may be mentioned a loop and strap for felt boots and the "Jumbo" windmill. His present industrial enterprise is conducted upon an extensive scale and is proving a splendid success...

• Pounding Out the Profits, 1997, pgs. 93-95
• The Improvement Bulletin, V25, 08 Feb, 1902, pg. 13