Edward Erswell: Difference between revisions
(New page: '''Edward Erswell''' (born July 5, 1846 on the Atlantic crossing) was a carpenter and cabinet maker in early Birmingham. He was the son of Charles Erswell, a superintending ar...) |
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He was the son of Charles Erswell, a superintending architect who worked for the United States government. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and attended public schools there before going on to Baldwin University in Berea, Ohio. He left school after six months, though, to join a wagon train crossing the plains. He made it as far as Fort Kearney, Nebraska before sickness forced him to return east. He pursued a variety of activities over the next several years, including stock trading, book sales, patent medicines, and some time at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. | He was the son of Charles Erswell, a superintending architect who worked for the United States government. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and attended public schools there before going on to Baldwin University in Berea, Ohio. He left school after six months, though, to join a wagon train crossing the plains. He made it as far as Fort Kearney, Nebraska before sickness forced him to return east. He pursued a variety of activities over the next several years, including stock trading, book sales, patent medicines, and some time at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. | ||
He then settled on the trade of cabinet and furniture making and went into business in Winchester, Virginia. When his partner left him, Erswell began working with a touring stage magician from Baltimore, Maryland named "Professor Collins". The tour prospered and Erswell received permission from the United States government to "secure a party of Indians" from the west to exhibit at fairs in the south. | |||
Erswell came to the infant city of [[Birmingham]] in the Spring of [[1872]] and set up shop as a cabinet builder. His first job was the construction of a stage and equipment for [[Frank O'Brien]]'s [[Sublett Hall]]. He remained in the city through the [[1873 cholera epidemic]] and was engaged primarily during that time in building coffins for the victims. | |||
Over the following years, Erswell invested successfully in real estate. He and his wife, the former [[Katie Erswell|Katie Smith]], had four children, one of whom died in childhood. | |||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
* {{Dubose-1887}} | * {{Dubose-1887}} | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erswell, Edward}} | |||
[[Category:1846 births]] | |||
[[Category:Carpenters]] | |||
[[Category:Oddfellows]] | |||
Revision as of 11:01, 1 August 2014
Edward Erswell (born July 5, 1846 on the Atlantic crossing) was a carpenter and cabinet maker in early Birmingham.
He was the son of Charles Erswell, a superintending architect who worked for the United States government. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and attended public schools there before going on to Baldwin University in Berea, Ohio. He left school after six months, though, to join a wagon train crossing the plains. He made it as far as Fort Kearney, Nebraska before sickness forced him to return east. He pursued a variety of activities over the next several years, including stock trading, book sales, patent medicines, and some time at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
He then settled on the trade of cabinet and furniture making and went into business in Winchester, Virginia. When his partner left him, Erswell began working with a touring stage magician from Baltimore, Maryland named "Professor Collins". The tour prospered and Erswell received permission from the United States government to "secure a party of Indians" from the west to exhibit at fairs in the south.
Erswell came to the infant city of Birmingham in the Spring of 1872 and set up shop as a cabinet builder. His first job was the construction of a stage and equipment for Frank O'Brien's Sublett Hall. He remained in the city through the 1873 cholera epidemic and was engaged primarily during that time in building coffins for the victims.
Over the following years, Erswell invested successfully in real estate. He and his wife, the former Katie Smith, had four children, one of whom died in childhood.
References
- Dubose, John Witherspoon (1887) Jefferson County and Birmingham, Alabama: Historical and Biographical Birmingham: Teeple & Smith, Publishers; Caldwell Printing Works.