Essington, Charles K.

Located in Milesburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, the axe and edge tool works of C.K. Essington were started by Caleb Kephart Essington in 1841 in conjunction with Archibald McMullin in 1841. Essington had previously worked as a “hammerer” and the iron foundry of General Samuel Miles, the man Milesburg was named after. In 1851, McMullin left the company to follow business interests in the west, leaving Essington as sole proprietor. During the 1870s Caleb Kephart Essington turned the axe making business there in Milesburg over to his son Charles Kephart Essington (often noted as C.K. Essington Jr) who ran the business as “C.K. Essington and Company” and for a time “Holmes and Essington”. The factory burned down in 1881 but was fully covered by insurance and seems to have been rebuilt and run at least until 1881. Charles K. Essington died on February 5th of 1890.