There was a time when entrepreneurs built railroads and steam engines and ran general stores, enterprises that had benefits for people and made money as well. Following is the story of an entrepreneur ”“ the way they used to make them ”“ a man unique even in his time.
Frank Bannerman arrived in the U.S. from Scotland in 1854, at the age of 3. Early on the boy exhibited an entrepreneurial knack. At age 10 he began taking a position on the Gowanus Canal in order to snag with a grappling hook whatever resalable items he could retrieve from the many sailing ships that passed by. It was Bannerman”™s way to build on his father”™s business, which was buying government surplus equipment at the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In spite of occasional criticisms of his livelihood, Bannerman saw himself as a sincere Christian, even though some called him the merchant of death as his empire expanded. Nonetheless, he was a paragon of 19th century capitalism. By the time he was 20 he was “Francis Bannerman VI, Second Hand Munitions Merchant.”
The Bannerman story
A recent benefit to support the Bannerman Castle Trust gave substance to the improbable story of Bannerman. Dinner on the lawn between the ruins of the Bannerman Castle and the small castle that was his home seemed like a modern-day fairy tale. The reason Bannerman constructed such a bizarre building was both whimsical and yet quite practical.
To help the reader understand how a Scottish castle on an island in the Hudson River became a munitions storage house, more background is required. As Bannerman”™s munitions collection outgrew his location on Broadway in downtown Manhattan he rented three huge warehouses in Brooklyn. By this time he had acquired large stocks of surplus arms after Appomattox, thousands of Civil War carbines, 90 percent of the captured hardware from the Spanish-American War, his greatest coup. That doesn”™t begin to describe the scope of his collection and the global nature of his distribution system.
At the outbreak of World War I Bannerman outfitted the British regiments at his own expense before the U.S. had even entered the fray, a nod to his Scottish heritage. Early on he would melt some of his purchases for metal resale but soon realized their value was greater in their original form. Many of his purchases were of museum quality. As a result his storefronts on Broadway became de facto museums of military history. But he also dealt in less lethal ware, supplying surplus military uniforms to bands, fire departments and patriotic organizations.
However, when New York City authorities learned he was storing black powder in his lower Manhattan warehouse he was requested to find another location forthwith. His search led him up the Hudson River where he came upon and promptly purchased what was then known as Pollepel Island, located below Beacon. He promptly commenced the construction of the castle that would become an arsenal and a small castle in which his family would live for nearly 20 years.
Following the departure of the family the castle fell into severe decay. In 1967, just after the island was sold to the Taconic State Park commission, a monumental fire broke out destroying the castle and the home. Only the walls remained and they are falling on a regular basis. The Bannerman Castle, an implausible American treasure, what”™s left of it, should be preserved.
”˜The Crash Course”™
It is tempting to be nostalgic about the entrepreneurial spirit of Frank Bannerman, the material which inspired him notwithstanding. However, as we come to the end of the Oil Age, the opportunities for entrepreneurial creativity are as vast as any that came before the onset of it. But we need to be reminded that technology is not energy and energy is what we need to focus on today.
In the last two weeks I have viewed a series called “The Crash Course” by Chris Martenson that details not only facts about insecurity in the energy supply but the exponential rise in debt at all levels, from the federal government right down to private citizens.
The nation”™s food system and access to all natural resources are in disarray. The series is on the web ”“Â WWW.ChrisMartenson.com ”“ a highly important background for anyone in business as well as private citizens. This is a picture of where the nation is in terms of numbers, not political rhetoric.
Where are those entrepreneurs who can help us out of the big hole we have dug for ourselves?
Surviving the Future explores a wide range of subjects to assist businesses in adapting to a new energy age. Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at maureenmorgan10@verizon.net.
