Henry Gildersleeve (shipbuilder)

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Henry Gildersleeve (c. 1817–1894), was a 19th-century American shipbuilder involved in the construction of 120 vessels of all types. He was born in Gildersleeve, Connecticut (now part of Portland, Connecticut), on April 7, 1817, in the family homestead on Indian Hill Avenue. He died of heart disease on April 9, 1894, in his residence that he built in 1853 on Main Street in Gildersleeve. At age 17, Gildersleeve left school and went to work in his father's shipyard. In 1842 he was taken into partnership with his father (Sylvester Gildersleeve) under the firm name of S. Gildersleeve & Son. Henry Gildersleeve was part owner of many of the larger ships and schooners built by the yard and amassed a considerable fortune during the times the American merchant marine was in its glory.^[1]