The first steel pens manufactured in America were made in 1858 by Richard Esterbrook, a Cornish Quaker from England. He traveled to the United States and set up shop as 'The Steel Pen Manufacturing Company.' In 1858 he estabished himself as the sole pen manufacturer in the U.S.A. He named the company 'The Esterbrook Steel Pen Manufacturing Company.' Esterbrook pens are made of superior quality ore, purified and refined. The manufacturing process has made the company one of the great pen producers of the world.