The Fort Madison jeweler whose lever-fill fountain pen built a world-famous Iowa writing-instrument company.
Walter A. Sheaffer, a jeweler in Fort Madison, Iowa, patented a reliable lever-filling mechanism for fountain pens and founded the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company there in 1912.
Sheaffer pens became known for quality and innovation — including early lifetime guarantees and the white-dot mark — and made Fort Madison a center of American pen manufacturing for generations.
Sheaffer turned a small Mississippi River town into a household name in fine pens, employing generations of Fort Madison workers. The Sheaffer brand endures worldwide.
The family's civic and philanthropic mark on Fort Madison remains.
The Fort Madison jeweler whose lever-fill fountain pen built a world-famous Iowa writing-instrument company.
W. A. Sheaffer was from Fort Madison, Iowa.
1867–1946.
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