Eska Company ⇒ 1980± a subsidiary of Talley Industries (Mesa, Arizona) ⇒ OoB 1986 

Lavern Kascel and Bud Essman formed the ESKA Company in 1945.  The name of the company was created from the first two letters of Essman and the first two letters of Kasel.  William A. Wright, Jr. joined the company and by the early 1960’s had developed a small inexpensive fishing motor.

The Eska Outboard motor was manufactured from 1961 to 1987 in Dubuque, Iowa.  Motors were sold under numerous brand names.  Most all Department Stores, Hardware Stores and some Auto Parts Stores sold these outboards, at one time or another.  Some were sold under the Eska name and some under a private brand.   The Power Heads were all manufactured by Tecumseh (Tec) Engines.  These Power Heads were all Air Cooled, except the 9.9 through 15 horsepower Twin Cylinders.  Most all of the Eska outboards had water cooled exhaust columns using “ram tubes” just aft of the propellers (small engines) or rubber impeller pumps (larger engines).

Many Eska outboards used common ignition and carburetor vendors for that period.  Thus, many tune-up parts remained available long after the model’s obsolescence.  However, hard core parts for these outboards are getting more difficult to find as time goes on.

In 1970, Wright and his partners sold The Eska Company to Ξ?Ξ.

In 1980 Eska, by then a subsidiary of Talley Industries of Mesa, Arizona, purchased the Clinton outboard motor product line from the Clinton Engines Corp. The purchase was to consolidate area manufacturers to maintain a strong hold on the market which had dropped due to the lagging economy.  Some later engines were built by Tanaka of Japan.

Eska Outboard Motors went out of production in 1986.  Engines continued being marketed with the 1986 model numbers until stocks were exhausted in 1987.

More from www.discount-marine-parts.com.

Like most air cooled outboard motors lacking running temperature regulation, the smaller Eska motors required almost constant re-adjustment of the fuel mixture jets to run smoothly.  This was a common inconvenience especially during low speed trolling.

History

Frederick Ertl and his Toy Tractors

Until the mid-1950s, Frederick ERTL worked in the die-cast department of the JOHN DEERE DUBUQUE WORKS.  He bought a small, used die-casting machine, which he installed in his garage on Asbury Road and made the small die cast parts for model tractor toys (not the riding pedal versions that came later) for ESKA.  ESKA sold these to the toy industry as well as to farm implement dealers. In these early years, ESKA manufactured the first die cast pedal tractors.

ESKA planned to provide Ertl farm toys to companies with the ordering company’s original equipment manufacturer’s logo.  Under an agreement of the three men, Ertl products were delivered to ESKA which then shipped them. Another agreement was that Ertl made tractors and ESKA manufactured implements, but not tractors.

The agreement continued until 1948 when ESKA began producing steel-stamped farm implements in its factory at 32nd and White. In 1950-51, Carter Tu-Scale took over the ESKA manufacturing operation and moved it from Dubuque to Rockford, Illinois. The acquisition allowed Carter Tru-Scale to expand its farm toy production under the Carter Tru-Scale and ESKA brands.  When Ertl discontinued the production of large sand-cast riding, or pedal, tractors, ESKA gained another product. ESKA made several varieties of John Deere pedal tractors and trailers.  In 1950 Eska also made cardboard farm buildings.

Bud Essman sold out to Lavern Kascel sometime around 1955.  Around 1960, William A. Wright, Jr. (Vice President of Manufacturing) and Luke Sapan of Long Island, NY (Vice President of Sales) each bought 1/3 of Lavern Kascel’s shares and the three became equal partners in The ESKA Company.

At around the same time, ESKA, which had begun manufacturing lawn mowers and chain saws in the mid-1950s, added the Eska Sno-Flyr snowblowers to its line and lost interest in the toy industry.  In 1960-61 Ertl obtained Eska’s toy licensing rights for John Deere, International Harvester, Case, Oliver, and Allis Chalmers.

From Encyclopedia Dubuque.

William A. WRIGHT, Jr.

William A. Wright, Jr. who passed away in 2012, made a big impact on fishing.

Born in Maryland, Wright moved to Dubuque, Iowa in 1950, following a stint in the Army Air Corps and a few years of college, where he studied engineering. He worked for two years at Dubuque Stamping and Manufacturing, then earned an economics degree at University of Dubuque.

He began work at The Eska Company and, within a few years, became a partner.  Among his work were innovations for lawn mowers and snow blowers.  With that technical expertise — and an interest in fishing — Wright developed an affordable outboard motor by mounting a small, air-cooled lawn mower engine onto an old Evinrude lower unit.

By the early 1960s, the product had become fine-tuned enough to market. Fishermen were the primary audience for the 3.5 hp and 5 hp models, the latter selling for $99.  When 1,000 were sold in the first two weeks, the company knew it had a winner.

Eska outboards eventually became the world’s best-selling motors under 10 hp, thanks in part to Sears Roebuck & Co., their largest distributor.  Eska also sold engines through several other retailers and under dozens of other brand names, which are listed further down this page.

In the early 1970s, baseball Hall of Famer and Sears spokesman Ted Williams paid a visit to Dubuque to honor Wright and the Eska team with The Sears Award of Excellence in manufacturing.

From Encyclopedia Dubuque.