Carnegie Steel Co.

Allgemeines

FirmennameCarnegie Steel Co.
OrtssitzPittsburgh (Pa.)
Art des UnternehmensStahl-Konzern
AnmerkungenAnfangs "Carnegie, McCandless and Company" bzw. als spätere Gründung die "Edgar Thomson Steel Company", 1881 unter der Firma "Carnegie Brothers and Company" zusammengefaßt. Hier: die Angaben zu den Werken in Braddock. Siehe auch "Duquesne Works" (vorher "Duquesne Steel Company"), Stahlwerke in Homestead (seit 1883); danach als "Carnegie Steel Company Ltd." mit sieben Stahlwerken, die monatlich 140.000 t Roheisen und 100.000 t Stahlgußstücke produzierten und 25.000 Arbeiter beschäftigten. Seit 1901 "United Steel Corp.". Siehe auch "Carnegie Institute of Technology". Verkaufsleiter (1902): T. Guilford Smith (auch American Steel Co.).
Quellenangaben[Wikipedia (Internet 2005)] [Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917)]
Hinweise[Men of Buffalo (1902) 130]: T. Guilford Smith




Unternehmensgeschichte

Zeit Ereignis
1870 Andrew Carnegie wird klar, daß Stahl Eisen in der Produktion schwerer Güter ersetzen würde und errichtet seinen ersten Hochofen, der die von Bessemers entwickelten Ideen nutzt. Obwohl er mehrere Partner in sein Unternehmen bringt, besteht er immer darauf, die Mehrheit an seinen Unternehmen zu halten.
13.01.1873 Gründung der Aktiengesellschaft unter der Firma "Carnegie, McCandless & Company" mit einem Aktienkapital von 700.000,00, mit den Anteilseignern: Andrew Carnegie (250.000 der Aktien), William Coleman (100.000), Andrew Kloman (50.000), Henry Phipps (50.000), David McCandless (50.000), Wm. P. Shinn (50.000), John Scott (50.000), David A. Stewart (50.000 ) und Thomas Carnegie (50.000)
Anfang 1873 Der Schiffsanleger wird fertiggestellt.
13.04.1873 Beginn der Grundbauarbeiten. Die Arbeiten werden durch die Bauunternehmer Hughes und Messrs. Collins, Shoemaker, Syd
Perry und Thomas Cosgrove durchgeführt. Die Maurerarbeiten werden an Mr. Miller aus Bellevue vergeben, aber dieser Vertrag wird gekündigt und der Mitarbeiter Thomas Addenbrook übernimmt die volle Bauaufsicht. Die "McVay Walker Foundry" führt die kleineren Gußarbeiten durch.
12.10.1874 Im Versagen von Andrew Kloman, einem Mitglied der Ursprungsfirma, sehen seine Partner Gefahren für den bestehenden Vertrag, und demzufolge wird die Firma "Carnegie, McCandless & Company" aufgelöst in die "Edgar Thomson Steel Company, Limited", Kapital $1.000.000, welche das neue Werk für 631.250,43 erwirbt, mit einer angenommenen Tilgung darauf von 201.000. Unternehmensleitung: A. Carnegie, von "Carnegie, Bro. & Co.", 57 Broadway, New York; John Scott, Präsident, A. V. R. R. Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; D. McCandless, Vizepräsident, Exchange Nat. Bank, Pittsburgh, Pa.; D. A. Stewart, Präsident Pgh. Loco. & Car Works, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Thos. M. Carnegie, Finanzleiter, Keystone Bridge Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; H. Phipps, Jr., Finanzleiter, Lucy Furnace Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Wm. P. Shinn, Vizepräsident, A. V. R. R. Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Betriebsleiter: D. McCandless, Vorsitzender, John Scott, Thomas M. Carnegie, D. A. Stewart, Wm. P. Shinn, Sekretär und Finanzleiter; Leitende Betriebsbeamte: Wm. P. Shinn, General-Manager, Capt. Wm. R. Jones, General-Superintendent (geb. 23.02.1839 in Lucerne County, Pa., Lehre bei der "Crane Iron Co." in Catasauqua, dann "William Millens Machine Shop", Jeanesville, 1859 "Cambria Iron Works", Johnstown, bis 1873), Capt. Thos. H. Lapsly, Leiter des Schienenwalzwerks.
1875 Chas. E. Dinkey beginnt als Hammer-Junge in der Schmiede
26.08.1875 Inbetriebnahme der Stahlkonverteranlage für eine Kapazität von 225 tons pro Tag. Größe der Gebäude: Kupolofenhaus: 107 x 44 x 46 ft. hoch; Konverterhaus: 129 x 84 x 30 feet hoch; Gebläsemaschinenhaus: 54 x 48 x 36 ft. hoch; Kesselhaus: 178 x 40 x 18 ft. hoch. Zum Beheizen der Öfen wird künstlich hergestelltes Gas verwendet.
01.09.1875 Die erste Schiene wird gewalzt. Das Schienenwalzwerk hat die Abmessungen: 380 x 100 x 25 ft. Höhe, mit einem Flügel für das Blockwalzwerk von 100 x 35 x 17 ft. Höhe. Büro- und Werkstattgebäude: 200 x 60 x 18 ft. Höhe, mit einem Kohlen- und Eisengebäude von 40 x 20 x 10 ft. Höhe.
Sept. 1875 Es werden 1.119 t Schienen hergestellt, Preis: $57 pro Tonne. Sie werden für 80 pro Tonne verkauft, aber der Durchschnittspreis beträgt 66,50
1875 Der Gewinn bei der Schienenherstellung (ab 1. September) beträgt $41.970
1876 Das Werk walzt eine Schiene mit 90 ft. (= 27,45 m) Länge für die Weltausstellung in Philadelphia; die normale Länge beträgt 40 ft.
1876 Chas. E. Dinkey wird Lager-Angesteller
1876 Der Gewinn bei der Schienenherstellung beträgt 181.000. - Die Preise pro Tonne fielen von 1875 bis 1876 von 70 auf 58 (1873 noch 120 pro Tonne)
1877 Chas. E. Dinkey beginnt in der Maschinenwerkstatt
1877 Der Gewinn bei der Schienenherstellung beträgt $190.379. - Die Preise pro Tonne fielen von 1876 bis 1877 von 58 auf 45.
1878 Chas. E. Dinkey wird Bote unter Capt. Jones
1880 Aufstellung von zwei Brush-Bogenlichtdynamos in der Werkstatt des Hochofenbetriebs
04.01.1880 Das mit Holzkohle betriebene Hochofenwerk in Escanaba von Andrew Kloman, einer der ursprünglichen Partner, der versagt hatte, wird für $16.000 erworben und nach Braddock umgesetzt, wo daraus der alte 65 x 15 ft. -Hochofen "A." wird. Dieser wird am 4. Januar 1880 angeblasen. Er produziert 56 tons pro Tag mit ca. 2.650 pounds Koks auf 1 Tonne Eisen. Richard Stevens, der seit März 1875 im Unternehmen tätig ist, erhält die Position des neuen Maschinenmeisters der neuen Hochofenabteilung.
02.04.1880 Der Hochofen "B" wird angeblasen. Abmessungen: D= 20 ft, Höhe: 80 ft., acht Winderhitzern (sechs 75 x 20 und zwei 75 x 21 ft.; vmtl. für Hochofen B und C gemeinsam). Er produziert im ersten Jahr im Monatsdurchschnitt 5.500 t mit 2.570 Pfund Koks auf die Tonne Eisen.
06.11.1880 Der Hochofen "C" wird angeblasen. Abmessungen: D= 20 ft, Höhe: 80 ft., acht Winderhitzern (sechs 75 x 20 und zwei 75 x 21 ft.; vmtl. für Hochofen B und C gemeinsam). Seine Produktionsergebnisse sind ähnlich denen von Hochofen "B"
1881 Die "Carnegie, McCandless and Company" und die "Edgar Thomson Steel Company" werden in dem Unternehmen "Carnegie Brothers and Company" zusammengefaßt.
Jan. 1881 Wm. Pierce übernimmt die elektrische Abteilung
1881 Chas. E. Dinkey arbeitet bis 1896 im Zeichenbüro (1883 und 1887 in der Maschinenwerkstatt)
01.04.1881 Die "Carnegie Bros. & Co." erwerben ein Grundstück von 26 acres Größe von Wm. Martin und dessen Frau, wo das Stahlwerk im Offen-Herd-Verfahren entsteht und später die Gleise des Rangierbahnhofs der Union Railroad sind.
1881 Das Blockwalzwerk wird errichtet. - Es wird auf eine Größe von 36" erweitert.
1882 Bau eines Stahlwerks
1882 Aufstellung eines Bogenlichtdynamos für 45 Lampen beim Hochofen "A"; es ist die zweite Lichtanlage des Werks.
19.04.1882 Der Hochofen "D" wird angeblasen.
27.05.1882 Grundsteinlegung für das neue Verwaltungsgebäude
27.06.1882 Der Hochofen "E" wird angeblasen.
1883 Erwerbung der Stahlwerke in Homestead
07.10.1886 Der Hochofen "F" wird angeblasen.
1887 Bau eines neuen Walzwerks mit drei Walzengestellen mit jeweils 24"-Walzen und je einer Walzenzugmaschine. Das Gebäude ist 520 x 60 ft. (= 158,6 x 18,3 m) groß und hat einen rechten Flügel für dien Wärmeöfen. Die Walzenwerkstatt ist ein Flügel mit 60 x 60 ft. auf der Nordseite der Walzwerkshalle
20.06.1887 Der Hochofen "G" wird angeblasen.
31.12.1887 Beginn eines 4 1/2 monatigen Streiks, da das Unternehmen versucht, den 8-Stunden-Tag in einen 12-Stunden-Tag zu verändern. Außer der mechanischen Abteilung wird das Werk völlig stillgelegt.
12.05.1888 Ende des 4 1/2 monatigen Streiks. Das Rückgrat der Gewerkschaft (Union labour) ist gebrochen. Die Arbeiter akzeptieren den 12-Stunden-Tag, und es wird eine Lohngleitklausel in Abhängigkeit vom Verkaufspreis der Produkte eingeführt.
Sept. 1888 Der "Jones Mixer" geht in Betrieb. In ihm wird das Eisen aller Hochöfen gemischt.
Herbst 1889 Ãœbernahme des Duquesne-Bessemer-Schienenwalzwerks der "Allegheny Bessemer Steel Co." durch Carnegie
26.09.1889 Nachdem der Hochofen "C" seit 36 Stunden verstopft war, versucht Captain Jones in Gegenwart von Schwab, Gayley, Addenbrook und Anderen den Hochofen zu öffnen. Er wird durch herausspritzendes, flüssiges Eisen schwer verletzt.
28.09.1889 Captain Jones stirbt an seinen Verletzungen, die er sich beim Versuch, den Hochofen "C" zu öffnen, zugezogen hat, im Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital
1889 Charles M. Schwab wird Nachfolger des verstorbenen Captain Jones
1889 Das neue Walzwerk hat einen Ausstoß von 277.401 t Schienen.
27.03.1890 Der Hochofen "H" wird angeblasen
14.08.1890 Der Hochofen "I" wird angeblasen. Zu den Hochöfen H und I gehören sieben Winderhitzer je 78'6" x 21'. die Gießhäuser sind 54 x 180 ft. groß
1891 Aufstellung eines Wechselstromgenerators bis 75 k" und 60 Hz, getrieben durch eine Porter-Allen-Dampfmaschine, im Bereich des Kesselhauses
12.05.1891 "Carnegie Bros. & Co." kaufen 7 1/2 acres Land von John Dalzell. - Durt ist später überwiegend der Rangierbahnhof der Union Railroad Valley.
28.12.1891 Kauf von 12 acres Land von Wm. J. McKinney (dort später das O.H.-Werk)
1892 C. M. Toman übernimmt die elektrische Abteilung von Wm. Pierce.
01.07.1892 Bildung der "Carnegie Steel Company, Limited". Sie ist eine Verbindung von "Carnegie Brothers & Company, Limited" und "Carnegie, Phipps & Company". Das Kapital beträgt $25.000.000.
13.07.1892 Die "Carnegie Steel Company Limited" sichert sich 11 acres Land von Wm. F. Knox an der Hauptstrecke der Union Railroad und im Turtle Creek-Bezirk
01.10.1892 Der bisherige Betriebsleiter C. M. Schwab übernimmt die Leitung des Konzerns. Der bisherige Leiter des Hochofenbetriebs, James Gayley (geb. 1855 in Lock Haven, Studienabschluß als Bergingenieur am Lafyette College 1876), wird sein Nachfolger als Gesamt-Betriebsleiter. Seine Mitarbeiter sind: D. G. Kerr, Betriebsleiter Hochöfen; Rich. Stevens, M. M. Hochöfen; Thos. James, M. M. Stahlwerk; C. M. Tolman, Betriebsleiter elektr. Abteilung; John Noey, Betriebsleiter Kesselhaus; H. W. Benn, Betriebsleiter Stahlkonverter; Geo. Nimon und A. McWilliams, Zimmerei-Vorarbeiter; Thos. Cosgrove, Betriebsleiter Arbeit und Transport; Conser McClure, Walzenbau; C. C. Teeter, Büroleiter; Thos. Addenbrook, Leiter der Bauabteilung; D. L. Miller, Leiter des Schienenwalzwerks; Wm. Connor, Gießereileiter; G. E. Harris, Leiter der Endverarbeitung; Chefzeichner und Ingenieure: H. B. A. Reiser, E. E. Slick, F. DuPeyster Thompson und Jno. F. Lewis; Sekretär, James E. Mitchell.
11.07.1893 Die Gießerei Nr. 1 geht in Betrieb. - Sie stellt im restlichen Jahr 1893 t her.
19.03.1894 Die dritte und letzte Gießerei geht in Betrieb. Sie stellt Messing- und Bronzeguß her.
20.08.1895 Explosion des Hochofens "H" mit sechs Toten und acht Schwerverletzten (Verbrennungen). - In seinen neun Jahren Betriebszeit produzierte er über 1.000.000 tons Eisen mit einer einzigen Auskleidung.
1896 Die Einzylinder-Gebläsemaschinen der Hochofen "A, B und C" werden gegen Hochdruck-Verbundmaschinen mit Kondensation ausgetauscht.
1896/97 Ersatz der alten Röhrenkessel der Hochofenanlage A - C gegen Cahall-Wasserrohrkessel
1896 Chas. E. Dinkey wird Assistent des Mechnik-Meisters im Hochofenbereich
1897 Bau eines neuen Elektrizitätswerks mit einem 800-kW-Generator, einem mit 400 kW (aus der Gießerei umgesetzt), zwei 75-kW-Lichtmaschinen und einer 150-kW-Lichtmaschine.
1897 Die Einzylinder-Gebläsemaschinen der Hochöfen "D und E" werden gegen Hochdruck-Verbundmaschinen mit Kondensation ausgetauscht.
1897/98 Ersatz der alten Röhrenkessel der Hochofenanlage D - E gegen Cahall-Wasserrohrkessel
1897 Inbetriebnahme der ersten Weiss'schen Zentralkondensation (Gegenstromprinzip) am Kraftwerk. Solche Kondensatoren werden später in allen Dampfanlagen des Hochofen- und Walzwerks verwendet.
1897 Vereinigung der Laboratorien der Hochofenanlage und des Stahlwerks. C. B. Murray wird Chefchemiker
Aug. 1897 Hochofen "F" erhält einen automatischen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung. Es ist der erste in den USA. Seitdem müssen sich keine Arbeiter mehr auf der Gichtbühne aufhalten.
26.10.1897 Inbetriebnahme des Stellwerks der Union Railroad, und der erste Zug von North Bessemer trifft ein.
1898 Umbau des Blockwalzwerks. Es bleibt ein 40-inch-Werk
09.03.1898 Hochofen "B" erhält einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung, der erste in der Welt
01.08.1898 Der Konkursverwalter der "Duquesne Tube Works Company" verkauft deren Grundstück an Carnegie, der dort ein Walzwerk für Handelseisen errichtet.
04.12.1898 Hochofen "I" erhält als zweiter einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
1899 Bau des Konverterhauses für vier 15-Tonnen-Konverter durch die "Keystone Bridge Company". Das Gebäude hat die Abmessungen 165 x 78 1/2 feet und ist 31 feet hoch.
1899 Chas. E. Dinkey Mechnik-Meister im Hochofenbereich
28.03.1899 Hochofen "A" erhält als dritter einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
Juni 1899 Walz- und Hochofenwerk werden durch eine 24-inch-Dampfleitung miteinander verbunden. Die meisten kohlegefeuerten Kessel werden entfernt und Gasgefeuerte in Betrieb genommen.
26.09.1899 Hochofen "G" erhält als vierter einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
05.12.1900 Hochofen "E" erhält als fünfter einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
1901 Der Konzern geht an die "United Steel Group" über
1901 Als Carnegie sich 1901 zur Ruhe setzt, kann er sein Unternehmen für $250 (oder 350) Millionen verkaufen.
04.12.1901 Hochofen "D" erhält als sechster einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
1902 Ersatz der alten Röhrenkessel der Hochofenanlage H - I gegen Cahall-Wasserrohrkessel
1902/03 Ersatz der alten Röhrenkessel der Hochofenanlage J - K gegen Cahall-Wasserrohrkessel
08.01.1902 Anbau an die Kraftzentrale: Ein 800-kW-Gleichstromgenerator mit Doppelwicklung, angetrieben durch eine senkrechte Zweikurbel-Verbunddampfmaschine wird aufgestellt.
05.12.1902 Hochofen "K" wird angeblasen. Er erhält als siebter einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
1903 Chas. E. Dinkey wird Assistent des General-Superintendent
16.02.1903 Hochofen "J" wird angeblasen. Er erhält als achter und letzter einen elektrisch betriebenen Kippaufzug für die Begichtung.
31.03.1903 Unfall am Hochofen "I". Der Hochofen rutscht, und der Staubsammler bläst aus. Neun Personen werden getötet und fünf schwer verletzt.
01.06.1903 Chas. E. Dinkey wird Nachfolger von Thomas Morrison im mittlerweile zur "United States Steel Corporation" gehörenden Werk.
03.11.1903 Patentstreit mit "Gordon, Strobel & Laureau", Philadelphia, wegen deren Patent Nr. 358.604 (Schutz der Ausmauerung von Hochöfen durch Wasserkühlung)
1904-1905 James Gayley ist Präsident des "American Institute of Mining Engineers"
1905 James Gayley ist Präsident des Rats der Direktoren
13.11.1905 Die erste Gasmaschine, eine liegende Viertakt-Tandemmaschine von Westinghouse, geht in Betrieb. Sie wird mit Gichtgas betrieben. Zylindermaße: 21 1/2" x 30". Sie ist direkt mit einem 200-kW-Generator verbunden.
Dez. 1906 Aufstellung einer zweiten Gasmaschine für Gichtgas-Betrieb
01.12.1906 Inbetriebnahme einer Waggon-Entladebrücke
1907 Installation eines Wagenkippers
1907 Ãœberholung des Schienenwalzwerks Nr. 1
März 1907 Aufstellung einer dritten Gasmaschine für Gichtgas-Betrieb
14.07.1907 Eines der schlimmsten Hochwasser des Monongahela-Flusses mit einem Pegelstand von 34 ft. 6 inches
01.01.1908 Bei einer Explosion in der Stahlkonverteranlage kommen drei Menschen ums Leben und acht werden ernsthaft verletzt
1911 Ende der Amtszeit von James Gayley als Präsident des Rats der Direktoren




Produkte

Produkt ab Bem. bis Bem. Kommentar
Eisenbahnschinen 1875 Beginn      
Stahl 1870 1. Hochofen      




Betriebene Dampfmaschinen

Bezeichnung Bauzeit Hersteller
Walzenzugmaschine um 1875 McIntosh, Hemphill & Co.
Dampfmaschine um 1875 unbekannt
Dampfmaschine um 1875 unbekannt
Dampfgebläsemaschinen um 1880 McIntosh, Hemphill & Co.
Dampfpumpen um 1880 Worthington Pump and Machinery Corporation
Walzenzugmaschinen um 1887 unbekannt
Walzenzugmaschine um 1887 unbekannt
Walzenzugmaschine   unbekannt
Dampfmaschinen   The Buckeye Engine Company
Dampfgebläsemaschinen um 1890 Edw. P. Allis & Co., Reliance Works
Dampfmaschine um 1901 Edw. P. Allis & Co., Reliance Works




Firmen-Änderungen, Zusammenschüsse, Teilungen, Beteiligungen


Zeit = 1: Zeitpunkt unbekannt

Zeit Bezug Abfolge andere Firma Kommentar
1891 Nebenwerk danach Carnegie Steel Co., Duquesne Works  
1 Nebenwerk danach Lucy Furnace Company  
1 Nebenwerk danach Edgar Thomson Furnaces  




Allgemeines

THEMAVorgeschichte
TEXTBut the territory formerly known as Braddock's Field, now comprised in the boroughs of Braddock, North Braddock, and Rankin, has other claims to historic eminence, besides the Battle of the Monongahela, commonly called Braddock's Defeat. Here, on the banks of the Monongahela just below the mouth of Turtle Creek, stood John Frazier's cabin. Whether we consider the statement of Governor Dinwiddie, which fixes the date of the building of this cabin at 1742 or earlier, or accept a later date as some records seem to indicate, the fact is incontestible that Frazier was the first white settler anywhere in this region, west of the Alleghanies. The French made settlements at about this time on the shores of the lakes as far west as Detroit and Michilimackinac, but John Frazier was the first white man to build a cabin in the Monongahela valley. Braddock's Field again came into prominence at the time of the Whiskey Insurrection. On Friday, August 1, 1794, there were gathered on this field men from the four western counties of Pennsylvania to the number of eight thousand. These were the men who believed that the new internal revenue tax on whiskey was aimed at their chief industry and amounted to confiscation of their property. After a demonstration of
their strength in and by this assembly they returned quietly to their homes and later yielded peaceably to the government's demands. Again, in 1825, when the Marquis de La Fayette, who had assisted the colonists in gaining their Independence, made his return visit to this country as the "Guest of the Nation," after an absence of nearly
a half century, he was entertained here for one night, May 28, 1825, in the home of Mr. George Wallace. This house, later used for a young ladies' seminary, is in a good state of preservation and bids fair to stand for another century. It is now occupied by Mrs. Allen Kirkpatrick, a daughter of Mr. Geo. H. Bell, who acquired it from the Wallaces nearly eighty years ago. During the dark days of the Rebellion, Braddock's Field was again brought into public notice by the location here of Camp Copeland, a recruiting and training station for new enlistments.
The exact location of the Battle of Monongahela has been a matter of some controversy. The site of Frazier's cabin is definitely known. The spot where Braddock's army crossed the Monongahela is likewise clear beyond the shadow of a doubt. But the controversy has raged over the question of how far up the hill side the army advanced. The best information on the subject is to be had from two maps, or plans of the battle, made by Patrick MacKellar subsequent to the battle. Patrick MacKellar was the engineer with Braddock's expedition. It was his business to go ahead with the axemen and lay out the route. After the battle, he was asked by General Shirley to prepare a map of the ground.
He prepared two sketches, submitting them to the surviving officers of the expedition, by whom they were approved. Map No. 1, is entitled, "A sketch of the field of battle of July 9th, upon the Monongahela, seven miles from Fort Duquesne, shewing the disposition of troops when action began". The title of Map No. 2, is, "A sketch of the field of battle shewing the disposition of troops about 2 o'clock, when the whole of the mainbody had joined the advanced and working parties then beat (en) back from the ground they occupied as in plan No. 1."
Although these maps were known and used by Parkman and others, no serious attempt was ever made to reconcile them with the ground as it exists to-day until the year 1909. In that year, Mr. Sidney Dillon, then chief draftsman of the Edgar Thomson Works of the United States Steel Corporation, now chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Company, stimulated by some special researches made by Prof. John K. Lacock, of Havard University and Prof. Henry Temple, of Washington & Jefferson College, made a composite topographic chart, laying the MacKellar maps on the maps of the present boroughs of Braddock and North Braddock. Mr. Dillon also had access to the Carnegie McCandless Company's topographic outlines which showed contours of the bottom lands as they existed before ground was broken for the erection of the great steel mills and furnaces which cover much of the site.
Mr. Dillon's maps are regarded as authoritative. They carry the action somewhat farther up the hill, and a little to the west of the position the old residents were accustomed to regard as the main theater of battle. But there is nothing in recorded history inconsistent with the Dillon location ; while contours, time, and recorded references in journals and letters of the period harmonize remarkably well, even to minute detail with these maps. Especially is this true of Washington's statement that the advance line had proceeded "about six hundred perches" beyond the river
when attacked. The location of Braddock's spring, where the General was given a drink as he was being carried back from the fight adds weight to the argument.
Braddock community has a modern history to be proud of, as well as colonial. Here, within the borough limits of North Braddock, are located the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, among the greatest of their kind. These works were the first of the great Carnegie works, and have always been regarded as the foundation of the Carnegie fortunes. In Rankin are the McClintick-Marshall mills which recently demonstrated to the world their importance by making and installing all the locks in the Panama canal. Not less than seventeen huge blast furnaces and many open hearth furnaces, and many plants of less importance, but which in some localities would be deemed colossal, are found here. The Braddock library is the "oldest Carnegie Library in America", and the Carnegie Club, operated under the same management, has been and is a pioneer in welfare work for mill men, and a community center for every kind of philanthropic movement. Braddock banks have no equal in communities of this size. The mercantile interests are cared for by hundreds of stores, some of them large enough and doing a business sufficient to merit the title metropolitan. The several boroughs are well churched and well schooled. There are five main trunk line railroads and six distinct trolley lines, while the Monongahela river which touches all three boroughs of the community center carries a freightage greater than that of New York City, much of which originates here.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917)]


THEMAFrühe Geschichte und Pionier-Siedler
TEXTIn the early part of the eighteenth century the region along the Monongahela River near the junction of Turtle Creek was inhabited by Queen Alliquippa and her tribe, the Delawares. Her royal wigwam was located a short distance above the junction and here she ruled, with her tribe in complete and satisfied subjection to her authority. In 1742 John Frazier, his wife and family, came to this wilderness from the country near Philadelphia. Frazier, perceiving the junction of Turtle Creek with the river, thought it a suitable place to build a cabin, and accordingly Alliquippa not only gave him pel-mission to build, but also gave him a grant of several hundred acres of land. From historical and traditional stories concerning Frazier, there is no doubt of the fact that he was the first white settler west of the Alleghany Mountains. The site of this cabin has long since been obliterated by the great industrial plant, the Edgar Thomson Steel Works. Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, in his report at the Council and House of Burgesses of Virginia under date of Feb. 14, 1754 refers to this cabin as mentioned by Washington in his report of his
mission to the French constructing forts on the Ohio. Governor Dinwiddie states that Frazier had lived here upwards of twelve years. Also, Christopher Gist in his Journal says that he and Washington stayed there the night of Thursday, November 22, 1753, and again Sunday, December 30, and Monday, Dec. 31, 1753.
Washington had made a trip to Fort La Boeuf in the winter of 1753-54 and reported that the French were contemplating building other forts. Accordingly Governor Dinwiddie was convinced that inaction on his part would lose to the English the whole of the Ohio Valley. A council was held at Alexandria, Va., on April 4, 1755, which decided to
send an expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne, which was j\t the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio. General Edward Braddock who was commissioned General-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces in America, and who had arrived at Alexandria, Va., Feb. 20, 1755, was to lead the expedition, assisted by Virginia provincials under George Washington. After a long, tedious and laborious march, Braddock's troops arrived at the spot, where the town of Braddock now stands, on July 9 1755. They were marching along towards Fort Duquesne when
a heavy sharp fire of musketry was poured in upon them from an unseen for. The troops became panic stricken, and when Braddock was mortally wounded, Washington and his men covered the retreat, and carried the wounded general to a camp near the present city of Uniontown, where he died July 13, 1755. This conflict is known in history as Braddock's Defeat, and the territory where it occurred is Braddock's Field. In this conflict George Washington and his provincials were schooled in the arts of war which gave them the confidence in their prowess, that enabled them later successfully to throw olf the yoke of oppression and establish a nation which is now attracting the admiration and wonder of the world. Another time this territory figures in the history of the country was in what is known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The Scotch-Irish farmers west of the Alleghanies lacking a ready market for their surplus grain, found that they could dispose of their corn and rye, by distilling it into whiskey. In 1791, Congress, to increase the revenue, put a tax on the product, and the people refused to pay it, saying it was oppressive. The authorities decided the tax must be paid, if force had to be used, and on August 1, 1794, the insurgents met on Braddock's Field, thousands of them, distillers and their sympathizers, all ready for any act of violence. Governor
Mifflin being unable to quell the rebellion, President Washington declared the national government would. He called for troops from Pennsylvania and adjoining States and soon an army, fifteen thousand strong, was marching for the mountain barrier as Braddock and Forbes had marched years before. A show of force was enough and the insurgents yielded and there was no further trouble in collecting the tax.
George Wallace, Esq., of Pittsburgh purchased a tract of 328 acres of land from Peter Rowletter, Rowletter having gotten it from Captain Edmondstone, who signed the grant in the name of King George of England, Edmondstone at that time being commandant at Fort Pitt. The records show he was the last British commandant of Fort Pitt. This tract of
land called Braddock's Field was patented by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Wallace on the Fourth of March, 1791.
In 1804 Wallace built a country home on this grant which was known as the mansion and was occupied by Mr. Wallace and his wife. Mr. Wallace died and by the conditions of his will, at the death of his wife, the farm known as Braddock's Field was to go to his nephew, George Wallace. This said George Wallace became involved to the United States Bank, now the Bank of Pittsburgh, and the property was sold at sheriff's sale and purchased by the bank.
The farm and the Mansion were bought in 1846 by James W. Buchanan and George H. Bell, and the records show, "the said Buchanan by Articles of Agreement, between him and the said Geo. H. Bell, dated July 29, 1850, declared that he held the same for the use of himself and the said Bell, each being entitled to the undivided half thereof." The records further show that the part of Braddock's Field south of Braddock Street or the plank road was to be sold and any surplus, after meeting all balances, was to be equally divided. Of the part north of said line Bell should
have the land eastwardly of the Wilkinsburg Road, or the present Jones Avenue, and Buchanan the part westwardly of said road.
George Bell, his wife, Margaret, and his family took up a residence in the Mansion about 1848, when it was relinquished by the Wallace family, and it has since remained in this family, being occupied at the present time by George Bell's daughter, Mrs. Allen Kirpatrick, a most amiable woman, and her daughter, Mrs. David F. Collingwood and family. This house is historically noted, for in it, Judge Wallace entertained, on his final visit to the United States in 1825, the loyal and true friend of the colonists, the Marquis De Lafayette.
The southerly portion of the purchase was sold in different sized plots some as large as thirty acres. John Robinson bought a plot near the present Thirteenth Street on the northern side of the plank road on which he erected a large brick house in 1851-52, known as the "Robinson House," which was occupied by the family and was a noted hostelry during the Civil War. Other pioneers who located on this tract were Jacob Williams, Major Furlong and Matthew Lawler. Across the plank road located such sterling citizens as George Hunter; David Bradford; Neil Mclntyre ; Thomas Cook ; Edward Sweeney ; John Crum ; the Boyd sisters, Jane and Mary, and Samuel McCutcheon. In this same district just east of the present Eleventh St. on the plank road, located a colony of Germans, all having come from Alsace-Lorraine, composed of the Holtzman; Winkenbaugh; Schweinberg and Walters families. Mr. Holtzman came to
Braddock's Field in 1852. Later he married and on Oct. 4, 1856, the first child in the family was born, Lewis F., at the present living on Holland Avenue. He has spent his life in the town of his birth, holding many positions of trust, having been Justice of the Peace for more than a quarter of a century. He is a broad minded, liberal man taking a deep interest in everything that relates to the welfare of the community.
Mr. and Mrs. John Walters came to Braddock's Field about 1854. Mrs. Walters was known as "Granny Walters" to thousands of people of Braddock and the vicinity, and especially to the children, who knew her for her pleasing disposition and kind words. Two early settlers of worth who located near the others were Edward McCrady and wife, nee Rebecca Hamilton, known to the people of the new settlement as "Mother McCrady" for her kindness and hospitality. Their sons are the largest contracting firm in the district, known as McCrady Bros. A piece of ground on Talbot Avenue and Eleventh Street was bought by Wilkins Township, for the first school which was erected on the famous field, in 1858. From this school emanated many boys and girls who have become men and women of influence and power in the world. Adjoining the school property settled a man of gigantic stature and a unique character, W. W. McDowell, who with his two maiden sisters, Eliza and Mary, came from Green Springs, located across the Monongahela River, which was the center of activity in those days due to the coal mines developed there.
A pioneer riverman, Captain Wilson Packer, who had towed coal boats down the river for years, and whose tow boats later rendered the United States government valuable aid at the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Memphis, and Vicksburg, built himself a fine home, on the east side of Eleventh Street along the river, in 1853. Here the family resided until the death of the parents many years later.
In the early fifties, Matthew Henning, a man whose influence for good was far reaching and invaluable in the establishing of a new community, and William Redman, a man of remarkable judgment and very retiring disposition, both of the firm of Henning & Redman, who operated the coal works at Green Springs, bought a large tract of land extending from Eleventh Street to Redman's Lane, the present Ninth Street, and from the plank road to the river. Later they divided the land at the present Tenth Street, Mr. Henning taking the eastern section and Mr. Redman the western. In the fall of 1853 Mr. Henning with his refined Christian wife moved into the new home on Eleventh Street near the river, just opposite the Packer home, where they lived until their deaths having reared a large family of intelligent, useful children.
Mr. Redman lived in a home on Ninth Street near the river, where he with his wife, who before her marriage
was Ann Fawcett, raised a large family, many of whom are still among the leading citizens of Braddock. This lady will always be remembered by the people of the borough and vicinity as bright, intelligent, kind "Grandma Redman". She was only recently called to her reward at the venerable age of eighty-nine years. A member of this family, Charles, born in the Redman Homestead, June 27, 1854, is the oldest living native citizen of Braddock.
Some of the earliest settlers on this tract of land which had been converted into CHARLES REDMAN.
an orchard were Zachariah Brown, his brother Allan, and sister Mrs. Dietrich, who moved to the Fields from Turtle Creek in 1857, and still reside here; Samuel Hart, a Civil War Veteran, who was always ready to tell of his service for Uncle Sam in the true spirit of loyalty. His wife and he lived to be very old people and were highly respected citizens. A neighbor of Mr. Hart was Thomas Strathern, whose name is a precious memory to many Braddock people. He lived to a great age leaving behind a large family of the second and third generations to revere his memory.
In 1852 Martin Dowling and wife and family of fifteen came to the field from Green Springs and located on Braddock Avenue, near Tenth Street. Two of his daughters, Mrs. Katherine Eaton and Mrs. Eliza Holleran are still living in the same square where their father located. Mrs. Eaton is in her seventy-ninth year and remembers clearly and speaks accurately of the early period. She says, "When we moved to Braddock's Field in '52 there were only a few houses as there were only a few people in the territory. The houses I remember were the Wallace House, the Robinson House, which had just been completed; the Billy Smith Cottage, a brick dwelling which still stands on Braddock Avenue near Thirteenth Street ; the William Redman home on Ninth Street; the John Hughes home on the southeastern corner of Ninth Street and Talbot Avenue; the Thomas Fawcett home on the northeastern corner of said streets, he being Mrs. Ann Redman's father; a cottage close to the river near the Redman home, which was one of the Wallace farm houses, and was occupied by a family named Wagner; the Mills home, a small house near Eighth Street on Braddock Avenue occupied by John House, who operated the brick yard, located near the site of the present water works, which was
started by a man named Price in 1846; the house on Oak Street known as the Todd house, was one of the Wallace farm houses; the little fortlike house at the head of Eighth Street, where the State Bank now stands, was the lodge of the gate keeper on the Wallace farm. My father built a small four roomed house opposite the site of the St. Thomas Church. The fields were all used as farm land and the land toward Port Perry where the Edgar Thomson Steel Works now stands was a hickory grove where the children went nutting."
A man who added financial and social influence to the community was Dr. J. D. Schooley, who had for years almost the exclusive medical practice of the district. His homestead stood on Braddock Avenue just east of Ninth Street. His son Dr. A. W. Schooley succeeded his father and has had the esteem and confidence of the people of Braddock for
years. Dr. Linn and Dr. Maggini were prominent physicians in the early history of Braddock. A man of strong character and decision of purpose who came to this section in the days of the stage coach and who later by thrift and economy had large holdings was John Sherwin. James Petty was also one of the oldest citizens. He was one of the first of the "forty-niners" to drive a mule team from St. Joe to Sacramento. He was an ardent Republican and manifested great interest in the politics of the section. Edward Oskin and his sons and grand sons have fixed the
stamp of enterprise and thrift on the borough. James Berkey, David Antis, Charles Kelly, John Giles, Hugh and John Soles and Jacob Weber, the first shoemaker of the borough, were reliable energetic pioneers. Samuel Rothauff,
who located on Talbot Avenue at the foot of Tenth Street and raised a large family whose descendants are residents of the present borough, was one of the first settlers. The father-in-law of one of his grandsons, Mr. James Hanlon, is the oldest living resident of the borough at the present time, being ninety-one years old, May 4, 1917. Peter Seewald and Conrad Speidel were substantial citizens and keen business men. A man of wonderful energy and strict integrity was Hope Hand, who came from Port Perry in '63 and became one of the borough's reliable citizens.
The tract from Ninth Street to Eighth Street, and from Braddock Avenue to the river was bought by Reese and Berger. This was later occupied by such men as McVey and Walker, who started one of the first manufacturing plants in Braddock, the foundry, in 1865, which was active until about two years ago, when it was destroyed by fire; James Horton, a man of force of character ; William Me Adams, a man with a keen sense of right and duty and a very retiring disposition, who is still living at the advanced age of eighty-three years; T. W. Sharp, a faithful and zealous citizen, known to his fellow men as "Honest Tom" ; James McCleary, who came to Braddock's Field in 1855, a sincere, conscientious man, who enjoyed the respect and confidence of all classes, and when the borough was incorporated had the honor of being its first "Squire". His only son William, familiarly known as "Duke" was born here and has spent all his life here being one of our progressive citizens. H. M. Lytle was a successful business man showing an active interest in things that related to the betterment of conditions. John Ebner, who came to Braddock in 1866 direct from Germany, was one of our first butchers and was a reliable dealer. These sterling characters had the interests of the district at heart and when it became a borough gave of their time and energy to establish it on a firm foundation.
The portion from Eighth Street to Seventh Street and from the present Pennsylvania Railroad to the river was bought by Col. Parker, who built a colonial mansion, which was a land mark for half a century or more and was razed in 1912 to give place to the new government building, which is a very artistic, substantial structure and an ornament to the
district.
The plot from Seventh Street to Sixth Street and from the Pennsylvania Railroad to the river was bought by Lang and Miller. Later it was occupied by William Sarver, a stalwart man, who came here when the battle field was a farm, and helped to till the soil. He raised a large family. One son, William, who was born here Jan. 1, 1856, still lives
in the borough, having lived here all his life. A settler who is a man remarkable for his vitality and progressiveness at the age of eighty-seven is Joseph Walton, who lives here with his wife a few years his junior,
having come from Butler County. In a log cabin near Sixth Street on Braddock Avenue, Peter Baughman and his wife, Elizabeth, located in the early fifties and were known to people of the community as "Father and Mother Baughman."
In 1804 Steven Mills came with his family from Morristown, N. J., in the Conestoga Wagon, and located on the Troy Plantation, at what is now City Farm Station, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, building a log cabin, a few hundred yards west of the present site of Carrie Blast Furnace Plant, which stood there until about eighteen years ago. While living here Mr. Mills negotiated for the purchase of the "Petersburg Plantation," the boundaries of which were approximately a line starting at the Monongahela River at a point near the present foot of Sixth Street and Corey Avenue, thence to Coalmont Street, North Braddock, thence across the hill to Hannatown and thence down through Tassey Hollow south to the river. Before the consummation of the purchase Steven Mills died, and his oldest son, Isaac, completed the deal and obtained a title to the property from the Bank of the United States later the Bank
of Pittsburgh. After the purchase of this farm, Isaac Mills married Elizabeth, the daughter of Col. John Snodgrass, in 1833, and resided in a log cabin on the brow of the hill, between the present Fourth and Fifth Streets, overlooking the river. They lived in this house until 1847, when Isaac Mills Sr. began the erection of a new home near the site of the old one, which was completed in 1850, and which was the Mills Homestead until 1906, when it was purchased by the Braddock General Hospital Association, and is now the central one of a group of buildings known as
the Braddock General Hospital. Isaac Mills, Sr. and his esteemed wife took an active interest in the development of Braddock and vicinity. They were interested in the industrial, religious and civic life of the community. This man was one of the sturdy pioneers who were responsible for the laying out of the town of Braddock, and the incorporation of the borough and he was honored by being its first burgess. He was a man of great physical strength, a public spirited citizen, and a man true to his convictions. His interest in the affairs of the town and the welfare of its people continued throughout his very active life to the time of his death in 1879. His large family of children have taken an active part in the borough which their parents helped to create. Isaac, Jr. filled the office of burgess, Charles was the founder of the Braddock Daily News ; and Eliza was one of the instructors in the first schools of the district.
Other enterprising early residents whose achievements have added greatly to the material prosprity, social, political and moral influence of the community are: Captain Thos. Lapsley, who served in the struggle for the preservation of the Union, and his loyal wife; Jordon Fritzius, Sr., a man of strong convictions and courageous spirit ; Washington McClure, one of the old timers from Green Springs, who was a good humored citizen and an old time riverman. Jonathan Shallenberger and his devoted wife were esteemed citizens ; Henry his brother, is at present cashier of the State Bank of Braddock. William Gettys Holland and wife and family came to Braddock's Field in 1852 from Ohio. His son, Robert M., who married Jonathan Shallenberger's daughter, held many positions of trust in the
borough, and was a man of keen judgment. William, another son, was an honest business man of the district. Mrs. Sarah Holland McCune, his daughter, has always taken an active part in the growth and contributed to the advancement of the municipality. She attended school, before there was a public school building, when it was held in the basement of the Disciple Church at the head of Eleventh Street on Braddock Avenue. She completed her education in the two roomed school built on the present site of the Carnegie School. Later she taught in the schools for many
years, and many of the citizens hold as a treasure the influence of such a character as Mrs. S. E. McCune. She is still living and is a very young woman in looks and speech although in her seventy-eighth year. She came to Braddock's Field the same year Mrs. Eaton did and remembers the district at the time to be much as it has been described in this article. James A. Russell, an energetic and sagacious business man, was the leading undertaker and embalmer of the district for many years. John G. Dowler and his sons, Eli and Thomas, who came to Braddock in 1861, engaging in the lumber business, were substantial citizens and wise business men. C. C. Fawcett was a very influential and progressive citizen of Braddock for years, but a few years ago he went back to the original
Fawcett farm near McKeesport to live at ease. Margaret Bell, who was a teacher in the first schools of the locality, and by her teaching and influence did much to mold the character of the later citizens, endeared herself to all the early settlers. Walter Collins and his wife have lived here many years noting the remarkable changes in the surroundings. Philip Sharah, a man far advanced in years has lived here the greater part of his life and has always been pleased to note the progress. Alexander Dempster, was a most capable and efficient business man and by his
sagacity did much to promote the welfare of the district. Daniel McCain, a bridge builder by trade, came to Braddock about 1865, and reared a large, refined, cultured family who have contributed to the advancement of the section. John Benn was a large property holder and a man of power. William Fritzius, Thomas Cosgrove and Owen Sheekey were
progressive men who were always interested in the welfare of their fellow citizens. Mrs. B. L. Wood and her family located on a tract of land on Braddock Avenue extending east from Second Street and they became reliable citizens always ready to co-operate in any movement for advancement. Mrs. Boli came with her family from Port Perry and located on upper Second Street, where she still lives and is a very active, intelligent woman although in her eighty-eighth year. Thomas Addenbrook, a man who has always had the welfare of the community at heart, has been instrumental in bringing about many reforms that have been for the uplift of the people of the vicinity, and has for his wife the eldest daughter of Matthew Henning. She is no less interested, in the good of the people of Braddock, than her husband. The plot east of the Wilkinsburg Road held by George Bell was later occupied by his sons-in-law Joseph Anderson and Allen Kirkpatrick, highly respected citizens. On the west side of the road J. B. Corey bought
a part of the ground, held by James Buchanan, in 1865, coming from Port Perry. Here he, in his eighty-fifth year, and his venerable wife, in her eighty-third year, and his daughter Mrs. Weimer and her family live in a neat cozy house, just north of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He is a man of keenest intellect, wonderful energy, enduring perseverance, and temperate habits, and though he has passed so many mile stones these attributes are still an index to his daily record. It is interesting to note in this connection that Mr. Corey's granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth L. R. Weimer, is at present the very energetic President of the Braddock Red Cross, which is establishing an enviable record. Many influential people located in this district and contributed a great deal in energy and suggestion to the growth and welfare of the community. Of such we mention James Stewart and George Bayard who came to Braddock's Field in 1827 and 1836 respectively, and resided here for many years witnessing many changes; John Harrison, a pioneer resident, who lived here long before the timber was cleared away; John and Alexander McCaulley, who were in and around Braddock and saw it transformed from a wilderness to a thriving city; John Kolb, Sr., who came direct from Vienna to Braddock, in 1847, with, it has been told, only twenty-five cents in his pockets when he arrived, but by thrift and economy was able to accumulate considerable and was a highly respected citizen. Mr. Kolb's two sons, Emery and Ellsworth Kolb, Braddock boys, have recently won distinction by their explorations and moving pictures of
the Colorado canyon. Mrs. Barkley, known as "Black Bab", who had been a slave of Judge Wallace, and to whom he had given a tract of three acres off the west side of the Braddock Farm ; but neglecting to acquire the legal
papers for the dower, she eventually lost it, but continued to live in the little log house with her husband and family until her death; John Baldridge, a Westmoreland County boy, who was identified with some of the leading enterprises of the community; David Elliot, who inherited his grandfather, David Soles's, farm, and to a degree inherited his grandsire's frugality and thrift; Benjamin Braznell, a sturdy English coal miner, one of Braddock's most enterprising citizens; Rev. Lauck, who in 1865 was one of Braddock's largest property holders, and who laid out in town lots a large part of what is now North Braddock; Major R. E. Stewart, a major in the civil war, who was one of the leading attorneys of the Allegheny County bar and an upright citizen. ; Philip Marks, who was a pioneer settler and a man of keen judgment and strict integrity; Abe Best, who came from Westmoreland County and served as burgess and constable in North Braddock for many years, and who is at the present time night sergeant. He is eighty years old and is said to be the oldest person in active service in the district.
On the adjoining farms to Braddock's Field farm, were the McKinneys, to the northeast ; Col. William Miller on a farm to the southeast; on the south, across the river, on the hillside overlooking the Braddock Farm, the "Irish Gentleman," a noble man, Thomas J. Kenney; on the west, to the south John Adams owned a farm ; descendants of Adams were later citizens of Braddock ; to the west the property of Thomas Rankin, for whom Rankin Borough was named; to the north west the farms of Col. W. G. Hawkins and Robert Milligan ; to the north overlooking the famous Braddock Farm that of David Soles and adjoining this the McKelvy and Kelly Farms.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 12]


THEMABraddock und die Kohlenindustrie
TEXTThe mining of coal, while for a time a chief industry of Braddock, shows at the present time little evidence of having been a principal factor in the upbuilding of the community. As compared with the large mines of the present day, the mines at Braddock were small. This was necessarily the case from the fact that the land is cut up into comparatively small sections by deep ravines, and each hill was mined by itself. The history of Braddock is somewhat related to the mines about Port Perry, but is principally concerned with the mines in the two hills included in the Borough of North Braddock, these two hills being separated by the Sixth Street ravine, or, as it is called in North Braddock, East Sixth Street.
Historians have written of Braddock in the early days before the advent of the white man among these hills, of Queen Aliquippa and other legendary characters, of Washington's visit to this district while on his famous journey from Virginia to Fort Duquesne and Lake Erie, of his stopping at Frazier's Cabin and his visit to the mythical Tonnaluka's Cave, and of the later day when Braddock's Field was marked by a few farm houses and well kept farms, while Port Perry was a thrifty village, and much more has been said of Braddock and the steel trade and the place
of Braddock in the beginning of Carnegie's operations in the building of the most wonderful system of iron works the world has ever known. But little has been said of that intermediate period which marks the beginning of the coal mining industry at Braddock ; the days when a visitor to Braddock might see nothing of the now familiar sights, but in the early morning hours the coal miners, with their lamps on their caps, wending their way to the pits on the hillsides.
The old coal miners of the Braddock district included many industrious, thrifty and prosperous men. Conspicuous among these are the late Benjamin S. Braznell (owner of the Braznell Block), who, beginning in the Braddock district as a coal digger, became an operator, at one time a member of the firm of A. A. Corey & Company, and later engaged in larger operations in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and Alexander Dempster (owner of the Dempster Block), well known in this district as a coal and real estate operator. A catalogue of the successful coal miners of the
Braddock District would be a long list and would include the names of many of our respected citizens.
The earliest coal mining in the district was in the hill east and north of Port Perry, on a tract of land then known as the Miller farm, long owned by Colonel W. L. Miller. These mines were opened about 1835 to 1840. It was here that J. B. Corey, later one of the principal operators in the Braddock district, got his first experience in coal mines and from there he began his career as a coal shipper. This was before the time of railroads in this district and the coal was floated down the river in what were called "joe boats". These boats were fifty to sixty feet in length and
about sixteen feet in width and were loaded two or three feet deep with one to three thousand bushels of coal. By 1840 the boats were increased in size to seventy-five feet in length and by 1850 they had grown to one hundred seventy feet in length by twenty-five feet in width and were loaded seven feet deep and a pair of the boats would contain as much as seventy thousand bushels of coal. These boats were floated to all points down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, much of the coal going to New Orleans. The business was hazardous, boats being often wrecked, the market being sometimes overstocked, and the sale of the coal at a profitable price being uncertain.
At the time of the secession of the southern states, Mr. Corey was connected with a firm which included Judge Thomas Mellon. The firm had made heavy shipments of coal to New Orleans. The coal of the northern men was at that time confiscated with the result that this company was apparently ruined, having lost all its invested capital and it
would require Fifty Thousand Dollars additional to pay its debts. The New Orleans agent of the firm, however, was pressed into the Rebel service and directed to look after the coal. He managed to so place the coal that when orders were issued for a boat of the confiscated coal, the coal of other companies was taken out to fill the order. This continued until Commodore Farragut and General Butler came with the Union forces and drove out the Rebel Army and not only was the coal saved, but coal had greatly advanced in price so that the firm instead of being Fifty Thousand
Dollars in debt was Two Hundred Thousand Dollars to the good.
The first coal operations in Braddock are difficult to define. From the time of the earliest settlers there were various pits, as they were called, opened into the edge of the coal veins for the purpose of getting fuel for the settlers. Early in the history of the district, George Bell and J. W. Buchanan, who bought a large tract of land covering the eastern portions of Braddock and North Braddock, undertoook coal mining but made little progress. Mr. Bell attempted to open a pit in the Upper Sixth Street ravine, but a dispute arose between him and Isaac Mills (the owner of the large Mills farm, which included the westerly part of Braddock and North Braddock) as to the location of the boundary line between their farms. This dispute lasted many years in the courts and ultimately the administrators of the estates of both these men sold the right to mine the coal to J. B. Corey & Company, who operated in the hill west of Sixth Street.
The earliest operations were in the hill on the east side of the Sixth Street ravine. It is said that the pits first opened were those below the Braddock Cemetery. Thomas Fauset, an early land owner in this district, hauled coal from the mine to the river and floated it to Pittsburgh, about 1843. There were tracks constructed down the Sixth Street hollow for the operators on both sides of the ravine. In getting the coal out of the mines on the east side of the ravine dogs were used for a time. The use of dogs in mines is well known to Welsh coal miners, but apparently few
people of the present day know of their use in this valley, though the old men who are familiar with the coal mines of this district remember their use in various places throughout the valley. The miner wore over his shoulder, straps made in form somewhat after the manner of shoulder braces, with a hook at the back. From this a chain was attached to the small mine car and as the miner pulled his loaded car out of the mine, the dog, trained to harness, pulled by his side, or if the miner had two dogs, one pulled at each side. The dogs used in the mines were large strong dogs and were the property of the miners who used them in their work. The dogs fought among themselves, as dogs will do, and were somewhat feared by other residents of the community, but generally they were good workers and loyal to their masters. Later, mules were purchased by the operators to move the cars in the mine and these in turn were supplanted by steam power. Joseph Taylor, grandfather of John Taylor, of Jones Avenue, is remembered as one of the earliest mine superintendents of this district.
The Robinson pit was opened at a point below the present location of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Thirteenth Street by John Robinson, more famous on account of the Robinson House, the old hotel of stage-coach days, which stood until a few years ago just above Braddock Avenue near Thirteenth Street. The Robinson pit employed only a few men. The
cars were lowered by gravity to a point near the present location of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, from which point the men pushed them down to the river and loaded the coal on flats.
There were other small pits in the east hill. Alexander Dempster for awhile conducted a mine for the local trade. The McCauley pit for the local trade was opened about the present location of Kellar & Milliken's brick works, under that part of the hill once known as Hillside Park. Another pit, known as the McKinney pit, was opened west of that, under the old earthwork forts which were constructed during the Civil War. The principal mine in this hill, however, was at the head of Robinson Street. It was first opened as a country pit, was operated at one time by John Giles, at another by Cheney & Baldwin, and was later operated extensively by General Felix Negley. When the Civil War broke out, General Negley left the mine to join the army and it was operated by a company in which Judge Thomas Mellon was interested. For use of the miners the operators erected about a dozen houses, the group being referred to collectively in the old days as "The Patch". These houses were constructed two stories high in front, with a one story kitchen at the rear. About half of these houses were situated above the present location of Bessemer Station. One of them is still standing above Bell Avenue. The rest of them were located about Thirteenth Street. When these miners' houses were built, there were only about a dozen other houses in all within the present limits of North Braddock Borough. The daily output of the mine in its best days was two to three thousand bushels and was shipped
to Pittsburgh by railroad; the Pennsylvania Railroad, a single track line having been constructed about 1850 from Pittsburgh as far east as Brinton. A track from the coal mine was constructed from the pit mouth down the hill along the present location of Robinson Street. Little was done in the hill west of Sixth Street until 18G5, when J.
B. Corey organized a company and bought out the rights of both parties involved in the disputed property line which had long been the subject of litigation between Isaac Mills and George Bell. The company included John Baldridge, who for many years took an active part in its management and upon the dissolution of the company bought much of the
land which the company had owned. This company, about 1865, opened three pits near the present location of Coalmont Street. A track was constructed down Sixth Street Hollow, and during the eighteen years through which the mining continued, coal was taken out of about two hundred fifty acres, including a large part of the Mills and Soles farms. When the market was good, from one hundred to one hundred fifty miners were employed and the output of the mine was from five thousand to eight thousand bushels daily. Mr. Corey prides himself on being the author of a sliding scale agreement under which the company made its contract with the miners in its employ and through the use of which strike troubles were greatly reduced. The work in this hill was completed by a new company organized by A. A. Corey and known as A. A. Corey & Co., Dickson, Stewart & Company, who are known as coal operators in this valley, constructed the lime kilns on top of the east hill overlooking the Sixth Street ravine and had some coal mines about Swissvale, operated extensively under Oak Hill, near Turtle Creek, and opened the mines which were later owned and operated by the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company about Turtle Creek and east and north of Braddock.
The Duquesne mines, commonly called Mucklerat, north of Hannatown, were long operated by the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, until labor troubles became so continuous and so violent that the company was compelled to close the mine and abandon it. After it had been closed for some years, it was reopened by Mr. J. B. Corey, who entered into contract with the miners of that district under the sliding scale agreement that had been used by his company in North Braddock and the mine was then operated for several years without serious trouble.
There has continued a little mining of coal in the hills of North Braddock, taking out remnants of coal here and there, and cleaning out the old mines, until the present time. The coal miners of the early days and their children, however, as the coal mines in this district were worked out, took up other lines of business or employment and the history of coal mining in Braddock was practically ended with the closing of the Corey mine about 1883.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 24]


THEMATransport auf dem Monongahela-Fluß
TEXTAlthough the traffic on the Monongahela River from Brownsville to the Ohio had advanced from the canoe of the Indian and the Kentucky boat of the emigrant of Revolutionary times, to a water borne traffic of no mean size in passengers and miscellaneous freight, and to more than a million bushels of coal annually before the Monongahela waterway was
improved by the installation of locks and dams late in 1841, yet no records remain of the constantly increasing stream of commerce passing over this route between the east and west. Here and there remains a fragment from a traveler, a ship builder or a merchant giving a glimpse of the river activity of the later years of the 18th century and the early ones of the 19th century.
The Ohio Company recognized the importance of this waterway, and early in 1754 Captain Trent on his way to the forks of the Ohio by Nemacolin's and the Redstone trails built "The Hangard" at the mouth of Redstone Creek. From April 17th, when he surrendered his works to the French and retreated in canoes up the Monongahela, this avenue became
more and more important until the steam railways supplanted the slower traffic by water.
The easy navigation of this stream led that man of keen insight, General Washington, into error, when, under date of May 27th, 1754, he writes: "This morning Mr. Gist arrived from his place, where a detachment of fifty men (French) was seen yesterday I immediately detached seventy-five men in pursuit of them, who I hope will overtake them before they get to Redstone, where their canoes lie." These men, however, had come by Nemacolin's Trail; but the force
of 500 French and 400 Indians which followed close upon the heels of Washington after his defeat of Jumonville, and captured him at Fort Necessity, came up the Monongahela from Fort Duquesne in piraguas.
The expedition of General Braddock in 1755, disastrous though it was, opened up the way from the East to the fertile lands of the Ohio Valley. Under date of May 24th, 1766, George Groghan, Deputy Indian Agent, writes from Fort Pitt: "As soon as the peace was made last year (By Colonel Bouquet) contrary to our engagements to them (the Indians)
a number of our people came over the Great Mountain and settled at Redstone Creek, and upon the Monongahela, before they (the Indians) had given the country to the King, their Father."
A letter written from Winchester, Virginia, under date of April 30th, 1765, says: "The frontier inhabitants of this colony and Maryland are removing fast over the Alleghany Mountains in order to settle and live there." This migration was augmented by Pennsylvanians, following the act passed in 1780, which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery. About this time, too, it became generally known that the Monongahela Valley was Pennsylvania territory rather than of Virginia. Kentucky was an inviting district and her charms were made patent to all. So
general became migration to Kentucky that the name "Kentucky Boat" was applied to the flat used in transportation on the Monongahela at that time. Boat yards for the constructing of all manner of river craft were opened at Brownsville where the overland route from Cumberland and the east first reached communication with the western waters, and at Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth) fourteen miles from the mouth of the Monongahela River. In 1784 a petition was presented at the September term of the Fayette County Court for a road from "Redstone Old Fort along the river side to the grist and sawmill at the mouth of Little Redstone and to Collo. Edward Cook's," since, "the intercourse along the river is so considerable, by reason of the number of boats for passengers, which are almost constantly building in different parts along the River side." The petition was granted.
The Pennsylvania Journal, of Philadelphia, in its issue of Februaiy 13th, 1788, carried the statement that "Boats of every dimension may be had at Elizabethtown, in the course of next spring and summer where provisions of all kinds may be had at a very cheap rate, particularly flour, there being no less than six grist mills in the circumference of three or four miles." In its issue of August 20th in the same year the Pennsylvania Journal carried an advertisement that at "Elizabeth, town on the Monongahela" the proprietor (Stephen Bayard) "has erected a boatyard , where timber is plenty, and four of the best Boat Builders from Philadelphia are constantly employed."
Captain John May, who gave his name to the settlement at the mouth of Limestone Creek, Kentucky, and who in 1790 was killed by the Indians while descending the Ohio, under the date of May 5th, 1788, writes in his diary: "This day was raised here (at Elizabethtown) a large shed for building boats. Almost all the Kentucky boats from the east pass this place: near two hundred have passed this spring." The hardships entailed by this migration were enormous. Dur-
ing the severe winters when the Monongahela was ice bound the road leading through Brownsville to the river was lined on both sides with emigrant wagons whose occupants with difficulty prevented themselves from perishing from the cold. The Indian ravages on the boats on the Ohio and on the settlers in the Kentucky country occurred with terrifying frequency. Possibly fifteen hundred people perished through these attacks in the seven years following the close of the Revolutionary War. Finally the boats going down from Pittsburgh formed in brigades. Denny's Military Journal, of April 19th, 1790, gives an account of one such flotilla containing sixteen "Kentucky Boats," and two keel boats. The flat boats were lashed together three abreast and kept in one line. The women and children along with the animals were placed in the middle boats, while the outside ones were defended and worked by the men. These boats were guarded on either flank by the keels. In this case the Indians did not attack, but the unwieldy craft were almost wrecked in a furious storm of wind and rain. Despite these drawbacks, however, by 1790 the Kentucky country had a population of approximately seventy-four thousand people, many of whom had come down the Monongahela. With the opening by France of the West Indies to trade and the right of deposit secured at New Orleans from Spain, the western trade, enormously expanded, bid fair to be controlled by Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh at the mouth of the Monongahela had a commanding part of that traffic. Except for three or four months in the dry season this town was crowded with emigrants for the western country. Boat building was the chief industry of the place. Log canoes, pirogues, skiffs, bateaux, arks, Kentucky broad horns, New Orleans boats, barges, and keel boats with masts and sails all were waiting the emigrant. The people of the Tennessee and Kentucky countiy brought all their supplies
from Philadelphia and from Baltimore, now almost an equal commercial rival of her northern neighbor, and shipped their produce to New Orleans. On March 31st, 1836, the "Monongahela Navigation Company" was authorized by Act of Assembly. It was to make a slack water navigation from Pittsburgh to the Virginia State line, and as much farther as Virginia would allow it to go. The capital was to be 300,000, in shares of fifty. The locks were to be four and one-half feet high. The charter was issued in 1837. The state subscribed 25,000, and later in 1840, 100,000 on condition "That all descending crafts owned by citizens of Pennsylvania, not calculated or intended to return, from any point between Millsborough and the Virginia State line, shall pass free of toll thru any lock or dam of the lower division of said improvement, until the company shall put the first dam above Brownsville in the second division under contract, and complete the same"
The ill-starred United States Bank, now an institution of Pennsylvania, was required to subscribe for 100,000 of stock. The total subscriptions amounted to 308,100. From Pittsburgh to Brownsville was found to be fifty-five and one-half miles, and the ascent thirty-three and one-half feet; forty-one feet a total of ninety and one-half miles, and ascent of seventy-four and one-half feet, requiring seventeen dams. Higher dams were then authorized, making four necessary below Brownsville, and three above to the State line. Before these dams could be completed the credit of the state, which had been strained to the breaking point during the '20's and '30's for internal improvements, broke; the United States Bank collapsed, leaving unfilled its obligation of 50,000 to the Company; many of the private stockholders refused payment; the State's subscription of 100,000, being in bonds was collected at a loss; Baltimore capitalists refused aid; and, crowning all, a break developed in Dam No. 1 in 1843, which made expensive repair necessary. The whole project became a "mortification to its friends and projectors, and a nuisance to the navigation." The Legislature, however, in order to improve the financial condition of the state, directed, by Act of July 27th, 1842, repeated by Act of April 8th, 1843, sales of all its corporation stocks, including the 125,000 in this Company. This stock was bought in for 7,187.50 by a group of men who with effective energy had on November 13th, 1844, the entire improvement repaired and completed for use to Brownsville, where connection was made with the National Road, which in turn connected at Cumberland, seventy-five miles distant, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Baltimore. Pittsburgh at last was brought within thirty hours of the Atlantic Seaboard.
Long before the Monongahela River had been improved, however, and the steamboat had driven the keel boat and the flat boat from the western waters, the feeble frontier settlements of the Monongahela Valley were preparing to utilize the commercial possibilities of the southwest. In 1800 certain farmers near Elizabeth built a schooner of two hundred and fifty tons burden, launched it in the spring of 1801, christening it the "Monongahela Farmer." Her cargo taken on at Elizabeth and Pittsburgh, consisted, among other things, of 721 barrels of flour, 500 barrels of whiskey, 4,000 deer skins, 2,000 bear skins, large quantities of hemp and flax, and firearms, ammunition and provision for the crew, which consisted of eight men. The vessel was not rigged for sailing at this time. In the instructions to the master, Mr. Jno. Walker, he is directed to "proceed without unnecessaiy delay to the City of New Orleans Should the markets for flour be low at New Orleans and the vessel appear to sell to disadvantage you in that case have it in your power to sell a part of the cargo, to purchase rigging, fit out the vessel and employ hands to sail her to any of the Islands you in your Judgment and to the Best information May think best, and then make sale of the vessel and cargo." This boat left Pittsburgh on a June rise, was attacked by the Indians, lost one man by drowning, was detained by reason of low water for three months at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), and for some weeks on a bar, now called Walker's bar, above Hurricane Island, reached New Orleans and with her cargo was sold profitably, although the flour was soured by being stored in the damp hold. The master contracted yellow fever, but recovered, and returned home after an absence of fourteen months; and, during the following year (1803), superintended the construction of the brig Ann Jane, 450 tons burden, loaded her with flour and whiskey, and sailed her with profit to New York by way of the rivers, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Thus the commerce of the Monongahela flourished until the Enterprise, 45 tons, the fourth steamboat produced on western water, was built at Brownsville in 1814. The era of steam had begun. The Monongahela products were becoming well known. Its flour
"is celebrated in foreign markets, for its superiority, and it generally sells for one dollar more per barrel in New Orleans than any other flour taken from this country to that market. The best and greatest quantity of rye whiskey is made on this river. Peach and apple brandy, cider and cider-royal are also made in great abundance."
The slack water equipment multiplied commerce enormously. It was estimated that during 1837 the loss occasioned to coal alone by the ice was at least 40,000. In October of 1838 there was approximately 750,000 bushels of coal laden on boats which had been waiting three months for a shipping stage of water. Under date of January 1st, 1840, Thomas McFadden, wharf master of Pittsburgh, gives a statement of the number of arrivals and departures of steamboats employed regularly in the Monongahela trade: "In addition to which a number of steamboats have occasionally gone to Brownsville, &c., and a large number of flat-boats, loaded with coal, have descended the river without stopping at this port."
During 1845 toll was received to the amount of over 15,000 from freights and rafts, etc. ; above 8,000 for passengers of whom almost twenty-three thousand were through passengers; and above 5,000 for coal, amounting to more than four and one-half millions of bushels. This favorable showing was increased during the next year to
above 20,000 for freights; to above 12,000 for passengers; of whom almost 35,000 were through passengers to or from the east ; to above 10,000 for coal, amounting to more than seven and one-half millions of bushels. Commerce continued to increase. Classified freights continued until the tolls in 1852, when the Pennsylvania Railroad reached Pittsburgh, and the B. & 0. reached Wheeling, amounted to more than 30,000 annually. Coal tonnage grew steadily greater until in 1855 it reached the amazing total of almost 1,000,000 tons, and fifteen years later to twice that amount, this latter rapid increase being due in part to the building in 1856 of two locks above Brownsville, which carried the slack water navigation to within seven miles of the Virginia line. Through passenger traffic reached its
climax in 1848 with a total for the year of almost forty-eight thousand souls. To this latter traffic and classified freight the National Road contributed largely. For from the time it was thrown open to the public in the year 1818 until 1852 it was the one great highway, over which passed the bulk of trade and travel, and the mails between the East and the West. As many as twenty four-horse coaches have been counted in line at once. During the eight years before the coming of the railroads more than two hundred thousand passengers traveled over the road by way of the Monongahela; also another one hundred thousand traveled between Brownsville and Pittsburgh, and over four hundred and fifty thousand traveled part of the way between these two places. William Henry Harrison as President-elect of the United States, used this route, and his body was returned by the same route. It looked like the leading avenue of a great city rather than a road through rural districts. One man in 1848 counted 133 six-horse teams passing along the road in one day, and took no notice of as many more teams of one, two, three, four, and five horses. "It looked as if the whole earth was on the road ; wagons, stages, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and turkeys without number." In the year 1822 six commission houses in Wheeling received approximately five thousand loads of merchandise, and paid nearly 400,000 for its transportation. About two-fifths of this passenger and freight traffic after 1844, when the slack water improvements reached Brownsville, was directed through the Monongahela.
Of the classified freight in the commerce of the Monongahela, salt occupied a large place, as immense quantities were brought from the salt works in New York. Whiskey, butter, lard, cheese, flour, oats, sand, apples, hoop poles, nails, tobacco, wool, feathers, bacon, pork, staves, brick, ginseng, and beeswax were staple articles of commerce. Pittsburgh continued to be the distributing point. The Monongahela proved to be a valuable feeder to the State canals. Of the 80,000 barrels of flour, which came down it in 1851, more than nine-tenths were reshipped eastward by
the Pennsylvania canal ; and other items in like manner. Braddock's contribution to the commerce on the Monongahela began early. On June 12, 1839, Messrs. Corey and Adams, of Braddock, began quarrying stone above McKeesport for the construction of Lock and Dam Number Two, which was to have been placed at Braddock's lower riffle, but by reason of changing the height of the dams to eight feet Lock Number Two was eventually located at the head of Braddock's riffles above the mouth of Turtle Creek. This Lock was completed by Corey and Adams and opened for navigation on October 18, 1841. The tolls for the succeeding two months of that year amounted to 1,000 per month. In 1845 the tolls at this Lock amounted to almost 3,500, while in 1870 they made the amazing total of almost 82,000. In 1893, despite the growing competition of the railroads, the tolls exceeded 53,000. The operation of the Edgar Thomson Plant of the Carnegie Steel Company increased the importance of the Monongahela's commerce to a marked extent, although the greatest tonnage was that of coal shipped to the southern markets. In the years 1844 to 1872 a little less than 400 millions of bushels was shipped from Pool Number Two. A better idea can be had of this great amount when it is remembered that in one acre of coal there is about one hundred thousand bushels. One of the best remembered events connected with the history of the Locks in the Braddock district was the breakup of the ice pack in February, 1867. The engineer of the Navigation Company describes it as making a noise like distant thunder, and striking the dam with such force as to shake the lock walls and rattle the windows in the houses in the village of Port Perry. Of all the workers on Lock Two, the name of one stands out clear Michael Hart. He had been employed in its construction, and was continued as a lock tender for more than twenty-five years afterwards. He was regarded as the most active and speedy lock-tender on the River at that time. The boatmen had a maxim, "We will have a quick
passage through the lock, old Mike is on watch". It is not to be thought that the improvement of navigation in the
Monongahela was secured by the harmonious co-operation of the Valley, or that its practical operation was materially helped by the shippers. "It is a remarkable fact," says the engineer, Sylvanus Lothrop, in his report to the President of the Company, January 4th, 1847, "that with so many unanswerable arguments to recommend it to, and enforce it upon, the public attention, no work in the country has ever encountered greater obstacles than this. Instead of being, as it ought to have been, fostered by our citizens, and hailed by the inhabitants of the Monongahela Valley as a blessing to themselves, it met with nothing but the most chilling regards from the one, and with either the most violent prejudice, or the most determined hostility from the other." Protests were made against the toll charges, and in 1848 the Valley was aflame with the cry that the locks should be cut down to a height of four and one-half feet so that in times of freshet the boats might float, unhindered by locks, to the Ohio. Much
difficulty was encountered in securing rapidity of movement through the locks. Rival coal crews fought, in the face of definite regulations, for precedence in passing through the locks. The Company early established rules, in vain. The State legislature (1851) passed special legislation to facilitate passage, and later (1864) made the penalties more severe, yet many times the locks for hours at a time were idle while the fighting crews blocked the entrance, and the prosperity-carrying Ohio "rise" receded below the boating stage. When the Monongahela River was about to be bridged at Smithfield street in Pittsburg, it was seriously proposed that the bridge be built so low that the boats could not pass under, thus necessitating the transfer of freights, and a profitable business for longshoremen. Out of such strife and from such humble beginnings arose the mighty traffic which now yearly sweeps down the Monongahela through locks, augmented in number and increased in size, and now owned and operated without charge to the traffic, by the United States Government. No longer does the Ohio wait upon the "rise" of her tributary from the
south, but rather is the waiting reversed, until such time as the United States shall have done her "perfect work" for "the beautiful river."
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 30]


THEMAEisenbahnen
TEXTThe transportation facilities of a community are very large factors in its growth, prosperity, and culture: and lack of such facilities results in a corresponding lack of progress. There are large sections of the United States, today, which are in a very backward state of development, largely on account of their inadequate means of communication with the rest of the world.
The history of Braddock shows the value to a community, of a situation in which ample transportation facilities are available. One of the events in which this city took a very conspicuous part, the Whiskey Insurrection, was brought about by the lack of facilities for carrying the products of this region, of which Pittsburgh is the center, to market. The principal product was grain, and there was no means of transporting such a bulky commodity east in paying quantities, on account of the mountains, and the western route, down the river, was practically closed because a large part of the course of the Mississippi River was in control of France, not very friendly to the United States at that time. Consequently, the farmers of this section found that the easiest way to obtain the value of their corn and other grain was to convert it into whiskey, in which state a man could carry in a small container what represented a much greater bulk of grain, and receive for it a larger sum than for the corresponding amount of grain. Hence, when the Government put a tax on this whiskey, which took away the profit, the people of Western Pennsylvania arose in revolt, and Braddock's Field was the scene of the mobilization of the insurrectionary forces.
In its later history, however, Braddock has been very highly favored in its transportation facilities, and owes most of its prosperity and importance to that fact. Even if the railroads had not been developed as they were, the city was situated in a favorable location for traffic on the rivers, and canals, which in the event of the non-development of railroads, would naturally have become the chief routes of travel. The means of transportation were very limited in the early times, and improvements did not begin till about 1805. The river was the line of communication westward, and eastward the only methods in use were by pack-horse, or by carrying on foot, which required nine or ten days for the trip from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. At first there were two routes to the east, the old Braddock Trail to Cumberland and Baltimore, and the route through Bedford, Chambersburg, and Harrisburg, to Philadelphia. On these roads the freight was first carried by pack-horses, but this was soon superseded by four or six horse wagons, of the type later known as "Prairie schooners", which carried a trough for feeding the horses, and in which the drivers lived while on the road. This wagon traffic lasted until 1829, when the Pennsylvania Canal was opened. In 1805, a stage line was started, between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the trip requiring three days.
But freighting by wagon soon proved inadequate for the growing needs of the country, and attention was turned to canals. About 1829 the Pennsylvania Canal, connecting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, was constructed by the state. The canal boats were built in sections, and carried over the mountains on inclined railways, which were later used, temporarily, to connect the eastern and western sections of the Pennsylvania Railroad. But the canal was badly managed, and had not proved a successful venture financially, having failed to pay even the interest on its debt.
Just about this time, between 1813 and 1829, steam as a motive power was being developed in England, and in 1830 Stevenson succeeded in attaining a speed of thirty miles an hour with his engine. The first railroad in this country was built in 1826, but for some reason, development was not very rapid. The Baltimore and Ohio, the first steam road in America, was also the first to attempt to enter the Monongahela and Ohio Valleys. It came as far as Cumberland in 1842, and tried to reach the Ohio through Western Pennsylvania. But the people of Philadelphia, thinking that the trade of this section, if carried on a road having its terminus in Baltimore, would be diverted to that city, placed obstacles in the way of the granting of the right of way to the Baltimore and Ohio, and thus, through sectional jealousy and lack of foresight, the road was driven to adopt the route through West Virginia, to Wheeling. Finally, the object was accomplished by strategy. A bill for the incorporation of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad was tacked on to an omnibus bill, and passed by the Legislature while the Philadelphians were off their guard, and as this road was really a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system, its incorporation gave the latter road the opening it desired into the Pittsburgh district. Progress on the construction of this road was so slow, however, that many of the stockholders grew impatient at the delay and invested in the Pennsylvania and Ohio, which later became the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad. At this time the Philadelphia people determined to organize a road
of their own, and the Pennsylvania Railroad was chartered in 1846, with a capital of $10,000,000.00, and construction was begun in 1848. In 1852 road was opened, though at first the inclines of the canal were used in crossing the mountains, and it was not till 1854 that the road was completed so that trains could run through on its own tracks. The Pittsburgh end was constructed as far as Brinton, where it was delayed for some time at the point where the plank road between Braddock and Turtle Creek had to be crossed, as the crossing of a previous right of way was a more difficult matter at that time than now. This connection was made in 1852. In 1857 the Pennsylvania Railroad bought the main line of the Pennsylvania canal, paying 7,500,000.00 for it, thus obtaining a monopoly
for the railroads, of the traffic east and west. The canals had been badly managed, and graft and engineering
difficulties made them unprofitable, as over 30,000,000.00 had been expended on them and they had failed to pay the interest on their debts. Also, at this time, popular opinion was so strongly in favor of the railroads, that the value of the "Miserable ditches" was not appreciated, and the canal was sold. It has since been realized that, if the main canal between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh had been maintained and brought to a point of high efficiency, it would have tended to regulate freight charges, and prevent discrimination. The Pittsburgh and Connellsville, or Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was built from Connellsville as far as Port Perry, now Bessemer, in 1856, and connected by a short junction line with the Pennsylvania at Brinton, and from there Baltimore and Ohio trains ran to Pittsburgh on the tracks of the Pennsylvania. In 1860 the contract was awarded for the completion of the road to Pittsburgh, and this section was finished, so that trains could run through to Pittsburgh in 1861. The first freight locomotive on the Baltimore & Ohio at this point was of what was known as the "Camel back" type, and is said to have
been very noisy while in operation. Other engines in use in the early times were designated by names, as the "Harmer Denny", and the "George Washington". Another, the Number 5, was continually getting off the
track. Some of our most famous men of affairs received their early training on these primitive railroads. J. Edgar Thomson, after whom the Edgar Thomson Steel works are named, was the first Chief Engineer, and later President, of the Pennsylvania; and Andrew Carnegie was once Superintendent of the same road. Things were done in a much more simple manner in those days than at present. An incident which happened on one occasion shows the absence of red tape in the management at that time. While Andrew Carnegie was Superintendent, Mr. J. B. Corey, a coal operator, who still lives in Braddock, went to Mr. Carnegie and asked for some coal cars. Carnegie said "All right, they will be out there before you will". Mr. Corey said that would be impossible, as he intended going out on the next trip of the one passenger train which ran between Pittsburgh and Braddock at that time, and which was lying in the station ready to start. Then Mr. Carnegie ordered that the coal train be coupled on ahead of the passenger train, which was done, much to the displeasure of the conductor, John Routh, a famous character in the early days of railroading on the Pennsylvania, and the coal cars really reached Braddock before Mr. Corey did. As another instance of the lax methods of the early days may be cited the means of acquiring the right of way. When the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad wanted to go through Braddock, they just laid their tracks down on Halket Avenue, one of the main streets, running the entire length of the town, without asking permission of any one, and no one seemed to object. At that time there was a good wagon road along the right bank of the Monongahela, clear to McKeesport. This road looked good to the
Baltimore & Ohio, and they appropriated it also. At first only one track was laid. Later it was double-tracked, and finally the four tracks occupied all the space between the foot-hills and the river. The township then went into court and got an order compelling the railroad to build a wagon road along the hill side. In compliance with this order the railroad scratched the hill side a little, but six months after the wagon road was completed a goat couldn't walk over it without danger of falling off. After years of litigation the matter was finally adjusted, only recently, by the railroad's paying into the township treasury a definite sum. From these comparatively simple beginnings the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads have developed to the great institutions which they are today. In 1883, the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad, a subsidiary of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Lines, was constructed through Braddock, during the excavation for which a number of Indian skeletons and implements were dug up. This railroad, as originally planned, was to have run along the south shore of the Monongahela River,
but, in order to obtain some of the business of the Edgar Thomson Steel works, the plan was changed, and the road crossed the river and ran along the right bank of the river. Besides this, the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad, of the Pennsylvania System, runs on the opposite side of the river, and connects with the main line of
the Pennsylvania through the tunnel at Port Perry; and the Bessemer and Lake Erie, and Union lines also touch this district at the same point. The Western Maryland also has connections here, using the tracks of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Lines. Braddock thus has a direct outlet over five of the greatest railroads of the country; the Pennsylvania system, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, (a part of the New York Central), the Bessemer & Lake Erie, and the Western Maryland. The Bessemer and Lake Erie was built in 1898, by the Carnegie
Steel interests, because of discrimination in freight rates against this district by the old systems.
These roads have made many improvements since the original tracks were laid. Both the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads have developed from single track to four track roads. About 1880 the Pennsylvania widened its line to four tracks, and the present Braddock depot was built in 1884, to replace the old one which had been in use since about 1865. Later, improvements were made on the line through Braddock which are probably as extensive as any to be found in the same length of track at any point on the road. The grade crossing at Fourth Street was eliminated, the present Copeland station and underground passageway, or tunnel, was constructed; bridges were built at Thirteenth Street and Second Street; a roadway under the tracks was constructed at Sixth Street, and the bridge and passageway at Library Street were entirely made new. Since the completion of these improvements, in 1913, there
have been almost no accidents on the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Braddock. In 1907, the Baltimore and Ohio began operations on the widening of their right of way through the Borough of Braddock, and bought all the property between Wood Way and its own tracks between Seventh and Eleventh Streets ; increased the number of its tracks from two to four; replaced the Passenger Station at Ninth Street by the present one at Eighth Street; built the new Freight Station at Eighth Street, and paid a sum of money into the Borough treasury. All these roads handle an enormous traffic, both in passengers and freight, to and from Braddock, and are factors of immeasurable strength
in the manufacturing and commercial importance of the community, and the favorable situation of the city in this respect is a guarantee of the continuance of its importance and prosperity.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 63]


THEMAelektrische Bahnen in Braddock
TEXTThe electric motor is one of the marvelous inventions of the nineteenth century. The railway system had not long been introduced when the first proposition to employ electric locomotive traction was made. As early as 1835 experiments in this direction were made by Thomas Davenport, who constructed a model electric car operated on a circular track by means of batteries. In 1850, Professor Page of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D. C., employed the current from one hundred large Grove cells to operate an electric locomotive which developed sixteen horse-power, and ran at the rate of nineteen miles an hour on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; but it was quite impracticable for it was far too expensive. The discovery of a cheap and easy means of electric traction was later developed. The first practical overhead trolley line was built in Kansas City in 1884, in which double overhead conductors were used with a trolley wheel riding on top of the wire. In 1885 Mr. Daft constructed a third rail line in Baltimore, and Mr. Depoele installed an overhead trolley at Toronto, Canada. The next step made in the development of the electric railway in the U.S., and the one which did most to stimulate capitalists and inventors
to the action which has produced the marvelous perfection in electric railway transportation which we witness today, was the contract made by the Union Passenger Railroad Company of Richmond, Va., with F. J. Sprague to equip its thirteen-mile system of street railways for electric traction. On January 1, 1888, there were thirteen electric railways with forty-eight miles of track in operation in the United States and Canada. These followed a period of consolidated interests among electric railway builders, and the modern era of electric railway development was opened. Since 1888, or in twenty-nine years, electric railways have grown wonderfully until now the valuation of electric railways in the United States is approximately one billion dollars. Street Railway service for Braddock began on Saturday, July 25, 1891, when the Braddock and Turtle Creek Street Railway Company brought three old horse-cars from New York City and converted them into electric cars. These cars were put in commission on Braddock Avenue and ran from the Baltimore and Ohio Station at Rankin to Thirteenth Street, Braddock. The novelty of the Electric cars at that time is shown by the fact that the receipts of that short line on that first Saturday
amounted to Sixty-five dollars, in consequence of 1,300 persons having taken advantage of this new mode of travel.
Early in 1892 the line was extended to the McKinney homestead near Bessemer, on the East, and as far as Keating station on the West. The late William Yost, Esq., was President, and George E. T. Stamets, lately deceased, Superintendent, of the company opening this line. Other stockholders were Joseph Wolf, the late Fred Edwards, Mrs. Mary Matlack. Henry Foye, present Lieutenant of Police, was motorman, and Charles Johnson, conductor, on the first of the three cars sent out. In 1892 Mr. Foye was appointed assistant superintendent. Henry McNany of 201 Main Street, North Braddock, was motorman on one of the three cars mentioned and has acted in that capacity somewhere on
theTine ever since. His present run is between Rankin and Keating. In an accompanying illustration a very commendable trait of character of Mr. McNany is exhibited. It was his custom on the Fourth of July to invite the children along his route to participate in a free trolley party, and he had no trouble in getting a crowd. Byron Pierce and Herman Steiner were conductors on this line, David Bradford, J. E. Griffith and Christ Forney were motormen. Herbert Delafield was a conductor on one of these early cars and the youngest street-car conductor in the country at that time, being but sixteen years of age. The second invoice of cars obtained for service on this line was the product of the Braddock Union Planing Company, now the Braddock Lumber Company. One of the noteworthy results of the coming of the electric cars to Braddock was the doing away with the old-time cobble-stone paving.
In the year 1893, the Braddock and Turtle Creek Railway was taken over by the Second Avenue Passenger Company, and the line extended as far as Glenwood. The latter company continued the line to East Pittburg in 1895, and to Wilmerding in 1896. Herbert Delafield, the young man already mentioned, was conductor on the first car that went through to Pittsburg from Wilmerding. The Corey Avenue line was built by the Second Avenue Passenger Company and the franchise was granted August 2, 1887. The object of this branch was perhaps to divert the traffic from the proposed line of the Monongahela Company through North Braddock to East Pittsburg. Beginning in 1893 the Braddock Electric, with A. L. Saylor of Pittsburgh, President, and Charles Ellis of Swissvale, Superintendent, operated a strictly local line. Starting at the South Side of Braddock Avenue, the track led down Thirteenth Street, to Talbot Avenue; along Talbot to Second Street ; up Second to Mills Street ; along Mills to Fourth Street; up Fourth and across Pennsylvania railroad tracks at Copeland. The first Conductor to run a car from Wilmerdon through Braddock to Pittsburgh Station to Hawkins Avenue, and along Hawkins east, as far as Dookers Hollow; also from Talbot Avenue up Eighth Street to Braddock Avenue, up Library Street and Jones Avenue to Bell Avenue. An effort was made to complete the circuit of this line at Thirteenth Street by crossing the tracks of the Pennsylvania railroad and connecting
with the line in North Braddock. But this was met with strong opposition at all times, and the opposition was so acrimonious and the through lines so advantageous that the Braddock Electric was forced out of business. The Mellon Brothers, buying out the holdings of the Braddock Electric Company, began the development of street railway business upon a vastly larger scale, under the corporate name of The Monongahela Street Railway Company. The contract with the borough was signed November 10, 1896. L. Wheeler, now deceased, was superintendent of this division and served until the summer of 1898, when Frank McCoy, who had been superintendent of the Pittsburgh and Birmingham South Side lines, was elected, and served until the time of consolidation. During the incumbency of Mr. McCoy, the development of the street car service was amazingly rapid. In the road-building series begun by this company, the first unit
was completed July 5, 1897, when the first car operated between Braddock and Homestead over the West Braddock bridge. This route had a decided advantage over the Second Avenue line, which took its serpentine course down the right bank of the Monongahela river to Highland Station, and there transferred its passengers across Brown's bridge to Homestead. The Yellow Line, so called because of the color of its cars, operated its first cars from Thirteenth Street on Talbot Avenue over West Braddock bridge to Pittsburgh, December 4, 1898. Twelve cars were scheduled,
and made the round trip in two hours. When it came to opening the road to Duquesne and McKeesport, the first thought of the Mellon Brothers was to go up Talbot Avenue to Thirteenth Street and there cross the river on a bridge to what is now Kennywood Park. This of course met no opposition in borough council for the company had paid $5,000 for the franchise. To the surprise of all concerned the company began the construction of a line along the hill on the south side of the river, leaving Braddock on the other side of the river from the main traffic between the two principal cities of the county. Thus the line was opened and the initial car operated between Duquesne and Braddock over the West Braddock bridge, December 10, 1898. Onward is the word that charms the willing powers of the ambitious,
and the next line was opened to East Pittsburgh via Eighth Street across Braddock Avenue; up Library and Jones Avenue and out Bell Avenue, February 1, 1900. On the same date, the first car on the upper line from Wilkinsburg through North Braddock to East Pittsburgh, was operated. Another unit was added to the numerous lines already in operation when the Blue line, or the Swissvale and Rankin, on January 10, 1901, sent out its first car from Thirteenth Street on Talbot Avenue connecting with Rankin at West Braddock Bridge by extending the bridge over the B. & 0. tracks. This line was believed to be the shortest and consequently the quickest route to the city. The road from Wilmerding to Pitcaim was opened in 1902 and continued to Trafford in 1903. So engrossed was the company in the thought and work of putting their lines into speedy operation, that the housing of the cars seemed to have been lost sight of. When the matter was forced upon them, temporary quarters were secured with the consolidated company in the Homewood barns until the completion of their own barn at Rankin in 1900. When the lines were completed and about to open, Superintendent McCoy, with other officials, took representatives of the Pittsburgh and local press over the road in two special cars. Returning from this tour of inspection a banquet was given in the assembly rooms of the new car barn on Talbot Avenue, Rankin. The Monongahela Street Railway Company in building their roads and operating their rolling stock had rendered a service to this community better than they knew. The climax in the development of street railway service was reached when, on the first day of January, 1902, the Monongahela Street Railway Company, the Consolidated Traction Company and the United Traction were merged into the Pittsburgh Railways Company. Mr. Fred. R. Wilhelm, who came here in April, 1899, as dispatcher, was made superintendent of the Monongahela Division No. 4 at the time of consolidation, and has been the efficient executive ever since. The street car industry has worked to the development of Braddock as a residence section for working-men in the mills. A five cent fare will carry a man from Braddock to any of the important works of the Monongahela Valley, including Homestead, Munhall, Duquesne, across the river ; the enormous furnaces and machine shops in Rankin; the immense Switch and Signal Company's works in Swissvale; the Westinghouse in East Pittsburg ; and the entire Edgar Thomson Works in North Braddock. Or a five cent fare will carry a resident in any of the communities named to any of the Braddock industries. Thus through the instrumentality of the street car lines above described more than 40,000 men are carried daily from home to work and from the mills back home for a nickel fare. The traffic on these lines is enormous, having increased from those three small cars and one mile of track in 1891 to one hundred large cars,
65 miles of track and serving approximately 100,000 people.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 71]


THEMAIndustriebetriebe in Braddock
TEXTIn 1850 the Monongahela at Braddock's Field rolled through a quiet scene of sylvan beauty. Thickly wooded hills shaded her peaceful waters on the south, while on the Braddock side long grassy swards dipped to the river's brim.
The low land along the river, now filled in with cinder, ash, and slag, and usurped by belching steel plants, was the home of the bullfrog and the meadowlark, while on a summer's night a thousand glow worms swung their lanterns in the swamp land and gave the first faint prophesy of the myriad electric arcs that later were to change night into day upon that ground. Not clouds of smoke, but flocks of white-winged pigeons hung beneath the clear, unsullied sky, and in quiet hickory groves the oriole swung his nest where now the operator's cage scurries back and forth on the Edgar Thomson cranes. The robin and the woodthrush called, and no steam siren split the air, nor was the busy tapping of the woodpecker yet transformed into the clamor of the pneumatic riveter. The rail-saw not yet challenged the nightly supremacy of the screech-owl and the bat, and no sudden clang of steel startled the sleeper's ear. Truly a golden age. But not for Braddock was the lure of green fields and running waters. Hers was to be a life of action and achievement, hers was no Lotus land of dreams. Already the faint tapping of a hammer and musical song of a distant saw-mill come at intervals on the quiet air: her industrial history is beginning. As in so brief a survey only a few of the more important industries can be mentioned, we will waive consideration of the countless little enterprises that Braddock must have mothered between the days of Frazier's cabin and the middle of the last century, and assume our story with the barrel and furniture factory of seventy years ago. This barrel factory, which also made chairs and furniture of the rougher type, seems to have been founded shortly before 1850 by a Mr. Soles and others of Scotch descent, who originally hailed from Massachusetts. The exact date of its commencement is shrouded in obscurity, but we know that about 1850 John and Daniel Richardson purchased the business and started the Braddock Saw Mill and Boat Yard, located on the present site of the city's water plant. This firm, in turn, was later bought
out by Lazear, Sollinger, and Patton, and was doing business as late as 1878, when the property was purchased by the Borough of Braddock as a site for the city's water plant.
In 1861, shortly after the inauguration of the great Civil War, the McVay-Walker Foundry was built at Braddock, and during the rebellion made many supplies for the Federal Government. Later this firm did much of the small casting work for the Edgar Thomson plant, and has really been the mother of all Braddock's steel and iron industries. It is
still doing business today at the age of 57 years, although during 1916 the firm suffered a disastrous fire. It is undoubtedly the oldest of Braddock's larger industries.
Among the numerous lumber companies that followed the early planing mill were the Grannis Brothers and the Dowler Lumber Company. The Dowler Lumber Company was established in 1866, according to Mr. Thos. J. Dowler, and went out of business in 1912. 1872 saw the commencement of the world-famous Edgar Thomson Steel Works, and likewise the start of the famous local plant of McCrady Brothers, who now do such an extensive business in hauling and in sand, coal, lime, stone, etc. James McCrady did much of the hauling work for the new plant, and McCrady Bros, have grown steadily ever since, until at the present time it has over 60 teams and 11 motor trucks, and is well known for reliability and promptness all over Allegheny County. The firm today consists of J. H. McCrady, J. H. McCrady, Jr., Ed. McCrady, W. F. McCrady, H. C. McCrady, J. F. Baldwin, and W. L. Bender. Late in 1875 the Edgar Thomson Steel Works (which are treated at length later in this article) got into operation, and no industrial developments of major importance appear in this district until 1882. In that year the famous "Duquesne Forge" to which reference is so frequently made by old inhabitants, was built at Rankin on the ground now occupied by the McClintic Marshall Construction Company. The Duquesne Forge (2) was originally constructed on Duquesne Way, Pittsburgh, by Joseph Heigh, William Miller later becoming a partner in the firm, and the name being changed to "Miller's Forge." The
Pittsburgh plant was torn down and rebuilt at Braddock in 1882 under the old name, "Duquesne Forge," Miller and Alexander McKim (now of Swissvale, Pa.) being partners in the enterprise. The river industry was of great importance in those days, and the forge made all sorts of boat and ship supplies, such as stanchions, shanks, shafts, chains, gears, etc., some of the forgings running as high as 100,000 pounds weight. The original firm had done work for Government torpedo boats during the Civil War, and when the Spanish War broke out the Rankin firm made some 300 cannon for the Government, weighing on an average 25,000 pounds apiece. The firm employed about 200 men, and was one of the large industries of its day. In 1905 McClintic Marshall absorbed the property. The success of the Lucy, Isabella, and Edgar Thomson Blast Furnaces was very alluring to other steel men in the early 80's, and in 1883
we find William Clark Sons and Company building the first of what is now known as the Carrie Furnaces at Rankin, on 35 acres of ground purchased from John Adams. The first blast furnace produced about 100 tons of iron a day, under the supervision of Superintendent Martin H. Thompson. The original furnace was removed from Port Washington, Ohio, and blown in February 29, 1884. They are each 100 feet high, with 23-foot bosh and 15-foot hearth. Subsequent superintendents of the plant have been: William Rotthof, Harry Watt, George K. Hamfeldt, Jacob A. Mohr.
The Carrie Furnace Company erected a second furnace in 1900, and the Carnegie Steel Company, which later took control, has built the following additional furnaces: Two furnaces in 1900. One furnace in 1903. Two furnaces in 1907. The acreage has been increased from 35 to 66 acres, and the production from 35,000 to 894,000 tons of pig iron annually. The plant now employs about 1,000 men, and is under the supervision of Mr. A. A. Corey, Jr., General Superintendent of the Homestead Steel Works. It is, of course, a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation.
The present operating staff of the plant consists of the following officials: Jacob A. Mohr, Superintendent, H. A. Berg, Assistant Superintendent, T. E. Kenney, Pay Clerk, Michael Ryan, General Operating Foreman, Chas. L. Davis, Assistant Master Mechanic, Wm. Jackson, Assistant Superintendent Electrical Department. In May, 1884, the Braddock Tannery, operated by Owen Sheekey and James Gallery, commenced operations in Rankin on the site of the present Wire Mill. It covers 17 acres and originally employed about 60 men, and in its best days did a business of from $150,000 to 200,000 annually. The plant, however, was burned out in 1886, and thereafter did business on a somewhat smaller scale, employing only about 35 men. A second disastrous fire occurred August 28, 1893, upon which the firm went
out of business, selling out to the Braddock Wire Company. On the occasion of the first fire they had sold about 12 acres to the wire company, and they now sold the remainder of their ground to the same concern. Information on this subject was secured from the sons of Mr. Owen Sheekey, and from the Superintendent of the Rankin Wire Mill, Mr. E. H. Broden. In 1885 the W. R. McCloy Glass Works were erected at Rankin Station, on a 5-acre tract of land fronting on the Union Siding of the P. McK. & Y. and B. & 0. Railroads, and extending back to the Monongahela river, the property adjoining the ground of the Duquesne Forge on the south. Here one of the first tank furnaces ever built in the Pittsburgh district for making crystal blown glass was constructed. The product chiefly consisted of lantern globes, fruit and candy jars. In the year 1887 The Braddock Glass Company, Ltd. was organized and incorporated, and
the capacity of the plant enlarged by the installation of one 10-pot furnace. This company employed about 150 men, and in addition to the former product, also turned out a complete line of lamp chimneys. In March, 1892, the plant was totally destroyed by fire, which is said to have originated from sparks emitted by a passing switching locomotive. The whole country was at that time entering a period of depression, and the works were consequently not rebuilt. In 1886 Col. Thomas Fitch and William Edenborn purchased 12 acres of land from the Sheekey Tannery and built the first Rankin Wire Mill, known as the "Braddock Wire Company." The development of the plant has been as follows: 1886 Rod Mill. 1888 Galvanizing Department. 1890 Nail Mill. 1891 Fence and barbed wire departments. 1891 Cooper shop. 1892 Warehouse. 1895 Rod mill rebuilt. 1898 Galvanizing department rebuilt. 1905 Nail mill rebuilt.
1907 Boiler house rebuilt and enlarged. 1907 Warehouse rebuilt. 1912 Galvanizing department rebuilt. 1913 Nail Mill rebuilt. The following list shows the resident managers of the plant, and the dates on which they took office: Col. Thos. Fitch 1886; August Mann 1902; Mr. Porter 1889; Chas. W. Lutz 1906; J. W. Govier 1889; F. H. Nullmeyer 1907;
Peter Mcllvrie 1890; F. D. Haynes 1909; Geo. Nash 1898; J. G. Mustin 1910; Walter C. Stone 1901; H. S. White 1913; E. H. Broden 1916.
The plant today produces rods, wire, wire nails, staples, galvanized wire, annealed wire, woven fence, barbed wire, and nail kegs, and employs about 1,250 men. In addition to Mr. G. W. Jewett, who is Manager of Wire Mills in the Pittsburgh District of the American Steel & Wire Company, the following men are now on the operating staff of the Rankin Works of the American Steel & Wire Company: E. H. Broden, E. D. Thompson, J. T. Saunders, William Murphy, J.
W. Kilburn, H. B. Trott, Thos. Chambers, John Tompos, M. E. Reyneke, John McAfee, Fred Hultgren, G. W. Jewett, Jr., P. Crane, R. E. Hurrell, C. S. Young, A. Faloona, P. Olson, W. M. Riedl, J. C. Jamison, A. J. Rylander, A. J. Day, Chas. Eddstrom, John Nelson, J. P. Caulfield, C. Hultgren, and P. McDonough. The plant from 1896 to 1898 was run under the name of the "Consolidated Wire Company," and was one of the holdings which John W. Gates, a heavy stockholder in the Consolidated, was later able to sell to the Steel Corporation.
A Braddock lumber firm which has withstood the test of years is the Braddock Lumber Company, originally the Braddock Planing Mill Co., established in 1887 by Henry Miller and W. A. Davis at the B. & 0. Railroad and Eighth Street. The plant later changed hands and became known as the Braddock Lumber Company, the present management taking charge in 1908. In 1916 all interests of the firm passed into the hands of the present manager, William McCollum, and his brother, Mark McCollum, who are now full owners of the establishment. The plant is one of the largest and best equipped planing mills in Western Pennsylvania, and has the largest retail lumber yard and most varied assortment
of stock in this district, employing at full capacity about 35 men. Officers: William McCollum, President; Lillian McCollum, Vice President; Mark McCollum, Secretary and Treasurer.
The Braddock Wire Plant was constructed by Col. Thos. W. Fitch in 1891 on 51/2 acres purchased from Redman & Haney. While the original plant produced but 90 tons of rods in 24 hours, the works today put out 400 tons of rods in 24 hours and 340 tons of wire, and the plant has shown steady progress. Col. Fitch was manager of the plant from 1891 until 1899, when it was taken over by the American Steel & Wire Company and Geo. W. Nash appointed superintendent May 1, 1899. The successive superintendents of the plant have been: William Farrell Jan., 1900 to July, 1901; August Mann July, 1901 to 1903; J. G. Mustin 1903 to 1906; F. H. Nullmeyer 1906 to 1907; H. S. White 1907 to 1912; E. H. Broden 1913 to 1916, F. B. Hill 1916 to date. The plant at present consists of one Garrett Rod Mill, one 216
block wire mill, 16 annealing furnaces, one cold drawing department, one power house, machine shop, carpenter, and other repair shops. Mr. A. Eyman is Assistant Superintendent of the Braddock plant.
Another Braddock firm that commenced operations about the same time is the Rankin plant of the Consolidated Expanded Metal Company, now operated by H. B. Chess, Jr., P. F. Chess, and others. The company has offices in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and produces metal lath and concrete reinforcement at the rate of about 14,000
yards of lath and 100,000 feet of reinforcement daily at Rankin. The original plant was erected about 1890 by Harvey B. Chess and Walter Chess, who removed a steel plant they had on the South Side to Rankin. Originally a puddling furnace was installed and a few plates rolled, but this business was soon abandoned. The original plant was erected on part of the A. Hayes estate, and has steadily grown since its inception, until now it employs from 100 to 150 men in the Rankin plant alone.
The original Price & Alman Lumber Company began business a little before the above firm began operations, Joseph Price starting a lumber business on Corey Avenue, Braddock, about 1887. In 1897 Samuel R. Alman entered the firm and the business was moved to its present location. Tha firm now employs about thirty men, runs a first class planing
mill, and does an extensive general lumber business.
Another Braddock lumber firm that has reached a ripe age is McBride Brothers, which started in 1892 on an acre of ground purchased from Chess Bros., and has continued to the present day putting out high grade planing mill products. From 1892 to 1913 the firm consisted of M. J. McBride and E. F. McBride, and from 1913 to date has consisted of H. E. McBride, W. J. McBride, and C. J. McBride. The equipment of the plant at this writing consists of individual motor drive for the usual planing mill machinery, such as moulder, rip saw, cut-off saw, shaper, drum sander, scroll saw, surfacer, joiner, etc.
A brick company that is one of the landmarks of Braddock, its plant lying high up on the bluff overlooking the Edgar Thomson Works, is the Keller & Milliken firm. They began operations in April, 1894, at the foot of Eighth Street, Braddock, moving in 1899 to the present location in North Braddock. The firm at present consists of John J. Keller and Homer A. Milliken, carries about 25 men, and produces from three to four million high grade brick per year.
Another firm which does business on quite a large scale is the Crown Wall Plaster Company, built in 1897 on ground purchased from E. R. Dowler. W. M. Holmes, original president of the company, died January 18, 1916, when Wesley B. Holmes was elected to that office. The present plant has a capacity of 100 tons of hard wall plaster per day, and
runs a factory 25 x 200 feet. They do business on both a retail and carload basis.
A Braddock enterprise that is now almost twenty years old is the Braddock Manufacturing Company, originally known as the Braddock Machine and Manufacturing Company. The plant was constructed in 1898 and 1899. The first stockholders' meeting was held November 2, 1899, in the office of Attorney Joseph F. Mayhugh, at which the following members were present: Henry Stanyon, James Sloss, Jno. B. Miller, R. V. Miller, Henry Gauermann. Jos. F. Mayhugh. The meeting voted the incorporation of the Braddock Machine & Manufacturing Company with a capital of 3,000. John D. Miller was
elected the first President and Henry Stanyon, Secretary and Treasurer, at the same meeting. On December 21, 1899, the capital stock was increased to 200,000 and we are informed that John Hutzen, James A. Russell, S. D. Hamilton, W. A. Kulp, Dr. G. E. Bair, Dr. Meals, William Howatt, John Rinard and Benj. Braznell, were prominent stockholders of the enlarged company. In January, 1902, W. E. Corey, A. R. Peacock, D. M. Clemson, Thomas Morrison, and Chas. E. Dinkey purchased practically all of the outstanding stock of this company, and again there was a reorganization. While the concern had previously been merely an iron foundry, the new directors took steps at once to enlarge its capacity, and changed it to a steel foundry with a 20-ton Open Hearth Furnace, and many additional improvements throughout the machine shop. Succeeding presidents of the firm were: John D. Miller, A. R. Peacock, R. G. Morrison,
On August 22, 1916, the old management was in turn bought out by a new company of which W. E. Troutman is President, R. W. Tener, Secretary and Treasurer, and F. B. McConnell, Manager. The new management has added a 20-ton O. H. Furnace to the equipment, making two 20-ton furnaces in all, and has installed many other improvements throughout the plant. The plant consists of a machine shop, foundry, and office building, and employs from 250 to 300 men. The firm is now capitalized at 300,000, and is capable of doing a business of a million and a half dollars annually. It is is known as the Braddock Manufacturing Company, producing high grade machinery and steel castings.
One of the minor industries of the preceding era of development was the Baker Chain Wagon Manufacturing Company, whose original plant was built at Rankin in 1899 on a 2-acre plot of ground, the first chief resident manager being David T. Robling, who held office until 1910. Another early plant, the Standard Chain Company, whose land adjoined
the Baker Chain Company's, has since been bought out by the American Chain Company, Incorporated, the present manager being Mr. Noah L. McArthur. While the original plant produced only about 400 tons of wrought iron and steel chain per month, the American Chain Co., Inc., now puts out about 850 tons of chain, ship cables, shackles, and automobile forgings monthly. The plant is fully equipped with chain welding hammers, drop hammers, forging hammers, bull dozers, steam hammers, and testing machines of the most modern pattern.
One of the largest plants of the district is the Rankin plant of the McClintic Marshall Construction Company employing in the neighborhood of a thousand men. No. 1 Shop was built in 1901, followed by Shop No. 2 in 1906. The Rankin plant occupies 20 acres of ground directly across the Monongahela river from the Homestead Steel Works. The two shops are duplicates of each other. The stock yard is about 150 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, traversed by four electric traveling cranes of 10 and 20 tons capacity. A large stock of material is kept constantly on hand to facilitate deliveries, and the company, being the largest independent manufacturer and erector of bridges and buildings in the United States, is known all over the country. Each main shop building is 280 feet wide by 600 feet long, equipped with 20 electric traveling cranes, ranging from 5 to 30 tons capacity, which handle the work from the time it enters the shop until it leaves by the railroad. The punching, milling, reaming, and shearing machinery, all electrically driven, is the best obtainable, and the equipment throughout is thoroughly modern in every respect. In the main shop girders up to 90 tons in weight can be loaded on cars. The Company's general offices are on the first floor of a three-story office building, while on the second and third stories are 110 draughtsmen. The Rankin officials of the plant are as follows: E. W. Pittman, Manager; R. A. Pendergrass, Engineer; K. M. McHose, Assistant Manager; H. B. Charles, Purchasing Agent; E. J. Patterson, Assistant Treasurer; C. O. Miller, Auditor ; E. A. Gibbs, Manager of Erection.
The Sterling Steel Foundry is one of the newest of Braddock's enterprises, being constructed in 1901 by the Sterling Steel Foundry on 2 1/2 acres purchased from Samuel Dempster. While the original plant produced but 1,000 tons per month, it now puts out 1,500 tons monthly of high grade steel castings. The plant employs about 300 men, and has a
present size of 400 x 250 feet. Mr. Geo. W. Smith is President, other executives being: Wm. Nease, Vice President, H. G. Smith, Treasurer, M. A. Quinn, Secretary. G. J. Chandler, Sales Manager, D. B. Webb, Superintendent, R. T. Mullett, Assistant Manager. The equipment of the present plant is as follows: Two 20-ton Open Hearth furnaces. One 30-ton crane. One 20-ton crane. Three 10-ton cranes. Three 5-ton cranes. In a fuller history of the town, attention would have to be given to the work of the many contractors who have built the town, and such a review would give in detail the accomplishments of such men as George Hogg, F. F. Schellenberg, W. S. Husband, T. A. Gillespie, and of the Hodder Construction Company and the Melcher Bros. While space is entirely lacking to recite the histories of these firms, their accomplishments are always before our eyes; their work is itself a silent but impressive monument.
One of the latest industries of this thriving little city is The Pittsburgh Machine Tool Company, which erected its present plant in 1910 on a plot of ground 100 x 200 feet purchased from the Dawes Manufacturing Company. The Company was capitalized at 250,000, having originally been located on the Pittsburgh North Side, and moved to the present location in May, 1911. The plant contains a thoroughly modern and up to date equipment of machine tools, such as lathes, planers, shapers, milling machines, gear cutters, etc., and turns out engine lathes, 26 inch, to 48 inch swing, and Curtis Rotary Pumps to the value of about 300,000 annually. The com pany employs about 100 men. F. J. Curtis is President and Manager of the present organization, Frank Moore, Vice President, and E. L. Taggart,
Secretary-Treasurer.
All in all, the industries of Braddock are such as would be the boast of many a prouder and more populous city. For every man, woman, and child within her gates she produces daily more than a thousand pounds of commercial metal. Her products encircle the globe, and lie in every land under every flag. On ships, on boats, on automobiles, aeroplanes, or trains however you go and wherever you go, there will you find the workmanship of this busy little city. Far indeed is the Braddock of today from the Braddock of 1850. Silent is the kingfisher and the bobolink, and gone are the green fields, the shady groves, and running brooks. For the spirit of Braddock is a virile spirit. Impatient and afire with energy, she shook off the soft Arcadian mantle that nature had thrown about her and descended into the dust and blood of the commercial arena, only to arise, nobler than before, with the standard of steel supremacy in her grimy hand. Not without pain and privation, travail and unceasing effort has she scattered her trademark all over the earth. She knows no rest; her mills and furnaces never sleep, the city's natural life is a spasm of human
effort, and the thunder of her forges marks her heart beats. All day the clang of steel assails the ear, and at night a hundred lurid flames set up the pillar of fire that is the core of Pittsburgh's steel district, itself the steel center of the world. Not steel or iron has made industrial Braddock, but brains and energy. With these qualities she has endowed her sons, these and sublime courage. For, like a Spartan mother, she is a stern teacher. Those that chain the fiery monster, liquid steel, work in the Valley of the Shadow, and learn to look unflinching into the mouth of hell. But such a school makes men Jones, Schwab, Gayley, Morrison, Kennedy, Kerr, the Dinkey
boys, linger, Farrell, Knox, of such caliber are her graduates.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 81]


THEMAEdgar Thomson Steel Works
TEXTIn the decade following the Civil War came the greatest period of business development this country has ever had, and a variety of causes combined to focalize this prosperity on Western Pennsylvania, the coal and iron center of the country. During that disastrous conflict the price of iron had leaped from $18 to 73.60 a ton, and within six years of the surrender at Appomatox, the railroad mileage of the country had doubled in a gigantic business reaction. At the same period came the development of the Connellsville coke region under H. C. Frick, the first stirring of the natural gas industry in this section, and the introduction in America of the cheap and efficient
Bessemer process for making steel. Iron rails in this period sold for as high as 100 a ton, and a ton of steel rails brought 175 in gold. These favoring conditions gave a great impetus to the iron and steel business of the Pittsburgh district, and it is not surprising to find that brilliant and successful Pittsburgh ironmaster, William Coleman, greatly interested in the new Bessemer process. As early as 1867, in fact, we find him endeavoring to interest his associates in the manufacture of steel rails.
When Andrew Carnegie himself, in the summer of 1872, saw how easily and cheaply the new Bessemer rails were made in Europe, he rushed back to Pittsburgh filled with enthusiasm for a Bessemer rail plant of his own. An option was immediately secured on 107 acres of land at Braddock along the Monongahela river, and late in 1872 work was commenced on a wharf to handle the river freight. On January 1, 1873, the deal was completed when William Coleman purchased, for himself and as sociates, 61.7 acres of ground from Robert McKinney and 45 acres from John McKinney, at a total cost of 219,003.30. On this ground was built the world-famous Edgar Thomson Steel Works. The firm for the operation of the proposed plant was regularly organized on January 13, 1873, the partners and various stock holdings being as follows: Andrew Carnegie 250.00, William Coleman 100.000, Andrew Kloman 50.000, Henry Phipps 50.000, David McCandless 50.000, Wm. P. Shinn 50.000, John Scott 50.000, David A. Stewart 50.000, Thomas Carnegie 50.000 = CAPITAL STOCK 700,000.
This firm was known as "Carnegie, McCandless & Company", and from motives of diplomacy they named the new plant after J. Edgar Thomson, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad at the time. A. L. Holley, one of the most prominent steel mill engineers in the world, was secured to design the new plant. Some of his original prints are still in
existence in the Edgar Thomson drawing room. Phineas Barnes, who had just built the Joliet plant, was commissioned to superintend the erection, and accordingly may be called the first General Superintendent of the Edgar Thomson Works. Early in 1873 the work on the wharf had been completed, under Chief Carpenter Ben Tuttle, and ground for the works proper was broken April 13, 1873, most of the grading and excavating being done under the supervision of Contractor Hughes and Messrs. Collins, Shoemaker, Syd Perry, and Thomas Cosgrove. The brickwork was originally let to a Mr. Miller from Bellevue, but at an early date this contract was cancelled and an employee, Thomas Addenbrook given full supervision. The business boom of the country, however, suddenly collapsed in 1873, and the new steel mill project seriously threatened to follow suit. In this emergency, however, they succeeded in floating a 200,000 issue of bonds, which tided them over the crisis, and construction operations, which had ceased altogether for about ten days, gradually resumed, although not with much impetus until 1874. In this same year (1873) Morrell, President of the Cambria Iron Works, promoted Daniel N. Jones over the head of Captain William R. Jones, (who was really next in line for that honor) to the superintendency of that plant. "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Morrell had known Jones for years, and in his eyes he was still an irresponsible youth. Bitterly resenting this slight, Captain Jones resigned, and in August, 1873, came to Edgar Thomson as master mechanic, incidentally breaking up the entire Cambria organization, and bringing with him a nucleus of devoted fellow workers who were experienced steel men, and made the new plant the success that it was. Two early Braddock firms aided materially in the construction of the early plant: the McVay Walker Foundry (built 1862) made many of the smaller castings, and James McCrady did a great deal of the hauling. On the completion of the plant, the contract of Phineas Barnes ex-
pired, and Captain William R. Jones was appointed General Superintendent. The first blow was made at the Converting Works August 26, 1875, and the first rail rolled, with impressive ceremonies, September 1, 1875. The plant of which Captain Jones was now to take charge is described by the old Allegheny Chronicle as follows: "A two-5-ton-converter plant and rail mill with nominal capacity of 225 tons daily. Cupola house 107 x 44 x 46 ft. high. Converter house
129 x 84 x 30 feet high. House for blowing engines 54 x 48 x 36 ft. high. Boiler house 178 x 40 x 18 ft. high. Producer house 90 x 46 x 26 feet high, artificial gas being used to heat the furnaces. The rail mill itself is
380 x 100 x 25 ft. high, with a wing (Blooming Mill) 100 x 35 x 17 ft. high. Office and shop building 200 x 60 x 18 ft. high, with a coal and iron building 40 x 20 x 10 ft. high. The producer house and rail mill have iron
side columns with timber side framing, all others being entirely of brick." For these little 5-ton converters A. L. Holley invented the removable converter bottom, vastly prolonging the converter's usefulness. The Blooming Mill was a 32-inch mill, run by Mackintosh-Hemphill engines. In the boiler house were 20 cylinder boilers with two large flues passing through the center about 25 feet long. The rail mill was a "three-high" 23-inch, hook-and-tong mill, operated by a 46 x 48" engine. At the stands were six men, three on each side, who with hooks suspended from above, caught the rail when it passed through and lifted it to the next pass (it was a positive roll train, horizontal construction). There were twelve to fourteen rail passes in all. The hot saws were operated by a 14 x 24" engine. There were four straightening presses, and four drill presses operated by a 12 x 20" engine. Two cold saws were operated by an 11 x 20" engine. We must pause to note a change in the name of the concern, even before this plant commenced operation. The panic prompted the Pennsylvania legislature to pass an act in 1874 authorizing the formation of limited liability companies. In the failure of Andrew Kloman, a member of the original firm, his partners saw the dangers of the existing contract, and accordingly on October 12, 1874, the firm of Carnegie, McCandless & Company dissolved into the Edgar Thomson Steel Company, Limited, capital 1,000,000, which purchased the new plant for 631,250.43 and assumed a mortgage thereon of 201,000. From an old catalogue, whose date I have placed at 1877, we find the organization of this firm to have been as follows: MEMBERS: A. Carnegie, of Carnegie, Bro. & Co., 57 Broadway, New York. John Scott, President, A. V. R. R. Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. D. McCandless, Vice Pres., Exchange Nat. Bank, Pittsburgh, Pa. D. A. Stewart, Pres. Pgh. Loco. & Car Works, Pittsburgh, Pa. Thos. M. Carnegie, Treas., Keystone Bridge Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. H. Phipps, Jr., Treas., Lucy Furnace Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Wm. P. Shinn, V. P., A. V. R. R. Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. MANAGERS: D. McCandless, Chairman. John Scott, Thomas M. Carnegie, D. A. Stewart, Wm. P. Shinn, Secretary and Treasurer. OPERATING OFFICERS: Wm. P. Shinn, General Manager, Capt. Wm. R. Jones, Gen'l Supt. Capt. Thos. H. Lapsly, Supt. Rail Mill.
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THEMAVerwaltung durch Captain William R. Jones
TEXTHere must have been a remarkable man. After a lapse of almost 30 years his aging employees still glow with pleasure at the mention of his name, and the most calm and philosophic of them flush with resentment at the suggestion that he could have had a fault. The whole world, in fact, seems leagued together to give this man a title of nobility "which it will forever defend." Frankly admitted on all sides is the fact that Jones had a fiery temper. Beyond that, the most cynical, the most philosophic of his men utterly refuse to say one word that is not complimentary to the dead lion, and the conscientious historian can do nothing but record eulogy on eulogy. His remarkable hold on the hearts of men originated in his physical and moral courage. Physically he was absolutely fearless, and morally he had the courage to give expression to every good impulse of his soul; to give freely and generously on every impulse, undeterred by fear of untoward consequences or accusations of partiality; likewise, he had the courage to confess his error when he was wrong, to apologize to the humblest of his men when he thought he had erred, and under any circumstances, to do or say whatever he thought at the moment to be right. He was a great lover of sports, and in encouraging them established a tradition for his office which has ever since obtained. On the old race track (now the Union R. R. yard) he and C. C. Teeter and others often had horse races, and the Captain was himself a stockholder in the old Pittsburgh Base Ball Club. One of the greatest mechanical geniuses of his time, and a born
leader of men, he was a most fortunate head for the young plant to secure. On the operating staff of Captain Jones were the following men: Engineers and Chief Draughtsmen: Jno. Stevenson, Jr., Simon C. Collin, Wm. I. Mann, P. T. Berg, and C. M. Schwab, C. E. ; Blast Furnaces, Julian Kennedy, J. Cremer, James Gayley; Furnace Master Mechanic, Rich. Stevens ; Mill Master Mechanic, Thos. James; Electrician, Wm. R. Pierce; Superintendent Boilers, John Noey; Converting Works, John Rinard and H. W. Benn; Carpenter, Geo. Nimon; Transportation and Labor, F. L. Bridges and Thos. Cosgrove; Chief Clerk, C. C. Teeter; Roll Designer, Robert Morris; Rail Mills, Capt. Thos. H. Lapsly and John Hutzen ; Finishing Department, John Frederick; Secretary, W. E. Gettys; Masonry, Thos. Addenbrook ; Chief Chemists : A. J. Preusse, S. A. Ford, H. C. Torranee, Albert DeDeken. During that September the young plant put out 1,119 tons of rails, at a cost of 57 per ton. The very first rails sold for 80 a ton, but the average price for the month netted 66.50 f . o. b. works, making a profit for the firm of 10,630.50 at the very start. By the end of the year the rail profits amounted to 41,970. During 1876 they made 181,000 and in 1877, 190,379. The profits of the young concern would have been even larger but for the steadily decreasing price brought by steel rails: 1873 120 per ton,
1874 100 per ton, 1875 70 per ton, 1876 58 per ton, 1877 45 per ton, 1878 42 per ton. With such a falling market, the ingenuity of Jones was taxed to the utmost, and the economy of Shinn and Phipps exerted to the full. It
was at this time, in fact, that Wm. P. Shinn, General Manager, introduced the exact cost keeping system, which, perfected by Phipps, has obtained ever since. Only by constant invention and improvement could Jones keep operating costs below the falling market prices, for you will note that the selling price of rails in 1877 was 12 below the cost of producing those rails in 1875. As early as 1877, therefore, we find Jones making marked improvements at the mill, one of which was an automatic roller table, operated by a single man, to displace the hook and tong men at the stands. The longest rail rolled in ordinary practice was 40 feet, although at the Centennial of 1876 the young plant had a 90-foot rail on exhibition. We come now to the next great period of development at the plant. While blooms for the rail mill were secured sometimes from Cambria and occasionally even from England, most of the pig iron came from Lucy Furnaces. All of the Edgar Thomson firm were not interested in Lucy's welfare, and hence discussions arose as to the proper price Edgar Thomson should pay for pig iron. Furthermore, under the direction of Captain Jones, the plant was rapidly proving itself a most profitable venture, and the success of the Lucy project was very enticing. From these considerations it was therefore decided to erect a blast furnace plant at Edgar Thomson, and the campaign started in 1879 under the supervision of Mr. Julian Kennedy. Andrew Kloman, one of the original partners, had failed, and a small charcoal furnace which he had built at Escanaba was purchased for 16,000 or so and transported to Braddock, where it became the old 65 x 15 ft. Furnace "A." This furnace was blown in January 4, 1880, and on her first lining produced an average of 56 tons daily, with about 2,650 pounds coke to the ton of iron. Mr. Richard Stevens, who had come to the plant in March, 1875, was given the position of Master Mechanic at the new Furnace Department, and ably assisted in making it a success. A second furnace, "B", was blown in April 2, 1880, and the third furnace of the group, the "C", November 6, 1880. Furnace "B" in her first year produced an average of 5,500 tons per month on 2,570 pounds coke to the ton of iron, and the "C" Furnace produced similar results. Labor was cheap and improvements came rapidly, and by 1881 the new plant had cleared 2,690,157.57 and its prosperity remained unchecked. During that year the rapid growth of the steel industry justified further expansion, and on April 1st, Carnegie Bros. & Co., as the firm was now called purchased 26 acres from Wm. Martin and wife, covering part of the present Open Hearth site and the Union Railroad yard tracks. In that year a Blooming Mill was erected, being enlarged to 36" size, followed in 1882 by a new converting works. Plans were also drawn for a new General Office building, and in the spring of 1882 the Captain at last took a well earned vacation and went to Europe, an experience which we may imagine he enjoyed to the full. The corner stone of the present general office building was laid May 27, 1882, and from the papers found therein we learn that even at that early date the Amalgamated Association, a labor union, was having trouble with the manufacturers, although it did not develop into anything
serious for years later. In England, Captain Jones, who was such a common, every-day, figure on Braddock streets, where he would stroll along eating peanuts (which often cost him 25 or 50c a package "no change, thank you,")
in England, this man was greeted as a marvel and a genius. What he had accomplished in production had astonished the British manufacturers and revolutionized the steel industry. The profits of the Braddock plant had rolled up enormously, and already repaid in full the original investment: Meanwhile the blast furnace development continued, Furnace "D" being blown in April 19, 1882, "E" June 27, 1882, "F" October 7 1886 and "G", June 20, 1887. On April 1, 1887, an addition to the plant was purchased from John McKinney, 21 acres in all, covering the site of the present No. 3 Mill and Splice Bar department. Just as the early steel makers gave their lives to the development the young plant, so did their families abandon their very homes to its encroaching progress. About where the electric shop now stands two rows of ten houses each had been built in 1876 and across the old road was another row of houses where No. 3 Mill now is. Four fine brick houses were built in 1882 on the site of the present "J and K" furnaces, and at different times were occupied by Julian Kennedy, Richard Stevens, Thom Cosgrove C. M. Schwab, C. C. Teeter, Morgan Harris, Michael Killeen, Thos James. These houses now began to be too close to the smoke and dirt of the works for the comfort of the occupants. In September, 1888, Jones' greatest invention, the "Jones Mixer" tons capacity was placed in operation. The iron from all the furnaces B poured into this mixer, and thus uniform iron is supplied.
The plant up to this time had been under the control of labor organizations. The Amalgamated Association broke up in 1884, only to be succeeded by the Knights of Labor. The plant had been run on an eight-hour basis, and when the company attempted to inaugurate a twelve-hour basis in 1887, trouble ensued. The men refused to sign the annual agreement, and a strike followed December 31, 1887, which continued until May 12, 1888, the plant being entirely shut down except for the mechanical department. When the men finally surrendered and signed the sliding scale
inaugurated at that time (by which their pay, in many cases, varies with the selling price of the product) also accepting the 12-hour day, the backbone of Union labor was broken in the Edgar Thomson mills. To C. C. Teeter much of the credit for this first sliding scale must be given. Captain Jones had often told the officials of his company that if they would only give him the chance he would build them a rail mill that was worthy of the name and would far surpass the old one that they had, and in 1887 he got his chance. In that year the new mill, now known as No. 1, was constructed, with every late improvement of the day installed, and the old mill was slated for the scrap heap.
In the new mill the ordinary three high, positive roll train, run by a single engine, was divided into three trains, the first five passes being made in one three-high 24" train, the second five in a second three-high 24" train, to which the first delivers directly, and the last finishing pass in a two-high train of 24" rolls. Each train is run by its own independent engine, the first and second being 46 x 60", and the third 30 x 48". This mill was nearly automatic, one man handling the levers which lift the tables, move the tumblers, etc. Each roll train had a hydraulic crane for changing rolls. From the bloom furnaces to the hot beds, the roll trains, tables, etc., were in one long, straight building 520 x 60 ft, the hot beds being in a wing at right angles to this. The straightening department was another long building 625 x 47 ft., parallel to the mill. The roll shop was in a wing 60 x 60 ft. on the north side of the roll trains. The steel department got its steam from 70 boilers of various makes. The converters were also changed at this time to 10-ton capacity, to supply the increased demand for steel. Needless to say, the new mill was fully up to expectations, and in 1889 the annual output of the plant in rails leaped to 277,401 tons. In that year, the last one of his life, the Captain placed a capstone on a life of charity and benevolence by his humane and vigorous efforts on the occasion of the Johnstown flood. As soon as word was received of this terrible disaster (May 30, 1889) he dispatched a trusted messenger to investigate, and immediately upon receipt of reliable information he systematized the collection of supplies which formed the first relief to come to the stricken people. He shortly assumed command of the Pennsylvania Railroad workmen sent to Johnstown, and did heroic work in alleviation of the suffering of that devastated district. We come now to the close of this remarkable administration. Jones had taken a new and untried plant, built up an efficient organization, and made a name for the firm all over the commercial world. Just as he had erected the old G. A. R. monument on the hill above Braddock, so did he put Braddock itself on the world's map. On the night of September 26, 1889, Furnace "C" had been "hanging" for 36 hours, and Captain Jones, Schwab, Gayley, Addenbrook, and others were working around it. A workman was engaged in striking a bar inserted in the tapping hole, to open the furnace up, when Jones, dissatisfied with his efforts, said, "Let me do it," as was his habitual expression. Seizing the sledge he struck the bar, and at the same moment the furnace burst, its contents splashing over his head and shoulders. Springing quickly backward, the Captain struck his head, in falling, upon a modock cinder car. He never regained consciousness, and died in the Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital September 28, 1889. The whole community was appalled and the country shocked by the
death of this famous character, and according to one historian a throng larger than the population of the town itself followed the casket to the grave. In this catastrophe more than one man saw the loss of his best friend and counsellor, and, filing past his departed leader cold in death, felt with Marc Antony, "My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar."

OCTOBER 1, 1889-SEPTEMBER 30, 1892.

Under an able master had been trained and developed one of the
greatest brains in the American steel industiy. Starting in 1880 as stake
driver on the engineer corps, (where he worked with a son of Captain
Jones) C. M. Schwab's engineering ability and knowledge of men early
gained attention, and by the time of Jones' death he had become Chief
Engineer of the plant, and assistant to the Captain, having supervision
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ZEIT1892
THEMALeitung von Charles M. Schwab
TEXTUnder an able master had been trained and developed one of the greatest brains in the American steel industiy. Starting in 1880 as stake driver on the engineer corps, (where he worked with a son of Captain Jones) C. M. Schwab's engineering ability and knowledge of men early gained attention, and by the time of Jones' death he had become Chief
Engineer of the plant, and assistant to the Captain, having supervision of the Homestead plant under that official. (The Homestead plant was under the direction of the Edgar Thomson General Superintendent up to October 1, 1892). He was, therefore, an experienced executive when he took charge of the Edgar Thomson establishment on the death of Jones. The historian is not a little puzzled by the conflicting descriptions that he receives of this man : some say he was a superlatively great engineer, others that he was not; some say he was a great inventor, others that he was not ; some say he achieved a high technical development, others that he did not. But a man does not rise from stake driver to General Superintendent in nine years without some very good reason. The best analysis of his genius is, perhaps, as Mr. Wm. P. Brennan expresses it: He was a great general. He had a true sense of proportion, an appreciation of the relative value of conflicting factors, a mind that could grasp the most complex situation, and last, but not least, he inspired his men with confidence in him and his ability, had perfect knowledge of human nature, and absolute mastery over men. I believe that unskilled in military tactics as he was, Chas. M. Schwab could have assumed command of the Union armies during the Civil War and achieved as great success as Ulysses S. Grant, and incidentally I doubt if he would have wasted 10,000 men in 20 minutes at Cold Harbor. An intuitive grasp of essentials and consummate tact made him great. Schwab was (and is) a thorough going democrat to the very core.
To William Powell (clerk to Thomas Addenbrook) he confides: "Do you know, I can hardly realize that here I am General Superintendent of this plant. Why should I be General Superintendent? What do I know so much more than you fellows about this business?" Of course, to his superior officers he turned quite a different side, and would blandly take credit for anything and everything that came along, but this democracy was real, and not an assumed trait of the man. Gold or titles have never confused or blurred his vision. To him, regardless of wealth or title, every man is still just a human being whom he judges on his own intrinsic value as a man. He has the sensitive, visionary soul of a great artist, and his consummate tact has arisen from his innate desire to see things "go smoothly.". He always hated "scenes," arguments, or disturbances of any kind. Only a few years ago I heard this lord of millions yes hundreds of millions explain and apologize and explain again when he had unwittingly, by the good-natured use of a pet nickname, affronted a choleric old employee of former days. Although, in the eyes of those present, Schwab had not been guilty of the slightest faux pas, he seemed exasperated to his very soul by an apparent blunder. For the man has perfect tact; he is an artist, and the instrument on which he plays is men. The band which he organized at the steel works is giving a concert, and standing in the crowd Schwab discovers a lady of mature years. He is distinctly annoyed by the discomfort so elderly a person must be in, and finally going out he invites her in, and gives her a chair. He is good-natured and big hearted: He and Cosgrove are passing through the mill, when a laboratory employee throws a snowball at one or the other which hits Schwab. Schwab's temper flames up, and the man immediately seeks employment elsewhere. However, the laboratory needs the man, and Cosgrove has the temerity to take the question up with Schwab. "Oh well, take him back, I don't care. But explain to the darn fool that I can't have every Tom, Dick and Harry on the plant firing snowballs at me. Look how many thousand men there are here!" a true and just plea. The labor world is violently disturbed, and every now and then a committee of men conies up from the mill to demand higher wages. Schwab's first and only thought is to avoid a scene, or any rupture of harmony. He welcomes the men cordially, naturally, gracefully; he gives everyone a chair and passes around a box of fine cigars. There is in his manner no trace of superiority, hostility, or suspicion. He talks with the men about their work, their families, their hobbies, and relates jokes that occur to him. The men are pleased and rather surprised at the pleasantness of their visit. Time passes. The men mention their complaint in a casual way. Schwab listens to them courteously, sympathetically, and frankly explains the situation as man to man, not as employer to inferior. If he can do anything for them he promises to do it; if he can't, he explains just why he can't. He inspires the confidence of the men, and they believe what he tells them. Shortly, taking another cigar, they file out to the accompaniment of cordial "good-byes." Frequently there has been no wage increase, but likewise, and what is more important to Schwab no unpleasantness. C. M. Schwab's operating staff consisted of the following men:
James Gayley, Superintendent Blast Furnaces; M. Killeen, Asst. Supt. Furnaces; Thos. Cosgrove, Supt. Transportation; H. W. Benn, Supt. Converting Works; S. A. Ford, Chief Chemist; H. B. A. Reiser, Chief Engineer; Rich. Stevens, Master Mechanic Blast Furnaces; Thos. James, Master Mechanic, Steel Department; Geo. Nimon and A. McWilliams, Foremen Carpenters; Conser McClure, Roll Designer; John Noey, Superintendent Boilers; John Hutzen, T. H. Lapsly and D. L. Miller, Supt. Blooming and Rail Mills ; C. C. Teeter, Chief Clerk ; Thomas Addenbrook, Foreman Masonry ; Roger Bowman, Supt. Finishing Department; Electrician, Wm. Pierce and C. M. Tolman; Secretary, Otto Rhinehart. In 1890 the old Blooming Mill, with 36" three-high train (operated by 36 x 72" engine) was changed to a three-high 40" mill, C. Mercader being the supervising engineer for that work. The plant at that time consumed about 25,000,000 gallons of water daily, and there were five main pumping stations. The Electric Light Plant contained three Brush 65-light dynamos, running about 175 arc lamps. Power was provided by three 11 x 22" Buckeye engines. There was a locomotive repair house measuring 54 x 124 feet, and whereas the original plant had had but one broad gauge and one narrow gauge locomotive for yard service, the plant now boasted 12 broad gauge and 14 narrow gauge locomotives. Meanwhile the development of the Blast Furnaces continued, two more blast furnaces being blown in: Furnace "H" February 27, 1890; Furnace "I" August 14, 1890. The whole battery of blast furnaces produced, during Schwab's administration, an average of 54,782 tons of iron monthly. Only one rail mill was operated during his term of office, the new mill having entirely superseded the old one, which now became known as "No. 2 Mill." The new mill produced an average of 26,051 tons monthly, as compared with less than 15,000 tons produced by the old mill in its best days. The plant now employed about 3,500 men, and produced on an average of 1,550 tons of furance iron per day. The record for a single
blast furnace was 457 tons for 24 hours, and the best daily rail record 1,417 tons. Like his predecessor, Schwab was very generous, and gave churches in his town of every denomination many a helping hand. More than one church building, in fact, stands today as a memorial of his generosity and breadth of religious viewpoint. To the traditions of the office that he held, Schwab added the encouragement of the arts, and at his own expense equipped and organized a fine brass band. Floyd St. Clair, one of his employees, became the leader of this band, and later made a name for himself in the world of music. After the fatal riots at the Homestead plant in 1892, Schwab, who
was well known and liked by the Homestead men from his former work there, was asked to take sole charge of the wrecked organization of that concern. This work he undertook (with the greatest success) October 1, 1892, and James Gayley, Superintendent of the Blast Furnaces, became General Superintendent.
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ZEIT1896
THEMALeitung von James Gayley
TEXTJames Gayley (Born 1855 at Lock Haven, Pa. Graduated as mining engineer from Lafayette College 1876. Subsequently became first vice president of the U. S. Steel Corporation. In 1904 and 1905 was President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and from 1905 to 1911 President of the Board of Directors) was probably the greatest technician who ever filled the superintendency. His record at the Crane Iron Works (Catasauqua, Pa.) Missouri Furnace Co., (St. Louis) and E. & G. Brooke Iron Co., (Birdsboro, Pa.) had attracted the notice of Captain Jones, and in 1885 he came to Edgar Thomson as Superintendent of the Blast Furnaces. In this capacity he made a record as an economist, and reduced the coke consumption to a point that has been little if any excelled since that time. He invented the bronze cooling plate for blast furnace walls, the auxiliary casting stand for Bessemer steel plants, and was the first to use the compound condensing blowing engine with the Blast Furnace. He also invented the dry-air blast, for which the Franklin Institute awarded him the Elliott Cresson medal. Under his superintendency the Blast Furnace Department had commanded the notice of the whole metallurgical world, and by his wise selection of stock, and general management, with certain other favoring conditions, his furnaces made record productions. Gayley, in fact, was to the blast furnace what Jones had been to the rail mill. Brilliant and intellectual as he was, the spirit of education and enlightenment found in him a willing disciple. Not only was he a keenly commercial and technical steel-master, but he was also imbued with the inspiring, uplifting, educational fire that in other days animated such men as Sturmius, Rabelais, Montaigne, Ascham, Mulcaster, Pestalozzi, and Rousseau. Far in advance of his time, he was interested heart and soul in the instruction and education of his men, and under his auspices the finest lectures were delivered, gratis, for them in Braddock Carnegie Free Library. Some of the printed reports of these lectures are still extant, and are the finest brochures obtainable on their respective subjects. Mrs. Gayley, on her part, gave frequent talks on household economy and domestic science.
Never was there a more sincere, earnest, or conscientious man in the superintendent's chair. The use of molten iron, together with Ferro Manganese, had originated at Edgar Thomson, but under this administration the process was abandoned. (In this connection it should also be noted, in the metallurgical line, that the direct process, i. e., using molten iron direct from the blast furnaces, was first used in America at this plant according to Mr. H. W. Benn, who believes it began in 1881 or '82. He also states that Edgar Thomson was the first plant to cast on cars successfully.)
Mr. Gayley's operating staff consisted of D. G. Kerr, Supt. Furnaces; Rich. Stevens, M. M. Furnaces; Thos. James, M. M. Steel Department; C. M. Tolman, Supt. Electrical Department; John Noey, Supt. Boilers; H. W. Benn, Supt. Converting Works; Geo. Nimon and A. McWilliams, Foremen Carpenters; Thos. Cosgrove, Supt. Labor and Trans-
portation; Conser McClure, Roll Designer; C. C. Teeter, Chief Clerk; Thos. Addenbrook, Supt. Masonry ; D. L. Miller, Supt. Rail Mill ; Wm. Connor, Superintendent Foundry; G. E. Harris, Supt. Finishing Department; Chief Draughtsmen and Engineers: H. B. A. Reiser, E. E. Slick, F. Du-Peyster Thompson, and Jno. F. Lewis; Secretary, James E. Mitchell. Gayley had charge of the plant during the panic years that followed Grover Cleveland's election in 1892. Times were very bad, labor was restless, and the Carnegie officials exacting in their demands, and his position
was extremely difficult. Not content with obliterating groves of trees, township roads, and whole rows of dwelling houses, the expanding plant now turned back the very streams from their courses, and in 1893 Turtle Creek's course was moved 1,125 feet east from the old bed back of the Converting Mill to its present location. On May 12, 1891, Carnegie Bros. & Co. had purchased about 7V2 acres of land from John Dalzell, chiefly in what is now the Union Railroad Valley yard, and on December 28, 1891, 12 additional acres from Wm. J. McKinney (on the site of the present O. H. plant) and again on July 13, 1892, the Carnegie Steel Company (note the change in name) Limited, secured about 11 acres from Wm. F. Knox in the Union Railroad main track yard and Turtle Creek district. With this expansion in territory the way was clear for an extension that the plant badly needed, viz: a Foundry Department, and under
Mr. Gayley the entire Foundry Department was constructed. No. 1 Foundry commenced operation July 11, 1893, producing
during the remainder of that year 1893 tons. This was probably the first foundry of the kind to make ingot moulds sucessfully with direct molten metal from the furnaces. No. 2 Foundry commenced operations January 11, 1894, and is
used for making general iron castings, and the third and last foundry commenced foundry work March 19, 1894, producing brass and bronze castings. The original Brass Foundry of Mr. Gayley's time was very small, and has since been torn down. Of this new department, Mr. William Connor, formerly of the Mackintosh & Hemphill Co., became Superintendent. During Mr. Gayley's administration the abandoned old mill was again brought into use, producing some 32,000 tons of rails, and entering upon a second lease of life. Mr. Gayley's exhaustive technical knowledge was desired by the officials in the City Office, and he was accordingly given the post of Ore Agent March 1, 1895, being succeeded at Edgar Thomson by Mr. Thomas Morrison, General Superintendent of the Duquesne Works.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 119]


ZEIT1903
THEMALeitung durch Thomas Morrison
TEXTThomas Morrison was first of all a great mechanician and rail mill man, next a great financier, but withal a hard, practical, common sense man of business, blunt, direct, and outspoken, four square with the world. He had the usual distaste of the man with a mechanical turn of mind for the vagaries of words and phrases and the confusion of official papers. As a rule, he did not dictate his correspondence, being impatient with such affairs, and turning with more cheerfulness to problems of a mechanical or operative nature. He was a strict, fair, and just disciplinarian, and when he left we find his men presenting him with a fine watch and heartily expressing their conviction that he had given everyone a fair deal. With Mr. Morrison from Duquesne came Mr. G. E. F. Gray (ex Pennsylvania Railroad, January 18, 1873, until October, 1879 With Dithridge Chimney Company, 17th Street, South Side, Pittsburgh, from October 1879, to September, 1881; Inspector and Clerk, Edgar Thomson Works, September 14 1881, to October, 1886; Chief Clerk, Homestead, October, 1886, until December 1887; Chief Clerk, Duquesne Works, January 1, 1888, until March 1, 1895; March 1, 1895, Chief Clerk Edgar Thomson Works) as Chief Clerk, who had served in that capacity at Duquesne and Homestead, and was eminently fitted for that position by integrity of character and broad, conservative judgment. This position Mr. Gray has held ever since.
Mr. Morrison's operating staff was as follows: Assistant Gen'l Sup't, Chas. E. Dinkey ; Supt. Blast Furnaces, D. G. Kerr, Geo. Crawford, and H. A. Brassert; Master Mechanic Furnaces, Rich. Stevens, Jno. F. Lewis, A. E. Maccoun; M. M. Steel Department, Thos. James; Chief Electrician, A. E. Maccoun, following C. M. Tolman; Supt. Boilers, John
Noey; Supt. Converting Mill, H. W. Benn; Supt. Carpenters, etc., A. McWilliams and Reuben Abbiss; Supt. Foundry, Chas. E. Dinkey and Geo. England; Chief Inspector, E. B. White; Chief Engineers, E. E. Slick and Sydney Dillon ; Chief Chemists, F. L. Grammar and C. B. Murray ; Supt. Blooming and Rail Mills, D. L. Miller; Chief Clerk, G. E. F. Gray; Superintendent Finishing Department, Geo. E. Harris; Superintendent Masonry, Thos. Addenbrook ; Roll Designer, Conser McClure, L. W. Nageley, F. H. Christ; Secretary, James E. Mitchell; Supt. Transportation and Labor, Thos. Cosgrove.
No. 1 Foundry was enlarged early in Morrison's administration (1899) and in 1898, No. 2 Foundry first began the manufacture of iron rolls. The Brass Foundry was torn down in 1902, and the old Power House was converted into the present Brass Foundry, employing about 65 men, and practically bringing the foundry to its present status.
On August 20, 1895, only a few months after Morrison had assumed charge, occurred the distressing explosion at "H" Furnace, wherein six were killed and eight badly burned. If it had been possible, this furnace would have retrieved itself during his term, however, for it completed a nine-years' run on a single lining for over 1,000,000 tons, being the first blast furnace in the world to accomplish such a feat.
During the early part of 1897, the mills' electrical demands had increased to such an extent that a new power house was built on the site of the present plant, the Foundry power house and Mill lighting plant being dismantled. The equipment of the new power house consisted of one 800 K. W. generator, a 400 K. W. generator moved from the Foundry, two 75 K. W. lighting machines and one 150 K. W. lighting machine. The old 250 H. P. generators of the Foundry power house were moved to No. 1 Rail Mill finishing yard, and subsequently scrapped.
A vital improvement effected by Morrison was the double furnace bell, forestalling the escape of gas in charging, which, together with the first automatic skip hoist in America, was put on Furnace "F" in August, 1897. This innovation did away with the necessity of men going on top of the furnace during regular operations.
A great number of electrical installations were put in during this period, perhaps the most noteworthy being the installation on the "B" Furnace, March 9, 1898, of the first electrically driven skip hoist in the world. This proved such a success that Morrison subsequently changed the following furnace skips to electric drive: Furnace "I", December 4, 1898; Furnace "A", March 28, 1899; Furnace "G", September 26, 1899; Furnace "E", December 5, 1900;
Furnace "D", December 4, 1901; Furnace "K", December 5, 1902; Furnace "J", February 16, 1903.
A revolutionary installation was the pig machine, installed at the furnaces 1898. Previous to this the furnace iron had been cooled in chill moulds. The pig machine is an endless moving chain of pig moulds into which the iron is poured from the ladle, passed under water, and cooled. Again, the blowing engines at the Furnace Department, which
formerly had had single cylinders, and were run high pressure, with air tubs equipped with leather valves, were changed at the "A, B and C" in 1896 to independent compound condensing engines, and at the "D and E" to compound condensing steeple engines in 1897. The old type of engine has since been displaced throughout the plant as a result of this campaign. The greatest plant development in steam economy, however, of this or any other administration was the replacement in 1895 of the old style tubular boilers by the Cahall water tube type. The "A, B and C" boiler
house was rebuilt in 1896 and 1897, the "D and E" in 1897 and 1898, the "H and I" in 1902, and the "J and K" in 1902 and 1903. A second great economy effected was the connection of the Mill and Furnace Departments June, 1899, with a 24-inch steam line, thus allowing the removal of most of the coal fired boilers at the mill, and the use of gas fired boilers at the furnaces.
The Union Railroad interlocking plant was thrown into service in Bessemer yard October 26, 1897, and the first train brought in from North Bessemer on that date, which marks an epoch in the transportation system of the plant.
Under Mr. Morrison the first Weiss central condensing plant in this country was established at the Power House 1897. Since that time this type of central counter-current condenser has been installed at all the Blast Furnace steam blowing engine rooms and at all the departments of the mill where steam is used.
In this period of centralization, the Furnace Laboratory and Steel Works Laboratory were combined (1897) and the present laboratory erected, C. B. Murray being appointed chief chemist.
In 1899 the present Converting Mill building, housing four 15-ton converters, was erected for the plant by the Keystone Bridge Company, the building being 165 x 78i/ 2 x 31 ft. high, fully equipped with the latest electric and automatic devices throughout. The previous year (1898) the Blooming Mill had been again rebuilt, although still remaining a 40-inch mill. Furnace "K" was completed and blown in December 5, 1902, and
the "J" on February 16, 1903, each being 90' 10" high, the "J" having a 15' hearth while the "K" hearth is 15' 6".
The cry, which had been all for "tonnage" for years past, now began to turn toward "quality." With this in mind, Morrison installed what was known as the "Kennedy-Morrison process" in the rail mill December 5, 1900, which consisted of a cooling bed between the leader pass and the finishing pass, the idea being to put a harder surface upon the rail. January 8, 1902, an addition was built to the power house, and the second 800 K. W. compound wound D. C. generator, driven by a vertical cross-compound Allis engine was installed. At this time we note that the
second lighting-line was run to Braddock, (the first line having been run 1894 or thereabouts).
The terrible Furnace "I" accident occurred March 31, 1903, the furnace "slipping" and dust collector blowing out. Nine men were killed in this disaster, and five badly burned.
Late in this administration Mr. W. J. Vance, Chief Shipper, resigned, and Mr. W. L. Miller assumed the duties of that office, which he is still creditably performing.
One of the most important and far reaching innovations of this progressive executive was the weekly meeting of department superintendents for the noon hour meal (generally held on Wednesdays) whereat the difficulties and troubles that beset each department are fully thrashed out for the instruction of all, and thorough harmony and understanding secured throughout the organization. This weekly dinner Mr. Morrison inaugurated October 18, 1899, and it has been most profitably continued ever since. The minutes of these meetings form a most valuable and accurate record for the plant, and it is greatly to be regretted that such a record was not to be obtained for the whole life of the organization. I regret that lack of space forbids more detail of this vigorous man's term of office. Suffice it to say that under Morrison the plant smashed every record it had ever made, and on reviewing the administration no point appears wherein he did not surpass his predecessors in production. Roughly speaking, the amazing truth is that the plant was speeded up 70 or 80 per cent. While the mills had previously been producing around a quarter of a million tons of rails per annum, under Morrison they put out half a million or so. Plain spoken and matter of fact as he was, it is the achievements of the man that strike our attention far more forcibly than the reserved and unassuming personality which he presented to the world. I have tried to portray, roughly, in a non-technical manner, the results of his regime, and have been most fortunate if I have succeeded in conveying any idea of the cold brilliance of his administration.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 121]


THEMALeitung durch Chas. E. Dinkey
TEXTBig executives have a weakness for the man who can get things done, and in June, 1901, Thomas Morrison had brought up the young man who had charge of the Foundry Department and placed him in his own office as Assistant General Superintendent. Two years later, after the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, when Mr. Morrison's
extensive personal business demanded all of his time, he recommended his assistant, Chas. E. Dinkey, as his successor. In the American Manufacturer years before, on October 4, 1889, Jos. D. Weeks had declared that the superintendency of the Edgar Thomson plant demanded greater executive capacity than the presidency of the
United States. There now entered that superintendency a man trained under four executives of such caliber, and who, naturally of a reflective turn of mind and keenly observant, brought to that office the noblest qualities of those that had gone before: The force and driving power of Jones, the shrewd tact and generalship of Schwab, the chemistry and detail of Gayley, and the sound common sense and business acumen of Morrison. In him each of these qualities of his predecessors still lived on in one master executive. For his assistant, Chas. E. Dinkey chose John F. Lewis who was eminently fitted for such promotion by a rigorous course from early boyhood in shops and drawing room, and who at the time was Master Mechanic at the Blast Furnace Department. Mr. Lewis is naturally of an inventive turn of mind, and during past years has given to the mill many inventions and improvements, among which may be mentioned the vertical hydraulic ingot stripper (1891) (which alone reduced the force 56 men), steel tie fastening, stock distributing device for blast furnaces, etc., etc. The man lives in a mechanic's world, and thinks machinery as other men think words. His desk is constantly covered with a profusion of the most complicated and unintelligible sketches of gears, drives, trains, etc. of every description. A thorough sportsman, genial, considerate, and wholly
democratic, he carries with him an intangible atmosphere of Southern chivalry. With this period, the historian reaches the most difficult part of his task, for in the administration of Chas. E. Dinkey, up to the present
time, not ten, twenty or fifty projects have been undertaken, but 265 separate and distinct improvements effected of the average caliber of $90,000 or 100,000 each. It is immediately apparent that in so brief a survey as this history, only the most prominent and interesting features can be touched upon.
His operating staff to date has consisted of the following men: Assistant General Superintendent, Jno. F. Lewis; Chief Clerk, G. E. F. Gray; Superintendent Blast Furnaces, H. A. Brassert, A. E. Maccoun; Chief Electrician, A. E. Maccoun, E. Friedlaender; Steel Works Master Mechanic, Thos. James, John Richardson ; Chief Engineer, Sydney Dillon,
L. C. Edgar; Supt. Converting Works, H. W. Benn, L. T. Upton, C. F. McDonald; Supt. Finishing Department, Geo. E. Harris, Jas. V. Stewart; Supt. Blooming and Rail Mills, D. L. Miller; Supt. Masonry, Thos. Addenbrook, P. G. D. Strang ; Chief Chemist, C. B. Murray, G. D. Chamberlain, C. E. Nesbit; Superintendent Labor and Transportation, Thos. Cosgrove. Wm. J. Dixon ; Chief Roll Designer, F. H. Christ, F. F. Slick, I. W. Keener; Asst. Supt. Furnaces, M. Killeen, F. H. N. Gerwig; Foreman Carpenters, Reuben Abbiss ; Superintendent Open Hearth, J. W. Kagarise; Special
Engineer, Richard Stevens, A. F. T. Wolff; Supt. Foundry, Geo. England, S. B. Cuthbert; Supt. Boilers, John Noey, Geo. S. Kramer; Chief Inspector, E. B. White, J. K. Boyd; Master Mechanic Furnaces, Geo. W. Campbell; Supt. Splice Bar Shop, Edgar S. Wright, Superintendent No. 3 Mill, Frank F. Slick ; Secretary, P. A. K. Black.
1903-04. One of the first acts of Mr. Dinkey's term was the changing of the township road from the old location through the mill to the present site, thus giving more yard room and greater area for expansion. The first street car ran over the new tracks July 4, 1903. The foundry was also extended 66 feet during this first year, and at the furnaces a great economy was effected by the installation April 28, 1904, of ten 110,000 gallon settling tanks for treating the acid Monongahela river water with lime and soda ash for boiler feed purposes.
1904-05. The question of roll storage had now become a serious problem, for over 100 different rail sections were rolled at the plant. Accordingly in this year the 24 2-flue boilers at No. 1 Rail Mill were torn out and the Boiler House converted into a roll storage by installing a crane runway and using the old roll shop crane. A new 500-foot wharf and wharf boat were also constructed (besides various other improvements in this year) to take care of the river traffic, at a cost of 97,000.
1905-06. The first gas engine installed at Edgar Thomson was a 2 1/2" x 30" horizontal tandem Westinghouse of the four cycle constant mixture type. It was started November 13, 1905, and ran until August 7, 1906, when it was returned to the builders for some necessary improvements. It was direct connected to a 250-K.W. generator, and furnished current for operating the Foundry. It was operated on blast furnace gas, and was the first engine of this type to be installed in this country. The demand for light rails had been exceeding the supply for some years, and accordingly a special light section rail mill, the first electrical mill in this country, was constructed and placed in operation in July, 1905. For the operation of this mill, Mr. Dinkey had long decided upon Mr. Frank F. Slick, chief roll designer, whose technical education, energy, and versatility appealed to him. The actual appointment of Mr. Slick to this position, however, off-hand and nonchalant as it appeared, and the history of the infancy of that now famous mill, are highly illustrative of both characters: The mill being practically completed, Mr. Dinkey exclaimed one day to a group of superintendents: "Well, here's the mill all right, but who the devil will we get to run this condemned sausage factory?" "Me," said Slick. "I'll run it." "Take it," said the Boss. Scarcely, however, had the earnest young superintendent assumed his first charge than the wretched mill groaned feebly and stopped altogether. Down came Mr. Dinkey. "Well, what's the matter here?" "We have to make some repairs and get things straightened up, Mr. Dinkey. This mill is in frightful shape," said Slick. Another day passed, and still no tonnage from No. 3. Mr. Dinkey then invited Mr. Slick to call. Upon that unhappy man's appearance, he engaged him in some desultory conversation, in the course of which he confided to him that, personally, he greatly admired the picture of still life presented by the brand new mill, with the golden sunlight falling on polished brass and bronze, the silent roll stands fading away in murky perspective, and the stalwart workmen standing about obscured by the shadows of gigantic machines, and that, anyhow, he was the last man to discourage the aesthetic aspirations of his subordinates. He added, however, that in the capacity of superior officer he felt at liberty to make some suggestions in an artistic vein, and took this opportunity to remind Mr. Slick that Corot and many other great painters were wont to introduce a splash of red into the foreground of their masterpieces, which feature, in No. 3, could be best secured by introducing a red hot billet in the first roughing rolls. The exasperated Mr. Slick heard him through in silence. Then, "Mr. Dinkey, if you'll just give me a chance to get that mill cleaned up right I'll give you the best mill going. I can run it right now if you want a second grade mill, but this isn't going to be that kind of an affair." And he made good his boast, for today No. 3 Mill stands first in the Steel Corporation, and probably ranks first for its kind in the entire United States.
1906-07. On Nov. 16, 1906, upon the resignation of Mr. David F. Melville as Assistant Chief Clerk, Mr. F. A. Power of the Foundry Department was appointed to succeed him, and took office at that time. This lively gentleman has long since justified his appointment by his earnest loyalty and the deeply conscientious discharge of his duty, while his Gargantuan laughter helps remove the dust that is only too prone to settle on the office windows. Mr. Dinkey's European trip, it should be noted, took place in the summer of 1906. Two more gas engines were installed in December, 1906, and March, 1907. Five new ore bridges were installed at the Furnaces in this year of the administration, the bridges in the new yard going into operation Dec. 1, 1906, and in the old yard January 5, 1907. The car dumper was installed in 1907, a giant machine which picks the car up bodily and dumps it, thus saving a vast amount of time and labor. No. 1 Rail Mill was also thoroughly over-hauled and rebuilt for diversified product in 1907. On March 14, 1907, occurred one of the worst floods of the Monongahela of recent years, the river gauge at the works recording 34 ft. 6 inches. The records show twelve other floods of varying degree in the last ten years.
1907-08. One of the most prominent features of this administration has been the attention given to the safety of the men. An account of the work along this line, alone, would fill a volume, for it is one of Mr. Dinkey's hobbies to make the mill safe. In line with this idea, the Washington Street tunnel was constructed during this year of the administration, affording a safe and convenient passage for the workmen of the Blast Furnace Department.
On January 1, 1908, as though in irony of the attempts to curb him, the Steel demon broke loose in the Converting Department, and an explosion occurred in which three men were killed and eight seriously injured.
1908-09. As a step toward improved quality, the five pass roughing rolls in No. 1 Mill were changed to seven pass, Sept. 5, 1908, with excellent results. In this year the Cahall boilers at the Mill were moved to the Furnace Department and the extension to the present general office built, ground being broken March 4, 1909, and the office occupied May 8th.
1909-10. Notwithstanding the depression of the panic, improvements at the works kept right on. The 15-ton iron ladles at the Furnaces ad been replaced in 1908 with 35-ton ladles (10 in all) and in this year, 1909, seven electrically operated ladle dumpers were started at the Pig Machine, materially reducing transportation costs and amount of scrap metal produced in handling the furnace iron. The Kennedy-Morrison cooling table, which had been in service for almost a decade, was removed July 24, 1909, and the new direct run operation commenced July 25, 1909.
1909-10. Air dump cinder ladles that could be operated from the engine cab replaced the hand dump ladles at the Blast Furnace Department March 10, 1910. The car repair shop was built, and some sixteen other improvements of minor interest effected.
1910-11. The year 1910, among other things, saw the completion of the Flue Dust Briquetting Plant (1) and the removal of the Splice Bar shop from Duquesne to Edgar Thomson. To the Edgar Thomson management must be given full credit for the development of the Flue Dust Briquetting process, and the perfection of the high Carbon splice bar, both of which processes have advanced very far beyond what they were on inception at this plant. The Briquette Plant is expected very shortly to have a monthly capacity of 30,000 tons of fine briquettes which will take the place of the best grades of ore used in the Open Hearth or Blast Furnaces.
1911-12. A new Emergency Hospital, for the proper care of the injured employee, was erected during this year, ground being broken Dec. 26, 1911, and the hospital occupied Sept. 16, 1912. The new works club house at Thirteenth Street was commenced in June, 1912, and occupied in November of that year.
On May 28, 1912, came the good new that an appropriation had been granted Edgar Thomson that day for a new Open Hearth Department, an improvement long desired and planned for by Mr. Dinkey, and which had been more or less in contemplation since 1895. Work commenced immediately, ground being broken May 31, 1912. In this year the employment
office began operations in the basement of the General Office, June 27, 1912, the present employment office not being occupied until October, 1913. On June 20, 1912 the old McKinney Club House, that had long
served as restaurant and meeting place for the superintendents, was torn down to make room for the new 0. H. plant.
1912-13. On Nov. 10, 1912, the present works telephone system and telephone central were installed in the present location in the Club House. In this year of the administration the stocking and shipping yards for Nos. 1 and 2 Mills were constructed, and work commenced on the relocation and improvement of the Blooming Mill while the old No. 2 Rail Mill was also remodeled. During this contruction work, Mr. F. F. Slick was given supervision of the rail mill operations. A fire occurred in this year at the Flue Dust Briquette Plant. In 1913 the Electric Repair Shop, which had been located in the present Power House, was moved to the present location to make room for the installation of additional electrical equipment in the Power House. Electrical ingot strippers were put in operation June 18, 1913.
1913-14. This year saw the completion of the Blooming and old mill improvements, and the completion of the 14-Furnace Basic Open Hearth plant, which is the best Open Hearth plant in the country using coal for fuel, and is conceded by electrical experts to be the best equipped plant, electrically, in the United States. The furnaces are of the stationary type, and the plant includes gas producers, stockyard, calcining plant, and spiegel cupola. Furnaces are rated for 90 to 100 tons per heat. The main building is 150 ft. wide x 1230 ft. long, and is thoroughly guarded with safety appliances throughout. A complete description is given in my article of January 1, 1914, issue of the "Iron Age." Gas was put on the first furnace August 4, 1913, and they started making bottom August 6, 1913. First heat was charged August 15, 1913, and tapped August 16, 1913. The first rail from the new plant, an 85 Ib. one for the Norfolk & Western, was rolled August 21, 1913. Owing to the depression in trade, it was not until July 12, 1915, that gas was put on the last furnace.
1914-15. In 1914 the gas cleaning plants at Blast Furnaces were remodelled and their capacities increased to clean the gas for hot blast stoves. (The first plant was installed in November, 1906, and a duplicate plant October, 1907, for gas engine service). A third plant was started Sept. 17, 1914, which gave gas cleaning capacity for all the gas required for hot blast stoves and gas engines. The plants permit the use of much more economical hot blast stoves.
The first part of the mill improvement program was completed this year, and incidentally one of the most revolutionary changes in the rolling department of the works effected with the abandonment of the old Blooming Mill October 10, 1914. The former ingot had been 17% x 191/2", being broken down to a 9 1/2" bloom in seven passes, while the new 48" bloomer breaks a 23 5-8" square ingot down to about 17" in the first four monkey passes, running at a speed of 4.5 R. P. M. Four ingots were first put through the new monkey rolls August 12, 1914. The 40" bloomer commenced operations August 30, 1914, everything being finally put into operation at this mill October 8th, 1914.
1915-16. The new No. 2 Mill, built for the production of diversified product, was completed this year, starting on regular product January 1, 1916. The new mill is a 32 inch four-stand mill with a motor load of 79 motors driving bloom pushers, charging and drawing machines, bloom cars, table rollers, lifting and tilting tables, hot saw machines, curver, 800-ton billet shear, billet conveyor, delivery tables, etc., and is probably the most modern and thoroughly equipped rail mill in the world.
1916-17. We come now to the close of our review of this able administration of progress and achievement. Among other things, there was started in the summer of 1916, a mammoth 200,000,000-gallon (daily) pumping station near the foot of Thirteenth Street to take care of the work now being done by five smaller pumping stations scattered throughout the plant. This will give the plant a much more economical and efficient water supply system. 1916 marks two improvements that the management had long tried to get: a new general office building and the Pennsylvania subway at Bessemer station. The new office was commenced July 31, 1916, and the Pennsylvania subway thrown open to the public June 12, 1916. In 1916 the "I" Furnace was rebuilt, with its electric skip hoist and automatic electrically operated bells, and is now the most modern blast furnace in the country. Three more of the same type are under construction. Again, the foundry department has been developed in late years to a point where it has become the best foundry for moulds and stools in the country. Brass and general castings are also a product.
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 129]


THEMAChas. E. Dinkey, der Mensch und seine Methoden
TEXTWhen the caldron of industrial unrest in the Turtle Creek valley boiled over May 1, 1916, and thousands of strikers appealed to the Edgar Thomson men to join them in a sympathetic strike, the employees of that establishment turned a deaf ear to such pleas, and instead of joining the strikers' ranks flew to the defence of the plant, and volunteered by hundreds to serve as guards for the works. For the hate and resentment that had burned in other days was dead, replaced by a loyalty and sincere friendship for the management that would not countenance such a proposal. This is the secret of his success: that through the rank and file of Mr. Dinkey's organization runs a comradeship, a sympathy, and an understanding that lightens the heaviest burdens for every man and signally increases the efficiency of the whole human machine. This accomplishment alone hints at a great executive. The temper and disposition of the chief executive is transmitted down the line to the lowest paid men in the plant, and I have therefore in this little history gone somewhat into detail regarding the personal characteristics of the men in charge. Aside from this, however, I have wished to portray in this history, a close study of at least one great executive. For the American business executive of the present day, like the intensified products of any other age, the artist of Angelo's time, the poet of the Elizabethan era, the philosopher of old Greece, must some day become a marvel for the world to ponder over. Most biographers of steel masters call the subject a "genius", throw in a few flowery figures of speech, and let it go at that. And for many characters in the steel business that is a prudent course. But in a book intended for the instruction and inspiration of posterity I intend to follow a different tack, for here, at last, is a character that will bear scrutiny. For a ready comprehension of his character in general, I would refer you to the mythology of the Greeks. Gifted though their deities were, endowed with superhuman energy and intelligence, they yet retained the vices and the virtues of mankind. On such a broad basis is built the character of Chas. E. Dinkey: though subjected from earliest childhood (Born Aug. 4, 1868, on a farm at Bowmanstown, Carbon Co., Pa. His father was Reuben Dinkey, surveyor, farmer, lumberman, and iron mine developer, who was the son of Jacob Dinkey and Susannah Stofflet. Mr. Dinkey's mother was Mary Elizabeth Hontz, nee Hamm.) to the gruelling discipline of labor, (l) ard filled with an ambition that has driven him to success over every obstacle, by slow successive stages, his thorough human-ness has not been twisted or perverted as is so often the case with men of achievement. He is, in fact, so intensely human that he seems to have condensed in his own individuality the feelings and the energies of twenty men, their varied hopes and fears, joys and sorrows. Whoever knows him well must also understand the psychology of the race. All these varied and intensified emotions and vital forces he displays
with the utter candor and abandon of a child. No suggestion of reserve has ever occurred to him, and with an astounding audacity he will do or say whatever occurs to him at any time or place. In this respect he bears a marked resemblance to his prototype, Captain Jones. While his anger is generally short lived, it is dangerous while it lasts, and those in the hurricane belt travel under close reefed sails. High strung and acutely sensitive, he is decidedly of the artistic temperament, and for that matter is almost the exact counterpart both in appearance and temperament of a music master I had in childhood. He has a keen sense of the niceties of literature, painting, and dramatic art, although but little inclined to music or poetry. With this temperament, however, he combines the practical, hard common sense of the American man of business. With the emotions of twenty men, however, he also has the perception, judgment, vision, determination, and optimism of twenty men, and thereby hangs the tale. Backed by a tireless energy, these qualities have made him a great executive. He always gives you the impression of being larger than the job that, however complex and dangerous the situation may be, he is still its master. He has a deep knowledge of human nature, and readily analyzes his man. Bluff and braggadocio are as unavailing as evasion and excuse, and for this reason nolle contendere is your best defense under criticism, such being the fairness and generosity of the man, that, like an English judge, if you offer no excuse for your misdeeds, he presently feels impelled to hunt for one himself. He never asks you to repeat or explain. He listens intently; nothing distracts him from the subject in hand ; his thoughts are never scattered, hesitating, or confused: they are centered on the single idea under discussion like the rays from a sun-glass. His mind works at lightning speed; before you have finished the sentence he has anticipated the paragraph, and bored in to the heart of the whole thing with the precision and power of an electric drill. He has a keen sense of the economy of time, words, and effort.
When speaking, he does not drawl, hesitate, or beat about the bush, and when discussing any subject his mind does not stray among words, phrases, or formalities, or, for that matter, dwell upon the reputation or prestige of himself or any other man, but his desire is wholly and simply to get to the heart of the subject as quickly as possible and reach a decision by the shortest route, so that the thing may be laid aside. For he has not now, nor ever did have, any love for work itself; but like U. S. Grant, plunges headfirst and vigorously into every project that it may the quicker be done, for an incomplete affair annoys him. He does not waste his own or his subordinates' time, generally revolving matters in his mind until he has reached a decision. In this way, despite the countless doubts that must assail him on many projects, he appears always to his officers as the most positive man of decision, so that his men understand what he says to be final, and his orders to be executed with the speed and precision of military commands. However, if he decides to discuss a subject at all, he encourages his subordinates to speak their minds freely and openly, and although he can hardly use the methods for this end that Tacitus attributes to the old German princes, he attains the same result by always receiving their opinions politely and sympathetically, and not at such times oppressing them with the superiority of his office, or the divergence of his own beliefs. Furthermore, if he believes a man to excel in anything, whether in a commercial line or in any of the arts, he encourages his development in every way. He nourishes the growth of every man's individuality and pride, deferring (as Gregory the Great (1) advised) to the personality of each man, handling each according to his character, sometimes even permitting a man to perform things in an awkward manner in order that such a one may learn through his own experience how the task should be done. Nor does he take pleasure in pointing out the mistakes of his inferiors, or impressing them with his own superior knowledge, nor damn with faint praise, but if he approve at all does it whole heartedly and positively. It has been said of him that if there is any good in a man, he can
find it and draw it out as the magnet does the steel. Again, if he notices a man growing expert in any line, he constantly modifies his attitude toward that man, deferring more and more in his opinions to him according to the state of the man's development, presently, perhaps, yielding entirely in specific matters, for he is not afflicted with any short sighted pride regarding his own prestige, but has solely in mind the accomplishment of the thing in itself, and the development of men in his organization who can do that thing well. Clear and incisive thinker that he is, he bitterly resents the intrusion of the talkative rambler, and likewise is exasperated by verbose or involved writing, sounding words, or cant phrases, especially in business communications. In literature he is more liberal: the prose imagery of De Quincey and the balanced sentences of Gibbon hold an intimate appeal for him, and in lighter moments he will quote a sonorous phrase that has caught his fancy.
He has a broad power of generalship, and a true sense of proportion and perspective, naturally placing events in their proper light, so that he is not troubled by trifles, nor overlooks large and important features of any
project. He has enormously developed his powers of concentration and application. He sticks to one thing until it is done, then turns to the next. Hanging in his office is his motto: "Do it Now." His physical energy and endurance are prodigious. As a brilliant executive his services are constantly in demand not only for most of the local enterprises that come and go, such for instance as the Braddock Hospital campaign and the Braddock Jubilee celebration, but also for various banking and industrial concerns. Notwithstanding these heavy demands on his abilities, he still has energy to spare, and must needs join a dozen or so societies, 121 clubs, and fraternal orders. These not sufficing, he hies himself away every year to the wilds of the Rockies or the Canadian woods, where he sleeps on the ground or the snow, and tramps for miles in strenuous hunts for big game. He has a great reverence for the grandeur of Nature, and in such surroundings he is at last at home.
His mental energy, like his emotions, is 20-man-power. He is an omniverous reader, and remembers what he reads. He knows something about every subject under the sun. He is keenly curious about everything in the universe, and desires to know at once all about anything that may come to his notice. He preserves toward life, in fact, the fresh and unsullied interest of a child that is just learning to read well. With such a spirit, it is impossible to avoid reaching the very highest plane of education. As a result of this broad development, each man believes that in
C. E. Dinkey he has found a brother spirit, and the analyses of his character that I hear generally remind me of the three blind men describing the elephant. The astronomer insists that he is interested in stars, the chemist in chemistry, while the workman is positive that he is interested in steel. None seems to grasp the idea that he might be interested in them all. He is a perpetual optimist, with the occasional fits of depression that are the earmarks of that type. He will entertain a steady hope for the success of some project long after everyone else has given up. The morning after an election, for instance, it is impossible to convince him that his favorites have lost. With this same stubborn, blind hope, and continual trying and experimenting, if it is humanly possible the project actually will finally go through. He is a thorough going pragmatist in the philosophical terminology of that word: if there is no chance he makes one. Except for this perpetual optimism, his philosophy of life is clearly portrayed in the old Graeco-Roman school of Stoicism. This is the more striking because he seems to have little interest, if any, in the vagaries of metaphysics, and must have concocted his own code. His is no Billiken philosophy of "things as they ought to be," but a stern realization of things as they are and life as it is. He never complains, and the idea of receiving sympathy is highly distasteful to him. Both his sayings, in fact, and the general conduct of his life, recall so vividly the writings of Aurelius that I am incorporating some of the most striking passages here in the text, being so highly apropos and descriptive of my subject: "Attend immediately to the matter before thee ... Have freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose, not to look to anything for a moment but to reason ... Not to busy oneself about trifling things ... Unchangeable resolution in the things determined after due consideration ... Begin the day by saying to thyself, "I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, the ignorant, the deceitful, the envious, the unsocial. All these qualities they have by reason of their ignorance ... Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity and justice ... Do every act as though it were thy last. ...Let nothing be done without a purpose ... Whatever happens happens justly, and if thou examine carefully thou wilt find a cause ... Do not act as though thou wert going to live 10,000 years. [etc.]
QUELLE[Lamb: Unwritten History of Braddock's Field (1917) 141]