USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Connellsville > Centennial history of the borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1806-1906 > Part 33
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After many years they sold out to Torrence, Munson & Company, who were succeeded by White and McBride and they in turn by Armstrong and Keepers.
At one time Joseph Trump and James McBride oper- ated a foundry on the lot now occupied by Mace & Com- pany's store-the business was not long continued, how- ever.
In 1831. L. L. Norton put a blast cupola in the build- ing on McCoy's Run where he had previously operated a carding, spinning and fulling mill and went into the foun- dry business, giving especial attention to the manufacture of fine stoves, tea-kettles, etc., using coke, which he made on the ground, as fuel. The blast was operated from an overshot water-wheel which got its power from the dam nearby.
Philo Norton, still living, tells of working in this (his father's) foundry as a young boy, his work being that of chipping and smoothing up the kettles and stove castings and pounding up coke in a large kettle for the purpose of making blacking with which to put the finishing touches on the output of the foundry.
BOYTS, PORTER & COMPANY YOUGH STEAM PUMP WORKS.
The first foundry established in Connellsville was started in 1829 by Robert W. Francis and John and Jacob Anderson, and with several changes in the firm name has continued uninterruptedly to the present day. Robert W. Francis was actively associated in the business for almost half a century till his death in 1878. The first business which was that of a foundry and plow works, consisted of making plows, stoves and general castings. They used a common "air furnace"-burning raw coal. All of the "mile
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stones" used on the National Pike from Cumberland to Wheeling were made by them.
The original foundry was located on the site of the Baltimore & Ohio passenger depot-a little south of the present depot. The plow works was about where the present foundry of Boyts, Porter & Company is located.
Francis & Anderson continued as a firm till 1834, when James W. and Isaac Francis bought Anderson's interest. and the business was carried on without material change until 1860, when a three-fourths interest was sold to Stauf- fer & Company.
On March 1st. 1870, R. W. Francis, Martin B. Stauf- fer, John, Henry and Samuel Porter and Thomas Tennant formed a partnership under the firm name of Stauffer, Por- ter & Company to conduct a general foundry and plow man- ufactory. In 1873 they added a new branch for the pur- pose of making forgings and doing machine work under the name of Tennant, Clark and Company. (the old name being retained for the foundry and plow works).
M. B. Stauffer died in 1876, and his interest in both firms named above was purchased by B. F. Boyts, and from April 1st of that year the business was conducted as Tennant, Porter, Boyts and Company.
On February 2nd, 1877, the plant was destroyed by fire. In fifteen days temporary buildings were erected and the firm was prepared to fill all orders for castings. ma- chine and forge work. New permanent buildings were started immediately over the temporary structure, and the present brick building represented the complete plant. Some years later an additional building was erected on the north side of North alley.
On June 8th, 1878, R. W. Francis died. and on the 29th of the same month the firm of Tennant, Porter. Boyts and Company was dissolved, J. M. DuShane buying the Francis interest and J. M. Reid that of Thomas Tennant. The firm name was charged to the present style-Boyts. Porter & Company, and under the articles of partnership
MIKE PUMPS
STEAM PUMP WORKS
BOYTS PORTER & CO.
PLANT OF BOYTS PORTER & COMPANY
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was for the purpose of conducting a foundry, machine and forge works and to engage in the manufacture of steam pumping machinery.
John Porter died March 16th, 1883 and Samuel Por- ter, December, 1906.
It is believed Boyts, Porter & Company make as great a variety of castings as any foundry in the state, and their machine shop and forge department are completely equip- ped to do machine, forge and sheet-iron work of every description. They have given special attention to the man- ufacture of ore-crushers, having shipped them to all parts of the West. Their mine pumps are famous wherever mine pumps are used, and are especially in demand on account of their simplicity and the care with which the materials entering into their construction are chosen.
"Not how cheap but how good," has been the watch- word of the management and the results are evidenced in the large and constantly increasing business of the firm.
CONNELLSVILLE MACHINE & CAR COMPANY.
On September 9th, 1865, James McGrath, then foreman of the smith-shops of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Rail- road at Connellsville, leased from Robert W. Francis for the term of ten years a piece of ground fifty-five by ninety feet, located on North alley, near Water street, for the pur- pose of erecting thereon a machine and smith-shop. On the 16th of the same month he entered into partnership with Bernard Winslow, erected a wooden building thirty by fifty feet, and with three smith-fires and one old lathe, com- menced business under the name of McGrath & Winslow. Their manufactures consisted mainly of railroad frogs and switches and oil tools. On the 29th of February, 1866, Winslow sold out to George B. and Joseph T. McCormick, and the firm name was changed to McGrath, McCormick & Company. On September 1st following. William B. Stout and James B. Caven were taken into the partnership, the firm name remaining unchanged.
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The company now added some new machinery and be- gan to extend their business. Machine shops of this kind were until then unknown in this region, and people were slow to believe that machine work and heavy and difficult forgings could be done at Connellsville, but the senior part- ner, Mr. McGrath, having served his apprenticeship at the extensive works of Charles C. Delaney, of Buffalo, N. Y., and having worked in some of the principal work-shops of the country, soon gave evidence that intricate as well as heavy work could be done here as well as in the cities, and soon the company had more orders than their little shop could accommodate. About this time the coke trade began to assume large proportions, and on account of the scarcity of railroad cars several operators began to provide their own. As these cars, owing to the bad condition of the main road, were continually being wrecked and broken, it became necessary for somebody to repair them, and the firm of Mc- Grath, McCormick & Co. undertook the business. Having no suitable place to erect shops, they obtained privilege from the railroad company to lay a track along the bank of the river, immediately south of the present depot, and there in the open air, for two years, they did all the car repairing for the local coal companies, their carpenter shop consisting of one end of the body of an old passenger car and the other end being occupied by the railroad company as a car inspector's office and pattern shop.
On the 13th of March, 1869, the company succeeded in leasing from P. McCormick the lot adjoining their smith- shop, and immediately erected thereon a small car-shop twenty-five by eighty feet, and began the erection of coke- cars, mine-wagons, and all the various tools used in the making of coke.
On the first day of May following, the remaining part- ners purchased the interest of George B. McCormick, and changed the name of the company to "The Connellsville Machine & Car Company." Business now increased rapid- ly, and it soon became necessary to seek a better location
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and erect works of larger capacity. Accordingly on March 26th, 1872, the company purchased from the "Connellsville Mutual Building and Loan Association" a tract of land lying on the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad at the mouth of Mount's creek, about one-quarter of a mile north of their former location. Here, in the year 1822, they erected a car-shop thirty by one hundred and twenty feet. and on May 21st, 1873, they purchased additional ground adjoining, and erected a machine and forging-shop and foundry of the same dimensions as the car-shop. Later other land was purchased, and the works still further ex- tended and enlarged.
On October 1st, 1873, the old shops were abandoned. and the machinery removed to the new. At the expiration of the ground lease in 1875, the old car-shop was removed to an adjoining lot, which had then come into the posses- sion of the company, and remodeled into a hardware store and office.
The larger shops required many new tools, and lathes, planes, boring-mills, punches, drill-presses, steam-hammers, etc., were gradually added, until the works were as well equipped as any in the country, and gave employment to from fifty to sixty hands, the products consisting of cars and railroad supplies, and all the various wants of coal. coke and fire-brick works, mills, furnaces, etc. The part- ners were all directly interested in the running of the works. and by careful attention to business had secured the con- fidence and patronage of the coal and iron operators of the entire Connellsville coke region.
Upon the death of J. B. Caven and of W. B. Stout, the surviving partners, James McGrath and Joseph T. Mc- Cormick, continued the business under the old name.
Joseph T. McCormick died May 2d, 1904, and his son. Dr. Louis P. McCormick, succeeded him. J. W. Ralston. a son-in-law of Mr. McGrath, was taken into the firm and made secretary and treasurer. The business was continued
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successfully until March 12th, 1905, when the shops on Mount's creek were totally destroyed by fire.
It was then decided that before rebuilding, the com- pany should be incorporated, as the business had grown to such an extent that it would require much larger shops, and a more modern and convenient arrangement as well, to prop- erly handle it. Accordingly, a charter was applied for un- der the name and style of Connellsville Machine and Car Company, which was granted by the State of Pennsylvania on September 20th, 1905. The capital stock was fixed at $150,000. James McGrath was elected president and gen- eral manager ; Charles Davidson, vice-president ; J. W. Ral- ston, secretary and treasurer. These, with Dr. Louis P. Mc- Cormick, W. F. Soisson, Charles F. Hood and W. E. Crow, constitute the board of directors.
The erection of the new shops was started at once and are about completed. The buildings are brick, steel and concrete, being fire-proof construction throughout. They are very conveniently arranged for shipping the output of the plant and for bringing in raw material, having direct connections with both the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsyl- vania railroads.
The equipment is the very latest and best known, and makes this one of the most complete car, machine and forge shops in the country,-maintaining the reputation long established by its founders.
The property on Water street was sold in February, 1906, to the Connellsville Machine and Car Supply Com- pany.
AMERICAN STEEL COMPANY.
About 1866, J. M. Bailey and others of Pittsburgh, erected an establishment for the manufacture of high-grade tool steel under the above title. The works were erected on the ground now occupied by the Sligo Iron & Steel Com- pany, at the north end of Pittsburgh street, near the David- son Coke Works. The building was about two hundred and
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seventy-five feet long by eighty feet wide and thirty feet high. The operation of the plant was not successful and the business was abandoned in less than a year.
J. M. Bailey retained the title to the land on which the plant was built, consisting of about fifteen acres, and when, thirty-six years later, the ground occupied by Phillips, Nim- ick & Company, with the Sligo Mill of Pittsburgh, was con- demned by the Panhandle railroad, thus causing the aban- donment of the business at that point, he organized the
SLIGO IRON & STEEL COMPANY,
with a capital of $250,000, associated with himself a num- ber of Connellsville people, through the efforts of John A. Guiler and others, and moved the business to Connellsville, where it is being operated under the new name. The com- pany gives employment to from three hundred to four hun- dred men and does a business of about $1,200,000 annually.
Upon the organization of the company here, Charles Davidson was elected president; J. M. Bailey, vice-presi- dent ; E. T. Norton, treasurer, and Joseph McConnell, sec- retary. Mr. Bailey died in the spring following the organi- zation, and J. M. Reid was elected vice-president to succeed him. The other members of the board of directors (besides those named above) are, J. D. Madigan, J. C. Munson and E. D. Fulton. Charles E. Duncan is manager, Omar S. Decker, sales agent, with an office in Pittsburgh, and J. M. Cecil, chief clerk.
The plant covers about three acres of ground along the Southwest Pennsylvania railroad and also has access to the Baltimore & Ohio railroad via the H. C. Frick Coke Co.'s tracks.
It includes twenty-four puddling furnaces and four scrap furnaces, a gas house generating sufficient gas for seven large heating furnaces. A twenty-one-inch "Muck" mill, a sixty-inch plate mill, a sixteen-inch bar mill and a nine-inch guide mill, with a twelve-inch independent roughing mill or "breakdown." The bar and guide mills
PLANT OF THE SLIGO IRON & STEEL COMPANY
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are "three-high," as well as the "muck" mill train, which has an automatic conveyor and hot scale.
The plant is equipped with fourteen boilers of 150 horsepower each, and has a machine shop, blacksmith and roll-turning shop in a separate building.
The office is located between the Southwest Pennsyl- vania railroad and Mount's creek, near the Davidson bridge, and about one hundred feet from the mill. It is a brick building, one and one-half stories high, conveniently fitted and arranged, with ample storage space in the basement for patterns, small fittings, etc.
The building has a hip roof, which allows room for an excellent draughting-room on the second floor.
The company has on its own ground adjacent to the mill, twenty tenement houses.
CONNELLSVILLE MANUFACTURING AND MINE SUPPLY CO.
Located on an ideal manufacturing site in a portion of the Greenwood addition to New Haven, along the South- west Pennsylvania railroad and near the junction of the P. & L. E. R. R. and B. & O. R. R., is one of the latest additions to Connellsville's manufacturing establishments.
The buildings are of brick, iron and wood and are most substantial and modern in every respect. The lighting is excellent as well as the drainage, making a cheerful and desirable place in which to work.
The main building is 40x262 feet, 34 feet high in the clear, with a lean-to annex 30 feet wide and 15 feet high in the clear, running the entire length on each side of the main building. In front is a storage and stock yard, trav- ersed by a railroad siding, a branch of which extends into the south end of the main building, affording greater con- venience in shipping the heavier manufactured products of the works.
At the southeast corner of the building is the office. a two-story brick structure. 25x35 feet, the second floor of which is used for the draughting and engineering depart- ment.
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The machine shop proper is 40x125 feet, and contains a number of the largest and most approved machine tools in the country.
Running on tracks 26 feet above the floor of the shop is a twenty-ton, electric, traveling crane, by means of which the heaviest class of work can be easily handled at all stages of construction.
There are two machine shop annexes: One on the west side, 30x45 feet, especially fitted up for car wheel axle and heavy pipe work. One on the east side, 30x45 feet, in which are the smaller lathes, drills, boring-mills, shapers, etc., for handling the more complicated parts of the various machines manufactured.
Joining the machine shop on the north is the foundry, 40x125 feet, also spanned with a twenty-ton electric crane and several jib cranes of from two to six tons each.
To the west is a lean-to 30x85 feet, used as a brass foundry, core rooms, cupola room, etc. A hoisting cage, driven by electric motors, places all materials at the cupola door. The same motor furnishes power for the blast. On the east side of the foundry a lean-to 30xt5 feet is equipped as a rumbler, cleaning room, storage room and moulding floor. Here, also, is a three-story division, 30x50 feet, for pattern storage.
Between the foundry and machine shop is a twelve-foot passageway where is located a fifteen-ton platform scale with shop track running across it.
On the west side of the main building are three wings, 40x50 feet each. The first on the south is the structural iron department, wherein are manufactured hoisting cages, larries, chutes, screens, mine fans, car and structural work. It is equipped with the best power-driven bending rolls, punches and shears of large capacity. Next to the north is the forging shop, equipped with forges, fur- naces and heavy steam hammers-the work being handled by a large jib crane.
Last is the pattern shop, fully equipped with latest im-
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proved machinery for expeditiously making the large num- ber of patterns required in such a complex business.
The boiler room is located away from the building convenient to the railroad and has a storage capacity for one hundred tons of coal.
The exhaust steam from the engine driving the electric generator is utilized in heating the shop by means of a large hot-blast fan-the hot air being driven through large con- ductors, which are in summer used for circulating cold air by a fan for the purpose.
Large and roomy toilet and wash rooms for the con- venience of its employees have been fitted up by the com- pany and every effort made to make the surroundings com- fortable and congenial.
The company was organized in June, 1901. The offi- cers are, Rockwell Marietta, president; Clair Stillwagon, vice-president ; W. H. Hugus, chairman of the board; W. H. Soisson, secretary and treasurer ; D. F. Lepley, general manager.
TANNERIES.
Anthony Banning, an itinerant Methodist preacher who had been a business man of no mean ability, as well, built a tannery on McCoy's run south of Zachariah Con- nell's stone house. This was some time between 1791 and 1799.
John Fuller built a small tannery on lot 153 of Con- nell's plat, and later removed to East Apple street (about where the English Lutheran Church now stands), and started another tannery. This passed from him to William Goe, Joel Strawn, Cooper and others, and was discontinued about 1870. There is no date obtainable for the establish- ment of Fuller's tannery, but it was previous to 1823.
Near Norton's fulling-mill (at the foot of the hill back of the Christian Church), in 1823, was Isaac Taylor's tan- nery. In 1828 he moved his tan-yard to the north side of
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town, about one square from the present site of the Balti- more & Ohio railroad depot. The business was successfully managed for many years. He was still in business in 1850.
In the early '40's, Joseph Taylor (a brother of Isaac's) came to Connellsville and started a tannery, near the river on the New Haven side, about where the Southwest Penn- sylvania railroad bridge crosses.
BRICK-MAKING.
In the hills about Connellsville are many valuable de- posits of fire-clay, silica rock and other excellent brick- making materials. Anthony Banning was the first person to utilize these deposits, making the brick for the first brick house built in Connellsville-afterwards known as the Stew- art Johnson house. This was shortly after the founding of the town.
Later, David Barnes engaged in the business, and was running a brick-yard in 1823. There were many other brick-makers who followed the lead of these pioneers in a small way, but it remained for Joseph Soisson, founder of the
JOSEPH SOISSON FIRE BRICK COMPANY.
to enter into the development of the business on an extensive scale.
Mr. Soisson came to Connellsville in 1865 from Oak- dale, on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, a short distance below Dawson, where he had been operating the Milton- burger plant since 1862, coming there from Blair county.
Many are the interesting experiences told by Mr. Sois- son of events that occurred during the Civil War, through the facility of his clay mines as hiding places for those who feared the provost marshal and other United States officers in search of men who did not want to fight for the Union. Squire J. M. Lytle made a number of visits in his capacity as provost marshal for this purpose.
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The output at Oakdale was small indeed compared to that of the present day, yet Mr. Soisson was compelled to have a storage place in Pittsburgh (close to the present Bal- timore & Ohio depot), as the ironmasters never bought more than 300 or 400 bricks at a time.
Upon coming to Connellsville, Mr. Soisson entered into partnership with Spriggs & Wilhelm at White Rock, under the firm name of Soisson, Spriggs & Co. This plant was located at the foot of Gibson avenue, between the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad and the branch to Union- town, at the present time entirely covered by the B. & O. yards.
Mr. Soisson anticipated the great demand for fire-brick caused by the development of the coke industry. His first effort in this line was in 1865, while still operating the Mil- tonburger plant, where he made sufficient brick for Stewart Strickler to build ten bee-hive ovens near Dawson.
Soon after this work was completed. Messrs. Brown & Cochran. known as "Big Jim" Cochran, of Dawson, and Mr. Brown of Pittsburgh, built what is known as the "Jim- town" works, Mr. Soisson making the brick and shapes for something over one hundred ovens.
It is well known, and a fact often commented upon, that the general shape of the brick going into coke ovens has never been materially changed to the present day.
These old "Jimtown" ovens have recently been fired up and are used to-day by the Shannon Coal & Coke Co., of Uniontown.
In 1812, the Henry M. Freed tract of land, on which the Moyer plant of the Soisson Brick Company now stands, was purchased, thus giving shipping points on the new Southwest Pennsylvania railroad, which was being built at the time as a feeder for the Pennsylvania railroad. This works was established by Joseph Soisson, John Kilpatrick and John Wilhelm, and the partnership was called Kilpat- rick, Soisson & Company. Later Mr. Wilhelm withdrew and Worth Kilpatrick succeeded his father, the firm name
PLANTS OF THE SOISSON FIRE BRICK COMPANY
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being changed to Soisson & Kilpatrick. Mr. Kilpatrick finally withdrew from the firm and all of the works were consolidated under the name and style of Joseph Soisson and Sons.
The Volcano yard at South Connellsville was built in 1882, and the Davidson yard, at the north end of town, in 1886.
There were a number of changes in the name of the firm from time to time, but Mr. Joseph Soisson has always exercised direct control of the business.
In 1894, the company was incorporated under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania with the title of the Joseph Soisson Fire Brick Company. Since 1894, the holdings of the company have been increased by the addition of three plants, the Diamond plant near Layton, the Lavenia plant below Dawson, and Kingston on the Ligonier Valley rail- road in Westmoreland county, making, all told, six well- equipped plants, producing 100,000 fire-brick daily.
When Mr. Soisson commenced operations in Fayette county forty-four years' ago, the output was about 2,000 brick per day, his pay roll amounting to about $600 per month. To-day the Joseph Soisson Fire Brick Company pay out for labor every month over $15,000.
The capital stock of the company is $100,000; surplus, $150,000. The business is conducted by the following offi- cers : Joseph Soisson, president ; W. F. Soisson, manager ; V. H. Soisson, secretary.
PITTSBURGH ART STONE COMPANY.
C. L. Edmonds and others organized this company under the laws of the District of Columbia in 1905, with a capital of $25,000. Its officers were, L. A. Howard, presi- dent; Frank R. Graham, vice-president; H. A. Crow, sec- retary; Peter Rutsek, treasurer ; C. L. Edmonds, manager. These gentlemen, with John J. Enos and Dr. E. P. Clark, constituted the board of directors.
Ground was purchased in "Dutch Bottom," near the
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Soisson Fire Brick Company's works, and a building erected entirely of artificial stone, including the roof. This struc- ture is two stories high and occupies 30 feet by 50 feet.
The company makes a specialty of artificial stone, but does all kinds of concrete construction and cement work. The most important contracts undertaken thus far are a church in the Oakland district, Pittsburgh, and a residence on the south side of Connellsville for Peter Rutsek, both of which are built of artificial stone throughout.
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