USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > Johnstown > From trail dust to star dust : the story of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city resulting from its environment > Part 3
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These early furnaces had an output of four to five tons of pig metal per day, the market value of which was $22 to $25 in Pittsburgh. Iron made in Johnstown was always a little lower in value than other iron because of its hardness. By itself it did not make good bar iron, but when mixed with Juniata pig or other softer metals in proportion to one-fourth Cambria, it made the very best iron in the market, especially for nails. Indeed, nails were cut from the Juniata nail-iron with a machine worked by a treadle. The heads were added afterwards by hand. In the census of 1810, it is recorded that 200 pounds of nails cost $30.
It was necessary to keep these early furnaces con- stantly heated night and day, seven days a week. A fur- nace in Blair County was the first to introduce machinery whereby work could cease on Sunday. Consequently the place was called Sabbath Rest.
Until about thirty years ago, the furnace at Millcreek just off Menoher Highway (so-named in honor of Johns- town's General Charles T. Menoher, Commander of Rainbow Division, World War I) was the only one that remained and could be recognized as having been used. Unfortunately this historical landmark was dismantled. Its huge stones were used in building houses and clubs. Many of the stones were two feet square and four feet in length. The furnace was 30 feet square at the base and 45 feet high. Inside it was shaped like an egg-slender at the top. It rested on a "bosh" so that the raw material
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George S. King and Cambria Iron Co.
would drop as it was consumed. Into the hollow thirty- foot stack were dumped iron ore, charcoal, and limestone. Then the blast was turned on, and the fired furnace was kept going. The molten metal ran out from the bottom of the furnace when it was tapped. Shaped into bars-some- times shaped like large horseshoes to fit the horses' backs -it was taken to Ben's Creek by pack horse or wagon, hauled to the Canal and shipped. Millcreek's largest out- put was 1,050 tons per year.
Later, with the coming of railroads, the hardness of Cambria iron made it the best in the American iron-rail market. The rails made by the Cambria Iron Co. led all the rest, and the Pennsylvania Railroad always preferred them to any others. As the West was opened up, the demand for rails, plus the Canal for transportation, plus Cambria iron MADE Johnstown. It can be said that Cambria rails built the railroads of the West.
Johnstown might have remained and might have been known as the town that made iron kettles instead of iron rails. Kettles were much in demand at this time for the sugar industry in Louisiana, and Cambria iron was excellent for these kettles because of its hardness. It was then 1850, and iron making was established. George S. King, with his partner Dr. Peter Schoenberger, had made Johnstown an iron-making center. Both being men of vision, they foresaw the needs arising from the opening of the West to civilization. Dr. Schoenberger wanted a foundry to make iron kettles for sugar and molasses. Mr. King, however, had the foresight to see the greater need and the greater market for iron rails in the westward expansion of transportation.
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From Trail Dust to Star Dust
Mr. King became the benefactor of the Town. In need of money to finance his project, Mr. King went to Boston where he met men of the iron business. The Boston Com- pany was interested and planned to build a rolling mill in Johnstown. On August 21, 1852, they sent a representa- tive to Mr. Sech, who had a blacksmith shop in what is now Coopersdale, to make arrangements to obtain picks for getting the stone to build the mill. Drills, hammers, wedges, picks, and other tools necessary to quarry the stone were contracted for. Mr. Sech went to Pittsburgh and bought a boatload of iron. He and Joseph Masters, a young apprentice of fifteen years, contracted to make 37 picks each day until 6000 were made. With these tools the first rolling mill was built. Dragging the quarried stone to the Canal, the workmen loaded it on the boats, which took it to the site of the rolling mill. Much of the stone for early building and paving was taken from the Stony Creek river bed. (The name Stony Creek, replacing the Indian name Sinne-hanne, seems of little significance to the present-day citizens, for few boulders remain near the city, but up-stream, about fifteen miles, there are still very large boulders).
The Cambria Iron works was organized in 1852, but the Boston partners soon failed to meet their agreements, and consequently financial complications ensued. Mean- while, the rolling mill had been completed in 1853, and had turned out its first rails in July 1854. To meet fi- nancial obligations, the mill was leased to Wood, Morrell and Co. of Philadelphia, with Daniel J. Morrell as super- intendent. When financial affairs again became entangled by new partners and inheritors of estates, the stockholders of the Cambria Iron Co. met in 1861 and decided to
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George S. King and Cambria Iron Co.
take over the property, operating it again as the Cambria Iron Co. To Wood, Morrell and Co., they paid the sum of $51,099.35 for its equity in the concern.
In 1862 the Cambria Iron Co. was completely re- organized with D. J. Morrell as superintendent. The firm of Wood, Morrell and Co. was abandoned; the property was reconveyed by deed to the Cambria Iron Co. in September, 1862. The Country - engaged in a civil war - and the westward expansion created greater demands for rails, but again there was no money in ready cash. The company issued scrip in 5c, 61/4c, 10c, 121/2c, 20c, and 25c notes. These the workmen used at the company's store in payment for produce.
SIX AND A QUARTER CENTS.
SIX AND A QUARTER CENTS.
E
1863.
Deliver to Bearer STORE
GOODS to the Value of
Six and a Quarter Cents,
On account of Wages, and charge the CAMBRIA IRON COMPANY. To WOOD, MORRELL & CO. Johnstown, Pa. SIX AND A QUARTER CTS.
Clerk.
The above scrip was printed in red and blue. It is reproduced here two- thirds size.
Prospect Hill, named no doubt for the ore prospected there, was a valuable factor in the location and the prosperity of the mill until the Bessemer steel process revolutionized the industry. Round Mound on Prospect Hill was purchased for $800; the company later refused $80,000 for it. The ore deposits, the abundance of coal in this hill (now used for making coke), and the transpor-
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From Trail Dust to Star Dust
tation afforded by the Canal put the furnaces where they are. Until the Bessemer process, the best iron ore on the market came from Prospect Hill. From there to Woodvale, there was a tunnel to bring out the ore to the mills. These mines were worked until 1871.
The rails made from this ore had a flexibility that other manufacturers could not obtain. Before the intro- duction of steel, the great danger to the railroad traveler during the winter months was accident caused by a broken brittle rail. Daniel J. Morrell used to relate with much satisfaction an incident which occurred on a western road. The foundation of a small culvert was washed away by a flood, and the tracks (made of Cambria rails) were left suspended across it. Over these tracks, the engine and train passed safely. This, Mr. Morrell thought, was a sufficient recommendation for the Cam- bria rail. Shorn of its timber and marred by the smoke and gas from the mills and furnaces, Prospect Hill has lost all its natural beauty, but it has been one of the great gifts of nature to industrial Johnstown. Men of foresight, plus iron ore, plus wood, plus coal, plus trans- portation combined to make Johnstown a city resulting from its environment.
In 1898, the Cambria Iron Co. leased its property to the newly incorporated Cambria Steel Co. The changes through the years have been as follows:
Cambria Iron Co. 1852 - 1855
Wood, Morrell and Co. 1855 - 1862
Cambria Iron Co. 1862 - 1898
Cambria Steel Co. 1898 - 1916
Midvale Steel and Ordinance Co. 1916 - 1923 Bethlehem Steel Co. 1923 -
The present plant comprises five divisions: the Franklin Mills (Coke Division, Blast Furnaces, Open Hearth, and Steel Cars), the Lower Works, the Gautier Mill and Shops, the Rod and Wire Mill, and the Wheel Division.
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7 John Fritz
Mr. King had not only the foresight and the ability to recognize Johnstown's potential resources, but also the initiative, the faith, the persistence to develop them. John Fritz had the same powers that Mr. King had, plus the genius of the inventor. He came to Johnstown when Wood, Morrell and Co. leased the works. He was chief engineer and remained in Johnstown until 1860. He became an international figure in the steel industry. While in Johnstown, he invented the three-high roll mill for making rails, which was as revolutionary in its day as is the continuous mill of today. The three-high roll mill revolutionized the whole industry. To Mr. E. Y. Town- send, the Vice-President, Mr. Fritz always gave credit for the introduction of the three-high rolls and the many improvements which accompanied them, for other of- ficials lacking his foresight had objected to the changes and the expenses involved in those changes. On the old two-roll mill, the rail bars could be passed through only one way. Then they were "idled" back and passed through again. By placing a third roll above the two, the bar could be passed back and rolled at the same time. This method doubled the output. Besides, it also prevented the
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From Trail Dust to Star Dust
bars from lapping around the rolls, a condition often causing accidents and extra work. It was with this in- vention in 1873 that 722 tons of rails were rolled in a week to exceed that of any other mill in the Country. The school geographies of the time pictured the Johns- town mill as the largest in the world. In a month's time the mill had made 300,000 tons of rails without a break. Rails were piled high along the Canal from where the fire-engine house on Washington Street now stands to Clinton Street. Washington Street at this time was called Canal Street-the main street of the town.
Cambria Iron Co. became financially successful with a rail plant superior to any other in the world. All this was not accomplished easily. Gloom, uncertainty, and even animosity on the part of the workmen, plus the objections of company officials, surrounded Fritz's pion- eer attempts. The first mill, after its first successful run, was destroyed by fire, the origin of which was never fully determined. Suspicion rested on the workers them- selves. The working man then as now was somewhat fearful of improvements and labor-saving machines which lessened jobs. Eventually, however, the three-high roll mill was responsible for the subsequent prosperity of the Cambria Iron Co. It held a prime position for both quality and quantity until the invention of Bessemer steel. The three-high roll mill gave to the company a prestige and impetus which has carried through to the present era.
Mr. Fritz left the Johnstown mills for those in Beth- lehem, where he became plant manager for Bethlehem Steel Co. In 1902, to perpetuate his memory and in-
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Courtesy Bethlehem Steel Co.
MR. JOHN FRITZ
8 William Kelly
The Cambria Iron Co. also played a prominent part in establishing the so-called Bessemer process in the United States. Mr. William Kelly, a native of Pittsburgh, came to Johnstown in 1857, probably because the Fritzes were here. Mr. Kelly previously had experimented in the Kentucky iron ore regions with converters for eliminating the carbon and impurities from pig iron by forcing a blast of cold air through the hot metal. After discouragement from other ironmasters, Mr. Kelly explained the pneu- matic process to Daniel J. Morrell, the great Johnstown ironmaster, who took to it most readily. Mr. Morrell was shrewd and foresaw a revolution of the iron and steel industry. He furnished men and material at the Cambria plant to conduct a series of experiments on the Kelly Pneumatic Process. Mr. Kelly then built a new converter, the first of its kind ever built for making steel, and it is now on loan to the United States National Museum, in the Smithsonian Institution, from Bethlehem Steel Com- pany. His first public demonstration before hundreds of witnesses in Johnstown was a failure due to technical difficulties, and the spectators were greatly amused, cal- ling the failure "Kelly's Fireworks." Immediately a
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William Kelly
second demonstration was arranged before an increased crowd of unbelievers, and this time Mr. Kelly was able to show the "doubting Thomases" a quantity of molten metal hammered by him into a thin plate-the first pneu- matic steel made in America.
Here in Johnstown at that moment, laughter ceased, a new light had come to the world of steel making, and the visionary Irishman was now looked upon as a man of real genius. Many spectators lived to boast that they had seen the discoverer's first public demonstration of making steel from pig iron, with no fuel whatsoever, save cold air. A patent was granted to Mr. Kelly, and Daniel Morrell and other ironmasters began manufacture of steel by the Kelly Pneumatic Process. Mr. Bessemer, who may have worked for Mr. Kelly in Kentucky, later had a pneumatic process patented in England in his own name. Ingratitude and injustice followed on the part of many persons in the industry, and priority and originality of the two identical processes became a much-discussed topic of the day. Unfortunately, and because of Mr. Kelly's strained financial resources, as is the case with most in- ventors, the process became known as the Bessemer process. Mr. James M. Swank, general manager of the American Iron and Steel Association, stands so high as an authority on all matters concerning the history of the iron and steel industry, that his statements may be taken as the most reliable authority accessible. In his Iron in All Ages he says:
"Mr. Kelly claims for himself the discovery of the pneumatic principle of the Bessemer process several years before it dawned on the mind of Mr. Bessemer.
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From Trail Dust to Star Dust
The validity of the claim cannot be impeached .... The Kelly process produced refined iron of good quality. Experiments were made in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1857 and 1858. They were so very successful that Mr. Kelly wrote from Johnstown on January 29th, 1858, that he had not the slightest difficulty in converting crude pig iron into refined plate metal by blowing into it for about fifteen or twenty minutes."
Mr. James Park, Jr., of Pittsburgh, one of the real kings of the steel world, in a prepared address delivered in Pittsburgh, said, "The world will some day learn the truth, and in ages to come a wreath of fame will crown Mr. William Kelly as the true discoverer of the Bessemer Process. He was the original inventor of the Pneumatic Process for making steel and yet another man gave it his name and reaped the honors and rewards for making what 'Pig Iron Kelly' called in his Masonic Temple address, 'the greatest invention of the 19th century.'"
Over a century has passed since Mr. Kelly made his experiments in Johnstown, yet historians cannot agree either on the true inventor of the pneumatic process for making steel or on the merits of the "*Pioneer Converter." With no one living today who witnessed the experiments, it seems highly questionable whether the mystery sur- rounding this controversial subject will ever be solved.
*Publisher's Note-As late as 1959 the role of the "Pioneer Converter" in the history of the American steel industry was the subject of investigation.
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9 George Fritz
Mr. George Fritz, brother of John Fritz, was chief mechanical engineer at Cambria when his brother was working on the three-high roll. George Fritz had a mind as inventive and brilliant as his brother. He devised a set of blooming rolls which were immediately adopted in all the steel works in the United States and abroad. When George Fritz died in the prime of a successful life, the London Engineering Magazine said:
"It is not too much to say that Mr. George Fritz and his brother, Mr. John Fritz, have created the American rail mill and established the success of the manu- facture of steel; they have put their mark on every feature, not only of the rail mill, but also of the American rolling mills at large."
The blooming mill broke the ingots into smaller billets. These could be reheated in the rail mill and rolled into rails or used for whatever product was wanted. George Fritz while in Johnstown also invented a re- versible engine which was important to the steel industry.
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From Trail Dust to Star Dust
Iron rails were made by casting the metal in the blast furnace, taking it to the puddling furnace, and then putting it through the squeezers. After this process, it was rolled into layers about 6" wide, 1" thick, and 5' long. Six of these were piled on top of each other and heated in the furnace until they were white hot and then they were rolled into a rail. After the Bessemer process and the blooming mill came into use, the steel rails did not have to be made in layers. The billets were simply reheated and rolled.
In 1873, the Cambria Iron Co. plant was the largest in the Country with nine blast furnaces, two Bessemer converters, a blooming mill for rolling steel ingots and six trains of rolls-25 sets of rolls in all. It was at this time that steel rails were piled high on Canal Street (now Washington Street) from the Public Safety Build- ing to the Gautier plant which stands in the old canal basin. Most of these rails were used for the railroads from Chicago west, and most of the western roads were laid with Cambria rails, rolled in Johnstown. In 1878 two open-hearth furnaces were built. Among other con- tributions of the Cambria plant to the steel industry are the mechanical development of Bessemer steel-mak- ing equipment, the bottom-pouring of ingots, and the Coffin process for heat treating axles.
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10 Daniel J. Morrell
To Mr. King must go the credit for his foresight and persistence in developing the native iron and its products and for his decision to build rails. To Mr. Kelly must go the credit for his contribution to the science of metallurgy and for his discovery of the pneumatic pro- cess for making steel. To the ingenious Fritzes must go the credit for skill in increasing production and giving the Cambria mills sufficient impetus to keep them going. To Mr. Morrell must go the credit for sound business ability-knowing how to organize- and for perceiving the growing demand for rails, particularly for steel rails. Above all he should be remembered for his faith and tangible interest in Johnstown and its citizenry.
Until 1871, the production of the Cambria Iron Company was iron rails solely, in the manufacture of which the company had acquired an excellent and envi- able reputation. Mr. Morrell, however, saw early that the steel rails would displace those of iron on account of steel's greater durability. Just as Mr. King made the decision favoring iron rails over iron kettles, so Mr. Morrell had the Quaker foresight and courage to favor steel rails instead of iron rails. It was through his persis-
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From Trail Dust to Star Dust
tence and faith that the directors of the Cambria Iron Co. were among the first in the Country to consider the manufacture of steel rails. The first lot of steel rails rolled in America to fill an order were made in Johns- town's Cambria works in August, 1867, under the direc- tion of Mr. Robert W. Hunt.
Mr. Morrell was interested not only in the business, but also in the welfare of the Town. Too often in indus- trial communities, the cultural life of the citizens is neg- lected. Mr. Morrell, being born of Quaker stock, believed in civic and cultural responsibility and development as ยท well as industrial development. Quakers have always con- sidered their most useful role to be that of pioneers. They are the "leaven in the loaf." Because a Quaker believes that God speaks directly to men as individuals, he feels a personal responsibility, a concern, to do what
DANIEL J. MORRELL
Daniel J. Morrell
he feels and sees should be done; and he must do it himself. This personal responsibility Mr. Morrell felt for his work and his workers. At the time of his death in 1885, Mr. Swank, editor of the Johnstown Tribune, said:
"Mr. Morrell might have kept himself aloof from the town and its people but he chose to regard himself as one of its num- ber and gave influence and help to all civic improvements."
Lorain Steel Company (now a division of the United States Steel Corp.), the second among Johnstown's steel industries, was founded in 1883. It was conceived as a user of unfinished products of the Cambria plant. Good transportation facilities and coal supply favored the location of the plant in the valley of the Stony Creek. Similar conditions plus the presence of iron ore had strung the Cambria plant along the Conemaugh River. Like Cambria, Lorain went through many "hard knocks" before brilliant invention, skillfull workmanship, and sound business ability brought rewards.
Mr. A. J. Moxham produced a better rail. A steel girder rail was replacing the flat street-railway rail laid on wooden stringers. The company's first "lay-out" yard was in part of the old Canal basin where the Gautier plant is now located. The present plant along the Stony Creek is in the section of Johnstown bearing Mr. Moxham's name, just as the Cambria mills are in the section along the Conemaugh bearing Mr. Morrell's name.
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11 The Coal Industry
It is curious that on the early deeds in Johnstown no mention of coal rights is made-gold and silver were nature's buried treasures so eagerly sought. The earliest evidence of coal was discovered in a tract of land then owned by Louis Von Lunen in the district which is now known as Moxham. The richest deposits were first dis- covered in 1788 in a "stone coal bank" on the Stony Creek. Coal was first used locally for domestic purposes about 1822. In 1843 there were shipped from Johnstown 973 tons over the Canal and Portage Railroad. Early coal had been mined for blacksmith's use in the Juniata valley and was carried across the mountains on pack horses. According to the Federal records of 1840, there were 464,826 tons of bituminous coal mined in Pennsylvania. The most common fuel, however, until 1860 was wood. Eventually, coal from the hills sur- rounding the Valley replaced wood, particularly in mak- ing coke for iron furnaces, but not before most of the best timber had been cut.
When the iron industry began using coal, the local consumption grew rapidly. Coal became essential to the life of the mills. When Wood, Morrell & Co. took over,
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The Coal Industry
the concern owned 25,844 acres of coal lands, plus the lands along the river and the railroad. By 1906 Cambria Steel Co. was consuming 1.6 million tons a year. Most of the surrounding hills became honey-combed with mines. Eventually, Johnstown became the center of a coal field which produces more than 400 million tons annually.
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12 Lumbering
Lumbering is no longer an important industry in Cambria County. The following quotation from the Tribune for March 22, 1861, describes lumbering at its peak in the County:
" ... the Clearfield creek and its tribu- taries are filled for miles with logs cut in this county (Cambria) and intended to be floated out into the Susquehanna and thence to different points. The creek is so compactly filled in many places as to be completely bridged."
The trees which supplied the lumber were white pine, cherry, poplar, ash, white and red oak, and hemlock. Now there is little salable timber left in the County. Hogsheads, made from the oak staves, were used for the molasses industry in Louisiana. The "shook shops" established in Johnstown for making these staves went out of business in 1875.
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13 Exchange
How did the early settlers pay for goods bought?
In early days the prevalence of barter was a partial solution to the problem of money, but it was not always satisfactory. Paying the peddler with pork or pumpkins was often cumbersome. Companies and towns began to circulate currency of their own. Sometimes such currency was none too well backed, and the holder of paper money might find himself the possessor of banknotes not worth the paper on which they were printed.
The Indians for exchange used Wampum. Its value has been established by Samuel Weiser, son of Conrad Weiser, in a report of his expenses in 1760: "To 667 grains of Wampum made in two strings of several rows, 1 pound, 13 shillings, 9 pence."
The earliest form of exchange in Johnstown, as everywhere else in the Country, was barter, for specie (hard money in gold or silver) was scarce in colonial Pennsylvania. No coins were made in the Colonies. There were no banks in Pennsylvania before the Revolution. The only bank in the state in 1790 was the Bank of North America, chartered by both Congress and the
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