400 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO essential raw materials for the manufacture of pig iron are iron ore, fuel, and limestone or some other material to be used for flux. Of the three only the limestone—the least important, has since the seventies been produced at home. The charcoal which had originally been used as fuel was replaced for a little while by native coal, but very soon coke, brought from the Pennsylvania beehive coke ovens replaced in turn the coal. The native ore, lean and poor in quality, about the same time was abandoned, as the opening of the Lake Superior mines made possible the importation of a much finer quality of ore at a cost less than the cost of mining the native ore, and with infinitely less labor. Yet the explanation of this paradox must be found principally in the character of the men who were the leaders in the valley; those "iron men" whose insistence on a protective tariff caused pain to Garfield and other legislators of the period. Such names as Tod, Wick, Butler, Ward, Andrews, Stambaugh, Struthers, McCurdy, Kennedy; to the historian of this country and time each of these has a significance as a moving force in this great development. Not all were manufacturers some were bankers, some merchants, but all joined in building the empire of industry that the valley has become. It must also be remembered that the lake shore had its share in this development. It is not likely that the valley would have grown to greatness had not the shore dwellers joined with the iron men by taking full advantage of the magnificent harbors which line the Erie shore. One by one little railroads reached from the valley to the shore; to Ashtabula, Fairport, Conneaut, and the steamships which replaced the early sailing vessels on the lake loaded their cargoes at Duluth, brought them down the great journey through three lakes and two rivers to dock at one of these harbors and transfer the ore to the waiting railroad cars, to HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 401 be transhipped and dumped at Niles, Youngstown, Struthers or Lowellville, beside the waiting furnaces. Another stream of freight trains began to bring from the Monongahela and Youghiogheny valleys the coke which with the development of the hot blast became the final necessity for the efficient operation of the blast furnaces. In fact, it was the meeting place of America—half way from the seaboard to the prairie—this made the Mahoning Valley great. The story of this latest phase naturally divides itself into two periods : first, the development of the local industry; second, the making of great combinations. After this, a brief glance at each of the local centers of population, and our story is done. But first it seems appropriate to narrate the story of that political figure who was the champion of the interests of Northeastern Ohio during the period of industrial growth, and who by gradual steps rose to the supreme place in the gift of the nation—the apostle of the tariff—"the advance agent of prosperity." CHAPTER II WILLIAM McKINLEY It must have been a year or two before the outbreak of the Civil War, that a little boy, one summer day accompanied his father on a journey from the village of Lowellville to the neighboring village of Poland, in Mahoning County. There was some time to spend in Poland, while the father transacted his business. The little boy, who was fond of sport, and had been a strong swimmer since early childhood, naturally gravitated toward the mill pond, where the village boys were taking their daily plunge into the cooling waters. The Poland boys, with that propensity toward practical joking which has always been characteristic of youth, formed a conspiracy against the stranger, with the intention of so tying up his discarded garments as to cause him great distress when he emerged. He saw the operation commencing, but, of course, was powerless in the face of his multitude of enemies, and was facing as manfully as he could the prospect of undoing the mischief or accepting the alternative of appearing in public with little or no covering. It should be noted that the costume for swimming in those days in Ohio was just exactly that furnished by nature. But the boy was saved from his embarrassment and possible punishment by an unexpected deliverer. A boy some years older than the tormentors and their victim happened to pass by. He took note of the plans of the one and the distress of the other, and interfered. By a combination of persuasion and threats he succeeded in halt- - 402 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 403 ing the performance, restored to the boy his garments, little worse for the incident, and sent him on his way, vastly surprised, but relieved. Ever afterward that small boy remembered his deliverer, as he rose from height to height, and rejoiced. That little boy was the writer's father. The big boy was William McKinley. The incident would be so insignificant as to be unworthy of mention, were it not for the fact that it illustrates in the boy McKinley those two qualities which were his outstanding characteristics during all his life : his firmness in support of what he believed to be right, and his gentleness of heart. He may not have been a supreme genius; he certainly was a true gentleman, and that is something which makes for greatness. At times in previous portions of this work we have noticed the McKinley family. They were never unduly prosperous; they never became rich; they were always industrious; we always have met with them as builders of prosperity. They belonged to that Scotch-Irish element of the population which took so large a part in the founding of Ohio. The McKinley family took its origin in the Scottish Highlands, crossed to Ireland in the seventeenth century, and came to Pennsylvania in the early years of the eighteenth. James McKinley, grandfather of the president, came into Columbiana County and settled at New Lisbon shortly after its founding, operating the old blast furnace there. William McKinley, Senior, was born in 1807, and spent his entire life in the iron business. In 1829, he married Nancy Allison. In 1830, he joined with two other men to organize the firm of Campbell, McKinley and Dempsey, which firm rented the Heaton furnace on Mosquito Creek at Niles. William and Nancy Allison McKinley had nine children. The seventh of these was William, Junior, who was born in 404 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO Niles on January 29, 1843. The boy spent his childhood in Niles, getting some education in the village schools. The only item in his years at Niles worthy of mention is the forming of a life-long friendship with Joseph G. Butler, Junior, the "Uncle Joe" of tender memory in Niles and Youngstown, and the founder of the magnificent memorial building which now fittingly preserves the memory of McKinley in the city of his birth. In 1852, the boy William then being nine years of age, the family decided to move to Poland. The principal reason for this removal was the obtaining of school advantages. Educational facilities were sadly lacking in Niles, whereas Poland had a flourishing academy, and a very fine society. The McKinley family were never prominent in Poland, but the boy soon began to attract attention. There were two churches in Poland, the old Presbyterian, attended by most of the original families, and a newer one of the Methodist Episcopal faith. The McKinleys were Methodists, and soon after coming to Poland young William united with the church. He remained a loyal Methodist all his life. William attended the Poland schools for several years, gaining an academic education in the old Poland Union Seminary. From here he went to Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, a Methodist institution already at that time gaining a fine reputation. He left Allegheny on account of the failure of the family finances, and when the war broke out was teaching school. In 1861, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. A brief account of the record of this fine regiment has already been given. It had the unique distinction of having on its roster two men who were to be Presidents of the United States. Rutherford B. Hayes was first Major and afterwards Colonel and commander of the regiment; McKinley enlisted as a private and was mus- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 405 tered out in 1865 as a major. His most important service was at Antietam and in the Valley of Virginia. When the war was over, like many another young veteran, he was looking for employment. His taste for study naturally turned him toward the law. After a brief experience in a Youngstown law office he went in 1866, to the Albany Law School, in Albany, New York. Here he spent a year, and made another life-long friendship, this time with George F. Arrel, another Poland boy who was to have a long and distinguished career in the Mahoning Valley. It was McKinley's older sister, Anna, who directed him toward Canton. She was teaching school there, and saw the place as a promising field for a young lawyer. In 1867, he took up his residence there, and there he maintained his place until his death, although much oftener away in the service of the nation than at home, and there in the end he was laid to rest. His first years in Canton were spent in building up a law practise. He soon developed his talent for oratory to the point where he was in demand as a speaker, while his reputation for honesty and legal ability made him successful in his profession. On January 25, 1871, he married Miss Ida Saxton, child of that Saxton family who were the pioneers in 'Canton in the newspaper business. Miss Saxton was a beautiful girl, with talent and education. It was their misfortune that both their children died very young. The failing health of Mrs. McKinley was a constant source of grief to her husband, but his tender care preserved her life, and the story of their life together has caused him to be remembered as the ideal type of American husband. In the most difficult moments of his life he remembered her first and always. It was she who placed the red carnation in his buttonhole which became as much a part of his apparel as his tie or his shoes. 406 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO As a young veteran of the Union Army, and one whose rearing had been entirely in the Mahoning Valley, it was inevitable that McKinley should have identified himself with the Republican Party from the beginning of his political career. His residence in Canton, however, threw him into a part of the state where the Democratic Party, after the war, was quite often in the majority. His first political office was the position of prosecuting attorney for Stark County, an office which he held during 1870 and 1871, but he was defeated for re-election. He re-entered the political field in 1876, this time as a candidate for Congress. The district at that time consisted of Stark, Columbiana, Carroll and Mahoning counties, thus having a slight Republican normal majority. McKinley was triumphantly elected. In spite of repeated efforts at "Gerrymander" he was elected to the House of Representatives continuously for term after term until 1890, when a new redistricting, combined with the mid-term Democratic reaction of that year, gave him his first and only defeat for a Federal office. McKinley's record in Congress is practically synonymous with the history of the tariff in the years from 1877 to 18901 Coming as he did from a district which was engaged in the iron industry, in addition to the pottery developments in Columbiana County, and other manufacturing enterprises, he was from the first firmly committed to the policy of "protection." The makers of iron and steel feared foreign competition, and the workingmen demanded wages which would permit them to live in comfort. That the maintenance of a tariff so high as to prevent foreign competition with these "infant industries" was a principal factor in building up this great industrial development is a historical fact now indisputable. That the work of McKinley in Congress was most valuable in the maintenance of this policy seems also HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 407 beyond dispute. It is further true that his understanding of the subject was so clear that toward the end of his presidential career he was planning a modification of the tariff law; was talking about "reciprocity," or in other words, the negotiating of treaties with friendly foreign countries, leading toward the letting down of tariff bars on both sides, for the purpose of developing the foreign trade which those "infant industries," now grown up, needed badly in order to advance further the development of American prosperity. There has been no American statesman, probably, whose understanding of the tariff problem was so complete, or whose work did so much to build the nation. In this, probably lies his principal claim to a permanent place in the history of the nation. On the other great problem of national politics which became an issue during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the currency, McKinley was at first doubtful, and it was a process of evolution which finally brought him to a firm position in favor of "sound money"—the maintenance of a single gold standard. The fallacy that cheap money will cause prosperity has been advocated many times in many countries, in spite of the fact that it has always, when tried, resulted in ruin of credit and general financial demoralization. The fact which made the trouble in America at the period of which we are writing was that silver was being mined in such large quantities that its value in terms of gold was reducing constantly. It was easy for politicians to persuade a large portion of the public that flooding the country with cheap silver dollars would give everybody plenty of money to spend, and therefore everybody would be prosperous. That these dollars would not buy more than they were worth was an item which needed to be understood, however, and it took a long period to educate the nation to this understanding. This process of education McKinley 408 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO himself underwent, so successfully that in the great campaign of 1896 he was as much the champion of sound money as of protection. His great oratorical talent, his faithful adherence to his party, and his modesty and self-sacrificing attitude toward other men in politics made him a most important figure in party conventions. By the time of the national convention of 1892, he was, in spite of his own lack of personal desire for self-advancement, so great a figure in the party ranks that he could have obtained the presidential nomination by playing politics for it. But he firmly refused to do this, and loyally supported Harrison in that disastrous campaign with the result that the reward came to him four years later. In 1891 he was elected Governor of Ohio. He did not want the position; the governorship of our state carries with it little enough real power now, and had less then; but when he found that he was the unanimous choice of the party, he agreed to run. He made a job out of the governorship, traveling far inside the state and out, increasing his fame at every new appearance on the platform. It was during this period that he began to take part in the movement toward bringing about more friendly relations between the old South and the North. He now saw that the time for reconciliation had come, that a united nation must exist in order to carry on. A local bank failure in Mahoning County threatened his financial ruin in 1893, that bad year in American industry. It was now that he found the value of his friends. His own career of service had attracted to him men who were willing and anxious to help him in his need. The failure placed him in straightened circumstances, he never made much money, but he came through triumphantly in the end. Early in his career he made the acquaintance of the man whose political and financial support were his chief reliance during his later years. In a previous chapter we HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 409 have recited the early history of the Hanna family in Columbiana County. Marcus Alonzo Hanna, born in New Lisbon in 1837, moved with his father to Cleveland at the age of fifteen, and made that city his home for the remainder of his life. There he rose step by step to a position of financial leadership, engaging in such varied enterprises as shipping, iron and steel, newspapers and street railways. Although primarily a business leader he soon began to take an interest in politics, and by 1880, was one of the leaders of the Republican Party in Ohio. It was during the eighties that Hanna began to develop an interest in the career of McKinley. The relations between the two men have been disputed and often misunderstood. It is the opinion of this writer that in politics McKinley was always the leader, Hanna the follower. Hanna himself always insisted that this was true. He admitted that often he advocated political methods to which McKinley objected as a matter of principle. In every instance Hanna gave in to McKinley, recognizing that the moral character of the man was such that he would tolerate no modification of his standards. Hanna was undoubtedly a great and constructive statesman, but he did not hesitate to use means to gain his ends which would not stand the test if checked on a basis of the highest morals. Hanna was a great political general, McKinley a great moral character. When the campaign of 1896 became imminent, Hanna began to lay plans to make the nomination of McKinley secure. There were other available candidates : Speaker Reed was a statesman and a sound Republican, but by the time the convention met, there was no doubt of the result. McKinley was nominated on the first ballot. The only remaining question was the platform. On the maintenance of a protective tariff the party was determined. The only other problem was the currency. On this point Hanna had his way, and the 410 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO result justified his position. The convention stood firmly for the gold standard. The story of the young man who swung the Democratic Convention of 1896 both to the doctrine of "Free Silver" and to his own nomination, by the compelling force of his eloquence and his dominating personality is a part of our history that only needs brief mention here. It is national, not Ohio history. Bryan from that time on until his death, in his advocacy of one political or social movement after another, never ceased to occupy a place in the public eye; never failed to attract a following of loyal, often fanatic supporters. During this campaign he traveled over more of the United States, made more speeches, perhaps, than all previous presidential candidates combined. In this volume we are only interested in him as McKinley's opponent. While Bryan traveled McKinley stayed at home, and the people came to him. The grass in the front yard of his modest Canton home soon was trodden out of existence. The appearance of the Major, as he was always affectionately named in Canton, on his front porch, became as familiar as Bryan's from the rear train platform. In the meanwhile, under Hanna's direction, the country was flooded with literature on the money question, so that every American voter had ample opportunity to inform himself. The result for a time was doubtful, but by October the doubt had vanished. McKinley carried the election by a majority both popular and electoral. The south and the western "silver" states went to Bryan, the rest to McKinley. Whatever the reason, even before the inauguration business in the nation had taken a decided upturn. The years of hard times from 1893 to 1896 came to a close so sudden as to seem a miracle. Mill wheels began to turn, prices to rise, and McKinley took the oath of office in the presence of a nation full of hope and confidence. It seemed to everyone, HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 411 even those disappointed in the election, that nothing could prevent the march of national prosperity. Truly, indeed, the succeeding years, through three presidential terms, saw the completion of the period of empire building. By the time when Roosevelt retired in 1909, the dominating position of the United States in business and world politics was accomplished. But McKinley found himself almost at the beginning of his administration facing an unexpected and most serious situation; a war with Spain. We must refer the reader to other histories for an account of the causes, remote and proximate, which led us into the Spanish War. What was our justification, what the necessity—these are questions for the larger history. Our interest is in the part our present hero played. John Sherman's appointment as Secretary of State, followed by the election of Hanna to the vacant Senatorial seat, has been criticised as a bit of political trickery. It seems certain that Sherman himself was party to the plan, however. It is also certain that his failing powers were inadequate to handle the diplomatic situation which grew out of the Cuban troubles. His withdrawal necessitated a new appointment. McKinley chose as his second Secretary of of State his old friend and neighbor, William R. Day, of Canton. A more extended account of the life and services of Justice Day will be found elsewhere. His service as Secretary of State was overshadowed by his work as a member of the Supreme Court. It is enough here to say that as the war Secretary he showed a diplomatic ability which added to his fame. To say that he was succeeded by a greater diplomat, in fact one of the greatest America has produced—John Hay —certainly is no detraction from or criticism of Days abilities. He filled the office adequately during the period of actual conflict. 412 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO The press, Congress, the people generally did their utmost to stampede the country into war with Spain. After the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor the country grew frenzied. Here and now McKinley showed his strength. Almost alone against the multitude he stood, holding back until there was an adequate preparedness. As a matter of fact, the army in the war was never ready, and this lack of preparation caused a criminal loss of life and property. But that crime is the continuing fault of the nation; a policy which has been continued through six wars, and seems likely to continue. It was the navy which could be prepared, and which was placed in adequate condition before McKinley surrendered to the demands of the nation, and went into the war. It was the navy which, due to his foresight, emerged from the conflict with a shining glory due to two most successful battles, and which changed the map of the world. For, while the Spanish War does not rank among the major conflicts which have tormented this planet, it had a far-reaching effect which altered more destinies than most major wars. It gave the United States control of the Carribean Sea, and it placed us among the dominating powers of the Pacific. The annexation of Hawaii, the capture of the Philippines, coupled with the occupation of part of the Samoas, and the other lesser groups of islands which now fly the Stars and Stripes, changed our position from American power to world power. Right or wrong, this was the outcome of the Spanish War. One other important international item belongs to the McKinley administration; the opening of the negotiations which resulted in the digging of the Panama Canal. The diplomacy which cleared the way for this masterpiece of engineering was the work of John Hay, and its success is the principal glory of the peaceful achievements of the McKinley administration. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 413 Two things were necessary; the retirement of Great Britain, who had bound us to a treaty for mutual construction of such a canal, and the obtaining of a right of way. Both these were completed before McKinley's death. The actual work was begun under Roosevelt, and the completion did not come until still another Republican President had ended his term of office, and a Democrat sat in the chair. But the beginning belongs to McKinley and Hay. There was no doubt in anyone's mind, when the campaign of 1900 approached, as to the Republican nomination. The war was over, and our arms were successful in every field. Prosperity was universal, not only in America, but also in the entire world. We were entering the new century with greater hope than ever before. McKinley was immensely' popular. The South was to vote against him, but they loved him. Bryan was again the Democratic nominee, but he had no issue. The gold fields of the Klondike and elsewhere had reduced the price of gold to the point where a silver dollar was worth a dollar again, with the result that wages and prices increased, and no one felt the need of more money. Under these circumstances Bryan tried to make an issue of "Imperialism," but no one listened, with the exception of a few isolationists and academic scholars. Bryan carried little of the nation but the "Solid South." The only remarkable feature of the campaign was the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt for Vice-President. This is also a story outside our present field. It is enough to mention that the death of McKinley brought, in half a year after his inauguration, this extraordinary character from his obscure corner to the headlines, where he remained for the rest of his life. On March 4, 1901, McKinley took the oath of office for his second term, with the affection and best wishes of the whole nation to support him. That summer the Pan-Ameri- 414 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO can Exposition opened in Buffalo. On September 5th, McKinley addressed a vast multitude of the people gathered at the fair. This, his last speech, has generally been recognized as his supreme oratorical effort. In it he described eloquently the state of the nation, and spoke with the voice of prophecy of the future—the building of industry, the making of the Canal, the furthering of friendship among nations and peace on earth. The next day he stood on the steps of the Administration Building, and shook the hands of a long procession of people. In the line a young man, dark, undersized, what we call "foreign" in appearance, approached. If anyone had noticed, his right hand was tied in a handkerchief. McKinley reached out to take him by the left, apparently uninjured hand. But he never touched it. Through the handkerchief the young man fired two shots from a concealed revolver. The President fell. They carried him to the home of John G. Milburn, president of the Exposition. There the best medical talent available worked for more than a week. But all efforts failed. On September 13th, just six days less than twenty years from the death of Garfield, McKinley died. The two Presidents whom the Reserve had given to the nation had died in the course of duty, by an assassin's hand. Yet there was a difference. Garfield's murderer was a crazed American, who represented no one but himself. The man who killed McKinley represented an organized group, banded together to overthrow organized government, with a special antipathy toward that particular type which has been the glory of America, a government based on the sacredness of "life, liberty and property." Two lessons, it seems to us, are here; the one that it is not necessary to expose our Presidents to the danger of assassination simply to allow the mob to demonstrate their equality by shaking his hand; HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 415 the other, that it is not necessary to allow the existence in the nation of alien groups who hate us and our government, and who are dovoting their lives to the accomplishment of our destruction. They took his body to the Capitol at Washington, where it lay in state under the dome. Then they laid it away in Canton, where a magnificent tomb now holds his mortal remains, with those of his beloved wife. He was our President, especially, and the people of Stark, Trumbull and Ma-honing counties each claim a proud part in his making. The writer admits a partiality for the character of McKinley. He may not have been in the ranks of the greatest statesmen. Yet, in the sincerity of his purpose, the blamelessness of his life, the love of his country he showed a character greatly to be admired ; and in his ability to read the signs of the times, to do the right thing at the right time, to maintain his position against any odds, he certainly can be listed as a statesman, a great legislator, a great president. We need more such men. Northeastern Ohio may well be proud of William McKinley. CHAPTER III THE FIRST PHASE OF THE IRON EMPIRE It is not within the province of a work of this type to enter deeply into the technical details of the evolution of the iron and steel business during the great period following the reconstruction, were the writer sufficiently well informed to do it. If this book is read at all, some readers will be men whose knowledge of the professional side of this great industry far exceeds ours. Yet, as one who grew up in the shadow, almost, of a blast furnace; whose playground as a child was shaded by the smoke of the mills, who has spent most of his life in a country which has made the living of almost every human being in it either directly or indirectly from the manufacture of iron and steel, some knowledge of this vast business has almost automatically become a part of his very existence. Furthermore, the romance of the thing, to one who sees promise in the great story of human life, would make it worthy of a tale to be told by an epic poet, rather than a sober writer of history. We who live in the valley are so accustomed to the sight of the dynamic glory of our great industry that we pass it by with scarcely a glance, save perhaps when the night glow of our furnaces halts even our jaded sight with its magnificance. But the stranger, to whom the mills and furnaces are a novelty, is apt to stand in awe at a vision which in grandeur exceeds any other of man's works, and approaches the phenomena of the Creator. - 416 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 417 We have endeavored, in the earlier portion of this book, to trace the steps in the beginning one might say the prologue —of this great drama of iron and steel. From the primitive blast furnace of Dan Eaton's construction to the stone furnaces of the forties and fifties, little real advancement can be recorded. The developments which changed the situation, which made the business national in its importance, rather than local, were, in order: the change from charcoal first to bituminous coal and afterwards to coke for fuel; the substitution of the hot for the cold blast; the opening of the Lake Superior ore mines, and the introduction of the Bessemer and, much later the openhearth processes for the making of steel. Steel, to define its composition in terms which a layman can understand, is simply pure iron, alloyed by combination with carbon and other elements which give it the qualities of tensile strength, hardness or malleability which fit it for any specific purpose for which it may be needed. From the viewpoint of the metallurgist there is no such thing as steel, to be regarded as generic. Any scientifically amalgamated form of pure iron and other elements may be called steel. We have little to do here with the technical history of steel—such a book remains to be written—it will take a combination of literary genius and technical knowledge to write it. We want to show what happened in our valley. In the neighborhood of Mineral Ridge, on the boundary line between Trumbull and Mahoning; in the Brier Hill neighborhood in the northwest corner of Youngstown Township, and in the romantic little gorge of Panther Run, in Poland Township, were discovered, in the fifties, veins of bituminous coal, which after experimentation were found to be much better fuel for the purpose of reduction of iron than the charcoal which had been used before that time. 418 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO The native kidney ore was still used, although its low percentage of iron, of course, kept the iron output low. The old stone stacks began to disappear, and to be replaced by iron outside casings. The problem of getting the stack away from a hillside was finally solved by the use of a water power elevator. The Phoenix Furnace, in the heart of the present City of Youngstown, near the eastern end of the old Brown, Bonnell plant, was the first furnace to dare this experiment. (Note.—If the writer at times seems to ascribe to the old furnaces of the valley an almost life-like character, it is doubtless on account of his early training. We thought of the furnaces as a sort of living entity, with the qualities which belong to sentient beings. It should be no disparagement of the feminine sex to note the fact that to furnace-men, blast furnaces, like ships, are always spoken of, nay, even spoken to, as of the feminine gender. Blast furnaces have many distinctly feminine characteristics.) It is hard to name the man or men responsible for this beginning of the new phase in iron making. We would be inclined to give the largest amount of credit to Governor David Tod. It was on his farm that the coal mines were opened, and he was largely instrumental in engineering the construction of many of the pioneer furnaces. The Heatons were the first practical furnacemen. The names of those who did the actual labor in the operation of these furnaces are, of course, lost to history, except in cases, which were not a few, where the laborer showed the executive ability which enabled him to rise above the ranks. Of these new furnaces the first, in point of time was the "Mary," at Lowellville. Mary has changed her name. She was originally named "Ada," and was built by a firm named Wilkes, Wilkenson and Company, in which David Tod was a silent partner. Under her two names the Mary Furnace HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 419 has been in existence since 1845, and is therefore soon to finish out a century of existence. The capacity of the Ada Furnace was about twenty tons of iron per day. This seems insignificant now, but was a tremendous advance over the two tons produced by the old Hopewell Furnace. As the furnaces got away from the hillsides and the height of the stacks grew, the capacities increased. By 1870 several furnaces, Haselton No. 2, in the east end of Youngstown, Girard, and the Anna at Struthers, for instance, were producing nearly sixty tons. These were still open top stacks, with a blast little improved from the old cold blast system. By 1872 there were in operation in the valley twenty-one stacks, located as follows, with the date of each : In Lowellville, the Mary, 1845; in Youngstown, the Eagle, 1846; the Brier Hill No. 1, 1847; the Phoenix, 1854; the Falcon, 1856; the Himrod No. 1 and the Grace No. 1, 1860; the Haselton No. 1, 1867, the Haselton No. 2, 1868, the Himrod No. 3, 1868; in Mineral Ridge, the Ashland No. 1, 1858; the Ashland No. 2, 1862; in Niles, the Falcon, 1859; the Ward, 1870; in Hubbard, the Hubbard No. 1, 1868; the Hubbard No. 2, 1872; in Struthers, the Anna, 1869; in Warren, the Warren, 1870; in Girard, the Girard, 1867. The total capacity of these twenty-one furnaces was about eight hundred tons daily. The hot blast stove, as a method of heating the air to be blown into the furnace, did not arrive at modern efficiency until the seventies in our neighborhood. In the old open-top furnaces a large amount of unconsumed fuel escaped from the top, mostly in the form of carbon monoxide gas. Old people can still remember how this burning gas illuminated the night for miles around the valley. It was a German idea first to close the top with a "bell," and use this gas as fuel 420 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO to heat a stove filled with hollow tile, thus producing a medium through which the air blown into the furnace could be superheated, vastly increasing the resultant heat inside the stack. The poisonous nature of the gas itself and the supposed danger of explosion from the inclosed top combined to make the American furnace-men hesitate to adopt the method. But by 1880 the method became universal, and capacities as a result increased tremendously. Coke as furnace fuel came into use at the same time, or a little before. The hot blast blowing on coke completed the modern standards of efficiency in furnace operation. The remaining step in the direction of furnace efficiency was the opening of the Lake Superior mines. The first of these, the Marquette Range, began to ship ore in 1850. By 1856 this range was shipping ore to the Lake Erie harbors through the Sault Sainte Marie Canal. The other great ranges of the Superior country were opened later, the great Mesaba Range being opened in 1892. This ore was so much superior in percentage of iron and working quality that it soon replaced all local workings of native ore, and thereby added the completing factor in the making of the Mahoning Valley iron industry. These old furnaces were operated usually as independent units, or in groups of two or, at the most, three. They were most fascinating and interesting works, each one the object of local pride. There was then no idea of fencing out the casual visitor—the writer as a boy can remember that he had free access to the old Anna Furnace at any time. The operation of casting in the old sand beds was a sight of which we never tired, and when a visitor from foreign parts came to town it was our pride to take him to see this wondrous sight. We were all furnace-men in our own opinions, and while we knew nothing of the scientific aspects of the business, of course, all of us were able to talk intelligently about the HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 421 mechanical processes of making pig iron. Most boys looked forward to a life in the furnaces or the mills, and, in the opinion of the writer, this was the principal reason for the great development which grew out of this small beginning. To the Mahoning Valley man there is no romance yet to be compared to the story of iron and steel. The working of the pig iron which was the output of these furnaces was the cause of the building in the valley of numerous "finishing mills," so called. The process of refining pig iron, before the introduction of the different types of steel making, first the Bessemer converter, and afterwards the openhearth furnace, was by means of puddling furnace. It must be admitted that the valley iron men clung to the puddling furnace after the Bessemer converter was being used in Pittsburgh and elsewhere almost exclusively, and this was doubtless a fact which held back the advancement in population, and probably in wealth, of the valley. Yet, in the usefulness and enduring quality of the product of the puddling furnaces was a justification of their continuation. They made a fine quality of wrought iron, and while there are very few puddling furnaces in operation now, there is still in existence iron roofing and other forms of wrought iron which have withstood the attacks of the elements for many years. Steel was cheaper, and for many purposes better. But puddled wrought iron had a value and a use which has not yet been replaced by any other form of iron. The wrought iron made in these puddling furnaces was made into bars, rods, sheets, nails, and in at least one instance iron rails. Some of the early plants acquired their own blast furnaces, some bought their pig iron from independent furnaces, and by 1880 some were using scrap iron, bought from local dealers and reworked in to so-called "muck-bar" after having been bound into what the old English iron men called "fagots," heated in a scrap furnace. It is not our intention 422 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO to attempt any technical description of any of these processes, nor would we be able to do so if we wished. Our knowledge of these processes is that of an observer rather than an expert. Nor would it be appropriate here. The puddling furnace, however, is so nearly a thing of the past, and was such an extraordinary mechanism, requiring a technical skill on the part of the operator approaching the miraculous, that a brief description might not be out of place. In the puddling furnace, heated to a molten state by a coke fire, the pig iron to be refined lay immersed in a bath of molten furnace slag. Through an opening in the front of the furnace the puddler inserted a rod, with which he worked the iron, up and down, around and around, until it gradually took shape. What he really was doing was working the impurities out of the iron into the slag, at the same time giving it a fibrous form which greatly increased its tensile strength. But to the boy who was privileged to look over the puddler's shoulder, the iron as it took form resembled nothing so much as the butter forming on the surface of the milk in his mother's churn. When the iron was "done," the puddler worked it into a great ball, which was taken from the furnace, and worked into shape in a crusher, a "muck-mill," bar mill, rod mill or whatever else was desirable in the shape of a finishing process. The iron produced by this process had an enduring quality, due to its purity and fibrous construction, which no American steel has ever equaled. But the desire for mass production and reduction of costs caused its abandonment. Puddling was a human process. All efforts to produce the same result by machinery have failed to this present day. The first of the finishing mills in the valley which became a permanent institution, established under the name of the Youngstown Rolling Mill Company, in 1846, became in 1855 the property of Brown, Bonnell and Company. The proprietors of this mill, William Bonnell and three brothers, HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 423 Joseph H., Richard and Thomas Brown, may be considered the real pioneers of the business of finishing iron in the valley. This plant, located in the heart of the present city of Youngstown, still remains in operation, although vastly altered and improved, and is now one of the plants of the Republic Steel Corporation. It is therefore entitled to rank with the Mary Furnace as the oldest of its kind, and like the Mary Furnace is approaching the century mark in its existence. In 1863 the beginning of the Union Mills came, on the north side of the river, in the Brier Hill neighborhood. This mill, originally named the Enterprise Iron Works, soon became the property of the firm of Cartwright, McCurdy and Company, composed of James Cartwright, William H. McCurdy, Charles Cartwright, Samuel J. Atkins, William B. Haseltine and William E. Parmelee. Crab Creek, a stream which flows almost due south through Liberty and Youngstown townships, emptying into the Mahoning at the eastern end of Federal Street, was invaded by the mills at an early time. The Himrod Furnaces were built near its mouth, and above them was constructed the beginning of the "Valley Mills," so called, in 1871. The continued developments of the iron and steel business in Crab Creek Valley have given it the name of "Smokey Hollow," a designation of affection which still clings to it, in a town whose smoke has been its fortune. The Mahoning Valley Iron Company, which operated the first mill on Crab Creek, was a concern which was the property of members of three great Youngstown families : Tod, Wick and Arms. This plant is interesting on account of the fact that one of their products was iron rails, then greatly in demand on account of the large amount of railroad construction during this period. The Valley Mill came into the possession of the Brown-Bonnell firm about 1879. It is to be noted that the Wick family became less concerned with the actual iron 424 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO industry, and more and more identified with the banking concerns of Youngstown as the years went by. The picturesque figure of Chauncey H. Andrews first becomes an important one in the valley iron business with the building of the Haselton Furnaces. In 1878 the firm of Andrews Brothers and Company went into the rolling mill business in the Haselton district, now Youngstown's east end, the firm being composed of Chauncey Andrews, his brothers Lawrence and Wallace, Lucius E. Cochran and James Nelson. This mill, with its furnaces, also became a part of the Republic Steel Corporation's great combination in later years. James Ward was engaged in the manufacture of bar iron at Niles in the early forties, and is entitled to recognition as one of the pioneers both in blast furnace and rolling mill operations in the valley. Ward's desire for improvement of the business involved him in financial difficulties later which hindered greatly the development of the iron business in Niles. He may be regarded in a sense as a martyr to his amtitions for the development of the business. In Struthers in 1882 a family of Englishmen, James Summers and his sons, William, Samuel and Charles, went into the business of making bar and sheet iron, under the name of the Summers Brothers Company. This company operated until the nineties, when the depression of that period resulted in their discontinuing operations. The mill was reorganized as the Struthers Iron and Steel Company by Jonathan Warner, James Patterson and Charles S. Thomas. Mr. Thomas had come to the United States from Scotland as an emigrant boy when the Summers family established their mill. He was the nephew of James Summers, and it was as a worker in this mill that he began the career which has since carried him to the front in valley business affairs. It is a curious and significant fact that only in recent years has there been any large development in the valley of