Since all industry is dependent on transportation, the Ohio and Beaver rivers played a large part in the industrialization of Beaver County. Steel also needed a large supply of water. The industrialists that came to Beaver County because of its water supply erected factories, developed towns, and in the process made Beaver County one of the leading industrial counties in the state.

During the 1800s many small factories were producing horse nails, bricks, pottery, glass, chemicals, some iron, and wire products in Beaver County but never was there a need for a large work force until the steel industry started to move into the county in the early 1900s. They brought their large mills and built their planned towns, such as Midland by Crucible Steel, Aliquippa by Jones & Laughlin, Ambridge by American Bridge Co., bringing in workers from all over the country and in fact from all over the world.

The steel companies had a tendency to dominate the towns, and in Aliquippa this was probably the most heavy handed. There Jones & Laughlin held ownership of all key community services in what one-time J&L general superintendent Tom Girdler called a "benevolent dictatorship".

The steel companies in Beaver County had a strong anti-union policy right from the start, and this continued until the Supreme Court case of NLRB Vs Jones & Laughlin. This case was filed by Beaver Valley Lodge 200 Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel And Tin Workers, with the assistance from the Aliquippa Democratic Social Club. Although many steelworkers had been harassed and fired, ten men comprising a mixture of union officials, workers and a diversity of ethnic groups were chosen to be featured in this case. The argument put forth to the NLRB was that Jones & Laughlin had violated the National Labor Relations Act with its harassment and firings. The NLRB on April 9, 1936 found J&L in violation of the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act, and ordered J&L to "cease and desist from such discrimination, to reinstate the fired union members and to make good any losses in pay". The company refused to comply with the board order and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court found the Wagner Act constitutional on April 12, 1937. On May 12 through 14th, 1937 the Steelworkers in Aliquippa had their first strike, and won the right freely to represent themselves with the company after so many years.

Even after this monumental case giving unions the right to organize and strike for better working conditions, Moltrup Steel in Beaver Falls would hold out against the steelworkers and a death would result from the hands of a Deputy Sheriff during a prolonged strike.

The steel companies and the persons that worked there would go on to prosper, and thus Beaver County would prosper, continuing through the war years up through the 1970's. In 1979 the Steelworkers would represent about 61% of the total work force in Beaver County, but by 1987 only 2800 steelworker jobs would remain.

According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Steelworker in America took a beating in the 1980s with a loss of more than 200,000 workers from company payrolls nationwide. More than 400 mills and divisions of plants closed down. Foreign steel imports rose to more than one-third, and domestic raw steel production shrank to a record low. Since 1986 the steel industry has been faced with chapter 11 bankruptcy filings by at least three major corporations. Beaver County alone lost over 20,000 steelworker jobs and at least five major plants, including B&W, Crucible, LTV, Armco and American Bridge. Most have been torn down and all basic steel operations have ceased forever. By 1987 the steel industry that once employed 450,000 people nation wide had reduced its employment level to 163,000, the lowest level ever.

In the 1960s there were 14,970 Steelworkers employed in Aliquippa alone. In 1997 there were slightly less than that number employed in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties combined.

The Steelworkers did much for Beaver County over the years. They built a hospital in Aliquippa by payroll deduction and their tax moneys helped built three county parks and new school buildings. Many steelworkers served and some are still serving in local government for the betterment of their communities. Many served their country and some gave their lives during the world wars and Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Although company records are not available for the various local steel plants we know that at least one local steel plant had 253 fatalities from 1913 to 1965 and this company was known for its safety program and tried to prevent accidents, but steel was always a dangerous occupation.

All of the above information was derived from the collection of industrial artifacts, memorabilia, and personal papers of Donald Inman who worked for J&L Steel, now LTV Steel. This collection is now housed in the Beaver County Industrial Museum Located on the campus of Geneva College in Beaver Falls Pa. Museum hours are on Saturdays from 12:30 to 3:30 when school is in session. Special hours and tours can be arranged by calling the executive director Dr. David Wollman at 724-847-6632. If traveling any distance it is best to call to verify opening days and times.

The Aliquippa Works of J&L Steel had its beginning back in 1905 when land was purchased in Woodlawn (now Aliquippa) to provide J&L expansion. Construction was started in 1907, and the first production was in 1909 from a single blast furnace. Two more blast furnaces were added in 1910, a forth in 1912, and a fifth in 1919. Four open hearth furnaces were constructed in 1912 for steelmaking, and three Bessemer Converters were constructed in 1916.

One of the first Basic Oxygen Furnace shops on the North American continent went into operation in 1957, and was replaced in 1968 with the large three furnace No.2 Basic Oxygen Furnace Shop. At that time, the No.1 shop and the Open Hearth-Converter facilities were shut down. The Aliquippa Works was one of the most widely diversified plants in the American steel industry and was a completely integrated plant in that it produced steel and steel products from raw materials. Operations at the plant included the following facilities: By-Product Coke Department. The newest battery, A-5, utilized the latest coke-making technology of coal pre-heating and pipe-line charging in addition to the most modern environmental control equipment. Blast Furnace Department. Five blast furnaces included two of the largest in J&L. Steel Works Department. All of the steel produced was melted in three 207-ton basic oxygen furnaces. The department also included a six-strand billet and round continuous caster. Blooming Mills Department. Two blooming mills, a 44-inch and a 45-inch, rolled steel ingots into slabs or blooms for finishing into a wide variety of steel products. The department also included a bar mill and a billet mill which converted blooms into round, square or rectangular shapes for further processing. Hot Strip Mill. The 44-inch Hot Strip Mill rolled slabs weighing as much as 13 tons into coils of strip, known as hot bands. This mill was the first in the industry with computer control for part of the rolling process. 14-inch Mill This mill still operating, but independently of LTV Steel, produced all of J&L's structural shapes, including the J&L-patented Junior Beams. Welded Tube Department. Welded pipe, principally for transmission lines was produced by two methods - continuous weld and electric weld. Seamless Tube Department. The two seamless hot mills produced high strength pipe used to drill oil wells, to case wells, and to transport oil and gas. Rod and Wire Department. Billets were ground on a high speed grinding line and then hot rolled in a two-stand rod mill to form a product which was used by manufactures of furniture, mattresses and bed springs. Rods were also drawn, or cold reduced, into wire into a wide variety of sizes, some as thin as a human hair. Nails were also produced here at one time. Tin Plate Department. The only department still operating at Aliquippa under LTV Steel, cold rolls steel into the proper thickness and then electrolytically coats it with a thin coating of pure tin to form Tin Plate. This is the material for which containers for food, beverages and many other applications - the tin can - is used.

The land on which a large portion of the Aliquippa Works was situated was an amusement park. The plant occupied a site of more than 700 acres on the west bank of the Ohio River and extended about seven miles. It was one half mile wide at its widest point. The Aliquippa and Southern Railroad, a wholly owned subsidiary, operated more than 100 miles of railroad track within the plant. The area on which the Steel Works Department was located was formerly two islands, which were filled in to provide space for these facilities. Expansion and modernization were constant and on-going programs at the Aliquippa Works since its beginning. The plant incorporated some of the most modern technology in the industry before its downsize to just the Tin Plate Department and the sell off of the 14-Inch Mill. All other facilities were demolished.

The Aliquippa Works was the largest industrial plant in Beaver County, its largest employer, the largest taxpayer, the largest purchaser of goods and services, and the largest utility user. The Aliquippa Works had a work force at its peak of 14,960 men and women who lived in approximately 175 communities.

In 1853 B. F. Jones, Samuel Kier, Bernard Lauth and John F. Lauth established the firm of Jones, Lauth & Company to operate the American Iron works, Located on one and one half acres of land on the south side of the Monongahela River, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. The original plant consisted of four puddling furnaces, a squeezer, muck rolls, two heating furnaces and a guide mill. Output was about seven tons per shift. The firm prospered and by 1857 was making about 6000 tons per year of wrought iron bar and cut nails.

In 1859 James Laughlin, who had become a partner in Jones & Lauth, acquired land on the north side of the Monongahela River, opposite Jones & Lauth plant, formed Laughlin and Company, and began construction of bee-hive coke ovens and the first two Eliza blast furnaces.

In 1861 the firm of Jones and Laughlins was formed to succeed Jones and Lauth, and for the next 40 years Jones and Laughlins and Laughlin and Company, with substantially common ownership, continued operations on opposite sides of the river. Pig iron from the Eliza furnaces was ferried across the river until a bridge was built in 1877. By this time the South Side plant had grown to 75 puddling furnaces, 30 heating furnaces, 18 trains of rolls and 73 nail machines, with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year, while the Eliza furnaces had an annual capacity of 36,000 ton of pig iron. With the development of the Bessemer process, steel began to replace wrought iron, and in 1886 Jones and Laughlins installed two seven-ton converters, while Laughlin and Company built a third blast furnace. Eight years later, the company abandoned their puddling furnaces and went out of the wrought iron business. Since iron was cast into pigs in sand beds at the blast furnaces, it was necessary to remelt the iron for the converters. This was done in cupolas, and even after the development of mixers and facilities for handling the molten iron, Jones and Laughlins used cupolas to melt purchased pig iron. It was not until 1920, when blast furnace capacity caught up with the demands of the steel plant, that cupola operation was discontinued in the plant.

In 1900, Jones & Laughlins, Ltd., and Laughlin and Company, Ltd., were consolidated, and two years later the business was incorporated as Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. By that time the company had an annual capacity of more than 1,000,000 tons of steel ingots. Blast furnace capacity expanded, and with six furnaces reached a capacity of 1,035,000 tons per year by 1904. Following this merger, a program of acquiring raw material sources was actively pursued. This was a particularly desirable course in view of the start of construction of the new plant at Aliquippa. Through purchases and leases, the Vesta and Shannopin coal lands were obtained, as well as the Martinsburg limestone quarries, ore deposits in Minnesota and Michigan, and other properties. In 1940, development of the Benson ore mines in New York was begun. After the depression of the "thirties" J&L joined in the revolution in flat rolled products by installing continuous hot and cold strip mills. The assets of Otis Steel Co. In Cleveland, Ohio were acquired in 1942 through an exchange of stock.

The development of the original Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. Is particularly interesting because, except for the Otis acquisition, all its growth came from expansion of its own plants. Furthermore, a major portion of the expansion was financed from the company's own earnings. A provision of the original partnership agreement stated that all profits of the firm for the first five years were to become part of the firms capital stock. Over the years, approximately 70 per cent of the company earnings were reinvested in the business. It was not until 1951 that J&L sold it's first issue of common stock.

Pittsburgh Works over the years included a open hearth shop, two Blooming Mills, Bar Mills, two merchant mills, a continuous wide strip mill, a major Electric Furnace Shop, six batteries of By-Product Coke ovens, (the last ovens and the last presence in Pittsburgh of a major steel Co., ended in March 1998, when LTV Steel closed the last batteries), six Blast Furnaces (pictured above), and the necessary finishing and auxiliary facilities. The plant straddled the Monongahela River occupying 276 acres all within the city limits of Pittsburgh. With the exception of a Galvanizing Line (that was sold) all of these facilities have been closed and are or will be demolished.

The Cleveland Works of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. Had an important spot in the history of the American iron and steel industry, for it was here that much of the pioneering work on the basic open hearth process was done. The plant had its origin in a company started in 1874 by Charles Otis, who had obtained a license to use Siemen's open hearth process in the United States. Prior to this, Otis had inherited an iron furnace in Cleveland which he expanded with the addition of a forge shop and rolling mill for the production of iron bars and railroad axles. The new plant also included a seven-ton acid open hearth.

In 1889, control of the company passed to an English holding company. This continued for 30 years, when the company was acquired by a group of Cleveland bankers and industrialists. During this time, the present plant site on the Cuyahoga River was acquired. Purchase of the adjacent Cleveland Furnace Co., with a by-product coke oven plant, and two blast furnaces gave the company its supply of iron at this site. Gradual expansion brought the addition of more sheet mills, more Open Hearth Furnaces, a 40-inch blooming, and hot and cold strip mills.

In 1942 Otis Steel Co. was acquired by Jones & Laughlin, and they started a vast program of expansion and rehabilitation that involved sintering facilities, blast furnace replacement and enlargement, electric furnaces, soaking pits, slabbing mill, scarfing machine, reversing rougher for the strip mill, pickling line, tandem cold mill, temper mills, shearing lines, and annealing facilities, as well as much auxiliary equipment, building extensions and utility services. This plant has been continually modernized and is now a part of LTV Steel. The LTV Steel headquarters are now located in Cleveland as well.

J&L after years of planning purchased a mill site in Hennepin Illinois to improve its ability to serve growing mid-western markets for steel mill products. Phase One was designed as a facility to produce cold rolled and galvanized sheets. The new equipment included a pickle line, an 84-inch five stand cold reducing mill, a 60-inch galvanizing line, an 84-inch two stand temper mill and facilities for slitting, shearing, corrugating and related auxiliary facilities. Site preparation began in March of 1996, and erection of structural steel started the following July. Start up operations were in December of 1987 with the first order shipped on February 19, 1968. At this time J&L operations included 10 Steel Services Centers in seven states; seven Steel Container Division plants in six states; an Electric Weld Tube Division; ore mines, coal mines, limestone quarries; a research laboratory; three subsidiary railroads; a River Transportation Division; a Supply Division distributing goods and equipment to the oil country through 62 stores in 18 states; sales offices in 57 cities and an Export Department for shipments overseas.

The fall of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., some will say, started back in 1968 when a man by the name of James Ling Chairman of the Ling-Temco-Vought Corp., saw an opportunity in accruing J&L to obtain the 500 million in excess funds in the J&L pension fund. Though this later proved unsuccessful (pension fund takeover) when challenged in the courts, it did not prevent Ling-Temco-Vought from acquiring a controlling interest in J&L Steel. J&L Steel still continued investment in the corporation with a major expansion program at Aliquippa in 1974 of 200 million dollars, however J&L now became a wholly owned subsidiary of the LTV Corporation. In 1978 the LTV Corporation merged with the Lykes Corporation and put Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company under the J&L name. After this merger many facilities at Pittsburgh were starting to shut down even thought a new Electric Furnace Shop came on line only to be later idled and then demolished. In 1983 J&L purchased the former Crucible Steel Plant at Midland Pa., only for it later to be sold with the Specialty Steel Division to some of the J&L executives. The year 1984 was the end of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation as we knew it as LTV merged the J&L Steel Corporation with Republic Steel and formed LTV Steel. This merger was ill timed in most of our minds, as the 80's brought on the downsizing of the Steel Industry and of course the bankruptcy of the LTV Corporation.