Standard Engineering began operations in Ellwood City in 1902 at the corner of Second Street and Park Avenue. A Subsidiary of the Standard Steel Car Company from Butler, PA the Ellwood works had previously been the Baker Forge-Hardware Company.
     Built 1894, the Baker Forge-Hardware Company was located east of Second Street and stretched from Franklin Avenue to the railroad tracks. The company that had been originally a partnership between J.H. Baker and H.W. Hartman manufactured wagon hardware until being replaced with the manufacturing of railroad steel car forgings. When Standard Steel Car Company took over, the name was changed to the Steel Car Forge Company until 1929 when the name was changed again to the Standard Steel Car Company, Steel Car Forge Division.

      It was reported in a 1916 Pittsburgh Gazette that the Steel Car Forge Company was the largest plant of its kind on the North American continent. They manufactured rolling and tube mill machinery, pipe threading machines, sand rolls and high grade gray iron castings. The black and white picture was taken from the Peerless Lead Glass Company at the eastern end of Park Avenue while the color picture appears to have been taken from the former ground of the Ellwood Brick Company.

In the first fourteen years of business, the Steel Car Forge reportedly knew no bad times and continually employed six hundred men. This time even included a strike at the Butler facility of the Standard Steel Car Company where one man was fatally shot when police opened fire into the hostile protestors. On July 19, 1909, an estimated 500 Employees of Standard Wheel Company joined the Standard Steel Car Companies 2,500 Strikers in Butler and things got violent. As mentioned, police fired into the crowd killing one, wounding two and ten others were hurt. Even during all this, the Ellwood works continued to produce.

     Standard Engineering considered Ellwood City an ideal place for great manufacturing with an unlimited supply of working people and free from labor trouble. The town’s water and electricity were considered very cheap and it also had what they regarded as a first class fire protection. Ellwood also had the freight service of four great railroad systems with Pittsburgh rates and the additional advantages of no extra charges for transfer.

When times were difficult for other industries, it seemed to have no effect upon the Steel Car Forge Co. Its product, if nothing else had already made Ellwood City famous, would have attracted the eyes of the world to our community because of its being at the very top of the world’s industries. The Steel Car Forge was often referred to as a “mechanical blacksmith shop” operating on a tremendously larger scale. It performed blacksmith work but entirely by machinery. In the early part of the century, the Steel Car Forge Works produced forgings for freight cars and also a general line of forgings for all railroad and for special purposes. Standard typified, as perhaps no other industry could, the progress that had been made by the beginning of the twentieth century.
    In May 1934 the Pullman Company ceased operations in Ellwood City and moved all the machinery worth keeping to the Butler facility of the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company and the property sat empty until 1939 when the property was purchased by a company you might have heard of, the National Tube Company.

    The first picture of the tube mill was believed to have been taken late summer/ early fall of 1916 from the area that was formerly Tunnel Field. For the younger generations, it is easy to forget how big the National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation) was.

    The second picture with a close-up of “the smoke stacks” was only a portion of the tube mill that ran from the railroad tracks by the Second Street overpass to the Ewing Park Bridge. The Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company later expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof. Employment reached its highest point during World War II when 4,000 people were employed.

    I recently got an email from Robert Haben asking if I had any pictures of the tube mill steam switch engine that was used to dump slag behind Loccisano’s market. He believed that the engine ran through the 1940′s and the large cement dump is still standing today.

I went through my pictures and I did find some pictures of the tube mill that I have not published yet. The picture above is part of the slideshow below that has pictures taken between 1914 and 1917 around the tube mill involving railroad tracks. Robert mentioned the 1940′s, so I am not sure if this is the same engine, but it is the only one I have. If you have a picture, we would love to see it.

A number of these pictures I do not know what exactly we are looking at so any feedback you might have would be appreciated. You can leave your comments below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

  We are very grateful to Mr. Dale A. Brown Jr. who shared his great memories of his time when he worked at Mathews Conveyer Company. He shared about his time working in Old Mill “E” (the dirtiest part of the plant to work) so we thought we would share these snapshots that we have not been able to identify yet. We were holding back on posting these pictures since we did not know who they were yet, but what better way to identify them. If you recall who these guys are or which department they worked in, please leave a reply below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Not only did Dale share his memories of Mathews, but he also shared the name of the men and women he worked with. He mentioned that his Supervisor was Al Biego who was in charge of the department and Al’s secretary was Pat Rossman.

Other names he was able to recall included Robert “Speed” Miskolske, Duane Weingartner, Pete Muhhollen, Carl Campbell, Ken Ketterer, Gail Blair, Bill Owens, Harold Offutt, Grace Laritz, Jean Brown, Robert Kissick, Tom “Tom the Bomb” Shaffer, Bill Steveson, Paul Rossman, Al Parente, Mike Prestopine, Jack “Hummer” Houk, Tom Henry, Gene “Yoke” Angelucci, Gene “Yummer” Laritz, Harold Parker, Harold “Hap” Parker, Larry Parker, John Zeigler, Bob Wade, John Biega Sr., John Beiga Jr., Lynn Van Kirk, Daniel “Joe” Weisz and Forman Chalmers Workley.

Ward Hoffman, Amos Mazzant Sr., and Amos Mazzant Jr., Odd McCleary, Tony Yanello, Maintenance Supervisor Charles Mitchell, and his son Charles Mitchell.

      While Americans were overseas fighting in World War II the Tube Mill’s here in Ellwood City had guards stationed twenty four hours a day around the buildings as they were making casings for rockets.
      During that time, disaster struck the United Tube that destroyed the building. As you can see in the picture, fire erupted from one of the United Tube Mills on April 13, 1944. The thick black smoke laid a thick haze on the entire area. Despite the haze, you can still make out the firemen, fire trucks, hose lines and of course the spectators.
      When the fireman finally got the fire under control all that remained was rubble and debris.

      This picture is from a collection of pictures that were recently shared with us. The picture is of the former tube mill taken from the grounds of the old baseball field known as “Tunnel Field”. In the immediate background of the picture is the small village of Burnstown.

      Burnstown is located along the south side of route 488 between Ellwood City and Ellport in the third ward. The area was built up upon the Burns farm that stretched from the Northeastern edge of Ellwood City, east, and included parts of Ellport, Rock Dell, and Wurtemburg Heights. When Merrit Greene was purchasing land for the Pittsburg Company, Burns refused to sell any of his property to the group.

      Burnstown was home to many large homes as you can see in the pictures, and was largely made up of families that worked in the tube mill. Burnstown also housed a number of business including corner grocery stores and barber shops and even had its own school.

     After thirty five years at 724 Lawrence Avenue, the United Steelworkers Local 1220 closed their doors on October 31st, 1975. The original union was started in 1936 as Lodge 205 of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers. In 1937 the union was chartered under the Steel Workers Organizing Committee when it was located in the former First National Bank Building. Later the meetings were moved the second floor of the former Schweiger Building on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street.
    The first president of the SWOC Local 1220 was T. Louis Majors followed by Samuel Tooch in June of 1938. When SWOC Local 1220 ceased operations in 1975, the officers of the union included Nick Frisk, president; James Foley, vice president; Joseph Mancini, recording secretary; and Charles Maggi, financial secretary; and George Richards, treasurer.

    Ellwood Shafting & Tubing Company was the first manufacturing institution to establish itself in Ellwood City in 1891 and the first to manufacture seamless tubing in the United States. Just three years later in October of 1894, the Ellwood Shafting & Tube Company was sold to H.A. Lozier the “Bicycle King of America” and the name of the company was changed to Ellwood Weldless Tube Company. Ellwood Tubeless produced the seamless tubes for the H.A. Lozier & Company who was the original producer of “Cleveland” bicycles. The seamless tubes were produced in Ellwood City and shipped to Toledo, Ohio where they were assembled by H.A. Lozier & Company (later Lozier Mfg).
    Lozier continued production until selling the bicycle portion of the business to Col. Pope of the American Bicycle Company towards the end of 1899 (just before the bicycle industry crash) for quite a lot of money. Lozier Manufacturing and the Cleveland brand also separated at that point. H.A. Lozier went into the boat engine business, and then his heirs went into the automobile business.
    The Ellwood Weldless Tube Company continued to produce the tubing primarily for the bicycle industry and boilers until 1898 when the United States declared war on Spain in the Spanish-American War. During the war, there was a subtle shift from the previous gun barrels types to the seamless tube gun barrels. Then when World War I broke out in 1914, the mill was primarily converted to the production of tubes to be used in the assembling of military guns.
    The bicycle pictured here is an 1898 Cleveland “37″. The original selling price was $65.00 and came in two colors, black enamel or optional green enamel. The handlebars on the bicycle are not flipped upside-down, but this was permissible since these were called “reversible handlebars.” We have been told that these were the type of bicycles that were raced “professionally” around Pittsburgh Circle when it was used in that capacity from 1895 to 1905. What we have not yet been able to uncover was that since the road was not paved at this time and Ellwood City was infamous for the muddy roads were there wood planks laid on the road or did they race in the mud?
    If you would like to share any memories you may have about the mill, or bike races around Pittsburgh Circle, please leave a comment below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    Do you remember the Forge picnics in Ewing Park? In the Forty’s if you did not work at the Ellwood City Forge, you always made it a point to be friends with someone who did because of the highly anticipated company picnics. Employees of the Forge would get tickets for family members and if you were lucky a couple extra ones for you and your family.
    The picnics would have some of the areas best food, penny games for children, games for adults, clowns, and did we mention the great food? To those we have talked with about the picnics, it was one of the highlights of the summer in Ellwood City. They truly must have been to remember them so vividly a little over sixty years later.

     If you remember the Forge picnics in Ewing Park or elsewhere and would like to share your memories or pictures, please leave a comment below or you can email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    According to Flostor.com, the conveyer industry started around 1900 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area by a group of men unloading wooden shingles off of trains. Part of that group of men decided to produce this new contraption and decided upon Ellwood City, “the Seamless Tube Capital of the World“. The men that stayed in Minneapolis started the Standard Conveyer Company, while the men that moved to Ellwood City started the Mathews Gravity Conveyer Company with Rufus P. Mathews serving as president.
    Mathews Gravity Carrier Company located on Tenth Street quickly expanded their catalog to not only gravity roller conveyers, but also included gravity roller spirals, belt conveyers, metal spiral chutes, automatic straight lifts and automatic inclined elevators.
    After Mathews, Frank Moore officially became president though many considered him the head man there since the company came to town. After Mr. Moore stepped down in 1948, Bill Dean served as the president followed by Mr. McLeary. It was Frank Moore that built Mathews Gravity Conveyer Company to the forefront of the industry when he set up Mailer-Searles in San Francisco to be a manufacturer of Mathews Conveyers on the west coast and he also built a new plant in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. During this time, Norton Meyer was Chief Engineer and John Offutt was Chief Draftsman. John Offutt was the son of the superintendent of the U.S. Steel Ellwood works, John Offutt, who also owned a considerable amount of stock in Mathews Conveyer.
    Bill Dean built the Mathews Conveyer Plant in San Carlos with plans to sale the Mathews products direct instead of through Mailer-Searles. Along with the new San Carlos location, P.W. (Joie) Brown was appointed President of Mathews-West Coast until his untimely death and Bill Peppard was appointed Vice-President and General Manager. Upon outgrowing the San Carlos facility, Mathews built a new plant in Chico, California.
    Odd McLeary, as President of Mathews, arranged the sale of Mathews to Rex Chainbelt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rex also bought Nordberg a rock crushing equipment manufacturer and changed their name to Rexnord. The cost of Mathews to Rex was nine million dollars with an additional twenty five thousand dollars a year retirement to McLeary for an additional five years. Legend has it that Mathews Gravity Conveyer Company had nine million dollars in the bank when they were purchased by Rex. Since all of Mathew’s assets became Rex’s property, the actual cost to Rex would have been nothing.
    On October 6th 1975, after months of hints and speculation, it was announced that Rexnord Inc., will close the Ellwood City plant within three to four months. Company president Robert L. Blackman attributed the shut down to “economic reasons”. The closing was the second big blow to the job market in Ellwood City as U.S. Steel closed its Ellwood City location within the year. At the time of the closing, Rexnord employed one hundred and sixty people which had dropped down from a little over five hundred at its peek.
    If you would like to leave share your memories of Mathews, please do so below in the comments section or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    These maps are amazingly detailed snapshots of the Ellwood City in 1894, they were donated to us by Jan Williams of Wayne Avenue. As you can see, there are many things in the picture that have not only disappeared from the skyline, but there are not many people left that remember what these places looked like outside of the few exterior pictures we have.
    Almost at the center of the picture is the Ellwood Shafting & Tube Company (later to be known as “Mill B” of the National Tube Company a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation). The picture gives a general idea of the structure, but is detailed enough to show each of the different departments inside of the building. The other industrial building shown is the Hartman Manufacturing Company (on both sides of the railroad tracks). Again, all of the various departments like drawing and weaving department are broken out. Additional items on the first map include the freight house off of Sixth Street and a Railroad turn table behind it. On the North side of Lawrence Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street is the Ellwood City Opera House. Again, so detailed are these maps that it shows the billiards room on the west side of the first floor and a bakery on the east side. It even shows where the stage on the second floor was located. Also on the corner of Seventh Street and Lawrence Avenue, you can clearly see the Honorable Henry S. Blatt’s and Captain A.C. Grove’s hardware store buildings.
    The second map is more of a collage of the more prominent buildings in the town in 1894 than a map. The detailed map includes the Derwent Foundary and Peerless Glass Lead Works, the Ellwood Enamel Company and Ellwood Gas Stove and Stamping Company on Tenth Street, the Ellwood Tin Plate Company and Northwood Glass Company on Factory Avenue, and the layout of the Ellwood Brick Company Limited and G.W. Wallace. Notice in the drawing of the Ellwood Brick Company Limited, there is a foundation laid out for a proposed forge but not yet built.
    In the zoomed in picture of the Hotel Oliver, you get a clearer picture of the layout of the Hotel. In 1894, there were two separate cottages on the grounds and the saloon was also a separate building in the courtyard. You can also see just how large the legendary dining hall and kitchen were as they took up almost the entire first floor of the south wing of the Hotel.   
    At the time of this survey, the population of Ellwood City was approximately eight hundred people. The buildings with a large ‘D’ are “dwellings” or residential houses. If you would like to leave any comments please feel free below or email us by CLICKING HERE.

    The Northwood Glass Company was founded by English-born Harry Northwood, the son of a talented glass manufacturer. Harry left England at the age of twenty to work in America in 1880 and founded his own factory in 1887 in Martins Ferry, Ohio. Only five years later, Harry closed his plant in Martins Ferry and moved to Ellwood City where he opened a new plant. The move to Ellwood City was not a coincidence, but rather the result of the influence of Mr. Northwood’s uncle Thomas Dugan, who was heavily invested in the new town of Ellwood City.
    Many people who have left their mark on Ellwood City came to town with the Northwood Glass Company. Those that purchased lots and built houses in the new town along with Mr. Northwood include Henry E. Helling, Adam Eiselen, George Beaumont (Northwood’s father-in-law), George Pownall, John G. Anderson, Thomas A.E. Dugan, and Samuel Dugan – both were nephews of Mr. Dugan and Mr. Northwood’s cousins. When Northwood closed his Ellwood City plant in 1896 and left for Indiana, PA, the Englishmen left with him and the Germans (Eiselens and Hellings) stayed.
    The Northwood Glass plant in Ellwood City was located at the end of Eleventh Street along Factory Avenue. After Northwood closed its Ellwood City facility, the plant sat empty for a couple of years until 1898 when the American Lamp & Brass Company moved in. American became Clark Brothers Glass Company, and again in 1905 it changed hands becoming Ellwood City Glass Company.
    After leaving Ellwood City, Harry Northwood at one time leased the Dugan Glass Company (then under a different name) in Indiana PA, and Thomas Dugan became one of the managers. When Harry left, the name was changed to Dugan Glass, and in 1910 the company began to produce Carnival Glass, often using old Northwood moulds. Dugan Glass Company marked the bottom of its pieces with a diamond shape with a ‘D’ inside. In 1913, when the company again changed its name, it became the Diamond Glass Company and kept the insignia. The Diamond Glass Company produced great pieces until 1931, when the Indiana, PA factory was destroyed by a disastrous fire.
    After leaving Indiana, the Northwood Glass Company eventually moved to Wheeling, West Virginia and produced glassware that is still highly sought after today. The Northwood Company marked their products with a letter ‘N’ inside a circle on the bottom of their pieces. The company was the top company in production of Carnival Glass until Harry contracted a fatal disease and passed away in 1918. The company continued but without Harry, the company and its products steadily declined until finally closing in 1925.