Posts Tagged shelby

I would like to thank Ellen Ruckert for sharing with us this picture of the 1940 Shelby Male Chorus (of the National Tube company).
  Ellen found the picture taken in front of the Shelby Social Club (love the lights) in a box of her parent’s pictures. Her father, Edward Cable, is on the right end of the front row. Unfortunetly she was unable to identify anyone else pictured. If you can identify anyone, please share in the comment section below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

    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. The founder of Ellwood City, Henry W. Hartman was appointed vice president of the new company. The Ellwood plant was only the second seamless tube plant in America. Also in 1894, Ralph C. Stiefel came to the Ellwood City from England for the company. Along with becoming a stockholder in the company, Stiefel accepted the position of general manager and introduced his own patented process for making seamless tubing. Ellwood Weldless became the first company in the United States to make tubing by the Stiefel method making it one of the leaders in the tubing industry.
     In the early part of 1897, The Weldless Tubing Co. built a new plant located between Sixth and Eighth Street stretching from Beaver to Factory Streets. By the fall of the same year, the new plant was absorbed by the Shelby Steel Tube Company and would become known as Mill “B”. Ellwood Weldless Tube Co.’s name was also changed to the Shelby Steel Tube Company. The newly formed Shelby Steel Tube Co. was actually a merger of plants in Shelby Ohio, Greenville PA, and the Ellwood Weldless Tube Company. Mr. Emsworth of Ellwood City was named the first Superintendent and R.C. Stiefel was appointed manager.
    From the time Ralph C. Stiefel accepted the position of Superintendent at Ellwood Seamless Tube Co. straight from England, he was connected with the Shelby Seamless Tube Company until 1899. At that time along with J.H. Nicholson, he left the Shelby Company and erected the Standard Seamless Tube Company with some friends in Ellwood City and was in direct competition with Shelby Seamless. The National Steel Tube Co. bought the Standard Company in 1901.
   Soon after National purchased Standard, the United States Steel Corporation absorbed National Tube and at the end of June 1901, it also absorbed the Shelby Steel Tube Company and Mr. Stiefel was made General Superintendent of all the plants in the country. Now all the seamless tube works were now conducted under the name of the Shelby Steel Tube Company.
    In 1905, the U.S. Steel Ellwood plant consolidated Shelby Steel Tube Company (Mill A) and National Steel Tube Company (Mill B) and became National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation). After a fire destroyed the Shelby Ohio Works plant in 1908, all the seamless tube works was produced in Ellwood City. Due to the growth, the Ellwood City Works of the National Tube Company expanded to 127 total acres with 23 acres under a roof.  The plants were served by direct connection with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and by the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad.  The Ellwood Works had an annual capacity of 350,000 gross tons of tubular goods in 1942. Employment during World War II reached 4,000 employees.
    August 1,1946 an announcement was made that operations at the Ellwood Works would be phased out over a three year period. The closing was avoided and 1959 saw major expansion adding two new structures for stainless steel adding 40,000 more square feet. In 1974, U.S. Steel closed its doors in Ellwood City and the last seamless tube was produced at the National Tube Company. When the plant closed employment had dipped down to a little over one thousand people.
Please share your memories of these mills or of Mr. Stiefel by leaving a comment below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Originally Published July 15, 2009

Members of the 1919-20 basketball team take a minute to pose for a team photo in front of the Shelby Social Club. Seated in the front holding the basketball is team captain Adam Dambach; standing in the front row from left to right are George Fox, team manager John Ruskovic and Glen Stahl; Victor Dambach and Norman Dunn are behind them; in the back row left to right are Lewis Nicklas, Peck Lee, and Norman Dunn. Peck Lee as you may remember was the head coach of the world famous 1925 Ellwood City Football squad.

    You have to appreciate the uniforms. Matching wool “warm-up” sweaters, shorts, leggings, knee pads, and state of the art oversized high-top basketball shoes.

I am sure many of you remember the former Tube Mill office building on First Street across from the Shelby Clubhouse. This picture of the demolition was taken on May 16th, 1975. I grew up a block away from this and never knew it existed. For those that may be like me, to give you some perspective, this picture was taken from the intersection of First Street and Spring Avenue.

    Legend has it that Tom Foley jumped off the Ewing Park Bridge for a case of beer.

On a bet, Tom was supposed to jump off of the old Ewing Park Bridge into the Connoquenessing during the Shelby company picnic in Ewing Park. Company authorities heard of the wager and prevented Tom from making the jump. But the following day Tom showed up wearing a bright red bathing suit and jumped off of the Ewing Park Bridge.

    Tom’s world famous jump was from the middle of the blue steel bridge into the water and yes, he survived to collect his winnings. I have discovered that the wager was not for a case of beer but rather the wager was for a fifth of Whiskey and fifty dollars. He never got the fifty dollars. PLEASE NOTE: Before you try this yourself, there are some things you need to know. Foley was in the Navy and was specifically trained to dive into the ocean from the masts of ships while at sea. Also when Foley made his legendary dive, there was a damn just West of the bridge that made the creek deep enough for the dive. On maps of the area in the early part of Ellwood City, this area was actually listed as Connoquenessing Pond. The dam is no longer there making this feat impossible to duplicate so please do not try this. Ever.

Originally Published September 2009

A lot of very nice people have shared their memories with me either by phone, in person, by email or through this web site; however one gentleman went one step further. Leonard Chapman and I had conversed previously on the location of the Jockey Moore One Room Schoolhouse on the old Clark farm that I just could not seem to find. I got a call from Mr. Chapman two years ago to inform me that he was in town visiting family and wanted to know if I had some time to talk. I agreed to meet him and was in for a treat.

Most meetings I attend usually are sit down, sip coffee, mention one memory and let the other memories build from there similar to a snow ball rolling down a hill of snow, all the while I try to write as fast as I can. This meeting was a little different. As soon as I showed up, Mr. Chapman said, “Okay, hop in” pointing to his mini-van. We drove through the North side and the memories started. Instead of someone sitting in a comfortable chair recollecting, Mr. Chapman was pointing to things and sharing his memories.

At the end of the Veterans Bridge (or Fifth Street Bridge) he pointed to the B&O empty lot and shared that he remembered the little shop that used to sell garden plants by the big billboard at the end of the bridge. I looked at him, looked at the sign, grabbed my notebook and started writing as fast as I could trying to keep up. Someone was outside washing their car which reminded Leonard there used to be cement slabs with hoses on First Street by Spring Avenue. The area was owned by the tube mill and it was available to the mill workers so they could go and wash their car.

We drove past Merrit Brooke and he recalled the ice rinks that I have been looking for pictures of for quite a while. He shared that there were actually two rinks there at the end of Todd Avenue when they would damn up the small little creek that runs through today. The upper ice skating pond was run by the city and Buccelli’s ran the lower rink out of their house. The basement of the Buccelli house had ice skates you could rent and a place to put them on.

I had been trying to find information on the ice rink(s) for some time and was writing as fast as I could but Mr. Chapman was onto his next memory as we drove past the Ben Parker Farm. Today you would have a hard time guessing it was once a farm except the old rusty combine sitting in the field. Mr. Chapman assured me that it was once a farm, in fact a dairy farm. Ben Parker owned the dairy farm, processed his own milk and delivered in his old 1933 Ford like John Dillinger used to drive and made famous. He also shared that the Parker farm is where the circus would set up for a number of years when it would come to Ellwood City.

As we continued on down Wampum Avenue a number of other topics were discussed the old abandoned Matheny House that belonged to Joe Methany, the Matheny graveyard, who built the Spanish style home by Jockey Moore, the empty garage that was once Strabellas Garage, which foreman played Santa at the Shelby Clubhouse Christmas parties, and of course the day the earth moved. Oh by the way, inside the Matheny graveyard, according to the headstone, was a person born during the Revolutionary War.

We did eventually make it to Jockey Moore and right where he told me was the old schoolhouse. Right in the middle of the room is the hole in the ceiling where the old stove pipe chimney once exited the room. Old slate chalkboards still hung from the walls. It was a step back in time.

On the way back into town, Mr. Chapman pointed to the left and said this used to be McQuiston’s farm, then he’d point to the right, this was Phelner’s farm, point to the left Koser and so on. To read more about the farms, click here.

If my little drive down Chapman’s memory lane sparked any memories in your mind, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com. If you have any pictures, especially of the ice rinks, I would love to use those as well. Please email them to info@ellwoodwoodcitymemories.com

Thank you Mr. Chapman and I apologize it took so long to post a lot of these stories as I was hoping to get pictures to go with most of them. I apologize for not giving credit to the person who donated the picture of the old McCandless farm that was located on West Line Avenue Extension but I did not write down who it was. I believe it was Jim Spielvogel, but not positive. Whomever it was, thank you.

I decided to repost one of my favorite articles on the web site. The post features a priceless snapshot in time of Ellwood City taken from 196 feet above the town sometime between 1909 and 1915. It is amazing how much has changed from then to today. There is so much in the picture it is easy to miss some of the more interesting things. I have added yellow numbers to some of the points I would like to draw your attention to in this picture, of course there is more than the twelve things I mention here and would love to hear about something I missed.
    The first point of interest I see when I look at this picture is the grand Hotel Lawrence surrounded by the majestic Oliver Park. Though it is difficult to get your bearings with this picture, we are actually looking at the side of the Hotel. The front of the Hotel formally called Hotel Oliver is the side with the large white peaks and faces down Fifth Street.
Secondly, in almost the center of the page we see the Central School building built in 1902 on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. Today the Ellwood City Municipal Building is located on that lot of land with a number of memorials displayed in the front lawn. The large World War II memorial in front of the Municipal building was purchased through multiple fundraisers including donations and with the extra money that was raised for Ellwood City’s anniversary.
Number three in the picture is the Park Hotel, built 1895 and located on the North side of the Ellwood City Short Line. Today, most people don’t remember the Park Hotel and I have had a difficult time uncovering the fate of the old Hotel. Did it catch on fire from the sparks of a passing train, or was it simply torn down due to dilapidation? The fact remains that the building is no longer there but if you look the next time you drive past, one of the walls from its foundation is still standing today.
Four and Five go together, almost. Point number four is the old train station that is no longer there today and number five points to something that is actually missing from the picture, the Fifth Street Subway. The railroad you see in the picture beside the train station was the Pennsylvania Railroad, who owned Rock Point Park. The railroad through Ellwood City was known more as the Ellwood Short Line and replaced the B&O railroad that was built along the Northern bank of the Connoquenessing Creek in 1876. After the Ellwood Tunnel was completed in 1892 the railroad connecting North Sewickley & Rock Point ran through the natural plain which Ellwood City was built upon and the hilly B&O railroad was abandoned.
Ellwood City owes its birth more to the Ellwood City railroad tunnel and Beaver Falls then the more common misconception of New Castle. Ellwood’s founder H.W. Hartman was dissatisfied with the conditions in Beaver Falls where he was the head of the Beaver Falls Water Company and Hartman Steel Company.  He heard the railroad was planning to build the tunnel to bypass the slower line through Hazel Dell and put his plan for an industrial resort town into action.
The passenger station in the picture, known as the Union Station, served Ellwood City until the mid 1950’s. One text says the station was torn down as late as 1957, while another says it was torn down as early as 1955. Today, a parking lot is all that remains beside what is now the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Rail line.
Just west of the Union Station is number Six, the freight yards of Ellwood City. The large structure on the Northern side of the tracks is the B.O. Freight Station. The station was located just West of Sixth Street which was a main road at the time of the picture as the bridge connecting Ellwood City to Hazel Dell was the Sixth Street Bridge, not the Fifth as it is today. The “Hazel Dell Bridge” as it was known then connected Sixth Street and College Street. The original Fifth Street Bridge was not erected until 1915.
The B.O. Freight Station was demolished in 1982 and the property was sold to the Ellwood City Forge Group.
Our number seven point of interest is one of the few things in the picture still standing today. Point seven is the Stiefel Building on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Fifth Street. I have yet to discover if the building was named after one of Ellwood City’s most prominent citizens, Mr. R.C. Stiefel, if he actually had the building built, or maybe he even had his offices there.
Number eight is the old tube mill more commonly known to the folks of Ellwood as “Mill B”. Originally the mill was the home of the Ellwood Shafting & Tubing Company, the first manufacturing institution to establish itself in Ellwood City as early as 1891. “Mill B” was dismantled in 1923 and the property was sold to Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad for a freight station and yard. It is hard to see it today but from Sixth Street to Blanks Concrete and Supply was nothing but P&LE spurs. Five or six lines of empty railroad lines loading and unloading freight coming into and out of Ellwood City all day long. August 25th 1981 marked the last day P&LE took a loaded boxcar, cargo from Airway Industries out of Ellwood City.
Nine is less of a specific point as it is a general area. As you can see from the picture, the West End of town was the direction of the growth in the early days of the town. The mills and businesses were more congregated at that end and most Ellwoodians thought that the town would continue to grow in that direction. In fact the first school built in Ellwood City after its founding was the West End School and the first hospitals were all located in that direction of town. It wasn’t until Ralph C. Stiefel and J.H. Nicholson left the Shelby Seamless Tube Company in 1899 and erected the Standard Seamless Tube Company (later called “Mill A”) that the town began spreading east also.
Ten is the beautiful picnic grounds of Oliver Park and the site of Ellwood City’s first murder. According to “A History of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania” James Bell was found in the park next to a tree, murdered. The victim, who had carried the mail from Ellwood City to the Belton Post Office, was also robbed as his pockets were all turned inside out. The park was a popular picnic destination (if you got permission from the Hotel) and how Park Avenue got its name.
Eleven simply points out the large farms and spread out residences that still existed in Hazel Dell. Hazel Dell originally was on both sides of the Connoquenessing until Merrit Green and Henry Hartman purchased all the farms on the South side of the creek to build Ellwood City. The roads through Hazel Dell were the old Indian trading paths from when the Shawnee & Delaware Indian tribes occupied the area. It was these tribes that actually named the Connoquenessing, which means “can’t canoe”. Hazel Dell was cut in half by the Connoquenessing and connected by the covered bridge known as the Jones Mill Bridge or White Bridge (built 1858 and razed 1898) located at the present site of the Fifth Street Bridge.
Hazel Dell did not become a borough until 1901, almost ten years after Ellwood City. The borough of Hazel Dell officially consolidated with the borough of Ellwood City in 1914.
Finally, point number twelve reminds you of the time period that the picture was taken. The buildings with no windows behind the houses are not garages, but barns. Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 but didn’t begin the moving assembly lines in his factory until 1913, so there were not very many cars in the town when this picture was taken. Some of the buildings are barns, other smaller buildings are outhouses. My grandmother’s house inside Pittsburgh Circle was originally built as a boarding house for tube mill workers before indoor plumbing was the big craze on HGTV. Four bedrooms, BIG bedrooms, and no bathroom.

If you noticed something I missed or if you feel that I got something wrong, please leave a comment below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Originally Posted February 5, 2010

Bob Stevenson was the only one that came forward about the History’s Mystery concerning the local drum and bugle corps from the 1930′s. The mystery put forth asked if anyone recalled that back in the 30′s a local drum and bugle corps band performed in parades and such in full dress. It was believed that they were called the “fireman’s band” but I could not confirm the name. The corps practiced in the P&LE parking lot but no one could recall when the impressive looking band disappeared.

    Mr. Stevenson stated he was not 100% sure but he believes that the drum and bugle corps were sponsored by the American Legion. He does know for sure that the VFW local post still had the equipment and uniforms into the 1950′s. He was told they were from the “old” legion drum and bugle corps but was not positive that this was the same band in question. Bob’s father was the Commander and later President of the Ellwood City VFW and Bob always tagged along with his dad. During his explorations of the building he came across the uniforms so he can confirm first hand that they were there.

    The mystery still remains though, is this the same band? I have seen pictures of the Shelby Social Club Band, the Workingman’s Social Club band and the Saxon Club 346 band. I have been told on more than one occasion that I have inaccurate information on this web site so if you recall which band practiced where, could you help us out? Please share your information below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

Wampum Baseball 100 Years Ago

I was given this picture quite awhile ago and have not been able to uncover a single person in the picture. I posted some team pictures that I was also having difficulty identifying and got an overwhelming response identifying almost half of the players in a couple of the pictures so I am hoping you might be able to help me out again. If you recognize anyone in this one hundred year old picture, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

1914 Ellwood City Basketball Team

This group of young men played their home games in the Shelby Social Club gymnasium as the Central Public School did not have a gym. Three or four of the players are wearing the team jerseys (I am assuming) but I can not identify the logo. What I can identify is that the remaining players are all wearing suits and ties and yes that is E.Ralph Conner holding the ball. If you recognize anyone else in this picture from 1914, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

1939 Grocott’s Softball Team

When I first received this picture, I was more excited about the partially obstructed view of Grocott’s Service Station with the Pennzip advertisements then I was about the team. However, it is about time that the members of the softball team got their recognition. If you recognize anyone in this “more recent (1939)” picture, please share below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

1. George Buck, 2. Logan Benninghoff, 3. Billy Williams, 4. Bion E. Leech, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Bob Gillespie, 7 Ray Leech, 8 Alex Orr, 9 Fred Foxall, 10 Mike Curran, 11 Edward Hildebrand, 12 Frank “Indian” Craig, 13 Harry Y. McCool, 14 Dave Carson, 15 Rex Piersol, 16 Herman Buck, 17 LeRoy Beatty, 18 Edwin “Shaggy” Logan, 19 Charles Keefer, 20 Charles Carson.

I have posted a number of pictures from older football teams from Ellwood City  and heard many stories of the great Shelby baseball teams and Shelby basketball teams but no one mentioned the 1906 Shelby Tube Mill Football Team (oops Foot Ball Team, in 1906 that was two words.)

    I have to thank Ms. Miriam Filer for taking the time to send me all of these pictures along with the story of the 1906 Shelby team that was another great team that before now, seems to have been forgotten and to be honest, great is not a strong enough superlative. The 1906 team beat teams such as Youngstown, Sharon and Butler by scores of 10-0, 27-0, 23-0, 21-0, 44-0. Franklin was the only team all season to score a point against our boys in a 5-5 tie; touchdowns then were only worth five points.

    The more recent photographs are from 1949 when ten members of the 1906 Shelby Team held a reunion dinner at The Fireplace but got together at Robert W. Gillespie Sr.’s home to share stories and catch up. Those attending the reunion included 1. Bion E. Leech, 2. Harry Y. McCool, 3. Logan Benninghoff, 4. Mr. Gillespie, 5. Luthar P. Shaffer, 6. Edwin Logan, 7. W.R. Williams, 8. Fred Foxall (manager), and 9. M. J. Curran. George G. Buck was also at the reunion but was not pictured. He must be the one taking the picture (?). Only four other members of the 1906 undefeated team were still living in 1949 but were unable to attend the reunion including Frank Craig, Herman Buck, Charles Carson, and Edward Hildebrand.

    I would like to thank Ms. Filer again and apologize at the same time. She had sent me these pictures in April of 2011 and I am just now (January 2012) putting these onto the site. I was very excited when I received these pictures especially since I had never heard of them and do not know how they were skipped.

In an earlier post on building the Shelby Clubhouse, I mentioned that I would post a zoomed in picture of the background of the picture taken August 30th, 1916. Well the wait is finally over.

    In this first picture, almost centralized, you can see the majesty that is the Hotel Lawrence. Even as the town grew around the hotel, it still dominated the skyline. On the left of the picture you can see that horse and buggy was the main mode of transportation still (besides walking). Right above those teams of horses on the dirt road that is Pittsburgh Circle is an interesting scene involving lumber. Lots of lumber. I am only guessing, but perhaps that is the construction of the Second Street overpass?

       Some of these houses are very large houses and I am curious as to how many of them are “company” homes and were used as boarding houses for tube mill employees. A good number of these homes are no longer standing, but some of them are still here today. The one that has thrown me for a loop is the dark colored house above the previously mentioned lumber. Does anybody know what that is on the side of the house?

The second picture also offers some interesting from Ellwood City in 1916. You can see the bell tower of the old Central Public School located on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Sixth Street. Between the hotel and the school you can clearly see the rounded dome of the United Presbyterian Church on Crescent Avenue. I do not know what the barns or industrial buildings are behind the building closest to photographer, do you? I think that would be the general location of the current Trinity Lutheran Church.

    You might remember these pictures like they were yesterday if you grew up in Ellwood City a little under one hundred years ago. For the rest of us, these pictures are hard to imagine being from our town. As you can see through the progression these pictures were taken during the construction of the Shelby Social Club in 1916. I am going to try to have another post with the background zoomed in.

“In 1917, the National Tube Company (a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation) opened a massive facility on the corner of Pittsburgh Circle and First Street that would bring recreational activities never even thought of in Ellwood City a reality. Designed as a clubhouse for the employees of National Tube, it became a recreational center for virtually all of the citizens of Ellwood City. The Shelby Social Club was home to an Olympic size swimming pool, a meeting room, a gymnasium, a six lane bowling alley, billiards, an auditorium, a soda grill, lounge room, cafeteria and a basketball court among other things.”

I know some of the automobile guys are disappointed but it looks like this was still in the days Ellwood City was train and horse n’ buggy days. The original picture (with simply the footer laid) has a wagon and team on the dirt path that is Pittsburgh Circle. As a matter of fact almost every picture has horse n’ buggies. People had to check on things back then too I guess.

The interior pictures are also very interesting to me. I have only been inside the old clubhouse since it has been remodeled a number of times to accommodate the multiple business it houses today. I am curious if the stage is still there and can only imagine the basketball that was played here. I would enjoy hearing more of your memories of the old clubhouse. Please share below or email to info@ellwoodcitymemories.com