Lehigh Valley Iron Company

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History

In 1853, Stephen Balliet (1781-1854), his sons Stephen Balliet (1809-1860) and Aaron Balliet (1813-1895), and Benjamin Levan (1806-1886) joined together to create Balliet & Co., with the goal of creating and running an iron furnace[1]. The land for the furnace was purchased on the west bank of Coplay Creek and totaled twelve acres[2]. The foundation for the first furnace was constructed in the fall of 1853, and, in 1854, the 14-foot bosh and 45-foot tall furnace stack was erected[3].

Advancement

Following Stephen Balliet's death in 1854, Balliet & Co. underwent internal reconstruction. Joseph Laubach and Lewis A. Buckley were added to the firm as partners[4] and the company was incorporated as the Lehigh Valley Iron Company[5]. Laubach was made president and Levan was elected to become the secretary, treasurer, and superintendent of the company[6]. The company company continued to advance their work with the iron furnaces, building a superintendent's house on the property in 1855 and expanding its resources by purchasing hematite ore-beds in Whitehall Township, PA; Bucks County, PA; and the Ogden Magnetic Ore-Mines in Sussex, NJ[7]. Eventually, the company began mining magnetic ore from the Lehigh Mountain at Zionsville, Lehigh County, PA[8].

Additional furnaces were constructed on the property in the years that followed. The second anthracite blast-furnace[9] had a 16-foot bosh and 55-foot high stack and was built in 1862, around the same time that a group of eleven brick and frame houses was established[10]. To meet the increasing production demands on the company, a third furnace was built in 1868[11], its dimensions including a 16-foot bosh and a stack height of 55-feet[12]. The stacks had open tops and had a total capacity of 30,000 net tons[13]. The company also erected an additional ten brick houses for its increased workforce of close to one hundred men[14].

Eighty acres of land with significant limestone deposits were purchased at $75,000 in 1868[15]. In 1875 the company produced 1000 1/2 tons of pig iron in a month from one stack[16].

Coplay Iron Company

The Lehigh Valley Iron Company continued its operation until 1878, when financial difficulties forced the company to cease working[17]. Over the course of the company's history, its capital stock had risen from $100,000 to $600,00; but, because of the situation the company was in, it was faced with either having its property sold at a sheriff's sale[18] or making an assignment for the benefit of creditors[19]. The stacks were blown out at the end of the year and remained cold until later the following year, when the Coplay Iron Company (Limited), which had been incorporated earlier that year, resumed production[20]. The new company had forty corporators, including E. P. Wilbur as the president; William H. Ainey as the treasurer and secretary; Valentine W. Weaver as the superintendent; and Wilbur, Ainey, Weaver, W. Dodson, Aaron Balliet, Joseph Laubach, R. M. Gummere, and Dr. John S. Wentz as directors of the company[21]. The new capital stock amounted to $200,000[22].

The company continued to use the three stacks that had previously been built and bean to produce pig iron as the main product, with a total capacity of 30,000 net tons[23]. The third stack, which had been built in 1868, was rebuilt in 1889 with a 15-foot bosh and was 70-feet tall. The annual capacity was 55,000 net tons by this time[24]. In 1879 it was reported that one of the stacks had produced 254 tons of pig iron in a week[25]. The company utilized two types of ores: Lehigh County hematites and New Jersey magnetics[26], and owned ore beds in Whitehall, Lehigh, and Longswamp Township, Berks County[27]. The ores in New Jersey allegedly cost more initially but were more cost-effective overall considering that they had more iron in them[28]. The Balliet mine in Ironton, operated at this time by Horace Balliet and his son, provided the Coplay Iron Company with limonite to be used for foundry pig[29]. In 1881 the iron industry had a lull, and one stack was blown out[30]. The company reorganized under the name of Coplay Iron Company in 1885, continuing production until its liquidation in 1890[31]. The wages of the employees of the furnace were increased by 10 percent in 1887[32]. In late March of 1898, the properties owned by the company were sold for $55,000 to bondholders under foreclosure of mortgages[33].

Notes

  1. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  2. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  3. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  4. ↑ Roberts et al. 1914, 633
  5. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  6. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  7. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  8. ↑ The Philadelphia Inquirer September 14, 1874
  9. ↑ Roberts et al. 1914, 1041
  10. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  11. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1876, 16
  12. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  13. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1876, 16-17
  14. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  15. ↑ The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial February 15, 1868
  16. ↑ Reading Times December 7, 1875
  17. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  18. ↑ The Allentown Democrat April 30, 1879
  19. ↑ Philadelphia Inquirer January 11, 1879
  20. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  21. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  22. ↑ The Carbon Advocate June 28, 1879
  23. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1880, 20
  24. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1892, 10
  25. ↑ The Allentown Democrat October 1, 1879
  26. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1884, 12
  27. ↑ The Allentown Democrat January 4, 1893
  28. ↑ The Allentown Democrat April 11, 1894
  29. ↑ Pumpelly 1886, 967
  30. ↑ The Allentown Democrat June 22, 1881
  31. ↑ Roberts et al. 1914, 633
  32. ↑ The Carbon Advocate February 26, 1887
  33. ↑ Pittsburgh Daily Post March 24, 1898

References

  • The Allentown Democrat. 1879. Lehigh Valley Iron Company, April 30, 1879.[1]
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1879. Column Three, October 1, 1879, pg. 3. [2]
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1881. The Iron Business, June 22, 1881. [3]
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1893. Another Furnace Company in the Sherrif's Hands, January 4, 1893. [4]
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1894. About Iron Ore – Increase of the Tariff Didn't Help Us, April 11, 1894.[5]
  • The American Iron and Steel Association. 1876. The Ironworks of the United States: A Directory of the Furnaces, Rolling Mills, Steel Works, Forges and Bloomeries in Every State. Philadelphia: James B. Chandler's Steam Printing Establishment.
  • The American Iron and Steel Association. 1880. The Iron and Steel Works of the United States: Embracing the Furnaces, Rolling Mills, Steel Works, Forges, and Bloomeries in Every State and Territory. Philadelphia: The Chandler Printing House.
  • The American Iron and Steel Association. 1884. Iron and Steel Works of the United States: Embracing the Blast Furnaces, Rolling Mills, Steel Works, Forges, and Bloomeries in Every State and Territory. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane, and Scott.
  • The American Iron and Steel Association. 1892. The Iron and Steel Works of the United States: Embracing a Full List of the Blast Furnaces, Rolling Mills, Steel Works, Tinplate Works, and Forges and Bloomeries in the United States; Also all of the Cut-Nail Works, Rod Mills, Wire-Nail Works, Wire Mills, Car-Axle Works, Car-Wheel Works, Car-Builders, Locomotive Works, Cast-Iron Pipe Works, and Wrought-Iron Pipe Works. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott.
  • The Carbon Advocate. The Lehigh Valley Iron Company Re-organized, June 28, 1879. [6]
  • The Carbon Advocate. Current Events Epitomized, February 26, 1887. [7]
  • Lesley, Peter. 1866. The Iron Manufacturer’s Guide to the Furnaces, Forges and Rolling Mills of the United States; with Discussions of Iron, Etc. New York,: John Wiley [8].
  • Mathews, Alfred, and Austin N Hungerford. 1884. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards.
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1874. The Dominion, September 14, 1874.[9]
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1879. Business Troubles: Report that the Lehigh Valley Iron Company will make an Assignment, January 11, 1879.[10]
  • The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial. 1868. State Items, February 15, 1868.[11]
  • Pittsburgh Daily Post. 1898. Coplay Iron Company Foreclosed, March 24, 1898. [12]
  • Pumpelly, Raphael. 1886. Report on the Mining Industries of the United States (Exclusive of the Precious Metals), With Special Investigations into the Iron Resources of the Republic and into the Cretaceous Coals of the Northwest. Washington: Government Printing Office. [13]
  • Reading Times. 1875. East Pennsylvania Industrial Notes, December 7, 1875.[14]
  • Roberts, Charles Rhoads, John Baer Stoudt, Thomas H. Krick, and William J. Dietrich. 1914. History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Its Families. Vol. I, Allentown, PA: Lehigh Valley publishing Company, Limited.
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