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].

Additional furnaces were constructed on the property in the years that followed. The second anthracite blast-furnace[8] 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[9]. To meet the increasing production demands on the company, a third furnace was built in 1868[10], its dimensions including a 16-foot bosh and a stack height of 55-feet[11]. The stacks had open tops and had a total capacity of 30,000 net tons[12].The company also erected an additional ten brick houses for its increased workforce of close to one hundred men[13].

Coplay Iron Company

The Lehigh Valley Iron Company continued its operation until 1878, when financial difficulties forced the company to cease working[14]. 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[15]. 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[16].

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[17]. 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[18]. In 1879 it was reported that one of the stacks had produced 254 tons of pig iron in a week[19]. The company utilized two types of ores: Lehigh County hematites and New Jersey magnetics[20], and owned ore beds in Whitehall, Lehigh, and Longswamp Township, Berks County[21]. 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[22]. In 1881 the iron industry had a lull, and one stack was blown out[23]. The company reorganized under the name of Coplay Iron Company in 1885, continuing production until its liquidation in 1890[24]. The wages of the employees of the furnace were increased by 10 percent in 1887[25]. In late March of 1898, the properties owned by the company were sold for $55,000 to bondholders under foreclosure of mortgages[26].

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. ↑ Roberts et al. 1914, 1041
  9. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  10. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1876, 16
  11. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  12. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1876, 16-17
  13. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  14. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  15. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  16. ↑ Mathews and Hungerford 1884, 504
  17. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1880, 20
  18. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1892, 10
  19. ↑ The Allentown Democrat, October 1, 1879
  20. ↑ The American Iron and Steel Association 1884, 12
  21. ↑ The Allentown Democrat, January 4, 1893
  22. ↑ Pumpelly 1886, 967
  23. ↑ The Allentown Democrat, June 22, 1881
  24. ↑ Roberts et al. 1914, 633
  25. ↑ The Carbon Advocate February 26, 1887
  26. ↑ Pittsburgh Daily Post, March 24, 1898

References

  • 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 [1].
  • Mathews, Alfred, and Austin N Hungerford. 1884. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Richards.
  • Pittsburgh Daily Post. 1898. Coplay Iron Company Foreclosed, March 24, 1898. [2]
  • 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. [3]
  • 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.
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1879. Column Three, October 1, 1879, pg. 3. [4]
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1881. The Iron Business, June 22, 1881. [5]
  • The Allentown Democrat. 1893. Another Furnace Company in the Sherrif's Hands, January 4, 1893. [6]
  • 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. Current Events Epitomized, February 26, 1887. [7]
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