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The Lackawanna Steel Company was an American steel manufacturing company that existed as an independent company from 1840 to 1922, and as a
subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...
of the
Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...
company from 1922 to 1983. Founded by the Scranton family, it was once the second-largest steel company in the world (and the largest company outside the U.S. Steel trust)."New Steel Plant Started", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', December 24, 1902.
Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...
, developed around the company's original location.Federal Writer's Project, ''Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State'', 1940. When the company moved to a suburb of
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
, in 1902, it stimulated the founding of the city of Lackawanna.Goldman, ''High Hopes: The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, New York'', 1984.


Founding and early years

At the beginning of the 1800s, the Lackawanna Valley in
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
was rich in
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...
and
iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
deposits. Brothers
George W. Scranton George Whitfield Scranton (May 11, 1811 – March 24, 1861) was an American industrialist and politician, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania from March 4, 1859, until his death in 1861. Moving to Pe ...
and Seldon T. Scranton moved to the valley in 1840 and settled in the five-house town of Slocum's Hollow (now Scranton) to establish an iron forge.Yeomans, "36 Hours: Scranton, Pa.", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', November 1, 2002.
"The Bitter Battle", ''Time'', October 19, 1962. Although Europeans had been making steel for nearly three centuries, the processes for creating blister steel and
crucible steel Crucible steel is steel made by melting pig iron (cast iron), iron, and sometimes steel, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other fluxes, in a crucible. In ancient times steel and iron were impossible to melt using charcoal or coal fires ...
were slow and extremely expensive. The Scrantons focused instead on manufacturing
pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with ...
using a
blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...
. They wanted to take advantage of a recent technological innovation in iron smelting, the "
hot blast Hot blast refers to the preheating of air blown into a blast furnace or other metallurgical process. As this considerably reduced the fuel consumed, hot blast was one of the most important technologies developed during the Industrial Revolution. ...
". Developed in Scotland in 1828, the hot blast preheats air before it is pumped through molten iron, substantially lowering fuel needs. The Scrantons also intended to experiment with using anthracite coal to make steel, rather than existing methods which used
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ...
or
bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
.Lewis, "The Early History of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company: A Study in Technological Adaptation", ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'', October 1972. The most likely successful first use of the hot-blast technique in the U.S. was carried out in 1835 at
Oxford Furnace Oxford Furnace is a historic blast furnace on Washington Avenue, near the intersection with Belvidere Avenue, in Oxford, New Jersey, Oxford, Oxford Township, New Jersey, Oxford Township, Warren County, New Jersey, Warren County, New Jersey. The fu ...
in
Warren County, New Jersey Warren County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 109,632, representing an increase of 940 (0.9%) from the 108,692 residents counted at the 2010 census. The county bord ...
, by William Henry, Seldon Scranton's
father-in-law A parent-in-law is a person who has a legal affinity (law), affinity with another by being the parent of the other's spouse. Many cultures and legal systems impose duties and responsibilities on persons connected by this relationship. A person i ...
."Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnace", Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, no date. By 1838, Henry had moved to the Lackawanna Valley, where he was experimenting with using anthracite coal in steelmaking. The Scrantons and Henry formed a partnership in 1840 to develop a hot blast furnace that used anthracite coal in the "charge" (the mixture of iron ore and coal which, when melted, created pig iron).''Directory of Iron and Steel Works of the United States and Canada'', 1884. Two other Pennsylvanians, Sanford Grant (a
Belvidere, New Jersey Belvidere is a town in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the town's population was 2,681,Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware Ri ...
), also invested in the new company, named Scranton, Grant, and Co. Henry bought near Slocum's Hollow, and began building the furnace. The blast furnace was completed in the early autumn of 1841. The company's first effort at smelting iron was not successful. Many problems plagued the iron mill, including a furnace that was not hot enough, water that ran too low in the nearby creek to turn the waterwheel-powered bellows (and thus did not provide enough air to the furnace), unsuccessful experiments with charge mixtures, clogged
tuyere A tuyere or tuyère (; ) is a tube, nozzle or pipe through which air is blown into a furnace or hearth.W. K. V. Gale, The iron and Steel industry: a dictionary of terms (David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1972), 216–217. Air or oxygen is in ...
s, and more. George Scranton estimated the company lost between $6,000 and $7,000 in the year ending June 1843, but the total may have been as high as $10,000. George Scranton took control of the works from William Henry, and twice rebuilt the furnace. Near bankruptcy, the partners sought new sources of capital. In May 1843, a $20,000 loan permitted the company to continue operating. After many failures and two years of low-level and low-quality production of pig iron, the firm began producing significant amounts of pig iron in 1843. The company installed a
rolling mill In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...
, five
reverberatory furnace A reverberatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace that isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with combustion gases. The term ''reverberation'' is used here in a generic sense of ''re ...
s, 20 nail manufacturing machines, and one spike manufacturing machine. Needing more cash, the company was reorganized in September 1846, taking the new name of Scrantons and Grant. New partners were brought in, including Joseph H. Scranton (a cousin from
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
), Erastus C. Scranton (a cousin from
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...
), and John Howland (a banker and businessman from
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
). The Scranton family retained 51.6 percent of the company's stock. Quality control problems plagued the company and nearly drove it to bankruptcy again. By summer 1844, the furnace averaged five to seven tons of pig iron a day. Scrantons and Grant initially used the pig iron to produce nails and iron plates, but the quality of the ore—"
red-short Red-short, hot-short refers to brittleness of steels at red-hot temperatures. It is often caused by high sulfur levels, in which case it is also known as sulfur embrittlement. Description Iron or steel, when heated to above 900 °F (460  ...
" rather than the required close-grained "cold-short"—prevented the smelting of high-quality pig iron. The company's finances spiraled downward. Railroad networks in the U.S. were tripling in size during the 1840s, and the railroads required large quantities of
rails Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...
. But until 1844, the United States had no factories capable of manufacturing rails, and all rails had to be imported and shipped by sea from
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...
. Realizing that the "cold-short" ore they used was ideal for manufacturing rail tracks, the Scrantons sought new investors whose money would permit it to build a rail track rolling mill.
Benjamin Loder Benjamin Loder (February 15, 1801 – October 7, 1876) was an American business man and president of the Erie Railroad from 1845 to 1853,Edward Harold Mott Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie'' Collins, 1899. p. 463 who had made his ...
, president of the New York and Erie Railroad; industrialist
William E. Dodge William Earl Dodge Sr. (September 4, 1805 – February 9, 1883) was an American businessman, politician, and activist. He was referred to as one of the "Merchant Princes" of Wall Street in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Dodg ...
; and eight others invested $90,000 in the firm. Scrantons and Grant reorganized again on November 7, 1846, and began calling the company Scrantons and Platt.Warren, ''Wealth, Waste, and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry'', 2001. Grant was bought out, and Howland asked to have his investment returned. The company quickly began turning out rails for the Erie Railroad, becoming the first company in the United States to mass-produce T rails.Lowman, "Living Our Legacy", ''Scranton Times-Tribune'', 30 March 2004.Hillstrom and Hillstrom, ''The Industrial Revolution in America: Iron and Steel'', 2005. The firm's decision to manufacture rail tracks changed the fundamental nature of transportation in the United States, accelerated rail use, and eliminated American dependence on England for railroad track. Rail production began in August 1847, and the company soon employed more than 800 mostly
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
,
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
, and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
workers. Shipments of rail track were hauled overland through the snow to the New York and Erie Railroad, arriving just in time to save the line from bankruptcy. In 1851, the town of Slocum's Hollow changed its name to Scranton in honor of the owners of the iron works. The Scrantons had won approval from the townspeople some years before to rename Slocum's Hollow as the town of Harrison (in honor of
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
). The town was renamed Scrantonia in 1850, and the name shortened in 1851 to Scranton. The swiftly growing iron mill led to similar growth in the town of Scranton, whose population soared from a few hundred in 1850 to 9,000 in 1860 to 35,000 in 1870.Dubofsky and Van Tine, ''Labor Leaders in America'', 1987.


Growth years

In 1853, the firm reorganized, doubling its capital investment and adopting the name Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. Within a year, the company's assets had expanded to include three furnaces, a steel-making puddling mill, a
foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
, two
blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
shops, two
carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...
shops, a
saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
, a
grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
, company store, 200 dwellings (to house workers), a boarding house, iron ore mines, coal mines, a
tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...
, and a
hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
. The company also expanded into the railroad business in 1853. Needing a secure way of getting products to market without having to pay the exorbitant fees charged by the railways, the company purchased a controlling interest in the Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad and the Lackawanna and Western Railroad. They reorganized the combined subsidiary into the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...
, beginning vertical integration of their industry. A second generation of Scrantons took control of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company in the 1860s, bringing new technological innovations to the firm.
William Walker Scranton William Walker Scranton (April 4, 1844 – December 3, 1916) was an American businessman based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He became president and manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company after his father's death in 1872. The company ...
, son of Joseph Scranton, was born in 1844.Kashuba, Miller-Lanning, and Sweeney, ''Scranton'', 2005. At the age of 23, William Walker Scranton had already become superintendent of one of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company's steel mills.Jensen, "'We Are All Descended From Grandfathers!" ''American Heritage'', June 1964. After Joseph Scranton's death in 1872, William took control of the entire family business empire, which now included (in addition to large numbers of coal and iron mines) a bank and the City of Scranton's gas and water works. During the 1870s, American railroads began buying track rails again from Europe. The reason was the high quality of steel rail produced in Europe, thanks to the invention in 1855 of the
Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation ...
for steelmaking. This drastically reduced the fuel costs and amount of time needed to make steel, as well as significantly improving the quality of the steel produced. Scranton took a leave of absence from the firm and secretly went to Britain and then Germany, where he became a puddler and learned the secrets of making "Bessemer steel". But Scranton could not convince his business partners to adopt the Bessemer process. Meanwhile, industrialist
Moses Taylor Moses Taylor (January 11, 1806 – May 23, 1882) was a 19th-century New York merchant and banker and one of the wealthiest men of that century. At his death, his estate was reported to be worth $70 million, or about $ billion in today's dollars. ...
, a protégé of John Howland's, had organized the Franklin Iron Company to supply pig iron for rail tracks to the Midland Railroad and the
Sussex Railroad The Sussex Railroad (later known as the Sussex Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad) was a short-line railroad in northwestern New Jersey. It replaced its predecessor, the Sussex Mine Railroad, in 1853 and operated under the ...
(of which he was part-owner).Hodas, ''The Business Career of Moses Taylor: Merchant, Finance Capitalist and Industrialist'', 1976. Taylor wanted to link his railroads with the Scranton-owned Delaware & Lackawanna, and believed the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. could turn his pig iron into finished steel—but only if the company adopted the Bessemer process. Together, Moses Taylor and W.W. Scranton convinced the company's other investors to adopt the Bessemer process in 1875, and to merge the Taylor and Scranton railways in 1881. The first "blow" (or pouring of molten steel from the Bessemer furnace into molds) occurred on October 23, 1875, and the first Bessemer steel rolled in the mill on December 29, 1875. During the 1870s and the recession, the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company suffered from significant labor problems. The company was one of many which cut wages in its coal mines 30 percent in 1870. The Delaware & Lackawanna, the company railroad, also sharply cut wages for its workers. The first week of January 1871, a nascent mine workers union, the
Workingmen's Benevolent Association The Workingmen's Benevolent Association was a 19th-century labor organization that consisted mainly of coal miners. It was organized in 1868 in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, with John Siney as president. In 1869, the organization called a strike ...
, went on strike for higher wages.Hitchcock, ''History of Scranton and Its People'', 1914; "The Coal Panic", ''
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'', February 26, 1871.
Scranton helped break the strike by personally leading
strikebreaking A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...
miners to and from the mines each day. While escorting a body of miners from the mines one afternoon, he was attacked by a mob and in the ensuing fight, two of the rioting strikers were killed."Mob Law in Pennsylvania", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', April 8, 1871.
The state militia was called in to restore order, protect the strikebreakers, and help reopen the mines. The strike began to collapse in April 1871 as strikebreakers opened more mines, and the strikers and their families began to starve. Violence flared again in early May, and state troops were once more called to restore order. Within a few days, the strike had largely been broken and most miners returned to work. William Scranton was arrested twice for his role in leading the strikebreakers, but acquitted at trial each time. A second large strike hit the company in 1877. The
Long Depression The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1896, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing st ...
began with the
Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...
and did not end until 1896. By 1877, thousands of miners, steel workers, and railroad employees were out of work and wages had been slashed repeatedly. On July 23, 1877, workers in the iron and steel mills owned by the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. struck, seeking a 25 percent wage increase.Hollister, ''History of the Lackawanna Valley'', 1885. The strike spread to rail workers the next day, and on July 25 the company's mine workers also walked out and demanded a similar wage increase. The company asked Scranton Mayor Robert McKune for police protection the same day, and McKune asked
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
John F. Hartranft John Frederick Hartranft (December 16, 1830 – October 17, 1889) was the United States military officer who read the death warrant to the individuals who were executed on July 7, 1865 for conspiring to assassinate American President Abraham Li ...
for troops. On July 26, Governor Hartranft asked President
Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
for federal troops, and (with the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. This strike finally ended 52 day ...
already raging) Hayes agreed to send them at the governor's request. Violence broke out on July 29: The head house of the Penn Coal Co.'s short-line railroad was firebombed, a local bridge was burned, and many of the coal mines owned by the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. were flooded. The next day McKune threatened to call out the federal troops, but also offered his own services as an arbitrator. The two sides met throughout the day, and to everyone's surprise a tentative agreement was reached that evening. Although a majority of the steel workers appeared ready to accept the tentative agreement, a mob of 6,000 men formed on August 1 in downtown Scranton and resolved to reject it. When McKune appeared outside the mayor's office to try to calm the mob, shots were fired. McKune was clubbed and stoned. His lower jaw broken and his upper jaw fractured, McKune tried to flee but was knocked unconscious when a member of the mob hit him in the head with a hammer. A few minutes later, the county sheriff and a hastily assembled posse arrived and fired shots over the heads of the crowd to try to disperse the mob. Several people in the crowd returned fire, wounding the sheriff and a member of the posse. The posse fired several volleys into the crowd, killing four and wounding around 20. Many of those killed and injured were shot in the back as they tried to flee. Mayor McKune, although badly injured, helped restore order around 2 p.m. The following day, 3,000 federal troops arrived from Pittsburgh and entered the city. Martial law was imposed, and the strike ended several uneventfully weeks later with no agreement. The sheriff and several posse members were arrested and tried on the charge of
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
, but were acquitted. The company's labor troubles were supplanted by an internal struggle for control within the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. By 1880, the company was the second-largest producer of iron in the United States. But, Scranton wanted the company to expand, a proposal which the board of directors rejected in 1881. Scranton quit the company and formed the Scranton Steel Co. with his brother, Walter Scranton, in 1881.''Bristol v. Scranton'', 57 Fed. 70 (W.D. Penn., 1893). Within 10 years, the Scranton Steel Co. had become so successful that the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. entered into negotiations to merge with the firm. The two companies merged on January 9, 1891, forming the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company. Although the merger created nearly $1.2 million in debt for the new company, Lackawanna Iron & Steel proved to be so financially successful that it paid off the debt within a year.


Move to New York State

At the turn of the century, the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company began to consider moving out of the Scranton area. The company's economic condition was deteriorating; in September 1899,
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
wrote, "My view is that sooner or later Harrisburg, Sparrows Point, and Scranton will cease to make rails, like Bethlehem. The autumn of last year seemed as good a time to force them out of business as any other." Labor costs were rising. In 1897, the
United Mine Workers The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unite ...
had organized most workers at the coal and iron mines, who successfully struck in 1900 for a 10 percent wage hike. The union struck again from May 11, 1902, to October 23, 1902, and won a second wage increase as well as better working conditions. A second factor was the increasing cost of shipping iron ore to Scranton and a lack of rail lines from Scranton to the company's newly emerging markets. The Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company decided to move its facilities to the town of
West Seneca, New York West Seneca is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 44,711 at the 2010 census. West Seneca is a centrally located interior town of the county, and a suburb of Buffalo. West Seneca, Orchard Park and Hamburg form the ...
, in 1899, drawn by the area's easy access to
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
shipping and the numerous rail lines in the area. Scranton decided to move his operation to the Buffalo suburb, located on Lake Erie. To avoid
speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.) Many ...
in land, the Lackawanna Steel Company employed
John J. Albright John Joseph Albright (1 January 1848 Buchanan, Virginia – 20 August 1931 Buffalo, New York) was a businessman and philanthropist, and one of Buffalo's leading socialites at the turn of the 20th century. Early life Albright was born on January ...
, president of the
Ontario Power Company John Joseph Albright (1 January 1848 Buchanan, Virginia – 20 August 1931 Buffalo, New York) was a businessman and philanthropist, and one of Buffalo's leading socialites at the turn of the 20th century. Early life Albright was born on January ...
, to purchase land on its behalf.''A History of the City of Buffalo'', 1908. Scranton, Albright and several others met in Buffalo on March 23, 1899, to discuss the purchase of land. The group explored several nearby sites on March 24, and that same day chose an undeveloped shoreline area on
Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also ha ...
in what was then the western part of the Town of West Seneca. Albright began purchasing land on April 1, 1899, and by the end of the month had obtained nearly all the required property for the extremely low price of $1.1 million. Albright was often accompanied on his purchasing visits by
John G. Milburn John George Milburn (December 14, 1851 – August 11, 1930) was a prominent lawyer in Buffalo, New York and New York City, a president of the New York City Bar Association, and a partner at the law firm Carter Ledyard & Milburn. Early life Mil ...
, President of the
Pan-American Exposition The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood ...
, and many property owners assumed the land purchases were for the Exposition. Construction of the massive new steel mill began on July 14, 1900, and nine months later equipment was arriving from Scranton.United States Bureau of Corporations, ''Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Steel Industry'', 1911. The company dredged a
ship canal A ship canal is a canal especially intended to accommodate ships used on the oceans, seas, or lakes to which it is connected. Definition Ship canals can be distinguished from barge canals, which are intended to carry barges and other vessel ...
and built miles of track to link the plant with the railroads which would bring iron ore and coke to the plant. Lackawanna Iron and Steel began building a
company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...
in 1901, but it lacked most services. The housing stood empty for many years. In December 1900, the Lackawanna Coal & Coke Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania as a subsidiary to provide coke. Coal mines and
coke ovens Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ...
were opened in the
company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...
of Wehrum, Pennsylvania, named after company general manager Henry Wehrum. The coal was not of high quality and there was little production after 1904. The town was abandoned by the 1930s. On February 14, 1902, the company was reorganized into the Lackawanna Steel Company."Big Steel Concern Formed", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', February 15, 1902.
It was the largest independent steel company in the world at the time. Stock worth $60 million was issued, with $20 million of the newly raised capital paying off the construction of the new mill. The mill received its first shipment of iron ore on December 23, 1902. The plant's 6,000 workers (2,000 of whom came from Scranton) blew the first steel in early 1903. The company's property in Scranton was sold to the
Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad, more commonly known as the Laurel Line, was a Pennsylvania third rail electric interurban streetcar line which operated commuter train service from 1903 to 1952, and freight service until 1976. Its main li ...
, which scrapped all the remaining equipment and tore down all the buildings except for the oldest stone blast furnaces. The economic coup which William Walker Scranton had engineered did not please the board of directors, however, who replaced him in late 1904 with Edward A. Clarke. The company continued to expand, and in 1906 bought the large Pennsylvania coal mining firm of J.W. Ellsworth Company. Lackawanna Steel Co. had a rocky relationship with the town of West Seneca. The company demanded large investments in sewer, water, gas and road improvements but refused to pay for them (even though the company was much wealthier than the town). The large influx of workers from the company's old Pennsylvania site swelled the Town's population, leading to the creation of extensive tracts of extremely substandard housing and severe
public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
problems (including outbreaks of
cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...
,
typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...
and
influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...
). To save the town, West Senecans proposed separating the area around the steel mill as its own incorporated municipality. Lackawanna Steel opposed the incorporation of the proposed municipality (to be named Lackawanna), but it relented in 1909 after the two-year-long
Panic of 1907 The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic or Knickerbocker Crisis, was a financial crisis that took place in the United States over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% fro ...
nearly bankrupted the Town of West Seneca and imperiled the company's operations."82 Years of History in Lackawanna", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', December 28, 1982.
The creation of U.S. Steel in 1901 supplanted Lackawanna Steel as the country's largest steel manufacturer. A number of the so-called "independent" steel companies considered merger over the next two decades as a response to U.S. Steel's formation. In late 1915, Lackawanna Steel nearly consummated a merger with the Cambria Steel Company, Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company,
Youngstown Sheet and Tube The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, based in Youngstown, Ohio, was an American steel manufacturer. Officially, the company was created on November 23, 1900, when Articles of Incorporation of the Youngstown Iron Sheet and Tube Company were fil ...
, and
Inland Steel The Inland Steel Company was an American steel company active in 1893–1998. Its history as an independent firm thus spanned much of the 20th century. It was headquartered in Chicago at the landmark Inland Steel Building. Inland Steel was an ...
. But despite the agreement of the steel companies, federal regulators, and others, the banks carrying the debt for these companies refused to approve the merger and the plan was dropped. The company's financial status varied considerably in the late 1910s. The stock set new highs and the company doubled its profits in 1917 and the first half of 1918, but in late 1918 and throughout 1919 the company fell on hard financial times. Although Lackawanna Steel had moved to New York in part to avoid unionization, the unions followed the company. An attempt to unionize the company was made in 1919 by the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was an American labor union formed in 1876 to represent iron and steel workers. It partnered with the Steel Workers Organizing Committee of the CIO, in November 1935. Both organizations di ...
."Organize Buffalo Workers", ''
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'', September 19, 1919.
Brody, ''Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919'', 1987; Brody, ''Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era'', 1969. Lackawanna's Democratic
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
, John Toomey, was supported financially by the Lackawanna Steel Co. Toomey initiated a vicious
red-baiting Red-baiting, also known as ''reductio ad Stalinum'' () and red-tagging (in the Philippines), is an intention to discredit the validity of a political opponent and the opponent's logical argument by accusing, denouncing, attacking, or persecuting ...
campaign to smear the union organizing effort as
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
-inspired and led.Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 8: Postwar Struggles, 1918-1920'', 1988. The company fired hundreds of workers in the summer and fall of 1919 for being union members or union sympathizers. Nonetheless, by 1919 more than 18,000 steelworkers at Lackawanna Steel and five other, smaller metallurgical firms in the area were organized by the
American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...
(although Lackawanna officials estimated there were far fewer union members). Lackawanna Steel officials, fearing that immigrant union members would become violent, asked for and received protection from the
New York State Police The New York State Police (NYSP) is the state police of the state of New York in the United States. It is part of the New York State Executive Department, and employs over 5,000 sworn state troopers and 711 civilian members. History The Stat ...
. The Lackawanna Steel organizing drive was part of a nationwide organizing effort by the union, and the union resolved to launch a nationwide strike in the fall of 1919 to organize the entire steel industry.
The strike ''The Strike'' (also known as ''Strike!'', although this is more properly the title of the fictitious Hollywood movie featured in the episode) is one of the short comedy films – written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Ric ...
began on September 22, with the union claiming 8,000 of the plant's 9,000 workers had struck and the company asserting only half the workers had walked out. The same day, three riots broke out in the city."Two Hurt at Lackawanna", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', September 23, 1919.
Late in the afternoon, during the shift change, a crowd of 7,000 pro-union strikers and supporters began throwing rocks, bottles and debris at the company's guards, and city police were called in to break up the disturbance. At 7:20 p.m., a crowd of 3,000 unionists and their supporters intercepted a group of 200 strikebreakers leaving the plant, and chased them through the surrounding neighborhood before police intervened and stopped them. Later in the evening, a small crowd of men beat a man who announced he would work for the company's private police force, and city police once more were called in. On September 23, 1919, company police clashed twice late in the afternoon with a crowd of about 3,000 striking workers."2 Shot Dead", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', September 24, 1919.
At 5:50 p.m., after being pelted with rocks and glass bottles, company police fired more than 50 12-
gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...
shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub- pr ...
s blasts into the crowd. " /nowiki>rantic signals to cease firing" by the Lackawanna Police, who were in the middle of the crowd trying to restore order, "were disregarded by the plant guards". The company guards killed two and injured three. The plant remained closed through September 28, with only 500 employees reporting for work. Lackawanna Steel, which had employed only 72
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s prior to the strike, hired several thousand black
strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...
s and brought them to the city to maintain operations.Press, ''Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City, and the Conflict that Divided America'', 2006.Widick, ''Detroit: City of Race and Class Violence'', 1989. Outraged, union workers turned to political activity. Toomey lost re-election in the city's regularly scheduled mayoral race on November 4, 1919, and John H. Gibbons, a
Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
, was elected. Although the national organizing committee called off the strike on January 8, 1920, Gibbons' election reinvigorated the strike and some workers stayed out until June 1920. Nearly all the black strikebreakers were fired after the strike when the company took back its striking workers. The organizing campaign failed, but the company was eventually organized by the
Steel Workers Organizing Committee The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was one of two precursor labor organizations to the United Steelworkers. It was formed by the CIO ( Committee for Industrial Organization) on June 7, 1936. It disbanded in 1942 to become the United Stee ...
in the late 1930s after passage of the
National Labor Relations Act The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and ...
in 1935. In the two years after the organizing drive, the company continued to see wide swings in profitability. In 1920, the company's profits fell again, and a merger was rumored. The company declared itself profitable in late 1920, and then reported large deficits in 1921. Rumors that the company might sell itself emerged in mid-October 1921, but in fact the firm went on a buying spree and snapped up a pig iron manufacturer and a steel bridge maker. Over the next several years, the Lackawanna plant continued to expand physically, its works now rambling over more than two miles (3 km) of shoreline and spilling over into the nearby town of
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
.Kilborn, "The Twilight of Smokestack America", ''
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'', May 8, 1983.
Lackawanna Steel paid about 75 percent of the taxes in the city of Lackawanna, effectively controlling city government. In 1922, Lackawanna Steel reported very large deficits, driven primarily by the huge New York steel mill's aging equipment.


Bethlehem Steel years

In 1922, Lackawanna Steel Co. was acquired by the Bethlehem Steel Company, ending the company's 62-year independence. Merger rumors had plagued the company for several years by then. Rumors of an impending merger among two or more of the "Little Steel" companies—the seven steel companies largest in size next to U.S. Steel—continued in November and December 1921 and into 1922. In late April 1922, the seven "Little Steel" firms began to openly discuss the merger of two or more of the companies as a means of challenging U.S. Steel. The chief executives and creditors of these firms visited one another's plants in order to appraise them and assess the financial viability of each company."View Lackawanna Plant", ''
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'', May 2, 1922.
"Bethlehem Steel to Buy Lackawanna, in $60,000,000 Deal", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', May 12, 1922.
Among those visited was the Lackawanna Steel Company plant in upstate New York. On May 11, 1922, Lackawanna Steel announced it had agreed to be purchased by Bethlehem Steel in a merger which would create a billion-dollar company. Bethlehem Steel said it would spend $10 million improving the Lackawanna mills, which were described as "obsolete" due to a lack of investment."Bethlehem Merger Approved", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', May 17, 1922.
The combined company controlled about 10 percent of the steel output of the United States, while U.S. Steel controlled about 45 percent. A lengthy
antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
investigation followed. The
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...
asked the
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...
(FTC) and the
Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
to investigate the merger the day after it was announced, which the FTC did on May 14. As the merger was approved by the two companies in mid-May, the Senate and FTC each conducted separate investigations. On June 5, 1922, the FTC issued a report concluding that the merger was in violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author. ...
. However,
United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
Harry M. Daugherty Harry Micajah Daugherty (; January 26, 1860 – October 12, 1941) was an American politician. A key Ohio Republican political insider, he is best remembered for his service as Attorney General of the United States under Presidents Warren G. Hard ...
overruled the FTC on June 22. The merger finally took effect on October 10, 1922. Six decades later, financial analysts observed that Bethlehem Steel probably purchased Lackawanna Steel for less than half what the company was worth. Over the next decade, Bethlehem Steel spent more than $40 million modernizing the Lackawanna site. Lackawanna continued to be a center for the manufacture of steel throughout most of the 20th century. In the 1940s, the Lackawanna steel mill employed over 20,000 people, and was the world's largest steel factory.


Decline

In the 1970s and 1980s, Bethlehem Steel allowed the Lackawanna Steel plant to become obsolete. Foreign competition made it financially impossible to continue to manufacture most of the products produced at Lackawanna. Bethlehem Steel also disliked the high tax rates of the state of New York, and did not want to spend the millions of dollars in air and water
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, th ...
abatement which were required by state and federal authorities. The company built a new facility in
Burns Harbor, Indiana Burns Harbor is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States on the shores of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 1,156 at the 2010 census. Burns Harbor is ...
, and stopped investing in new steel production methods at Lackawanna. In 1982, Bethlehem Steel announced the closing of nearly all production at the Lackawanna Steel plant in New York. Bethlehem Steel, like many American steel companies, was encountering significant financial problems. Although the company made several public attempts to reassess the plant's viability and keep the plant open in the late 1970s, closure was a foregone conclusion for many. On June 25, 1982, Bethlehem Steel announced it would close the Lackawanna facility and lay off its remaining 10,000 workers in six weeks. The news meant the laying off of an additional 8,000 workers in Lackawanna, West Seneca, and Buffalo. An attempt was made to interest the Buffalo-based Gibraltar Steel Corporation in the plant, but this effort failed. The Lackawanna Steel plant stopped most of its operations on October 15, 1982. The company laid off workers in waves before the final closure, and transferred many others. On the day the plant stopped most of its operations, more than 6,000 workers lost their jobs (most of them high-paying).Verhovek, "As Prosperity of Steel Fades, A Town Debates Its Future", ''
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'', July 25, 198

/ref> The city of Lackawanna's 22,700 people faced extremely large tax increases just to maintain basic services, as the amount of taxes paid by Bethlehem Steel fell from 66 percent of the city's revenue to just 8 percent. In addition, the city owed the company more than $5 million in tax overcharges. The
United Steelworkers The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquar ...
later successfully sued Bethlehem Steel for prematurely terminating the fringe benefits of the laid-off steelworkers.


Steel production after 1982

Bethlehem Steel, which maintained a small presence in Lackawanna after the mass layoffs in 1982, ended coke production at the Lackawanna site in 2001, leaving a galvanized steel finishing plant employing about 250 people.Staba, "An Old Steel Mill Retools to Produce Clean Energy", ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', May 22, 2007.
Upon Bethlehem's bankruptcy in 2003, the plant was acquired by
International Steel Group International Steel Group (ISG) was an American steel company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, which was established by the New York investment firm WL Ross & Co LLC to acquire the assets of bankrupt steel companies and combine them together in ...
. It merged with Mittal Steel Company in 2004. In 2006, the plant came under the ownership of
ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second ...
, which eventually ended its operations at Lackawanna in 2009. In 1993, Veritas Capital purchased one of the bar, rod and wire plants from Bethlehem and began manufacturing automobile steering columns under its subsidiary, Bar Technologies. This operation has since been taken over by
Republic Steel Republic Steel is an American steel manufacturer that was once the country's third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Centu ...
, which manufactures hot rolled bars and coils and employs 270 people. This represents the last steel production in former Bethlehem facilities in Lackawanna. Welded Tube, a Canadian owned manufacturer of steel tubing, built and opened a new plant in 2013 in the western portion of the facility.


Fires

Three small fires struck the former Lackawanna works between 2014 and 2016. The first fire occurred in 2014, with additional fires in February and October 2016. All three fires occurred at a mulch-grinding facility owned and operated by Zoladz Construction. On November 9, 2016, a massive fire struck the Industrial Materials Recycling facility located in the plant's former galvanizing, cold mill, and hot mill buildings. The fire, which began at about 7 AM after a lightbulb exploded over flammable materials, was fought by more than 100 firefighters from Lackawanna, Buffalo, and Hamburg. Several explosions were caused by the fire, which collapsed the roof of the structure and caused other heavy damage to it. Federal and state environmental officials rushed to the scene to monitor health hazards from the blaze, which caused the evacuation of a nearby neighborhood due to fire and the closure of two elementary schools due to smoke dangers. Burning debris fell on the city of Lackawanna and town of Hamburg. The fire was contained but still burning on the morning of November 10, requiring the continued evacuation of the neighborhood and the schools.


Redevelopment

The Lackawanna Steel plant was declared a
Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency ...
site by the
Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...
(EPA) in 1988 after the EPA conducted a
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.United States. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. , , ''et seq., ...
(RCRA) Facility Assessment of the plant.Tecumseh Redevelopment, Inc. (Other (Former) Names of Site: Seneca Steel, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, International Steel Group). EPA Identification Number: NYD002134880. EPA Region 2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. June 12, 2008. The state of New York subsequently declared it a Class 2 Inactive Hazardous Waste Site, indicating the site poses a significant potential threat to human health and the environment. In August 1990, Bethlehem Steel (operating as Tecumseh Redevelopment, Inc.) and the EPA entered into an administrative consent order requiring Bethlehem Steel to identify the nature and extent of any releases of hazardous waste and mitigate any emergency situations that might be discovered during the course of the investigations. Bethlehem Steel and its successor corporations have been submitting RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI) reports since then. Although the RFI was due to be completed in 2004, it still was not complete as of June 2008. The plant was also declared a
brownfield In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land pre ...
in 2003 under the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002.Brownfields 2006 Grant Fact Sheet: Lackawanna, NY. Solid Waste and Emergency Response. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. May 2006. While this made the city of Lackawanna eligible for federal assistance money to redevelop part of the site, a cooperative agreement had not been signed as of May 2006. The city of Lackawanna redeveloped some of the former Lackawanna Steel plant land into small business zones, bringing about 700 jobs back to the town in the late 1980s.
Steel Winds Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant t ...
, an eight-windmill
wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
owned by BQ Energy, opened on the old plant's slag heaps in September 2006. Another 14 turbines were added in 2012. As of 2018, Erie County owns 240 acres of the complex. 140 acres of former brownfield have been remediated, and a bike path now spans a portion of the property.


Historic sites

The Lackawanna Steel Company's original stone furnaces near Scranton, Pennsylvania, were placed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1991. In addition to the original stone furnaces near Scranton, a number of the company's other construction projects are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These include: *
Bridge (Royal, Nebraska) The Bridge designated NEHBS No. AP00-252 near Royal, Nebraska built in 1911 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It brought a township road over an unnamed stream, about northeast of Royal. The bridge was fabricated by ...
, Township Road over unnamed stream, 6.8 miles northeast of Royal, Nebraska (Lackawanna Steel Co.) * Bridge 9, Shawville Rd.,
Sheldon, Vermont Sheldon is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,136 at the 2020 census. It contains the unincorporated community of Sheldon Springs. Geography Sheldon, named for Revolutionary War colonel Elisha Sheldon,
(Lackawanna Steel Construction Co.) * Garretson Outlet Bridge, County Roadd K64 over Garretson Outlet Ditch,
Whiting, Iowa Whiting is a city in Monona County, Iowa, United States. The population was 745 at the time of the 2020 census. History A post office called Whiting has been in operation since 1873. The city was named for Charles E. Whiting, a local farmer. Coi ...
(Lackawanna Steel Co.) * Mallory Township Bridge, County Road over unnamed stream,
Osterdock, Iowa Osterdock is a city located in Clayton County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 43, down from 50 in 2000. History Osterdock got its start in the year 1877, following construction of the railroad thro ...
(Lackawanna Steel Co.) * Neligh Mill Bridge, Elm Street over the
Elkhorn River The Elkhorn River is a river in northeastern Nebraska, United States, that originates in the eastern Sandhills and is one of the largest tributaries of the Platte River, flowing and joining the Platte just southwest of Omaha, approximately s ...
, Neligh, Nebraska (Cambria/Lackawanna Steel Cos.) * North Loup Bridge, County Road over the North Loup River, 1.5 miles northeast of
North Loup, Nebraska North Loup is a village in North Loup Township, Valley County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 297 at the 2010 census. History In 1871, a party of Seventh Day Baptists from Wisconsin explored Valley County for settlement sites. In ...
(Cambria & Lackawanna Steel Cos.) * Ponca Creek Bridge, County Road over Ponca Creek, 3 miles east of
Lynch, Nebraska Lynch is a village in Boyd County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 194 at the 2020 census, down from 245 in 2010. Lynch is located in northern Nebraska, between the Missouri and Niobrara rivers. History Lynch was incorporated as a v ...
(Lackawanna Steel Co.) * Quarry Bridge, County Road I-4 over Iowa Road,
Marshalltown, Iowa Marshalltown is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Iowa, United States, located along the Iowa River. It is the seat and most populous settlement of Marshall County and the 16th largest city in Iowa, with a population of 27,591 at ...
(Lackawanna Steel, King and Twiss)


Lackawanna Steel in popular culture

In 2001, the
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
-winning actor and playwright
Ruben Santiago-Hudson Ruben Santiago-Hudson (born Ruben Santiago Jr., November 24, 1956) is an American actor, playwright, and director who has won national awards for his work in all three categories. He is best known for his role of Captain Roy Montgomery from 20 ...
wrote ''
Lackawanna Blues ''Lackawanna Blues'' is an American play written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson that premiered in 2001. It was later adapted as a television movie that aired in 2005. The play dramatizes the character of the author's primary caregiver when he was growi ...
'', a one-man play which depicts a fictionalized version of the playwright's childhood growing up in Lackawanna, New York. The play, which won two
OBIE The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the ...
awards, Simonson, Robert "Lackawanna Blues Sings Its Last at Public Theater, May 27", ''
Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's p ...
'', May 27, 2001.
features a number of characters who work or worked at the Lackawanna Steel Co. plant, and the company's role in the town is discussed several times in the play.


See also

* * * *


Notes


References

* ''A History of the City of Buffalo''. Buffalo, N.Y.: The Buffalo Evening News, 1908. * "Announces Plans of New Steel Merger". ''
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The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
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Accessed August 19, 2008. * "Lackawanna Steel Deficit". ''
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''. October 12, 1921. * "Lackawanna Steel Deficit Is $983,127". ''
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''. July 14, 1921. * "Lackawanna Steel Earnings Decrease". ''
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''. February 27, 1920. * "Lackawanna Steel Gains". ''
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''. May 24, 1918. * "Lackawanna Steel Gains". ''
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''. July 15, 1920. * "Lackawanna Steel Gains". ''
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''. April 14, 1921. * "Lackawanna Steel Meeting Delayed". ''
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''. February 9, 1922. * "Lackawanna Steel Nets $16,106,976". ''
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Tecumseh Redevelopment, Inc. (Other (Former) Names of Site: Seneca Steel, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, International Steel Group)
EPA Identification Number: NYD002134880. EPA Region 2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. June 12, 2008. * "$3,442,782 Less Profit in Lackawanna Steel". ''
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"36 Hours: Scranton, Pa."
''
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''. November 1, 2002.


External links


Steelpltmuseum.org: The Steel Plant Museum and local history of Lackawanna


{{Iron and steel production, state=collapsed * Ironworks and steel mills in the United States Steel companies of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state) Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania Bridge companies Companies based in Erie County, New York Companies based in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania American companies established in 1840 Manufacturing companies established in 1840 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1983 1840 establishments in Pennsylvania 1983 disestablishments in New York (state) Scranton, Pennsylvania ArcelorMittal Environment of New York (state) Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1840 Construction and civil engineering companies disestablished in 1983