The portion of the whole allotted to Lancaster County was 600 and the price fixed for the gun complete with 18-inch Bayonet was four pounds.
A resident of Lancaster County at that time, Joel Ferree was of French descent, his forbears having drifted from Canada along with others of that nation in sufficient number so as to impress upon the land of Penn such names as Bellefont, Bellaire, Iroquois, etc. There can be no doubt that the colony enjoyed a definite French invasion as well as it had Swedish, Irish and German.
The manufacture of muskets proceeded, but not without some unexpected delays, due to demands of the workers for higher wages. Later Ferree joined the colors and took part in a number of engagements. At the close of the war, he migrated westward, following the Glades Trail to Robb’s Ferry, now West Baden. From there he followed what was then a well-marked road that brought him to the Monongahela River opposite where Clairton is now located. Ferree, however, finding a few settlers, decided to remain among them and took up a tract of land now traversed by Route 51 at Large. Pa., where he again began the manufacture of guns. He built his house just east of where the tipple of No. 7 mine stood. His shop and his powder factory, for he also engaged in the manufacture of gun powder, stood about the site of the present Large Hotel. His neighbor, Kuykendall, had nine daughters, and one of these daughters, his son, Joel Ferree Junior, chose for his wife.
Park Avenue was largely the business street in Clairton Borough, for on it was located S. C. Wilson’s grocery, Bennet’s pharmacy nearby, while on the opposite side was the “Bee Hive” Dry goods store. Glenn’s furniture store and about two other frame buildings in one of which two school rooms cared for a portion of the school children. A temporary building on the opposite side provided two more rooms and the Clairton Branch of Carnegie Library, looked after evenings by C. H. Rich, Chief Chemist. Two school rooms were also in the basement of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and two in what had been the Improvement Co. Office. From Miller Avenue west on St. Clair at Third and Miller, the Bedell Feed Store was in charge of Miss Margaret Bedell, while across Third was Brouker’s Bakery. Mitchell Avenue had a number of company houses in the east end and was very sparce of houses until Third Street.
Mention should be here made of the most overcrowded building in the town. It stood on Waddell Avenue on the site now occupied by the Marovich Building. It was at once the St. Clair Improvement Co. Office, the bank, post office, two school rooms, and housed the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church. By 1905 all its denizens had found other quarters and it served only as a Chinese Laundry. Eventually it was moved over on to the vicinity of Halcomb Avenue and Third Street and still serves as a garage.
By 1905 the new High School Building on Third Street, now Fifth Street, was completed, and for the first time adequate modern facilities for education were provided, the principal being Prof. E. H. Knoch, who served a number of years in that capacity, when he accepted a similar position in Pittsburgh. The rapid growth of the town soon demanded additional space and by 1913 the Shaw Avenue School was opened and various portable buildings clustered about the building on Third Street. With the opening of the Vankirk Street section of the town resulted in the erection of the Miller Avenue School. With the expansion of the local plant of a ByProduct Coke Plant a building boom came which called for still more and better educational facilities and the ground occupied by the former Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Waddell and Third Street was selected for the site opposite the first school the town had built.
When the Goulds, under the capable management of Mr. Ramsey were straining every effort to realize the dream of a “coast to coast” railroad in the Wabash, there remained but one link to be supplied, that was at Blair. It does not belong in these notes to tell of the checkmate that took place in Pittsburgh which left a million-dollar depot at the end of a blind alley. But by purchase, the Goulds having acquired the West Side Belt R. R., were within a few miles of realizing their aim, all that remained being a crossing of the P. R. R. through Blair, a crossing of the river and tunnel of the hill on the east side to join the Western-Maryland.
Property values in Blair sky-rocketed-—changing hands in some instances two and three or more times within a month. By the time the St. Clair Terminal made the connection with the West Side Belt, Ramsey had deserted the Goulds and they were in financial difficulties. Many land owners in Blair found themselves in possession of property from which they could never hope to realize on the investment, and Blair settled down to a dull existence, as a sort of across-the-track section for Clairton. With the construction of the Coke works and the importation of laborers from many sections of the country, there came also those who lived by craft without work, so that there were gambling houses of one kind or another and were more questionable character operated under the guise of “coffee house” and “boarding house” until a prominent magazine, making a survey concluded that Blair was the wickedest spot in the U. S. Fortunately this condition was of rather brief duration and today the section, though predominantly colored, is very much improved.
A
clay brick yard was operated for a number of years between the railroad
and the river on the south side of Maple Avenue and four or five houses,
including the old White Homestead. which stood on the north side of the
Avenue until the advent of the coke works. It has been said that in the
records of the Wilson Estate there contained a note that stated “George
Washington stopped at the White property” and paid a stipulated amount
for oats for his horse. There may be some doubt of the correctness of this
as in many similar instances of Washington’s stoppings. Yet there are
many apparently contradictory statements in which reason might furnish the
correct
answer.
The T. Campbell Brothers
Glass factory located between the railroad and the river was housed by
some half-dozen brick buildings. A delightful townsite, with tree-lined
streets with very modern frame structures, minus electric and gas, were
occupied by the employees. It was perhaps to cater to the needs of these people
that Theodore, Leo and John Walker came from South Side, Pittsburgh and
established Walker Brothers Grocery. famous through all the history of the
town for good produce and prompt service. The glass plant was closed to
operation before the end of the century, and at the time of building
operations for the new coke plant the site
had become a ghost town.
At
the southern end of the Clairton Plant is what is termed “Connelly’s
Yard,” a rather modern designation, since it was
not applied until the plant was built and it became
the receiving yard for cars delivered by the railroad to the plant. The
name Connelly was derived from an early family who owned the land. There
on the river shore just about where E. J. Tower stands, Thomas F. Connelly, who contracted to build a plank road
from White Hall to Pittsburgh and which was and is still known as
Brownsville Road, subsequently bought a tract of land from Patrick Hughes.
Slack coal at that time being waste material, Connelly had barges tied up
at his river frontage— Connelly’s Yard— where he washed and loaded it
back into barges, thus making a
saleable product. Later he began piling the stock in windrows on the river
bank, covering it with sand and burning it, thus
originating the first coke made in the Monongahela Valley. Later, about
1873, he built bee-hive ovens, enlarging his plant with the advent of the
railroad, about 1873 until he had 60 ovens—30 on each side of the track.
The
city of Pittsburgh, in seeking a new site for a city farm, some of its
political figures of the day purchased a number of farms here with the
idea of locating the “Home” here, the site in Homestead being in the
way of Carnegie Steel Co. expansion of Homestead works. After the land was
purchased and sold to the city at a good profit, let us assume —
a furor was raised as to location to such an extent that the same
gentlemen, having in the meantime, secured options on the Mayview site
which was much more acceptable, had the Clairton Site condemned and
repurchased it from
the county at a much reduced figure—and double profit. When H. C. Frick
and Andrew Carnegie had their historic quarrel, Frick quietly purchased
the Clairton Site from the politicians, thus providing a site for
realizing his threat to Carnegie of another Steel company. Thus, in
1900-1901 with the St. Clair Furnace Company erecting three blast furnaces
and the St. Clair Steel Company twelve open hearth furnaces, a blooming
and slabbing mill, the plant which made Clairton possible, came into
existence. The Titans of industry having patched up their differences,
the plant was presently disposed of to Crucible Steel Company of America.
In 1904 the entire project was acquired by the Steel Corporation, and
Clairton was on its way to make a name for itself in the steel industry.