By 1803 the Hopewell furnace on the banks of Yellow Creek in Struthers was producing up to 2 tons of pig iron a day.  Each of the early blast furnaces would have employed about 3 dozen men cutting wood, making charcoal, filling the furnace, and casting the iron as the furnace worked 24 hours a day.  Most area furnaces were abandoned by 1812 because the men left for the War of 1812.  

The Mahoning Valley saw the first use of coal in iron furnaces in the Americas, perhaps 30 years earlier than any where else.  By mid-century, Brier Hill coal was being used because it didn’t require coking (heating to remove gases).  This eliminated one step in the industrial process, saving time and money. 

Local men who had made money in canal-building, coal mines, and railroads invested in iron manufacturing, beginning the industrial prominence of the Mahoning Valley and making fortunes for themselves.  In 1876 there were more than 1500 people working in 21 blast furnaces and 13 rolling mills.  The furnaces in Lowellville, Struthers, Mineral Ridge, Niles, Warren, and Youngstown produced 800 tons of pig iron every day.  The rolling mills made hoop, band, and bar iron; railroad rails and spikes; sheet iron and plate iron; and nails—550 tons of milled iron each day.

Why would men from the Mahoning Valley go to the War of 1812?  Where was it fought and why was there a local threat?   If you had money to build a manufacturing plant, what product would you want to invest in?  To learn more about the industrial history of the Mahoning Valley, visit the Arms Family Museum of Local History or www.mahoninghistory.org.