![]() Chisholm, with JOHN AND DAVID JONES, built a rolling mill in 1857 at NEWBURGH, 6 miles southeast of PUBLIC SQUARE, to reroll worn rails. HENRY CHISHOLM (1822-81), an immigrant Scottish construction contractor, was Cleveland's pioneer ironmaster. Smith in partnership with others, erected a plant in the same location to reroll worn rails. ![]() That year, the Railroad Iron Mill Co., established by Albert J. In 1853-54 the Forest City Iron Works erected a rolling mill on the lakeshore at Wason (East 38th) St., producing the first "saleable manufactured iron" (boiler plate) in May 1855. Ford established the Lake Erie Iron Works in Ohio City to forge axles for railroad cars and locomotives, and heavy shafts for steamboats. The CUYAHOGA STEAM FURNACE CO., incorporated in 1834 by JOSIAH BARBER, RICHARD LORD, and others, was among the earliest of such enterprises by 1853 its Ohio City works was turning out two locomotives each month. The manufacture of iron products preceded the basic industry, with railroads providing the impetus for Cleveland's early forges and foundries. and PICKANDS MATHER & CO., dominated the ore trade on the Great Lakes, controlling 80% of the ore vessels plying the lakes and massive tracts of ore-rich land. Mather, together with other Cleveland industrialists at the helm of such companies as M.A. Cleveland-Cliffs was the leading iron mining company on the Marquette Range when it was incorporated in 1891, a position it still held a century later. Mather was the driving force behind the Cleveland Iron Mining Co., one of the most important early mining companies on the Marquette Range and one of two "parents" (the other was the Iron Cliffs Co.) of the CLEVELAND-CLIFFS IRON CO. Marie Canal in 1855 marked the beginning of ore shipment in quantity, and the movement of this raw material is the same today as it was then: ore mined in the Lake Superior region is carried by rail to the shipping ports, then by ship to lower lake ports, where it is rehandled into railroad cars for the trip to the blast furnace.Ĭlevelander SAMUEL LIVINGSTON MATHER (1817-90) is usually credited with opening the rich iron ore resources of the Lake Superior region, which brought Cleveland to its position of supremacy in the iron industry. The only profitable way to exploit the ore was to transport it in bulk to distant blast furnaces on the lower Great Lakes-to places like Cleveland, Chicago, and Ashtabula, OH. Because the Lake Superior ore districts were geographically isolated, without coal or major markets nearby, iron ore could not be smelted to pig or bar iron and sold at a profit. The industry's foothold in Cleveland was assured with the discovery in 1844 of iron ore in the Lake Superior region of Michigan. ![]() By 1900 that number had more than doubled Cuyahoga County, which produced 968,801 tons of iron and steel in 1900, ranked fifth nationally (behind Allegheny County, PA, Cook County, IL, Mahoning County, OH, and Jefferson County, AL) in iron and steel production. Twenty years later, the primary iron and steel industry in Cleveland employed almost 3,000 (about 200 of these "children and youths") in 10 establishments. In 1860 just 374 men were working in 3 bar and sheet iron establishments in Cuyahoga County. Would it not be wise to start blast furnaces in Cleveland?" In 1858 an article in the CLEVELAND LEADER claimed that Cleveland enjoyed advantages even greater than Pittsburgh for the manufacture of iron: "With transportation added, iron can be made $7 a ton cheaper in Cleveland than made at Pittsburgh and brought here. Location has been Cleveland's potent metallurgical advantage since the mid-19th century, when its situation on Lake Erie at the convergence of numerous railroad lines made it an ideal meeting place for iron ore and coal.
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