Wheeling Steel Benwood Works

Wheeling Steel’s Benwood Works was a major pipe-manufacturing facility in Benwood, West Virginia.

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Wheeling Steel’s Benwood Works was a major pipe-manufacturing facility in Benwood, West Virginia. Its origins trace to the mid-19th-century Riverside Iron Works. The site later operated under the National Tube Company and Wheeling Steel Corporation before closing in 1983. Portions of the property were repurposed beginning in 1984 and again in the 2010s.

History

Riverside Iron Works (1852-1899)

Industrial activity at Benwood began in 1852, when E.C. Dewey relocated from Cadiz, Ohio, and constructed the Eagle Wire Mill at the head of 25th Street. The mill contained five boiling furnaces and two heating furnaces and produced wire and iron axles. ¹⁸

The facility was idled in 1855 and restarted in 1858 by J.H. Pendleton & Company, which produced light bar iron and railroad spikes. It burned in 1859, was rebuilt, and in 1860 was leased to O.C. Dewey, J.N. Vance, and W.H. Russell under Dewey, Vance & Company. The works operated as the Wheeling Iron & Spike Works and the Juniata Iron Works. ¹⁸

Expansion followed. In 1866, it constructed a nail mill adjacent to the Belmont mill at Main and 24th Streets, followed by the opening of the “Riverside” nail mill with 48 nail machines in December 1867, and the addition of 42 more nail machines in 1870. ¹⁸

On January 1, 1875, Riverside Iron Works was formally organized, replacing Dewey, Vance & Company with $1 million in capital. William L. Hearne and his son, Frank J. Hearne, assumed leadership. By 1880, Frank Hearne was general manager. ^{18 19}

A blast furnace at “Riverside” began operation on February 14, 1872. ¹⁸ The furnace, 75 feet high and 10 feet in diameter, was equipped with four Player iron pipe stoves, ten boilers, and two blowing engines, producing 1,000 tons of iron weekly. ¹⁸

An iron puddlers’ strike in 1882 prompted Frank Hearne to experiment with steel production. Familiar with the Bessemer process, he recognized steel’s advantages over iron and sought consolidation with other firms. When efforts failed, he ordered steel-making equipment without board approval. ¹⁹

Construction of the steel plant began on August 6, 1883, and on June 11, 1884, Riverside became the second Wheeling-area facility to blow steel, following Bellaire Nail Works by two months. The plant produced up to 1,500 tons of blooms, billets, and slabs weekly, which were converted into steel nails, spikes, sheet bars, and rods for wire production. Surplus output was sold to competitors. ^{18 19}

By 1898, Riverside’s output included: ¹⁹

• 125,000 tons of finished bar steel, tack plate, and skelp
• 550,000 kegs of cut nails
• 150,000 tons of ingots
• 90,000 tons of wrought-iron and steel tubes.

The Rise of Tubular Goods

Growing use of natural gas and indoor plumbing in the late 1880s increased demand for pipe. Riverside abandoned cut-nail production in favor of tubular goods and, in 1887, assembled experts from Crane Brothers Manufacturing Company of Chicago to design the region’s first pipe mill. ¹⁹

The new pipe mill opened on August 11, 1887, and within weeks was producing 30 tons of steel for pipe manufacture. ¹⁹

Early pipes were hand-made by slowly welding a few inches at a time. Around 1835, lap welding was introduced, in which plates of metal have their edges scarfed or beveled by passing them through a series of rolls. ¹⁵ As it was drawn through a die, the edges would curl up and overlap. The skelp, or partly made pipe, was heated a second time and welded by passing it through two rolls, the inner lap resting on a stationary mandrel. The pipe was then straightened, threaded, and tested.

Buttwelded pipes were made by drawing a heated plate through a conical die, which pressed the edges so firmly together that they united. ¹⁵ The skelp was then heated a second time and welded, straightened, threaded, and tested.

National Tube Company (1899-1920)

In 1899, Riverside Iron Works was acquired by the National Tube Company for $6 million. ^{17 19} To reduce dependence on Carnegie Steel, National Tube constructed a 500-ton blast furnace. ¹⁶ Fuel was supplied by 120 Semet-Solvay by-product coke ovens located nearby. ¹⁵

The expanded works included:

• Two pig-iron blast furnaces
• Five butt-weld furnaces and two lap-weld furnaces
• Two 5-ton Bessemer converters
• Three 8-foot cupolas
• Two 3-hole soaking pits

Annual capacity reached 1.25 million gross tons of pipe and boiler tubes and 40,000 tons of galvanized goods. ¹⁵

Wheeling Steel (1920-1968)

The Wheeling Steel Corporation was organized on June 21, 1920, consolidating operations from Benwood to Steubenville, Ohio. ¹ Benwood Works consisted of two pipe mills supplied with slabs from Steubenville Works. It formed part of a broader integrated system including:

• Ackermann Works, Wheeling, West Virginia, produced pressed and drawn steel stampings for use in the automotive and appliance industries.
• Beech Bottom Works, Beech Bottom, West Virginia, operated sheet mills that manufactured hot-rolled electrical sheets for electrical equipment producers. The facility also coated long terne sheets supplied by the Yorkville Works.
• Benwood Works, Benwood, West Virginia, consisted of two pipe mills that processed slabs supplied by the Steubenville Works.
• LaBelle Works, Wheeling, West Virginia, manufactured cut nails.
• Martins Ferry Works, Martins Ferry, West Virginia, produced galvanized sheets, galvanized roofing and accessories, corrugated culverts, and hand-dipped items. The plant operated two continuous galvanizing lines that processed, coated, and treated coils of steel strip. Its products were marketed under the SofTite brand. A second galvanizing line began operation in November 1953 at a cost of $3 million.
• Steubenville Works comprised three integrated operations.
  • Steubenville North, Steubenville, Ohio, included two blast furnaces, eleven open-hearth furnaces, a blooming mill, a hot strip mill, and cold reduction mills. It produced hot-rolled sheets and plates, as well as cold-rolled sheets and coils.
  • Steubenville South, Mingo Junction, Ohio, operated three blast furnaces, two Bessemer converters, a blooming mill, and auxiliary equipment. It supplied hot metal to the open-hearth furnaces at Steubenville North and Bessemer slabs to Benwood Works.
  • Steubenville East, Follansbee, West Virginia, operated 314 coke ovens that supplied fuel to the Steubenville North and South facilities.
• Steelcrete Works, located adjacent to Beech Bottom Works, manufactured expanded metal, metal lath, and related accessories. It also produced Steelcrete bank vaults, reinforced mesh for buildings, stair treads, partitions, and other fabricated items.
• Wheeling Works, Wheeling, West Virginia, fabricated containers, stove and furnace pipe, electric and gas dryers, roofing accessories, floor and roof decking, automobile gasoline tanks, and various automotive components.
• Yorkville Works, Yorkville, Ohio, produced cold-reduced black plate for tinning and installed the first tandem mill of its kind in 1928. The facility manufactured electrolytic and hot-dipped tinplate, black plate, and terneplate. It also operated a metal decorating plant for coating and lithographing tin, terne, and black plate, along with two electrolytic tinplate lines capable of producing tinplate at speeds up to 1,000 feet per minute.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel (1968-1983)

In December 1968, Wheeling Steel merged with Pittsburgh Steel to form Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. It added Allenport Works, a sheet steel plant in Allenport, Pennsylvania, and Monessen Works, a steel mill in Monessen, Pennsylvania. However, the combined company struggled to modernize during the downturn of the 1970s and 1980s. A late attempt to use a pig-iron blast furnace and electric arc furnace in tandem failed when the electric arc furnace did not achieve its designed capacity.

In April 1962, Wheeling Steel approved plans to retire the oldest of its remaining two butt-weld furnaces, installed in 1909. ⁵ The other butt-weld furnace, introduced in 1949, was enlarged in 1963. The company studied the feasibility of establishing an electweld mill to produce a new line of tubular products.

Slabs from Steubenville South were processed into skelp at Benwood and then formed into pipe ½” to 4″ by the continuous weld method. ¹ Wheeling Steel also produced its couplings and had facilities to galvanize large quantities of the pipe. Benwood Works’ No. 2 continuous weld pipe mill produced pipe of various sizes at speeds from 450 feet to more than 1,000 feet per minute.

Foreign competition eroded market share. In September 1982, the company announced plans to close Benwood Works, affecting 500 workers. ^{6 8} Closure was postponed during negotiations with the United Steelworkers, which resulted in workforce reductions, shrinking the workforce to 200 to 250 employees. ⁹

Benwood Works closed permanently in July 1983, citing deteriorating markets and overseas imports. ¹⁴

Esmark engaged in a proxy contest for Wheeling-Pittsburgh in 2005 and took control of the company in November 2007. Severstal acquired Esmark’s Wheeling-Pittsburgh holdings in August 2008, which were then acquired by RG Steel in 2011. Mass layoffs by RG Steel began in June 2012 after the company declared bankruptcy.

Post-Closure of Benwood Works

In April 1986, the USW announced that it had entered into the second phase of a proposed employee buyout of the Benwood Works. ¹¹ The union looked at forming a management team and taking over the idled factory. The plan, developed by American Capital Strategies, called for Benwood Works to reopen and manufacture tubular products for the oil industry, even though Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel specifically cited a lack of market for that industry.

In July, officials from Kao Hsing Chang Iron and Steel Company of Taiwan toured Benwood Works with representatives from the USW, hoping to persuade the overseas corporation to acquire the plant. ⁷ With no resolution, Laclede Steel entered into negotiations in March 1987 with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel to lease a part of Benwood Works. Laclede planned to process pipe made at its Alton, Missouri factory. ¹³

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel agreed to sell Benwood Works in August to BIPCO, a local investment group, for $1.35 million. ¹⁰ BIPCO planned to redevelop the site as an industrial park.

JLE Industries leased one of the last remaining abandoned structures at the Benwood Works in July 2016. ² JLE acquired the space to inspect and repair metal tubes used to drill oil and natural gas wells. JLE refurbished all overhead cranes, added new siding and insulation, poured new concrete flooring, and revamped the electrical system at the cost of $6 million. ³

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Gallery

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Sources

1. “Wheeling Steel Corp. is Major Producer.” Wheeling News-Register 15 Jan. 1956: n.p. Print.
2. “Drilling Industry Gives Former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Plant New Life in Benwood.” Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register 10 Jul. 2016: n.p. Print.
3. “Former Steel Plant Converted.” Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register 7 Dec. 2015: n.p. Print.
4. “Wheeling Plants Busy.” Iron Age, vol. 110, 14 Dec. 1922, p. 1591.
5. “Wheeling Steel Plans Expansion At Benwood.” Weirton Daily Times 27 Apr. 1962: 9. Print.
6. Moody, John P. “W-P Steel puts off mill closing.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 9 Dec. 1982: 14. Print.
7. “Partner courted for ex-W-P site.” Pittsburgh Press 15 Jul. 1986: 38. Print.
8. “W.Va. Town Fears W-P Mill Closing.” Pittsburgh Press 23 Sept. 1982: C-10. Print.
9. “Union rejects layoff proposal at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.” Akron Beacon Journal 24 Dec. 1982: D-4. Print.
10. Gaynor, Pamela. “Plan advocates sale of W-P mill.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12 Aug. 1987: 10. Print.
11. “Employee plan to buy W-P mill advances.” Pittsburgh Press 2 Apr. 1986: B-8. Print.
12. “Laclede Steel Seeks Wheeling Pipe Unit.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 24 Mar. 1987: 5-B. Print.
13. “Laclede Steel Sees Good Times Getting Even Better.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2 May 1988: C-1. Print.
14. Knezevich, Nicholas. “W-P Steel strikers may vote on offer.” Pittsburgh Press 15 Oct. 1985: A-1, A-9. Print.
15. “A Gigantic Enterprise That Has Done Much Toward the Upbuilding of Pittsburgh’s Commercial and Financial Supremacy.” Pittsburgh Gazette Times 26 Jul. 1911: 14. Print.
16. Prechel, Harland. “Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.” Big Business and the State, Albany, State University of New York Press, 2000, 48.
17. “500 Ton Blast Furnace.” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer 27 Oct. 1899: 3. Print.
18. “The Iron and Steel.” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer 14 Sept. 1886: 5. Print.
19. Karelis, Rebekah. Riverside Iron Works Office Building. United States Department of the Interior, Dec. 2014.