Wheeling Steel Martins Ferry Works

The Martins Ferry Works in Martins Ferry, Ohio, was a major galvanizing and steel finishing plant.

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History
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The Martins Ferry Works in Martins Ferry, Ohio, was a major galvanizing and steel finishing plant within the Wheeling Steel system, later operating under Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. At its peak, the Upper Ohio Valley facility employed more than 2,000 workers and specialized in galvanized sheets, roofing products, and corrugated steel marketed under the SofTite brand.

History

Wheeling, West Virginia’s industries developed steadily during the nineteenth century. Located along the Ohio River and the National Road, the town grew during the 1830s from a minor commercial center into a manufacturing hub. ¹² Although glass, pottery, and tobacco factories diversified the economy, iron production became the dominant industry. As western territories opened to settlement, demand for nails increased through the 1820s and 1830s, earning Wheeling the nickname “Nail City.” The industry spread throughout the Wheeling district, extending south into Benwood and across the Ohio River into Bellaire, Aetnaville, Martins Ferry, Mingo Junction, and Steubenville, Ohio.

The iron industry expanded as companies began vertically integrating their operations. ¹² Before 1857, pig iron used in the Wheeling district was shipped from Pittsburgh and refined locally in puddling furnaces. The completion of canals later allowed iron ore from Minnesota to move through the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, while coke production in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, provided a more efficient fuel source. These developments made it possible to produce iron entirely within the district—from smelting ore into pig iron to refining it into wrought iron, rolling it into nail plates, and cutting it into nails. The 1870s and early 1880s marked the golden age of puddled iron and cut nails, bringing rapid industrial growth to the region.

Technological change soon reshaped the industry. Wheeling manufacturers adopted the Bessemer steelmaking process, which reduced the need for skilled puddlers and allowed nails to be made from steel plates. ¹² At the same time, cut nail producers faced increasing competition from wire nails. The passage of the McKinley Tariff in 1890 imposed duties on imported tin plates and encouraged domestic production. As demand for tin plates grew for products such as tobacco and candy containers, bottle caps, and canned food, several companies in the Wheeling district entered the industry during the early 1890s.

Predecessor Companies

The first local producer was the Aetna-Standard Iron & Steel Company, located in Aetnaville between Bridgeport and Martins Ferry. ^{11 12} An 1885 map shows the earlier Aetna Nail & Iron Company and Standard Iron Company operating along the Martins Ferry waterfront. [10] After the companies merged, they added a tinning department to their sheet and black plate mills and began producing tin plates in May 1893. The Wheeling Corrugating Company followed in early 1894. Formed in 1890 by Alexander Glass and E. C. Ewing, the firm initially produced galvanized sheets and roofing using black plate purchased from the Whitaker Iron Company before adding its own tinning department. [12] It grew to include departments for stoves, pipes, tubs, and buckets. [6][7]

Other manufacturers soon followed. In 1894, the Laughlin Nail Company began constructing a tin plate mill in Martins Ferry equipped with five hot mills, five cold-roll stands, and associated pickling and annealing equipment. A tin house with eight stacks was completed in 1895, and the first tin plate was produced that summer. [12] Sanborn maps from 1890 and 1895 show the company operating both a nail factory and a tin plate plant, and by 1900, it was listed as the Laughlin Nail & Shovel Company. [9][8] Around the same time, LaBelle Iron Works also entered the tin plate trade, installing four hot mills, four stands of cold rolls, and six tinning stacks by July 1895. [12]

Tin plate production expanded rapidly. A standard box of American tin plate contained about 105½ pounds of steel and 2½ pounds of tin. [12] The LaBelle plant could produce about 2,300 boxes of tin plate and 500 boxes of terne plate weekly, while Wheeling Corrugating produced about 1,000 boxes weekly on a single shift. The Laughlin plant had a weekly capacity of 3,600 boxes.

Intense competition soon led to consolidation. On December 15, 1898, the American Tin Plate Company was organized with $46 million in capital stock, bringing together nearly every tin plate producer in the United States. [12] The new corporation consolidated nearly forty companies operating more than 275 mills and employed between 20,000 and 25,000 workers by 1899. The tin mills of LaBelle, Aetna-Standard, and Laughlin were absorbed into the new company, while the Wheeling Corrugating Company and the Whitaker-Glessner Company remained independent.

Further consolidation followed. In early 1900, the American Sheet Steel Company was organized with $49 million in capital stock to acquire major manufacturers of steel sheets. [12] The sheet mill of the Aetna-Standard operation was among the facilities absorbed into the new corporation, marking another step in the consolidation of the Wheeling district’s steel industry.

The American Tin Plate Company and the American Sheet Steel Company merged in December 1903 to form the American Sheet & Tin Plate Company. [5 6 7]

Wheeling Steel (1920-1968)

On June 21, 1920, the La Belle Iron Works, Whitaker-Glessner Company, and Wheeling Steel & Iron Company merged to form the Wheeling Steel Corporation, consolidating many of the major iron and steel producers in the Wheeling district. [1][4] The company operated as an integrated system of mills and fabricating plants across the Upper Ohio Valley.

Martins Ferry Works, located in Martins Ferry, Ohio, produced galvanized sheets, galvanized roofing and accessories, corrugated culverts, and hand-dipped items. ³ The plant operated two continuous galvanizing lines that processed, coated, and treated coils of steel strip, and its products were marketed under the SofTite brand. A second galvanizing line began operation in November 1953 at a cost of $3 million.

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 (1968-2007)

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.

Esmark, Severstal, RG Steel (2007-2012)

In 1994, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel reorganized into a holding-company structure, where the newly formed WHX Corporation would become the parent company of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. In 2001, the company filed for bankruptcy protection again after posting a major loss and increasing debt. In 2003, the company emerged from bankruptcy protection after a reorganization that would make it independent of the WHX Corporation. [4] Esmark acquired the company in November 2007 after a proxy battle. [7] In August 2008, Severstal acquired Esmark’s Wheeling-Pittsburgh holdings for $1.25 billion. [9]

In 2011, Severstal sold the former Wheeling-Pitt steelmaking operations to RG Steel, a subsidiary of Renco Group. [11] In 2012, RG Steel filed for bankruptcy protection and initiated layoffs. [12][13]

Post-Closure

During the bankruptcy of RG Steel in 2012, Wheeling businessman Quay Mull purchased the former Martins Ferry mill for $2 million. ² An auction of former RG Steel assets at Martins Ferry followed in November 2016, including hundreds of pieces of galvanizing equipment, along with forklifts, cranes, motors, and related machinery.

In March 2017, a portion of the Martins Ferry Works was demolished by Columbus Shredding of Columbus, Ohio. ² The demolition included the former pickling area, where acid had been used in the steel finishing process. An official with the Mull Group Inc. of Wheeling, which owned the complex, indicated plans to repurpose the lot.

Today, part of the former plant is occupied by fracking sludge recycler Austin Master Services. ² Ohio Coatings also stores steel coils on the property. At its peak, the Martins Ferry Works employed more than 2,000 workers.

Gallery

Sources

“Wheeling Steel Corp. is Major Producer.” Wheeling News-Register 15 Jan. 1956: n.p. Print.
Hanson, Shelley. “Section of Former RG Steel Plant in Martins Ferry Razed.” Wheeling News-Register, 7 Mar. 2017.
“WHEELING STEEL CORP. IS MAJOR PRODUCER.” Ohio County Public Library.
“Wheeling Steel Corp.” Steel Acquisitions, Mergers, and Expansion of 12 Major Companies, 1900 to 1950. Hearings Before the Select Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, 10 Mar. 1950, pp. 29–32.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1924. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1915. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1908. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1900. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1895. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1890. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio. 1885. Sanborn Map Company, New York.
Shrodes, Barbara. “Ferry Landing – Winter, 2005.” The Martins Ferry Area Historical Society, Winter 2005.
Berglund, Abraham. The United States Steel Corporation. Columbia University Press, 1907.