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1902; annual capacity, 470,000 tons of basic and 30,000 tons of acid ingots. Products, steel T rails from 8 pounds to 100 pounds per yard, angles and plain splice bars, standard and special track bolts and nuts; also beams, girders, columns, roof trusses and other fitted structural work, including finished steel work for buildings; steel axles for passenger and freight cars, street and mine cars, tender trucks, engine trucks, etc.; crank pins and piston rods; machine bolts, nuts, rivets, and pipe or tank bands with rolled threads; car and other steel forgings of carbon steel or nickel steel; tire, toe-calk, carriage spring, and other bar steel; finger bars, knife backs, rake teeth, spring harrow teeth, and other agricultural steel and shapes; bar and slab plow steel, flat and finished plow shapes, etc.; rounds, squares, hexagons, flats, shafting, and other cold-rolled steel; steel discs with rolled bevel from 10 inches to 20 inches in diameter for harrows, drills, cultivators, etc., and steel discs with rolled bevel from 23 inches to 2814 inches in diameter for plows; pressed steel seats for agricultural implements; and all kinds of steel freight cars.

Fuel used in all departments, coal and producer gas.

Total annual capacity of the 3 rolling mills and steel works: 700,000 gross tons of Bessemer steel ingots, 545,000 tons of open-hearth steel ingots, 300,000 tons of steel rails, and 500,000 tons of structural shapes, universal and other plates, twisted and other bars for concrete work, plow steel, and steel for tire, spring, toe-calk, machinery, harrow discs, rake teeth,

etc.

CAR-AXLES AND OTHER FORGINGS.

Cambria Plant: Car Axle Department. Product, forged openhearth steel car and locomotive axles, crank pins, piston rods, and miscellaneous forgings toughened by the Coffin process or oil tempered and annealed; annual capacity, about 30,000 tons.

STEEL CARBUILDING AND BOLT, NUT AND RIVET WORKS.

Franklin Plant: Steel Carbuilding Department. Product, gondola, hopper gondola, hopper, flat and other steel freight cars; also composite cars with steel underframes; annual capacity, 9,000 cars. All cars are built of rolled shapes. This department is equipped with a 1,000-ton hydraulic press, with all the latest improvements. The entire product of the press is used by the car shops of the company. Franklin Plant: Bolt, Nut and Rivet Department. Product, iron and steel bolts, nuts and rivets; annual capacity 9,000 tons.

COLD-ROLLED AND COLD-DRAWN SHAFTING.

Gautier Plant: Cold Rolling and Cold Drawing Departments. Product, cold-rolled, drawn and turned steel shafting, piston rods and car axles; cold-rolled and drawn screw rods, hexa

gons, key steel, flats and squares; also finger bars, knife backs, angles, zees, tees and other special shapes. Sizes: rounds, 3/16 of an inch to 7 inches; squares, 3/8 of an inch to 3 inches; flats, all sizes of merchant bars; and hexagons, 1/4 of an inch to 2 inches. Annual capacity, 18,000 tons. Does not coldroll or cold-draw iron shapes.

COAL LANDS, COKE OVENS, IRON-ORE MINES, ETC. The Cambria Steel Company operates extensive coal mines in Cambria county; also 260 Otto-Hoffmann coke ovens at its Franklin Plant. In addition it is building 112 new OttoHoffmann coke ovens at its Franklin Plant, which will be completed and ready for operations in 1907.

It also owns all the stock of the Penn Iron Mining Company, operating iron-ore mines in the Menominee Range in Michigan; over 99 per cent. of the stock of the Republic Iron Company, which operates the Republic mine, at Republic, Michigan; and one-half the stock of the Mahoning Ore and Steel Company, which operates the Mahoning mine in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota.

It also owns a controlling interest in the Juniata Limestone Company, Limited, which operates limestone quarries at Carlin, Blair county, Pa., and owns and operates the Naginey limestone quarries in Mifflin county, Pa.

The company has over eighteen thousand employes, of whom 16,500 are in Johnstown, one thousand in the ore fields in Michigan and Minnesota, and five hundred at the coke ovens and limestone quarries. There are several who have been in the service for more than fifty years. The oldest employe is Joseph Masters, who began in August, 1852, under Shoenberger and King. Evan G. Lewis, Isaac Jones, Peter Beemish, Irwin Horrell, John Herdman and Thomas Potts entered the service in 1853; George Banfield, John D. Murphy, Michael Ryan, Henry Brown, Henry Block and John Colbert in 1854; Daniel Beemish, Casper Hertzberger, William Hoover, Isaac Berringer and Thomas Leadbeater in 1855; Powell Stackhouse and John Leadbeater in 1856; James H. Geer, Fidell Knobelspeice, John Stork, and John James in 1857; James White, Bernard C. Riley, John H. Hamilton, William Tremellon, Patrick Fardy, Manges Hipp and John W. Price in 1858.

During the year 1906 the works consumed about 1,600,000 tons of coal, and 1,237,724 tons of ore, and used a daily average of 71,000,000 gallons of water. Its net profit was $4,964,003.15.

The average price for charcoal pig metal between 1840 and 1849 inclusive, was $29.22 per ton of 2,240 pounds. The

highest was in 1840 at $32.75. It was not made for general use after '49.

Foundry pig metal was on the market in 1850 for the first time at $20.88. The average price for that decade was $26.47. Its highest value was in 1854 at $36.88. From 1860 to 1870 it was $37.83; its highest was in 1864, when it sold at $59.25. In 1880 it was $28.50; in 1890, $18.40; in 1900, it was $19.98, and in March, 1907, $26.

Iron rails were first on the market in 1847 at $69.00; in 1848, $62.25, and in 1849 at $53.38. In the decade beginning 1850 the average was $59.01, the highest being in 1854, at $80.13. The next decade was $75.96, with the highest price in 1864, at $126.00. In 1870 it was $72.25; in 1880, $49.25; and in 1882, $45.50. This is the last year iron rails are quoted, those of steel having taken their place.

Steel rails were sold in 1867 at $166; in 1868 at $158.50, and 1869 at $132.25. In 1870 they were $106.75; in 1875 sold at $68.75; in 1880, at $67.50; in 1882, the year they supplanted iron, at $48.50; in 1885 at $28.50; in 1890 at $31.75; in 1895 at $24.33; in 1900 at $32.29; in March, 1907, at $28.

CHAPTER XIX.

FALL OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD PLATFORM.

The first great disaster in Johnstown occurred in the fall of the portion of the platform over the Cambria Steel Company's railroad at the station of the Pennsylvania railroad, on Friday, September 14, 1866. There were three persons killed, three who died within a few days, and 387 injured. In fact there were few families who did not have one or more members or a relative included. The accident happened on the occasion of the visit of President Andrew Johnson and his most distinguished company in his "swing around the circle."

An interminable conflict existed between the president and congress on the policy of reconstruction after the Civil war. The president vetoed every bill passed by congress, which promptly passed it over his objections; the country was in accord with the views as expressed by congress. The congressional elections for that year were to take place, in October and November, and the president undertook the trip through the north and west to endeavor to change the membership of the next congress to his views. The crisis came when Mr. Johnson tried to remove Edwin M. Stanton, who was Lincoln's secretary of war. This was followed on February 24, 1868, by the impeachment of the president for high crimes and misdemeanors. He was acquitted, however, by a vote of 35 to 19 nays, lacking one vote of the constitutional two-thirds vote.

The company of persons traveling with the president was composed of the most eminent men of the time: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant; Admiral David G. Farragut, William H. Seward, secretary of state; Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy; Senator Edgar Cowan; Major General George A. Custer; and John Covode, of Lockport, the leader of congress.

An immense crowd had gathered to meet the distinguished persons when the special train arrived about 11 o'clock in the morning. It stopped opposite the station, but in order to procure more room for the people it was moved up to the crossing when the multitude passed to the east end of the platform. Mr. Covode introduced the President, who bowed and stepped back.

When General Grant appeared on the rear platform of the car in his full uniform of General of the Army, Mr. Covode had only said, "Ulysses S. Grant," the enthusiasm of the people could no longer be restrained, and like one voice rose a continued cheer, the air white with handkerchiefs. The crowd swayed in effort to reach him when he retired, and in his place appeared the surpassing figure of Admiral Farragut, also in full naval uniform with yellow decoration, as his last promotion had been just confirmed by the Senate. Tall, erect, light of step, his sixty-five years had but slightly faded his light hair, falling in waves on his neck. At his name the enthusiasm doubled; what had been cheers became a triumphal roar of welcome; hats were tossed, with shouts for "Farragut! Farragut!" Veterans tried to force a passage to the front; those on the bridge leapt to the vacated space on the platform; then, with a grinding sway, the entire structure gave way, and two thousand persons sank from sight as though the earth had opened.

Such a scene, can it be depicted? The train moved some distance above the crossing. The President and his company alighted, and from the edge of the abyss, gazed down the sheer distance where the victims writhed, covered with blood, before they could be rescued. Captain John P. Suter had charge of the presidential train from Pittsburg to Altoona, and was met at the station by Mrs. Suter. They were standing by General Grant and when women and little children were laid on a strip of green sod they heard him say: "It was sadder than a battlefield." General Custer, who had faced death many times, stood abashed in grief.

The President sent a letter and five hundred dollars to Mr. Morrell from Altoona, as below:

"Sir: I am requested by Andrew Johnson (who deeply sympathizes with the families who have suffered by the terrible accident at Johnstown today) to request that the enclosed amount be applied to the relief of the most needy of the bereaved and wounded.

"I am, sir, very respectfully yours,

"WILLIAM G. MOORE, Assistant Adjutant-General."

On the next day Major-General John W. Geary wrote to Mr. Morrell, thus: "While on my way from Pittsburg to Harrisburg this morning, I was shocked and grieved at the intelligence of the terrible accident of yesterday. I find among the killed and wounded many of my personal friends and neighbors, and I

Vol. I-29

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