Sharon's Yesterdays & Tomorrow

An Outline of the Growth of Sharon and its Industries....

and a History of the McDowell National Bank, June 1935

Sharon's Industrial History 

By 1874 there had been established in the community what is described as a gigantic stove foundry. James Wood bought a large plot of ground and, in 1862, laid out the town of Wheatland. He built the four Wheatland furnaces and large rolling mills. This company in 1874 had a capacity of 40,000 tons a year. The product was “T” rails, and practically the entire output was taken by the Northern Pacific and Texas Pacific Railroads. The panic of 1873 ruined Jay Cook, along with other railroad men. This carried down James Wood Sons & Company which firm had three million dollars in assets.  

The Westerman Iron Company, which had succeeded the Sharon Iron Company in 1862, had built a railroad from the plant to their coal mine at Brookfield Slope, three miles from Sharon. This road is now part of the

Erie Railroad and is used by the Erie as part of its main line through Sharon. The Westerman Iron Company made a large quantity of “T” rails, bar, sheet, hoop iron and nails. A chain works was a subsidiary. 

The Atlantic Iron Works was established by Alexander Ashton. It produced hoops, bar iron and three hundred kegs of nails a day. The company also made its own kegs. 

In 1869 Samuel Kimberly built a blast furnace and employed five hundred men. 

The Stewart Furnaces were built in 1870 with adjoining rolling mills. 

The Valley Iron Works operated a brass and iron foundry. 

File Slag Furnace, operated by William McGilvray, made iron from a certain kind of slag. Mr. McGilvray's grandsons are Joseph Buchholz of The Sharon Herald and McGilvray Shiras, ore purchasing agent of the Carnegie Steel Company with offices in Pittsburgh. 

The Sharon Foundry operated a foundry and machine shop in the present location of the Sharon Tube Company. 

The Sharon Boiler Company, organized by S. Runser and William McGilvray, was sold to R. G. Morrison and Company. Mr. Morrison was the father of Sarah Graham and Gertrude Morrison of South Main Avenue. This company developed the Wheeler boiler, which was extensively used a few years ago. Part of the National Malleable and Steel Castings plant is on the site of the former boiler plant. 

In 1870 there were in Mercer County 458 manufacturing establishments, 164 steam engines and 120 power water wheels; 2,435 men were employed. 

There were in 1874 about thirty blast furnaces with rolling mills, having as their main product bar iron, “T” rails and iron nails. All were shut down by the panic. There was over production it was said, and the country was never expected to catch up with it capacity to produce.

Then came changes in methods of manufacture, and never again did Valley mills ship rails to the Northwest and Southwest. Iron nails passed out of use about 1890. Steel replaced the use of puddled iron. But the community did recover and went forward to greater development.

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