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History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek. — John Shaqi

History

History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.

Name: History of the Johnstown Flood: Including all the Fearful Record; the Breaking of the South Fork Dam; the Sweeping Out of the Conemaugh Valley; the Over-Throw of Johnstown; the Massing of the Wreck at the Railroad Bridge; Escapes, Rescues, Searches for Survivors and the Dead; Relief Organizations, Stupendous Charities, etc., etc., With Full Accounts also of the Destruction on the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek.
Author: Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Johnson, Willis Fletcher

Floods -- Pennsylvania -- Johnstown (Cambria County)

The Cambria Iron Company was chartered under the general law in 1852,
for the operation of four old-fashioned charcoal furnaces in and near
Johnstown, which was then a village of 1300 inhabitants, to which the
Pennsylvania railroad had just been extended. In 1853 the construction
of four coke furnaces was begun, but it was two years before the first
was finished. England was then shipping rails into this country under a
low duty, and the iron industry here was struggling for existence. The
company at Johnstown was aided by a number of Philadelphia merchants,
but was unable to continue in business, and suspended in 1854. At a
meeting of the creditors in Philadelphia soon afterward a committee was
appointed, with Daniel J. Morrell as Chairman, to visit the works at
Johnstown and recommend the best means, if any, to save themselves from
loss. In his report, Mr. Morrell strongly urged the Philadelphia
creditors to invest more money and continue the business. They did so,
and Matthew Newkirk was made President of the company. The company again
failed in 1855, and Mr. Morrell then associated a number of gentlemen
with him, and formed the firm of Wood, Morrell & Co., leasing the works
for seven years. The year 1856 was one of great financial depression,
and 1857 was worse, and, as a further discouragement, the large furnace
was destroyed by fire in June, 1857. In one week, however, the works
were in operation again, and a brick building was soon constructed. When
the war came, and with it the Morrill tariff of 1861, a broader field
was opened up, and in 1862 the present company was formed.

The years following the close of the war brought about an unprecedented
revival in railroad building. In 1864 there were but 33,908 miles of
railroad in the United States, while in 1874 there were 72,741 miles, or
more than double. There was a great demand for English steel rails,
which advanced to $170 per ton. Congress imposed a duty of $28 a ton on
foreign rails, and encouraged American manufacturers to go into the
business. The Cambria Company began the erection of Bessemer steel works
in 1869, and sold the first steel rails in 1871, at $104 a ton.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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