HISTORY: “Valley of the Conemaugh” by Thomas J. Chapman, 1865 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Diann Olsen , September, 2008 Copyright 2008 All rights reserved. http://http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ _______________________________________________ THE VALLEY OF THE CONEMAUGH. BY THOMAS J. CHAPMAN. ALTOONA, PA.: McCRUM & DERN, PRINTERS. 1865. --------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER IX. OTHER ENTERPRISES. THE JOHNSTOWN MANUFACTURING COMPANY. This company was organized in the year 1864. Its operations are necessarily yet in their incipiency. The company comprises some of the wealthiest and ablest members of the two greatest corporations in Pennsylvania -- the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron companies. The business of this company is at present limited to the woolen Mill and the Steam Brickyard. The woolen factory, begun in 1864 and finished in 1865, is situated in the new and what promises to be the prosperous town of Woodvale. The main building is fifty by seventy- five feet, and to this is added a wing forty by twenty-five feet. The walls of the entire structure are of brick, and four stories high, the distance from floor to floor being about twelve feet. The frame-work is of heavy timber.* The roof is covered with ----- * Johnstown Tribune, Jan. 27th, 1865. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONEMAUGH. 163 slate, and the whole surmounted by a hand some cupola. The woodwork is all neatly. painted, and the building altogether presents an imposing appearance, standing, as it does, entirely detached from any other building. A boiler and dye-house, boarding-house, store rooms, and dwelling houses, have also been erected, all on a scale corresponding with the extent of the factory, and the means of this company. The entire machinery of this large establishment will be of the most improved kinds. Constant employment will be given to about one hundred and fifty operatives. The agent for the factory advertises for 300,000 pounds of wool per annum, thus encouraging the business of wool-growing in this and the adjacent counties. This business ought to be very productive in this mountainous region, and with the reliable home market which this establishment will afford, it ought to become the most remunerative employment in which our farmers can engage. This factory will gradually attract around it other industrial establishments, until the pleasant little village of Woodvale will become the most busy and prosperous suburb of Johnstown. On the opposite side of the Conemaugh --------------------------------------------------------------------- 164 THE HISTORY OF from Woodvale is the extensive Steam Brick yard of this company. The old Portage Railroad passes through it, and a track leading from the brickyard to Conemaugh station, a distance of nearly a mile, where it intersects with the Pennsylvania Railroad, affords an easy means of transportation for the bricks made here. The extent of this establishment, and the modus operandi of brick making, as practiced here, may be seen from the following account chiefly compiled from the "Johnstown Tribune," January 27th, 1865: We found sixteen hands at work in the various departments of the brickyard. The brick are manufactured by the patent steam machinery of Chambers, Brother & Co., of Philadelphia. The clay, which is obtained from a four-foot bed covering ten or fifteen acres of the company's lands immediately adjoining the factory, is converted into brick ready for drying at the rate of a cart-load every ten minutes, or forty-eight bricks every minute. The process is this: The clay is dumped from the cart into a hopper, whence, after being thoroughly pulverized, it is forced, in a continuous thread, through an aperture of proper shape, and is taken up by a leather or gum belt which is kept in motion by a series --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONEMAUGH. 165 of little wheels. This belt carries the moulded clay to a revolving knife, which cuts off a brick at each revolution. The brick thus formed is picked up by another belt, which carries it under a box from which sand is constantly sifted, after which it is, in winter, carried to the drying-house by hand. There are two large drying-houses, each forty by seventy feet. The bricks are laid upon the floors, and dried ready for the kiln in about thirty-six hours. These floors are heated by flues -- forty flues to each floor -- the heat being generated by twenty-four furnaces in all. For summer drying they have numerous spacious sheds. The bricks are burnt in the usual manner. They are much smoother than those made in the old-fashioned way, and are said to be much stronger and more durable. The company have just completed a new kiln of a capacity for burning 300,000 bricks at once. The number of hands now employed is about thirty. The Johnstown Manufacturing Company possess a cash capital of two hundred thousand dollars. It and Woodvale, and the brick factory, are now established institutions of our town. Because of the magnitude of the enterprise which they unitedly represent, and of the vast influence for good they are destined --------------------------------------------------------------------- 166 THE HISTORY OF to exert upon the future of this locality, we have deemed them worthy of this extended notice. The engine used in this establishment is one of a forty horse power, and the pressure used in forcing the clay through the funnel, is equal to a weight of seven hundred tons, and yet the machinery works as smoothly, and with as much apparent ease, as the turning of a grindstone.* With all these vast facilities, these brick-making works are constantly kept in operation to their full capacity, and yet the supply is unequal to the demand. This fact alone is one of the strongest evidences of the wonderful improvements continually going on in Johnstown and vicinity; for scarcely a brick of all the hundreds of thousands made here every month is ever carried to a distance. THE JOHNSTOWN MECHANICAL WORKS. This establishment is located in Conemaugh Borough. As the best sketch of its extent and design, we present the following, which has been compiled from the "Johnstown Tribune," and the "Johnstown Democrat," 1865: ----- *Johnstown Democrat, 1865. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONEMAUGH. 167 The ground upon which the Works are located embraces seven lots, fronting 350 feet on Portage street and running back 180 feet to the Little Conemaugh. On the northwest corner stands the car and machine shop, the dimensions of which are 136 by 100 feet, the principal entrance being from Portage street. The old foundry stands in line with the new building, a private street about fifty feet wide dividing them. Attached to the foundry is the office. On the northeast corner of the company's grounds is located a new stable, and on the southeast corner there will soon be placed the dwelling-house for the night watchman, which now stands a few rods nearer the foundry. The rest of the space is occupied as a lumber yard and by tracks connecting the foundry with the machine shop. The plans of the company embrace the tearing down of the foundry building, and the erection in its stead, but at right angles with it, of an entirely new structure, to be 125 feet long, 42 feet wide, 20 feet high to the eaves, and 42 feet to the comb of the roof. This structure is to contain the foundry proper and the blacksmith shop. In the latter will be eight fires. Attached to the eastern end of the building will be an L, 40 feet long by 12 feet --------------------------------------------------------------------- 168 THE HISTORY OF wide, which will contain the founder's cupola and the core oven. The cupola will be large enough to melt four tons of pig metal at one heat. The whole structure will be of brick, covered with slate, and surmounted by an apex twelve feet high, running the whole length. In the machine shop there are in full operation four lathes for turning iron, one iron planer, two drill presses, one screw-cutting machine, one punching machine, and one casting cleaner. In the wood shop are two circular saws, two planing machines one a Daniels and the other a Woodworth, one side planer, one sash, moulding and slat machine, one power mortising machine, two cut-off saws, two gig saws, one tenoning machine, one foot mortising machine, one boring and shaping machine, and two wood lathes. The firm has over $50,000 invested, and they intend to carry on a foundry, smithshop, machine shop, make railroad cars, manufacture pumps, plane flooring and weather-boarding, make cutting boxes, and, in short, make every thing that a business community desires to be done, all with choice lumber well seasoned by steam. A railroad will pass each side of the building, thus facilitating transportation. --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONEMAUGH. 169 Such are the Johnstown Mechanical Works, past, present, and prospective. The organization of the company, and the tearing down of the old foundry to make room for the improvements we have noted, mark an important era in the history of Johnstown, and help to fix with unerring certainty its destiny as one of the principal manufacturing towns in the Union. This organization was formed in 1864. Fortune or misfortune forestalled the company in their design of tearing away the old foundry, as mentioned above, for on the night of the 5th of June, 1865, it took fire and burned to the ground. The work of building a new foundry on the extensive scale above described, is in progress. MCCONAUGHY'S STEAM TANNERY. This establishment stands on the right bank of the Conemaugh, between the bridge and the aqueduct that connect Johnstown proper with Millville borough. It was built by J. P. McConaughy, Esq., in 1861, and supplanted the old establishment that occupied the corner of Walnut and Canal streets, in Johnstown. The chief part of this building is of brick, three stories high, fronting fifty-two feet on Cinder --------------------------------------------------------------------- 170 THE HISTORY OF street, and extending back along the river seventy-five feet. In the rear of this building is a two-story extension of frame, fifty-two by one hundred and twelve feet. Altogether, this is one of the largest buildings in the town. The ground floor of the front part of this establishment is occupied by vats and the steam engine. The vats are fifty-four in number. The engine is of twenty horse-power, and runs the bark mill, the machinery for rolling the leather, and so forth, and is also used for heating the liquors in the vats. The second story embraces a counting-room, warerooms, and so on. The third story is in one large room, exclusively used as a drying room, except one corner, in which is the rolling machinery. In the frame part are the leaches in which the liquors used in the business are made. The leaches are ten in number. These leaches and vats are all connected together by subterranean conduits. Up-stairs in this building is the bark mill. The rest of this building, as well as a large shed adjacent, is used for stowing bark in. About one thousand cords of bark are used every year. This establishment annually finishes not less than eight thousand sides of heavy sole leather. This leather is of the very best quality, and is manufactured exclusively for the eastern mar- --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONEMAUGH. 171 ket. This is by far the largest establishment of the kind in this section of country. OTHER TANNERIES. There are numerous other tanneries in the valley of this river. The largest of these, after McConaughy's, we believe, are Levergood's and Dibert's, in Johnstown, the one at Blairsville, and the one at Hillside. Smaller establishments of this kind are to be found in nearly every village in the four counties. Tanning has been largely followed in this part of the country from its earliest settlement. One great incentive thereto has always unquestionably been the abundance of bark to be found on every hand. Within late years the shipping of this article to distant points has been extensively carried on, and it is becoming noticeably scarce where it was formerly to be found in unlimited abundance. It now sells in Johnstown, and other places along the line of the railroad, as high as eight dollars per cord. HAWS' CEMENT MILL. This establishment stands on the left bank of the Conemaugh, a short distance below its --------------------------------------------------------------------- 172 THE HISTORY OF confluence with the Stony Creek, and just at the end of the Iron Bridge. It is situated on a bluff perhaps fifty feet above the water. A mill for the manufacture of hydraulic cement was established in Johnstown by the Commonwealth a great number of years ago. The cement made by it was used exclusively on the public works. This mill stood at the eastern end of the aqueduct, and was run by water conducted from the canal for that purpose. It was a small affair. It subsequently passed into other hands, and about the year 1852, it was transferred to the spot where it now stands. In 1857, it came into the hands of A. J. Haws, Esq., the present proprietor. Though this enterprise is known simply as the Cement Mill, it is really something more. In it are made hydraulic cement, fire brick, and ground fire clay. The machinery of the mill is of the most ponderous character, and is run by an eighty horse-power engine. The amount of business annually done at this mill may be set down at 7,500 barrels of cement, 1,200,000 fire brick, and 600 tons of ground fire clay. The ground fire clay is used for making the mortar in which the fire brick are laid. The material of which the fire brick are made is called whetstone clay, and is found at Min- --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE CONEMAUGH. 173 eral Point, about nine miles east of the works. In the hill just behind the works is a vein of cement stone, seven feet thick, and resting upon it is a vein of excellent coal three and a half feet thick. Some sixty feet above is another vein of coal two and a half feet thick, and just under it a three foot vein of plastic fire clay. Above these again is another vein of coal four feet thick. Such an abundance of minerals in the near neighborhood makes this one of the very best localities that could be desired for such an establishment. The railroad, passing, as it does, within fifty feet of the mill, affords the best facilities for bringing the whetstone clay to the works, and for exporting the cement, and so forth, to market. The Cambria Iron Works are supplied with fire brick, cement, and ground fire clay by this mill. OIL WELLS. We have already stated that strong indications of oil exist in the valley of the Conemaugh. In the search for this article many wells have been sunk. The traveler through this valley will frequently meet with them. Lofty derricks stand throughout the country as plentifully as gibbets in England during --------------------------------------------------------------------- 174 THE HISTORY OF the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They are to be seen by the water-courses, by the roadside, and in lonely fields. They have generally been abandoned, their owners having verified the saying of Banquo – "The earth hath bubbles as the water has." These wells, we believe, are most numerous in the neighborhood of Blairsville. Some of them are promising enterprises, oil having been actually obtained, though as yet not in sufficient quantities to make them profitable. There is no doubt that oil abounds in the valley of this river, and that it will finally be made available by capital and perseverance. SAW MILLS. Saw mills are very numerous in the section of country embraced in the Conemaugh valley. Several of, these are extensive enterprises. Lumbering, in the northern part of Indiana and Cambria counties, is a very flourishing and important business. Timber, in nearly every portion of the valley, is sufficiently abundant to render the business of sawing remunerative. Large quantities of hemlock, pine, ash, cherry, and poplar lumber, are exported.