Westmoreland County PA Archives Biographies.....Baggaley, Ralph December 26, 1846 - September 23, 1915
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Donald Buncie http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008389 June 25, 2026, 10:19 am

Author: Latrobe Bulletin

Ralph Baggaley, for whom the neighboring mining town of Baggaley was named, and
who was one of the chief figures in the organization of the Hostetter-
Connellsville Coke Company, died, yesterday, from heart trouble, at his home in
Shady Ave., Pittsburgh, at the age of 58 years. He had been ill for two months.
More than 20 years ago, Ralph Baggaley appeared in this section, imbued with the
idea of developing the coal which lies in the Baggaley, Whitney and Hostetter
tracts. He bought up several thousand acres of coal, paying not more than $75 an
acre for some of it, and with Dr. Hostetter, he organized the Hostetter-
Connellsville Coke Company.
It was by this company that the plants at Whitney and Hostetter were developed,
while the same interests were concerned in the building of the Baggaley plant.
Mr. Baggaley was interested in the project of a street car line, connecting
Latrobe with Youngstown and Baggaley, and he helped finance the road. Several
years ago, the Hostetter-Connellsville holdings passed into the hands of the
Frick Company, while the Baggaley plant also passed into new hands. The Baggaley
plant, for a number of years has been operated by the Frick Company on a royalty
basis. Mr. Baggaley was recognized as being a highly efficient organizer and
financier. He first became connected with Bollman and Co., of Pbg., which firm
later became Baggaley, Young and Company. Mr. Baggaley having bought large
interests in the firm and assumed its management. Here his great ability as a
financier first found opportunities, and the firm, which is now operated as the
Seamon Sleeth Company, is a monument to his early efforts. In 1868, while still
connected with that company, Mr. Baggaley first met George Westinghouse, who was
then a traveling salesman for Anderson, Cook and Co. Through their combined
efforts in experiments and researches the air-brake was evolved.
The manufacturing company which was then formed to market the great invention
was financed with an original investment of $11,800 in cash, all given by Mr.
Baggaley. Mr. Baggaley superintended the erection of a manufacturing plant, had
personal charge of the actual making of the brakes and later applied his genius
to the formation of foreign branches for the manufacture of the airbrake in
Europe.
Later, the Westinghouse Machine Company, having proved somewhat unprofitable,
Mr. Baggaley was given personal charge of that concern and effected its success.
During the several years he directed its destinies, the firm paid dividends of
12-1/2 percent, a record it had never hitherto attained.
In 1875, Mr. Baggaley bought a controlling interest in the Pittsburgh Telegraph
and later effected the consolidation of the Telegraph and the Chronicle, after
he bad secured control of the latter publication. He became engaged in so many
enterprises that he found himself unable to devote all his attention to his
immediate business. Consequently, on the day he reached his twenty-fifth year,
he resigned from the directorates of twenty-eight corporations, including banks
and trust companies.
After the panic of 1873, Mr. Baggaley purchased more than 27,000 acres of
valuable land property in the Lake Superior region. After his managerial
aptitude had met with success in this new channel and the mines had proved very
rich, they attracted the attention of the United States Steel Corporation, which
now leases and operates them.
In 1901 he organized the Pittsburgh-Montana Copper Mining and Smelting Company,
which is now known as the Pitts-Mont Company and in which scores of prominent
Pittsburghers are interested. This was the last great enterprise undertaken by
Mr. Baggaley, although he at one time gave the United States Glass Company the
benefit of his personal system of management.
In 1879, with the late Henry W. Oliver, Mr. Baggaley organized the Duquesne
Club. He was also a charter member of the Pittsburgh Club. Mr. Baggaley was also
a life member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the
Strollers' Club, of New York; the Art Society of Pittsburgh; the American
Institute of Mining Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
He was also a member of Franklin Lodge, F. and A. M.
Mr. Baggaley is survived by his widow, Mrs. Effie Irwin Baggaley, and by six
children: Mrs. D. King, of Irwin; Mrs. Walter R. Hine and W. D. Baggaley, all of
Short Hills, N. J.; Mrs. A. Rook Carroll, of Pittsburgh; and Euphemia and Ralph
Baggaley, Jr., at home. The funeral will be held at his late residence, on
Saturday afternoon. at three o'clock. Dr. George M. Duff, of the East Liberty
Presbyterian Church will officiate. The interment will be made in the Allegheny
cemetery.

Additional Comments:
Latrobe Bulletin Fri, Sep 24, 1915
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99033963/ralph-baggaley

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/westmoreland/bios/baggaley775gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/

File size: 5.4 Kb