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37-586: The mill occupies the historic site of Braddock's Field , on the banks of the Monongahela River east of Pittsburgh . On July 9, 1755, in the Battle of the Monongahela , French and Indian forces from Fort Duquesne defeated the expedition of British General Edward Braddock , who himself was mortally wounded. Braddock's Field was also the site of a rally of rebellious militiamen and farmers during

74-461: A city in 1892 he served as its first mayor for two terms. He served two terms as a DuPage County judge from 1882 to 1890. For the rest of his life he was known as "Judge Gary". It was a common custom in the nineteenth century for men to be addressed by military, political, or academic titles after those titles were no longer current. Gary practiced law in Chicago for about twenty-five years. He

111-556: A co-generation facility at the Clairton Plant . The Mon Valley Works would have been the first facility in the United States to incorporate technology combining thin slab casting and hot rolled band production into one continuous process. The upgrade was cancelled in 2021. 40°23′31″N 79°51′14″W  /  40.392°N 79.854°W  / 40.392; -79.854 Braddock%27s Field Braddock's Field

148-467: A deal: cooperation in exchange for preferential treatment. U.S. Steel would open its books to the Bureau of Corporations; if the Bureau found evidence of wrongdoing, the company would be warned privately and given a chance to set matters right. Roosevelt accepted this "gentlemen's agreement" because it met his interest in accommodating the modern industrial order while maintaining his public image as slayer of

185-585: A few weeks. The illness sparked new rumors that Gary would soon resign. Gary's health appeared to improve, but around August 1 he entered into a serious decline. He died of chronic myocarditis at the age of 80 on August 15, 1927, at his home in Manhattan. He was buried in the Gary family mausoleum at Wheaton Cemetery in Wheaton, Illinois. Elbert Gary had erected the mausoleum 17 years earlier, and it contained

222-659: A historic landmark by ASM International , a society that honors works of structural engineering. Other structures that have been honored by the society include the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower . In May 2019, U.S. Steel announced a plan to invest more than $ 1 billion to the Mon Valley Works. The proposed upgrade included a sustainable endless casting and rolling facility at the Thomson Plant, and

259-502: A local Seneca leader, gave John Fraser several hundred acres of land. He was probably the first white settler west of the Allegheny Mountains . The place became known as "Braddock's Field" after French and Indian forces from Fort Duquesne defeated British General Edward Braddock there, on July 9, 1755, in the Battle of the Monongahela . Braddock himself was mortally wounded, dying several days later. The bones of

296-602: A map in Crocker's book (references), Braddock crossed the Monongahela from the southwest at the south side of the current Edgar Thomson Steel Works just north of Turtle Creek, turned north along the base of the hill now occupied by the Grandview golf course, turned northwest roughly along Bell Avenue, and first encountered the French just south of where the railroad crosses Sixth Street. (The Braddock's Battlefield History Center

333-591: A steel town, was named for him when it was founded in 1906. Gary, West Virginia was also named after him. When trust busting President Theodore Roosevelt said that Gary was head of the steel trust, Gary considered it a compliment. The two men communicated in a nonconfrontational way, unlike Roosevelt's communications with leaders of other trusts. Elbert Gary was born near Wheaton, Illinois , on October 8, 1846, to Erastus and Susan Abiah (Vallette) Gary. He attended Wheaton College and graduated first in his class from Union College of Law in 1868. The school later became

370-603: Is a historic battlefield on the banks of the Monongahela River , at Braddock, Pennsylvania , near the junction of Turtle Creek , about nine miles southeast of the "Forks of the Ohio" in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . In 1755, the Battle of the Monongahela was fought on Braddock's Field, which ended the Braddock Expedition . Native Americans inhabited the region in the 18th century. In 1742, Queen Alliquippa ,

407-529: Is located just north of this spot, across the tracks.) His forces were strung out for at least a half mile from Sixth Street toward the river crossing and the French and Indians attacked from both sides. Elbert Henry Gary Elbert Henry Gary (October 8, 1846 – August 15, 1927) was an American lawyer, county judge and business executive. He was a founder of U.S. Steel in 1901 alongside J. P. Morgan , William H. Moore , Henry Clay Frick and Charles M. Schwab . The city of Gary, Indiana ,

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444-745: The Northwestern University School of Law . Gary started to practice law in Chicago in 1871 and also maintained an office in Wheaton . He was a co-founder (with his uncle, Jesse Wheaton) of the Gary-Wheaton Bank. While he was working as a young corporate attorney for railroads and other clients in the years after the Great Chicago Fire , Gary was elected president of Wheaton three times, and when it became

481-703: The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and a Chicago Fire Remembrance Day each October at Delmonico's Restaurant in Manhattan. In 1914 he was made chairman of the committee appointed by the Mayor of New York, John Purroy Mitchel, to study the question of unemployment and its relief. His second wife was a member of the New York State Commission for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915; and acted as one of

518-532: The Whiskey Rebellion , prior to a massive march on the town of Pittsburgh on August 1, 1794. The site is on the banks of the Monongahela, which provides cost-effective, riverine transportation of coke , iron, and finished steel products. The Edgar Thomson Steel Works was designed and built because of the Bessemer process , the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel. In

555-799: The collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s, which shuttered famous plants, like the Homestead Steel Works in Homestead, or the National Tube Works in Mckeesport, and became the last integrated mill in the valley, an area which once contained 90,000 people employed in the basic steel industry. Currently, two blast furnaces (Furnaces No. 1 and No. 3) continue in operation at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, which remains part of U.S. Steel. In 2005,

592-539: The Pennsylvania Railroad. Within one year of beginning production the mill was able to create 32,228 tons of steel rail. The district was known as Bessemer, later incorporated as North Braddock. Captain Jones described the steel mill writing, "This is the most powerful rail mill in the country; amongst its notable productions are a 62 lb. rail 120 feet long, rolled in five minutes from the time of drawing

629-484: The approximate site of the battlefield. The exact location is disputed by some historians, but a Pennsylvania state historical marker, located at 549 Jones Avenue near a small recreation park, is generally considered the likely center of the battlefield. The sign reads, "July 9, 1755 Gen. Braddock's British forces en route to capture Fort Duquesne were ambushed and routed by French and Indians within present limits of Braddock and North Braddock, forcing retreat and failure of

666-519: The bloom from the furnace and 600 rails 56 lb. per yard rolled in 11 1/2 hours." With continual improvements in production the mill was capable of producing 225 tons of steel rails per day. By the late 1880s James Gayley took over as manager of the plant. In 1892, the workers of the plant took part in one of the most serious strikes in U.S. history. The Homestead Strike arose when Henry Clay Frick , an associate and partner of Carnegie, took over while Carnegie traveled to Scotland. Frick attempted to cut

703-497: The bodies of his parents and his first wife. The town of Gary, Indiana , laid out in 1906 as a model home for steel workmen, was named in his honor. Despite this, Gary had no lasting personal connection with his namesake, which by the time of his death was approaching a population of 100,000. In 1905, while he served as the president of U.S. Steel, the Pittsburgh Steamship Company vessel Elbert H. Gary

740-453: The expedition. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission." A statue of George Washington by Frank Vittor stands nearby. A bronze plaque on a senior citizens apartment building on Sixth Street marks the furthest west Braddock's advance guard got before falling back to "Braddock's Field." Braddock is located at 40°24′13″N 79°52′07″W  /  40.403619°N 79.868700°W  / 40.403619; -79.868700 . According to

777-561: The fighting. Carnegie, McCandless and Company began operations with non-union immigrant workers. In 1901, Carnegie sold the Carnegie Steel Company , including the Edgar Thomson Works, to J. P. Morgan , Elbert H. Gary and other investors, as part of the foundation of U.S. Steel . In October, 1984 a Merrill Lynch analyst predicted that U.S. Steel would close Thomson within a few years. The plant survived

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814-647: The friendship between America and Japan. In 1919, he was invited by President Woodrow Wilson to attend the Industrial Conference in Washington, and took a prominent part in it as a firm upholder of the " open shop ", of which he was always a strong advocate. In 2011 Gary was inducted into the inaugural class of the American Metal Market Steel Hall of Fame ( http://www.amm.com/HOF-Profile/ElbertGary.html ) for his work in

851-666: The manpower, he argued. He told the National Association of Manufacturers that the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 was wrongheaded because "restrictions upon immigration should be directed to the question of quality rather than numbers." He told his stockholders that its quota provision "was one of the worst things this country has ever done for itself economically." His first wife, Julia Emily Graves, whom he married on June 25, 1869, died in 1902; they had two daughters, Gertrude and Bertha, who survived him. Gary

888-413: The mill produced 2.8 million tons of steel, equal to 28% of U.S. Steel's domestic production. The mill employs about 900 persons, some of whom belong to the second or third generations of their families to work in the mill. Among improvements to its physical plant is a $ 250 million continuous caster, which converts liquid steel directly into slabs, installed in 1992. In April 1995, the mill was designated

925-646: The newly formed company owning an interest of nearly $ 5 million. On January 1, 1873, ground work began on the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock Township. It has been estimated that the plant was built for about $ 1.2 million. The mill was built by Alexander Lyman Holley , who found a manager to run the mill, Captain Bill Jones , a Civil War veteran. On August 22, 1875, the Edgar Thomson Steel Works' hulking Bessemer converter produced its first heat of liquid steel, destined to become 2,000 steel rails for

962-536: The official hostesses at the New York Pavilion during the exposition. When America entered World War I in 1917, he was appointed chairman of the committee on steel of the Council of National Defense . Through his connection with a business essential to producing munitions of war, he exerted great influence in bringing about cooperation between the government and industry. He was interested in strengthening

999-695: The process, air blowing through the molten iron removed impurities via oxidation . This took place in the Bessemer converter, a large ovoid steel container lined with clay or dolomite . In the summer of 1872, while in Europe, Andrew Carnegie learned about the Bessemer process. He returned to Pittsburgh with plans to build his own Bessemer plant. Some of the partners, stockholders, and connected people were William Coleman, Andrew Kloman, Henry Phipps Jr. , David McCandless, Wm. P. Shinn, John Scott, David A. Stewart, James Robb Wilson and Thomas M. Carnegie . The firm

1036-404: The soldiers killed in the battle were visible to passers-by for years after the battle. Braddock's Field also was the site of a rally of rebellious militiamen and farmers during the Whiskey Rebellion , prior to a massive march on the city of Pittsburgh on August 1, 1794. The Edgar Thomson Steel Works is located nearby and may cover the former site of John Fraser's cabin. Braddock's Field

1073-508: The trusts. According to historian Thomas C. Cochran : According to historian Stephen H. Cutcliffe: In 1919 Gary led the steel industry's successful battle against the strikers , denouncing them as Slavic revolutionaries seeking "the closed shop, Soviets and the destruction of property." By 1923, however, he was the leader in building a big-business coalition to stop a widespread movement to impose strict restrictions on immigration, especially from Eastern and Southern Europe. Industry needed

1110-505: The wages of the steel workers. The steelworkers at the Duquesne and Edgar Thomson Works joined the strike and shut their mills down in sympathy. Frick took extreme measures. He brought in thousands of strikebreakers. When he sent in 300 Pinkerton guards to protect the strikebreakers, a riot broke out, resulting in 10 deaths and thousands of injuries. To prevent any further bloodshed, the governor, Robert Pattison , sent two brigades to stop

1147-554: Was also survived by his second wife, Emma T. Townsend, whom he had married on December 5, 1905. Some time after 1920, Gary developed from chronic myocarditis . He concealed the diagnosis even from his closest friends. The first indication that his illness was affecting him came in May 1923, when Gary became faint while addressing the semi-annual meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). The press reported that Gary

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1184-733: Was also the location of Camp Copeland, a rendezvous for men who had been drafted into the Union forces during the American Civil War . At Camp Copeland the men would be trained and sent to their assigned regiments. Poor conditions and several deaths in March 1864 invited inspections and changes to the Camp. The Camp name was briefly changed to Camp Reynolds, but the old name was adopted again. Camp Copeland closed on April 29, 1865. The towns of Braddock, Pennsylvania and North Braddock now occupy

1221-492: Was elected chairman of the board of directors and the finance committee. In 1900 at the age of 54, Gary moved from Wheaton to New York City, where he established the headquarters of U.S. Steel. Gary served as chairman of the board of America's first billion-dollar corporation, from the company's founding in 1901 until his death in August 1927. In November 1904, with a government suit looming, Gary approached President Roosevelt with

1258-560: Was in good health, but in February 1927 there were rumors that he intended to resign as chairman of U.S. Steel. In May 1927, he unexpectedly asked the board of directors of the AISI to select his successor some time in the next year. About July 24, 1927, Gary fell ill. The press reported the cause as ptomaine poisoning (food poisoning). Gary's illness was not considered serious, and even his friends believed he would be back at work within

1295-487: Was known as Carnegie, McCandless, and Company. The plant was named after J. Edgar Thomson , who was the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad . Carnegie Brothers and Company was created by the consolidation of the steel businesses owned by Andrew Carnegie in the early 1880s. Those steel and coke works that were consolidated were: The merging of these separate business operations into one resulted in

1332-659: Was named in his honor. The Pittsburgh Steamship Company was a subsidiary of U.S. Steel and, when it was launched, the Gary was the longest ship on the Great Lakes. From 1906 to 1908, he served as president of the Illinois State Society of New York, a group of Illinois expatriates living in New York who got together for social reasons a few times each year. They held an annual Lincoln Day Dinner in February at

1369-507: Was president of the Chicago Bar Association from 1893 to 1894. It was while he was hearing a case as a judge that he first became interested in the process of making steel and the economics of that business. In 1898 he became president of Federal Steel Corporation in Chicago, which included a barbed wire business, and retired from his law practice. Federal and other companies merged in 1901 to become U.S. Steel , and Gary

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