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102-671: John Roach may refer to any of the following: John Roach (shipbuilder) (1816–1887), United States shipbuilder John Roach (bishop) (1921–2003), bishop of the Catholic Church John Roach (baseball) (1867–1934), former Major League Baseball pitcher John Roach (footballer, born 1862) , Welsh international footballer John Roach (American football) (1933–2021), football player John Roach (English footballer) , English footballer played for Manchester United, FC Sète, and Accrington Stanley John C. Roach , justice on

204-640: A post-industrial city dealing with crime, pollution, and poverty. Pennsylvania declared Chester a financially distressed municipality in 1995 and a fiscal emergency in 2020. In 2022, Chester became the 31st city in the United States to declare bankruptcy. The city is home to Widener University , Harrah's Philadelphia , the Chester Waterside Station , the William Penn Landing Site , and Subaru Park , home of

306-525: A "real affection" for their late employer. Chester, Pennsylvania Incorporated in 1682, Chester is the oldest city in Pennsylvania and was the location of William Penn 's first arrival in the Province of Pennsylvania . It was the county seat for Chester County from 1682 to 1788 and of Delaware County from 1789 to 1851. From the second half of the 19th century through the first half of

408-469: A $ 400,000 scrap value for Tennessee 's old engines had been provided by former Navy Bureau Chief Benjamin Isherwood, but under oath Isherwood retracted his earlier estimate and submitted a new estimate of $ 175,000. This estimate was also incorrect however—in fact, the scrap value of Tennessee 's old machinery was only $ 38,000 after subtracting the cost of removing it from the ship. Roach was actually doing

510-694: A $ 60 million renovation of the Chester Waterside Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company , originally built in 1918, provides recreational and office space for businesses. Harrah's Casino and Racetrack began harness racing in September 2006 and opened its racino in January 2007. Subaru Park , home of the Major League Soccer Philadelphia Union franchise, opened in 2010. Despite

612-530: A corrupt Navy Department. While Roach may indeed have benefited from a degree of favoritism under Republican administrations, no credible evidence was ever presented to substantiate the allegations of corruption made against him, and indeed his ability to regularly undercut his competitors sometimes saved the government considerable sums of money. Suspicions persisted however, and when the Democratic administration of Grover Cleveland assumed office, it repudiated

714-576: A down payment on a farm in Peoria, Illinois , planning to send for his wife when the transaction had been concluded. His 28-day journey began with an 85-mile train leg, followed by transfer to a canal boat which in the course of its 385-mile route had to pass through no less than 176 locks. At the Allegheny Mountains, the boat was actually lifted in sections over the mountain on steam-driven cable cars before resuming its journey. The final leg of

816-475: A generous donor to the Republican Party . In August 1871, Roach submitted a proposal to the U.S. Navy for refitting several warships with compound engines, asserting that the new engines would save space and reduce running costs by as much as 40%. The Navy agreed to an experimental engine refit for one vessel, USS  Tennessee , for which Roach would receive $ 300,000 for two compound engines plus

918-601: A key part of the Roach business empire for the next four decades. Roach had observed that Great Britain was steadily replacing its fleet of wooden-hulled sidewheel steamers with modern iron-hulled, screw-driven steamships. Anticipating a similar trend in the United States, he decided to establish an iron shipbuilding facility of his own. In 1871, he purchased the shipyard of Reaney, Son & Archbold in Chester, Pennsylvania , which had fallen into receivership. Roach renamed

1020-411: A large amount of cash. Roach was put in a difficult position as he still had several Pacific Mail ships in an uncompleted state on his slipways with an aggregate value in excess of $ 500,000. The situation was made worse when stock speculator Jay Gould , in an attempt to gain control of Pacific Mail by driving down its share price, lobbied Congress to cancel the $ 500,000 subsidy it had earlier granted to

1122-537: A large contract from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for the construction of seven modern iron-hulled, screw-propelled steamships to replace their ageing fleet of wooden-hulled sidewheel steamers. Roach quickly began work on the contract, but in 1873, Pacific Mail confessed an inability to meet its obligations after the company's managing director squandered its capital reserves with a failed stock manipulation scheme and then absconded with

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1224-540: A means of discrediting Isherwood. Payments to Roach were suspended while the political battle continued for over a year, threatening Roach with bankruptcy. Finally however, the Navy agreed to accept the tools already received and to pay Roach $ 86,000 for release from the rest of the contract. Roach realized the importance of political influence during this period, and secured the services of lawyer William E. Chandler who became his chief Washington lobbyist. Roach also became

1326-619: A number of political controversies during the course of his career, as business competitors and political opponents alike sought to malign his reputation. He also attracted criticism as a consequence of his subsidy campaigns. A staunch Republican and generous donor to the Republican Party, Roach enjoyed the patronage of successive Republican administrations, but the Democrats continued to suspect him of obtaining government contracts not through merit but from favoritism and jobbery with

1428-608: A partly completed set of government contracts with Roach, driving the Roach shipyard into receivership. The first substantial political controversy in which Roach was engaged arose from his sale of surplus machine tools from the Etna Iron Works to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1867. This sale raised the ire of two specialist Philadelphian machine tool manufacturers, William Sellers & Co. and Bement and Dougherty, both of whom had expected to be awarded

1530-571: A popularly elected city mayor and city council. The terms of the mayor and members are four years. The current mayor of the City of Chester is Stefan Roots , who won the Democratic nomination in May 2021, over incumbent Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland . In May 2023, Roots defeated Kirkland in the Chester Democratic mayoral primary election. Roots defeated independent candidate Anita J. Littleton in

1632-625: A railroad, and where you could get something for what you raised on your land, than to own the whole of Illinois without means of transportation." These were lessons he would apply to his own business model in later life. After returning to his wife in New Jersey, Roach resumed employment with James Allaire, but this time at the latter's engine building plant, the Allaire Iron Works in New York City. During his twelve years at

1734-459: A retail salesman, and his wife Abigail Meany. The Roche family traced its origins back to Godebert de Rupe, a major landholder in Cork in the twelfth century. Roach's father Patrick made a modest living by collecting produce from the region's farmers to sell in the local township, and by purchasing the farmers' needs while in town. John Roach received only a rudimentary education, and went to work at

1836-402: A rubber recycling facility and illegal industrial chemical dumping site. It burned out of control for several days. The burning chemicals caused multi-colored smoke and noxious fumes which injured 43 firemen and caused long-term health problems for the first responders to the fire. In 1981, the location was declared a Superfund cleanup site and remediation occurred throughout the 1980s. In 1989,

1938-464: A special Hades ... In spite of the heavy criticism initially levelled at them from many different quarters, the completion of the four ABCD ships—the Navy's first steel vessels—was later hailed as the "Birth of the New Navy", and all four vessels were to provide many years of reliable service. During the protracted dispute over Dolphin , Roach had fallen ill with a chronic mouth infection. In 1886,

2040-420: A terminally ill old man, placed his company into receivership a short time later. He later explained that with over $ 500,000 tied up in the four uncompleted U.S. Navy ships, whose contracts might be declared void at any time, he was unable to raise the necessary loans to continue in business. Thomas Edison , a business acquaintance of Roach, probably encapsulated the feelings of many Roach supporters regarding

2142-573: A three-month period, he made a profit of $ 8,000 from sales of iron castings to local shipyards, giving his new company a solid foundation. By 1859, the Etna Works employed 40 people, and in that year the company received a windfall capital injection when a lawyer friend named John Baker died and left Roach trustee over his $ 70,000 estate, enabling Roach to expand his business further. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Roach

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2244-417: A two-month period of civil rights rallies, marches, pickets, boycotts, and sit-ins. National civil rights leaders such as Gloria Richardson , Malcolm X and Dick Gregory came to Chester in support of the demonstrations. Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton became involved in the negotiations and convinced the protestors to obey a court-ordered moratorium on demonstrations by agreeing to hold hearings on

2346-543: Is bordered to the south by the Delaware River . The city has a total area of 6.0 square miles (15.6 km ), 4.8 square miles (12.5 km ) of which is land and 1.2 square miles (3.0 km ) of which (19.42%) is water, according to the U.S. Census Bureau . Chester Creek meets the Delaware River in Chester. Chester's northeastern border is at Ridley Creek . The Port of Chester is located in Chester along

2448-587: The American Civil War transformed the Etna Works into a major manufacturer of marine engines. He continued to prosper after the war, diversifying into the manufacture of machine tools and buying out his main engine-building competitors in the postwar slump. In 1867 he purchased the Morgan Iron Works on New York's East River , and relocated his business there. In 1871, Roach purchased the shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania of Reaney, Son & Archbold , which had fallen into receivership, and renamed it

2550-837: The Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works , which thereafter became his main facility. In the next few years he founded a network of new companies in Chester to support the shipyard's operations, including the Chester Rolling Mill , the Chester Pipe and Tube Company , the Hirsch Propeller Company, the Chalmers-Spence asbestos company, and later the Combination Steel and Iron Company and

2652-539: The Dolphin affair with an entry in his diary: ... Read Sunday Herald , learned about Roach's failure. Am sorry. He has been pursued with great malignity by newspapers and others, from ignorance I think. Americans ought to be proud of Roach, who started in life as a day laborer and became the giant of industry and the greatest shipbuilder in the United States ... What has he now for forty years of incessant work and worry? For people who hound such men as these I would invent

2754-706: The Ford Motor Company opened the Chester Assembly factory on the site of the previous Roach and Merchant shipyard and built cars there until its closure in 1961. Chester experienced its second growth period during World War II . Manufacturing increased exponentially including companies such as Wetherill Steel and Boilermakers, Congoleum -Nairn, Aberfoyles Textiles , Scott Paper Company , Belmont Iron Works , American Steel Foundries , Crew Levick Oil , Crown Smelting , Fields Brick Company , Hetzel and Ford Motor Company . During World War II,

2856-662: The Major League Soccer team, the Philadelphia Union . The indigenous tribe that owned the land where Chester now stands were the Okehockings , removed by order of William Penn in 1702 to other lands in Chester County. The original indigenous name of Chester was Mecoponaca, which means "the stream along which large potatoes grow". The first European settlers in the area were members of

2958-635: The New Sweden colony. The settlement that became Chester was first called "Finlandia" (the Latin name for Finland ) and then "Upland" after the Swedish province of Uppland . The New Sweden settlers built Fort Mecoponacka in 1641 to defend the settlement. In 1644, the present site of Chester was a tobacco plantation operated by the New Sweden colonists. By 1682, Upland was the most populous town of

3060-488: The Standard Steel Casting Company . To give his sons a stake in the business, Roach founded the firm of John Roach & Sons, which became the overall parent and marketing company. He also attempted to create his own shipping line with the establishment of the United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company, but this latter venture was a costly failure. From 1871 until 1885, John Roach & Sons

3162-584: The Sun Shipyard became the largest single shipyard in the world. The increased labor needs brought a flood of new workers to the city. The wartime labor force for industries along the waterfront soared to 100,000. Chester began losing its mainstay manufacturing jobs by the early 1960s. Ford Motor Company shuttered its Chester plant, American Viscose Corporation in nearby Marcus Hook closed, Baldwin Locomotive Works in nearby Eddystone

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3264-534: The Tennessee —$ 300,000 for the new engines plus a $ 400,000 scrap value for the old. In an extraordinary step, Congress consented to Dana's demand that he personally be given the power to cross-examine witnesses in a Congressional inquiry into the allegations. Dana was able to establish evidence of corruption in Robeson's case, but he failed to demonstrate any such evidence against Roach. Dana's initial estimate of

3366-451: The 20th century, the city was a major center of heavy industry , manufacturing and shipping . The city became a boomtown during World War I and World War II . The availability of employment in factories , dock work , and shipbuilding attracted immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and African-American migrants from southern states . Since the mid-20th century, it has lost most of its manufacturing base and has struggled as

3468-509: The Brazilian and U.S. governments ultimately rejected his application for subsidies, and his Brazil Mail company struggled on for a number of years before eventually failing. Roach lost almost a million dollars in his Brazilian shipping line venture, leading to a shortage of operating capital for his business empire that would eventually contribute to its financial failure. As a result of his business dealings, Roach found himself involved in

3570-493: The Brazilian import market with his new shipping line, but lacking the funds to engage in a prolonged trade war, intended to rely on subsidies from the American and Brazilian governments to support his venture. The U.S. and Brazil Mail Company was launched with great fanfare, with President Rutherford B. Hayes and many members of Congress attending the launch of one of the company's first ships. To Roach's dismay however, both

3672-518: The Delaware County seat was moved from Chester to the borough of Media . On February 14, 1866, Chester was incorporated as a city and the first mayor elected was John Larkin, Jr. In 1871, the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works was opened by John Roach through the purchase of the Reaney, Son & Archbold shipyard. The first steel ships of the U.S. Navy were built at

3774-620: The Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding Works in Chester and the Morgan Iron Works in New York, and they resumed the business, which was continued for another 20 years, although the firm never regained the preeminent position it had enjoyed under Roach Sr.'s leadership. John Roach was born on December 25, 1815, at Mitchelstown , County Cork, Ireland , the first of seven children to Patrick Roche,

3876-730: The Delaware River. Located at a low elevation between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware , Chester experiences a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa .) The hardiness zone is 7b. [1] Archived 2014-02-09 at the Wayback Machine As of Census 2010, the racial makeup of the city was 74.7% African American , 17.2% White , 9.0% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 0.6% Asian , 0.4% Native American , 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 3.9% from other races , and 3.0% from two or more races. [2] There were 11,662 households, out of which 37.3% had children under

3978-534: The Kentucky Supreme Court John Ross Roach (1900–1973), Canadian ice hockey player John Vinson Roach II (1938–2022) pioneer of the personal computer See also [ edit ] John Roche (disambiguation) Roach (surname) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

4080-507: The November 2023 general election and was sworn into office on January 3, 2024. The Chester City Council consists of the mayor and four council members. Council members are elected at-large to serve the entire city. Council meetings are generally held the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. The five help administer the five municipal departments: The city government has been in financial distress for many years and has operated under

4182-516: The Philadelphia Electric Company , Old Main and Chemistry Building , Third Presbyterian Church , William Penn Landing Site , and the former Second Street Bridge . Chester borders on (clockwise from southwest to northeast) Trainer Borough , Upper Chichester Township , Chester Township , Upland Borough , Parkside Borough , Brookhaven Borough , Nether Providence Township , Ridley Township , and Eddystone Borough in Pennsylvania. Chester

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4284-580: The Public Peace", a 10-point statement promising an immediate return to law and order. The city deputized firemen and trash collectors to help handle demonstrators. The State of Pennsylvania deployed 50 state troopers to assist the 77-member Chester police force. The demonstrations were marked by violence and police brutality with Chester being dubbed the "Birmingham of the North" by civil rights activist James Farmer . Over 600 people were arrested over

4386-427: The Roach shipyard. For the first 15 years of operation, it was the largest and most productive shipyard in the United States. More tonnage of ships were built at the Roach shipyard than its next two competitors combined. Roach built other businesses to supply materials for his shipbuilding including the Chester Rolling Mill in 1873 to supply metal hull plates and beams, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company in 1877 for

4488-611: The South , searching for employment in the city's expanding shipbuilding and manufacturing industries. The Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. was opened in 1917 to build ships for the United States until its closure in 1990. The idled Roach shipyard was purchased in 1917 by W. Averell Harriman to build merchant ships during World War I, and renamed the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation . The shipyard closed permanently in 1923. Like many boomtowns, Chester

4590-461: The United States. Arriving in New York City, he was at first unable to find regular work, but eventually gained secure employment at the Howell Works of James P. Allaire on the recommendation of a former employee of his father. Roach began his employment at the Howell Works as a common laborer at 25c a day, collecting bricks and conveying them in a wheelbarrow to various building sites around

4692-642: The Upland Mills by John Price Crozer and the Powhattan Mills by David Reese Esrey and Hugh Shaw. During the War of 1812 , a group of volunteers from Chester called the Mifflin Guards was raised and led by Samuel Anderson . The troops were sent to Fort DuPont to defend the Delaware River from the threatened attack of British Admiral George Cockburn but did not see any action. In 1851,

4794-415: The age of 18, 19.5% were headed by married couples living together, 35.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.1% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.1% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64, and the average family size was 3.34. Chester has a mayor-council government system, consisting of

4896-445: The age of thirteen after his father Patrick fell on hard times. Patrick died in 1831, and John was unable to find enough work to support the family. Around the same time, an uncle who had emigrated to the United States sent money for his two sons to join him, but their mother would allow only one to go, offering the second fare to Roach instead, who accepted it. In 1832, at the age of sixteen, Roach emigrated together with his cousin to

4998-402: The company grounds. Concerned about the potential ill effects of the brick dust on his health, he soon decided to improve his situation by learning the iron molder's trade. At the time, the firm's proprietor, James P. Allaire, charged an entry fee of sixty dollars for an apprenticeship, but impressed by Roach's dedication, he decided to waive the fee. This created some resentment on the part of

5100-569: The company, believing that with the deployment of modern iron-hulled, screw-propelled steamships, he could succeed where the Garrison-run operation had failed. Roach fully expected to receive a subsidy from the government to help him run the line, since the Garrison company had enjoyed a U.S. government subsidy worth $ 150,000 annually. Nevertheless, he launched his new Brazil Line with great fanfare, inviting President Rutherford B. Hayes and

5202-496: The company. Fearing that loss of the subsidy would bankrupt Pacific Mail, Roach instructed his own lobbyist, William Chandler, to organize a counter-campaign. Unknown to Roach however, Chandler also had Gould as a client, making Chandler reluctant to take any action which might lose him Gould's patronage. Gould's campaign was ultimately successful, and Congress cancelled the Pacific Mail subsidy. Fortunately, Pacific Mail survived

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5304-485: The contract themselves. The two firms contacted their Congressional representative, William D. Kelley , who quickly raised the matter in Congress on behalf of his constituents. Kelley was appointed chairman of a subcommittee to investigate the Roach contract. In support of claims that the contract had been awarded as a result of political favoritism, Kelley produced two compliant experts who were prepared to testify against

5406-506: The contracts. The Puritan controversy revived the attacks on Roach alleging favoritism and jobbery, and he was forced to keep the uncompleted vessel in his shipyard at his own expense for the next five years. Only in 1882 did Congress finally approve completion of the ship, whose eventual performance would prove the conclusions of the earlier inquiries wrong. In 1875, C. K. Garrison 's United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company went bankrupt. The following year, Roach decided to revive

5508-430: The contracts. Doubts over the validity of the remaining three contracts made it impossible for John Roach & Sons to obtain loans, and in 1885 the Roach shipbuilding empire was forced into receivership. John Roach died at his home in New York at the age of 71 on January 10, 1887, while his firm was still in the hands of the receivers. After settling all the company's debts, his sons found themselves still in possession of

5610-484: The cost of the steel alone. His success in winning all four bids was however to revive the old charges of favoritism. Shortly after Roach began building the new vessels, their design, authored by the Naval Advisory Board, came under scathing attack in the prestigious British engineering journal The Engineer . Editor of The Sun , Charles Dana, seized upon this article to renew the attack upon Roach, and

5712-571: The county seat for Chester County from 1682 to 1788. In 1724, the Chester Courthouse was built to support the legal needs of the county. Chester played only a small role in the American Revolutionary War . Throughout 1776 and 1777, there were significant forces stationed in Chester and nearby Marcus Hook . In April 1776, nearly 1,000 men were stationed in Chester under Colonel Samuel Miles in preparation for

5814-682: The court to return the money to the city of Chester. With the exception of 1904–1905, the Republican political machine controlled Chester politics for over a century. The first non-machine mayor was elected in 1992: Barbara Bohannan-Sheppard ; however, in 1995, she lost her re-election bid and was replaced by Republican Aaron Wilson, Jr. In the 1990s, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission reported that Chester's government had been dominated by "a triad of criminals, corrupt politicians and rogue law-enforcement officers" since

5916-584: The de facto segregation of public schools in Chester. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Committee determined that the Chester School Board had violated the law and the Chester School District was ordered to desegregate the city's six predominantly African-American schools. The city appealed the ruling, which delayed implementation, but the schools were eventually desegregated. In 1978, an intense fire broke out at Wade Dump ,

6018-707: The defense of Philadelphia. However, Colonel Miles led the troops to New York City in July 1776 when it became clear that the British Fleet was threatening New York rather than Philadelphia. In 1777, the Continental Army led by George Washington passed through Chester on the way to meet the British Army led by General Howe at the Battle of Brandywine . John Armstrong was ordered to take command of

6120-520: The desirable qualities for a new generation of warships. Congress subsequently created a Naval Advisory Board to make more definitive recommendations, and in December 1882 the Board recommended the construction of four new warships to comprise the "nucleus of the New Navy"—three protected cruisers and one dispatch vessel. These would be the Navy's first steel warships. Since the Navy's own yards lacked

6222-463: The entire U.S. Congress to the launch of one of the Line's first ships, and lobbying hard for the subsidy. Unfortunately, his high-profile campaign had the opposite effect to that intended, as a host of entrenched interest groups—including Bostonian sailing ship owners and merchants, free traders , and competitors in the shipbuilding industry—joined forces to oppose it. In 1879 the proposed subsidy bill

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6324-400: The established iron molders, who at first disdained to teach Roach their skills, subjecting him to various forms of humiliation instead. When Allaire heard of their treatment, he personally visited the molding floor and addressed the gathered tradesmen: "You see this boy—it is my wish that he should learn the trade—see to it that my wishes are not further disregarded." Roach was thereafter taught

6426-433: The facilities to build the new ships, the four contracts were tendered to the private sector. On July 2, 1883, it was announced that John Roach & Sons had won all four contracts with an aggregate bid $ 315,000 lower than the next lowest bidder, William Cramp & Sons. Charles Cramp would later declare it impossible to build the ships at the prices tendered by Roach, but with his own steel mills, Roach could save $ 275,000 on

6528-723: The financial crisis, but Roach was again maligned in Congress, this time by Gould's opportunistic extension of earlier attacks on Roach portraying him as an unethical businessman supposedly surviving only as a result of political favoritism and government subsidies. In 1873, the Virginius war scare with Spain prompted Secretary of the Navy George Robeson to order a new class of five monitors to protect America's ports. Two of these monitors— USS  Puritan and USS  Miantonomoh —were contracted for with John Roach & Sons. Robeson soon ran out of money to pay for

6630-400: The first step toward this goal, he established the United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company in 1876 to operate a shipping line between the United States and Brazil. At this time, British shipping companies operated a highly lucrative "triangular trade" from Britain to Brazil to the U.S. and back to Britain which allowed them a near-monopoly on Brazilian imports. Roach hoped to break into

6732-430: The high quality steel the Navy demanded. By the time the first ship to be completed, Dolphin , was ready for her final sea trials in early 1885, a new Democratic administration under Grover Cleveland had come to power. In spite of Dolphin passing her sea trials, the new administration, for whom Roach had become a symbol of Republican corruption, found a pretext to declare the Dolphin contract void. Roach, by now

6834-431: The illness was diagnosed as cancer. Roach underwent surgery in spring of that year but it provided only temporary relief. He died at the age of 71 on January 10, 1887, while his business was still in the hands of receivers. At his funeral, held at St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church on Fourth Ave. and Twenty-second St., 500 mourners filled the galleries alone, many of them employees of John Roach & Sons who demonstrated

6936-449: The ironmolder's trade. Following an abortive attempt at farming in Illinois in 1839, Roach returned to Allaire's employment at the Allaire Iron Works in New York City , where he learned how to build marine steam engines . In 1852, after 20 years in the employment of Allaire, Roach and three partners purchased a small New York ironworks which had fallen into receivership, the Etna Iron Works . Roach soon became sole proprietor, and during

7038-490: The job cheaper than for a similar contract he had recently completed for a private client. In spite of the lack of evidence, Dana never retracted the charges of corruption he had levelled against Roach in the pages of The Sun . Roach's name had become tainted by his association with Robeson, and Democrats in particular continued to suspect him of receiving favorable treatment from successive Republican administrations. Shortly after opening his Chester shipyard, Roach received

7140-483: The journey was completed on a Mississippi riverboat. Once in Illinois, Roach was dismayed to discover that so complete was the isolation of the region that corn served not only as the staple foodstuff, but also as the principal source of heating and even as the local currency. He nevertheless made a down payment on the farm, but his plans were dashed when he received news from his wife that the couple's remaining savings had been lost in some kind of financial failure. Roach

7242-416: The landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education . The racial unrest and civil rights protests were led by George Raymond of the NAACP and Stanley Branche of CFFN and made Chester one of the key battlegrounds of the civil rights movement . In April 1964, a series of almost nightly protests brought chaos to Chester. Mayor James Gorbey issued "The Police Position to Preserve

7344-439: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Roach&oldid=1084261211 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages John Roach (shipbuilder) John Roach (December 25, 1815 – January 10, 1887)

7446-485: The machine until his death in 1965. In 1933, McClure was found guilty in federal court and sentenced to 18 months in prison for vice and rum-running , but his conviction was overturned on appeal. In 1941, McClure was indicted for conspiracy to gain a $ 250,000 profit from the sale of the Chester Water Works to a private buyer. McClure and four Chester City Council members were acquitted but also ordered by

7548-503: The manufacture of iron pipes and boiler tubes, and the Standard Steel Casting Company in 1883 to supply steel ingots . Roach built the Combination Steel and Iron Company in 1880 to supply steel rails and other products for businesses beyond the Roach shipyard. He lost control of the company after his shipbuilding enterprise entered receivership in 1885. Chester was known as a freewheeling destination for vices such as drugs, alcohol, numbers rackets, gambling and prostitution. Chester

7650-491: The manufacture of machine tools, and selling them to the U.S. Navy which was in the process of upgrading the facilities of its own shipyards. He secured almost a million dollars worth of such contracts between 1866 and 1868, and was thus able to buy out most of his competitors. In 1867 he purchased the Morgan Iron Works and relocated his business there, retaining the Etna Works only as a rental property. The Morgan Works, with its ideal location on New York's East River , would remain

7752-527: The militia stationed at Chester. The Continental Army fled back to Chester after defeat at the Battle of Brandywine . A portion of the British force occupied Chester as they chased the Continental Army fleeing to Philadelphia. In 1788, the Chester County seat was moved from Chester to West Chester . In 1789, Delaware County was formed from the eastern part of Chester County, and Chester became

7854-418: The monitor contracts. The board concluded that the work Roach had done on Puritan was first-class, and that the price of the contracts had been reasonable; however, it averred that the extra weight of the armored belts would render the ship unseaworthy. Roach scoffed at the latter conclusion, but two further naval inquiries confirmed the findings of the first, as a result of which the government refused to honor

7956-429: The monitors, and in 1876 was obliged to ask Congress for an additional $ 2,300,000 to complete them. Two days before leaving office, he gave orders for completion of the monitors and at the same time awarded a further $ 997,000 contract to Roach for the addition of armored belts and turrets to Puritan . When the new Secretary of the Navy, Richard W. Thompson , assumed office, he appointed an ad hoc naval board to review

8058-405: The nation's leading iron shipbuilder, building more tonnage of ships in most years than the aggregate output of his next two major competitors, Harlan & Hollingsworth and William Cramp & Sons . Roach was not content with simply owning the largest shipbuilding empire in the United States. He had visions of transforming John Roach & Sons into a vast global transportation empire, and as

8160-531: The new Province of Pennsylvania . On October 27, the ship Welcome arrived bearing William Penn on his first visit to the province. Penn renamed the settlement after the English city of Chester . Chester County originally stretched from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna River from its founding in 1682 until 1729 when Lancaster County was formed from the western part. Chester served as

8262-508: The new county seat. The borough of Chester was governed under the charter granted by Penn in 1701 until March 5, 1795, when it was incorporated by the Pennsylvania Assembly . In the 1700s and 1800s, Chester was a hub for business due to easy access to the Delaware River for the transport of raw materials and finished goods by ship. By the mid-1800s, many textile mills and factories were built along Chester Creek including

8364-834: The placement of projects that increased concerns about pollution, noise, and trucks, such as a contaminated soil remediation facility, the trash incinerator, the DELCORA sewage waste treatment center and the Abbonizio recycling center. In 1995, the state designated Chester as a financially distressed municipality . Recent programs to foster investment into Chester include the Pennsylvania Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) program, which incentivizes companies with state and local tax breaks to invest in KOZ-designated areas. The Wharf at Rivertown,

8466-459: The plant, Roach applied himself to learning everything he could about the manufacture of marine steam engines. In 1852, Roach, by now 37 years of age, joined with three other ironmolders, including his brother-in-law Joseph Johnston who had $ 8,000 in savings, to purchase a small New York ironworks which had fallen into receivership, the Etna Iron Works. Roach was given the task of touting for business while his three partners attended to production on

8568-563: The quality of Roach's tools. The investigation soon drew the attention of the Navy's Bureau of Steam Engineering , Benjamin Isherwood , who appointed a board which took evidence from 25 independent experts on the quality of Roach's machine tools, and which unanimously repudiated the findings of the Kelley report. At this point the controversy should have ended in favor of Roach but now a staunch opponent of Isherwood's engineering department, Vice-Admiral David Dixon Porter , decided to use it as

8670-410: The recent investments into the community, Governor Tom Wolf declared a fiscal emergency for Chester in 2020 and the city declared bankruptcy in 2022. It was the 31st municipality to declare bankruptcy since the U.S. Congress offered the program in the 1930s. National Register of Historic Places in Chester are: Delaware County National Bank , 1724 Chester Courthouse , Chester Waterside Station of

8772-480: The ship's original engines for their scrap value. In February 1872, the editor of New York's The Sun newspaper, Charles Dana , initiated an editorial campaign against Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson , accusing him of receiving kickbacks from companies in return for favoring them with Navy contracts. Dana alleged that Roach had corruptly received from Robeson the excessive sum of $ 700,000 to refit

8874-426: The shop floor. After its first year of operations, the business had made a modest $ 1000 profit, but now a dispute arose as Roach wanted to invest the money in expanding the plant while his three partners preferred to split the money into dividends of $ 250 each. Realizing they had reached the limit of their ambition, Roach secured a mortgage on the property and bought his partners out, making himself sole proprietor. In

8976-543: The site was deemed safe and removed from the Superfund national priorities list. In 2004, the site was converted to a parking lot for Commodore Barry Bridge Park . By the 1980s, Chester was a city bereft of industry. Many bottom-rung projects were initiated in Chester, including the Westinghouse trash incinerator , a sewage treatment plant, and a prison . Chester residents and politicians began pushing back against

9078-402: The state's Act 47 provisions for twenty-one years. The act provides for municipalities that are near bankruptcy. Chester has been hurt for decades by corrupt politicians and organized crime . Chester's Republican Party political machine was one of the nation's oldest and most corrupt. John J. McClure took over from his father, William McClure, in 1907 and was the political boss for

9180-615: The steam pipes, and the Hirsch Propeller Company . He would later establish the Combination Steel and Iron Company for the production of iron and steel castings, and the Standard Steel Casting Company for the production of steel ingots , both of which firms would soon be engaged in producing steel for the shipyard. This network of vertically integrated companies enabled Roach to largely eliminate third-party suppliers, cutting costs and thus allowing him to regularly underbid competitors. He quickly established himself as

9282-559: The trade, eventually becoming a highly skilled iron molder. In 1837, the Howell Works' blast furnace exploded, bringing production to a standstill, and because of the financial panic which occurred the same year, Allaire was unable to raise the funds to fully repair it for two years. Although the Howell Works was self-sufficient in food, Roach decided upon a change in career after a colleague encouraged him to take up farming in Illinois. In 1838, Roach set out with $ 500 in savings to make

9384-412: The various faction-ridden departments in the U.S. Navy began to circulate their own criticisms. Soon the ships were being denigrated by press and politicians alike as "costly toy[s]", "egregious failures" and "comic naval architecture." The Navy began submitting an increasing number of design changes to Roach, leading to mounting cost overruns, and construction was further delayed by a nationwide shortage of

9486-521: The yard the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works and invested heavily in expanding its facilities. To support its operations, he established a network of companies in Chester, including the Chester Rolling Mill , which supplied iron hull plates and beams to the yard, the Chester Pipe and Tube Company , for supplying boiler pipes and other ships' piping, the Chalmers-Spence Company , which supplied asbestos insulation for

9588-605: Was an American industrialist who rose from humble origins as an Irish immigrant laborer to found the largest and most productive shipbuilding empire in the Reconstruction Era United States, John Roach & Sons . Roach emigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen in 1832, eventually finding employment at the Howell Works of James P. Allaire in New Jersey , where he learned

9690-474: Was appointed Secretary of the Navy by the new administration of James A. Garfield . Hunt conducted a review and found that the Navy at this time comprised a mere 52 seaworthy vessels, only 17 of which were iron-hulled, including 14 dated Civil-War era ironclads. Appalled at the Navy's dilapidated condition, he appointed an advisory board in June 1881 to look into the problem, which made some recommendations concerning

9792-451: Was close to bankruptcy and Sun Shipyard employment had fallen from a high of 35,000 in 1945 to 4,000 in 1962. Chester's precipitous drop in jobs in the late 20th and early 21st centuries caused the city's population to diminish from over 66,000 in 1950 to under 34,000 in 2010. In 1963 and 1964, the Chester school protests fought to end the de facto segregation that resulted in the racial categorization of Chester public schools, even after

9894-451: Was easily the largest and most productive shipbuilding firm in the United States, building more tonnage of ships than its next two chief competitors combined. In the mid-1880s the firm ran into trouble with a series of U.S. Navy contracts which became the subject of political controversy. Roach had signed the contracts under a Republican administration, but when the Democratic administration of Grover Cleveland came to power, it voided one of

9996-399: Was forced to forfeit the farm, and with no remaining money took several months to work his way back to New Jersey. While his farming venture had ended in failure, Roach learned much from the experience, including the vital importance of transport and proximity to markets. "I came to the conclusion then", he was later to write, "that it was better to own an acre or two of land where there was

10098-616: Was in a position to take advantage of high demand by converting his plant into a manufacturer of marine steam engines. At its wartime peak, the Etna Works employed 2,000 people, and by the war's end it had become a leader in the industry. In the aftermath of the war, the U.S. government dumped more than a million tons of surplus shipping onto the market, depressing prices and leaving shipyards and marine engine builders with little or no work. From 1865 to 1870, many shipyards and engine builders were driven to bankruptcy. Roach, however, managed to prosper in this difficult period by diversifying into

10200-489: Was struck down in Congress. Forced to compete with subsidized British shipping lines for the Brazil trade without a subsidy of its own, Roach's Brazil Line steadily lost money. In May 1881, Roach wound up the company. His losses in the venture amounted to almost a million dollars, leading to a shortage of operating capital that would eventually contribute to the bankruptcy of his business empire. In 1881, William H. Hunt

10302-526: Was unprepared for the social changes that came along with rapid growth. As southern blacks migrated to Pennsylvania as part of the Great Migration , racial violence broke out, racially segregated neighborhoods expanded and economic discrimination emerged. A four-day race riot that resulted in seven deaths broke out in the city in July 1917, and the separation of blacks and whites in Chester's neighborhoods and workplaces became more defined. In 1927,

10404-498: Was widely known as Greater Philadelphia's "Saloon Town". By 1914, Chester had more saloons than police officers; approximately 1 saloon per every 987 residents. During and following World War I , Chester grew significantly as people migrated to the city for jobs, 63% of which were in manufacturing. Between 1910 and 1920, Chester's population increased from 38,000 to 58,000 due to the influx of poor Southern European and Eastern European immigrants and African-American migrants from

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