THE GRAYSTONE SOCIETY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice President of the Board of Directors
Andrew Carnegie was among America's wealthiest and most influential industrialists and philanthropists. At the age of 30, he owned interest in iron works, railroads, steamers, and oil wells. In 1872, Carnegie built his first steel mill, Edgar Thomson Works, a site that still operates today. After purchasing other steel mills, he formed Carnegie Steel Company in 1892. In 1901, that company merged into United States Steel Corporation, the largest enterprise ever launched in America and the world's first billion dollar company. The sale made Carnegie one of the wealthiest men in the world.
August Thyssen was a major European steel magnate. He established Thyssen & Co. in 1871 and expanded the company by buying or founding firms. Thyssen rivaled Krupp for German iron and steelmaking and his holdings spanned multiple continents. After his death, descendants diversified and globalized the firm in Europe and North America. Thyssen and Krupp merged in 1997, becoming one of the world's biggest flat steel producers. Today, thyssenkrupp remains an engineering leader in the global steel industry.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Charles Schwab was one of America's largest steel entrepreneurs. By the age of 19, Schwab managed the Edgar Thomson Works, a site that still operates today. His later success at Homestead lead to his appointment as president of Carnegie Steel Company at the age of 35. In 1901, Schwab made a list of companies for consolidation, proposed a method of financing, and acted as an intermediary between Morgan and Carnegie to form United States Steel Corporation. Schwab was U.S. Steel's first president, but resigned in 1903 to focus on the formation of Bethlehem Steel Corporation (1904). He pioneered Bethlehem into the nation's second largest steel producer.
Elbert Henry Gary was a chief organizer of the United States Steel Corporation. He helped Federal Steel Company, Carnegie Steel Company, and others merge to form United States Steel Corporation in 1901, the largest enterprise ever launched in America and the world's first billion dollar company. As chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of U.S. Steel, Gary improved working conditions and headed the largest steel company in America. Gary, Indiana, was named after him.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Henry Bessemer was an inventor and engineer who developed the first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively. In the 1850s, he discovered that blowing oxygen through iron removed impurities and increased the temperature. The Bessemer process was patented in 1856 and it lowered the cost of producing steel, which soon replaced iron as the metal of choice. Until 1900, the Bessemer process was used world-wide and allowed steel to be made cheaply and on a large scale.
Henry Clay Frick's involvement in the steel industry began in 1871 when he invested in coking fields and built coke ovens. He formed H.C. Frick Coke Company, which produced a majority of the coke used by Pittsburgh's iron and steel industries. Frick entered into partnership with Andrew Carnegie in 1882 and in 1901, Frick became one of the directors of United States Steel Corporation. He was also the largest individual railway stockholder in the world.
John Winthrop Jr. was America's first ironmaster. Winthrop was aware of the colonies' cheap and abundant supply of raw materials and he began construction of the Braintree Iron Works in 1644. The site was, however, unsuccessful due to a lack of iron ore in the area and an inadequate supply of water to power the machinery. A manager replaced Winthrop in 1645 and he moved the works along the Saugus River, a site that operated from 1646 to 1670. Known as Saugus Iron Works today, this was the first successful ironworks in the United States.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Lakshmi Mittal joined his father's company, Ispat, after college, built his first mini mill at the age of 25, and formed his private company, LNM Holdings, in 1995. Mittal had a vision of consolidation and globalization, unlike anyone else, and made 47 acquisitions over 15 years. In 2005, Mittal purchased International Steel Group and formed Mittal Steel, the world's largest steel company. The following year, Mittal merged with Arcelor, creating ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel and mining company. Lakshmi Mittal serves as Chairman and CEO.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Margaret is a noteworthy steel pioneer who rose to the challenge and contributed in a very big way to the victory of the United States in World War II. She continues to prove what a strong lady she is and she turned 100 on Memorial Day, 2021!
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Rebecca Lukens was an ironmaster and America's first female industrialist. She took over the Brandywine Iron Works & Nail Factory in 1825 and operated the business successfully for twenty-five years. In the 1830s, Lukens also owned other businesses, including a warehouse and freight agency. Her legacy led to more than two centuries of iron and steelmaking. Today, the Coatesville steel site, which originated as Brandywine Iron Works, is the longest, continuously running iron and steel site in the United States.
Samuel Nutt was one of the largest and most influential ironmasters in colonial America. In 1717, Nutt established Coventry Forge, the first iron forge built in Chester County and the second in Pennsylvania. He also built Coventry Steel (1730s), which was Pennsylvania's first steel furnace, although it was not successful. His sites were important in both the the birth and growth of the iron industry in Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- President of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Buildings Systems Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Thomas Rutter was Pennsylvania's first ironmaster. In 1716, he established Rutter's Bloomery, the state's first blast furnace. Thomas Rutter is credited with starting the iron industry in Pennsylvania, which bloomed into
Vernon Ross Greenly was a trailblazer in Pennsylvania's steel industry, remembered in Hayti, PA, and Coatesville, PA, as the state's first African-American Open Hearth ladleman. This was a position he held as early as the Spring of 1935, when he was involved in the production of enormous elliptical steel heads to be used in the construction of oil cracking stills.
He was born in 1905 on the farm his parents owned in Baltimore County. His maternal grandfather, Lafayette Lewis, was from Baltimore County, and served for three years in the US Colored Troops, both during and after the Civil War.
Vernon also held an important Union Local 1165 role in 1944, on the wartime Labor-Management Committee for Plant Economy, and sang in a local gospel group called "The Pitmen," comprised mainly of workers in Lukens' Open Hearth pit.
Wilbur Ross is an American investor known for restructuring failed companies in the steel, coal, telecommunications, and textile industries. In 2002, Ross purchased LTV (Ling-Temco-Vought) Steel, Acme Steel, and the remaining assets of Bethlehem Steel Corporation to form International Steel Group. ISG merged into Mittal Steel in 2005. Today, the former ISG assets are part of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company.
William Kelly, an American ironmaster, invented a process of steelmaking in which air is blown through molten pig iron to oxidize and remove unwanted impurities. This process produced steel faster and cheaper than any other method. Although Kelly discovered the process initially, Henry Bessemer acquired the English patent for this process first, so it became known as the Bessemer process. William Kelly is viewed as the originator of the steelmaking process.
William Siemens was a German-born English engineer and inventor who helped develop the steel industry. In 1861, Siemens patented the Siemens regenerative furnace (open-hearth furnace), which produced steel at a higher temperature than other furnaces. The steel made in this furnace was better quality than steel made in a Bessemer converter. By 1900, the open hearth furnace replaced the Bessemer converter as the process of choice worldwide, and remained so until the mid-1900s.
Job Titles:
- Secretary of the Board of Directors