When you talk about the history of the American steel industry, there are certain personalities that loom larger than life. These individuals represent the wealth and influence that big steel held in the early 20th century in our nation. Many titans of industry came from the Pittsburgh area, and those we are most familiar with, like George Westinghouse, Henry Clay Frick, H.J. Heinz, Richard and Andrew Mellon and the like, were fabulously wealthy even by today’s standards.

Here in our area these industrialists had little connection, but there were a few who did take advantage of the Upper Ohio Valley and the opportunities therein.

The most important industrialist who contributed the most to our area is naturally Edward Tener Weir. He, along with his brother, David, founded Weirton Steel when they moved their tin plate operation from Clarksburg, W.Va., to the Ferguson Farm just north of Holliday’s Cove in Hancock County.

We have a drought to thank for this move. Back in 1908 there was a terrible drought that affected most of the industry in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Weir brothers had purchased a small tin plate company in Clarksburg, and this drought hit the company hard.

Water is integral in the steel-making process. Weir bought up all the water he could to keep his business afloat, no pun intended, even going so far as to purchase little ponds on farmers’ properties. There had to be a solution. Weir and his brother the following year wanted to find a location that was close to a water source that would not dry up, although in the drought of 1908 the river came very close to drying.

According to the Ohio County Library website, the river reached the stage of 2 inches below zero that October, zero being the lowest navigable level at Wheeling. The previous record low was 7 inches, a record set in 1888. Today it is unlikely that a low water level of that magnitude would be possible given the lock system we have on the river currently. If you look at pictures of the low water from that year on the river, it is astounding.

Nevertheless, this drought brought the Weir brothers to our area.

E. T. Weir was born in 1875 to poor Scotch Irish immigrants in Pittsburgh. After the death of his father, Weir left his home at the age of 15 and worked at the Braddock Wire Co. for $3 a week. He was a self-made man, working his way up to one of the top spots of the American Sheet and Tin Plate Co. In 1905 he and his business partner, J.R. Phillips, purchased the Jackson Sheet and Tinplate company in Clarksburg and renamed it the Phillips Sheet and Tinplate Co. Not too soon after the company was formed, Phillips was tragically killed in a train accident, and Weir partnered with J.C. Williams, who remained a major player in the mill until his own untimely death in 1936.

Weir was ahead of his time, often remarking that what he did in Weirton couldn’t have been done at any other time in our nation’s history. His dream was to have a fully integrated steel mill, that is to have full control over steel production from raw materials, water, coke production to the finished product. By 1913, according to the text, “The Book of Prominent Pennsylvanians,” Weir’s plant in Weirton became the largest manufactory of tin plate in the United States besides U.S. Steel. The text goes on to say that the annual business of the company was $15 million, and there were more than 3,700 employees. On Aug. 1, 1918, Phillips Sheet and Tin Plate was renamed Weirton Steel in honor of Weir’s 43rd birthday.

In 1929, Weir, along with other industrialists, founded National Steel, and Weir became the chairman of the board. Although Weirton was named for him, Weir retained residences in Pittsburgh and Steubenville. His first home in the area was the Johnston home located on Market Street in Steubenville, the 1824 home once owned by Daniel Collier, guardian of Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The building later became a funeral home and most recently the thrift store of the Urban Mission. Weir lived there at the outset but eventually moved to swankier digs. Later in his life, Weir would take up residence at the lodge, located at Williams Country Club.

One of the perks of being involved in Weirton’s historic community for many years is I had the opportunity to meet David Manson Weir, E.T. Weir’s son by his third wife Mary Hayward Weir. David was born in 1944 and was a gentleman through and through. He was extremely interested in the town his father founded, and in his later years wanted to learn as much as he could about it. One of my treasured experiences is when my aunt, Lillian Zuros, and I visited David in his Manhattan apartment. My aunt, who had worked for Weirton Steel for 43 years until she retired recently, was able to give David a taste of life in the company, and I was able to relate tales of growing up here in the shadow of the mill. David was wonderful, gifting me a book written by Les Standiford called “Meet You in Hell,” the story of the difficult relationship between Henry Clay Frick, public enemy No. 1 in Pittsburgh, and Andrew Carnegie, including the drama of the 1892 Homestead Steel Strike. David inscribed the book to me writing that “this is how it was before Weirton.”

Weir passed away in 1957 and was buried in Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh. Mary Hayward Weir remarried author Jerzy Kosinski in 1962 but divorced him in 1966. David lived in New York City and passed away in 2012. He certainly was a gentleman and left this world too soon.

Weir, although not as well-known as the other Pittsburgh industrialists, gave much to our community, sponsoring, among other things, the Weirton General Hospital, the Millsop Community Center and the Margaret Manson Weir Memorial pool on Marland Heights. Weir was a product of his time, a man who made our valley what it is today. And without his influence, we would still be a sleepy rural valley in the hills of West Virginia.