Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 27 text:

 j— Im j THE SPECTATOR led to the discovery that the ore found in the mountains could be used to make fair charcoal iron. However, not until 1842 did iron figure importantly in the devleopment of the town. In that year, a company known as the Geo. S. King Company built the first furnace in Cambria County. After a period of ten years during which the personnel of die firms changed, the Cambria Iron Works was in- corporated. The Civil War gave fresh impetus to every branch of manufacturing and Cambria iron rails became standard. At the close of the war, three new departments, the Bessemer, the Open Hearth Works, and the Gautier were added to the Cambria Iron Company, which engaged in the manufacture of steel products. After the Flood in 1889, the Cambria Iron Company was succeeded by the Cambria Steel Company, which in turn passed into the control of the Bethlehem Steel Company. The Lorain Steel Company, first established as the Johnson Company in 1882, is the second largest industrial plant in our city. Progress and development of the steel industry have been chiefly respons- ible for the wonderful growth of Johnstown. In addition to the great mills, the Johnstown of to-day has a diversity of other industries; which, together with steel, embrace 135 plants and represent products valued at $125,000,000. The Pioneer Converter In America Cambria Iron Works, 1S(J1-1S(52 [23]

Page 26 text:

 7HE SPECTATOR ,. . INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT Frances Witt At the time when Joseph Johns received a charter for Conemaugh Old Town, tfie only profitable industry, outside of actual farming, was the building of .flat boats, and the operation of the same when the water was of sufficient volume in the streams. These boats were used mainly to transport iron to Pittsburgh. Many warehouses were built along the north side of the Stonycreek for receiving and sending out goods. One of the most important warehouse owners was Isaac Proc- tor, who also owned a store on the corner of Main and Franklin streets. It is interesting to note from Mr. Proctor’s account books the prices of some of the most important commodities. According to his accounts, coffee, pepper and ginger sold for fifty cents per pound, and salt for five dollars per pound. There were only two sawmills in the early history of Johnstown. The one was the Horner Mill, situated on Solomon’s Run, owned and operated by John Horner, who built his mill in the fall of 1797. The other was Jacob Stutzman’s mill on Cheney’s Run and built about 1792. These sawmills were used to make lumber for buildings and boats. About 1810 the first grist mill was built. The construction of the Pennsylvania Canal, finished in 1832 opened an era of prosperity, because Johnstown became one of the most important ports on the canal, second only to Pittsburgh in the western part of the state. The iron industry began during the canal days. As early as 1807 or 1808 Shade Furnace was built. It did not materially help the town, but its establishment Cambria Iron Works, 1871 [22]

Page 28 text:

 » 1 j the SPECTATOR THE PROGRESS OF JOHNSTOWN’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS Nicholas Nassir The progress of the public schools in Johnstown, and the opportunities for free education, are similar to the rise of a star from the horizon to the zenith. The spectator sees first a lone, dim pinpoint of light which looks as if the blue wall of the heavens was pierced to admit that lone ray which represents the first glow of the star of modern education in Johnstown. The speck of light represents the dona- tion for school purposes of a plot of ground on the corner of Carr and Market streets by that far-sighted founder of our city, Joseph Johns. In 1810, there was erected on this site, a little one-story log schoolhouse. This building was never painted; and when it turned a dark gray and later a mournful black, it was called “Old Blacky” by the boys who received educational guidance there for six days a week under impetus of a gratuitiously applied switch, and who on the Sabbath day received their spiritual guidance there also. Two years after the act of Legislature of 1834, which provided for common schools, “Old Blacky” was supplemented by the “Little Brick” schoolhouse which was erected on the southwest corner of the grounds, opposite “Old Blacky.” In 1837 Judge Easly, a public spirited citizen, built the McConaughy Schoolhouse on the southwest corner of Walnut and Conemaugh streets. This building cost $200, and was considered a great step towards the advancement of our public school system. In 1850, the building was moved to the school plot and placed between “Old Blacky” and the “Little Brick.” After fitting repairs had been made on the McConaughy Schoolhouse, it was painted white and henceforth received the appela- tion “Old Whitey.” In 1855, these buildings were removed from the school plot to make room for the greatest forward step which Johnstown had yet taken in the advancement of her public school system. In their place was erected the less quaint but better equipped building called the Union Schoolhouse. It was built at the cost of $4,458, and was first used as a school on New Year’s Day in 1856. It was in this school that the first system of grading and promotion was used. [24]