Thomas Iron Company
The company was named in honor of its founder, David Thomas, who emigrated to the United States in 1839 to introduce hot blast iron making in the Lehigh Valley, and later embarked on an independent ironmaking venture.
Thomas Iron Company's main and original plant in Hokendauqua, inspired the growth of the town that grew up around it.
The company also later acquired its own blast furnaces and railroads elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley and mines in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
After a failed attempt at modernization and revival between 1913 and 1916, the company's assets were sold and largely dismantled during the 1920s.
[1] Thomas founded his own company, which was organized on February 14, 1854 and chartered on April 4, 1854; it was named in his honor.
Thomas left his post as superintendent at Lehigh Crane and was replaced by his son, David Jr.
Under his direction, the company built two furnaces on the Butz farm along the Lehigh River in present-day Hockendauqua.
The company joined with Crane Iron, which had chartered the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad in 1854, to begin construction in 1856.
The rail line reduced difficult and inefficient wagon haulage to supply local ore to both companies.
[4] Thomas Iron also bought the Richard Mine near Mount Hope, New Jersey in 1856, which supplied large quantities of magnetite ore.
Some magnetite was also obtained from mines at Rittenhouse Gap, at the south end of the Catasauqua and Fogelsville.
The operators initially struggled with fine-dirt problems after the change, and it was only eliminated when the furnace burnt out part of the lining.
[3] The declining importance of local ore also prompted Crane and Thomas to divest themselves of the Catasauqua and Fogelsville: 60% of the stock in the railroad was sold to the Reading in 1890, which leased it in 1893.
[13] In 1891, the company began another round of upgrades, adding Durham-style regenerative-heating stoves to No.
[16] 1893 also marked the accession of Benjamin Franklin Fackenthal Jr., as president of the company: he would oversee the last halcyon period in the history of Thomas Iron.
In addition to the shift from local to foreign ores, coke largely replaced anthracite as the principal furnace fuel.
The shift away from local ores and fuels eliminated much of the original competitive advantage of the Lehigh Valley furnaces.
Fackenthal resigned on May 1, 1913, after recommending a program of retrenchment and abandonment of the old furnaces at Alburtis.
[18] His successor, chosen on July 1, 1913, was Ralph H. Sweetser, who held largely opposite views.
[18] He also attempted to restart local limonite mining, an effort which proved a costly failure.
[19] Sweetser resigned on July 1, 1916, and was succeeded by William A. Barrows Jr.,[20] but the company was now in terminal decline.
[21] On December 4, 1917, the Thomas Railroad was merged into the Ironton, which by this time primarily carried cement instead of iron ore.[6] In 1918, the No.
