Category: History || By M.F. Bowers

Excerpted from "Memoirs of McKeesport," edited by Bruce A. Yount and published in 1960 as part of the city's Old Home Week celebration.

. . .

Who did most for McKeesport almost a century ago?

Many old-timers would vote for John H. Flagler, who brought the National Tube Co. here in 1872.

Flagler blazed a hot trail to prosperity to have his plant referred to as the "backbone of McKeesport." It has expanded time and again. At one time the tube works was credited with having the largest mill of the world under one roof.

When Flagler, first president of the tube company, came here, much of Riverview Park, Christy Park, Highland Grove, the hills of the Westside and for miles around was farm land. Only one railroad, the B&O, had entered the city. There was no huge works on Camden Hill (Editor's Note: Irvin Works in West Mifflin) and not a wheel turned in Glassport, Port Vue, Clairton or Duquesne.

The first tube works here, land and all, it was said by Mr. Flagler, cost less than $100,000.

Back in 1900, the tube company took over McKeesport's old "bowery district" of squatty buildings, a mission, a schoolhouse and a garbage furnace and all the streets and alleys, when it startled citizens with announcement that the then huge sum of $10,000,000 would be spent on expansion.

The company became a part of U.S. Steel and several huge expansions have been made. Since then, the company's local holdings have gone up and up in land and equipment. From the acreage along Fourth Avenue to Huey Street and down to the Monongahela river, three blocks long and four blocks wide, the tube company now (1960) holds land covered with mills, track and furnaces to Demmler, a distance of close to two miles in length and four blocks in width.

The first payroll of the tube company here contained the names of 125 employees. In 20 years, the number of employes had climbed into the thousands.

. . .

A big reception was held here for Mr. Flagler in 1887. The following words were included in his remarks to workmen:

"You men were partners. I see 5,000 men at work instead of 125. I see them making $1.25 to $ L.75 a day instead of 30 to 40 cents and even as low as 10 and 15 cents a day in Europe."

He urged preparations for a depression because, he said, they had a habit of striking at unexpected times.

In 1910, during Old Home Week, Mr. Flagler again visited the city. He alighted from a B&O train and started for the People's Bank at Fifth and Walnut. It took two hours for him to make the one-block trip because old employees of the company and other friends halted him.

In leaving he said: "God bless you and your homes is my fervent prayer." Mr. Flagler was asked to say something about McKeesport's success. He replied: "Well, when times are generally good they are a little better in McKeesport and when they are bad they are not quite so bad in McKeesport." He wrote a book of his trip and sent copies to many friends here.

. . .

In addition to providing employment well into the thousands the company has paid millions of dollars to city, school and county tax collectors.

Before the end of July 1960, the city will get a check from National Tube for 1960 taxes of $363,000, less discount, a quarter of a million dollars more than the works originally cost, and much more than the city's entire budget when the works opened.

And the school district will get a check for about $450,000, much more than all of the schools of McKeesport cost for its first century and well into the second.

National Tube as of 1960 had never missed a tax payment in 88 years, and that's why we refer to it as the "backbone of McKeesport" for close to century.

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