Mayville Iron Works - Ferdinand Schlesinger

The Northwestern Iron Company was organized in Mayville in 1854.   Looking at the the first fifty years the key figure was "Captain Bean," but I will not get into that here.   The famous iron man, Ferdinand Schlesinger of Milwaukee, bought the common stock of  Northwestern Iron in 1908 and with this new owner the Mayville works continued to operate and produce pig iron as Northwestern Iron Company.   

In 1919 Schlesinger merged Northwestern and other Schlesinger holdings into their  new structure, The Steel & Tube Co. of America,  a publicly traded corporation formed in 1918  with Schlesinger and Clayton Mark of Chicago as the main stockholders.     One of   Steel and Tube's  holdings was the Indiana Harbor Works located across the canal from the Inland Steel plant in East Chicago.   At that location along the southwest shore of Lake Michigan  Clayton Mark  (Mark Manufacturing)  had just finished construction (in 1918) of a new steel plant, as described in this story.     (Note that this story incorrectly  refers to Ferdinand Schlesinger as a "brother." )  

What happened to The Steel & Tube Co. of America?  Ferdinand Schlesinger died in 1921.  From Mayville's standpoint things went downhill as a result.   Later in  1921 Sheet & Tube  shut down the coke plant in Mayville which had operated across the road and just east of the iron works, and thereafter they used coke for the Mayville furnaces which they brought in from the Schlesinger coke plant in Milwaukee, much to the disappointment of the people of Mayville who lost their coke plant jobs.    

 On June 29, 1923, The Steel & Tube Co. of America  sold the Mayville works to The Mayville Iron Co.,  but it was really a sale to the large Ohio company,   Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. (Y S & T)   which set up and controlled The Mayville Iron Co. as Y S & T's  subsidiary.    This transaction was part of  of Y S & T's  purchase  of  Steel  and Tube's multiple operations, including the Mayville iron works.   The Mayville works was a small piece of this sale, the main piece being the Indiana Harbor Works.   But the community of  Mayville did not see it that way, because the Mayville  Iron Works was the city's main employer. Y S & T officials from Youngstown  came to Mayville on October 12, 1924, and had their picture  taken in front of a new company sign at the Mayville works. That was a big deal.   

Y S & T  blew out the two  Mayville blast furnaces January 17, 1928, and had them demolished for scrap in 1933.   In addition to the sources which I have cited here, this minimal timeline is based on information which you will find in  When Iron was King in Dodge County, Wisconsin by George Frederick (Mayville Historical Society 1993),  which includes references to corporate records.   Also, the Limestone School Museum  operated by Mayville Limestone School Museum, Inc. on North Main Street has an "Iron Country" basement gallery with photos and artifacts.  Mayville Historical Society, Inc. ,  which has a museum on North German Street, owns a collection of iron works photos. 

What is significant about the events in this timeline?     First, any information, fact, artifact, or story of any kind  about the Mayville Iron Works is going to interest me as someone who lives here.   Beyond that, of general interest to all  "steel people" is  this transactional connection between Schlesinger's ownership interest in the small Mayville works,  and his later acquired interest with Clayton Mark in  the huge Indiana Harbor mill.    Ferdinand Schlesinger had his hand in both operations, and I would say that the Indiana move was a courageous one. 

If you look at the timing of events  here, after the death of Ferdinand did  the Schlesinger family  have more than it wanted to handle  with the Indiana Harbor project?    The dates here are compressed.  Mark finishes construction of the huge Indiana Harbor steel mill in 1918.    Schlesinger joins up with Mark in 1918 to  form Steel and Tube, which is Schlesinger's  daring move into the Indian Harbor operation.      Three years  later Ferdinand dies.     Only two years after that Steel and Tube sells  out  to Y S & T.  

My impression is that after Ferdinand died the Schlesinger heirs had no interest in Steel & Tube.  They got out right away.   Why?   At the time of Ferdinand's  death in 1921, were there cash flow issues  at Indiana Harbor now that there was no war to support the iron and steel industry?    If business was slow, it had to be tough to make payments on the debt incurred to build the new steel mill at Indiana Harbor.      Or, without Ferdinand did the family feel as though they lacked the skills to participate with Mark in an operation as large as Indiana Harbor?   My hunch  would be to say no to that idea, because the two Harvard educated  sons of Ferdinand, Armin and Henry, had been active in the Schlesinger enterprises all along and should have been able to carry on.     Or, was the company in good shape, but with Ferdinand out of the picture   facing demands from the  Schlesinger heirs who  just wanted to cash out?      At this point   I don't know enough about the history here to provide any solid answers to these questions.   The answers should come from family members, but as far as I know we don't have that kind of first hand information.   Perhaps it will turn up at some point.    But I will always be curious to learn more of this history leading up to this 1923 sale to Y S & T, and I may come back to this subject in future posts.       You can read some basic information  about the Schlesinger family in this Wisconsin history book at pages 1716-1718.

Why all this talk about Indiana Harbor in a blog which is about Mayville?  Ferdinand must have learned a great deal from his years of ownership and management of the Mayville works.    Yes, Ferdinand had been busy buying land and mining iron ore before he bought  Northwestern in 1908, but from from what I can tell, reading this obituary and other material on the subject, Northwestern in Mayville was his first iron works.   At Mayville  Ferdinand learned the  blast furnace side of the iron business  and that experience  prepared him to jump into the Indiana Harbor project.    

Also, we ask what might have been different Ferdinand had lived and worked beyond 1921.   Perhaps the Mayville coke plant,  which closed months after he died,  would have stayed open.   Perhaps the  sale to Y S & T would not have happened.   It was Y S & T which shut down the Mayville works in 1928.     With Ferdinand as owner of the Mayville works, would we have seen  the Mayville Iron Works continue to operate into the Depression of the 1930's, and then thrive during World War II when iron was at a premium?   I doubt it.  We don't know whether Ferdinand had a determination to keep Mayville open through thick and thin.    And, Ferdinand died at age 70.  Even if he had lived and worked for a few years beyond 1921 his  era was going to come to an end before 1930.    And, most would say that  the Depression would have killed a small operation like Mayville regardless of the owner.   But it's fun to speculate about what might have been. 

Actually, on reflection, I give credit to Y S & T.  They  added Indiana Harbor to their operations.  It was a good fit for them, with its new plant  and excellent transportation facilities on Lake Michigan, and they did well with it.   They kept going through the Depression, and then thrived after that.    Y S & T brought its resources and expertise to Indiana Harbor and made that operation successful, as they competed in the steel business at the highest level, with other huge operations.     The small producers  like the Mayville Iron Works with its two furnaces and no steel producing ability  did not fit the post-1923 mold.   As tough as it was for Mayville,  I can't say that I blame  Y S & T for shutting us down in 1928.     Blowing out Mayville was a matter of facing economic reality.   Rather than focus on  regrets over the shutdown, I prefer to be grateful for Mayville's  80 good years of iron production.   Mayville reaped benefits from the Mayville Iron Works, even after its shutdown, but those will have to be the subject of future posts.