Crane Iron Works, Catasauqua, Lehigh County

Before we get into this week's quest, I have a very exciting announcement. Next month I will be celebrating five years running this blog! Over the years it's transitioned from updating twice a month to every week (usually), the day of update has changed, and the whole thing has grown beyond what I had ever dared to hope. I've met fantastic people and had some extraordinary opportunities that I never expected. And a lot of is thanks to you, my loyal readers, who have accompanied me on my quests. 

There's a lot more to come, but the big news is that I'm celebrating my anniversary with a special contest. I'm still finalizing the details, especially with regards to prizes. It's going to be a virtual scavenger hunt, which will send you back through the various quests I've already completed in search of answers. I'll be launching the contest on Monday, May first, and it will run through the blog's actual anniversary on Wednesday, May 24th. Be sure to follow the blog on Facebook and/or subscribe to the email list! That'll give you first crack at signing up to participate. 

Meanwhile, as the anniversary month is about to begin, I'm going to head back to the very first quest (is that a clue? it might be!) and revisit good old David Thomas, the founding father of my hometown and one of the leading industrialists of the 19th century. My terrible sense of humor makes me really want to make a joke about how I certainly hope Crane iron works. If I have to live with that in my head, so do you.

The marker stands at the intersection of 
Front and Bridge Streets, at the entrance
to the public works facility

As I mentioned back in that first blog post, David Thomas was a Welsh immigrant who had learned to be an ironmaster under a gentleman by the name of George Crane. David was familiar with a technique that smelted anthracite coal together with iron ore to create a substance called anthracite iron, or pig iron. He improved the smelting process so that it became more efficient and possibly safer as well. He settled his family in the Lehigh Valley, which had plenty of iron ore and also easy access to the anthracite mined in the northern coal country, and established a company he dubbed Crane Iron Works.

He initially ran into some trouble, however. Before he left Great Britain, David had all the machinery and castings created that he would need for his hot blast technique, and brought them to America. But there were two very necessary cylinders which were simply too big to fit on the ship, meaning that everything else he brought with him was effectively useless. Worse, not a single foundry existed in the United States at the time which had a large enough facility to create those cylinders for him. After unsuccessfully appealing to a number of other places, David finally convinced the owners of the Southwark Foundry in Philadelphia to enlarge their boring machinery and make the cylinders, which were each five feet long. That doesn't sound like it would be too big to fit on a ship (I'm a little more than five feet tall and I fit on a ship just fine), but maybe with everything else in the cargo hold there simply wasn't enough room. 

Anyway, after importing some bricks from Wales that he couldn't buy in the United States, and after acquiring a sizeable property on what today is Front Street in Catasauqua, the first furnace began to be constructed in August 1839. David made his first cast on July 3, 1840, and industrial history was made. Unfortunately, the success of this first furnace was relatively short-lived; its fire was quenched the following January when the Lehigh River flooded its banks and overran the property. It was relit in May of that year, though, and continued to be used until August of 1842.

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while will recall that I'm personally connected to a lot of the stories I tell here, thanks to my family having been in the Lehigh Valley for over 300 years. As it turns out, that's true of this one too. From its first year of operations, Crane Iron Works purchased iron ore from my own direct ancestor, Johannes Kratzer, who mined it on his large property in South Whitehall Township; in fact, David Thomas was the very first person to buy iron ore from my family.

David continued to expand and grow his facility, adding more furnaces and other buildings. The image at left is a contemporary sketch of the iron works, which is on the wall in the Jim Thorpe visitors center as part of their display about local industry. For its first several years, Crane shipped its products along the Lehigh Canal; later, when the growing railroad industry added tracks in Catasauqua, the company acquired several trains and made use of the new method of transport. However, the canal continued to be an important outlet for shipping product.

(An interesting sidebar, which I discovered while researching my book Laury's Island, is that the iron works would later be connected to the railroad in a very different way. In 1893, David's grandson Samuel Thomas married Bessie Laury, granddaughter of David Laury, stationmaster for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The two men were among the wealthiest and most respected in the Lehigh Valley, and the marriage of their grandchildren was probably the closest thing we've ever had to a royal wedding here.)

The borough of Craneville, which he initially named after his old boss, was renamed Catasauqua at David's request in 1853. It comes from a Lenni Lenape word basically meaning 'the ground is dry'. At right is a picture of a stock certificate from the Crane Iron Works, which includes an image of Catasauqua as it appeared at the time. The financial prosperity of his company allowed David to support his neighbors, as I mentioned in my post about him; among other things, he established a fire company and provided his workers with tidy little houses and yard space in which to grow gardens. He also gave the growing community its first water works, which was important to him; as someone who never touched alcohol himself, David was convinced that a man would not turn to the bottle as long as he had an ample supply of clean water to drink instead. He also provided for churches in which the immigrants could worship in their native languages of Welsh and German, including donating the land which is still home to the borough's Presbyterian Church. Catasauqua was very much a company town, so much so that even today it still holds the nickname of "the iron borough."

David retired from being superintendent of the Crane facility in 1855, passing the reins to his son John. This was so he could oversee the establishment of his second iron works, the Thomas Iron Company, across the river in Hokendauqua. He continued to work at the Crane company for another ten years, however, in the much less stressful position of cashier. He also joined in the creation of the American Institute of Mining Engineers up in Wilkes-Barre, being made an honorary member, and was elected its first president for just one year. He passed away in 1882 and is buried in the Thomas family mausoleum in West Catasauqua's Fairview Cemetery. Following his death, both of his iron companies continued to thrive, even establishing the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad to better facilitate bringing in raw materials. Crane Iron also tried to help Thomas Edison with his experiments in magnetic beneficiation, which was intended to rejuvenate some dormant mines, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. They eventually sold their railroad to the Reading Railroad (yes, the Monopoly property) in 1893, and the dwindling demand for iron led to Crane Iron Works itself being bought by the Empire Steel and Iron Company. It continued to operate until 1930, and was shut down two years later. 

The Thomas Iron Company lasted a bit longer, being connected with the Lock Ridge Furnace in Alburtis, which has its own marker. Eventually the Hokendauqua iron works was sold to Bethlehem Steel, and was shut down in 1936. The ruins of the Thomas Iron Company are an interesting hiking destination, and I'm hoping that there will be some kind of revitalization project to make it safer to visit. It can be accessed via Whitehall's Ironton Rail Trail; it's legal to go there and I've got some neat photos from my own hike, but my personal recommendation is that you don't go alone and make plans to be out before dark.

As for the old Crane Iron Works, there's not much left on the site. The picture at left, which I took through the chain-link fence that keeps people out of the property, shows that all of the furnaces and most of the buildings which once dominated the landscape have been torn down. Only the research building and a few small satellite buildings remain. Some efforts have been made to do various things with the grounds, but thus far nothing has materialized. Let's hope that in the future, Catasauqua can find a new way to celebrate its legacy.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Crane Iron Works at the official website of the Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association

Matthews, Alfred, and Austin N. Hungerford. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Everts & Richards, Philadelphia, 1884.

Wint, Dale. "A History of the Iron Industry and Allied Businesses of the Iron Borough, Catasauqua, Pennsylvania." Personal research project, 1993. Reproduced for the Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association by John B. McVey and hosted at the Hopkin Thomas Project.

Fox, Martha Capwell. Images of America: Catasauqua and North Catasauqua. Arcadia Publishing, 2002.

Crane Iron Works at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.