by William Lafferty » August 20, 2023, 2:08 pm
But then Mather forms his own company with Pickands and competes against it? I have had a hard time understanding the companies at the turn of the century as they were in one way or another related to US Steel but yet mostly owned by John Rockefeller's shell companies. The two large independent carriers of Hanna, Hawgood, and Gilchrist were gone by the end of WW1 when they were absorbed by Interlake, Pittsburgh, US Steel, Columbia, Bethlehem, and Cliffs which were all subsidiaries of US Steel.
Mather by that time had access to considerable capital by marriage to the daughter of Amasa Stone, one of the great railroad titans and Cleveland industrialist. Jay C. Morse, a former Cleveland Iron Mining Company executive and James Pickands, Marquette coal and pig iron dealer, formed a partnership in 1867 at Marquette as coal and pig iron dealers, and not in any direct competition with Cleveland Iron. Mather became the partnership's agent in ore selling when the partnership purchased two small iron mines. The only Rockefeller connection among all these was Amasa Stone whose bank lent Rockefeller considerable capital to get Standard Oil off the ground, but that was in the 1870s and had nothing to do with ore or steel. As I state below, United States Steel, formed in 1901, had nothing to do with the iterations of Hanna; Pickands, Mather; or, for that matter, Oglebay Norton. Hanna began as vessel agents and managers in the 1870s, although two of the fleets it managed, Mutual and Menominee, would be bought by USS in 1901. It managed the fleet of the Republic Iron Company in the early days and when M. A. Hanna & Company, then also owning mines, merged with Weirton Steel Company in 1929 to form National Steel Corporation, the new firm absorbed Hanna's Calumet Transportation Company vessels as had Bethlehem when it absorbed the various fleets Hanna operated on its behalf the previous year. Pickands, Mather also managed vessels on behalf of others, most notably Lackawanna Steel Company which would be merged with Bethlehem in 1922, and purchased the Gilchrist castoffs when it formed Interlake in 1913. Oglebay Norton acquired the Richardson interests and founded the Columbia Steamship Company in 1921. Gilchrist collapsed because of woeful mismanagement and Hawgood because of over extension that led to fiscal subterfuge. None of these entities had anything to do with United States Steel.
[quote]But then Mather forms his own company with Pickands and competes against it? I have had a hard time understanding the companies at the turn of the century as they were in one way or another related to US Steel but yet mostly owned by John Rockefeller's shell companies. The two large independent carriers of Hanna, Hawgood, and Gilchrist were gone by the end of WW1 when they were absorbed by Interlake, Pittsburgh, US Steel, Columbia, Bethlehem, and Cliffs which were all subsidiaries of US Steel.[/quote]
Mather by that time had access to considerable capital by marriage to the daughter of Amasa Stone, one of the great railroad titans and Cleveland industrialist. Jay C. Morse, a former Cleveland Iron Mining Company executive and James Pickands, Marquette coal and pig iron dealer, formed a partnership in 1867 at Marquette as coal and pig iron dealers, and not in any direct competition with Cleveland Iron. Mather became the partnership's agent in ore selling when the partnership purchased two small iron mines. The only Rockefeller connection among all these was Amasa Stone whose bank lent Rockefeller considerable capital to get Standard Oil off the ground, but that was in the 1870s and had nothing to do with ore or steel. As I state below, United States Steel, formed in 1901, had nothing to do with the iterations of Hanna; Pickands, Mather; or, for that matter, Oglebay Norton. Hanna began as vessel agents and managers in the 1870s, although two of the fleets it managed, Mutual and Menominee, would be bought by USS in 1901. It managed the fleet of the Republic Iron Company in the early days and when M. A. Hanna & Company, then also owning mines, merged with Weirton Steel Company in 1929 to form National Steel Corporation, the new firm absorbed Hanna's Calumet Transportation Company vessels as had Bethlehem when it absorbed the various fleets Hanna operated on its behalf the previous year. Pickands, Mather also managed vessels on behalf of others, most notably Lackawanna Steel Company which would be merged with Bethlehem in 1922, and purchased the Gilchrist castoffs when it formed Interlake in 1913. Oglebay Norton acquired the Richardson interests and founded the Columbia Steamship Company in 1921. Gilchrist collapsed because of woeful mismanagement and Hawgood because of over extension that led to fiscal subterfuge. None of these entities had anything to do with United States Steel.