Kelly-Bessemer process pioneered in America in 1864 in Wyandotte, MI

(See also Making Steel.)

This Wyandotte, MI, plant was the first iron plant to install a commercial grade Kelly/Bessemer convertor in America in 1864. But the Pennsylvania Steel Co. was the first plant that was built to make steel instead of iron.

Raymond Boothe posted
View of a Bessemer Converter: (Beth photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).

By Unknown - The Story of Detroit (1923) by George B. Catlin, Public Domain, Link

While watching the video below, at 16:05 they say that Eureka Iron Company in Wyandotte, MI, was the first Bessemer iron works in America in 1864 and made the first rail in 1865.

Detroit1701

Near the corner of Elm Street and Van Alstyne

Boulevard Wyandotte, Michigan

While vacationing near Marquette, MI in 1853, Philip Thurber learned of the recent discovery of iron ore deposits in Northern Michigan. After testing a sample of the ore, he engaged some Detroit capitalists to help found Eureka Iron Works. One of the capitalists was Captain Eber Brock Ward who was Michigan's first milt-millionaire because of timber lands, silver mines, and Great Lakes shipping. (Remember, a million dollars was worth a lot back in the middle 1800s.)

In 1854 they bought 2,200 acres along the Detroit River that had a lot of trees and built a factory consisting of two blast furnaces and a rolling mill. Because they had plenty of trees, they used the old method of wood/charcoal instead of the newer method of coal/coke to fuel their furnaces. As they cut down the trees, they sold the land to create Wyandott, MI.

In 1861, Ward and his investors bought Kelly's 1857 patent for his "pneumatic process" because Kelly's iron works did not survive the panic of 1857 and he went bankrupt. In 1864, they added a 3-ton converter to their plant to produce the first Bessemer steel ingots in America. "The following year, on May 25, 1865, the company produced the first Bessemer steel rails." [DetroitHistorical] But Wikipedia states: "Ward meanwhile had built another steelmill in Chicago called the Illinois Steel Company. From this steelmill in 1865 Ward made the first Bessemer steel rails produced in the United States." This contradiction is resolved below when one realizes that the Illinois Steel Company was formed later from a merger of North Chicago Rolling Mill and Joliet Iron Works.

Ward’s manufacturing career began with the purchase of iron mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. With iron ore readily available, Ward opened his first iron mill, the Eureka Iron Works, in Wyandotte, Mich., in 1853. The North Chicago Rolling Mill in Chicago followed in 1857. Both mills manufactured iron rails, but due to the softness of the iron, the rails lost their shape within two years and were returned to the mills to be rerolled.
Ward was interested in the Bessemer process of steel making, which removed carbon from the iron, making for a stronger metal. Ward successfully produced the first Bessemer steel in America at his Wyandotte Plant on Sept. 6, 1864. From this steel, Ward’s Chicago plant rolled the first steel rails in America on May 24, 1865. In 1867 Ward opened his third mill, the Milwaukee Iron Company, on the future site of the Village of Bay View. At that point Ward was considered America’s “Iron King.” [BayViewCompass]

In the 1870's the company began its decline. They had consumed all of the trees in their vicinity. They had land-locked themselves by selling their real estate. So upgrading a plant that was designed for iron production with steel as an add on to a plant that was designed for steel production was not feasible. Eber Ward decided to shift steel production to Chicago. "The death knell occurred on June 1, 1888 when a boiler explosion rocked the foundation of the Eureka Iron and Steel Company. The company officially halted production in 1892 and the Eureka Iron Works were dismantled."

[Detroit1701, DetroitHistorical, Wikipedia]

PlacePromotion

PlacePromotion
Building prior to 1955 renovation

Since they were also in the real estate business, they built a headquarters building at Biddle and Elm. The building was larger than Eureka needed; and John VanAlstyne, the manager of the Eureka Iron & Steel Co., founded in 1871 the Wyandotte Savings Bank in that building.

Unfortunately, the "modernization" of the building in 1955 successfully destroyed all of the historical aspects of the building.

Jeffery Trusewixz posted
Here's a little know mill , I believe. It, however boasts a historic feat in american steel making. It was in Wyandotte Michigan. It has an historic plaque in the city stating it was where the first Bessemer Process steel making facility in the United States was. It was the Eureka Iron Works. Sadly destroyed by explosion more than a century ago.

Kevin Nelson Extremely interesting! I did not know this history of the Bessemer Process.

I worked at a USS mill in Youngstown, Ohio in the 1970's where part of the Bessemer Plant was still standing, I walked by it every day on my way to the Open Hearth Furnaces. The building that I remember clearly had molten iron holding tanks in them that we called Mixer tanks. There were probably 6 tanks, 100 tons capacity each.

The Bessemer Furnaces there had closed in 1958.

Steve Howell: Cambria in johnstown was first with the Kelly converter

Mike Delaney posted five photos with the comment: "Eureka Iron Works, Wyandotte, Michigan.  Built by the Industrialist Eber Ward.  Self made man involved in Lake Shipping, iron and steel.  First plant to use the Bessemer Process.  A book about Eber Ward was just released earlier this year.  Became one of the richest men in America.  He bought plants in Chicago and Milwaukee.  Slag underlies most of Wyandotte.  Old pig iron ingot from the works and partially smelted iron ore from my collection gathered at old excavations around the city."

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