The Columbia Rolling Mill, an

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

works, operated in

Uniontown, Pennsylvania Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Greater Pittsburgh Region. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census, down from 12,422 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and ...

from 1887 to 1895. In 1895 it was sold to

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, who moved the mill to

Homestead, Pennsylvania Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, in the Monongahela River valley southeast of downtown Pittsburgh and directly across the river from the city limit line. The borough is known for the Homestead Strike of 1892, an imp ...

. The mill was Uniontown's largest industry in the early 1890s.

History

The Columbia Rolling Mill had a substantial number of employees, especially in its first years of operation. It was serviced by the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. The mill reported marginal gains in 1887, 1888, and 1889. Although the gains were small, it proved those who thought the mill would quickly fold to be wrong. A small-scale strike hampered the mill in 1890. In 1891 and 1892, the mill reported losses. However, in 1893 the mill recovered and in 1894, the mill took in substantial gains. 1895 appeared to be another solid year, when suddenly, the mill was sold and moved. Andrew Carnegie paid an impressive sum for the mill and many Uniontown citizens lost their jobs. The Columbia Rolling Mill had since been a topic of great controversy in Uniontown. In the late 19th century,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

was gaining footing as an iron and steel producing giant. Andrew Carnegie had fabulous transportation services, thanks to the Monongahela, Allegheny, and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Rivers, and to the railroads servicing Pittsburgh. Much of the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

that was used in the Pittsburgh mills was obtained from the hills surrounding

Connellsville, Pennsylvania Connellsville is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and away via the Youghiogheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela River. It is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 7,637 at th ...

, a neighboring town to Uniontown. Supposedly, Carnegie feared that a mill in Uniontown could lead to an Uniontown and Connellsville alliance that could hurt his profits. Uniontown was considerably closer to the rich coal fields than Pittsburgh, thus transportation costs will be cheaper. While Uniontown had no major waterways, the neighboring town of

Brownsville, Pennsylvania Brownsville is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, first settled in 1785 as the site of a trading post a few years after the Sullivan Expedition, defeat of the Iroquois enabled a post-Revolutionary war ...

, a shipbuilding center, was located on the Monongahela River. If Carnegie would not have seized the Columbia Rolling Mill before he did, other mills may have opened in the Uniontown area, causing problems for Carnegie. {{Uniontown, Pennsylvania Andrew Carnegie Economic history of Pennsylvania Rolling mills Ironworks and steel mills in Pennsylvania Industrial buildings and structures in Pennsylvania Industrial buildings completed in 1887 Uniontown, Pennsylvania