The Mahoning Valley Steel Company was formally organized on July 12, 1916, with a capital investment of $600,000. The original officers were Jacob D. Waddell, president; T. E. Thomas, vice president and treasurer;

W. Aubrey Thomas William Aubrey Thomas (June 7, 1866September 8, 1951) was an American scientist and politician who served as a US Representative from Ohio from 1904 to 1911. Biography Born in Y Bynea, near Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, Thomas immigrate ...

, secretary; directors, John M. Thomas and M. T. Clingan and the officers named above. An interesting family dynamic was that Jacob D. Waddel married Mary Ann Thomas in Dec. 12, 1917, making him the brother-in-law to the other directors, all children of John Rhys Thomas. The company erected a sheet mill plant at

Niles, Ohio Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan a ...

with an annual capacity of 48,000 tons of black steel sheets, and made improvements and extensions which permitted of the production of 12,000 tons of galvanized sheets per year. The plant employed approximately 425 men, and had an annual payroll of about $960,000. Offices were maintained at Niles, New York City, Chicago, West Hamilton (Ontario), and St. Louis. This company began a comprehensive housing plan, and invested by 1921 about $50,000 in this way, and would extend its housing operations as needed. It isn't figurative speech to say the steel mills created neighborhoods and cities. It's actually quite literal. Steel companies had real estate subsidiaries that built homes for employees, and in the case of MacDonald, Ohio (Near Niles), US Steel built the entire town, including its city hall, fire/police station and parks. Just after World War II, there was a serious shortage of steel.

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

needed access for steel for its growing electric supply division. Mahoning Valley Steel was a hand rolling mill, also called a back and forth mill, which did not make the type of steel needed by GE, but the mill did have access to its quota of steel, which GE did need. The president at that time, John P. Hosack, made a deal to sell the company to GE if they agreed to build an

Electrical conduit An electrical conduit is a tube used to protect and route electrical wiring in a building or structure. Electrical conduit may be made of metal, plastic, fiber, or fired clay. Most conduit is rigid, but flexible conduit is used for some purpos ...

plant on the site, which maintained jobs in Niles. General Electric was forced to divest the supply company in 2006, and the plant was closed by the new owner.{{Cite web , title=New Identity for GE Supply GEXPRO Introduced , url=https://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/new-identity-for-ge-supply-gexpro-introduced-519768

References

Niles, Ohio Steel companies of the United States Defunct manufacturing companies based in Ohio Manufacturing companies established in 1916 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1950