Columbus Castings

Last updated

Buckeye Steel Castings was a Columbus, Ohio steelmaker best known today for its longtime president, Samuel P. Bush, who was the grandfather of President George H. W. Bush and great-grandfather of President George W. Bush.

Contents

Buckeye, named for the Ohio Buckeye tree, was founded in Columbus as the Murray-Hayden Foundry, which made iron farm implements. Finding success in manufacturing iron railroad car couplers, the name changed to the Buckeye Automatic Car Coupler Company in 1891 and Buckeye Malleable Iron and Coupler Company in 1894. Eventually, demand for stronger coupling assemblies led to a switch to steel and the name Buckeye Steel Castings.

The business was closely associated with rail baron E.H. Harriman, and for some time, was controlled by Frank Rockefeller, the brother of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller. In 1901, Buckeye hired Samuel Prescott "S.P." Bush as general manager. Bush, a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology, had worked his way up from apprentice mechanic at the locally based Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad to superintendent of motive power at that railroad, and, briefly, the Milwaukee Road. In 1908, Rockefeller departed, and Bush took over as president, a job he would hold until 1928. During this period, Bush became known as a top industrialist and had political influence in Washington, D.C.

Bush had an advanced business outlook for his day and implemented many modern management techniques as well as an unusually generous working environment.

In 1967, the parent company Buckeye International, Inc. was formed, and then was acquired in 1980 by Worthington Industries through a stock merger. Worthington sold Buckeye Steel in 1999, but it went bankrupt in 2002.

The former president of Worthington, Donald Malenick, formed an investment group to purchase the assets of Buckeye, and has reopened the business as Columbus Steel Castings. Columbus Steel Castings closed in bankruptcy in 2016. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

Buckeye may refer to:

Prescott Bush U.S. Senator

Prescott Sheldon Bush was an American banker and politician.After working as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the United States Senate from 1952 to 1963.A member of the Bush family, he was the father of former Vice President and President George H. W. Bush, and the paternal grandfather of former Texas Governor and President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

J. P. Morgan American financier, banker, and art collector (1837–1913)

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as J.P. Morgan and Co., he was the driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidation in the United States spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Bethlehem Steel Defunct American steel company

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success and productivity, the company was a symbol of American manufacturing leadership in the world, and its decline and ultimate liquidation in the late 20th century is similarly cited as an example of America's diminished manufacturing leadership. From its founding in 1857 through its 2003 dissolution, Bethlehem Steel's headquarters and primary steel mill manufacturing facilities were based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States.

Penn Central Transportation Company American class I railroad company in operation from 1968 to 1976

The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central was a combination of three railroads: the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), New York Central System (NYC) and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NH). The NH was merged into Penn Central on January 1, 1969.

Samuel P. Bush American businessman and industrialist

Samuel Prescott Bush was an American businessman and industrialist. Bush was the patriarch of the Bush political family. He was the father of U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, the paternal grandfather of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and patrilineal great-grandfather of former Texas Governor and President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

George Worthington (businessman)

George Worthington was a 19th-century merchant and banker in Cleveland, Ohio, who founded the Geo. Worthington Company, a wholesale hardware and industrial distribution firm, in 1829, as well as numerous banking and mining concerns, and contributed to the early commercial and industrial development of Cleveland.

Amasa Stone American industrialist

Amasa Stone, Jr. was an American industrialist who is best remembered for having created a regional railroad empire centered in the U.S. state of Ohio from 1860 to 1883. He gained fame in New England in the 1840s for building hundreds of bridges, most of them Howe truss bridges. After moving into railroad construction in 1848, Stone moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1850. Within four years he was a director of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad and the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad. The latter merged with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, of which Stone was appointed director. Stone was also a director or president of numerous railroads in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan.

Feargus B. Squire

Feargus O'Conner Bowden Squire, often referred to as F. B. Squire, was an executive with the Standard Oil Company and former mayor of Wickliffe, Ohio. He is well known in the petroleum industry for introducing a number of innovations, such as the tanker truck and door-to-door delivery of refined oil, and for financing a breakthrough in the mining of sulfur.

Worthington Industries, Inc. is a global diversified metals manufacturing company based in Columbus, Ohio. It is a steel processor and manufacturer of pressure vessels, such as propane, oxygen and helium tanks, hand torches, refrigerant and industrial cylinders, camping cylinders, exploration, recovery and production products for global energy markets; water system tanks for storage, treatment, heating, expansion and flow control, and compressed natural gas storage cylinders. The company also manufactures framing systems for mid-rise buildings and steel pallets and racks for shipping. It is the largest independent processor of flat-rolled steel in the United States. The company takes steel from steel producers and processes it for customers in industries including automotive, lawn and garden, construction, hardware, office furniture, electrical control, leisure and recreation, appliance, agriculture and HVAC.

Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Railroad in Ohio, United States

The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (CC&C) was a railroad that ran from Cleveland to Columbus in the U.S. state of Ohio in the United States. Chartered in 1836, it was moribund for the first 10 years of its existence. Its charter was revived and amended in 1845, and construction on the line began in November 1847. Construction was completed and the line opened for regular business in February 1851. The CC&C absorbed a small bankrupt railroad in 1861, and in May 1868 merged with the Bellefontaine Railway to form the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway.

Frank Rockefeller American businessman from New York (1845–1917)

Franklin Rockefeller was an American businessman and member of the prominent Rockefeller family.

Ohio Railway Museum Railway museum in Worthington, Ohio

The Ohio Railway Museum is a railway museum that was founded in 1948. It is located in Worthington, Ohio, near Columbus, Ohio.

The Columbus, Delaware and Marion Electric Company or CD&M was an interurban electric railroad that operated passenger and freight service in northern Ohio from 1903 to 1933.

Buckeye Manufacturing Company Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Buckeye Manufacturing Company was a company founded in 1884 by John William Lambert and his family members originally to manufacture horse drawn buggy parts in Union City, Ohio. The enterprise started with $2,000 and six men and some helper boys. The company got involved in making tools and one early horseless carriage automobile.

Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Lambert Gas and Gasoline Engine Company was a company in Anderson, Indiana, started by John William Lambert in 1894 as part of the conglomerate of the Buckeye Manufacturing Company in Union City, Ohio. The company made agricultural implement equipment, steel wheel tractors, and stationary gasoline engines for commercial users.

Janney coupler Semi-automatic railroad coupler

Janney couplers are a semi-automatic form of railway coupling that allow rail cars and locomotives to be securely linked together without rail workers having to get between the vehicles. They are also known as American, AAR, APT, ARA, MCB, knuckle, buckeye, tightlock, Henricot or center-buffer couplers.

William Walker Scranton American businessman

William Walker Scranton was an American businessman based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He became president and manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company after his father's death in 1872. The company had been founded by his father's cousin George W. Scranton. Among his innovations, Scranton adopted the Bessemer process for his operations in 1876, greatly increasing production of steel ties with a new mill. Scranton founded the Scranton Steel Company, in 1891 consolidated as Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company. The steel company became the second largest in the nation. He later also managed the Scranton Gas and Water Company, developing a secure water supply outside the city by creating Lake Scranton.

Henry Chisholm

Henry Chisholm was a Scottish American businessman and steel industry executive during the Gilded Age in the United States. A resident of Cleveland, Ohio, he purchased a small, struggling iron foundry which became the Cleveland Rolling Mill, one of the largest steel firms in the nation. He is known as the "father of the Cleveland steel trade".

Stillman Witt American railroad and steel industry executive

Stillman Witt was an American railroad and steel industry executive best known for building the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, and the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad. Through his banking activities, he played a significant role in the early years of the Standard Oil company. He was also one of the founding investors in the Cleveland Rolling Mill, a major steel firm in the United States.

References

  1. Columbus Steel Castings Now Idle, in Bankruptcy, Seeking Sale