The First of Its Kind in the Country

In 1899 the W. H. Haws Company of Johnstown began building a plant at the west end of Shirley Street. The federal engineering survey that documented it records what that plant was: the first works in the United States built exclusively to manufacture silica brick. Nowhere else in the country had anyone put up a factory for that one purpose and nothing else. Harbison and Walker of Pittsburgh, one of the largest refractory makers in the world, bought it within a few years and built a second works beside it. By 1910 the two together employed more than 600 men and could turn out 150,000 bricks a day.

This is what the yard looked like when federal surveyors photographed it after the closing. The kilns were gone. The stacks were still up.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

She observed, how much more honorable would it be to me to be an officer in the British service. I remarked that I could not dispose of m \ self in that way ; I belonged to the Congress of the United States, and that I would abide the consequences. She left me, and that was the last I heard of it. A guard was set at my apartment. In about four days after, 1 was sent down Lake Ontario to a place called Carlton Island : from thence down the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where I was placed, in prison, and found forty or fifty of our American officers, and where we had the honor to look through the iron grates. The fourth of July was drawing near; ten of us combined to celebrate the political birth-day of our country; we found ways and means to have some brandy conveyed in to us, unknown to the British guard. It was highly offensive to the British COLUMBIA COUNTY. 337 officers, and we ten were taken out and sent to Quebec, thence down to St. Lawrence, and put on the Isle of New Orleans, where we remained until the last of September ; a British fleet sailed about the same time and bound for New York ; we were put on board of that fleet. When we came to New York there was no exchange for us. General Carlton then commanded the British army at New York ; he paroled us to return homb. In the month of Mareb, 1783, 1 was exchanged, and had orders to take up arms again.I. Daniel Rupp, History and Topography of Northumberland, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Centre, Union, Columbia, Juniata and Clinton Counties (Lancaster, 1847) · character 707,081 of the scanned text

In 1863 he advocated the reelection of Governor Curtin and he supported Mr. Lincoln for the presidency in 1864, In 1868 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention and at the ensuing session of the legislature was elected United States senator, taking the oath of office on March 4, 1869. As senator he served upon several important committees and was an active participant in shaping the legislation of that period. Aside from his professional labors and his political activity, he was interested in various enterprises calculated to advance the material interests of his native county. He was one of the projectors of the Huntingdon & Broad Top railroad and labored assiduously for the success of the undertaking. At the close of his term in the senate he was made general counsel for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and removed to Pittsburgh, where the company's offices were located. The fourth and last constitutional convention met in the capitol at Harrisburg on November 12, 1872. In this convention there were 133 delegates , 28 from the state at large and 105 from the senatorial districts. The Twenty-second district, which was composed of the counties of Huntingdon, Center, Juniata and Mifflin, was represented by John McCulloch and John M. Bailey, of Huntingdon, and Andrew Reed, of Mifflin.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 152,581 of the scanned text

Division of Pennsylvania into Counties, Philadelphia, Bucks and ChesterLancaster, Cumberland , Bedford, Huntingdon , County Si at, Townships then within the County, Election Districts, First Incumbents of County Offices, Court Houses, Jails, Running and Ascertaining County Lines , Difficulties with Mifflin County, Erection of new Counties, Centre , Cambria , Blair. A Tempest in Politics, Adoption of the Constitution of the United StatesOpposition to it in Huntingdon County, General William McAlevy, His Political Influence, Armed Interference with the Public Officers in the Performance of their Duties, Turbulent Interruption of the Courts, Arrests and Rescues, Muster of Col.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 11,985 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-08-21 · Historic Mount Union collection

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