Taylor-Wharton Iron and Steel Company.

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The Taylor-Wharton Iron & Steel Company was incorporated in 1912 as successor to the Taylor Iron & Steel Company. The company produced frogs, switches and other railroad fittings including couplings, axles, and wheels, as well as war material during both World Wars. Its assets were sold to the Harsco Corporation in 1953, and the company was liquidated on December 31, 1954.

The company traces its roots to the Union Iron Works, established at what is now High Bridge, N.J., in 1742 by William Allen and Joseph Turner of Philadelphia. The works consisted of a charcoal blast furnace and a pre-existing forge. Robert Taylor, an Irish immigrant, became works manager in 1769 and purchased control in 1803. His grandson, Lewis H. Taylor, greatly enlarged the works after the Central Railroad of New Jersey was built past the site in 1852 and began the manufacture of railroad car and track fittings. The firm imported the first Nasmyth steam hammer into the U.S. in 1854.

From 1860 to 1868 the works were operated as the partnership of Taylor & Large, and for two months in 1868 as the Lahlatang Iron Works. The Taylor Iron Works was incorporated in 1868 and reorganized as the Taylor Iron & Steel Company in 1891. In 1892 it acquired the American rights to manufacture manganese steel, invented by Robert Hadfield of Sheffield, England, creating much more durable frogs and switches. Two years later Wm. Wharton, Jr., & Co. contracted with Taylor for manganese steel rails for street railways. The Wharton firm merged with Taylor in 1912 to form the Taylor-Wharton Iron & Steel Company, and a new plant was completed at Easton, Pa., in 1914. It absorbed the Tioga Iron & Steel Company in 1913 and the Philadelphia Roll & Machine Company in 1919. Knox Taylor, the last of five generations of the Taylor family to head the firm, died in 1922.

Taylor-Wharton acquired an iterest in the Yuba Manufacturing Company of California in 1933, adding the manufacture of dredge buckets. It acquired the American Frog & Switch Company of Hamilton, Ohio, in 1934 and operated it through 1950. In 1949 the company absorbed the Weir Kilby Corporation of Cincinnati and Birmingham. After celebrating its 210th anniversary in 1952, Taylor-Wharton was acquired by the Harsco Corporation. The High Bridge plant was finally closed in 1970.

From the description of Records, 1742-1950. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122370813

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Active 1742

Active 1950

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