remodeled, and it now produces for the company an average of 850 tons per week. A bessemer steel plant was added at Benwood which began operations June 11, 1884, perfectly constructed and equipped, and a plate mill, adjacent, was built 1885. The company also has a mill for the production of bar steel and light T-rails, steel pipe mills with an average annual capacity of 30,000 tons, and two large nail factories which can turn out 12,000 Kegs of nails a week. Of late, the manufacture of steel pipe has been given special prominence, and with much success. About 1,500 workmen are given employment in the mills of this company. Upon the reorganization and incorporation of the company, 1874. Mr. Hearne became general manager and this position he held until 1876, when he was succeeded by his son, Frank J., but he is still a prominent stockholder and director. Mr. Hearne is also president of the West Virginia China Company, which was founded 1887, by him and others, and has one of the most important and extensive plants in the city. He is also a stockholder in the Woodward Iron Co. of Ala.

Colonel Frank J. Hearne, a native of Maryland is of English descent. His first American ancestor was William Hearne, who emigrated from England to St. Thomas, an Island of the Barbados, in 1660, and carried on commerce between the West Indies and England and some of the colonies of North America. After a Successful mercantile career of more than a quarter of a century, in the coast and insular trade, William Hearne settled in Maryland, 1688, and established a homestead which has continued to bear the family name to the present, having been occupied all the time by some of his descendants. It may therefore be asserted that he "settled" rather than located, and built a home whose permanence comports with the institutions of the country. Frank J. Hearne was born in Cambridge, Dorchester co., Md., Sept. 21, 1846, the son of William Lowder and Maria Elizabeth (Ross) Hearne. His education was acquired at schools affording great variety in the literary, industrial, and technical accomplishments. It was begun in Cambridge, Md., and continued in Hannibal, Mo., and in the old

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Thanks to Candy Hearn for transcribing this page.