Alexander McBurney Byers and Martha Fleming
Husband Alexander McBurney Byers 1 2
Born: 6 Sep 1827 - Greenfield, Mercer Co, PA 2 Christened: Died: 19 Sep 1900 - New York City, NY 3 Buried:
Father: Daniel C. Byers (Abt 1796-1854) 4 Mother: Maria McBurney (Abt 1802-1879) 5
Marriage: 22 Dec 1864 - Allegheny, Allegheny Co, PA 6
Wife Martha Fleming 6
Born: Christened: Died: Aug 1912 3 Buried:
Father: Cockran Fleming ( - ) 6 Mother: Sarah [Unk] ( - ) 6
Children
1 F Maude Byers 6
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: John Denniston Lyon (1861- ) 7 Marr: 18 Feb 1896 8
2 M Alexander McBurney Byers II 6
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1915 Buried:
3 M Dallas Cannon Byers 6
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1915 Buried:
4 M Eben M. Byers 9
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
5 M John Frederic Byers, Esq. 10
AKA: J. Frederick Byers 6 Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Caroline Mitchell Morris (1886- ) 6 Marr: 6 Dec 1905 10
General Notes: Husband - Alexander McBurney Byers
He received his education in the public schools of the home neighborhood, meanwhile assisting his father in the labors of the farm. Very early in life he entered upon his long and memorable connection with the iron industry by associating himself with the Henry Clay Furnace Company, an organization which operated one of the oldest blast furnaces in Pennsylvania. When only sixteen years of age Mr. Byers was intrusted with the superintendency of a blast furnace, thus enjoying, perhaps, greater advantages for gaining a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of pig-iron from the raw material than furnace men of the present day possess. At that primitive period, in the iron industry furnace companies west of the mountains dug their ores from the surrounding hills, usually having to strip from fifteen to twenty feet of earth for a ten or twelve-inch vein of ore, which would yield only twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. of iron in a blast furnace. They chopped their own wood, made their own charcoal for the smelting of the ore and mined the coal which was subsequently used in the furnace. Noteworthy, indeed, is the fact that the furnace of which Mr. Byers was the youthful superintendent was the first west of the mountains to practically demonstrate the successful use of raw bituminous coal for the smelting of the ores in blast furnaces, without first coking it. Moreover, it is recorded in the annals of the iron industry that at this same furnace, in 1848 to 1849, the first Lake Superior iron ores were smelted, under the supervision of Alexander McBurney Byers. Thus early did the future iron magnate begin to gather his laurels.
In 1854 Mr. Byers went to Cleveland, Ohio, to assume charge of the iron interests of the firm of Spang & Company, and three years later came to Pittsburgh as the representative of that house. In 1858 he became a partner in the firm of Spang, Chalfant & Company, manufacturers of iron in all its branches. In the spring of 1864, when the partnership expired by limitation, Mr. Byers disposed of his interests to his partners, and the same year founded the house of Graff, Byers & Company, erecting a puddle mill, rolling mill and a mill for the manufacture of wrought iron pipe on the south bank of the Monongahela river, being the only firm but one in the United States to manufacture their own iron for the production of wrought iron tubes. In 1870, the style of the firm was changed to Byers, McCullough & Company, and in 1886 became A. M. Byers & Company, under which title it was incorporated in September, 1893, with a capital stock of half a million dollars. As originally established in 1854, this enterprise was a modest one, but from the very outset it was successful, as, indeed, it was destined to be, having for its leader a man of the type of Mr. Byers. The firm at once made a place for its wares in competition with the output of rival concerns, and from time to time increased the capacity of its mills, the plant now covering several acres on the line of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, from Sixth street to Bingham street. Also the largest puddle mill in America at Girard, Ohio. The mills now give employment to twenty-five hundred men, and have an annual capacity of 96,000 tons of wrought iron water, gas, steam and oil-well pipe.
In 1870 Mr. Byers became the sole owner and operator of an extensive furnace, puddle and rolling mills at Girard, Ohio. He was one of the organizers of the Philadelphia Company, and was one of its board of directors, and its largest individual stock-holder until the company was purchased by Alexander Brown & Sons, of Baltimore. One of his associates in the establishment of this company was George Westinghouse, with whom he was later allied in other and greater enterprises. Mr. Byers had been a director in the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company, and the Union Switch & Signal Company. He was president of the Union Bridge Company, and in different ways fostered many other manufactures, the number of which it would be impossible to enumerate. He did not ally himself with the National Tube Company at its inception, but conducted the business of A. M. Byers & Company. As a business man, it may without exaggeration be asserted that Mr. Byers was in many respects a model. The goal of his ambition was success, but he would succeed only on the basis of truth and honor. Duplicity and false representations he would not palliate, either in his own service or among his customers or correspondents, and no amount of gain could lure him from the undeviating line of rectitude. The justice and kindliness which ever marked his dealings with his employees were beyond all praise and secured for him their loyal service and hearty cooperation.
Not only was Mr. Byers for many years prominently identified with the manufacturing interests of Pittsburgh, and with the commercial element in her business life, but he was also a leader in the realm of finance, holding the office of president of the Iron City National Bank. He was a director in the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Insurance Company, the American Surety Company, and many other concerns. As a citizen with exalted ideas of good government and civic virtue he stood in the front rank, ever ready to lend his influence and support to any project which, in his judgment, tended to further the best interests of Pittsburgh. Widely but unostentatiously charitable, the full extent of his good deeds was known only to the beneficiaries. He affiliated with the Republican party.
In his countenance Mr. Byers plainly depicted all the tremendous energy and indomitable resolution so strikingly manifested throughout his career. His finely-cut features and keen, searching eyes indicated at once the thinker and the man of action, while the kindliness of his expression and the geniality of his manner showed that he combined the qualities of a leader in the arena of business with those of a philanthropist-that he possessed those beautiful elements of character which win and hold friends. [GPHWP, 117]
1 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 881.
2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 117.
3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 120.
4 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 738, 880.
5 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 738, 881.
6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 119.
7 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 78, 119.
8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 81.
9 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg119.
10
John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 66.
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