The heartland of many of the nation's heavy industries, Pennsylvania was also home to a remarkable diversity of industrial production that ranged from glass, slate, and Portland cement, to shipbuilding and milk chocolate.
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1690 |
William Rittenhouse built the first paper mill in the American colonies in Philadelphia. |
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1755 |
General Braddock and young George Washington employed a supply train of Lancaster County Conestoga Wagons on unsuccessful campaign to capture Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). |
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1764 |
"Baron" Stiegel established a glassworks near Mannheim, Lancaster County,
that made high quality glass objects.
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1785 |
Oliver Evans invented an automated grist mill that soon replaced many simpler
ones that required considerable manual labor to process wheat or corn into flour
or meal, respectively.
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1815 |
Henry Shreve made first up river steamboat journey from New Orleans to his home
near Pittsburgh.
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1815 |
Andrew Jackson's soldiers, many armed with highly-accurate Pennsylvania rifles, decisively defeated British army at Battle of New Orleans.
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1840 |
John Wagner brought yeast used to make German lager beer to Philadelphia and began to make what would become America's favorite brewed beverage. |
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1848 |
Robert M. Jones arrived from Wales to develop what would become a thriving slate
industry in Lehigh Valley.
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1853 |
Samuel Wetherill founded Lehigh Zinc Company to make zinc oxide and metal in Bethlehem. |
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1854 |
Lumber baron Peter Herdic built mansion in Millionaires Row in lumbering center of Williamsport. |
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1869 |
Henry J. Heinz started his processed food business in Pittsburgh by selling horseradish in glass jars.
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1871 |
David O. Saylor began production of Portland cement near Allentown initiating a Cement boom in the region.
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1872 |
Jeremiah Sweinhart joined growing wooden vehicle industry by opening a factory in Boyertown. The company survived for over one hundred years as a specialty vehicle
manufacturer.
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1876 |
John Wanamaker opened the first department store in Philadelphia.
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1877 |
W. Atlee Burpee began to sell vegetable seeds by mail order from Doylestown, Bucks County
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1880 |
Paterson, New Jersey, silk manufacturers began to move their factories westward into northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley.
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1883 |
John Baptiste Ford and John Pitcairn founded the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company to make large plates of glass for store windows.
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1886 |
George Westinghouse incorporated the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh to develop alternating current systems.
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1887 |
Inventor Charles Martin Hall formed the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, precursor to the Aluminum Company of America.
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1900 |
Pennsylvania is number one leather producing State with 25% of national production.
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1905 |
Milton S. Hershey opened large chocolate factory in what would become the company town of Hershey, Dauphin County.
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1911 |
The British textile firm Courtaulds began American production of the new fiber rayon at Marcus Hook, north of Philadelphia.
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1912 |
Fred Kirby merged his ninety-six 5 and 10 cent stores, headquartered in Wilkes Barre, with the much larger Woolworth chain.
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1917 |
Mack trucks, made in Allentown,given the nickname "bulldog" by British soldiers. |
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1919 |
Unity House established in Pocono Mountains as a retreat for textile workers
belonging to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
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1935 |
Morris L. Cooke headed the new Rural Electrification Administration, a New Deal agency that helped farmers form cooperatives to bring electricity to the countryside.
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1937 |
Labor organizers at Hershey plant lead sit-down strike in factory that ends when a mob forcibly evicted the strikers.
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1944 |
Pittsburgh-based Dravo Corporation supplied large numbers of landing craft for D-Day invasion. |
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1948 |
John Walson became a pioneer in cable television by installing a system in Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County.
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