Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives
In the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century, steel mills sprang up in empty fields across western Pennsylvania and were soon surrounded by booming mill towns. Located 70 miles north of Pittsburgh, the Sharon Steel Works began in the 1890s, and became part of the Carnegie Steel empire in 1902. By the time South Sharon changed its name to Farrell, after United States Steel Corporation president J. A. Farrell, in 1912, the town had more 10,000 residents.
