Steel Town

Steel Town. . , By the mid-19th Century Newport emerged as a center of Kentucky's thriving iron and steel industry. In 1850 the Licking Rolling Mill employed 120 workers and annually transformed over 3,000 tons of pig iron into finished product., In 1891 Joseph and Albert Andrews purchased the Swifts Iron and Steel Company with its 34 coke ovens. This was the cornerstone to becoming Newport's biggest 20th century employer. During World War I the Newport Rolling Mill employed 850 workers and ran three shifts a day. There were also operations at Globe Iron Roofing in Cincinnati and a steel billet manufacturing plant in Wilder., The steelworker became the symbol of Newport. Day and night thousands labored in the scorching heat of the furnace to support their families and when times got tough they stood for their rights on the picket lines. Newport steel workers would lead strikes in 1921 and again in 1949 that would have national implications., The city's steel making tradition came to an end when The Newport Steel Corporation's successor company was sold in 2006. The production of steel in Newport along the Licking River had already been discontinued in 2001., Caption (lower right): Winold Reiss created mosaics in 1929 for the Cincinnati Union Terminal and included this illustration of the Andrews Rolling Mill.