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Fwd: (erielack) Re: Youngstown

I referred the posting about the Jeanette Blast Furnace to local  rail/steel 
historian, Rick Rowlands in Youngstown.
 
Here is his response:
 
 
 
 
Steve,
 
Pass this on to the EL List.  As you can tell the whole "Jenny" thing  is a 
bit of a sore subject for me.
 
Rick
 
Good Grief!  Some idiot rock star has managed to rewrite 80 years of  
history.  There never was a blast furnace named "Jenny".  Not here in  the Mahoning 
Valley at least.  This fiction has been perpetuated by John  Russo, a so called 
PROFESSOR at Youngstown State University who is riding on  Springsteen's 
coattails by in essence rewriting history by referring to  Jeannette as Jenny in 
his factually inadequate "Steeltown" book. 
 
    I have studied this blast furnace plant for years. I  have most of the 
original engineering drawings for this blast furnace and  nowhere and at any 
time has Jeannette ever been referred to as Jenny. 
 
Here is the real story:
 
On Sept. 20, 1918 the Jeannette blast furnace was blown in at the Brier  Hill 
Steel Company in Youngstown.  The furnace was named after the 4 year  old 
daughter of company president W.A. Thomas, her name was Mary Jeannette. In  1923 
this company became the Brier Hill Works of Youngstown Sheet and  Tube.  The 
plant was served by the Erie whose Brier Hill yard was adjacent  to the 
property.  The PY&A, B&O and LE&E also served the  plant.  Jeannette was blown out 
sometime in the late 1970s, possibly  September, 1977 but I don't have data to 
confirm that. That date comes from a  calendar I found hanging in the Jeannette 
stockhouse.
 
Jeannette was a minor producer in the Youngstown district.  Its  shutdown did 
not cause the massive amounts of job loss.  The major plant  closings at the 
YS&T Campbell Works, US Steel Ohio Works and Brier Hill  Works steel making 
department is where the massive job losses came from. 
 
Rick Rowlands
Youngstown, Ohio


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Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:42:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Todd Hollritt <thollritt_@_yahoo.com>
Subject: (erielack) Re: Youngstown
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Todd,

I think the reference in the song to "Jenny" has to do with the last 
blast  furnace torn down in Youngstown. It was named after the daughter of a 
steel  company official, whose name was Jenny. There are no longer ANY blast furnaces in Youngstown. Good news - the air in Youngstown is 25% cleaner. That doesn't make me feel much better.

Rick Fleischer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
  Rick (and list)
     I did a little research and you are correct, Bruce "Is" singing to the Jeannette blast furnace! This expert is from the book "Steeltown U.S.A" Work and Memory in Youngstown.
                                      ****************************
   When "the Jenny" was shut down in 1978, 50,000 Youngstown workers lost their jobs, cutting the heart out of the local economy. Even as the community organized a nationally recognized effort to save the mills, the city was rocked by economic devastation, runaway crime, and mob scandal, problems that persist twenty-five years later. In the midst of these struggles "the Jenny" remained standing as a proud symbol of the community's glory days, still a dominant force in the construction of both individual and collective identities in Youngstown.
                                    *******************************
   
  I found no information on what railroads served "The Jenny". 
   
  Todd ~
   
   
    

 
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