BRYNCOCH MAN BECAME U.S. "IRON KING"
FIRST TO USE ANTHRACITE IN SMELTING
IN a recent edition of the "Neath Quiz," reference was made to David Thomas, of Bryncoch, who, emigrating to America in the last century, played a great part in the foundation of the anthracite iron smelting industry of Pennsylvania. This reference has drawn an interesting response from Mrs. Taylor, of "Pantawel," Bryncoch, who is the grand-niece of the old industrial pioneer. Mrs. Taylor, who will celebrate her eighty-sixth birthday in August next, has kindly supplied the following information, which will interest "Quiz" readers.
Mrs. Taylor recalls that David Thomas was the only son of "old" David Thomas, of Ty Llwyd Farm, Bryncoch. Obtaining some education at a school held in Queen Street, Neath, the young lad was apprenticed at the Neath Abbey Iron and Engineering Works, which proved to be the training-ground of several men who were later to achieve fame in the industrial and engineering worlds.
SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS
With a thorough knowledge of the processes involved in the smelting and manufacture of iron, David Thomas obtained employment at the Ynyscedwyn Ironworks, Ystradgynlais, where he soon became a trusted man. At this time, several ironmasters were experimenting to [find a] method of using anthracite for the smelting of iron ore, but this coal, because of its peculiar properties, proved a most stubborn material. Thus the British Iron Company refers in 1886 to the furnaces which they had erected at Cwmgwrelych, near Glynneath, "for testing a new mode of smelting with stone-coal, which experiments have failed, and had before failed in the hands of other adventurers." Eventually, these experiments were brought to a successful conclusion at Ynyscedwyn by combining a hot blast with the use of anthracite in the furnace.
FORMED IRON COMPANY
While these developments were taking place in the Swansea Valley, the ironmasters of Pennsylvania were vainly attempting the same process. They finally got in touch with the Ynyscedwyn Works and David Thomas was chosen as the leader of a small party of workmen to visit the U.S.A. to demonstrate the new smelting methods. Having founded the iron furnaces at Catasauqua, a former Indian village, David Thomas about the year 1839 built his own furnaces at Hokendauqua and the "Thomas Iron Company" was formed. Extending his interests to Maine and Virginia, David Thomas became known as the "Iron King" of the U.S.A., a title bestowed on him in recognition of the fact that he was the first ironmaster in the New World to use anthracite in the smelting of iron.
Mrs. Taylor retains happy memories of her grand-uncle, whom she visited when she was sixteen years old. Sailing from Liverpool in the liner "Arizona" in the year 1880, Mrs. Taylor (Hannah Davies as she was then) lived for five years in Pennsylvania, where she qualified as a teacher at the Millersville State Teachers Training College. She was present at the bedside when the old man died in May 1882, and attended his funeral as the only mourner from Wales. Mrs. Taylor then returned to Bryncoch, where she has resided ever since.
BUILT FIRST WELSH CHURCH
Apart from his important contribution to the industrial development of the U.S.A., David Thomas was a great philanthropist, and took a prominent part in the social and religious life of the community which he had adopted. He founded and built the first Welsh Church at Catasauqua and invited Mr. Griffiths, of Neath, to become its first pastor. Thomasville in Virginia, where he founded iron furnaces, still bears his name. His descendants continue to be actively interested in the American iron industry and one of them holds high office in the great Bethlehem Iron and Steel Corporation.
{ Hand-written note at top of paper reads: "NEATH GUARDIAN - FRIDAY APRIL 28[?]th. 50. I have retained oddities of the paper's typesetting, such as putting sentence punctuation before quotation marks when they belong after. The original was printed across two newspaper columns, so some hyphenation has been removed.