From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 314-315.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


WILLIAM L. HEARNE

William L. Hearne, a prominent capitalist who is devoting his capital 
largely to the upbuilding of the iron industry of the upper Ohio 
valley, has secured for himself a well deserved place in the esteem 
of the people, demands from an impartial historian also, by his 
career, such mention as will briefly but accurately show his relation 
to the development of those important institutions, which have in 
recent periods revolutionized to so large an extent the character of 
that region.  It was not until Mr. Hearne had attained wealth, by the 
successful prosecution of other business that he removed to Wheeling, 
and lent his aid to the manufactures peculiar to this valley.  He is 
a native of Delaware, born in 1818, and was there reared; and while a 
young man, was married, in 1837, to a sister of Gov. Ross.  In 1857 
he removed to Missouri, and at Hannibal engaged in the tobacco 
business.  Five years later he made his home in New York, and 
continued the same business there until May, 1865, after which date 
he was again a resident of Hannibal, Mo., for two years.  In 1867 he 
came to Wheeling, and became a stockholder and director in the 
association known as Dewey, Vance & Co., owners of the iron works 
afterward known as the Riverside, one of the best appointed nail 
establishments in the country, which has done much to produce the 
wide reputation which Wheeling has acquired for the production of 
nails.  When Mr. Hearne become a partner in the business the nail 
mill was in process of construction.  The next enlargement of the 
plant was the blast furnace at Benwood, which was completed in 1871, 
and put in blast February 9, 1872.  The average weekly product of 
this furnace is now 1,000 tons of pig iron, all consumed in the 
company's steel plant.  The blast furnace formerly used by the 
Steubenville Furnace company, was purchased by the Riverside company 
in 1885, and thoroughly remodeled, and it now produces for the 
company an average of 850 tons per week.  A Bessemer steel plant was 
added at Benwood, which began operations June 11, 1884, perfectly 
constructed and equipped, and a plate mill, adjacent, was built in 
1885. The company also has a mill for the production of bar steel and 
light T rails, steel pipe mills with an average annual capacity of 
30,000 tons, and two large nail factories which can turn out 12,000 
kegs of nails a week.  Of late, the manufacture of steel pipe has 
been given special prominence, and with much success.  About 1,500 
workmen are given employment in the mills of this company. Upon the 
re-organization and incorporation of the company in 1874, Mr. Hearne 
became general manager, and this position he held until 1876, when he 
was succeeded by his son, Frank J., but he is still a prominent 
stockholder and director.   Mr. Hearne is, also, president of the 
West Virginia China company, which was founded in 1887, by him and 
others, and has one of the most important and extensive plants in the 
city.  He is also a stockholder in the Woodward Iron works of 
Alabama.  Mr. Hearne, in 1877, was chosen a member of the house of 
delegates of West Virginia.  He is a member of the Second 
Presbyterian church, of which he has been a trustee for twenty years.  
The first wife of Mr. Hearne, by whom he had seven children, died in 
1864, and in the latter part of 1865, he was married to a daughter of 
Col. J. B. Ford, to which union three children were born. 


(Linda Fluharty)