Iron and Steel

I remember when I was a kid, my dad used to say that his parents were in the iron and steel business.  He said "My mother irons, and my father steals", then he'd laugh.

 Remember this article that I posted before?

I found this in the Scranton Republican 14 Aug 1907.  In my post I was wondering what he was doing in Buffalo, NY, why and with whom?  Well, I recently read a book around the history of Scranton, Pa.  In about 1840, the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. started and business was not real good until about 1846 when the company made a deal with the New York and Erie Railroad to produce "T" rails.  This brought the railroad industry to the area.  The success of the industry grew, and by 1894 the company produced 500,000 tons of steel rails.  Then came labor strife, and in 1902 the company up and moved to a suburb of Buffalo, NY.  By the way, the suburb is now known as Lackawanna.  Sound familiar?  So I am thinking that August Brady was working in the iron and steel business and moved to Buffalo because that is where his work went.

I found an additional article in the Scranton Republican, from 22 November 1907, just three months after the death of August:

Just a simple one line in the Scranton Republican tells me that perhaps Raymond, his brother, also went to Buffalo to work for the steel company.  It's funny how these little articles in the paper that you never knew anything about can give you more insight into where your family was, when and why.  I have to be honest here and say that I really haven't researched much about Raymond, but I do know that he ends up back in Scranton, where he dies in 1953 of coronary disease at age 64.

There is one more part of this story.  August and Raymond had another brother, Thomas A. Brady.  Thomas shows up in the 1910 census in Lackawanna, NY working as an electrician in the Steel Mills.  He lives with his wife, Florence and two children.  Also living with them are Florence's two brothers.  In 1920, Thomas and Florence live in Gary, Indiana with their three children and minus Florence's two brothers.  You may be scratching your head and thinking "why Gary, Indiana?" (I did the same thing for while, until I googled "Gary, Indiana")  That is when I found out that Gary Indiana was founded in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation as the home for its new plant, the Gary Works. The family stayed in Gary and is still in Indiana.  I am not exactly sure where, but I think it is in Indianapolis. 

So maybe my dad wasn't joking after all.  His mom and dad were not in the Iron and Steel business, but apparently some of his ancestors were.