LaBelle

In 1852, the LaBelle nail plant began operation in South Wheeling.

The plant's name derived from the colonial French title for the Ohio River: "La Belle Riviere." Some of the men who toiled in the plant believed it meant "everlasting."

Today, 145 years later, LaBelle workers hope their long-ago colleagues were right.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp, has announced that it will shut down LaBelle and two other facilities, the roofing division of the Martins Ferry mill and the Beech Bottom corrugating facility. LaBelle is the only facility for sale. The United Steel Workers of America strike against Wheeling-Pitt is now in its seventh month.

Until the 1800s, nails and spikes were made by hand. Bar iron was hammered or rolled into plates and divided in slitting mills into nail rods. The rods were heated and hammers into shape, one at a time, on a blacksmith's anvil.

By 1825, the craft was on the verge of a revolution as 125 patents for mechanical nail-making were issued. Iron and sheet mills sprang up everywhere along the Ohio River.

Wheeling's first iron works was erected in 1832 by a partnership of Shoenbergeer and Agnew. Known as the Top Mill, it included puddling furnaces, a sheet mill and a nail factory.

In 1852, Bailey, Woodward & Co. purchased four acres of farmland near 31st Street in South Wheeling. Two acres were set aside for workers' homes, and the LaSelle Iron Works was constructed on the other half. At that time, there were four iron mills in or near Wheeling: the original Top Mill, Benwood Mill, Belmont Mill and LaBelle. The last three produced nothing but nails.

LaBelle was bordered on the north by the American Sheet & Tin Plate Co., where the steel was rolled into sheets, and on the south by a cooper shop where large wooden kegs were made. Both were part of the Labelle works.

Coal was the source of energy for LaBelle...