My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN CROWTHER, retired, Etna, was born Sept. 29, 1826, in Staffordshire, England, where he was educated. He emigrated to the United States in 1844, with his father and brothers, and they settled in Morgantown, W. Va., where they purchased a furnace property. In the course of two years his father, brothers and himself removed to Brady’s Bend, Pa., where he erected the furnace for the Brady’s Bend Iron-works. In 1848 his father went to Lowell Ohio where he “blowed” the Lowell furnace, the first furnace in the United States to use the raw bituminous coal. In the same year our subject took charge of this furnace, and remained there ten years. In 1861 he went to Pittsburgh, and erected two furnaces at Manchester. At this point he continued until 1871, when he took charge of the construction of the Isabella furnace at Etna, of which he was superintendent until 1878, when he resigned on account of ill health, since then he has retained his interest with the firm, and attends to some little business but lives a quiet and retired life most of the time. He married, in 1846, Mary J. Hill, of Staffordshire, England, and their children are Mrs. Mary J. Stanton, Harperless, Mrs. Ada C. Shupe, Mrs. Isabella Ranson and Benjamin H. Mr. and Mrs. Crowther are members of the Baptist Church; politically he is a republican; he is a member of the A. F. & A. M