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Many people are not aware that the New Brighton area might today have been the largest industrial-commercial center in Western Pennsylvania had the Beaver Manufacturing Company not collapsed during the Panic of 1857.
The Beaver Manufacturing Company first purchased 1200 acres of land in Beaver County, according to official records and received its charter on April 7, 1849. A report of its incorporation procedures was published in New York in 1853 after the company had progressed to final organization on June 30 of that year.
Horace Greeley, then a director of the company, wrote during the same year on July 17, from New Brighton an excellent description of the upper Beaver Valley.
"The river Beaver", wrote Greeley, through its branches, the Mahoning, Shenango, etc., drains a very considerable portion of north-eastem Ohio and north-westem Pennsylvania, and discharges into the Ohio a volume of water about equal to the Merrimac and the Mohawk at its mouth.
"Rising in gently rolling or tableland, it wears a deeper and deeper channel as it approaches the deep valley of the Ohio ... its surface just above its mouth is some three hundred feet below the generally level upland on either side. The steep hillsides are generally overgrown by a thrifty mantle of oak, of different species, chestnut, hickory, butternut and other woods ... a more beautiful and inviting section is rarely presented.
"Within three or four miles of the Ohio, the Beaver falls seventy-four feet, and is crossed by three strong State dams of twenty, twenty and fourteen feet respectively, besides two interesting private dams of lesser height. Here begins the Erie Extension Canal and slackwater, on which the state spent some three or four millions and then gave it away uncompleted to a private company, on condition of completing it, which was somehow effected. The state dams are adjuncts to the canal, but afford an abundance of water power, which beyond the demands of the canal, is private property by original bargain with the state. The lowest State dam (14 feet) is not used at all, being near the Ohio, and subject to backwater therefrom in high stages.
"Between this and the upper dam are the villages of Sharon, Hindsburgh, Fallston, New Brighton, Brighton, Bridgewater and perhaps two or three others, while along the Ohio are Beavertown (the old fashioned county seat, a mile or so below the mouth), Rochester (at the mouth) and Freedom (a boat building borough, a mile or so above), with Phillipsburgh, just across the Ohio.
"The present population of this cluster of villages is about 15,000; while the water power here running to waste might easily give employment to many times the number."
Greeley also cited the number of roads and railroads being built. "When they are completed," he stated, an understood proposal which was "to consolidate the Beaver Valley villages above named into one city, and build here a Pittsburgh. I see no obstacle to this - this valley having all that Pittsburgh possesses and the waterpower that she lacks provided the men and the means be forthcoming H.G."
A city on both sides of the Ohio and along the Beaver was also a dream of Marcus I C. Gould, a member of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Beaver Manufacturing Company.
Gould died in 1860 and is buried in Rochester.
The Beaver Manufacturing Company was originally organized for "The manufacture of plain and fancy goods, consisting of silk, cotton and wool or some of them ... with a capital stock of twentyfive thousand dollars". Later the manufacture was to extend to "railroad cars, carriages, omnibuses, steam engines and iron ... the capital stock of said company may be increased from time to time . . . to any amount not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars".
Who knows what might have been the destiny of Beaver County had there not been a panic which this company did not survive. Horace Greeley wrote extensively of the layers of land as shown along the hillsides and their potential in ores, clay, sandstone, coal, all of which have since been and are being utilized. The practical side of his nature was uppermost when he said, "Go West, young man. Go West". His West was the Ohio River Frontier in Beaver County and a potential Beaver City.