EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on our region’s history coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society.

Henry Clay Frick is a name that is directly connected to the steel industry. He is known as an American industrialist, financier and art collector and is forever linked to the McKinley Memorial Library.

He was born to immigrant Mennonite parents on Dec. 19, 1849, in West Overton, a rural community in southwestern Pennsylvania. He worked as a farmhand on the family farm and as a bookkeeper for his uncle’s store. In 1871, proximity to the growing steel industry led him to form the Frick Coke Company at age 22. His business savvy allowed him to buy out his competition and align himself with Carnegie Steel, making him a millionaire before the age of 30.

At the height

See Full Page