1902-1906 — What The Boom Town Was Like

Only bits of information exist describing the living conditions while the Follansbee Brothers Tin Mill was being constructed.    One witness described this period as hard and terrifying in a raw new community. Only one man was available for citizens to turn to in times of sickness and distress, Doctor Lew Hutch.  His home and office stood on 837 Main next to where the VFW building is today.  Babies were born in houses half built.   Mill men came to Doctor Hutch’s office with knife marks on their faces and “under the shadow of avenging guns.”  No hospital facilities or ambulances existed in the mill town.   Patients were taken to the Gill hospital in Steubenville or other destinations by horse-drawn wagons or ferry.    Not until July 1906 did the city have its first full time   policeman when Jake N. Cain was elected. During a 1906 city council meeting, the town Marshall was called in and ordered to halt all the shootings that had been occurring.   Between 1902 and 1906 the town grew from a few hundred to nearly 2,000.  During the boom period, no utilities existed and lodging was limited.   Many workmen most certainly stayed in tents or shacks.  Garbage was dumped where convenient, especially on open lots and in the river.