In 1900 the La Belle Iron Works of Wheeling bought out the Jefferson Iron Works in Steubenville, Ohio.   The following year, La Belle obtained 25 acres on the south side of Steubenville and began construction of a steel mill composed of an open hearth and six 50-ton furnaces.  La Belle quickly became one of the largest steel plants in the nation.

As World War I approached in 1916, foreign powers were purchasing millions of dollars wroth of La Belle products.  The growth of the auto industry also increased the demand for steel body parts.

In 1915, La Belle stockholders unanimously approved a $7,500,000 bond.  Two million was spent immediately for a by-product coke plant north of Follansbee, and $5,000,000 for a steel bridge to connect the La Belle properties on both sides of the Ohio River.   The company owned 200 acres of land formerly part of the Mahan family estate.   The land stretched along the river, east of the P. W & KY railroad tracks.  Plans called for transporting 1,000 cars of material each month.  The construction of the plant was facilitated by newspaper reports that La Belle had accepted military orders for $7,000,000.   “The by-product plant recovered the useful gasses, tars and liquids produced in the coking process (the heating of coal in the absence of air to produce high-carbon coke as blast furnace fuel).”

• Follansbee Review, “La Belle Iron Company Building …Plant Near Town,” Oct. 29, 1915, front page.
• Benjamin D. Rickey & Co., “Steubenville Historic Contest & Resource Evaluation,” Steubenville Historic Landmarks Commission, 1993, p. 18.