Mayor Benjamin Williams of Follansbee became President of a local ball club of the Follansbee Athletic Association.  Support from city businesses helped fund the team.   Plans were made to build a board fence and enlarge the grandstand at he Glass House field in the lower end of town near the Jefferson Glass Factory.  Interested supporters and players met at the City Building. Nominations for officers included H.A. Cooper (secretary), W. W. Godfrey (VP), Winfield D. Bush (business manager), and Gene Curtis (team manager).    Others present were William Able, Alex Smith, James Walmsley, W. J. Kirk, T. J. Mahan, T.H. Rogers, Dr. C.P. Burke, George S. Hahne, Alanzo Barnes, Isaac Rice, Sidney Lake, Lee Chambers, William Lake, Doe Castek, Geo E. Wood, Ed Ratcliffe, Frank Blakley, Ray Jenkins, Robert Morse, and Rev. T.B. Imhoff of the Christian Church. These men were among the early supporters of sports in Follansbee.

The Follansbee City Council paid a bill from Chief of Police Addison Barnes of $16.50 for slaying stray dogs during the past summer at 50 cents each.   On June 16, the city Mayor gave notice -“All dogs within the city of Follansbee must be muzzled or kept tied up and not permitted to run at large from July 1 to October 1. Violations of this ordinance will make it necessary to impose the usual penalty.” Before garbage pickup services existed, citizens were expected to keep yards and street areas by their homes clean. This also included out houses.   People carried their garbage to the city dump near the river. During the summers, uncollected garbage attracted animals and posed serious health concerns.

• Follansbee Review, January 14, 1916.
• Follansbee Review, “Mayor’s Notice,” June 30, 1916.

In 1911, the Board of Education established a three year high school curriculum. However, as schools in other sections of the nation began establishing four year high schools, the standards in Brooke County lagged behind. There was a sense that their high school was second-class. In December 1916, the Follansbee Review reported the excitement as students learned that a four-year curriculum was coming. 

Students came to school on Monday morning as usual, and upon entering the building, they sensed something was different.  “Everything was in its same place, and the same old friends were trooping in with their books, but a sense of uncertainty and mystery hung in the air.”  The city paper described the situation,  “Mr. Young (Superintendent) walked through the hall but instead of that grave and stern look which we generally see, his face seemed wreathed in smiles.  Mr. Hobbs (Principle) found it impossible to sit at his desk, but he too was walking about the room chuckling to himself.  At last the bell ring and we all assembled in the study hall, and Mr. Young broke the news.  He told us that we were to have a four year high school course, and there would be no gradation class this term.” 

Students received the news with tremendous applause. Two school athletes, Russell Cox and Julian Brady, led in cheers demonstrating the appreciation of the entire student body.  

The announcement by Superintendent of Schools A. F. Young, and School Principle George Hubbs, followed a meeting of the Cross Creek District Board of Education held at the local Citizens Band.  More room was planned for the High School for the coming year.  It was anticipated that no graduation class would occur in 1917 due to the additional fourth year of studies.   Student excitement was expressed in their new vision of themselves as “first class.”  They demonstrated their new sense of self confidence by organizing a monthly news column, “Hi News,” that first appeared in the city newspaper during the 1916 Christmas holidays.  

• *Follansbee Review, “Four-Year Course for High School,” Dec. 15, 1916, p. 1. 
• *Follansbee Review, “Follansbee High… Gets Four-Year Course,” Dec. 22, 1916, p. 8

During 1916, Congress passed the first child labor Bill, the Keating-Owen Act. This act banned the transportation among the states of products of factories, shops or canneries employing children under 14 years of age, of mines employing children under 16, and the products of any of these employing children under 16 who worked at night or more than eight hours a day. As families moved from their rural dwellings to cities such as Follansbee where factories were on the rise, children became an asset to employees as cheap labor. Kids as young as 14 were working 8 hours a day for five dollars, an excellent wage during this era. However, children who worked in steel mills and coal mines suffered from health conditions such as bronchitis and tuberculosis due to poor ventilation and deplorable conditions. When the child labor law was passed, it forced many students to quit profitable jobs in the steel mills.

An article originally printed in the Steubenville Herald Star called Follansbee a prosperous and progressive town across the river. It is one of the “Brightest in the Galaxy of Suburban towns that is a “feeder” to Steubenville’s business marts. The article describes Follansbee as having 64 businesses of which 14 are brick buildings and 50 are wooden frame structures. The city had paved streets, concrete sidewalks, natural gas, its own water plant, electric lights, streetcars, a steam railroad, fire department, play grounds, and four big industrial plants. The Follansbee Brothers Plant employed 1,150 men. The Jefferson Glass Company had 350. The Smith Kinghley Metal Ceiling & Manufacturing Company and the Sheet Metal Specialty Company had 50 employees each. North of town was a sand pit that employed 12 men. The city population was estimated to be about 3,500. The Follansbee Review reported that 35 nationalities made up the residents for the city. A number of Japanese were working in the Jefferson Glass Company. A list of the businesses were reported as follows:

• Churches —————- 7
• General Stores ———- 1
• Shoe Stores ————– 2
• Meat Shops ————– 2
• Confections ————– 7
• Pool Rooms ————– 5
• Dry Goods —————- 1
• Hard Ware ————— 2
• News Stands ————– 1
• Taylor Shops ————– 1
• Movie Theaters ———– 2
• Bakery ——————— 1
• Millinery ——————-1
• Lumber ——————– 1
• Plumbing —————— 1
• Wagon Shop ————– 1
• Greenhouse ————— 1
• Barber Shops ————- 7
• Groceries —————— 12
• Restaurants—————- 5
• Drug Stores —————- 2
• Banks ———————– 2
• Gents Furnishings ——— 3
• Blacksmiths —————- 1

Patsy’s Confectionery was located at 558 Main near the corner of State & Main Streets. Pasquale (Patsy) is up front and his wife Marie in rear. Photo courtesy of Mary Jo Boniey.

• Follansbee Review, “The Brightest in the Galaxy,” March 30, 1916 Follansbee Review, “Thirty Nations Represented …,” July 28, 1916.

Crowds of young folks enjoyed the first ice skating of the winter on the sand pit pond just north of town during the afternoons and evenings.   Skating was also good on the frozen ponds in the oil fields north of the city, where many kids enjoyed the smooth ice. In 1919, the Herald Star reported crowds skating each afternoon and evening on frozen unsafe deep water at the mouth of Cross Creek.

Workers of the Steubenville Sand & Gravel Co. north of Follansbee. Note the sand in the railroad cars in the background.  Photo courtesy of Brooke County Genealogy Society.

• Steubenville Herald Star, “Follansbee,” December 27, 1915, p. 4.
• Mill Towns Review, “Bobsledding is the Rage,” January 27, 1915, front page.
• Steubenville Herald Star, “Follansbee – Skating on Cross Creek,” December 17, 1919, p. 15.

Inclement weather involving a rain storm and heavy wind caused the postponement of the town’s first community Christmas tree celebration until New Years.   The large tree decorated with electric lights was erected next to the city building. A platform was built around it on which a church choir and prominent city speakers were seated during the program.  Five hundred boxes of candy were passed out to the children. A band concert began the celebration at 6:30.  The celebration was under the auspices of the city Business Men’s Association, the Women’s Civic club, and churches.  The base of the Christmas tree was plied up with gifts.  Donation jars were available and the money was used to buy food and clothing for the poor, a long list of names having been submitted.

• Steubenville Herald Star, December 27, 1915, p. 4.
• Steubenville Herald Star, December 30, 1915, p. 3.
• Steubenville Herald Star, December 22, 1915, p. 11.

A little more than two miles off the road from the Mingo Ferry to the Market Street bridge was laid with bricks.  Known as the Steubenville boulevard, the road went past the coke ovens, Bates’ farm, and Bates’ bridge which crossed a large hallow that is now filled in at the bottom of Highland Hills at the intersection of route 2 and Archer Road.   With the completion of the road paving, the distance from the south end of Follansbee to the Market Street Bridge was laid with brick all the way. Mike McMahon, the contractor from Wellsburg, paved most of the Follansbee streets.

• Steubenville Herald Star, December 30, 1915, p. 3.
• Steubenville Herald Star, December 16, 1915, p. 10.
• Steubenville Herald Star, October 12, 1916, p. 2  (Follansbee Section makes reference to Steubenville boulevard)
• Steubenville Herald Star, “Follansbee News,” October 4, 1921, p. 5

Early paved Brick Road to Market Street Bridge. Photo courtesy of W.Va. State Archives.

Streetcar on Bates Bridge once located over ravine where Archer Heights & Route 2 intersection is today.

Rockslide near Market Street Bridge Rt. 2 showing track damage, circa 1910. Richard A. Boyd Collection

Photos Courtesy of West Virginia State Archives.

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.

The schools in the Cross Creek District reported the following information:

• (See 1906 on Timeline,  “Sugar Grove…”)
• Follansbee Review, “Reports From Cross Creek District Schools, Oct. 8, 1915, p. 5.