As we continue to look at Beaver County Memories, we turn our attention to “industrial strength” memories.  This segment begins a special series showcasing the manufacturing sector. Beaver County Memories brought to you by St. Barnabas.

Beaver County is well known for making steel.  Behemoth mills bearing the names of Jones and Laughlin, Crucible and Babcock and Wilcox became legendary for their contributions to the local economy as well as keeping the world supplied with top quality products, as only Beaver County workers could produce. But there were other things that were made in Beaver County.  Everything from fine china to chocolates, to bricks to cork and many other things were created by local residents through the years.

One such company is Curtiss-Wright Corporation.  In an article that he wrote for Milestones, a quarterly publication of The Beaver County Historical Landmarks and Research Foundation, Roger Applegate highlighted the Curtiss-Wright operation in Vanport.  Much of this information is taken from Roger’s writings and is used with his permission.  More information, artifacts and displays about Beaver County history, including the Curtiss-Wright Corporation and other topics, can be found at the foundation’s headquarters, located in the Vicary Mansion in Freedom.  Applegate writes that the company was formed when prominent early aviation expert, Glenn Curtiss, who had founded Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation, teamed up with the Wright Aeronautical Corporation along with a group of other affiliated and subsidiary companies to form The Curtiss-Wright Corporation in 1929. Up through the nineteen forties,  Curtiss-Wright was the nation’s biggest airplane manufacturer and had several factories throughout the country.  Locally, around four thousand workers at the Curtiss-Wright plant in Vanport churned out the propellers that would give those planes the propulsion they needed to get off the ground.  Very Famous propellers, too, we might add.  Curtiss-Wright handiwork can be seen in one of the most enduring images of world war two, the Enola Gay.  The Enola Gay was a  B twenty nine super fortress bomber that dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. The massive plane was equipped with Propellers that were created by Curtiss-Wright.  Beaver Countians who were part of that era worked at Curtiss-Wright’s sprawling forty acre factory site that later on became the home to Westinghouse and is now known as Eaton Corporation.  

Applegate reports that Curtiss-Wright Corporation made innovative hollow blade propellers, that because of their unique, lightweight and yet durable characteristics, were perfect for giant warbird planes, like the B twenty nine.  These huge airborne cargo haulers were often used to carry and then drop bombs that sometimes weighed as much as nine thousand pounds, as was the case with the first nuclear weapon.  The need for added power and propulsion without adding too much extra weight became a very needed characteristic. Curtiss Wright even helped develop reverse thrust propellers that functioned as an auxiliary braking system and allowed the B twenty Nine to be able to land in much smaller spaces.

Having four thousand workers created a couple of unique problems that caused Curtiss Wright Corporation to deal with  them in lasting, meaningful ways.  First of all, the many employees needed housing, and with a dearth of available places in the vicinity,  that led to the construction of nearby Tamaqui Village and Van Buren Homes in Vanport. Those two plans still provide housing to many local people to this day.  Also, like many large companies, Curtiss Wright Corporation also had fairly prominent labor problems from time to time.  Bill Day, current President and CEO at St. Barnabas grew up in Rochester, and his father, George Day, was the Director of Industrial Relations at the plant. That meant that the edler Day was championed at times with pacifying and entertaining  the  workforce.  Mr. Day reports that his dad would, on occasion, book top notch talent of the time like Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey and others to come in and perform for the rank and file.  The special entertainment must have helped calm the labor unrest and put the workers back in a good mood.  That’s because, as Mr. Applegate writes, over one hundred thousand propellers were made at the vanport facility over the course of its existence in Beaver County.  Roger Applegate’s wife, Brenda, is the Director of The Beaver County Historical Landmarks and Research Foundation and she tells us that one of those propellers is on display at The Beaver Area Heritage Museum on River Road, in the East End of  Beaver.  

The Curtiss-Wright Legacy in this area even lends itself to this radio station.  For over thirty years, the annual Rotary Radio Auction was staged in one of the large upper floor conference rooms that are part of the Eaton Corporation office and administration section of the facility that was originally built by American Bridge for Curtiss-Wright Corporation in 1941. 

This “industrial strength” Beaver County memory has been presented by St. Barnabas with content provided by Roger and Brenda Applegate and Bill Day. Archived transcripts of this and other Beaver County Memories can be found at Beaver County Radio dot com. Tune in everyday for another Beaver County Memory on WBVP, WMBA, 99.3 F.M., and online through google play and iTunes apps, and Alexa smart devices.