Tyrone is unique among communities because over the years, the people have joined together to encourage industries to come here and create quality products, and, of course, to create jobs for the folks who live here. Over the past seventy-six years, lots of citizens have dug down into their pockets to help to construct buildings for new plants in our town.
This is the story of how it started and how so many of our current industries have benefited from this “jump start,” not just from the financial point of view, but more important, because it has sent this loud and clear message: “Come, we will welcome you!”
Reliance Manufacturing Co.
In 1932, the Tyrone Chamber of Commerce took the leadership in bringing the Reliance Manufacturing Company to the community. It was in the heart of the Great Depression, but citizens of Tyrone willingly “dug down as deep as possible” to help pay for the building of a new factory at 16th St. and Lincoln Ave. (the “cinder path”).
Rather than waiting for the new building, Reliance started in temporary facilities downtown — in the room along 10th St. now housing Gardners Candies and Ice Cream Parlor — where sixty-five employees worked. Within a year, the new building was complete, and in a marvelous gesture, Tyrone’s own Fred Waring brought his entire group of “half a hundred Pennsylvanians” to play for a dance held inside the plant. All of the proceeds — every penny — was donated to the fund for the building. This was another of the many times when Fred helped to put Tyrone on the map all over the world.
During World War II, Tyrone Reliance employees worked overtime as the company was the chief supplier of U.S. Navy “jumpers,” shirts, and pants for over a million American sailors.
Chicago Rivet & Machine Company
As Tyrone adjusted to peacetime after World War II, another opportunity arose for the leaders and the citizens to help attract an industry. In 1947, the Chicago Rivet & Machine Company, which had operated in Bellwood, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), selected Tyrone as the logical place for expansion. Certainly, one of the reasons was the extremely cordial welcome their leaders received here.
To start this new factory, John Kanet, Bill Hoyne, and Herman Werner came from Bellwood to Tyrone, and they joked that it was not the football-rival town eight miles up the road, but three states away. These three brought families and quickly became a vital part of the community’s life. Roger Branstetter joined the company to hire employees, and people used to tease him that “if a guy could play baseball, he’d be hired, for sure.” There was a marvelous spirit among the Rivet workers from the very beginning.
The Tyrone Chamber of Commerce had developed a true “mission” in helping industries and formed the Tyrone Improvement Corporation, or the “TIC.” Their first project was erecting a new modern factory building for Chicago Rivet at Adams Ave. and 26th St. In the meantime, the first temporary “Rivet” facility was located in the Wilson Chemical Company’s “extra building” that had been used during World War II to manufacture fuzes for bombs. They also began making rivet-setting tools in another wartime factory site, the second floor of the G. C. Black Ford Agency, where the M&T Bank’s drive-through now is located. But these locations weren’t used very long. Five years later, the rivet company purchased this building from the TIC and has expanded in 1955, 1964, 1966, and 1976.
Tyrone Improvement Corporation
After having functioned informally for nearly twenty-five years, in 1959, the group known as the Tyrone Improvement Corporation elected five men to its board of directors and began a fund-raising campaign that still is recalled in the area. “Jobs for Joes” sought $120,000 of pledges; the community responded enthusiastically. G. C. Wilson III headed the effort, and many people participated. The funds were quickly raised. People were excited about the idea. The first project was to help fund the expansion of Reliance Manufacturing’s building.
In 1965, the TIC acquired the old Athletic Park from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, clearing the way for the financing and construction of many industries in this “industrial park.” The area was ideal because of its flat terrain, access to utilities, and nearby transportation. A shell building was constructed in the area and leased to Alcoa, which later was acquired by Gardners Candies. Gerbo Footwear built on a site at the far end of the industrial park.
When it first opened, the Quality Chemical Company purchased four acres from Chicago Rivet and now utilizes other land in the industrial park, making up Albemarle Corporation’s large industrial complex. Fifty acres of their land is now dedicated to a ¾-mile nature trail and wildlife habitat situated next to the plant. The site, which conserves and showcases wetlands, was opened to the public in late July.
TIC Today
According to the Tyrone Improvement Corporation President Jim Chronister, they helped arrange financing when Reclamere and Labor Specialties came to Tyrone, and were involved in helping to secure the properties behind the Jones Building for the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library. Two of the TIC board members who continue to be active after nearly a half-century of service are F. Mark Laird and Harry K. Sickler Jr.
The TIC also continues to assist in creating and preserving jobs, cooperating fully with the Altoona Blair County Industrial Development Corporation, or ABCD Corporation, in bringing more jobs to the Tyrone area — notably Juniata Kunzler’s expansion, the reopening of the American Eagle Paper Mills, and the group of industries at Tipton, beginning with PPG Industries, New Pig, and Balfurds. The Robert C. Jubilirer Industrial Park at Vail now is the site of an immense facility of Smith Transport, one of the largest of its kind in the state.
Team Ten
Perhaps no better example of “help from home” exists than the creation of Team Ten LLC. Five years ago this month, Pulp & Paper Magazine carried a story of the reopening of the Westvaco Tyrone Mill, expressing high hopes, but great reservations about the possible success of the bootstraps effort by a group of “key former managers and local investors” who were determined to reopen the facility.
In June of this year, the magazine did a turnabout, paying a glowing tribute to John Ferner, who has headed American Eagle Products and the group of backers, calling him and them “hometown heroes.” The 2008 article begins in a very creative way: “We are all aware of what is considered the most important address in the United States — 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where the president lives. But how many of us are aware of another important 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue address, where American Eagle Paper Mills dwells in Tyrone, Pa?”
The article quotes Ferner as saying that about half of the 220 employees live in the Tyrone area and uses this phrase: “The mill has triumphantly boosted the local economy in Tyrone.” Especially timely is this statement: “American Eagle is hard at work keeping usable materials out of landfills by reusing recovered fiber…” and ends with this quote from John: “We are the ultimate recycling fine-paper mill in the country.”
“This Town for Hire”
Perhaps the most conspicuous “job creation effort” in Tyrone’s history came in 1971, when employment at the Tyrone plant of Westvaco was cut in half. The Pennsylvania Electric Company, which by that time had acquired Home Electric and was serving the Tyrone area, offered to buy a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal with the heading, “This town for hire.” Well over a thousand people answered the call to come to the bridge on Pennsylvania Ave. to be photographed as a very tangible demonstration of how Tyrone was ready to welcome new industries and jobs. The ad put Tyrone on the national map as a place that is filled with caring and skilled people.
The late Beula G. Hitchens, a beloved teacher, had a wonderful phrase that applies: “Don’t just stand there; grab a shovel and do your part.” What better way is there to describe the attitude here in Tyrone!
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