New Castle and the Tin-Plate Capital of America

Lawrence County was formed in eighteen forty-nine from parts of Beaver and Mercer counties, and named for naval hero Captain James Lawrence, who famously cried out 'Don't give up the ship' as he lay dying in the War of eighteen twelve. The county seat, New Castle, was laid out in seventeen ninety-eight on the Shenango River, a modest frontier town that few would have predicted for industrial greatness. Between eighteen ninety and nineteen twenty, New Castle became one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, driven by the tin-plate industry.

Tin plate, the thin steel sheet used to make cans, containers, and roofing, was manufactured here on a massive scale after the McKinley Tariff of eighteen ninety effectively shut out cheaper British imports. Dozens of mills rose along the river, and workers flooded in from southern and eastern Europe to man them. The boom eventually faded as the industry consolidated and modernized elsewhere, but for a generation New Castle was genuinely among the most productive industrial cities in America.