Feature: Spotlight on Arthur James Moxham

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Arthur James Moxham A Life of Endeavour and Achievement

Andy Wotton (Mullens 1975)

Arthur James Moxham was born in Neath on 19th September 1854. His life would take him from South Wales to Belgium to East London, then Kentucky, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia, back to Kentucky and, eventually, New York State. During his 76 years, he was a model pupil at the London Orphan Asylum, a leading ironmaster and designer of wrought iron processes, a significant figure during one of America’s worst peacetime disasters, all alongside jointly raising a family. He also never forgot about the key influence his old School had on his life, something he happily acknowledged in later years.

Arthur’s journey to the London Orphan Asylum

In 1851, Arthur’s father, Egbert Moxham, eloped with a spinster from Neath seven years his senior called Catherine Morgan. At various times in his life Egbert was described as an apprentice builder, an architect, a landscape artist and a sometime inventor. No paintings of his seem to have survived, but there are references to him designing religious chapels, extensions to school buildings and, perhaps most notably, remodelling work for Dunraven Castle in South Wales. Egbert and Catherine had five children between 1852 and 1859. Elizabeth, Arthur and Evangeline were born in Neath and then, when Egbert decided to follow his landscape painting interests, he moved his family to Bruges where Evan and Edgar were born. Sadly, Evan died a year later and the Moxham family settled in Maze Hill, part of Greenwich. Egbert died on 4th September 1864, leaving Catherine a widow with four children under the age of 12 and less than £100 from his estate.

An unmarried uncle of Egbert’s assisted Catherine in her plight to stave off the spectre of the workhouse by supporting her in obtaining a place at the London Orphan Asylum for her son, Arthur, in 1865, where he remained until 1869. His younger sister, Evangeline, was also admitted to the School two years later.

Arthur’s arrival at the School must have been a shock to him, not just because of the need to adapt to his new surroundings and routines, but also because of the event that occurred at Clapton in November that year. An outbreak of typhoid swept through the institution causing 216 of the 461 pupils to fall ill with the fever, of whom 15 died.

At the time Arthur was admitted to the School, it was overseen by Reverend Henry Beattie, a rather stern disciplinarian, but in

1867 Beattie died to be replaced by a more progressive and kindly Headmaster, Reverend Alexander Houliston. He was young, energetic and caring, and was very well liked by everyone. Very unusually for the era, Houliston abolished corporal punishment which, no doubt, endeared him still further to his pupils!

Little is known about Arthur during his time at Clapton, but family history research suggests he approached his studies in a very diligent manner, a fact that can be confirmed from the School’s records. Along with three other boys who left in 1869, the name of Arthur James Moxham was added to the Tablets of Honour boards, which hung in the main School room at Clapton. The boards recorded the names of those who had distinguished themselves throughout their time at the School by their exemplary approach to their education. To have your name on the Boards was the highest honour the School could bestow on a pupil.

New career

In the summer of 1869, Catherine Moxham was visited by her sister and niece from America, Dora and Bessie Coleman. During the trip, it was suggested that Catherine’s two eldest children, Florence and Arthur, should go to America; Florence for a visit and Arthur to begin a career in the iron mills of Louisville, Kentucky owned by the Coleman family. There had been a massive expansion in railroad construction in the immediate years following the American Civil War, hence the need for more iron mill workers.

Arthur had just turned 15 and initially he worked in the iron mill office, but it was not long before he became involved in the activities of the mill floor, and he immersed himself in the very arduous and skilful processes of puddling and rolling. Puddling was the process of converting pig iron into wrought iron and needed strength and a deft touch to get the moment of conversion just right, before sending through the rollers to turn it into standard sizes of iron.

By the end of 1871, Arthur was earning US$28 a month, much of which he sent to his mother in Neath and, in June the following year, he managed a trip back to South Wales to visit his family. By August he was back in Louisville and continuing with his ironmaster apprenticeship, which lasted a total of seven years. It was around this time that Arthur fell in love with the 16-year-old daughter of Thomas Patrick Cooper, Helen, but it would be another three years before they became engaged and a further two before they were married.

In the early Spring of 1876, Arthur once more made the trip back to Neath to see his mother who was seriously ill. Sadly, whilst on route, Catherine Moxham died on the 16th March, and Arthur spent the next few months dealing with the family’s affairs. He returned to America and on 3rd July 1876 and married Helen Coleman. The following summer, their first born child, Thomas Coleman Moxham, was born.

By the time of Thomas’s birth, Arthur Moxham was an accomplished ironmaster with a great ingenuity for design and a pragmatic approach to the different compositions of wrought iron. He designed and patented new methods of wrought iron work and through his new processes managed to save on production costs. These were, however, very challenging times; across Europe and the United States a depression had descended upon the economic landscape. The railroad construction in America had expanded too far and too fast to be financially sustainable and two huge fires, one in Chicago and another in Boston, had depleted the cash reserves of the Federal Bank to a critically low level.

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Making his mark

All economic depressions eventually come to an end and the one of 1873-1879 was no different. In 1879 a wealthy businessman, Bidermann du Pont, decided to build an iron rolling mill in Birmingham, Alabama, and he asked Arthur Moxham to help design the new plant. Bidermann du Pont was a member of the Du Pont business empire and had married into the Coleman family. He was well aware of Moxham’s ironmaking skills and business acumen and was happy to invest large sums of money over the next four years to build and sustain the Birmingham plant. In 1880, Moxham became the superintendent for the Birmingham construction and moved his wife and son close to the mill to oversee its completion. In August 1881, a second son, Egbert, was born.

It was about this time that Arthur Moxham was reacquainted with Tom Johnson, a very shrewd businessman. Arthur and Tom had spent some time with each other during the first few months of Moxham’s move to America but, then from a business perspective, had gone their separate ways. Tom was more interested in street railway design and was not an engineer and ironmaster like Arthur. Their new collaboration led to a successful rail design, backed by du Pont money, and was incorporated into the Johnson Steel Street Rail Company in 1883. In that same year, Arthur moved his family to the Pennsylvania town of Johnstown where he established a finishing yard near to the Cambria Iron Works to design and lay out the trackwork for horse-drawn cable systems.

Following a successful collaboration with Cambria Iron, demand for rail and trackwork increased, necessitating an expansion of the Johnson Company and, in June 1886, a site was purchased in nearby Woodvale to facilitate offices, a layout yard, railway connections and other sundry plant requirements. The new site was fully operational by January 1887. Yet, six months later, a further expansion was necessary and another site covering 60 acres was occupied just south of Johnstown.

The alliance between Johnson and Moxham brought together two of the most dynamic and innovative individuals in America and, with the backing of capital from the du Pont family, the Johnson Steel Street Rail Company came to dominate the American street railway market for the next 15 years or more. This dominance can be measured by the scale and geographical spread of its street railways and associated products. During the mid-to-late 1890s, over 94 complete street cable railways were designed and built by the company in major cities such as Pittsburgh, St Louis, Baltimore and Ottawa in Canada. Over 370 other projects of varying sizes were completed at this same time and in 1894 it was estimated that over 70% of all street railway track material in use in the US had been produced by the Johnson Company.

Catastrophe strikes

On the night of the 31st May 1889, a catastrophe struck Johnstown and its surrounding neighbours, the result of which brought Moxham very much into the spotlight, and all his business and organisational skills to the fore.

For several days unusually heavy rain had fallen in the area saturating the ground and, more concerning, causing the South Fork Dam, some 14 miles upstream, to fill almost to the top. The lake was about two-miles long and 60-feet wide and was held in place by an earth bank which, for

a long time, had caused concern locally but, because there was no regulatory body responsible for its safety, nothing was done to maintain it properly. That night, however, the pressure became too great and the Dam burst, releasing over 20 million tons of water which surged down the valley moving at 40 miles an hour and a height of nearly 40 feet. Within 30 minutes the town of Johnstown was engulfed by smashed trees, building debris, dead animals, every conceivable type of household item and dead bodies.

The cost in human life was truly dreadful: 2,209 people lost their lives; 99 entire families died including 396 children; 99 children lost both parents; 124 women lost their husbands and 198 men lost their wives. More than 800 victims were never identified. Four square miles of central Johnstown were completely destroyed, and a pile of debris prevented from travelling further by the town’s stone bridge covered an area of thirty acres.

Moxham takes charge

The unimaginable horror of the flood and immediate aftermath must have seemed insurmountable to those who had survived, but it was at this moment that Arthur Moxham stepped forward. He took charge immediately and organised Citizens’ Committees to look after the most pressing and obvious problems. Morgues were established, dead animals and wreckage began to be cleared immediately to prevent disease, temporary hospitals were set up and 75 of Moxham’s employees were deputised to supplement the overstretched police force. Tin stars were cut from tomato tins for the new deputies and a cordon was thrown around the two main banks to avoid any robberies. Two weeks after the disaster the local newspaper, The Johnstown Tribune, had this piece in its editorial:

‘Arthur James Moxham made the first movement to obtain help and inspire hope. He sent messengers to distant telegraph stations to give the world the dreadful news and to call for assistance, and he drew together the citizens for organised work under his direction to protect property and to open a way to aid the suffering. Nor did he hesitate to give pledges for the payment of the preliminary and indispensable expenses and, under his leadership, the first efforts were made to restore order and systematize relief. It is an especial day to testify to the great services rendered to the suffering and disorganised community by Arthur James Moxham.’

Moxham subsequently wrote to the School, explaining what had happened at Johnstown and enclosing a cheque for £20 (about £2,500 today). He ended his letter, ‘I am only glad to do what little I can to help the School along; there is nothing that I can do that will repay the debt of gratitude that I owe it.’

Recognition

Moxham’s direct and active involvement in the relief effort at Johnstown lasted four days, after which the Federal resources of the US took over, but without his initial intervention it would have taken considerably longer for the news to have reached the necessary quarters and many more would have suffered in the interim. Such was the catastrophic impact of the flood that bodies were still being found as late as 1911 and as far away as Cincinnati, 350 miles from Johnstown.

It took five years to rebuild the shattered town of Johnstown and the surrounding districts and, here too, Moxham involved himself in making the area a better place. A new district was created, mainly for the Johnson Company employees, appropriately named by Tom Johnson as Moxham Town. It survives to this day and is called The Moxham Historic District in which many houses of character can be found.

Arthur Moxham created a number of companies designed to benefit the community; the Somerset Water Company, the Moxham Steam Fire Engine & Hose Company and arranging a natural gas service for private use and street lighting being his most prominent enterprises. In addition, he built a rail link between Johnstown and the huge Johnson Company Works, three miles away, to enable his employees a quick and easy way of getting to and from work. Moxham thought of everything!

Forging ahead

Moxham continued in his role as President of the Johnson Company. The everincreasing competition from large steel companies meant he had to look continuously for greater production efficiency. Through Moxham, the company had established a skilled labour force, proper financing and state-of-the-art equipment. To develop the business still further he purchased 3,700 acres of land in Lorain, Ohio, at the mouth of the Black River with the purpose of creating a totally integrated steel plant. With the exception of Pierre du Pont, the major shareholders backed the plan and, following various mergers and changes of ownership, the Lorain Steel Company came into existence in 1895. The iron foundries and trackwork finishing mill remained in Johnstown.

In 1898 Moxham, retired with the intention of visiting England before embarking on a world cruise with his wife and family. Before that became a reality, he was persuaded out of retirement by the American industrialist, Henry Melville Whitney, to set up and run the Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia - the first modern, totally integrated blast furnace complex in Canada. It appears that Moxham’s wife, Helen, was less than impressed. For years she had followed her husband from one major venture to another, uprooting the family as they went, and by now Arthur had built her a grand mansion in Lorain where she wanted to see out her days. The stories of how Arthur Moxham dealt with the issue seem to vary. One version suggests he moved the house, brick by brick, from Lorain to Sydney, whilst another

I am only glad to do what little I can to help the School along; there is nothing that I can do that will repay the debt of gratitude that I owe it.

suggests he built a duplicate in their new location. Whatever the truth of how he did it, the house in Cape Breton became locally known as Moxham Castle.

A large stone-pillared porch opened into a grand hall with a winding staircase leading to 30 bedrooms. Next to the kitchen was a butler’s pantry and additional rooms included a sewing room, billiard room, small and large dining rooms, a living room, a library, various other snug rooms and a tower. Outside the grounds were lavishly landscaped with groves of birch, elm, maple and walnut trees imported from Europe. A gatehouse s tood adjacent to the main house.

Personal tragedy strikes

Arthur and Helen Moxham had five children; two sons and three daughters. Sadly, their first born daughter, Florence, died within a week of her birth, but their other four children all reached adulthood. In 1900 their eldest son, Thomas Coleman Moxham, married Ellen Huston. Thomas was working as a Superintendent at the Dominion Works and clearly inherited his father’s diligence and work ethic – it was usual for him to arrive at work early and busy himself in all aspects of the plant’s construction. His brother, Egbert, was studying electrical engineering at Cornell University at the time.

On 5th June 1901, Thomas left for the plant as usual leaving Ellen, who was seven months pregnant, to rest ahead of the impending birth of Arthur and Helen’s first grandchild. At about 4pm Thomas was in the marshalling yard where the locomotives were busy moving large wagons of heavy material around the site. He signalled the driver of one of the engines that he wished to board and as he approached to grab the handrail to climb aboard, he slipped beneath the wheels and was killed instantly. There was nothing anyone could do. At the time, Arthur Moxham was visiting Henry Whitney in New York and hurried messages were sent to him and Egbert at Cornell to return home immediately. If the loss of Thomas was not tragic enough, two months later Ellen died in childbirth as did her stillborn son. The deaths of their son, daughter-inlaw and first grandchild within the space of two months was too much for Arthur and Helen Moxham to bear. Arthur lost interest in the Dominion site and returned to Louisville where Ellen and her son had been taken back to the family plot and laid to rest alongside Thomas.

During subsequent summer months, Arthur and Helen returned to Moxham Castle, but the visits must have brought back very sad memories and in 1914 it was donated to the Canadian Government to be used as a rehabilitation hospital for those wounded during the First World War. After the War it was sold and changed hands and, eventually, having been vandalised and left derelict for several years, it was destroyed by a fire in 1966.

Although Arthur Moxham continued to work, his great endeavours were behind him. He joined the Board of Directors of the new Du Pont Company, invited by its President, Coleman du Pont, as Director of Product Development. He gradually became less active and by the late 1920s had retired. He died at the age of 76 on 16th May 1931 in Great Neck, Nassau County, New York State. He was buried in the family plot at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, where just over one year later Helen Moxham was laid to rest.

Role model

Today the School encourages all its pupils to live by and actively embrace its values: resilience, responsibility, independence, integrity, compassion and curiosity. Long before these principles were defined, Arthur Moxham demonstrated them throughout his life and even now might be considered a role model for others to emulate.

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