Husband Frank Henry Buhl 1 2 3
Born: 3 Aug 1848 - Detroit, Wayne Co, MI 2
Christened:
Died: 7 Jun 1918 - Sharon, Mercer Co, PA 2
Buried:
Father: Christian H. Buhl ( -Aft 1895) 2 4
Mother: Caroline DeLong ( - ) 2
Marriage: 8 Feb 1888 1
• Property: : Sharon, Mercer Co, PA.
Wife Julia A. Forker 3 5
Born: 29 May 1854 - Mercer, Mercer Co, PA 5
Christened:
Died: 3 May 1936 - Sharon, Mercer Co, PA 6
Buried:
Father: Henry Forker (1823-1865) 3 7
Mother: Salina J. Porter ( - ) 8
Children
General Notes: Husband - Frank Henry Buhl
It was in Detroit that he received his public school and pre-college education. After leaving Yale in 1867 he came to Sharon, Pennsylvania, to work in the Sharon Iron Works, a concern which his father had organized in 1845 in association with C. H. Andrews, W. H. Hitchcock, and James Westerman. All these names were to become prominent in steel manufacturing circles.
James Westerman was then manager of the plant, which was later enlarged and named the Westerman Iron Company. After working five years in the mill, and acquiring a thorough knowledge of iron manufacture, Mr. Buhl took Westerman's place when the latter disposed of his interest and retired in 1874. The name was changed to Sharon Iron Works Company, and Mr. Buhl remained as superintendent until 1878, when he went back to his early home in Detroit to take charge of the Detroit Copper & Brass Rolling Mill. In August, 1887, however, he returned to Sharon, again assuming the management of the Iron Works Company, which in 1882 had come under the complete ownership of C. H. Buhl. By 1888 it was the largest individual plant in Mercer County, employing about seven hundred men.
Mr. Buhl's second and permanent settlement in Sharon was perhaps the most important single event in its history. He then became finally identified with the city, and definitely adopted Pennsylvania as his home state.
In 1896 the Buhl Steel Company was formed at Sharon, with Frank H. Buhl as president. Its open hearth department began operation in May, 1897; and the blooming mill soon afterward. March, 1899, witnessed the absorption of Buhl Steel by the National Steel Company, which later was combined with the Carnegie Steel Company and became a part of the United States Steel Corporation.
About this time Mr. Buhl engaged in a new branch of the steel business, originating in Sharon the making of steel castings, then almost unknown. In partnership with Daniel Eagan, he built the Sharon Steel Castings Plant, which later was taken over by the American Steel Foundries.
Mr. Buhl was also largely influential in bringing about the choice of Sharon as the site of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company, founded by the late Morris Bachman. This company, as the Sharon Steel Corporation, now operates works both at Sharon and at Youngstown, Ohio.
After the sale of his Buhl Steel Company to National Steel, Mr. Buhl associated himself in 1899 with John Stevenson, Jr., in the organization of the Sharon Steel Company, located just outside Sharon's boundaries. Around it, in 1900, sprang up the new town of South Sharon, later the city of Farrell. Four years later this company, like its predecessor, was sold to United States Steel.
With this sale, Mr. Buhl retired from his activities as a pioneer in steel plant construction, doubtless sensing that the character of the industry was changing so as to render the field unpromising to individual enterprise. In 1903 he and Peter L. Kimberly, another steel manufacturer of Sharon, together founded the Buhl-Kimberly Corporation, which acquired various mining properties and extensive ore interests in the Mesaba Range in Minnesota. He also became interested in the irrigation of waste lands in the West under the Carey Act. With others, he incorporated the Twin Falls Land & Water Company to finance the reclamation by irrigation of some two hundred thousand acres of land in Idaho, on which several thriving towns and cities arose. Chief of these were Twin Falls, Buhl, Kimberly and Milner. Going even farther afield, to the Philippines, he became an underwriter of securities of the Philippine Railroad, a steam railway line, and of the Manila Suburban Railways-Company.
During all the years when he had been active as an industrialist, Mr. Buhl showed a solicitous regard for the welfare of his employees, neighbors and fellow-citizens. When he relinquished personal leadership of his many enterprises, however, his thoughts turned more and more to the problems and needs of his community. He noticed the lack of recreational and cultural institutions, and with characteristic energy and directness set in motion a comprehensive and long-range program of public benefits which show not only his generous spirit, but also a breadth of vision in advance of his time.
The first of his benefactions, indicating the sensitive practicality of his temperament, was the building in Oakwood Cemetery, Sharon, of a beautiful limestone mausoleum, in which services for the dead could be held and temporary sepulture made. This he endowed with a maintenance fund of ten thousand dollars.
He next erected, and fully equipped, the F. H. Buhl Club, to function, on an entirely non-sectarian basis, similarly to the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association, neither of which existed in Sharon. It was an imposing brick and stone structure, centrally located; and contained an excellent library, reading room, reference room, social and music rooms, gymnasium, bowling alleys, billiard and game rooms, etc. It served the people of Sharon in manifold ways. It was opened in 1903, at which time Mr. Buhl created a self-perpetuating charitable association, the trustees of the F. H. Buhl Club, to whom title to the club building was entrusted, and in whose care he later placed the other properties which he made available for the use of the inhabitants of the Shenango Valley.
For the club's library, Mr. Buhl gave a book fund. His wishes were considered in the original selection of its reading content, in which fiction was well balanced by a rich supply of technical and other non-fiction publications valuable to ambitious workers and students. His policy was maintained, and as a result, this library, long in use as a free public institution, was of unusual worth for study, cultural and reference purposes.
While thus providing indoor social and educational facilities for the community, Mr. Buhl was quietly planning an outdoor recreational centre, to be called the F. H. Buhl Farm. Selecting a site midway between Sharon and Sharpsville, he purchased some three hundred acres of beautifully located land, the development of which required nearly five years. Over four miles of finely constructed bituminous roads were laid out to give access to all parts of the site; approximately seventy-five thousand trees and shrubs were planted; and the grounds were beautified with an artificial lake eleven acres in extent. On its shore he built a handsome casino, with all conveniences for the use of dancers, swimmers, skaters and other guests of the farm, including opportunity to secure light refreshments at moderate prices. The dance floor was one of the best in western Pennsylvania.
On this property Mr. Buhl also erected the F. H. Buhl Farm House, meeting a need for a dignified place for public or semi-public entertaining. This building, constructed of limestone and finished in hard wood, was completely furnished and equipped, and leased for a nominal sum to the Sharon Country Club. Provision was made by Mr. Buhl so that it might be so leased from year to year in the future if desired; and this was done.
The farm further included a picnic grove with shelter building, tables, benches, lawn swings, and swings and slides for children; ten tennis courts; a nine-hole golf course; an athletic field with steel grandstand having a seating capacity of one thousand; a football field; and a children's playground with customary apparatus. Seven drilled wells furnished an abundance of clear, cold water of excellent quality. In accordance with Mr. Buhl's express directions, formality was avoided in the landscaping, and there were no “keep off the grass” signs.
On November 1915, title to the farm, and the accompanying endowment fund, was vested in the trustees; and this unique institution opened, all its facilities to be forever free “for the proper use, benefit and enjoyment of the public generally, and more especially the residents of this community, as a playground and place of recreation.”
Along with these great philanthropies, Mr. Buhl gave generously to the C. H. Buhl Hospital and all worthy causes coming to his attention. Both by example and precept he influenced friends of means to make large contributions to deserving charities in and near Sharon. The welfare work of the local branch of the international Sunshine Society had earned his approval and support, and the next step in his well-rounded program of public benefits was the construction of the Sunshine Home, a three-story brick edifice, to house their operations. This building became headquarters for a multitude of relief and charitable organizations, for baby clinics, Red Cross work, and general community assistance. It filled a long-felt need. [HNWP, 93]
General Notes: Wife - Julia A. Forker
When upon retirement from active business Mr. Buhl began his program of philanthropies, she joined enthusiastically in his benefactions. She shared happily in the gratitude their joint benevolences aroused among her appreciative fellow-citizens; and supplemented these gifts with her manifold kindly and thoughtful personal charities, many of which will never be known except to the recipients.
Following her distinguished husband's death in 1918, she devoted herself, as co-executor under his will, both to carrying out the plans they had made together and, in cooperation with the trustees of the F. H. Buhl Club, a charitable association which had previously been created, and which now became owner of the residuary estate, to initiating many new projects for the benefit of her home community. With the funds thus provided, Mrs. Buhl in conjunction with the trustees, remodelled and refurnished the F. H. Buhl Club, paid off the accumulated debt of the C. H. Buhl Hospital, installed new X-ray, Deep Therapy and operating equipment in the hospital, established the girls' department of the F. H. Buhl Club (later named the Julia F. Buhl Girls' Club), and provided means for giving summer vacations on nearby farms to hundreds of underprivileged children. She maintained a constant interest in the welfare work of the Sunshine Society, assisting both morally and financially.
When the depression which began in 1929 brought new problems to Sharon, as to all other American communities, Mrs. Buhl's energies were directed particularly to the preservation of the health and morale of those in the schools and industries of the city. Special attention was given at this time to providing needed dental services, eye glasses, tonsillectomies, also clothing, shoes, milk and lunches for school children; thus maintaining Sharon's youth at a normal public health standard.
Mrs. Buhl was a devoted member of St. John's Episcopal Church at Sharon. She was a faithful attendant at the services, and manifested her interest in the church in many ways, including the gift of a beautiful chapel.