Lukens, Rebecca

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LUKENS, REBECCA

Rebecca Lukens (1794–1854) became a pioneer in U.S. industry largely against her will. With the sudden death of her father and her husband, only a year apart, Lukens inherited one of the first iron manufacturing firms in the United States. She became a successful businesswoman in the iron industry in a time when few women worked outside the home, let alone in industrial manufacturing. Her legacy is her firm, which was renamed Lukens Iron Works (and later Lukens Steel) in 1859, honoring her pioneering life and her industry.

Rebecca Webb Pennock Lukens was born in 1794 in West Marlboro Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of iron manufacturer Isaac Pennock. She enjoyed a happy childhood and grew up in a Quaker household that emphasized discipline and learning. She attended two private academies, where she received a good education. Her favorite subjects were French and chemistry. In later years she described her own childhood as "wild, happy, and joyous."

While Rebecca was at school, her father Isaac started an iron mill in Chester County known as the Federal Slitting Mill. He extended his interests by purchasing the Brandywine Mill in Coatsville, Pennsylvania. Her father was quite successful at operating both mills.

In 1813 at age 19 Rebecca married 27-year-old Quaker doctor Charles Lukens, and they returned to live at her parents' home. Charles Lukens abandoned medicine to become a partner with his wife's father in the Federal Slitting Mill under the new name of Pennock and Lukens.

Rebecca Lukens and her husband moved their growing family to the Brandywine area and leased the Brandywine ironworks from Pennock. Lukens foresaw the wide use of steam power and was aware of the superior quality of "charcoal iron" for withstanding the high pressures of steam boilers. He undertook to adapt the Brandywine mill for the rolling of charcoal iron boilerplates to be used in ships and wood burning locomotives. This was a new departure for the iron industry in the United States. The mill's first big order was for iron plates to gird the first metal hull ship in the United States, the steamship Codorus, launched in 1825. But it was also during this year that Lukens' husband suddenly died.

While her husband had requested that his wife carry on the mill, Rebecca Lukens was almost bankrupt from the expenses incurred in expanding the mill for the making of charcoal iron. In addition, her husband died without leaving a clear will and the inheritance of the Brandywine ironworks was legally ambiguous. Compounding her difficult situation, Lukens' father had died the year before and she was without his advice.

Facing these difficulties while she took care of a newborn child, Lukens assumed total responsibility for the ironworks. Through her father and husband she had learned much about the techniques employed in iron manufacturing. While her brother-in-law Solomon took charge of operating the mill Lukens managed and controlled the commercial end. She bought supplies, set prices, made contracts, and studied legislation that might affect her business. She faced all the problems of building a major industrial supply business and supporting a family.

Transportation of the finished iron was difficult. Rough roads and teeming rivers were always a problem. Water was often a difficulty, since the mill was run by waterpower—when the water ran low the mill had to be shut down. Lukens also faced serious litigation related to her ownership of the Brandywine mill at her mother's death in 1844. After several difficult but successful lawsuits there was a final decree that Lukens make heavy payments to the estate. In return she was granted total legal ownership of the Brandywine Iron Works in 1853.

Despite continuing problems and increased competition Rebecca Lukens made a success of her business. The opening of railroads near her mill solved her transportation problems and allowed her to expand her market. Additionally, her iron plates became known throughout the United States because of their high quality and consistency.

By the age of 59 Rebecca Lukens had a net worth of $60,000. She settled her husband's debts, paid the balance due to the Pennock estate, and rebuilt her mill. Three years later she made her son-in-law a partner in the business and went into semi-retirement because of failing health.

The Brandywine Iron Works continued to flourish. After Rebecca's death in 1854 the Iron Works was renamed the Lukens Iron Works in her honor. She was a pioneer of the industry and built the firm nearly from its infancy. The renamed Lukens Iron Works produced steel for over a century. In 1957, 600,000 tons of steel plates were manufactured by Lukens at the same mill site as the one fought for and saved by Rebecca Lukens.