Through the decades, the question has come up again and again: “Who are the Carrie Furnaces named after?” After years of research, the nonprofit Rivers of Steel has revealed the facility's namesake.
“It's the number one question that's asked. Number one, all those years. And generally, what we would tell them is it was a member of the Fownes family,” Ron Baraff, the director of historic resources and facilities, told WESA's The Confluence.
Caroline “Carrie” Clark was the daughter of William Clark, one of the founders, owners, and the first president of the Carrie Furnace Company. When she was 21 years old, Carrie was the first to light the fires and christen the furnaces. Thus, they were named in her honor. Carrie also turned out to be a first cousin of the Fownes Brothers, founding partners in the company, confirming the River of Steel’s longtime hunch.
The truth behind the Carrie Furnaces’ namesake was found near-accidentally by Baraff in an article from the Pittsburgh Daily Post.
“I hit the line about Carrie Clark who lit the fires and performed other baptismal services and thought, ‘Oh, my God, this is it,’” said Baraff.
Carrie is not the first to have a furnace named in her honor. The Eliza Furnaces were named after founder James Laughlin’s daughter, and the blast furnace “Dorothy Six” in Duquesne was named after Dorothy Helen Rice Worthington, the wife of the president of U.S. Steel, Leslie Worthington.
