Buckeye Steel Castings
Encyclopedia
Buckeye Steel Castings was a Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

maker best known today for its longtime president, Samuel P. Bush
Samuel P. Bush
Samuel Prescott Bush was an American industrialist and entrepreneur, and the patriarch of the Bush political family. He was the father of U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of former U.S President George H. W. Bush, and great-grandfather of former U.S. President George W...

, who was the grandfather of President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 George H.W. Bush and great-grandfather of President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

.

Buckeye, named for the Ohio Buckeye
Ohio Buckeye
The tree species Aesculus glabra is commonly known as Ohio buckeye, American buckeye, or fetid buckeye.It is native primarily to the Midwestern and lower Great Plains regions of the United States, extending southeast into the Nashville Basin. It is also found locally in the extreme southwest of...

 tree, was founded in Columbus as the Murray-Hayden Foundry, which made iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 farm implements. Finding success manufacturing iron railroad car
Railroad car
A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...

 couplers, the name changed to the Buckeye Automatic Car Coupler Company in 1891 and Buckeye Malleable Iron and Coupler Company in 1894. Eventually demand for stronger coupling assemblies led to a switch to steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 and the name Buckeye Steel Castings.

The business was closely associated with rail baron E.H. Harriman and for some time was controlled by Frank Rockefeller
Frank Rockefeller
Franklin "Frank" Rockefeller was the youngest surviving son of William Avery Rockefeller. His two older brothers were John Davison and William Rockefeller of Standard Oil fame....

, the brother of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...

. In 1901 Buckeye hired Samuel Prescott "S.P." Bush as General Manager. Bush, a graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...

, had worked his way up from apprentice mechanic at the locally-based Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route , was a railroad forming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania across the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia...

 to Superintendent of Motive Power at that railroad and, briefly, the Milwaukee Road
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...

. In 1908 Rockefeller departed and Bush took over as President, a job he would hold until 1928. During this period Bush became known as a top industrialist and had political influence in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

.

Bush had an advanced business outlook for his day and implemented many modern management techniques as well as an unusually generous working environment.

In 1967, the parent company Buckeye International, Inc. was formed, and then acquired in 1980 by Worthington Industries
Worthington Industries
Worthington Industries, Inc. is a diversified metal manufacturing company with annual sales of approximately $2.6 billion. The Columbus, Ohio based company is a steel processor and a manufacturer of metal products such as light gauge steel framing for commercial and residential construction;...

 through a stock merger. Worthington sold Buckeye Steel in 1999, but it went bankrupt in 2002.

The former president of Worthington, Donald Malenick, formed an investment group to purchase the assets of Buckeye, and has reopened the business as Columbus Steel Castings.

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