Business Career
Early in adulthood, Donner managed the family-owned grain mill, and in his twenties, he invested in Indiana natural gas and real estate. He founded the National Tin Plate Company, originally based in North Anderson, Indiana, and obtained a patent for an innovation in tin plate rolling processes.
Donner then shifted his energies from Indiana to the Monongahela Valley of southwestern Pennsylvania. In 1897, his National Tin Plate Company was the first employer in the newly created community of Monessen, Pennsylvania, and the town's main street was named "Donner Avenue" in his honor.
Donner then sold his tin plate company, and used the proceeds to create Union Steel Company (later American Steel and Wire Company), located in the new community of Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1899-1900. The "Don" in "Donora" was in recognition of William Donner's key role in the founding of that community. In creating Union Steel Company, Donner received financial backing from Henry Clay Frick, Andrew W. Mellon, and Richard B. Mellon, in addition to Donner's own funds. The town was the site of the Donora Smog of 1948.
After selling his Donora-based company in 1903, Donner became President of Cambria Steel Company, and also served as Chairman of the Board of the Pennsylvania Steel Company. Near the end of his career, he created the Buffalo-based Donner Steel Company, which he sold in 1929.
In 1914, a new cargo ship (at 524 feet long and 9,600 tones one of the largest on the Great Lakes at the time), the William H. Donner was named in his honor at the Great Lakes Engineering Works and shipyard in Ashtabula, Ohio. Still holding the name, it has functioned since 1969 as a stationary crane ship and cargo transfer hull in Marinette, Wisconsin. It is currently owned by K.K. Integrated Logistics.
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