1473 HISTORY 15 



known as the " Troy Iron Rollers Association." It was 

 composed of " all rollers, roughers and catchers " having 

 " a practical understanding of the business." In 1865 the 

 " Iron Mill Rollers Union and Benevolent Association of 

 Elmira " was organized.^^ Trade union activity among the 

 heaters has been recorded as early as 1865. On the 6th of 

 July, 1865, delegates of heaters' unions met in convention 

 at Cleveland, Ohio, to organize a national union, or more 

 properly, to efifect a more complete national organiza- 

 tion.^* Although the movement would appear from these 

 facts to have been rather widespread, the finishers' unions 

 appear to have completely disappeared in a short time. 



The first permanent local unions of men employed at the 

 furnaces and rolls in the finishing departments originated 

 in Chicago.^'^ In 1861, a local lodge of heaters was organ- 

 ized under the name of " The Associated Brotherhood of 

 Iron and Steel Rail Heaters." Other local organizations 

 sprang up within the next few years, and in August, 1872,^" 

 nine lodges sent delegates to a convention in Springfield, 

 Illinois. Membership was extended to include heaters in 

 bar, plate and guide mills. ^^ In 1873, the brotherhood had 

 twenty-two lodges and a membership of 480, with lodges in 

 seven States — Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Rollers and roughers were 

 made eligible, and the name of the organization became "The 

 Associated Brotherhood of Iron and Steel Heaters, Rollers 

 and Roughers of the United States."'** 



The organization as an independent body lasted only four 

 years. It had few members east of the Alleghany moun- 



i« Fitch, Steel Workers, p. sT! ~~" 



'* Fincher's Trade Review, July 22, 1865, p. 64, quoted by Fitch. 



1" National Laboi Tribune, April 28, 1888, p. 2, col. I. See also 

 Fitch, PI). 81, 82. 



^"According to Jarrett (McNeill, p. 277) Friendship Union Ixidgc 

 of Chicago is the earliest ; and it was tliis lodge that took tlie initial 

 steps to " form " a national union by calling a convention August 30 

 and 31, 1872. 



^^ Pcnn.sylvania Bureau of Industrial Statistics, 1887, p. G 2, quoted 

 by Fitcli. 



" Fitch, p. 82. 



