John Snowdon

• English

John Snowdon, an Englishman who arrived in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, around 1820 with his wife and two children, began as a blacksmith working with John Weaver. His skill soon drew the notice of merchant George Hogg, who asked him to make an English oven; Snowdon agreed, provided the necessary iron and tools could be obtained. Hogg secured the materials and outfitted him with an anvil, bellows and tools, enabling Snowdon to open his own shop. He later expanded into a forge, rolling mill, pattern shop, foundry, boiler yard and finishing shop on an acre along the Monongahela River (lost). As Brownsville emerged as a leading steamboat-building center in the 1820s, Snowdon's works became central to the town's industrial rise, producing engines for Civil War ironclads such as the Manayunk and Umpqua. - AsNotedIn