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Strahorn, Pierson & Co. Spoke and Wheel Factory, Toughkenamon,Chester County, Pennsylvania

After a fire destroyed his factory in 1864, Samuel Strahorn decided to relocate. With the advent of steam power, factory owners were no longer limited to operating near rivers and streams. Strahorn learned that the route of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad would pass through the crossroads later to be known as Toughkenamon, affording ready access to rail shipping. The new partnership of Strahorn, Pierson and Company opened at Toughkenamon in the spring of 1866 after purchasing a factory there. Samuel Strahorn died in November 1867 of "Typhomalarial Fever" which periodically swept through the Toughkenamon Valley. It appears that his wife retained the partnership interest, and a few years later their sons Joseph H. and Milton Strahorn were listed in the business. The factory was three stories high and some fifteen to twenty men were employed there, turning out 40,000 spokes, 1,200 sets of wheels, and a large number of hubs and other items each year. Machinery was driven by a twenty horsepower Corliss steam engine. Through the years, the capacity for finishing spokes increased to seven or eight hundred per day. The partnership was dissolved in 1890 and business was conducted thereafter solely by Isaac M. Pierson. Milton and Joseph Strahorn operated a carriage shop across the road in the same building that housed the blacksmith shop. Tragedy struck on Christmas day in 1903 when the wheel works was set afire, completely destroying the operation. It was written that a Toughkenamon firebug was responsible, and there is no further reference to the business.

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