Allegheny County PA Archives Biographies.....KIDD, Edwin January 20 1845 - November 1 1922
  ************************************************
  Copyright.  All rights reserved. 
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
  ************************************************
  
  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
  Kelly Selcher selcherkid@hotmail.com January 29, 2005, 11:35 pm
  
  Author: Kelly Selcher
  
  Edwin Kidd was born on January 20, 1845, in Cawthorne, West 
  Riding Yorkshire, England.  He was one of ten children born to 
  William Kidd and Elizabeth Hall. 
  
  In 1869, Edwin emigrated to the United States with his brother, 
  Walter Scott Kidd.  The two brothers settled in Worcester, 
  Massachusetts, then called the "Wire Capital of the World."  
  Edwin knew a great deal about wire making.  His father, William, 
  had turned his grist mill into wire producing machines and had 
  taught Edwin the trade. 
  
  Edwin and Walter found jobs at Washburn and Moen Company, a 
  large wire manufacturing firm.  Walter Scott Kidd eventually 
  left to pursue other interests. 
  
  On January 5, 1871, Edwin married Margaret Gurry. They 
  eventually had thirteen children. 
  
  In 1885, Edwin decided on a fresh start in Pittsburgh, 
  Pennsylvania. On October 15, 1885, Edwin, his brother William 
  (who had just come from England,) and a man named Rutherford 
  Burgher founded Kidd Steel Wire Company from an abandoned flour 
  mill in Harmarville, Pennsylvania. 
  
  The trio turned the factory into the first company in the United 
  States to make manufactured drill rod.  Before Kidd Steel 
  existed, drill rod was imported. 
  
  By 1892, Kidd Steel was selling drill rod to many prestigious 
  companies.  The President of American Waltham Watch Company 
  mentioned the high quality of Kidd Steel drill rod in a speech 
  to the Watchmakers Association.  Also in that year, Walter Scott 
  Kidd and Edwin's younger brother, Harry Herbert Kidd, joined the 
  family firm. 
  
  Soon after Edwin's brothers entered the company, the firm broke 
  up.  Edwin and another man left and founded Globe Wire Company, 
  while Walter, Harry, and Rutherford continued to own Kidd Steel 
  Wire Company. 
  
  Around when World War I began, Edwin sold Globe Wire Company, 
  which had become a rival of Kidd Steel, to Firth Sterling 
  Company. 
  
  Edwin Kidd died November 1, 1922, in Penn Township, 
  Pennsylvania. 
  
  
  This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/
  
  File size: 2.5 Kb