WEIRTON - Herman Capito and Donna C. Paul, son and granddaughter of Weirton Steel worker Louis Capito, made the entry that was chosen as the winner of the 100th anniversary of steelmaking at Weirton.

ArcelorMittal Weirton sought entries and photographs from the community about their memories of the mill, founded in 1909 by E.T. Weir. The company will provide a plant tour and dinner, as well as The Weirton Area History Game as prizes for the selected essay, which was reviewed by Plant Manager Brian James; Mark Glyptis, president of Local 2911 of the United Steelworkers of America; Dennis Jones of the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center; and Paul Giannamore, business editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times.

Their tale of Louis is representative of many thousands of men and women who worked in the steel plant during the past century.

Here is the winning essay:

100 Years of Steel Making

Louis Capito was exempt from the service for World War I because he was a machinist in the mill and the government needed all machinists to continue working in order to make bullets.

In the 1930s, while Louis worked in the mill, he was one of several men who were "locked up" in what they called the "Mystery House." Every day when these men went to work, they went into a room to work on a product. From here, these men were the first to build equipment that produced the first electrolytic tin plate product.

Louis was also instrumental in developing several other patents for Weirton Steel, but of course, these patents stayed with the mill.

In 1936, there was a major flood in Maysville, Kentucky. The Carnation milk plant was under water and had a lot of tin plate that was ruined. It would cost the company a lot of money to ship all the steel to be reprocessed so that the steel would be usable again. Weirton Steel Corporation sent Louis to Kentucky and shipped some equipment there. Louis found local help, put the equipment together, and started processing the steel. Besides his pay for working there, Carnation gave Louis all the canned milk he could carry in his car.

Louis Capito worked at Weirton Steel until his retirement in 1948 when he opened his own musical instrument and appliance business.

Submitted by:

Herman F. Capito (son of Louis)

Donna C. Paul (granddaughter)