Henry Clay Frick: A Brief Biography

Henry Clay Frick was born on December 19, 1849, in Western Overton Pennsylvania. Frick was the second child of an immigrant father and a mother that was the daughter of a flour merchant. He grew up with six siblings. He was raised as a Christian. Frick’s grandfather was wealthy because he was a rich miller and whiskey maker. In his early life, he received little formal education. He early showed a talent for business, and at age nineteen he became a bookkeeper for his grandfather’s business (People & Events: Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) , 2004). At age 20, Frick had formed the company Frick and Company. The company dealt with coke production (a carbon residue that’s used in metalworking). Frick had been buying coal lands in the Connellsville region and constructing coke
He ignored union involvements. He threatened to bring in the Pinkertons, who were a detective agency for hire that amounted to a private army of thugs. He was also strictly against organized labor, and refused to allow union workers at his mines. Frick’s action led to the Homestead Strike of 1892. The strike took place at Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead Pennsylvania on June 30. It was between the Carnegie Steel Company and many of its workers. Workers belonging to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel struck Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead, Pennsylvania to protest a proposed wage cut. Frick was determined to break the union. He hired three hundred Pinkerton detectives to protect the plant and strikebreakers. After an armed battle between the workers and the detectives, ten workers were killed and sixty workers were wounded. The governor then called out the state militia. The plant opened, nonunion workers stayed on the job, and the strike was officially over on November 20 (Henry Clay Frick, 2013). The Homestead strike led to a weakening of unionism in the steel industry. Frick was a strict and bad boss to his