Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Rebecca Webb PENNOCK
Rebecca Lukens: a Legacy to Steel
George Washington was serving his fifth year as President of the United States when Rebecca Webb Pennock (Lukens) was born near Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, on January 6,1794. The second child of Isaac and Martha Webb Pennock, she entered a well-to-do, established family of Quaker farmers with extensive holdings in western Chester County.
At the time of Rebecca's birth, Isaac Pennock owned a gracious home and profitable iron works, the Federal Slitting Mill, on Buck Run tributary near the Coatesville-Unionville Road (Route 82). The mill produced much needed iron rods and strips for the fabrication of wagon wheel rims, nails, barrel hoops and blacksmith iron.
"My father, " wrote Rebecca in her autobiography, "was generous and amiable ... and wished to make all around him happy ... My first ideas abound with instances of his indulgence. My mother ... had light control over my actions and I was left to the exercise of my own will in my childish pursuits."
Because Quakers believed daughters should be educated like sons, Isaac taught Rebecca to read, write, calculate and ride horseback. She was his constant companion as he tended to his iron business and properties. When Rebecca turned 12, she was sent to a Wilmington boarding school to complete her education.
"Now it was that life began to open new charms for me," wrote Rebecca in 1825. "I was rapidly improving, a favorite with my teachers and at the head of all my classes ... My preceptor was the best of men. Every pain was taken to instill religious impressions into the minds of his pupils... I always look on this period of my life with pleasure and even now love to retrace it."
At age 18, Rebecca returned home to help with six younger siblingsˇ "For a long time I felt lonely and isolated I had no companions to mingle my thoughts with... books I read or rather eagerly devoured their contents ... and many, many is the night I have hid in my chamber, the light served me to indulge in my favorite pursuit till the morning's dawn."
While Rebecca struggled at home, Isaac formed a partnership with Jesse Kersey, and on July 2, 1810, purchased the Moses Coates Farm on the West Branch of the Brandywine River near the Turnpike. Isaac converted an old sawmill on the property into an iron mill and opened Brandywine Iron Works and Nail Factory.
A year later, Dr. Charles Lukens died suddenly at the age of 39. He left Rebecca pregnant and grieving with three small daughters, heavy debts to a callous mother and disputed rights to the mill.
"In the summer of 1825, I lost my dear and excellent husband," wrote Rebecca. "During the period of our being here the iron business had been very poor ... in our constant expense in repairing the Works, it was utterly impossible there should be support left for the young and helpless family now dependent solely on me ... [Dr. Lukens] was sanguine in his hopes for success, and this was his dying request -- he wished me to continue and I promised to comply. Indeed I knew well I must do something for the children around me ... I will not dwell on my feelings, when I began to look around me ...[but] Necessity is a stern task mistress; and my every want gave me courage; besides... where else could I go and live ... Dr. Lukens had many good and firm friends, and they all stood by me ... the workmen were tried and faithful, and so with some fear but more courage, I began to struggle for a livelihood... now I look back and wonder at my daring."
Five months after Dr. Lukens death, Rebecca had her sixth child, a daughter she named "Charlesanna" in memory of her husband.
With Charles' brother, Solomon, overseeing the mill operations, Rebecca managed the commercial side buying materials and supplies, making contracts and negotiating sales. Nine years after Charles' death, Rebecca had paid her creditors' and mother's accounts.
Then in 1832, Rebecca's second daughter, Elizabeth, died at 15. Rebecca handled her grief by burying herself in work. "[By 1834] the mill had been entirely remodeled, and rebuilt from the very foundation. Dam entirely newly built, Wheels put in, castings, furnaces, mill head, mill house much larger,all were built anew; not a vestige of the old remained... I have thoroughly repaired the mansion house, built good and substantial tenant houses for my workmen, and put much lime and fencing on the farm and have been at the whole expenses of defending the property from an attempt made to destroy the water right ... I had built a very superior mill; though a plain one, and our character for making boiler plate stood first in the market, hence we had as much business as we could do."
During 1834, Rebecca also opened a store, warehouse and freight agency at the Coatesville depot providing access to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The Panic of 1837 Rebecca weathered with common sense. After rolling a complete inventory of boiler plate, she stopped the mill and set the men to repair equipment and build walls. When faced with declining cash flow, she paid workers with fresh produce and dairy products from her farm.
Through the 1840s, Rebecca battled against railroad tariffs. A plate incised with rebellious verse was mounted by the Turnpike to protest the exorbitant freight rates levied on manufactured goods. Authorship is attributed to an angry Rebecca.
"We fondly hope for better days
when every furnace fire shall blaze
and streaming to the midnight sky
Proclaim to all-- Prosperity."
The marriage of Martha Lukens to Abraham Gibbons,Jr. took place in October 1841 at Fallowfield Meeting and was celebrated on the porch of Brandywine Mansion. Rebecca's new son-in-law joined the firm in 1842 and was made full partner in 1844.
In 1847, Isabella married Dr.Charles Huston who, like Dr. Lukens before him, abandoned medicine to join the iron business. With two capable sons-in-law to manage the business, Rebecca became a silent partner.
Charlesanna married Dr.William Tingley of Philadelphia in April 1848 and died 11 months later in childbirth. And, a grief-stricken Rebecca returned to Brandywine Mansion with her infant granddaughter.
The next six years were spent raising Annie -- "the light of my home, the bright sunbeam of my dreary life" -- building a house for Isabella's family and studying the Bible. One petulant diary entry shows Rebecca seeking reasons for the tragic events of her life, but she finishes with "I dare not murmur; I fear to
repine, lest I offend Him, the Great and good Creator."
Rebecca's faith sustained her to the end. She died December 10, 1854, at age 60. The family buried her near Fallowfield Friends Meeting down the road from the graves of her beloved husband and three children.
The values Rebecca instilled in her heirs are still part of Lukens today. She listened to customers' needs, embraced technology, reinvested in her business during good times and bad, pursued specialty markets, and above all maintained
profitability. So successful were her children that by 1892, "Locomotive Engineering" remarked that "[Lukens] has adhered to their specialty of making plate; they have demonstrated the greatest care and attention to the production of the best article that could be made, and their customers admit that no better
plate is to be found on the market. They appear to take particular pride in the uniform quality of their steel."
Today, Lukens Inc. is the oldest, continuously operating steel mill in North America. Much of the company's success is linked to the legacy left by a courageous and determined woman named Rebecca Webb Pennock Lukens.
Pa. State Marker Text: Brandywine Mansion, 102 S. 1st Ave., Coatesville
Historic Fleming house, purchased by Moses Coates in 1787. Acquired in 1810 by Jesse Kersey and Isaac Pennock, founders of the Brandywine Iron Works. Occupied 1816-1825 by Pennock's son-in-law, Dr. Charles Lukens, whose widow Rebecca continued and expanded the firm's operations following his death. Rebecca Lukens, who lived here until her death in 1854, gained renown for her vision and business capability.
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