William Walker Scranton was born in Augusta, Ga., in 1844 to Joseph Hand and Cornelia Walker Scranton. At the time of his birth, his father's cousins, George and Selden Scranton, were struggling to get their fledgling iron works off the ground in the wilderness of Slocum Hollow. Joseph Scranton had invested in the firm the year before, saving the company from bankruptcy.

By the 1860s, George and Selden had left the city, and Joseph Scranton and his family had settled in. His estate home, donated to the University of Scranton, still bears his name.

In 1867, William Walker, or W.W., Scranton took over as superintendent of the company founded by George and Selden. Four years later, he became assistant to the president and took charge of all manufacturing works.

By this time, the firm had begun to manufacture steel as well as iron, and it was W.W. Scranton who guided the next generation of the company's success.

During the 1870s, England, France and Germany were using a process invented by Henry Bessemer, producing high-quality steel efficiently and at lower cost. Joseph Scranton died in 1872, and W.W. Scranton took over the family business interests. In 1874, he spent time in Europe learning the secrets of Bessemer steel production.

In 1876, the company began producing steel rails using the Bessemer method. The result was a new mill that doubled its capacity and quadrupled its output. After 1877, the company produced steel rails exclusively. The industry had taken a turn, and W.W. was on the leading edge.

But his tenure as head of the company came at a time of great labor strife. The 1870s brought economic depression to the nation and, with it, strikes as workers fought for fair wages and safe working conditions.

When a riot broke out in the city in 1877, W.W. headed a posse who met the rioters on Lackawanna Avenue on Aug. 1. Before the situation was over, Scranton's Mayor Robert McKune suffered a broken jaw, and four men were dead.

Following the riots, W.W. established a separate firm, the Scranton Steel Co., and served as its president until 1891. At that time, it was consolidated with the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Co.

The Lackawanna Iron & Coal Co. abandoned the city in 1902. Labor unrest combined with shipping costs led to the move to a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. One furnace remains of a once-sprawling industrial giant.

The Scranton family is associated with another of the city's early developments.

In 1854, Joseph Scranton founded the Scranton Gas & Water Co. It first took its water from the Lackawanna River, pumping it into a reservoir located at Madison Avenue and Olive Street, where Covenant Presbyterian Church now stands. Heavy industry and population growth soon polluted that river beyond what was safe for drinking, and the company turned to water sources outside the city. By 1858, the company was supplying its customers with gas as well as water.

In 1891, W.W. turned his efforts away from the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Co. and devoted himself to the development of the Scranton Gas & Water Co.

In 1898, it completed its dam on Stafford Meadow Brook. With a capacity of 2.5 billion gallons, the new reservoir was the largest in the company's system and destined to become a landmark. Mr. Scranton provided a road around the lake and opened it to the public. He named the lake Burned Bridge Reservoir, but the public called it, simply, Lake Scranton.

The company left the family in 1928 when it was sold by W.W.'s son, Worthington Scranton. Worthington and his family contributed much to the city and its needs. The local Penn State campus is named for Worthington Scranton. His son, William, Scranton served as a Congressman for the 10th District from 1961 to 1963, governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967 and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1976 to 1977.

CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a university instructor and author of "A Brief History of Scranton, PA." Contact the writer: localhistory@timesshamrock.com