Biography:

The Jones and Laughlin Steel Company began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and B. F. Jones, a few miles (c 4 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James H. Laughlin. The first firm to bear the name of Jones and Laughlin was organized in 1861 and headquartered at Third & Ross in downtown Pittsburgh. Katharine Hepburn's maternal uncle, Frank Garlinghouse, was a longtime engineer for J&L Steel.