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Page-Hersey had a long history that began with the merger of five companies in Montreal; the J.C. Hodgson Company, Pillow-Hersey manufacturing Company (directed by Mr. Randolph Hersey), Cohoes Rolling Mill Company (Directed by Mr. George Henry Page), Page-Hersey Iron and Tube Company and Montreal Rolling Mills. Pillow-Hersey Company and Cohoes Rolling Mill Company merged under Page-Hersey Iron and Tube Company in 1898. Montreal Rolling Mills absorbed Page-Hersey Iron and Tube Company in 1902. The Secretary- treasurer of Pillow-Hersey Manufacturing Company, Mr. W.W. Near, took the name and started up in Guelph that same year, incorporated under Page-Hersey Iron and Tubes Company Limited. Production of two-inch butt weld pipes began at the Guelph factory in 1903. By 1906 the factory had the capability to manufacture twelve-inch butt weld pipes.

Page-Hersey Iron Tubes and Lead Company Limited came to Crowland in 1909. Welland was a prime choice for Page-Hersey’s location due to the ease of transport allowed by proximity to the Welland Canal. From 1909 to the late 1950s, the canal was used by Page-Hersey to transport steel from the U.K. and U.S. When Stelco took over, the steel was shipped from Hamilton. The company established the first lap weld pipe mill in Canada, producing pipe up to twelve inches in diameter.

Page-Hersey was encouraged to locate in Welland because of cheap hydroelectric power and concessions made by the municipality of Welland. The city made concessions of $6,000 if the plant cost at least $100,000 to build and employed a minimum of one hundred and twenty-five workers and gave an annual assessment of $100,000 for 20 years. Eleven acres of land were bought from the Ontario Iron and Steel Company of Toronto to house Page-Hersey Tubes Limited. In 1907 a 600-foot wharf was constructed on the Third Welland Canal to service Page-Hersey. The Page-Hersey factory consisted of three buildings; a smelter, pump house and office. In March 1910 production began to produce open-hearth ingots, billets, angles and merchant bars and steel castings from one pound to fifteen-ton light rails.

Page-Hersey controlled the Ontario Iron and Steel Company in 1909. William Wallace Near was the President of both Ontario Iron and Steel Company and Page-Hersey. In 1911 Ontario Iron and Steel was taken over by Canadian Car and Foundries Company and renamed Canadian Steel Foundries. On six acres of land at the south end of King Street, the company manufactured steel castings, railway car couplings, angle iron and two bars and fishplates for railways. The factory was fitted with open-hearth furnaces. The company closed in 1913, but reopened during the war effort to produce shell casings. Canadian Steel Foundries was closed after the war and the vacant property was taken over by Page-Hersey Tubes and Electro Metals.

The Page-Hersey facilities were expanded in 1914, allowing for the production of pipe and tubular products and assembled and finished six inch shells for the Allies during the Great War. In the last year of the war the name changed to the corporate title of Page-Hersey Tubes Limited. The increase in domestic and foreign orders enabled Page-Hersey to rehire between two hundred to three hundred men in January 1922. Orders decreased the following month leading to layoffs. The following year Page-Hersey rehired one-handed men and began a double shift in the cap mill. The company’s facilities were expanded in 1923 with the construction of a third mill. In April of 1925 Page-Hersey closed part of its plant and laid off one hundred men. In 1930 a seamless pipe mill was built and the continuous weld process was introduced in 1939.

During WWII, the company produced shell forgings, naval boiler tubes, and pipe for aircraft frames, bazooka guns and mortars. The Federal government provided funding for a cold draw facility to produce precision tubing for boilers for frigates, corvettes and destroyers. They also produced pipe for aircraft frames. In 1941, the company purchased thirty-five acres of property adjoining Page-Hersey from Canadian Car and Foundry. A cold draw plant was built in 1942 to manufacture small diameter pipe for close tolerance.

After WWII, three more mills were built. Two of these were electric weld tube mills and the third was an electric resistant weld pipe mill that produced pipe four and one-eighths inch to six inch in diameter. By 1949, The Page-Hersey in Guelph, Ontario closed and Welland remained the sole location for Page-Hersey. The company was granted a contract for sixteen-inch pipe for Imperial Oil’s Western Pipeline in 1950, which enabled some wartime employees to remain employed at Page-Hersey. The company also secured the contract to manufacture sixteen-inch pipe for the Alberta-Great Lakes oil pipeline.

Welland Tubes Limited was established in 1957 by the joint effort of Page-Hersey and the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco) for production of “Big Inch” pipe for oil and gas. The new $10 million pipe mill was located in Crowland Township and had the capacity to make pipe up to thirty-six inches in diameter. By 1958, Page-Hersey was noted as one of Welland’s “Big 3” Industries. Stelco (a division of Steel Company of Canada) bought out Page-Hersey in 1965 for approximately $89 million. The sale transferred ownership of Welland Tube Works and Page-Hersey to the Steel Company of Canada. By 1969, Welland Tube was in operation only nine to ten months of the year. Stelco operated Welland Tube Works when demand called for it. Stelco had no trouble hiring three hundred workers when needed. In 1985, Page-Hersey and Welland Tubes came under the corporate banner of Stelpipe with headquarters in Welland. In 1987 Stelpipe was Canada’s major supplier of pipe and tubular products, with seven mills in Welland making one-eighth inch to sixteen-inch diameter pipe and employing thirteen hundred workers. This employment level ranked Stelpipe as Welland’s second largest employer.

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