My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL M. KIER. Whenever we undertake to compress the life of an important person into a few pages, we have a difficult task before us. In the following short sketch we can do no more than bring out the prominent points of character of Mr. Kier. To tell the whole would require a volume; we essayed no more than to present the prominent traits of character; how far we have succeeded must be left to the decision of those who were his immediate companions during his lifetime.

Samuel M. Kier (deceased) was born in Indiana county, Pa. His father, Thomas Kier, of American birth, of Scotch-Irish descent, was one of the early salt-manufacturers on the Kiskiminetas river, and his son became associated with him in this industry. About 1846 they were much annoyed by the flow of a mineral oil from their salt wells, which accumulated on the surface of the boiling vats. This was skimmed off and thrown in the canal. One day someone threw a lighted match on the “scum,” when at once the surface of the canal for some distance appeared on fire. Attempts were then made to utilize the oil for fuel in evaporating salt water. Mr. Kier believed that this oil possessed medicinal properties, and after some experiments in purifying it, he placed it on the market as a curative agent under the name of Kier’s Petroleum or Rock Oil. It was recommended by physicians, and had an extensive sale. Mr. Kier conceived the idea that it could be utilized in other ways, and experimented for a long time in refining. He was the first producer by distillation of the refined oil which is now so universally used. The original wrought-iron still for refining petroleum is preserved by his sons as a valuable relic. His first refinery was located at the corner of Seventh avenue and Grant street, in Pittsburgh, and the process used was substantially the same as in the present operation. Had Mr. Kier protected his invention by patents, he would have become immensely wealthy. This was not his disposition, for he was known to be generous to his own pecuniary detriment. It was not without great expense in analysis and experiments that he succeeded in introducing his “rock oil.” He devoted much study and large outlays to the perfection of a refining process to fit the oil for a lubricant and an illuminant, in which he succeeded to an extent which has not been materially improved on to this day. Mr. Kier was a man who was always willing to reach forth a helping hand to others. With his brother, James M. Kier, he explored the oil fields of the upper Allegheny, and with other Pittsburghers as partners made considerable money in oil production. He was very liberal with his means in perfecting a lamp similar to those now in use for burning the refined petroleum, which he manufactured and sold under the name of carbon oil. Through his instrumentality large refineries were erected at Freedom, Beaver county, and in Pittsburgh. Always ready, as Mr. Kier was, to extend a helping hand to others, he assisted others to start a pottery works in New Jersey, and afterward to establish a factory for the fine class of pottery or chinaware, on Fifth avenue where Forbes street now is. This establishment proved unprofitable for the reason that the city of Pittsburgh ran a street through and destroyed the plant.

He was one of the originators of the now famous Crescent Steel-works, in which he remained a silent partner until his death. He became, in early life, a member of the M. E. Church. No man ever lived closer to the rules of that church, or had a warmer heart for its prosperity. His heart and his purse were alike open to whatever was demanded of him.

Mr. Kier was a man of sterling integrity, which was clearly evinced by the payment of debts from which he was freed by the bankrupt laws which followed the fearful panic of 1837. His honor in this rose superior to the laws which were enacted as a relief for all those who were stripped of their all in the financial tornado of that year. We need not dwell on the liberality of the subject of this brief sketch. In brief, his heart, his hand and all his possessions were freely given to churches, hospitals, or whatever tended toward the moral or physical development of the city of his adoption. Mr. Kier could have amassed great wealth, but his “inclinings did not this way tend.” He regarded wealth as the means to further and develop the great resources of the country, and no man’s foresight was more thoroughly deepened with the reality of the future. On or about the year of 1838 he established the firm of Kier, Royer & Co., in a transportation line on the Pennsylvania canal. In 1847 the name of the firm was changed to Kier & Jones, the partner being B. F. Jones, who in 1884 was the chairman of the republican national committee in that exciting canvass. The selection of Mr. Jones shows the keen foresight of Mr. Kier, as Mr. Jones was selected by James G. Blaine as his adviser and confidant. The failure to elect Mr. Blaine was in no way due to any dereliction on the part of Mr. Jones. The after events which resulted in the election of Cleveland are now well known to the country, and it is needless to comment upon them.

In 1847 Samuel M. Kier, B. F. Jones and James Buchanan began the manufacture of firebrick at Bolivar. James Buchanan is the same man who was elected president of the United States in the canvass with John C. Fremont in 1856. About the year 1873, Mr. Kier established the same business, firebrick-making, at a place called Salina, to which his three sons succeeded. Mr. Kier was the sole owner of the coalworks at Ireland’s and Logan’s Ferry, and operated the works at Sandy creek, all of which were sold to the N. Y. & C. G. C. Co.

He died in 1874, at the age of sixty-one years; his widow survived him ten years, and died at the age of sixty-five. They left three sons, Thomas C., William L., Harry E., and a daughter, Mary B. Kier. Mrs. Nancy Kier was a daughter of Jacob Eicher, son of Peter Eicher, who came from the town of York, in York county, and settled near Greensburg before the Revolution. Jacob Eicher’s wife, Nancy, was a daughter of John Smith, a brother of James Smith, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Smith was in captivity among the Indians for five years, and was purchased from them by a humane Frenchman.