 Row of company houses built by Peter Hayden for the employees. |
Peter Hayden was born in 1806 in Massachusetts and moved
to Columbus, Ohio when he was a young man. Until 1845, not much is known about his
life. Hayden sat on the Board of Directors of the Exchange Bank in Columbus. In the
1850s he began acquiring land south of Columbus and began to expand his iron foundry
business. When he purchased a bit of land that ran alongside of the canal, Hayden
decided to set up shop. The piece of land was built up around a single iron furnace
and became known as Haydenville. Until 1882, Haydenville prospered in the pig iron business. Because of increasing pressure from the competition in Pittsburgh and Northeast Ohio, Hayden decided to begin producing clay products instead. Peter Hayden began building a clay products plant, a church, a company store, and employee housing. Each building was built from the bricks produced in the plant. In 1888 Peter Hayden dies and the company is left to his heirs. Information gathered from conversations with Larry Crothers.
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