Editing Fallston, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
Fallston takes its name from a waterfall in the [[Beaver River (Pennsylvania)|Beaver River]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n122 123]}}</ref> It lies on the west side of the Beaver River immediately opposite [[New Brighton, Pennsylvania]] and about a mile below Beaver Falls. The narrow space between the hills on either side and the Beaver River was dammed at the lower falls; the water power allowed Fallston to achieve great importance as a manufacturing center. The ''Harris's Pittsburgh Business Directory'' for the year 1837 states "This place and the surrounding neighborhood, bids fair to be extensively increased, in consequence of the immense mineral and water advantages which it possesses."<ref name="history.rays-place.com">Rev. Joseph H. Bausman, [https://archive.today/20140410002715/http://history.rays-place.com/pa/bea-fallston.htm "History of Fallston Borough, Beaver County, Pa."], 1904.</ref>

The borough of Fallston, the largest manufacturing center of its time in Beaver County, was incorporated by an Act of the Assembly in 1829.<ref name="bchistory.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/Timelines/BeaverCountyCchronology.html |title="Chronology of Beaver County History" |access-date=April 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413130937/http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/Timelines/BeaverCountyCchronology.html |archive-date=April 13, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A post office at Fallston was established June 25, 1829.<ref name="history.rays-place.com"/>

On August 5, 1835, the ''Fallston and Brighton Gazette'' newspaper started publication in Fallston, one of the earliest newspapers in the county. It was not able to sustain itself, and ceased publication in November 1836. The ''Beaver Falls Union and Beaver County Advocate'' was the Gazette's successor, starting publication in January 1838; when it published its last on March 2, 1839, the ''Western Argus'', which started publication in 1818 elsewhere in Beaver County, attempted and was mainly successful in taking over the ''Advocate'''s readership. It continued publication for more than 86 years (with various changes in name and management over the years).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historynewspape00readgoog/page/n50 <!-- pg=39 quote=fallston pennsylvania history. --> "Fallston Papers"]</ref>

In 1836, brothers Matthew T. Kennedy (1804–1884) and Samuel Kennedy (1810–1886), sons of Thomas Kennedy (1782–1821), an Irish-born wheel and spinning-wheel maker, went into business building cabinets and doing wheelwright work carried on by water power. The business later changed into a nail keg, and still later into a lead keg, factory.<ref name="history.rays-place.com"/> Their business was successful and in 1876, the Kennedy brothers established a second plant in [[New Brighton, Pennsylvania]].<ref>History of New Brighton Borough, Beaver County, Pa., Part 1; From: History of Beaver County Pennsylvania and its Centennial Celebration; BY: Rev. Joseph H. Bausman, A. M. Knickerbocker Press New York, 1904.</ref> The business was carried on by the founders' descendants until the 1930s.

On October 1, 1836, a contract for building a covered wooden bridge over the Beaver River at Fallston was awarded to Lathrop & LeBarron. The bridge opened in 1837, and was heavily traveled. Once the bridge was opened, nearly all the manufacturing was done on the Fallston side, with most of the owners of the concerns living on the opposite side of the Beaver in New Brighton. The covered bridge stood in place until February 6, 1884, when flooding on the Ohio and Beaver rivers inflicted extensive damage in low-lying areas and swept it away.<ref name="bchistory.org"/> A fine iron bridge replaced the lost covered bridge and was still in use until February 2015.