KEEPING BERWICK’S LEGACY ALIVE A Look into the Stuart Tank Memorial Museum Audrey Miller
In 1904, the AC&F developed the first all-steel passenger subway car and soon became the sole supplier of subway cars for the New York Subway system. Then, in January of 1940, the AC&F became involved in World War II. At the start of the war, the Army had only 300 hand- built tanks. With an urgent need to prepare, Baldwin Locomotive and the AC&F competed to build tanks for the army. In that competition. AC&F built 355 more tanks than Baldwin. Ultimately, the AC&F built 15,224 tanks for the Army. With 16 furnaces producing armor plates, the AC&F also became the largest producer of armor in the United States. Berwick-built tanks and armor were used not only by the U.S. Army but also by British, Chinese, and Soviet forces. As the war pro-gressed, Berwick
“We found records that show every armored vehicle built in the United States during World War II had some Berwick armor plate on it,” shared McLaughlin. The AC&F employed 9,132 workers from 177 Pennsylvania towns, as well as immigrants from countries such as Ukraine and Italy. When tank pro- duction ended on April 17, 1944, the Army Ordnance Department gave AC&F a contract to build 21,000 D7 bulldozers to help Caterpillar meet their quota—one of which the museum now owns and plans to restore. The origins of the museum trace back to 2004, when Kovach asked McLaughlin to help bring a tank home to Berwick. They began fundraising by selling 50‑cent candy bars. After nine years of effort, they raised enough money to bring a Stuart M3A1 tank to town for the 2013 Columbia County Bicentennial. What happened next changed everything. “On Sunday, we took it down onto the test track in Berwick, and we had put a notice in the paper that we’re going to have the tank there, and we expected like 30 people to show up,” said McLaughlin. “To our surprise, over 300 people came. The whole world changed when this little old guy in a plaid flannel jacket and a cane walks up to the tank and points at the wheel, and goes, that’s my welder stamp right there. His name was Joe Zielinski.” The next day, the Stuart Tank Committee of Berwick was formed. In 2015, they became a nonprofit: the Stuart Tank Memorial Association. Through donations, they raised $120,000 to bring the same Stuart tank back to Berwick permanently. Today, the museum houses authentic flags, uniforms, tanks, photographs, letters, and more—nearly all donated by community members or purchased
Berwick, Pennsylvania may look like a quiet river town tucked into Columbia County, but its history tells a far louder story. This borough—once the nation’s sole producer of everything from Wise Potato Chips to New York City subway cars—has shaped industries, communities, and even the outcome of a world war. Its legacy isn’t a collection of quirky fun facts; it’s a blueprint of American innovation and resilience. And nowhere is that legacy more alive than inside the Stuart Tank Memorial Museum, where Berwick’s past isn’t just preserved, but honored, protected, and retold. The Stuart Tank Memorial Museum, located in Berwick, is a prime example of this action. The museum has a diverse display of items from World War II. The museum was established in April 2022 by the Stuart Tank Memorial Association, a nonprofit founded by Tom McLaughlin and David Kovach. The museum exhibits memorabilia like a1942 M3 Stuart Tank and a woman’s welding jacket. The Stuart Tank Memorial Museum allows a story to be told, educating its visitors on Berwick’s impactful involvement in World War II. I had the pleasure of talking to co-founder Tom McLaughlin, learning about Berwick’s influence on the
war and the legacy of the museum. Berwick was a main supplier of tanks for the United States, including the period spanning World War II. Tanks and machinery were produced through the American Car and Foundry Corporation (AC&F), originally founded as the Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company in 1840 by Colonel Jackson—who also built the iconic Jackson Mansion.
collaborated with the Ordnance Department to design and build the M37 Howitzer Motor Carriage—known as the “tank
destroyer.” Only 20 of the original 150 remain today, and the museum recently acquired one thanks to overwhelming community support.
The Jackson & Woodin Manu- facturing Company originally built railroad cars for the coal mining industry and built the first all-steel passenger rail car in the nation. In World War I, the Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company developed rail cars for the big rail guns for France, Italy, Russia, and other nations. In 1899, Jackson & Woodin merged with 15 other companies to form the AC&F, which quickly became a corner- stone of American manufacturing.
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