In this second column, we look back to 1908 when the Atlas Portland Cement Company received the largest cement contract in history. The company would produce the cement for one of the world's great construction projects, the Panama Canal.

In my years of research, I was fortunate to interview three gentlemen who were over 100 years of age that worked at the cement plant. I also spoke to Mr. Leon Smith, whose father, Peter, supervised the packers for the Panama Canal project.

Peter Smith was born on a farm in Kunkletown. The large family consisted of 13 brothers and sisters. He was told the Atlas Portland Cement Company was in search of employees. There was such a demand for employees that the company even sent agents to Europe to attract workers. If you brought someone to the plant, you were given a five-dollar bonus.

Through hard work, Peter progressed from laborer to packhouse to packhouse foreman. His son Leon said, "My father started at the first Atlas plant in Coplay and then came to the Northampton plants. He at one time was in charge of 300 packers."

The cement sent to the Panama Canal was packed in double-cloth bags because of moisture. The bags were made in what is now the Northampton Memorial Community Center.

Leon worked at the Atlas after school each day.

"I was 13 years old, and after school each day, I tied cement bags," Leon said. "My hours were from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for $1.25 a week. In the summer, I started at 6:30 a.m. and worked until quitting time, sometimes at 8 or 9 p.m."

There were no hour restrictions in those years.

"We loaded barrels of cement in boxcars. They weighed 376 pounds," he said. "Slowly bags were replacing barrels as barrels were too expensive to make and they were not returned to the plant as bags were."

In 1922 Leon became a foreman in one of the packhouses.

"We usually loaded 1,156 bags in each boxcar. They say there was a day in 1910 when over 180 railroad cars left the plant during the height of the Panama Canal contract."

In the 1920s there were no vacation days.

"When the Depression hit, we were lucky to work three days a week, a couple of times each month," he said. "Things were tough. One week the packers took home $1.30. They were on the job but there were no boxcars to pack."

Leon worked at the old Atlas plants and later at the new Universal Atlas plant, which was constructed in 1943. When I interviewed Leon after his retirement in 1966, I showed him a photograph with dozens of packhouse men. Even though he had sight in only one eye, Leon could identify all but one of the employees.

"I should remember all of them," a frustrated Leon said. "They were good hard-working men."

My godfather, Mr. Frank Wolfer, worked in the packhouse under Mr. Smith.

"We worked hard, but Leon always treated you fairly," he said. "When children of his packers married, he was always on the invitation list."

Leon's father, Peter, was killed in 1943 after being hit by an automobile. Leon and his father gave over 100 years of service to the Atlas and Universal Atlas cement companies. They worked in an era when cement was "king."

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See you again in two weeks, when we'll remember a World War II battle and the courage of a prisoner of war from Northampton.