J. Leonard Replogle

Who was J. Leonard Replogle?

Jacob Leonard Replogle, usually known as J. L. Replogle, was a wealthy American industrialist.

He began his career as a general supervisor at Cambria Steel Co., rising through the ranks to become head of Replogle Steel Co. In 1918, Forbes magazine named him one of the wealthiest persons in the United States.

In 1905, he married Blanche Kenley McMillen.

During World War I, he directed the steel supply for the War Industries Board, organizing the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Chester with William Sproul, Samuel Vauclain of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, T. Coleman du Pont, and Edward V. Babcock of Pittsburgh. He did similar work for the War Production Board in World War II.

He was also head of the Vanadium Corporation of America, with Charles M. Schwab. In August 1942, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established the Manhattan Engineer District, also known as the Manhattan Project, to develop atomic weapons and to procure the raw materials, principally uranium, necessary for their production. The MED contracted the Vanadium Corporation of America and the U.S. Vanadium Corporation to procure and process uranium bearing ore.