By Michael Throneberry, founder of Throneberry Law Group
In Bartonville, just southwest of Peoria, Keystone Steel & Wire ran a steel mill, wire works, and coke plant for more than a century. The heat of steelmaking meant asbestos throughout the plant, and generations of Peoria-area workers carried that exposure home.
At Throneberry Law Group, we help Peoria families connect a mesothelioma diagnosis to a specific workplace like Keystone. Michael Throneberry founded the firm after losing his father-in-law to mesothelioma, and he brings an engineer’s eye to tracing exposure. We work with a statewide team of Illinois mesothelioma lawyers.
The Keystone Mill in Bartonville
Keystone Steel & Wire, long known for its Red Brand fencing, operated an integrated steel mill with its own coke plant, blast and steel furnaces, rolling mills, and wire-drawing lines in the Peoria area. Every one of those processes ran on intense heat, and asbestos was the standard way to contain it.
Asbestos lined the furnaces and ovens, insulated the steam and power systems, and sealed the mill machinery. It was disturbed during every reline, overhaul, and repair, sending fibers into the air the workers breathed.
Who Was Exposed at Keystone
From the coke ovens to the wire mill, asbestos reached nearly every job. Those at highest risk included:
Furnace and coke-plant workers: who labored beside asbestos-lined ovens and furnaces
Millwrights and machinists: who serviced rolling mills and wire machines with asbestos gaskets and packing
Pipefitters and insulators: who installed and tore out asbestos insulation on steam and power lines
Bricklayers and laborers: who relined furnaces and swept up asbestos debris
The dust did not stay at the plant. Fibers rode home on clothing and reached family members who never set foot inside.
Asbestos Products Identified at Keystone
At Keystone, the trusts document a long list of asbestos products. A.P. Green and North American Refractories refractory brick and cement lined the coke ovens and furnaces, Combustion Engineering and Babcock and Wilcox boilers were insulated with asbestos block, Owens Corning Kaylo covered the piping, Eagle-Picher insulating cements sealed hot equipment, and Fibreboard Pabco insulation was used throughout the mill. Each trust’s approval of Keystone is its own admission that the product was installed here.
Illnesses Linked to the Mill
Asbestos breathed in at Keystone can cause mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer. According to federal health agencies, these diseases may not appear until 30 to 40 years after exposure, which is why many former Keystone workers are diagnosed long after they retire.
A Century of Heat and Asbestos
Keystone ran as an integrated operation, which meant coke ovens, blast and steel furnaces, rolling mills, and wire lines all on one site, and every stage produced intense heat. For most of the plant’s history, asbestos was the material that contained that heat, packed around furnaces, wrapped on steam and power piping, and built into the machinery. Relines, rebuilds, and daily repairs tore it out and cut it to size, releasing fibers into the air the crews breathed.
Building a Keystone Case Years Later
A Keystone claim depends on connecting a worker to specific products and areas of the plant. We gather union and employment records, Social Security earnings statements, and coworker accounts to establish where a client worked and what was present during those years. Because so many manufacturers supplied the mill, one work history frequently supports claims against several companies and trusts at the same time.
What Peoria-Area Families Should Do
If you or a relative worked at Keystone, note the years, the department, and the products or equipment you recall. A cough that will not clear, chest pain, or shortness of breath is worth a doctor’s visit, and the asbestos history belongs in that conversation. Catching disease early opens more choices, and a review of your situation with us is free.
Take-Home Exposure in the Peoria Area
The exposure did not stop at the Keystone gate. Asbestos fibers rode home on clothing and hair, into cars and living rooms across the Peoria area, and the relatives who laundered work clothes were exposed without ever working a shift at the mill. Illinois law lets these take-home claims proceed the same way a worker’s own claim does, and we have seen spouses and children develop mesothelioma decades later from exactly this kind of household exposure.
What a Keystone Claim Can Recover
A claim can address treatment costs, lost income, and the burden the illness places on a family. Because so many manufacturers supplied the Keystone mill over the decades, most cases involve several trust claims filed together, sometimes alongside a lawsuit against solvent companies that can still be sued. If a family lost a worker to the disease, a wrongful death claim may also be part of the case. Our fee comes only out of what we recover, so there is no cost to move forward.
Legal Options for Keystone Workers
A Keystone case generally targets the manufacturers of the asbestos products used in the mill. Many of those companies set up bankruptcy trusts that still pay claims today, and others can still be sued. We map out every source of compensation from a full work history.
Peoria Asbestos Attorneys at Throneberry Law Group
Keystone helped build the Peoria-area economy, but the asbestos in its mill left many families facing mesothelioma. We pair detailed jobsite investigation with the personal commitment of an attorney who understands this loss firsthand.
Our cases run on a contingency fee, we travel to you, and we serve Spanish-speaking families. If you or a family member worked here, start a free, no-obligation case review through our online contact form.