USA > Pennsylvania > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the Columbia County Historical Society and Commissioners of Columbia County. [2d ed.] > Part 9
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Pit is interesting to note that a few years later, the Danville furnaces originated the improved "T" rail, so called because in cross section it resembled the letter "T". This type of rail has become standard, and our neighboring town equipped hundreds of miles of the new railroads then being built with these rails made from iron ore in the Danville region, one of the same type and from the same rock formation as ours.
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An Iron Plantation
Foundryville became a fine example of the "iron plantation", less well represented at "Morgantown" in Bloomsburg, at Buckhorn, "Wedgetown", and at Danville.º The establishments were called "iron plantations", because, like southern cotton or tobacco plantations they became largely self- sufficient. This Columbia Furnace had 2400 acres of land, two furnaces of different types, but both charcoal users, at least one foundry, extensive woodlands from which wood for charcoal was secured, charcoal storage house, a store, a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, and a common bake oven. Our records do not tell us if Foundryville was typical of an Iron plantation in all respects. If it had been typical, some workers would have been out in the woodlands cutting timber. The larger sizes would have been marketed. Their chief objective was to secure cordwood. Other workers would have been "burning" the wood for charcoal.7 Farm workers were cultivating and harvesting field and garden crops for food. There was heavy hauling to and from the canal, ore one way, the finished products the other. Limestone for flux also had to be brought from canal or quarry. Foundryville had its store. Teachers and a minister, possibly more than one, were secured. The owner lived in a superior house, "the mansion house".8
Bloomsburg Furnaces
With all its riches of iron ore, Bloomsburg finally established two furnaces. The first was at Irondale, completed in 1845. Water power was secured by damming Fishing Creek at Arbutus Park. It used charcoal. It was immensely profitable during Civil War days when the government needed great quantities of iron and steel for guns and other equipment. Its prosperity declined with the exhaustion of the iron mines beginning about 1875. It finally closed in 1890.
To produce a ton of pig iron, 400 bushels of charcoal were required. To secure this much charcoal the wood from an acre of woodland was needed. Hardwood, especially oak and hickory, was best.9
The rows of similar houses In Morgantown and on Mill Street, Danville continue as reminders of the one time flourishing iron industry. The piles of slag drawn off from the furnaces, called cinder tips, were at one time accumulated in huge piles near the furnaces. Only a small part of the two such cinder tips still remain at Bloomsburg. But the remaining part is still impressive as testimony to the large industry at Bloomsburg. The material has been largely used in road-making. The new Danville High School has been built on the site of its once immense cinder tip. Impressive accumulations of slag at other furnaces, Esther, Hauck, and Foundryville testify also to this former iron industry.
7To make charcoal, this cordwood was piled on end in the form of a
cone . The sides and top were covered with earth, except a vent hole at the top, and small draft holes at the bottom, so as to provide just enough alr for the wood to smoulder and char but not to burn to ash. The charcoal burner had to be both skillful and watchful. He lived in a hut nearby, and for days and weeks must watch each batch. "around the clock" until the batch was complete. His job was lonely.
8Such an owner's house still stands and is occupied at Irondale, in Bloomsburg.
9The production of such great amounts of charcoal, year after year, used up timber supplies. Cutting of timber for charcoal, more than the clearing of land for farms, was responsible for the exhaustion of the nearby wood lands.
Blacksmiths, and other metal workers, required charcoal, until coal or coke came to be used.
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Anthracite Coal for Iron Furnaces
As wood became scarcer, efforts were early made to use anthracite coal. These efforts were finally successful. The first anthracite furnace in our region was built near the mouth of Roaring Creek, on the Nontour County side in 1839. Such a furnace in Bloomsburg, named the Bloom, started production in 1854, on the canal, near Ferry Road. In the first fifteen years, including Civil war years, its product amounted to almost 18,000 tons. It was much increased later, but with the exhaustion of the readily accessible ore, it followed the irondale Furnace into decline and stopbage about 1890. Importance of Binomsturg's Iron Production
We have daily records of the Irondale furnaces showing production of thirty tons of pig iron a day at its height of prosperity. This meant 97.5 tons of ore, sixty tons of coal, almost fifty tons of limestone had to be hauled to the furnace. The tons of finished product added to the traffic. Old timers' stories recall the continuous traffic of creaking wagons hauling ore or limestone; or others hauling the finished products. A narrow gauge railroad from Port Noble heiped carry the traffic. The Binom furnace, of course, added greatly to the activity in and around Bloomsburg.
POPULATION GROWTH TILL 1850
TOWNS IN 1840, population etc.
POPULATION (Columbia County an Cres ted ) 18 Conville:1,250; 200 houses 30,000 28.6% 131,193 25,000 erected 1845: 12-13 iron- making establishments 1 Catawissa:800; 200 houses, 21% 24,267 paper mill, tanneries -0,vCC 13% 1 20,9 59 - Bloomsburg: 550; 100 houses mifflinsburg: 30 houses : 5.000 17,629 1 L several mills, tanneries Jerseytown: 30 houses Year . - 1820 18 30 1840 1850 Williamsburg(part of mod- Production STATISTIC 1840 . ern Light Street) 12 houses Grandeville, 40 houses Cats 223.315 Espytown, 25 houses une :: 2. 4 CCC Berwick, 800;100 houses - Cain 205 400 Production also included: wool, Pararces . W. 3-5. 30,000 lbs. ; hay, 14,000 tons; flax, 8 tons. Fixe Duenwheet 50,584 Livestock : sheep, 22,184; swine 1 inch = 50,000 bushels 19,474 : cattle, 13,525; Nules and horses, 5,905
Value of Certain Products : 1840
Machinery
$ 57.895
Breweries & Distilleries 43,100
Finished Leather 27,865
Dairy Products
25,700
Bricks & Lime 23,600
Homemade Goods 18,710
Carriages & Yacons
73,650
Hats & Caps 13,500
Orchards 6,800
Paper (partial list)
4,000
Fulling & Woolens 3,600
Poultry
3,394
Pottery
1,900
Miscellaneous : 2 furnaces produced 13,000 tons of cast iron, using 2,000 tons of fuel, prorably charcoal. 121,000 gallons of whiskey and 14,000 gallons of beer; 710 bols. of flour from 8 mills. There were 40 grist mills 74 saw mills.
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If we look behind these bare statistics we see a rich agricultural county producing bountifully. We understand its need for ever improved transport. We see also the many small craft shops then still existing, but, in addition, more substantial enterprises, forerunners of the mammoth Industries to come at a later date. The wealth that these figures also show explain how better buildings were replacing the log cabins and houses of the earlier decades. Some of the older business buildings may go back to this period. Many of the substantial brick houses with their simple and beautiful lines can be traced back to the periods of business and farm prosperity of the forties and fifties of the last century.
Immigration
Immigration to the farms had been steady, as the figures above indicate. The character of the immigration continued to be much the same as that of the earlier decades; Pennsylvania German, Scotch-Irish, English. The older states, especially New Jersey, contributed important numbers. The iron industry in the vicinity of Bloomsburg and in Hemlock Township attracted experienced miners from Wales. 10
It Was Farm Life For Most People
The farm population, as can be inferred from the above figures, was far larger than that of the little towns, The farmer had a busy life the year round, ploughing, seeding, harvesting, stowing into barns, caring for his live stock. Between times he could gain additional income from hauling ore, chopping trees for lumber of cord wood, '' butchering, sugaring from maple groves, hunting, fishing on the large scale then possible, provided variations in kind of work, but it was mostly all hard.
The homemaker not only had the house to keep in order, the children to care for, including often the rudiments of their education, and the meals to prepare. The garden was usually her task. She also helped at butchering and sugaring. Further, she spun the flax and wool, she wove the linsey- woolsey, her needle and scissors prepared the clothing In large part. ( See page 66 , value of goods made at home) Well might she recall the couplet Man works from sun to sun Woman's work is never done.
10The influence of other construction and enterprises were noted previously. 11Wood for a long time continued to be the chief fuel for homestead, shop, and kiln.
TO FIND OUT HOW EFFECTIVELY YOU HAVE READ
1. What different enterprises or activities did Christian Brobst engage in or attempt?
2. Why were better forms of transportation needed?
3. What influenced leaders to advocate canals for transportation?
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4. Describe canal boat traffic, kind, amount, and Interesting aspects. How important was it for our region?
5. Why were our covered bridges Important? Consider them from stand point of transportation, engineering, and lumber resources. Why were they covered, roof and sides?
6. Why were railroads needed after the canals had been built? Show by map, or otherwise, our network of railroads.
7. Locate the earliest furnaces and forges, then the later ones. Why were these locations used?
8. Locate the sources of iron ore. What were the kinds? (A science student may wish to read further. )
9. What were the importance and extent of our local furnaces and foundries? Note a distinctive product from Danville. Why was Danville in some respects similar to Bloomsburg?
10. What are your impressions of the county's production about 1840; amounts, variety (think of home, factory, and shop, farm, quarry and mine )? How does farm production compare with a current year ?
11. Summarize or describe farm life of the 1840's and 1850's.
12. Did the Panic of 1837 have any effects in Columbia County?
INTERESTING THINGS TO DO
1. On outline map, preferably the one you used for Indian trails, mark first wagon roads or turnpikes, then the railroads and/or canals.
2. Are there other obstacles to boat traffic, natural or man-made, on the Susquehanna besides the Berwick falls?
3. Learn how a rope ferry operated without an engine.
4. The Columbia County Historical Society wishes scale models of our disappearing covered bridges. We suggest scale of 1/4":1'. This equals 1:48, approximately 1:50.
5. Compare conflicts over raliway and canal routes with our current conflict over automobile highways.
6. Bring to your class, or lend to the Columbia County Historical Society, some of the Ingenious contrivances of the early blacksmiths of our region. The Society has several such Interesting implements on display.
7. Excursions to one of our present Foundries: Harrington or S. & B. or the Berwick Industries.
8. We desire pictures for loan: canal operations, [ocks, Espy boat building, unpublished pictures of packet boats, canal bridges, Rupert aqueduct, the Espy boat, canal boats or arks built at the Bloomsburg "Ark building site", old railroad engines, trains, bridges, especially on Reading (old Catawissa) Railroad, a rope ferry, of iron works at the various places mentioned, an ore wagon, accounts or descriptions of the scenes and operations, newspapers or clippings, letters, diaries.
Check your vocabulary : turnpike divide (of drainage )
lock (canal ) aqueducts packet boat pia iron to smelt (verb)
rudder to snub
terrain
junction
stock company
corduroy (road)
truss
plantation
diverge
gauge
pit
drift
kiln
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SOME MID-CENTURY CONFLICTS
Chapter VI
1. County Division: Northumberland County
When Northumberland County was established back In 1772, there was only a sprinkling of European settlers in the region of the county seat, Sunbury. There were fewer and fewer as one might have gone up the two main branches of the Susquehanna. The extent of Northumberland County at its greatest was vast, Including in part or in whole, the territory of thirteen present counties. It was larger than a number of present states. The necessity to travei many miles to care for county business at the county seat, soon aroused insistent demands that new count les should be erected. Luzerne was carved out of Northumberland in 1786, and Lycoming in 1795.
New Counties Needed
The regions west from Lewisburg and Sellnsgrove, and east from Dan- ville, were soon demanding a more convenient division and a county seat closer at hand. Sunbury interests were opposed to further division, and were able to block it for a number of years. The towns in the new county or coun- ties to be created, could not agree among themselves where the county seat or county seats were to be located. This conflict prevented further division until the groups which were later to constitute Union County, west of the West Branch, and those to be in the later Columbia County, joined forces and succeeded in establishing new counties. 1 Advantages to a Town Made a County Seat
In the case of Columbia County, we have already noted that Danville was very definitely forging ahead of all the towns between Sunbury and Wilkes-Barre. To become a county seat of a county was a most attractive possibility for any town. The Judge and other county officers would live there or use hotel accommodations. Lawyers would take up their residence there. Owners of real estate, the town founders such as Evan Owen, Ludwig Oyer, William Hughes, George Espy, Christian Kunchel and William Rittenhouse, or their heirs and followers, could anticipate selling lots and at higher prices. In fact, Kunchel and Rittenhouse in 1794, noting that their property was midway between two county seats already established, Wilkes-Barre and Sunbury, thought it was almost a sure thing that their town, Mifflinville, would become a county seat. So the plan for their town provided the widest and handsomest street widths of any town in the region. How many of our larger towns now wish that they had streets planned on something like these generous widths. William and Daniel Montgomery1ªwere among leaders in securing the creation of Union and Columbia Counties, along with Leonard Rupert and others from both sections. These persons worked for the two new counties and also to bring one of the two county seats to his own town. Where Should the County Seat Be
Berwick, Bloomsburg, and Danville were not so obviously the choices in 1813 as they would seem to usmore than a century later. Catawissa, Mifflinville, Washington (Washingtonville), Jerseytown, also came in for attention. In 1813 the act creating the new county was passed, along with the creation of the companion county, Union, to the west. Patriotic fervor
Lebanon County was also created in this year, 1813.
la Danville is named for the latter meaning Dan's ville.
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of the war times led to the names of Union for one, and of Columbia, inspired by the then very popular song, "Hail Columbia", for the other. The boundaries of Columbia extended on the north and west to the West Branch of the Susquehanna, excluding, however, the region near the town of Northumber- land (Point Township). Otherwise the area was much the same as the present combined territories of Columbia and Montour counties.
Three "discreet and disinterested persons, not resident in the counties of Northumberland, Union, or Columbia," were appointed to fix the site of the county seat of Columbia County, "as near the geographical center as the situation will admit." At the meeting called for this purpose, one of the three was absent, who, tradition states, favored Bloomsburg. The two members present gave the decision to Danville.
Why were the Boundary Lines Shifted Back and Forth?
The act which assigned substantially the territories of Turbot and Chillisquaque Townships to the new county met with great opposition from their residents, and shortly after, the townships were reassigned to Northumberland County. The effect of this was that Danville, far from the geographical center of the county when created, was now more conspicuously than ever, at one edge rather than at the center of the county. But by 1816 what are now substantially Limestone and Liberty Townships were restored to Columbia, reducing in some measure the charge that Danville was not central.
Opposition from Central and Eastern Sections
The action of the County Seat Committee aroused strong opposition in the central and eastern portions of the new county. Numerous and strongly supported petitions to allow a preference vote were brought before the legislature. These requests and petitions were looked upon with favor, but by being referred to committees or "laid on the table" for future action, which never came, the influential leaders from Danville were able to prevent referring a matter to the voters where, it is presumed, they feared that they would lose. After repeated failures for ten or fifteen years, the dissatisfaction subsided, but never dled out. Berwick became a possible factor with a project of combining the eastern section of Columbia along with western parts of Luzerne, naturally in close and convenient social and trade association with her, into a new county.
New Support for Bloomsburg
About 1840, the weary workers for the removal to Bloomsburg, were given new encouragement by a young Presbyterian clergyman who came to the Bloomsburg charge of these churches, the Reverend D. J. Waller, Sr. The State Senatorial district, which included Luzerne along with Columbia, was represented by William A. Ross from Luzerne. It is to be inferred that he saw that he could protect Luzerne from the loss of territory to Berwick by giving his support to the Bloomsburg cause.
Bloomsburg's Arguments
At the same time, the Bloomsburg Interests were put before the public In an especially strong statement. It showed that: 1,200 taxables ( taxpayers ) were more conveniently served at Danville, while over 3,000 were more conveniently served at Bloomsburg. Of some of the more distant taxables, more than 1800 must travel fourteen to thirty-five miles to reach Danville, and must pass through Bloomsburg to do so. Being far from the center of business, far more of the county's business was transacted in Bloomsburg than at Danville. Whether these arguments, or the backing of influential men
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like Senator Ross, was the more Important, it is hard to say. But in 1845 the matter was again before the legislature, and the Danville partisans, as a last ditch argument, noted the costs of building new buildings and acquir- ing land for them in Bloomsburg. Bloomsburg citizens met this argument by agreeing to provide both at no cost to the tax payers. With these promises, the law was passed which provided for a preference vote, and, in case the decision was favorable to Bloomsburg, the citizens of Bloomsburg should erect "at their own proper expense" suitable buildings and secure the necessary land for them at no cost to the public. Election and Removal of County Seat to Bloomsburg
The election was held in the fall of 1845. The result was over- whelmingly in favor of Bloomsburg, 2,913: against 1,571 for Danville; and seventeen townships for Bloomsburg against six for Danville. Bloomsburg citi- zens immediately proceeded to redeem their promises. Land was donated. This included the land now occupied by the county Court House, and also the present playground property of the Bloomsburg Junior High School, which was utilized for the first county jail. It is a tradition that Daniel Snyder, one of the active workers for the removal of the county seat, had been taunted by Danville people that Bloomsburg didn't have any bricks, to which Snyder rejoined that he would make the bricks himself. The record states that the court house was built with bricks burned by Daniel Snyder. The necessary buildings were built, the records were transferred from Danville in 1847, and the first court was held in Bloomsburg in 1848. Valentine Best Pledges Support for the new County
In 1847 delegates of the Democratic Party for Columbia County met in Bloomsburg in order to nominate a candidate for State Senator from the senatorial district. Valentine Best, a prominent leader and newspaper publisher in Danville, as a candidate for this nomination, published a statement to the effect that, ... "as it is now the wish of all well disposed members of the Democratic party to lay aside local feeling and sectional jealousy .... I am opposed to any alteration of the removal law (the law chang- Ing the county seat) and also to any division or dismemberment of the county." It is to be inferred from this that already certain persons were considering a division of the county, an inference supported by Danville authority. However, Best's statement was accepted as sincere. He was nominated and subsequently elected, presumably because the major portions of the county were glad to offer a peace tribute to the defeated western section. The Petition for Division
In 1849 a petition was presented to legislature to set off the County of Montour. This petition alleged that certain townships and Danville were inconvenienced by the newly located county seat and that Bloomsburg residents had not met the full costs of the new buildings as required. At the same time, those opposed, filed a remonstrance citing that the county was already small, and denying the charge of failure to pay the proper costs. The legislature was opposed to dividing the already small county. Here the matter would probably have come to rest had not a peculiar situation developed.
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"Log Rolling" in the Legislature: Montour County Erected
In 1850 the Whigs were defeated in the State elections. The House of Representatives was overwhelmingly Democratic and the Senate had sixteen Whigs to seventeen Democrats. The term of Governor Johnston, a Whig, had another year to run. This situation gave Best an opportunity, although it meant the violation of his pledge as given previously at his nomination. To enable the Whigs to control legislation, probably redistricting the State and matters of Budget, Best, a Democrat, promised his support to their measures if the Whigs would secure his election as Speaker (presiding officer) of the Senate and aid him to secure the creation of the proposed Montour County. These bargains were kept, although with great difficulty. Montour County thus came into existence in 1850. With a few further changes, the boundaries of the two counties became permanent. Best remained popular in the Danville region, but nowhere else. The bitterness created by this long contest gradually subsided. Certain adjustments of county and township boundaries were made to bring them to those established at present. Certain obvious injustices and inconveniences still remained by including in the several counties of Schuylkill, Northumberland, Montour, Columbia, and Luzerne, territories that would better have been included in a neighboring county.
Civil War Brought Local Problems: Earlier Wars
The War of 1812 and the Mexican War, 1846-48, did not seem to have much effect on the growth and development of Columbia County. However, the Columbia Guards, recruited at Danville from the whole county before its division, rendered important and excellent service in the Mexican War. Civil War - Columbia County Played Honorable Part
The bitter sectional controversies leading up to the Civil War did not seem to affect seriously the County's development , until the actual armed conflict broke out following the attack on Fort Sumpter in 1861. W. W. Ricketts, later to become a colonel, a former cadet of West Point, speedily raised a company of volunteers at Orangeville. The final summary of the part that Columbia County took in the war to preserve the Union shows that it was a worthy and honorable one. As the first wave of enthusiasm subsided, how- ever, draft quotas became harder and harder to fill in all parts of the country, as well as in our county. Columbia County had been decidedly Democratic in ali the elections since its creation. Loyal supporters of the national Union, here as elsewhere, volunteered for the armed services or cheerfully accepted the draft.
Opposition Developed
As the fearful costs and loss of life mounted, hope waned. Some Democrats in the country at large, as well as in Columbia County, disapproved of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and argued that the character of the war had been changed to one to free the slaves rather than to preserve the Union. The partisan criticism by those Democrats opposed to the war, called Peace Democrats, became so extreme, that in the light of later history, a reader could not but wonder if volunteering and the draft had not beem made more difficult. It was maintained by one newspaper that Lincoln could have preserved the Union in "one month" if he had given up
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