History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 54

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 54

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REDSTONE FURNACE.

The builder and first proprietor of this old iron- works was Jeremiah Pears, who purchased the parcel of land including its site from Moses Hopwood. It was a tract containing twenty acres and thirteen perches, situated on the waters of Redstone Creek, in Union (now South Union) township, and a part of the original survey named "Suttonia." The consider- ation paid was £276 10s., and the date of the convey-

it for some years, but he was finally overtaken by finan- cial difficulties, and then the furnace passed to the possession of his nephew and clerk, John Huston, who continued to operate it for many years. After 1856 it was carried on by John Snyder and John Worthington for a period of about fifteen years, since which time it has been out of blast. The stack remains standing, but much dilapidated.

FAIRCHANCE.

Hayden conveyed an undivided one-fourth part of Hayden for £3000, payable in three years, £1000 an-

In 1803, Thomas Wynn disposed of his property, near where Fairchance Furnace now stands, to John nually. This tract consisted of two hundred and eighty acres of mineral lands, and on this tract there was then a flax-seed oil-mill. The payments as they became due were payable in castings at $100 per ton, delivered either at Fairfield Furnace or at Richard Lewis', "Mary Ann Furnace," near Haydentown. On the property sold by Wynn to Hayden was erected the "Fairchance" Furnace.

On the 1st of January, 1805, John Hayden, Sr., sold to James Gillespie one-half of his real and per- sonal estate, consisting in furnaces, forges, bloomery, mills, lands, and tenements, together with all their appurtenances, for the sum of 87000 ; one-half of all metal then made and at Fairchance Furnace to be taken at $25 per ton. Not long afterwards Fair- chance was purchased by John and Andrew Oli- phant, who carried on the furnace in connection with the Sylvan Forge, under the firm-name of Jolin & A. Oliphant, until about 1817. From that time it was operated for some time by John Oliphant, and passed to F. H. Oliphant. It was rented for a few years to J. K. Duncan, and after 1826 was operated by F. H. Oliphant for more than forty years. Soon after his commencement at Fairchance, F. H. Oliphant began using the " Flag" and "Big Bottom" ores in place of the " Blue Lump," which had been previously used. In 1836 he used coke as fuel in the Fairchance Fur- nace, and a sample of the iron so produced is on exhibition at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. During the same year he introduced the warm blast, which had previously been used in Europe, but Mr. Oliphant knew nothing of its having been used any- where previous to his introducing it. It requires from 700° to 900° of heat for the blast, and his fur- nace was not arranged so as to generate such a great heat, consequently his efforts were not entirely sat- isfactory. The hot air for his blast was driven through about one hundred and fifty feet of pipe, leading from the rolling-mill to the stack. In 1826, F. H. Oliphant bought Fairchance Furnace from his father, who was compelled to sell it on account

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

of his indebtedness. About 1834, F. H. Oliphant had erected a rolling-mill at Fairchance. This mill had three puddling-furnaces and complete ma- chinery for making bar and boiler iron. It remained in operation until about 1870, at which time Mr. Oli- phant sold out to a New York company, under the style and title of Fairchance Iron Company, who own it at the present time. The capacity of the furnace had been increased to ten tons per day by Oliphant, and that capacity has been doubled by the Fairchance Company.

COOL SPRING FURNACE.

The land embracing the site of this furnace, located on Shute's Run, in North Union township, was pat- ented to Thompson Mckean, John Smart, and Wil- liam Paull, Jan. 13, 1816. The furnace was built soon afterwards by Mr. McKean, and by him kept in opera- tion for many years. About 1842 it passed into posses- sion of Joseph Wiley. Some three years later, Eleazer Robinson became a partner in the business. In 1854. Mr. Wiley removed to the West, and the business of the iron-works was continued by Robinson for a year or two and then closed. The property afterwards passed to the possession of Levi Springer, and is now owned by his heirs. The furnace was a small one, with a blast driven by water-power. The ores used were of the Umbral group, and obtained by benching. Excavations from which the ore was obtained are found, extending along the outerop for miles from the furnace. The proenring of ore in this manner was necessarily expensive, and the cost of its reduction must have been correspondingly light to justify it.

OLD LAUREL FURNACE.

The location of this old furnace was on Laurel Run, in Dunbar township, nearly opposite the eastern base of the Chestnut Ridge. It was built by Joshua Gib- son and Samuel Paxson, about 1797, and two or three years later (before 1800) it passed to the possession of Reuben Mochabee and Samuel Wurtz. In 1800, John Ferrel, the manager of the furnace under these proprietors, advertised for sale "assorted castings, neat, light, and tough," at $100 per ton, also bar iron. The " Hampton Forge" was built by Mochabee & Wurtz, for the purpose of working the product of the furnace.

NEW LAUREL FURNACE.

Col. James Paull and his sons erected the New Laurel Furnace, a short distance below the site of the Old Laurel, on the same run. It was kept in blast by them until 1834, when it passed to Kaine, Vance & Miller, under whom it was operated till 1838, when it was finally blown out.

FINLEY, OR BREAK-NECK FURNACE.

The site of this furnace was on Break-Neck Run, in Bullskin township. It was built in 1818, by Messrs. Miller, James Rogers, and James Paull, and was managed by Miller. David Barnes afterwards be- came a partner. About 1824 it passed to Boyd &

Davidson, who operated it until 1831, after which Miller ran it for a year or two. It was then carried on by David B. Long & Co. until 1838, when its operation was abandoned.

WHARTON FURNACE.

In the records of the Court of Quarter Sessions for June term, 1837, mention is made of a petition for a road in Whartou township, to pass " where A. Stewart is building a furnace." The person referred to was the Hon. Andrew Stewart, who built this furnace in the year named. Its site was a short distance from the National road. The furnace was managed by Alfred Stewart for a number of years from its com- pletion. Afterwards it was successively operated by Edward Hughes and J. Kennedy Duncan. In 1852, D. S. Stewart assumed the management, and ran it about four years. It was blown ont in 1856, and re- mained in disuse until 1858, when it was leased by Worthington & Snyder, who were succeeded by D. W. Woods & Lukens, of Mckeesport. After a few years it was blown out, and remained idle till 1870, when it was leased by E. C. Pechin, C. E. Swear- ingen, Maurice Healey, and others. After being in blast for about one year under this proprietorship it was leased to George W. Paull. Two years later it was blown out and dismantled.

MARY ANN FURNACE.

This furnace, located near Haydentown, was built about the year 1800, by Martin & Lewis. In 1810 the property was owned by Capt. James Robinson. In 1818 it was purchased by Joseph Victor, who rebuilt it and changed its name to Fairview. It was blown out and abandoned about 1840.

MOUNT VERNON FURNACE.

The Mount Vernon Furnace, situated on the head- waters of Mounts' Creek, in Bullskin township, on the road to Lobengier's Mills, was built by Isaac Meason. The date of its erection is not ascertained, but an advertisement in one of the papers of that time shows that it was in operation in July, 1800. An inscription on a stone in the furnace-stack shows that it was rebuilt in 1801. It was sold by Meason to David Barnes and D. B. Long, by whom it was oper- ated for about two years. Its final blowing out was in 1824. The property now belongs to George E. Hogg.

LITTLE FALLS FURNACE.

On Arnold's Run (later called Furnace Run), near its month, in Franklin township, was the site of this old iron-works. A forge was built at this place as early as 1800, by Nathaniel Gibson, who not long afterwards built the furnace. It was a small affair, and did not prove financially successful. The prop- erty passed to F. H. Oliphant, who repaired and somewhat enlarged it, and named it the Franklin Iron-Works, which were operated by him for a few years and then abandoned.

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IRON AND IRON-WORKS.

ST. JOHN FURNACE.

This furnace was located on Salt Lick Creek (now Indian Creek), in the present township of Spring- field. It was built in 1807 by Jackson & Gibson, the masonry-work being done by James Taylor. In 1810 it was owned and operated by Trevor & Slater. After- wards it became the property of Col. James Paull, and still later was in the possession of Steele and Doughty, who were the last to operate it. It was blown out and discontinued in 1828.

ETNA FURNACE.

Thomas and Joseph Gibson erected the Etna Fur- nace in 1815, on Trump's Run, about one mile above the borough of Connellsville, and one-third of a mile from the Youghiogheny River. It remained in blast for a quarter of a century, and was finally blown out in 1840.

FAYETTE FURNACE.

Near the western base of the Laurel Ridge, in the present township of Springfield, on the north fork of Indian Creek, was the site on which James Rogers, Linton, and Miller built the Fayette Furnace in 1827. Joseph and George Rogers were its later owners, and it was kept in blast till 1840 or 1841, when it was abandoned.

THE OLIPHANT FURNACE.

The last furnace that Fidelio H. Oliphant was ever connected with was the one that is known as the Oliphant Furnace, situated about four miles south of Uniontown, on the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad. This was built by him after he had disposed of his Fairchance and Spring Hill Furnaces to Eastern pur- chasers. He operated the new furnace for a number of years, but the enterprise proved disastrous, and his son, Duncan Oliphant, together with his sons, took the furnace and managed it until recently, when it was sold to James Husted, A. B. De Saulles, Robert Hogsett, William Beeson, A. W. Bliss, and George C. Marshall, who are at present carrying on the busi- ness.

PINE GROVE FORGE.

The old forge to which this name was given, was built prior to 1798 by Thomas Lewis, on land pur- chased or contracted from Philip Jenkins, located in | a mountain gorge on Pine Grove Run, about four miles from Smithfield and two miles from Wood- bridge town, in Georges township. On the 7th of April, 1798, Lewis mortgaged to Meshack Davis that

There is little if any doubt that the first rolling- mill in Fayette County was the one erected and put in operation by Jeremiah Pears at Plumsock, in Menallen township. Its location was on a tract of land surveyed to him by Levi Stephens (an assistant part of his property on which a forge had been erected. of the surveyor, Alexander McClean), May 29, 1786.

The various business operations of Thomas Lewis led him into serious financial embarrassments, which resulted in his failure in 1799, and on the 29th of November, 1800, the forge property, with six hundred acres of land, was sold by the sheriff to Isaac Sutton. The forge was at that time regarded as of very little value, and its fires were not rekindled.

Mr. Joseph Hickle, of Georges township, was told by old Mr. Jacob Searing many years ago that he

(Searing) had been employed in digging ore for Lewis' forge during the time of its operation, and that the ore was carried in sacks on the backs of horses from the places where it was dug to the forge. It was, he said, of the kind known as "Red Short," and especially well adapted to the making of bar iron. A white sandstone was used for lining the furnace. He also related that when Lewis failed, there was on hand at the forge about twenty tons of bar (?) iron, worth at that time fully $100 per ton, and that during the night before the day on which the sheriff canie to levy on the property this iron was carried away from the forge and secretly buried in the sand at the head of a little hollow not far distant to save it from seizure. The story, whether true or not, began to be circulated a few years later, and was so much credited by many that search has frequently been made to find the hidden iron, but without success. At the site of the old forge there are still standing the ruins of three stacks, but it is not probable that all of them were ever in use. Mr. Lewis at the time of his failure had commenced the erection of a fur- nace near the forge, and there is little doubt that one or more of the three stacks belonged to the projected furnace.

LEMONT FURNACE.

This furnace, which commenced operations in 1875, is located in North Union, and is more fully men- tioned in the history of that township.

YOUGH FORGE.

John Gibson, of Fayette County, and Thomas Astley, of Philadelphia, were the original proprietors of this forge. The year in which they erected it cannot be given with certainty, but there appears in the Pittsburgh Gazette of 1817 an advertisement, dated June 17th in that year, of "the Yough Forge, situate near Connellsville, Fayette Co." It was run for many years by the original owners, and afterwards by Thomas, Joseph, Joshua, and James Gibson (sons of John), who operated it until 1825, when they ceased work, and the forge was dismantled. Its site is occu- pied by a mill built by Boyd & Davidson in 1831.

EARLY ROLLING-MILLS.

The name given to the tract by Pears was " Maiden's Fishery," but this was changed at the Land Office to the name " Prophetic," and the patent was issued under that name to Pears on the 28th of November, 1789. On this tract Mr. Pears had erected a forge prior to 1794, as is shown by the fact that the court record of June in that year mentions the presentation of a petition for the laying out of a road " by way of Pears' Forge to Redstone Ford."

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Besides the forge, Mr. Pears had erected on his tract a saw-mill and grist-mill, and afterwards built a slit- ting-mill and the rolling-mill above referred to. The latter was erected in or immediately after the year 1800. By his operations here and at the Redstone Furnace (of which latter he was the builder and first owner, as has been mentioned) Pears became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and in September, 1804, a judgment was obtained against him, to satisfy which James Allen, sheriff of Fayette Connty, sold, on the 9th of December, 1805, Pears' "Prophetic" tract to George Dorsey, of Monongalia County, Va., for the sum of $3015, the tract being described in the sheriff's deed as being in the townships of Men- allen and Franklin, in Fayette County, and contain- ing one hundred and twelve acres, "whereon are erected a forge, slitting- and rolling-mill, grist-mill, saw-mill, and sundry buildings."

On the 9th of April, 1807, George Dorsey (the pur- chaser of the Pears land and "Rawlling Mill" at sheriff's sale) conveyed the same property to Benja- min Stevens, "Practitioner of Physick," for $3015, the deed describing the land, forge, slitting- and roll- ing-mills as before. Two years later (Feb. 1, 1809} the same property was conveyed, with other lands adjoining, to Thomas Meason and Daniel Keller, for the consideration of 85800, "embracing the Forge, Slitting- and Rolling-Mill, and Grist- and Saw-Mills erected on ' Prophetic.' "

At the April term of court in 1815; Isaac Meason & Co. obtained a judgment for 83499,63 against Dan- iel Keller, and Morris Morris, then sheriff of Fay- ette County, being directed to recover on the judg- ment, made this return : " I seized and took in exe- cution a certain tract or parcel of land, situate, lying, and being in Menallen and Franklin townships, in the County of Fayette aforesaid, containing one hundred and twelve acres and allowance for roads, etc., for which a patent was granted to Jeremiah Pearse, dated 28th November, 1789, and therein called 'Prophetic,' on which is erected a Forge, Rolling- and Slitting-Mills, Grist-Mills, Saw-Mills, and other valuable buildings. .. . " The property so seized was sold by the sheriff for 87100 to Col. Isaac Meason, Nov. 25, 1815.

It is stated that at this establishment, under the proprietorship of Col. Meason, was done the first pud- dling and rolling of bar iron west of the Alleghenies ; and the circumstances which brought about that re- sult are related by Samuel C. Lewis," of Rochester, Pa., as follows: Thomas C. Lewis (father of the nar- rator), a Welshman, who had worked in rolling-mills in Wales and was familiar with the processes of pud- dling and rolling bars, left his native country in July, 1815, and came to America, landing in New York He visited several iron-manufacturers in the East, and

made strong efforts to induce them to erect mills for rolling bar iron. This he urged with many leading iron men in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, but his propositions were everywhere opposed, and rejected as visionary and impracticable, if not impos- sible. The narration proceeds :

"He then traveled westward until he got to Con- nellsville, Fayette Co. ; there he met Mr. Isaac Mea- son, Sr., of Dunbar Furnace, to whom he made known his object and business. Mr. Meason imme- diately saw the feasibility of the enterprise, and en- tered into an agreement with him at a certain salary for three years, and if the mill was a success, he was then to be taken into partnership and have one-third of the profits. The place selected for the mill was at U'pper Middletown,3 then better known as Plumsock, on Redstone Creek, about midway between Browns- ville and Connellsville, as Mr. Meason already had some forges there. The erecting of that mill was at- tended with a great deal of difficulty, as pattern- makers and moulders were not very plenty, so that a great deal of this work fell on Mr. Lewis, who made nearly all the patterns. Taking everything into con- sideration, the mill was completed in a very short time, having been commenced some time in 1816, and started about September, 1817. His brother came over when the work was pretty well on, and as he was also a first-rate mechanic, helped the work on very much. An incident is given here, as showing the opposition he met with in the erection of this mill. Two iron-masters from Lancaster County, by the names of Hughes and Boyer, rode all the way on horseback, nearly two hundred miles, went to Mr. Meason, and tried to convince him that it was im- possible to roll iron into bars. Mr. Meason told them to go and talk to Mr. Lewis about it, which they did, and told him it was a shame for him to impose on Mr. Meason, as it might ruin the old gentleman. Mr. Lewis replied to Mr. Hughes, 'You know you can eat ?' 'Why, yes,' he knew that. 'Well, how do you know it?' He could not give a reason why, but he knew he could eat. 'Well,' says Mr. Lewis, ' I will tell you how you know it,-you have done it before; and that is why I know I can roll bar iron. I have done it before"' 'Very well,' said Mr. Hughes, ' go ahead, and when you are ready to start let us know, and we will come and see the failure.' According to promise they did come on, but left perfectly satisfied of its suceess. ... The persons engaged in starting the works were Thomas C. Lewis, engineer ; George Lewis, roller and turner ; Sam. Lewis, heater; James Lewis, catcher. Henry Lewis was clerk in the office. They were all brothers. ... James Pratt worked the refinery, and David Adams worked the puddling- furnace."

It is not ascertained how long this first puddling-

1 In Swank's " Iron-Making and Coal-Mining in Pennsylvania."

" In an article contributed to the Brownsville Clipper, and published in that journal June 3, 1880.

" Upper Middletown was laid ont by Jeremiah Pears, and there was the location of the rolling-mill property owned by him, and which came into possession of Isaac Meason at sheriff's sale, as before mentioned.

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COAL-MINING AND COKE MANUFACTURE.

and rolling-mill continued in operation, nor when its fires were finally extinguished. No vestiges of it are now remaining.

A rolling-mill (but not including a puddling-fur- nace, as in the case of Col. Meason's establishment) was built and put in operation by John Gibson about the year 1805, on the right bank of the Youghiogheny below Connellsville. Provance McCormick, Esq., of Connellsville, recollects this old mill as early as 1806. Upon the death of John Gibson it passed to his heirs, and was operated by Thomas Gibson for several years, after which it went into disuse. The tract of land on which this mill stood was sold by Daniel Rogers as administrator, and is now owned by the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad Company, the Building and Loan Association of Connellsville, and the Jolin -- ston heirs.

COAL-MINING AND COKE MANUFACTURE.

The earliest recorded mention of the use of coal in the region west of the Allegheny Mountains is found in the journal kept by Col. James Burd, when, in the fall of 1759, he was in command of a detachment of two hundred of the king's troops, engaged in opening a road from Braddock's old road at Gist's plantation (now Mount Braddock) to the Monongahela River at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, where it was proposed to erect a fort, and where he did erect such a work immediately afterwards. Having proceeded from Gist's towards the Monongahela to a point about four and a half miles from the river, he encamped there on the evening of the 21st of September, and on the following day moved on westward, and made in his journal this entry, viz. :

"SATURDAY, Sept. 22, 1759.

"The camp moved two miles to Coal Run. This run is entirely paved in the bottom with fine stone coal, and the hill on the south of it is a rock of the finest coal I ever saw. I burned about a bushel of it on my fire."

The language of the journal shows clearly that he was not unacquainted with the use of coal, and it is an accepted fact that coal was mined east of the Alle- ghenies, in Virginia, as early as the year 1750. But there was no mining of coal west of the mountains until 1784, when the Penns, who had been permitted under the Divesting Act of 17791 to retain their pro- prietary interest in certain large tracts of land in the State, sold rights to mine coal in the vicinity of Pitts- burgh. This was the first coal-mining done on the waters of the Ohio. Since that time the business has

increased steadily and rapidly, and untold millions of tons of coal, mined along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny, have been boated down the great rivers of the Southwest to supply the country from Ohio to Louisiana; but by far the greater part of this vast amount has been mined at points north of the northern limits of Fayette County, operations being of course commenced along the lower and more accessible por- tions of the rivers, and working slowly up the streams as the navigation is improved or the lower supplies become exhausted, which latter condition is very far from being brought about yet, and will remain so for years to come.

The coal operations on the Monongahela will be found mentioned in the account of the slack-water improvements on that river and elsewhere in this work. On the Younghiogheny a vast amount of coal- mining has been done, and Youghiogheny coal has been well known and highly prized in the towns and cities on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for many years; but an exceedingly small proportion of the coal sent from this river to the Southern and Western markets has been mined in Fayette County. The Youghiogheny Valley is barren of coal from a point in Rostraver township, in Westmoreland County, up the river to about the mouth of Hickman Run, in Fayette, where commences the " Connellsville basin," one of the richest coal-fields in the world. But there has never been much inducement to mine coal here for shipment down the river, because, in the first place, the Youghiogheny in all that part which passes through Fayette County, and in the greater portion of its course through Westmoreland, is not and never has been a navigable or boatable stream, except for a very small portion of the year, the season of freshets and high water, and even then its navigation is diffi- cult, not to say dangerous, for the passage of coal- boats. This fact alone gives to the coal operators on the lower Youghiogheny, advantages for shipment which cannot be had in the Connellsville region, and the absence of which has caused the mining of coal for that purpose to be neglected here. Another cause which has helped to produce the same result is that the Connellsville coal is too soft for advantageous transportation, while that of the lower river is harder, and in that respect better adapted for shipment.

But all the disadvantages of the Connellsville re- gion, as above enumerated, are counterbalanced ten- fold in another direction; for the coal which cannot be profitably shipped to the lower river markets is found to be greatly superior to any other which has yet been discovered in its adaptability to the manu- facture of coke, and to this manufacture it has been and is now being devoted on a scale and to an extent that is amazing to the uninitiated, and with pecuniary results that are surprising. It was said by Judge Veech that "Coal, if not king, was becoming one of the princes of the land, and its seat of empire was the Monongahela Valley." But if coal is mighty

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 54

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314