USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Three > Part 24
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The first blast furnace west of the Susquehanna was built in 1762 and 1763 on Furnace creek, in West Manheim township, York county, by George Ross and Mark Bird. It was called Mary Ann furnace. In 1763 the owners petitioned the court of York county to open a public road from their furnace "lately built at a great expense" to the road from the Conewago settle- ment to Baltimore, and in 1766 they petitioned the court to open a road from their furnace to the Monocacy road at Frederick Eichelberger's tavern. A great many stoves were cast at this fur- nace, and during the Revolution it cast many shot and shells.
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George Ross was one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. About 1765 a furnace and forge were erected by William Bennett on the south side of Codorus creek, near its junction with the Susquehanna, in Hellam township, York county. The furnace was in operation during the Revolution. After 1810 these works were known as Codorus forge.
Pine Grove furnace, in Cumberland county, was built in 1770
Town Buildings at Doylestown about 1840
From an old print
by Thornburg & Arthur. About the year 1770 a furnace was built at Boiling Springs, in this county, forming the nucleus of the Carlisle iron works, which afterwards, about 1782, included a forge, a rolling and slitting mill, and a steel furnace.
During the Revolution the Continental Congress established and maintained an armory at Carlisle, where muskets, swords, and "wrought iron cannon of great strength" were manufac- tured. In 1776, and throughout the war, anthracite coal was taken in arks from the Wyoming mines-above Wilkes-Barre down the Susquehanna to the armory at Carlisle. The first cargo sent down the Susquehanna is said to have constituted the first ship- ment of anthracite coal that was made in this country.
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The early Pennsylvania furnaces made from ten to twenty- five tons of pig iron or castings in a week, the highest limit being seldom attained. As all furnaces were blown by water power, which often failed in the summer season, a fair yield by an or- dinary furnace in a year was 500 tons of iron. The size of the furnaces seldom exceeded twenty-five feet in height and seven feet in width at the bosh. The fuel used was exclusively charcoal and the blast was always cold. Only one tuyere was used. Leather bellows were at first used, but wooden bellows, or tubs, were after- wards substituted. These tubs were still in use in connection with some of our oldest furnaces as late as 1878. Warwick and Cornwall furnaces were each over thirty feet high. They retained their long leather bellows until the nineteenth century. These and some other furnaces each yielded as much as 1,000 tons of pig iron and castings annually. Pig iron sold at about $15 a ton at the furnace. Castings cost about twice as much as pig iron. The forges made from sixty to one hundred and fifty tons of bar iron in a year, which sold at from $75 to $100 a ton.
Most of the bar iron made in the eighteenth century in Penn- sylvania was hammered at the forges out of blooms made from pig iron. But little was made from blooms produced in the bloomary fire directly from the ore, as was the New England and New Jersey custom. The Pennsylvania furnaces were also em- ployed in making castings, such as stoves, pots, kettles, etc. The first bar iron made in the province by Thomas Rutter, Samuel Nutt, and others was made in forges, sometimes called bloomary forges, directly from the ore. During the Revolution cannon and cannon balls were cast at many of the Pennsylvania furnaces.
The bar iron and castings made in the Schuylkill valley during the eighteenth century were taken down the river to Philadelphia in boats, which were poled back to their starting points with great labor.
After the Revolution the manufacture of iron in Pennsyl- vania was rapidly extended into the interior of the State. Bishop
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says that in 1786 there were seventeen furnaces, forges, and slitting-mills within thirty-nine miles of Lancaster. About 1789 there were fourteen furnaces and thirty-four forges in operation in Pennsylvania, according to a list published by Mrs. James. In 1791 the number of furnaces had increased to sixteen and of forges to thirty-seven. In 1796 the slitting and rolling mills were said to roll 1,500 tons per annum. The articles of iron and steel
Monument at Junction of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware
Erected in 1849. Engraved for this work from a negative by D. E. Brinton
manufacture at this time were of great variety, including stoves, pots, kettles, plow irons, sheet iron, nails, spikes, cannon balls, scythes, axes, saws, etc. At this period there were many fur- naces and forges in the Schuylkill valley. In 1838 there were in existence within a radius of fifty-two miles of Lancaster 102 furnaces, forges, and rolling mills.
The counties on the west of the Susquehanna river contained many iron enterprises soon after the close of the Revolution. In 1805 there were two forges at work in York county, one of which was Spring forge and the other was Codorus forge. Castle Fin forge, at first called Palmyra forge, on Muddy creek, in York
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county, was built in 1810. In its day Castle Fin forge was a very prominent enterprise. In 1850 there were five furnaces and three forges in this county.
Liberty forge, on Yellow Breeches creek, in Cumberland county, was built in 1790 and was still active in 1876. Other forges in Cumberland county were built prior to 1800. Cumber- land furnace, ten miles southwest of Carlisle, on Yellow Breeches creek, was built in 1794. Holly furnace, at Papertown, in the same county, is said to have been built in 1795.
The first furnace in Franklin county was Mount Pleasant, in Path valley, near Loudon, which was built in 1783 by three brothers, William, Benjamin, and George Chambers. A forge was erected by them about the same time. Soundwell forge, on Conodoguinet creek, at Roxbury, sixteen miles north of Cham- bersburg, was built in 1798 and was active as late as 1857. Car- rick forge, four miles from Fannettsburg, was built in 1800 and was in operation as late as 1856. Carrick furnace was built at a later day. Loudon furnace and forge, in Franklin county, were built about 1790 by Colonel James Chambers and abandoned about 1840. Valley forge, near Loudon, in this county, was built in 1804. A furnace of the same name was built near the forge at a later day. Mont Alto furnace, in the same county, was built in 1807. Two forges of the same name, about four miles from the furnace, were built in 1809 and 1810. There were a few other charcoal furnaces and forges in this county. Early in the nine- teenth century nails and edge tools were made in large quantities at Chambersburg and in its vicinity.
About 1806 Jacob M. Haldeman removed from Lancaster county to New Cumberland, at the mouth of Yellow Breeches creek, on the Susquehanna, in Cumberland county. He purchased a forge at this place and added a rolling and slitting mill, which were operated until about 1826, when they were abandoned.
In 1785 Henry Fulton established a "nailery" in Dauphin county, probably at Harrisburg. It is said to have been "only
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a little remote from a smithy." In 1805 there were two fur- naces and two forges in this county. The manufacture of iron had a very early beginning in the Susquehanna valley north of Harrisburg. About 1778 a bloomary forge was built on Nanti- coke creek, near the lower end of Wyoming valley, in Luzerne county, by John and Mason F. Alden. Another bloomary forge was built in 1789 on the Lackawanna river, about two miles above its mouth, by Dr. William Hooker Smith and James Sut- ton. Still another bloomary forge was built in 1799 or 1800, on Roaring brook, at Scranton, then known as Slocum's Hollow, by two brothers, Ebenezer and Benjamin Slocum. All these bloom- aries continued in operation until about 1828. Their products were taken down the Susquehanna in Durham boats.
Esther furnace, about three miles south of Catawissa, on East Roaring creek, in Columbia county, was built in 1802 by Michael Bitter & Son, who "cast many stoves." Catawissa furnace, on Furnace run, near Mainville, in Columbia county, was built in 1815 and a forge was built at the same place in 1824, on Cata- wissa creek. An early furnace in Lycoming county was built in 1820, four miles from Jersey Shore, and named Pine Creek. Washington furnace, on Fishing creek, at Lamar, in Clinton county, was built in 1811. It was in blast in 1875. In a sketch of Clearfield county in Egle's "History of Pennsylvania" it is stated that "in 1814 Peter Karthaus, a native of Hamburg, Germany, but afterwards a resident merchant of Baltimore, established a furnace at the mouth of the Little Moshannon, or Mosquito creek, in the lower end of the county." This furnace was oper- ated with partial success for several years.
The earliest information obtainable of the erection of any iron works in Mifflin county is found in the court records of that county for August, 1795. At a court held in that month a peti- tion was presented asking for a road "from Freedom forge, thence the nearest and best way to the river Juniata near to, or at, McClellan's landing." The forge stood on the present site
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of the Logan iron and steel works, at Logan, on Kishacoquillas creek. The landing mentioned was at the mouth of the creek, now within the limits of the borough of Lewistown. The forge was sold in 1812 to Miller, Martin & Co., who began the erection of a furnace in that year. On November 12, 1812, they adver- tised in the "Juniata Gazette" for workmen, "as they are engaged in building a furnace at Freedom forge." The forge, built as early as 1795, was continued until 1878. In 1832 there were three furnaces and one forge in Mifflin county, and in 1850 there were five furnaces and two forges.
In June, 1797, General William Lewis, of Berks county, be- gan the purchase of lands on Brightsfield run and the Juniata river, in Mifflin county, intending to build a furnace. In a mort- gage dated June 2, 1798, the furnace tract and ore-bank lot are mentioned. In 1798 William Lewis is assessed on 430 acres of land and a furnace as an ironmaster. The furnace was known as Hope furnace. In 1804 General Lewis built Mt. Vernon forge on Cocalamus creek, below Millerstown, in Perry county, which was operated with the furnace.
Juniata furnace, three miles from Newport, in Perry county, was built in 1808 by David Watts, of Carlisle. There was a very early forge in Juniata county, built in 1791 on Licking creek, two miles west of Mifflintown, by Thomas Beale and William Sterrett. The pig iron for this forge was obtained mainly from Centre fur- nace, but some was brought from Bedford furnace.
The first blast furnace in the Juniata valley was Bedford fur- nace, on Black Log creek, built in 1787 or 1788 on the site of the present town of Orbisonia, in Huntingdon county, by the Bed- ford Company, composed of Edward Ridgely, Thomas Crom- well, and George Ashman. It made from eight to ten tons of pig iron a week. Lytle, in his "History of Huntingdon County," says that it was built mostly of wood and was five feet wide at the bosh and was either fifteen or seventeen feet high. A forge was subsequently built on Little Aughwick creek, four miles
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southwest of the furnace, by the Bedford Company, which sup- plied the neighborhood with horseshoe iron, wagon tire, harrow teeth, etc. Large stoves and other utensils were cast at Bedford furnace. The entire product of the furnace was converted into castings and bar iron. At the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876
James Pollock
Congressman, 1844; president judge Eighth Judicial District, 1850; governor, 1855-1858; 1861, director United States mint, Philadel- phia; naval officer of Philadelphia, 1880-1884
there was exhibited a stove-plate which was cast at this furnace in 1792. On the 10th of September, 1793, Thomas Cromwell, for the company, advertised in the "Pittsburgh Gazette" castings and bar iron for sale at Bedford furnace. The first American bar iron ever taken to Pittsburg is said to have been made at Bedford forge. There was then no wagon road to Pittsburg. "In the forge the pig iron of the furnace was hammered out into
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bars about six or eight feet long, and these were bent into the shape of the letter U and turned over the backs of horses and thus transported over the Alleghanies to Pittsburg."
Bar iron and castings from Bedford furnace and other iron works in the Juniata valley were taken down the Juniata river in arks, many of them descending to as low a point as Middletown, on the Susquehanna, whence the iron was hauled to Philadelphia. Much of the iron of the Juniata valley was also sent to Baltimore in arks down the Susquehanna river.
Bedford furnace was certainly in operation before 1790, as on the 2d day of March of that year Hugh Needy entered into an agreement with the company to deliver twenty-eight ten-gallon kettles and seven Dutch ovens, the whole weighing 12 cwt., 3 qrs., and 21 lbs., to Daniel Depue, "on or near the Monongahela river, near Devor's Ferry, in eight days ensuing the date hereof." These articles were carried on pack-horses. The forge appears to have been built in 1791, as is shown by an itemized statement of iron made by the company from "the time the forge started" in that year until October 12, 1796, the product in these six years being 497 tons, 8 cwt., 2 qrs., and 26 lbs.
Centre furnace, located on Spring creek, in Centre county, was the second furnace erected in the Juniata valley or near its bound- aries. It was built in the summer of 1791 by Colonel John Pat- ton and Colonel Samuel Miles, both Revolutionary officers. The first forge in Centre county was Rock forge, on Spring creek. built in 1793 by General Philip Benner, who subsequently origi- nated other iron enterprises in the same county and became an ex- tensive shipper of Juniata iron.
Barree forge, on the Juniata river, in Huntingdon county, was built about 1794 by Bartholomew & Dorsey, to convert the pig iron of Centre furnace into bar iron. Huntingdon furnace. on Warrior's Mark run, in Franklin township, was built in 1796, but after one or two blasts it was removed a mile lower down the stream. A forge called Massey, on Spruce creek, connected
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with Huntingdon furnace, was built about 1800. Tyrone forges, on the Juniata, were built by the owners of Huntingdon furnace, the first of the forges in 1804. Gordon, in 1832, in his "Gazet- teer of the State of Pennsylvania," stated that these forges, with a rolling and slitting mill and nail factory attached, formed "a very extensive establishment," owned by Messrs. Gloninger, An- shutz & Co. "The mill rolls about 150 tons, 75 of which are cut into nails at the works, 50 tons are slit into rods and sent to the West, and about 25 tons are sold in the adjoining counties." Juniata forge, at Petersburg, was built about 1804 by Samuel Fahnestock and George Shoenberger, the latter becoming sole owner in 1805. George Shoenberger died in 1814 or 1815. His only son, Dr. Peter Shoenberger, succeeded to the ownership of his iron enterprises. Coleraine forges, on Spruce creek, were built in 1805 and 1809 by Samuel Marshall. There have been many forges on this creek.
Many other charcoal furnaces and forges and a few rolling mills were built in the upper part of the Juniata valley before 1850. In 1832 there were in operation in Huntingdon county, which then embraced a part of Blair county, eight furnaces, ten forges, and one rolling and slitting mill. Each of the furnaces yielded from 1200 to 1600 tons of iron annually. In the same year an incomplete list enumerated eight furnaces and as many forges in Centre county. Etna furnace and forge, on the Juniata, in Catharine township, now Blair county, were built in 1805 by Canan, Stewart & Moore. The furnace was the first in Blair county. Cove forge, on the Frankstown branch of the Juniata, was built between 1808 and 1810 by John Rover. Allegheny fur- nace was built in 1811 by Allison & Henderson, and was the second furnace in Blair county.
For many years after the beginning of the nineteenth century Huntingdon and Centre counties constituted the principal iron producing district in the country. This prominence in the produc- tion of iron was maintained until after 1842, when the tariff of
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that year and the discovery that iron could be made with anthracite and bituminous coal enabled other districts in the State and coun- try to wrest from these counties their iron sceptre. In 1850 there were in these two counties and in Blair county ( formed out of Huntingdon and Bedford in 1846) and in Mifflin county forty- eight furnaces, forty-two forges, and eight rolling-mills, nearly all of which were in Huntingdon and Centre counties.
Much of the iron made in the Juniata valley during the palmy days of its iron industry was sold at Pittsburg, first in the form of castings, afterwards both in pigs and bars, and finally chiefly in the form of blooms. Before the completion of the Pennsylvania Canal and the Portage Railroad it was transported with great dif- ficulty. Bar iron from Centre county was at first carried on the backs of horses to the Clarion river and was then floated on boats and arks to Pittsburg. Pig and bar iron from Huntingdon county were hauled over the Frankstown road to Johnstown and thence floated to Pittsburg by way of the Conemaugh river. Subse- quently blooms were sent to Pittsburg from Huntingdon county by wagon. "Juniata iron" was also largely sold in eastern mar- kets, the Juniata and Susquehanna rivers furnishing an outlet before the building of the Pennsylvania Canal. It was noted throughout the country for its excellence.
The following advertisement appeared in a Pittsburg news- paper in 1813. The advertiser was then operating the first roll- ing mill built at Pittsburg. Blooms were his raw material.
WAGGONS WANTED .- The subscriber wishes to employ from 30 to 50 waggons, for three or four trips to the ironworks near Belfont, Centre coun- ty ; and would be anxious to engage 20 or 30 out of the above number to haul by the year. A very considerable advance will be made on the former rate of carriage. This added to the low price of feed this season holds out greater inducements to embark in this business than at any former period. Applications to me here; on which I will give my orders, and will engage to pay for any delay which may arise to the waggoners at the different forges.
C. COWAN, September 9, 1813.
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In 1828, before the Pennsylvania Canal was completed, the hauling of blooms by wagon to Pittsburg was still an important business. In the "Blairsville Record" for January 31, 1828, Mul- hollan & McAnulty advertise for teams to haul blooms from Sligo iron works, in Huntingdon county, to Blairsville, offering $15 per ton. This hauling was done over the Huntingdon, or Northern, Turnpike, which had been built only a few years be- fore and which passed through Huntingdon, Hollidaysburg, Ebensburg, and Blairsville to Pittsburg. A notable bridge over the Conemaugh at Blairsville was completed in 1821. It was a
Arms, 1855
single-arch bridge, 300 feet long. Soon after the canal was fin- ished and the Portage Railroad from Hollidaysburg to Johns- town was completed, the latter in 1834, the shipment of Juniata blooms to Pittsburg greatly increased.
Steel was made at Caledonia, near Bedford, for several years before the close of the eighteenth century. It was made by Will- iam McDermett, a native of Scotland, and was cemented steel.
The first iron manufactured west of the Alleghany mountains was made in Fayette county, Pennsylvania .. F. H. Oliphant, of Uniontown, awards to John Hayden, of Fayette county, the honor of having made "the first iron in a smith's fire" as early as 1790. "It was about as big as a harrow-tooth." The first fur- nace west of the Alleghanies was, however, built by Turnbull & Marmie, of Philadelphia, on Jacob's creek, between Fayette and Westmoreland counties, on the Fayette county side of the creek, a few miles above its entrance into the Youghiogheny river. It was first blown in on November 1, 1790, and produced a superior
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quality of metal both for castings and bar iron, some of it having been tried the same day in a forge which the proprietors had erected at the same place. The furnace and forge were called the Alliance iron works. Craig, in his "History of Pittsburgh" ( 1851), gives an extract from a letter written by Major Craig, Deputy Quartermaster General and Military Storekeeper at Fort Pitt, to General Knox, dated January 12, 1792, as follows: "As there is no six-pound shot here I have taken the liberty to engage four hundred at Turnbull & Marmie's furnace, which is now in blast." The ruins of this furnace may still be seen.
Union furnace, on Dunbar creek, four miles south of Connells- ville, in Fayette county, was built by Isaac Meason in 1790 and was put in blast in March, 1791. It was succeeded in 1793 by a larger furnace of the same name, built near the same site by Isaac Meason, John Gibson, and Moses Dillon. An advertisement in the "Pittsburgh Gazette," dated April 10, 1794, mentions that Meason, Dillon & Co. have for sale "a supply of well-assorted cast- ings, which they will sell for cash at the reduced price of £35 per ton ($93.33)." There was a forge connected with this furnace called Union forge. Two Dunbar furnaces now stand near the site of the original Union furnace.
In 1792 John Hayden and his partner, John Nicholson, built a bloomary forge on George's creek, a few miles south of Union- town, and in 1797 John Hayden built Fairfield furnace, also on George's creek. John and Andrew Oliphant and Nathaniel Breading bought an interest in this furnace in 1798 and in a few years the Oliphants became its sole owners. Fairchance furnace, on George's creek, six miles south of Uniontown, was built in 1804 by John Hayden. J. & A. Oliphant bought it about 1805. It was rebuilt two or three times and kept in operation until 1887, when it was abandoned and torn down. The Oliphants built Sylvan forges, on George's creek, below Fairfield and Fairchance furnaces. It is said that while the Oliphants operated Fairfield furnace they cast a quantity of shot which was used by General
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Jackson's artillery in the battle of New Orleans. It was shipped down the Monongahela, the Ohio, and the Mississippi rivers.
Rolling and slitting mills, for the manufacture of sheet iron and nail rods, were established west of the Alleghenies soon after the first furnace and forge was built in 1790. Prior to 1794 Jeremiah Pears built a forge at Plumsock, in Menallen township, Fayette county, which was the forerunner of a rolling and slit- ting mill built by Mr. Pears at the same place before 1804. In 1805 the rolling and slitting mill and the remainder of Mr. Pears's property were sold by the sheriff. This was probably the first rolling and slitting mill erected west of the Alleghenies. In 1805 a rolling and slitting mill was built by John Gibson on the right bank of the Youghiogheny river, below Connellsville. Cra- mer's "Pittsburgh Almanac" for 1812 says that in 18HI there were three such mills in Fayette county. Another was just over the Pennsylvania line in the present State of West Virginia and is described in the Almanac for 1813, issued in 1812, as follows: "Jackson & Updegraff, on Cheat river, have in operation a fur- nace, forge, rolling and slitting mill, and nail factory-nails handsome, iron tough." The Cheat river enterprise was on the road from Uniontown to Morgantown, about three miles south of the Pennsylvania State line, and eight miles north of Morgan- town. Like all the rolling and slitting mills of that day and of many preceding days the Cheat river mill neither puddled iron nor rolled bar iron, but rolled only sheet iron and nail plates with plain rolls from blooms heated in a hollow fire and hammered under a tilt-hammer. The nail plates were slit into nail rods by a series of revolving discs.
In 1805 there were five furnaces and six forges in Fayette county. In 18II the county had ten furnaces, one air furnace, eight forges, three rolling and slitting mills, one steel furnace, and five trip-hammers. At a later date there were twenty fur- naces in this county. Fayette county was a great iron centre at the close of the eighteenth century and far into the nineteenth
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century. For many years Pittsburg and the Ohio and Missis- sippi valleys were almost entirely supplied by it with all kinds of castings and with hammered bar iron. In 1804 a large order for sugar kettles, to be used on the sugar plantations of Louisi- ana, was filled at Union furnace. Long before 1850, however, the fires in most of the furnaces and forges of Fayette county were suffered to die out. In 1849 only four of its furnaces were in blast. Other furnaces, to use coke, and other iron and steel enterprises have since been built within its boundaries, but its fame as a centre of the iron industry has departed. In its stead it now enjoys the reputation of being the home of the famous Connellsville coke. Connellsville, on the Youghiogheny, was a shipping point for Fayette county iron.
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