USA > Pennsylvania > Progressive Pennsylvania; a record of the remarkable industrial development of the Keystone state, with some account of its early and its later transportation systems, its early settlers, and its prominent men > Part 25
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1740-The first iron works in New York were "set up" a short time prior to 1740 on Ancram creek, in Co- lumbia county, about fourteen miles east of the Hudson river, by Philip Livingston, the father of Philip the signer of the Declaration of Independence.
1750-The iron industry of New Hampshire probably dates from about 1750, when several bog-ore bloomaries were in existence on Lamper Eel river but were soon dis- continued. About the time of the Revolution there were a few other bloomaries in operation in New Hampshire. 1750-In 1750 it was officially reported that there was then in Massachusetts "one furnace for making steel."
1750-The first canal constructed in the United States was a short line in Orange county, New York, built by Lieutenant-Governor Colder in 1750 for transporting stone.
1750-The Virginia coal mines were probably the first that were worked in America. Bituminous mines were
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opened and operated on the James river, in Chesterfield county, probably about 1750. In July, 1766, in the Vir- ginia Gazette, Samuel Duval advertised coal for sale at Rockett's, a lower landing of Richmond, at 12d. per bushel, " equal to Newcastle coal." In 1789 Virginia coal sold in Philadelphia at 1s. 6d. per bushel.
1755-In this year occurred General Braddock's defeat.
1758-The French were driven from Western Pennsyl- vania in this year by General John Forbes, when Fort Du Quesne, at Pittsburgh, fell into his hands.
1758-Coal was observed at Pittsburgh as early as 1758. 1763-The battle of Bushy Run was fought this year.
1766-Anthracite coal was discovered in the Wyoming valley as early as 1766. It is claimed that in 1768 or 1769 two settlers in the valley, being two brothers named Gore, from Connecticut, blacksmiths, were the first persons in this country to use anthracite coal, using it in a forge fire. 1770-In this year the American colonies exported 6,017 tons of pig iron, valued at $145,628; 2,463 tons of bar iron, valued at $178,891; 2 tons of castings, valued at $158; and 8 tons of wrought iron, valued at $810.
1773-The first iron works in South Carolina were erected by Mr. Buffington in 1773 but they were destroy- ed by the Tories during the Revolution. Other iron en- terprises were undertaken in this State after the Revolu- tion. In the census year 1840 there were four active fur- naces in South Carolina and nine bloomaries, forges, and rolling mills. In 1856 South Carolina had eight furnaces and in the same year it had three small rolling mills. All these enterprises have long been abandoned.
1775-About this year a few bloomaries were erected in Maine and Vermont. A few furnaces were afterwards erected in these States and many bloomaries in Vermont. All have disappeared.
1777-Arnold's History of the State of Rhode Island says: "It is said that the first cold cut nail in the world was made in 1777 by Jeremiah Wilkinson, of Cumberland."
1780-In this year an act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania was passed which provided for the gradual abolition of negro slavery in that State.
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1781-Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia mentions a "burning spring" in West Virginia, owned by General Washington and Andrew Lewis. This was natural gas.
1790-Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, invented about 1790 his nail-cutting machine.
1790-A bloomary was built in 1790 at Embreeville, in Washington county, Tennessee, and another at Eliza- bethton, on Doe river, in Carter county, Tennessee, about 1795. Wagner's bloomary, on Roane creek, in Johnson county, was built in this year, and a bloomary was also erected on Camp creek, in Greene county, in 1797.
1791-The first iron enterprise in Kentucky was Bour- bon furnace, often called Slate furnace, which was built in 1791 on Slate creek, a branch of Licking river, in Bath county, and about two miles southeast of Owingsville.
1792-Lancaster Turnpike built, first in this country.
1792-A small blast furnace was built in this year by George Anshutz, a native of Alsace, on Two-mile run, now Shady Side, in Pittsburgh. In 1794 it was abandoned for want of ore. It made grates and other small castings.
1800-The first permanent bridge over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, at Market street, was commenced in 1800 and opened to traffic in January, 1805.
1800-In this year the seat of government of Penn- sylvania was moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and in 1812 it was removed from Lancaster to Harrisburg.
1800-About 1800 the celebrated Champlain iron ore district in New York was developed, and many Catalan forges, as well as furnaces and a few rolling mills, were soon afterwards built. The forges were true Catalan forges but of an improved type. As late as 1883 there were 27 of these forges, with 171 fires. All are now abandoned.
1801-The first chain bridge in the United States was built this year over Jacob's creek in Western Pennsylva- nia by Judge James Finley, of Fayette county.
1802-Catalan forges, or bloomaries, were built in Northern New Jersey long before the Revolution. Many forges were blown by the trompe, or water-blast. In 1795 Morse mentions thirty forges in Morris county, New Jersey, and in 1802 a memorial to Congress says that
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there were then in New Jersey 150 of these forges. There are now no Catalan forges left in that State.
1803-The beginning of the iron industry in Ohio dates from 1803, in which year its first furnace, Hopewell, was commenced by Daniel Eaton. It was finished in 1804. It stood on the west side of Yellow creek, about one and a quarter miles above its junction with the Mahoning river.
1807-The first railroads in the United States, begin- ning with this year, were built to haul gravel, stone, coal, and other heavy materials, and were all short roads.
1807-Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, made its successful trial trip on the Hudson on August 17.
1808-Anthracite coal first used in a grate by Judge Jesse Fell, at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in this year.
1810-The census statistics for 1810, published in 1814, gave the production of cast iron in the census year as amounting to 53,908 gross tons, which included pig iron.
1810-The production of steel in the United States in the census year 1810 amounted to 917 tons.
1810-In 1810 there was a bloomary in Warren coun- ty, a forge in Elbert county, and a nailery in Chatham county, Georgia. Two of these were built about 1790.
1810-On June 27, 1810, Clemens Rentgen, a native of the Palatinate, in Germany, obtained a patent from the United States Government for "rolling iron round, for ship bolts and other uses," which invention was put to practical use at Mr. Rentgen's Pikeland works, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1812 and 1813, in which years he rolled round iron, some of which was for the navy.
1811-The first steamboat "on the western waters " was built at Pittsburgh and called the New Orleans.
1812-The first rolling mill at Pittsburgh was built in 1811 and 1812 by Christopher Cowan, a Scotch-Irishman, and called the Pittsburgh rolling mill. This mill had no puddling furnaces. Its products were sheet iron, nail and spike rods, shovels, chains, hatchets, hammers, etc.
1812-Salt was first discovered on the Conemaugh in Western Pennsylvania in this year or 1813.
1816-Wire fences were in limited use in the neighbor- hood of Philadelphia as far back as 1816. The wire used
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was manufactured by White & Hazard at their wire works at the Falls of Schuylkill.
1816-In his History of Philadelphia (1884) Thompson Westcott says that the first wire suspension bridge in the United States, if not in the world, was thrown across the Schuylkill river, near the Falls of Schuylkill, by White & Hazard. Its use was restricted to foot passengers.
1816-The first rolling mill erected in the United States to puddle iron and roll iron bars was built by Isaac Meason in 1816 and 1817 at Plumsock, on Redstone creek, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania.
1816-The once celebrated iron district in Iron and St. François counties, Missouri, which embraces Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob, appears to have contained the first iron enterprise in this State, which embraced a furnace and forge on Stout's creek, in Iron county, built in 1815 or 1816.
1816-About 1810 Isaac Pennock built Brandywine rolling mill, at Coatesville, Pennsylvania, which was pur- chased from him about 1816 by Dr. Charles Lukens. The first boiler plates made in the United States were rolled at this mill by Dr. Lukens prior to his death in 1825.
1818-The oldest furnace in Alabama mentioned by Professor J. P. Lesley was built about 1818 a few miles west of Russellville, in Franklin county, and abandoned in 1827. A furnace was built at Polksville, in Calhoun county, in 1843, and Shelby furnace, at Shelby, was built in 1848.
1818-In this year the construction of the first canal tunnel in the United States was undertaken at Auburn, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, by the Schuylkill Navi- gation Company. It was finished in 1821.
1825-The first iron steamboat built in this country was the Codorus, built at York, Pennsylvania, in 1825.
1825-The first bar iron rolled in New England was rolled at the Boston iron works, in Boston, in 1825.
1827-On February 28, 1827, the Maryland Legislature granted a charter for the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad in the United States to be built for the conveyance of passengers as well as freight. Its construction was commenced on July 4, 1828. The road was not opened to Wheeling until January, 1853.
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1829-Steam power was not used on any American railroad until 1829. Horse power had previously been used and was used for many years afterwards.
1829-The first locomotive to run upon an American railroad was the Stourbridge Lion. It was first used at Honesdale, in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1829, on the coal railroad of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. It was built in England.
1830-The T rail was invented in this year by Robert L. Stevens, the president and engineer of the Camden and South Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company, and T rails were rolled in Wales in 1830 on Mr. Stevens's order and laid down on a part of his road in 1831.
1830-The first locomotive built in the United States and used on a railroad was the Tom Thumb, which was built by Peter Cooper at Baltimore and successfully ex- perimented with on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in August, 1830. Mr. Cooper was his own engineer. Strictly speaking the Tom Thumb was only a working model.
1830-The first American locomotive that was built for actual service was the Best Friend of Charleston, which was built at the West Point Foundry, in New York City, for the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad and was suc- cessfully put in use on that road in December, 1830.
1830-In 1830 only 23 miles of railroad were in opera- tion in the United States ; in 1840 there were 2,818 miles ; in 1850 there were 9,021 miles; in 1860 there were 30,626 miles ; in 1870 there were 52,922 miles ; in 1880 there were 93,262 miles ; in 1890 there were 166,703 miles; in 1900 there were 194,262 miles ; and in 1907 there were 228,128 miles. These figures do not include double tracks, sid- ings, etc .; only the length of the main track.
1832-Crucible steel of the best quality was first made in the United States in this year in commercial quantities at Cincinnati by Dr. William Garrard and his brother, John H. Garrard, entirely from American materials. Their works were called the Cincinnati steel works.
1832-In Brown's History of the First Locomotives in America it is stated that "the first charter for what are termed city passenger or horse railroads was obtained in
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 277
the city of New York and known as the New York and Harlem, and this was the first road of the kind ever con- structed, and was opened in 1832. No other road of the kind was completed till 1852, when the Sixth Avenue was opened to the public."
1833-The first railroad tunnel in the United States, four miles east of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, forming part of the Portage Railroad, was completed in 1833 and was first used on November 26 of that year.
1833-In this year the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road Company was chartered. It was opened to Mount Carbon, one mile below Pottsville, on January 13, 1842.
1834-In this year the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, connecting Philadelphia with Pittsburgh, was open- ed for traffic throughout its entire length. The building of the canal was commenced in 1826.
1834-The first practical application of the hot-blast to the manufacture of pig iron in this country was made at Oxford furnace, in New Jersey, in 1834, by William Henry, the manager. The fuel used was charcoal.
1834-Bituminous coal in Alabama was first observed in this year by Dr. Alexander Jones, of Mobile.
1835-The first puddling done in New England was at Boston, on the mill-dam, by Lyman, Ralston & Co.
1835-The first successful use of coke in the blast fur- nace in the United States was accomplished by William Firmstone, at Mary Ann furnace, in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in 1835.
1835-The machine-made horseshoe was patented by Henry Burden, of Troy, New York, in 1835. Other horse- shoe patents were issued to him in 1843, 1857, and 1862. Mr. Burden was also the inventor of the hook-headed spike and of the Burden rotary squeezer, the latter in 1840.
1838-Baldwin Locomotive Works exported one loco- motive to Cuba, their first shipment to a foreign country.
1839-In 1839 a small charcoal furnace was built four miles northwest of Elizabethtown, in Hardin county, Illi- nois. This is the first blast furnace in Illinois of which there is any record.
1839-On October 19, 1839, Pioneer furnace, at Potts-
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ville, Pennsylvania, built by William Lyman, of Boston, and others, under the auspices of Burd Patterson, of Pottsville, was successfully blown in with anthracite coal by Benjamin Perry and ran for about three months, making about 28 tons of foundry iron a week. This was the first use of anthracite coal in the blast furnace in this country that was attended with a fair degree of success.
1840-On July 3, 1840, the first furnace of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, at Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was successfully blown in by David Thomas, who had super- intended its construction. Its first cast was made on July 4. From the first this furnace produced 50 tons a week of good foundry iron. This was the first of all the early anthracite furnaces that was completely successful.
1840-Indiana possessed a small charcoal iron industry before 1840. The census mentions a furnace in that year in Jefferson county, one in Parke, one in Vigo, one in Ver- milion, and three in Wayne county, the total product be- ing 810 tons of "cast iron." A forge in Fulton county, producing 20 tons of " bar iron," is also mentioned. Bog ore was used.
1840-In 1840 the census reported that 601 tons of "cast iron" had that year been produced in 15 "furnaces" in Southern Michigan. Some of these "furnaces" were undoubtedly foundries, which obtained pig iron from Ohio and other neighboring States ; others used bog ore.
1840-The census of 1840 mentions a furnace in "Mil- waukee town," Wisconsin, which produced three tons of iron in that year. This was probably a foundry. In 1859 Lesley mentions three charcoal furnaces in Wisconsin.
1841-In the winter of this year and 1842 Connells- ville coke was first made in commercial quantities a few miles below Connellsville on the Youghiogheny river.
1842-Wire cable suspension bridge over the Schuyl- kill at Philadelphia was built by Charles Ellet, Jr.
1843-The development of the Lake Superior copper region was undertaken this year under the auspices of Dr. Curtis G. Hussey, of Pittsburgh.
1844-The first discovery by white men of iron ore in the Lake Superior region was made on the 16th of Sep-
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tember, 1844, near the eastern end of Teal lake, in North- ern Michigan, by William A. Burt, a deputy surveyor of the General Government. In June, 1845, the Jackson Min- ing Company was organized at Jackson, Michigan, and in the same year it secured possession of the celebrated Jackson iron mountain. In 1853 a few tons of Jackson ore were shipped to the World's Fair at New York.
1844-On April 24, 1844, Hon. Edward Joy Morris, a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, declared that "not a ton of T rail has yet been made in this country."
1844-The manufacture of heavy iron rails in this country was commenced early in 1844 at the Mount Sav- age rolling mill, in Allegany county, Maryland, which was built in 1843 especially to roll these rails. The first rail rolled at this mill was an inverted U rail. U rails were in use in the sidings of the Cumberland and Pennsyl- vania Railroad as late as 1869. We have a short piece.
1844-In this year iron T rails weighing 50 pounds to the yard were rolled at the Mount Savage rolling mill, in Maryland, for the railroad leading from Fall River to Boston. They were ordered by Colonel Borden, of Fall River, and were the first T rails rolled in the United States.
1845-A wire suspension aqueduct over the Allegheny at Pittsburgh was built this year by John A. Roebling- his first use of wire rope for aqueducts or bridges.
1845-The Montour rolling mill, at Danville, Pennsyl- vania, was built in 1845 expressly to roll T rails.
1845-Splint coal, or block coal, was used in a blast furnace in the fall of 1845 by Himrod & Vincent, of Mer- cer county, Pennsylvania, in their Clay furnace. It had been previously successfully experimented with.
1846-The first furnace in Ohio to use splint coal, or block coal, in its raw state was built expressly for this purpose at Lowell, in Mahoning county, by Wilkeson, Wilkes & Co., and successfully blown in by them on the 8th of August, 1846.
1846-The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was char- tered to build a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.
1849-The production of iron rails in this country in 1849 was 21,712 gross tons, and in 1872, the year of larg-
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est. production, it was 808,866 tons. In 1904 the produc- tion had dwindled to 871 tons and in 1906 to 15 tons.
1850-The first shipment of iron ore from the Lake Superior region was made in 1850 and consisted of about ten tons, "which was taken away by Mr. A. L. Craw- ford, of New Castle, Pennsylvania." A part of this ore was reduced to blooms and rolled into bar iron. It was hauled around Sault Ste. Marie on a strap railroad.
1850-Petroleum was first refined in this year by Samuel M. Kier, of Pittsburgh.
1852-On December 10, 1852, the Pennsylvania Rail- road was completed from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, con- nections being made with State railroads.
1852-The first wire nails manufactured in the United States were made in 1851 or 1852 at New York by Will- iam Hassall. All the wire nails made by Mr. Hassall were made from iron or brass wire and were of small sizes, es- cutcheon and upholsterer's nails being specialties.
1853-The first use of Lake Superior ore in a blast furnace occurred in Pennsylvania in 1853, when about 70 tons, brought from Erie by canal, were used in the Sharpsville and Clay furnaces, in Mercer county.
1854-It is stated by the American Cyclopedia that Peter Cooper "was the first to roll wrought iron beams for fire-proof buildings," at Trenton, N. J., in 1854. They were 7 inches deep, weighed about 81 pounds per yard, and were known as deck beams. They were used in Har- per Brothers' and the Cooper Union buildings, New York, and also on the Camden and Amboy Railroad as rails.
1855-In this year the production of pig iron with anthracite coal exceeded that made with charcoal.
1855-On March 6 the American Iron Association, now the American Iron and Steel Association, was organized at Philadelphia. In 1864 the present name was adopted.
1855-The first 30-foot iron rails rolled in this country were rolled at the Cambria iron works, at Johnstown, in 1855. There was no demand for them. The first 30-foot iron rails rolled in this country on order were rolled at the Montour rolling mill, at Danville, Pennsylvania, in Janu- ary, 1859, for the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company.
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1857-The iron industry at Chicago dates from 1857, when Captain E. B. Ward, of Detroit, built the Chicago rolling mill, "just outside of the city," to reroll iron rails.
1857-The main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, was sold this year to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for $7,500,000.
1858-The first pig iron produced in the Lake Superi- or region was made in 1858 by Stephen R. Gay in a small furnace on Dead river, three miles northwest of Marquette.
1859-Clinton furnace, built in 1859 by Graff, Bennett & Co., at Pittsburgh, and blown in on the last Monday of October, was the first furnace built in Allegheny county after the Anshutz furnace at Shady Side was abandoned.
1859-Metallic zinc first made successfully in this country by Joseph Wharton, at South Bethlehem.
1860-The production of pig iron in the United States in 1860 was 821,223 tons and that of steel was 11,838 tons. 1860-As late as 1860 there were about two hundred Catalan forges, or bloomaries, south of the Ohio and the Potomac rivers, which made bar iron under the hammer directly from the ore. At the close of the nineteenth century only one of these bloomaries survived and it has since been abandoned.
1862-The Phoenix wrought-iron column, or wrought- steel column, is the invention of Samuel J. Reeves, of Philadelphia, in this year.
1864-In September, 1864, William F. Durfee, acting for the Kelly Pneumatic Process Company, succeeded at experimental works at Wyandotte, Michigan, in making the first pneumatic, or Bessemer, steel in this country.
1865-The control in this country of Mr. Bessemer's steel patents was obtained in 1864 by John F. Winslow, John A. Griswold, and Alexander L. Holley, all of Troy, New York. In February, 1865, Mr. Holley was successful at Troy in producing Bessemer steel at experimental works which he had constructed for his company in 1864.
1865-The first Bessemer steel rails made in the Unit- ed States were rolled in May of this year at the Chicago rolling mill, in Chicago, from blooms made by William F. Durfee at Wyandotte.
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1866-The first elevated city passenger railroad ever built was the Greenwich street railroad in New York, which was commenced in 1866 and has been in successful operation since 1872. It is now known as the Ninth Ave- nue Elevated Railway. The next project of this charac- ter was the Gilbert elevated railroad, in New York, for the construction of which a charter was granted in 1872.
1867-The first Siemens gas furnace that was regularly introduced into this country for any purpose was built by John A. Griswold & Co., at Troy, New York, and used as a heating furnace in their rolling mill, the license hav- ing been granted on the 18th of September, 1867.
1868-The first open-hearth furnace introduced into this country for the manufacture of steel by the Siemens- Martin process was built in 1868 by Frederick J. Slade for Cooper, Hewitt & Co., at Trenton, New Jersey.
1868-In 1867 or 1868 John Player, of England, in- troduced his iron hot-blast stove into the United States. Mr. Player personally superintended the erection of the first of his stoves in this country at the furnace of J. B. Moorhead & Co., at West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
1869-In this year pig iron made with bituminous coal and coke first exceeded that made with charcoal.
1869-On May 10, 1869, the Union and Central Pa- cific Railroads were joined at Promontory Point, Utah, completing the first railroad line across the continent.
1869-The first successful application in this country of the Siemens regenerative gas furnace to the puddling of iron was made under the direction of William F. Dur- fee at the rolling mill of the American Silver Steel Com- pany, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1869.
1873-The first Transatlantic iron steamships to at- tract attention which were built in this country were the four vessels of the American Steamship Company's line, the Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, built of Pennsylvania iron at Philadelphia in 1871, 1872, and 1873, by W. Cramp & Sons. They were each 355 feet long and their carrying capacity was 3,100 tons each.
1873-The first considerable importation of iron ore into this country occurred in 1873, when about 46,000
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tons were imported, the most of which came from Canada. In 1902 we imported 1,165,470 tons of iron ore, of which Cuba sent 696,375 tons. In 1907 we imported 1,229,168 tons, of which 657,133 tons came from Cuba. Our first imports of iron ore from Cuba took place in 1884.
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