HEAVY METAL
an exhibit of
Franklin County Cast and Forged Iron Pieces
from the collections of
Sean Guy, Becky Dietrich,
Roy & Ada Leckron,
Jim Craig, Bonnie Shockey &
Allison-Antrim Museum
With thanks to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Heavy Metal – American Cast Iron exhibit at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum for the inspiration for this exhibit.
Sincere thanks to Kenneth Schwarz, master blacksmith at Colonial Williamsburg’s James Anderson Blacksmith Shop for his generous help.
Heavy Metal
Iron ore + limestone + charcoal + water power + labor = iron.
Because the Cumberland Valley
was rich in all of the natural resources – iron ore, limestone, forests, and
running water – needed to produce iron, it was the ideal place for the
establishment of numerous iron works in the 18th and 19th
centuries. The eastern and western borders of Franklin County held the richest
iron ore deposits in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and perhaps in the
nation, generating at least ten different ironworks in the county. An ironworks
complex, such as the Mont Alto ironworks, might have included the iron master’s
mansion, cottages for the employees, gardens and working farms, livestock
including horses and mules, one or two iron furnaces, charcoal pits, chafery
(finery) forges, foundry, a rolling mill, and later a nail factory. The
ironworks were the largest single employers in their time period. At the Mont
Alto Furnace alone, 500 workmen were employed. In 1840, Franklin County had
eight operating furnaces, 11 forges, chaferies, and rolling mills.
Archaeological evidence
indicates that there were bloomeries (simple iron furnaces) in the Jamestown
Settlement area, which was founded in 1607. One of the main goals of the
English, Spanish, and French explorers was to discover what natural resources
existed in the New World and lay claim to that land for their country. By the
time of the American 
Revolution, products made of cast and wrought iron were in
great demand. The economy, which was agriculturally driven, required a lot of
cast and wrought iron products for tools, implements, nails, weapons, etc. To
protect their own interests at home in England, the English manufacturers and
producers of goods lobbied Parliament to enact laws (including the Iron Act of
1750) that prohibited products from being produced from raw materials in the
colonies. Therefore, everything that was used on a daily basis by the colonists
was supposed to be “Made in England,” not in the colonies. By the time the Iron
Act of 1750 was passed, the colonies were producing one seventh of the world’s
pig iron, wrought and cast iron products. Perhaps, this was partially due
because access to English iron products was much more limited inland than it was
in the towns and cities along the coast, where waterways provided easier
shipments of goods from England. English agents, who were supposed to be
monitoring such industrial activities, were known to look the other way in
exchange for a nice monetary bribe. Although there were no furnaces and
foundries in Franklin County before the Revolutionary War, there were furnaces
in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and Frederick County, Maryland.
Baranabus Hughes, an Ulster Scot from County Donegal, was granted over 20,000 acres of land from Lord Baltimore in the mid-eighteenth century. The land was mostly in Frederick County, Maryland but extended northward to the Mont Alto area in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Barnabus was one of the first settlers to mine the ore and establish three iron furnaces prior to the Revolutionary War at Mt. Aetna along the Beaver Creek, south of Cavetown; Rock Forge, which was located just south of the Mason-Dixon Line along the Leitersburg Road; and a third site southeast of Leitersburg, Maryland on the Antietam Creek. Daniel and Samuel Hughes, sons of Barnabus, were well-known ironmasters during the Revolutionary War, and manufactured the first Maryland cannon and small arms at Rock Forge for the Colonial army.
The Mont Alto Furnace was built
by Daniel and Samuel Hughes in 1807-1808 on land which is currently owned by
Penn State Mont Alto. Within a mile of the furnace, there were eight mines
(eventually 17) from which the ore was dug. Because there was insufficient
water power, dams were built at two places on the Antietam Creek to provide
power for the blast furnace and forges. In 1809 and 1810, two forges were built
about four miles distant from the furnace. The forges were deserted in 1866.
The foundry was built in 1815, and the rolling mill in 1832, with the nail
factory being the last of the industries built in 1835. It was only 15 years
later that the nail factory burned and the abandonment of the rolling mill
followed in 1867.
During the peak operation of the Mont Alto Ironworks, it
took an acre or more of trees to
supply the charcoal needed for one day's
operation of the furnace. The furnace usually made three runs of molten iron per
day. The cost per ton of iron was $20 - $21 per ton.
The Mont Alto cold-blast furnace was built into a hill, as most furnace stacks were, so that the ore, limestone, and charcoal could be more easily loaded into the top of the 34’ brick stack. The loading process was called charging the furnace.
The ironworks complex described above also included the iron master’s mansion, with a village of cottages not too far down the mountain in which the ironworkers lived. The ironworks complex was a community unto itself with gardens and a company store, in which only the ironworks’ currency could be used. Shelter was provided for the horses and mules, pigs, chickens, and occasionally cows. During the winter months a tutor was sometimes hired to teach the workers’ children.
William, Benjamin, and George
Chambers (sons of Benjamin Chambers Sr., founder of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania)
built Franklin County’s first iron furnace in 1783 at Mount Pleasant. This
furnace was closed in 1834 and the forge, which was nearby, closed in 1843. In
1865, a second furnace, called Richmond Furnace, was built on the original site.
Other well-known furnaces in Franklin County included Caledonia, that was owned and operated by Thaddeus Stevens and James D. Paxton, Falling Spring, Franklin, Southern Pennsylvania Iron and Railroad Co. (Mount Pleasant), and Roxbury. Foundries not owned by county iron masters included the Crowell Foundry in Greencastle, which was later owned and operated by the Geiser Manufacturing Company. (See the notebook on J. B. Crowell and his foundry, which is located just inside the dining room door from the hallway.)
The colonies’ ironworks were essential to the success of the Colonial army during the Revolutionary War. The 18th and 19th century iron furnaces, foundries, rolling mills, blacksmith shops, and nail factories of the Cumberland Valley formed the foundation of the industrial revolution in Pennsylvania and other states, that changed the world in the late 19th century.