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Democratic Watchman January 31, February 7, 14, 21 & 28 1936
The Iron Industries of Centre County
By J. Thomas Mitchell
"Been a compilation of facts concerning the furnaces, forges, rolling mills and allied on an industry's inset accounting from 1791 to date.
The Commonwealth was very fortunate in its early days to acquire the services of man of education and mental training as its deputy surveyors. Joseph J. Wallis, for many years connected with the Land Office, Daniel Turner, later one of the county's iron masters, James Harris, a well-known engineer and one of the founders of Bellefonte; William McClay and Samuel McClay, who each represented Pennsylvania in the Senate of the United States, all of whom took part in the surveys made in this county, were among the number.
At the close of the Revolution Wallis in Turner were chosen to survey the first applications for warrants in Nittany valley. These orders of survey covered most of the properties now owned by the Pennsylvania State College and the Western penitentiary, including about all the land and that end of the valley beyond the Hills south of Buffalo run and west of what is now in now the "Sportsman's Paradise."
In the fall and winter of 1784, when the first of these warrants were executed, the surveyors noticed outcroppings up on your war on many of the tracts to the north and east of what is now state College borough. They collected samples of this mineral fines and sent them to Philadelphia for assay, where they were discovered to be exceptionally rich in iron content. Just before this discovery, Bedford furnace, in Huntington County, had been put in blast as the first Ironworks west of the Susquehanna River, using the native ores of Juniata Valley. The ores found in the valley proved to be even richer and quality than those of the Juniata region.
Samuel Miles, a colonel in the revolutionary war and one of the first mayor's of Philadelphia under its new government, became interested in this discovery and he, his son's John and Joseph and his brother Richard, joined with Col. John Patton in the purchase of a block of surveys in this section, including the original tracts covering the present campus of the Pennsylvania State College. The use of this ore field can also about the same time to Philip Benner, a practical iron man who was then making iron at Coventry, in Chester County.
Each of these parties tried to purchase some of this surveyed land, but Benner had to be satisfied with the eastern end of the block since Patton and Miles had already agreed to purchase the western portion thereof. Some years, however, elapsed before title could be made and Patton did not receive his first deed until May 8th, 1790. Eventually he and his partner purchased, in all, thirty two tracks and immediately started their prospect in and development work.
Centre Furnace
Richard Miles had acquired land in Brush valley as early as 1778, built a home and cleared land there, but after the ironworks were in operation he moved to Milesburg and eventually to Bellefonte. Patton came to live in this county and 1791 and started the construction of "Centre" furnace in the fall of that year, which was put in blast on May 2nd 1792, the Company operated under the firm name of "Miles, Patton and Miles." Col. Miles never lived in this county, but after the completion of his term as mayor of Philadelphia moved to Montgomery County. It was found that the surveys purchased by Miles and Patton overlapped or interfered with at least one of Benner's tracts and the litigation which followed delayed the latter's plans for coming to Nittany Valley. The lawsuit was finally adjusted, but the action gave Patton the owner of being the first mired master of the Centre County.
Rock Forge
Philip Benner, who was born in 1762, enlisted in the revolutionary army at the age of fifteen and served throughout the war. At its close he started in the iron business at Coventry, in Chester County. While doing business at this place he learned of the new ore fields discovered in the wild lands of central Pennsylvania, and it once negotiated for a block of these tracts. Notwithstanding the litigation into which he was forced, by May 3rd, 1792, the day after operations began at Centre furnace, he had completed his purchase of the tracts known as the "Rock" lands, so-called for the masses of sheer stone which border the southeastern side of upper Spring creek at that place.
In the early spring of 1793, Benner started the migration to his future home, bringing within his wife and many workmen and their families. He writes of this trip, "I had to pack provisions from the eastern counties through the woods to supply ninty-three people." Over dirt roads and mountain trails, 40 to streams swollen by spring freshets, and actually cutting their way through unbroken forests at the end of their trip, this troop of immigrants finally arrived at their destination.
The first step was to build homes for himself and his people and to erect and a saw mill, the machinery for which had been transported with their household goods on the long tramp from the East. When the houses and mill had been completed the next step was to construct the first corner forge in Centre County. Centre furnace, only a few miles away, was already making pig iron and at that time had no forage, so this practical me and Saul that by using Centre's iron he could make the only forged product of the neighborhood and sell it without local competition.
Immediately upon his arrival in Nittany valley in 1793, Benner had taken steps to have the court layouts a county road from "Lamb's" (where Bellefonte now stands) to "Rock" and Centre furnace, less giving him easier access to his source of iron supply and an outlet for his finished product to what was then considered a navigable stream. This road ran along the east side of Logan's branch to a point just south of the old Turnpike gate house, crossed the "Branch" fair and went west over the hills to "Rock," from there it ran through Houserville to Centre furnace, and thence southwestward to Tussey mountain near Pine Grove Mills. The road was completed by 1794 when Rock forage was ready to ship its first batch of finished iron.
Turner's Furnace
In the meantime Daniel Turner, one of the Commonwealth's deputy surveyors and one of the first discoverers of iron ore in this section, had purchased a tract of land south of what is now known as Roopsburg, and in 1794, started the erection of an iron furnace about a quarter of a mile south of the mill now standing at that place. This furnace, together with a saw mill and grist mill, were completed and the furnace put in blast in the year 1795.
Forms of Iron Plants
These furnaces, and all the ones built during the next ninety years in this county, were cold blast charcoal burning plants, operated by water power. The plan consists of a stone stack with a semi conical base and a high firebox above it. The bottom of the furnace was filled with charcoal and iron ore and limestone placed in alternate layers until the oven was filled.
The furnaces were loaded from the top, hence a location was sought by the side of a hill, otherwise there was the necessity of either building and inclined plane were using a hoisting machine to get the load to the top. Logan furnace was built by a hill while at Bellefonte an elevator was used.
When the intense heat and fused he ore and limestone into a molten mass the furnace was broken open with a bar and the metal floated out onto a prepared standard floor. Through a central sand trough the red hot iron was guided from one side to the other of the floor until the smaller troughs were filled with metal. This flow continued until the prepared floor was full of melted iron or the furnace was empty. The metal so cast was called "pig" iron.
Conference was the natural means of making iron and was almost invariably employed as such in this country. In very rare instances a "Bloomery" was established, which was a method of casting iron in rough blocks, and gave the name of "blooms" to the larger pieces of metal sometimes made and forges for a particular demand of the trade.
The forge took the "pigs" from the furnace, reheated them and turn them into lengths and sizes more easily handled and an exact weights according to trade demands. These were the two forms of iron plants most numerous throughout the country. As the different iron firms grew more prosperous and trade conditions became better, the first step was for each furnace to have its own forage, next, a rolling mill to prepare the iron and long strips easier to move and manipulate in machines, next, a silting mill was put up to divide the rolled bars into even smaller pieces and finally, as demand grew, nail mills were built as the invention of cut nails was developed.
Prior to this time, Col. James Dunlop, who, with his son John, had been ironmasters at the Dunlop furnace in Path Valley of Cumberland County, had agreed to purchase the "Gibbon" and "Sharon" tracts (upon which Bellefonte now stands) from William Lamb area in 1794 John Dunlop made a trip from Path Valley to investigate these lands, visited Rock forge and Centre furnace and found a most favorable situations for the making of iron. Not only was the ore of higher grade than that which he had been using, but waterpower was abundant for the machinery, and limestone could be found where every furnace might be erected. The forests were full of the proper quality of wood for making good charcoal and the whole a out was ideal, save for the trouble of shipping the finished product to market. He realized, as had Patton and Benner, that nominal cost of making iron at such a place with more than compensate for the shipping expense, since there was a great demand for "pig" metal.
Bellefonte Forge
During that autumn Col. Dunlop, his son John and his son in law James Harris, together with their families, moved to the lands they were buying. James Dunlop immediately began the construction of a stone house at the northeast corner of High and Spring streets in Bellefonte and Harris built the western portion of the house now known as the "Borough Home" on the northern bank of Spring Creek. James Dunlop and James Harris laid out the town of Bellefonte early in 1795 and John Dunlop, who had purchased several tracts of land to the east in south of the proposed town, began the reaction of a forge a few hundred yards south of the junction of Logan branch with Spring Creek.
Harmony Forge
By 1795 Patton and Miles found Benner was doing such a good business with his finished iron that they joined John Dunlop in building what was known as "Harmony" forge in the mountain gap north of the new town of Bellefonte, believing that with this new forge, the one that Dunlop was building at Bellefonte, and the Rock forge, there would be a nearby market for all of Centre iron. So in this year both the Bellefonte and Milesburg forges were completed.
Huntingdon Forge
While two furnaces and three forges had been constructed and put to work in Nittany valley in a distance which a circle of ten miles would cover, George Anahultz, who had built the first iron furnace in the Pittsburgh region in 1792, abandoned that place as unprofitable and came to Spruce creek valley, where he formed a partnership with Judge Gloninger, of Lebanon, to build a furnace in central Pennsylvania. They purchased land a few miles south of what was to be the Centre county line and erected Huntingdon furnace in 1796. This furnace and the Coleraine plants are included in this account of the Centre County Iron Works because they later became the property of Centre county citizens, John Lyon and Robert Stewart, and the subsequent firm of Lyon, Shorb & Co., whose main business place was in this county.
Logan Forge
John Dunlop, who was one of the most energetic of Ironmasters, was not content with, the forge business alone and began plans for the building of his own furnace. He had acquired title to a tract of land, now known as the "Black Barn farm," and erected a furnace on the western bank of Logan's branch directly across from the present barn, This was begun in 1797 when he also built the stone house at turn of the road, and stone offices and stables, which latter have long since been removed. He named this plant "Logan" furnace and by 1798 it was in full operation. He also doubled the capacity of his forge at Bellefonte and invested extensively in new ore lands further east in the valley, where he found ore of still higher grade, some running as high as sixty per cent in pure iron. He also found that in many instances the ore was found in pockets and not in veins, and in such cases it did not have to be laboriously picked over by hand. Such ore was known to the trade as the Nittany valley "pipe ore." The ores of Nittany valley were chiefly hematite and were not exceeded in richness anywhere in this country until the Lake Superior ores were found and developed.
In 1799 Philip Benner built the first slitting mill in the county. This mill was for the purpose of cutting iron bars into thin strips from which nails or other short pieces of iron could be stamped by machinery. At the close of the eighteenth century the Centre county territory had three furnaces in full blast, Centre, Turner' and Logan, three forges at Rock, Milesburg and Bellefonte and the new Benner mill. Ore lands were being prospected and developed prom State College eastward al most to Zion and tracts of hardwood timber were in great demand for charcoal purposes.
Rock Furnace and Forge No. 2
The new century opened with the erection of Centre County on February 13th, 1800, and the building of Benner's first furnace at Rock. Not satisfied with this he built anther forge further down the creek. At that time Thomas Billington, of Philadelphia, purchased the Turner plant. Turner never bad sufficient capital with which to operate his furnace and was therefore forced to turn it over to his creditors.
Spring Furnace
In the following year Benner, always a far seeing business man, built another plant on Spring creek which be called "Spring" furnace, and determined on an exceedingly bold stroke. He started shipping bar iron to Pittsburgh by bending the eight foot bars in "U" shapes and transporting them on the backs of pack horses. A string of eight horses could be cared for by two men, one of twelve animals needed three caretakers. The iron was sold at Pittsburgh for $250.00 per ton and actually cost Benner about $75.00 per ton delivered at that market. The iron men of Pittsburgh had heard of Bedford furnace and the "Juniata Iron" made there from the native ores and assumed that Benner's shipments were from the same source, so his material was known in that market as the "Juniata Iron" and for several years he had a monopoly of that trade, much to his financial advantage.
In 1802 Colonel Patton fell into financial difficulties chiefly owing to continued in health and his interest in the Centre furnace and Milesburg properties was sold at sheriff's sale to his partners, and during the next year "Centre" was run by the Miles interests. Patton's death occurred in 1804 and Colonel Miles died in the following year, his brother and sons continuing to operate both plants.
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