Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.djvu/53

COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES to John and Samuel Trego, and Fincher & Thomas. In 1845 Samuel Diemer became lessee. Later owners were John Richards, John Thomas, D. J. Waller, Sr., Casper Thomas, Jacob Schuyler and J. B. Robison. The opening of the canal along the Susquehanna in 1832 made Catawissa the main shipping point of the county and the furnace was abandoned.

The Irondale furnaces were built by the Bloomsburg Railroad & Iron Company in 1844 and were lined-up and blown-in in 1845 by James Ralston, a native of Glasgow, Scotland. A railroad was built around the hill along Fishing creek to connect the furnaces with the canal. At that time iron ore was found in great quantities in the hills ail around the town and the canal offered a cheap means of transporting the coal and finished product. During the Civil war there was a mint of money in the iron business and the furnaces were kept running constantly, turning out about thirty tons of pig iron a day, the price going at one time to $40 a ton.

The plant in 1886 consisted of two furnaces, a waterpower house and a steampower house, a large store, a mansion house, twenty-three tenement houses comprising the settlement known as Morgantown, and a narrow-gauge railroad from the furnaces to the Lackawanna & Bloomsburg railroad. The company also had leases on many thousands of acres of ore lands in the county.

C. R. Paxton was president of the company and resided in the mansion near the furnaces. On his removal to Virginia, about 1874, E. R. Drinker became superintendent. But the iron trade had declined, and the ore beds in this section were worked out, necessitating the transportation of most of the ore used from Snyder county (Pa.) and Maryland, thus increasing the cost of production.

In the stock of the Bloomsburg Iron Company was purchased by Col. S. Knorr and L. S. Wintersteen, and the management changed. But iron continued to decline in price, and Colonel Knorr's death occurring soon after, the furnaces were shut down. In 1893 the Bloomsburg Iron Company, through its president, L. S. Wintersteen, sold the property to H. C. Pease, who tore down the furnaces and began the erection of a stone building intended for manufacturing purposes. This operation was stayed by injunction, and the executrix of Colonel Knorr’s estate, desiring an accounting, petitioned the court for the appointment of a receiver, which was granted, H. A. McKillip being the appointee. After proceedings in court. Pease reconveyed the properly to H. A. McKillip, receiver, and the property was sold by him at public sale to the Bloomsburg Water Company, the title passing on June 11, 1896. So passed out of existence what had for many years been the leading industry of Bloomsburg. The store building has been unoccupied for years, the Paxton mansion, whose occupants were so long among the social leaders of the town, is now a tenement house, and every vestige of the furnaces has disappeared. The waterpower house has passed into the ownership of the Irondale Electric Light Company, and been rebuilt, and is a well kept property.

In 1852 an agreement was entered into by William McKclvey, William Neal and Jacob Melick to erect and operate an anthracite iron furnace, taking the ore from the farm of the latter, east of Fishingcreek. In 1853, seventeen acres were purchased from Daniel Snyder and Joseph W. Hendershott on the canal, cast of the town of Bloomsburg, and in April, 1854, the "Bloom" furnace was blown-in. In 1873 the firm name was changed from McKclvey, Neal & Co. to William Neal & Sons. Up to 1875 the gross product of this furnace was 17,968 tons, but later the yearly product was greatly increased. By 1883 the ore deposits near Bloomsburg were exhausted and the furnaces in the vicinity were supplied from mines in New Jersey.

All of these furnaces were abandoned in 1892, the property sold and the furnaces tom down. The site is now occupied by the powerhouse and car barn of the North Branch Transit Company, the only visible remains of the furnace being the brick water reservoir and the slag heaps along the abandoned bed of the canal. The slag is now broken up and used to ballast the streets of Bloomsburg.

Two other furnaces were built at Light Street between 1844 and 1850 by Gen. Matthew McDowell and Samuel Bettle. Both were shortlived, their greater rivals at Bloomsburg getting the advantage in shipping and receiving facilities. One of these furnaces was operated by Peter Ent and stood just above the upper mill. The B. & S. railroad runs through the center of the slag heap. The other furnace stood at the lower end of the town. Both are completely gone.

Montour County Furnaces and Mills

The first charcoal furnace was built by Eli Trego in 1837. near the crossing of the Reading railroad at Mill street, Danville.

The first anthracite iron furnace in