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.pdf/54

 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES Montour county was built by Burd P at­ terson near the mouth o f Roaring creek, in M ayberry township, in 1839. A fte r passing through successive hands it came into the possession o f Simon P. K ase, of Danville, in 1857, who ran it fo r a short time and then abandoned it. The ore was ob­ tained from Montour ridge and carried across the river on flats. in 18 38 Patterson built a charcoal furnace at the site of the present I.ackawanna railroad crossing in the eastern part o f Danville. This he operated fo r a short lime, but the intro­ duction o f anthracite coal soon made the fu r­ nace obsolete, and it was therefore abandoned. Later Patterson built a nail factory near it, but this also was a failure. Michael and John G rove were the first suc­ cessful funiacem a), after anthracite coal was adopted. They built two furnaces, one in 1840 and the other in 1859, on Mahoning street, Dan­ ville. A 400-horsepowcr engine ran the blast and about seventy-flve men were employed. They closed down in 1880. Chambers & Biddle built two furnaces in 1840, and another in 1845. A rolling mill was added in 1844, and the plant took the name o f Montour Iron W orks. Here the first T rails in the E ast were made, U rails having been previously the chief product. A foundry and machine shop were added in 1852, and in 1857 a new rail mill w as added. T h is foundry dur­ ing the C ivil w ar cast many of the cannon and mortars used by the Union forces. It had cast in 1842 the first cannon in the United States made o f anthracite iron. In 1880 the works came into the hands of the Philadelphia & Reading Iron Company, which now operates them. The last furnace built in Montour county was the Chulasky furnace, on the line o f North­ umberland county, in 1846. Its capacity was 6,500 tons o f soft g ray foige pig iron per an­ num. It w as idle after 1893. Besides the plants mentioned, Danville has had numerous other iron foundries and mills, among them being these old o n es: Enterprise Foundry. Danville Iron Foundry, National Iron Foundry, Co-operative Iron & Steel W orks, Glendower Iron W orks, National Iron Company’s W orks and the Danville Stove W orks. TTie present plants are the Reading Iron W orks, the Danville Stove W orks, the Danville Steel W orks, the Tube M ill and the Danville Foundry & Machine Works. A t present Danville is the only strictly ironmaking town in the two counties. T he Am eri­ can O r & Foundry Company, at Berwick, have a pipe works and a rolling mill, but only for

25

their own use. There are two large foundries at the car plants, a general machine shop, and a small foundry for the manufacture o f sash weights, at Bloomsburg. T his completes the list for the two counties in 1914. Furnaces Abandoned A t present there are no furnaces in operation in either Columbia or Montour counties, most of the iron works consisting o f foundries and rolling mills, which obtain their raw material from the fu n u ccs around Pittsburg. Those who have no knowledge of the old charcoal furnaces and their operation w ill find a descrip­ tion of (he methods then used interesting. The early furnaces averaged twenty-five feet in height by seven feet across the "bosch,” or widest part of the interior. T lic fuel was strictly charcoal and the blast was cold, Ixin g driven by leather bellows through a "tuyere into the mass o f charcoal and ore. Later on wooden "tubs” were used to create the blast, somewhat like short cylinders, with a piston working horizontally, the power coming from a water wheel in the nearest stream. These "tubs” were used as late as 1878, even after the introduction o f anthracite coal as fuel. T h e product of these charcoal furnaces was from ten to twenty-five tons o f pig iron per week, which sold at the furnace at fifteen dol­ lars a ton. Som e of the furnaces in later years produced stoves, pots and plows. A fte r the charcoal furnaces were abandoned and the process o f smelting by anthracite in­ troduced the highest period o f development in the iron industry ensued. It w as the most im­ portant source o f wealth to the people and gave employment to thousands. O wing to its success the growth o f Danville and Blooms­ burg from 1844 >0 >890 w as due. but the clos­ ing of the mines and the abandonment of the furnaces did not seriously affect the prosperity of these places, fo r the wealth gathered from the earth w as not o f an evanescent character and the people had made use of their opportun­ ity to establish the towns on a permanent foun­ dation. In filling the old anthracite furnaces, alter­ nate layers o f ore. coal and limestone were uiicd. about three tons o f ore making a ton of pig iron. T he furnaces were run continuously, being filled from the top as fast as the iron w as drawn from the bottom. Casting w as done twice a day. Not only did the local foun­ dries use the product, but it was in great de­ mand by the foundries all over the eastern h alf of the State. During the years when the iron mines of the