278 DIAGRAM OF THE FIRST BLAST FURNACE of brown hematite became the site of the ment did not confiscate the property, but took possession of it and appointed Dr. Joshua Porter, agent. The Council of Safety expended £1,450 in fitting up the furnace, and they put it into full operation with a corps of fifty-nine workmen, furnishing supplies for the Continental army. Cannon of various weights up to 32pounders were cast here, and shot and shell in abundance. These guns were carefully tested under the eye of famous leaders of the day, such as Jay, Morris, Hamilton and Trumbull, and the shot fired at these times are still dug up occasionally. The guns which Commodore Truxton's ship, the "Constellation," carried, were cast at this furnace. The Constitution," in common with many other battle-ships of the old navy, were equipped with cannon of Salisbury iron, and the guns of the battery at New York were also of the same metal. Probably many of them were cast at Lakeville. This historic furnace was standing in the early thirties, and was then reputed to be the oldest in the region. BLOWING ENGINE USED WITH THE LAKE- Though Lakeville was the site of the first blast-furnace in Connecticut, there was built but little later and in the town of Salisbury another furnace, perhaps even more famous-the furnace upon Mount Riga. Mount Riga is the southern end of a strong range starting in the northwestern portion of the town of Salisbury and running in a generally northern direction far into Massachusetts. The range attains its greatest height at Mount Everett in Massachusetts, with an elevation of 2,624 feet above the sea, and Mount Riga itself reaches a height of about 2,000 feet. Steep, rugged and desolate, it seems strange that it should have been selected as the location of such an industry. Yet it was so chosen for reasons which will presently appear. for the blowing-engines, and the timber furnished an almost inexhaustible supply of material for charcoal. With power and fuel at hand it was a matter of minor consequence that ore and flux had to be carted some four miles up hill. The finished products were hauled by oxen down hill again and across country to the Hudson, where they were shipped to the markets by water. In 1781 a forge was erected on this range by Abner and Peter Woodin. In 1785 one Daniel Ball came into possession, and from him the forge took the name of Ball's Forge. It was not till 1806 that work was begun on an actual blast-furnace. The enterprise was undertaken by Seth King and John Kelsey, but they were unable to carry it through, and in 1810 it came into the hands of the firm of Holley & Coffing. They completed the furnace immediately and started it upon a long and famous career. The furnace was situated on Wochocastigook Creek at an elevation of some 1,700 feet above the sea. All about were acres upon acres of timberland, and the creek and this timberland were the advantages which more than justified the selection of this strange site. The waters of the creek, confined in Forge Pond by a dam, furnished abundant motive power NORTHWESTERN CORNER OF CONNECTICUT. (The chief iron region of the State.) About this furnace and the attendant mercial and industrial life of Salisbury forges scattered along the stream the comcentered for many years. Among the articles manufactured here many anchors were forged for the government and were duly tested on the grounds by navy of ficials, the masterpiece of Mount Riga being the anchor of the "Constitution." One authority states that the furnace was built as early as 1800, and was rebuilt in notably Chatfield's and Davis' beds in the 1845. Finally the introduction of steam transportation and the exhausted condition of the woodlands upon Mount Riga caused the decline of the industry, till in 1847 the famous old furnace was abandoned and the seat of the industry descended again to the lowlands. At the present day nothing is left but the gray stack and the weather-beaten heaps of slag. A few houses still stand in the vicinity, and farther down the stream irregular lines of stones mark the sites of the old forges. town of Salisbury, a bed at Indian Pond in Sharon, and one in Kent. In connection with these deposits, as well as with that at Ore Hill, furnaces sprang up. In his geological report of 1837 Shepard mentions the furnace of the Salisbury Iron Company at Mount Riga, Chapin furnace at Chapinville, the furnace of Canfield, Sterling & Co., on the Housatonic, that of Holly & Co., at Lime Rock, the two furnaces of the Cornwall Iron Company and the Cornwall Bridge Iron Company, in the western part of Cornwall, the furnace THE OLD STACK AT MT. RIGA. The stack, which is pierced for only a single twyer, is a small one, not more than twenty feet high, an insignificant thing when compared with the great Pennsylvania furnaces of to-day, but through its crumbling arch which looks across the mountains to the rising sun, has flowed the iron which has helped to make the history of the nation. Mount Riga furMount Riga furnace has done its work. Peace to its memory. It is not to be supposed that these were the only points in the town of Salisbury where iron-smelting was carried on. Other deposits of brown hematite were opened, of Messrs. Brinsmade, Wolcott & Smith, in Sharon, one or more furnaces at Canaan, and several furnaces in the vicinity of Kent. These last may be rightly considered to be Kent furnaces proper, the furnace at Bull's Bridge and the furnace at Macedonia. Of the furnaces mentioned in this list, Chapin furnace stands about half a mile north of Chapinville station in the town of Salisbury. It was probably built by one Chapin about one hundred years ago, and had as subsequent early owners the Landon Iron Company. The furnace was rebuilt about 1870, and was in blast more or less regularly until November, 1897, when the blowing engine broke down. At that time it was run by J. J. Morehouse, who also carried on business at the furnaces at Copake and Chatham in New York. Chapin furnace, which in former years smelted ore from Ore Hill, had of late years obtained its ore at Amenia, N. Y. |