ank of the Housatonic, about a mile above the main village. The first stack on this site was built by the Kent Furnace Company about one hundred years ago, this company being succeeded in 1868 by the Kent Iron Company. Besides Kent ore, this furnace smelted also ores from Ore Hill and Richmond. The furnace went out of blast early in 1892, and the oven pipes were sold to the establishment at Copake. In the summer of 1898 the buildings, which were all in good repair, were in use as tobacco sheds. The second furnace, which stands at Bull's Bridge about four miles southwest of the village of Kent, was built about 1826. It has been abandoned for thirty years and is now in ruins. The third furnace, at Macedonia, about two miles northwest of Kent, was abandoned long ago. All these establishments smelted both Kent and New York State ores. It is impossible to give a detailed account of all the furnaces of the Housatonic region, but there is one plant that should not go unmentioned, that is the plant at Roxbury for smelting the so-called "steel ore" of Mine Hill. Mention has been made in a previous paper of the location and nature of this deposit of siderite, and of the great hopes which were based upon it. The mine was opened about 1750 by Hurlbut & Hawley, but, strange to say, it was in the endeavor to obtain silver. A second attempt was THE HEARTH, ROXBURY FURNACE. made later by the Bronson Brothers. It would seem that the German goldsmith who superintended the work deceived them for a long time by a pretence of discovering the precious metal. But it is also said that he produced steel for his tools from the spathic ore of the mine. Later an attempt, unsuccessful through lack of skill, was made by a Mr. Bacon to produce steel from the ore direct. Finally, at a later date, D. J. Styles succeeded in making good steel from the siderite. The works which are now standing were not begun until 1865, and at the very outset the company imported from Germany six of Krupp's skilled workmen to take charge of the smelting. This furnace, which was of the cold-blast type, produced successfully about ten tons of excellent pig-iron daily, but the Germans failed to accomplish that for which the works were primarily built, the conversion of this iron into steel. A refining or "puddling" furnace was therefore built, the pig was converted into wrought-iron, and this having been sent to the company's works at Bridgeport, was subsequently converted into good steel. The German workmen for their failure to produce steel from the pig-iron direct, were discharged. The next superintendent, against the wishes of all concerned, converted the furnace into a hot-blast furnace with disastrous results. The amount of iron produced fell to two or three tons a day, and this fact, combined with the great drop in the price of iron, induced the company to shut down the furnaces. The steel works have been abandoned for about twenty years, and are fast falling into decay. In the first article of this series sufficient mention was made of the lesser efforts in the way of iron mining and smelting which were made in different parts of the state, such as the handling of bog-ore at Stafford and Hebron, and of magnetic sand at Killingworth and Voluntown. These enterprises, though very interesting historically, were of small commercial importance when compared with those of the western part of the state, and even from the historical standpoint they occupy a minor position. The works at Stafford were the only ones of importance, where was made a large amount of hollow ware which was sent all over the state. These furnaces long ago went out of blast. Though it is quite possible to obtain a fairly complete list of the blast-furnaces which have been built in the state, it is quite a different matter to obtain the data. of the forges and refineries. The former were the more primitive devices which, at great loss of ore and fuel, obtained wrought-iron directly from the ore. Since they came earlier and were more numerous than the furnaces, the data concerning them are more difficult to obtain. I have mentioned a number of them, but beside these there seems to have been a great many scattered through all the region of western Connecticut. Before 1800 the town of New Milford alone had seven forges, and at one time Litchfield County contained as many as fifty. By refineries are meant establishments for making wrought-iron from the pig-iron of the furnaces. Shepard, in his report, states that most of the iron from the furnaces of the town of Salisbury was sent to Winsted and Canaan to be refined into bar-iron for musket and rifle barrels, and for innumerable commercial purposes. There were refineries at Mount Riga, and unquestionably at other places. Certain it is that from the Salisbury region for years the government arsenals at Springfield and Harper's Ferry were supplied with metal suitable for gun barrels, in fact, this has been one of the chief uses for the iron of western Connecticut. "The old order changeth, yielding place to new." The great Pennsylvania plants turn out in a day more iron than the best Connecticut furnace ever put out in a month. Yet the cold and crumbling stacks along the Housatonic have done their work and have earned their rest. They saw the youth of the nation; they forged for its hand the implements of war and peace, and its glorious history is theirs. And perhaps it is fitting that with the passing THE FLEET IN SANTIAGO BAY. BY MARGHERITA ARLINA HAMM. I. Into the bay they came II. They saw through open ports 99 66 of Connecticut; " Bishop's "History of American Industries; Salisbury Iron," reprinted from the Railway Gazette of New York, 1883; "Salisbury," by Ellen Strong Bartlett, Connecticut Quarterly, Vol. IV., No. 4. Also to the kindness of Judge Donald J. Warner, of Salisbury; Mr. James E. Barker, of Chapinville; Mr. J. T. Fuller, founder at East Canaan; Mr. George R. Bull, of Kent Furnace; Mr. Elisha Potter, of Bull's Bridge; Col. A. L. Hodge, of Roxbury Station; the Barnum, Richardson Company, of Lime Rock, and many others. III. Beyond them row on row They saw the tented foe Prostrated by defeatThe distant captured town, The populace cast down Or flying in retreat. IV. All, all was theirs they saw; The sword was lord and king. Let martial music rise To stifle sobs and sighs! Exult and proudly sing! V. But from the victor's fleet No drum nor cymbal beat No cheer arose on high; And yet that silence told A story of fine gold Which cannot ever die. VI. Instead of war's displays The victors used all ways Of doing others good; They, generous as brave Clothes to the naked gave And to the hungry, food. VII. They helped and healed their foes, VIII. O, land with sons like these In peace or war's stern strife, |