Cornwall Furnace (Cedar Bluff, Alabama)

Last updated
Cornwall Furnace
Cornwall Furnace (Cedar Bluff, Alabama).JPG
Cornwall Furnace
USA Alabama location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location2 miles (3.2 km) N of Cedar Bluff
Nearest city Cedar Bluff, Alabama
Coordinates 34°14′49″N85°35′19″W / 34.24694°N 85.58861°W / 34.24694; -85.58861
Built1863
ArchitectNoble Brothers
Website Cornwall Furnace
NRHP reference No. 72000158 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 27, 1972

Cornwall Furnace is located near Cedar Bluff, Alabama, United States, in Cherokee County. It was built by the Noble Brothers to supply iron products to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

Contents

Site

The furnace is roughly pyramidal in shape, 30 feet (9.1 m) square at the base, 15 feet (4.6 m) square at the top, and 45 feet (14 m) tall. It is built of large hematite blocks quarried from Dirt Cellar Mountain and brought the three miles (4.8 km) to the site by ox cart. [2] A half-mile (.8 km) long mill race was constructed from the Chattooga River through a tunnel under a hill to power a water wheel which provided the air blast to operate the furnace. A bridge, no longer extant, spanned from the hillside to the top of the stack, where iron ore was loaded into the furnace. A gristmill and sawmill were also located on the site. [3]

History

James Noble, Sr., and his five sons began operating the Noble Brothers foundry in Rome, Georgia, in 1855. In 1862 the Confederate States of America commissioned the company to build two new furnaces, in exchange for cannons, caissons, and other products. [4] Construction of the furnace began shortly thereafter, involving an estimated 1,000 Confederate soldiers and slaves from nearby plantations. [2]

The furnace went into production in either late 1862 or early 1863. Charcoal was produced on nearby farms and plantations to fire the furnace, and water power from the Chattooga River was used to power the blast. The pig iron ingots manufactured at the furnace were sent to the Noble Brothers' foundry in Rome for the manufacture of war materials. The furnace was knocked out of production for the remainder of the war by Union troops in 1864. [4]

It was put back into operation after the war in 1867, but was blown out permanently in 1874. Evangelist Samuel Porter Jones worked at the furnace some time after the Civil War operating an ox cart. The property changed hands several times over the next 100 years. [2]

Preservation

Cornwall Furnace was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. [1] [5] In 1975 the furnace and surrounding 5 acres (2.0 hectares) were acquired by the Cherokee County Commission with the aid of the Alabama Historical Commission and the Cherokee County Historical Society. The commission developed the site into a park, which was inaugurated in 1977. [4] It is part of the Civil War Discovery Trail. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chattooga County, Georgia</span> County in Georgia, United States

Chattooga County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,965. The county seat is Summerville. The county was created on December 28, 1838.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tredegar Iron Works</span> United States historic place

The Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, was the biggest ironworks in the Confederacy during the American Civil War, and a significant factor in the decision to make Richmond the Confederate capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sloss Furnaces</span> United States historic place

Sloss Furnaces is a National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama in the United States. It operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971. After closing, it became one of the first industrial sites in the U.S. to be preserved and restored for public use. In 1981, the furnaces were designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noble Hall</span> Historic house in Alabama, United States

Noble Hall, also known as the Frazer-Brown-Pearson Home, is a historic Greek Revival style plantation house in Auburn, Alabama. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josiah Gorgas</span> Confederate Army general (1818–1883)

Josiah Gorgas was a Confederate general in the American Civil War and was later president of the University of Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tannehill Ironworks</span> United States state park and historic place

The Tannehill Ironworks is the central feature of Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park near the unincorporated town of McCalla in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Tannehill Furnace, it was a major supplier of iron for Confederate ordnance. Remains of the old furnaces are located 12 miles (19 km) south of Bessemer off Interstate 59/Interstate 20 near the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. The 2,063-acre (835 ha) park includes: the John Wesley Hall Grist Mill; the May Plantation Cotton Gin House; and the Iron & Steel Museum of Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornwall Iron Furnace</span> Historic district in Pennsylvania, United States

Cornwall Iron Furnace is a designated National Historic Landmark that is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Cornwall, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The furnace was a leading Pennsylvania iron producer from 1742 until it was shut down in 1883. The furnaces, support buildings and surrounding community have been preserved as a historical site and museum, providing a glimpse into Lebanon County's industrial past. The site is the only intact charcoal-burning iron blast furnace in its original plantation in the western hemisphere. Established by Peter Grubb in 1742, Cornwall Furnace was operated during the Revolution by his sons Curtis and Peter Jr. who were major arms providers to George Washington. Robert Coleman acquired Cornwall Furnace after the Revolution and became Pennsylvania's first millionaire. Ownership of the furnace and its surroundings was transferred to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron & Steel Museum of Alabama</span> Industrial museum in Alabama, US

The Iron & Steel Museum of Alabama, also known as the Tannehill Museum, is an industrial museum that demonstrates iron production in the nineteenth-century Alabama located at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park in McCalla, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Opened in 1981, it covers 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noble Brothers Foundry</span>

The Noble Brothers Foundry was a large ironworks manufacturer based in Rome, Georgia, United States. Its products included steam boat engines, furnaces, locomotives, and firearms before, during and after the United States Civil War. The remains of the facility can still be seen today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brierfield Furnace</span> United States historic place

The Brierfield Furnace, also known as the Bibb Naval Furnace and Brierfield Ironworks, is a historic district in Brierfield, Alabama, United States, encompassed by Brierfield Ironworks Historical State Park. The district covers 486 acres (197 ha) and includes one building and nine sites. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 20, 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swatara Furnace</span> United States historic place

The Swatara Furnace is a historic iron furnace and 200-acre national historic district located along Mill Creek, a tributary of the Swatara Creek in Pine Grove Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mt. Torry Furnace</span> United States historic place

Mt. Torry Furnace, also known as Virginia Furnace, is a historic iron furnace located at Sherando, Augusta County, Virginia. It was built in 1804, and is a stone square trapezoid measuring 30 feet at the base and 40 feet tall. The original cold-blast charcoal stack was converted for hot blast in 1853. It shut down in 1855, then was reactivated in 1863 to support the Confederate States Army. The furnace was destroyed in June 1864 during the American Civil War by Brigadier General Alfred N. Duffié, then rebuilt in January 1865. It operated until 1884.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Iron Furnace</span> United States historic place

Washington Iron Furnace is an historic iron furnace, located in Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia. The granite furnace was built around 1770, and measures 30 feet high on its south face. It helped establish industry in the county, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelby Iron Company</span> Local History Museum in Shelby, AL

The Shelby Iron Company was an iron manufacturing company that operated an ironworks in Shelby, Alabama. The iron company produced iron for the Confederate States of America and was destroyed towards the end of the American Civil War. The company continued to produce iron until the early part of the 20th century.

The Cedar Creek Furnace is a former blast furnace site near Russellville in Franklin County, Alabama. It was the first iron ore furnace in Alabama, preceding an industry that would come to dominate the state's economy in the late 19th and early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janney Furnace Park</span> United States historic place

Eli Henderson Park at Janney Furnace is a park surrounding a fifty-foot tall stone furnace in Ohatchee, Alabama, United States. The furnace was built in 1863 by Alfred Janney to produce pig iron due to the prevalence of iron ore in what is now the park. A July 1864 Union raid destroyed all but the stone chimney, which still remains. The furnace is now surrounded by the Calhoun County Confederate Memorial, built by Sons of Confederate Veterans in June 2003; and the 2009 Confederate and Native American Museum, which includes Civil War and Native American artifacts dating back to the Iron Age. The Confederate Memorial is the world's largest black granite confederate memorial. The furnace was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and the surrounding park was re-named in honor of Eli Henderson in 2020, who sought to preserve it.

Round Mountain is an unincorporated community in Cherokee County, Alabama, United States. For a short period, it was an incorporated community beginning in 1908, and was listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as having 210 residents. That technically and briefly made it the largest town in Cherokee County, as neither the county seat of Centre nor Cedar Bluff returned census figures.

Tecumseh Furnace is an unincorporated community in Cherokee County, Alabama, United States.

The Confederate Armory Site, a.k.a. Jones, McElwain and Company Iron Foundry, is a historic site in Holly Springs, Mississippi, US. It contains the scant ruins of the foundry built there in 1859, converted to an armory in 1861 by the Confederate States Army, used as a hospital by the Union Army in November 1862, and razed by the Confederates a month later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Noble Monument</span> United States historic place

The Samuel Noble Monument is a commemorative sculpture located at the parkway median of Quintard Avenue and 11th Street in the city of Anniston, Alabama, United States, and was erected in 1895 to honor the town's founder, Samuel Noble.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Floyd, W. Warner (May 26, 1972). "Cornwall Furnace". National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form. National Park Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 5, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.See also: "Accompanying photos". Archived (PDF) from the original on August 5, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  3. "Cornwall Furnace". Alabama Ironworks Source Book. 2006. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "Cornwall Furnace". Cherokee County Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
  5. "Cornwall Furnace". Calhoun Times. September 1, 2004. p. 43. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  6. "Cornwall Furnace". Civil War Discovery Trail. Civil War Trust. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2014.

Further reading