Cumberland Furnace | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 36°16′07″N87°21′35″W / 36.26861°N 87.35972°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Tennessee |
County | Dickson |
Elevation | 518 ft (158 m) |
Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
ZIP Code | 37051 |
Area code(s) | 615, Overlay 629 |
GNIS feature ID | 1281828 [1] |
Cumberland Furnace is an unincorporated community in Dickson County, Tennessee, United States. [1] Cumberland Furnace is served by a U.S. Post Office, ZIP Code 37051. [2]
General James Robertson purchased the land now known as Cumberland Furnace in 1793 and constructed the first furnace.
In 1804, Montgomery Bell moved to Middle Tennessee and purchased James Robertson's iron works business for $16,000. Bell expanded his operations and constructed other furnaces and mills, including a hammer mill south of Charlotte on Jones Creek utilizing waterpower.
By 1808, Bell was buying wood at 50 cents per cord for charcoal to fuel his furnaces, which cast cannonballs utilized in the War of 1812 by General Andrew Jackson's troops at the Battle of New Orleans. [3]
A nearby unincorporated community where many of Bell’s workers lived is called Bell Town. Bell suffered losses in the Panic of 1819, and in 1824, he advertised the Narrows and other properties for sale in the Nashville Whig. Bell offered to sell his ironworks to the U.S. Army to be used for an armory; however, floods on the Harpeth were well known and that idea failed.
Bell sold the ironworks to Anthony Wayne Van Leer, who was a member of a well-known family in Pennsylvania and noted in the anti-slavery cause. [4] [3] His mansion was also used as a Union headquarters. [5] [6] Van Leer’s granddaughter married a Union Captain James P. Drouillard and built what is now known as the Drouillard House on his property. Captain Drouillard operated the furnace until it was sold in 1889 to the Southern Iron Company. [7]
The Cumberland Furnace Historic District was designated on September 28, 1988 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [8]
Dickson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,315. Its county seat is Charlotte. Dickson County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. Dickson County is home to Tennessee's oldest courthouse in continuous use, built in 1835. This is the second courthouse in Charlotte as the first one, a log building, was destroyed in the Tornado of 1833, which destroyed all but one building on the courthouse square.
Warwick Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,507 at the 2010 census.
Vanleer is a town in Dickson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was estimated to be 422 in 2019, up from 395 at the 2010 census. The town is approximately 49 miles northwest of Nashville and is located within the city's greater metropolitan area.
George Taylor was an American ironmaster and politician who was a Founding Father of the United States and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Pennsylvania. His former home, the George Taylor House in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was named a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
The Harpeth River, 115 miles (185 km) long, is one of the major streams of north-central Middle Tennessee, United States, and one of the major tributaries of the Cumberland River. Via the Cumberland and the Ohio Rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. The lower portion of the Harpeth is designated as a "scenic river" under the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Act.
Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in southeastern Berks County, near Elverson, Pennsylvania, is an example of an American 19th century rural iron plantation, whose operations were based around a charcoal-fired cold-blast iron blast furnace. The significant restored structures include the furnace group (blast furnace, water wheel, blast machinery, cast house and charcoal house), as well as the ironmaster's house, a company store, the blacksmith's shop, a barn and several worker's houses.
Montgomery Bell was a manufacturing entrepreneur who was crucial to the economic development of early Middle Tennessee. He was known as the "Iron Master of the Harpeth" and the "Iron Master of Middle Tennessee". Today he is remembered mostly for founding Montgomery Bell Academy, one of the largest private non-sectarian all-boys high schools in the United States.
Van Leer may refer to:
Warrenpoint is an historic home located in Knauertown, Pennsylvania, in Chester County. The house was built in 1756 in the Georgian Colonial style by William Branson. Branson was recorded as Samuel Nutts partner who both owned Reading Furnace and Warwick Furnace Farms. William Branson and his Reading property are also associated with the Franklin Stove. William Branson's grandson Samuel Van Leer would play an important role in the American Revolutionary War and would take over the family business.
Pleasant Hill Plantation, also known as Van Leer Place, is a historic stone farmhouse located near Glen Moore in West Nantmeal Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Montgomery Bell State Park is a Tennessee state park in Burns, Tennessee, United States. The park covers 3,782 acres (1,531 ha) and its official elevation is 758 feet (231 m). However, due to the dissected wooded terrain typical of the Nashville Basin, actual elevations range from 580 feet to 860 feet. The park is open for year-round recreation including boating, hiking, camping, fishing and golf. Montgomery Bell State Park was built during the Great Depression by members of the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps as Montgomery Bell Recreational Demonstration Area. Named for iron industrialist Montgomery Bell, the park is known as the birthplace of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The Calvary Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located off Tennessee State Route 48 in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee.
Changewater is an unincorporated community located within Washington Township, in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
VanLeer Polk was an American politician and diplomat from Tennessee. He served in the Tennessee Senate as a representative for Maury County in the 1890s. He was appointed Consul-General in Calcutta, India, and was one of six representatives of the United States at the 1906 Pan-American Conference. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family.
Antoinette Van Leer Polk, Baroness de Charette was an American Southern belle in the Antebellum South and French aristocrat in the Gilded Age. She was born into the planter elite, the great-niece of the 11th President of the United States James K. Polk and a member of the influential Van Leer family through her mother. She was an heiress to plantations in Tennessee and a "Southern heroine" who warned Confederate soldiers of advancing Union troops during the American Civil War. After the war, she moved to Europe, where she took to foxhunting in the Roman Campagna of Italy and the English countryside, and later became a baroness and socialite in Paris and Brittany.
The Drouillard House is a historic house at Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee. Built in 1868–1870 in the vicinity of Cumberland Furnace, the three-story house was a summer residence for Nashville socialite Mary Florence Kirkman and her husband Captain James Pierre Drouillard. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since December 27, 1977. It is also part of the Cumberland Furnace Historic District.
Captain Samuel Van Leer was a military officer from Pennsylvania who served as a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and as a lieutenant in the Chester County Light Horse Volunteers from 1781 to 1785. After his retirement from the military, he owned the Reading Furnace ironworks.
Anthony Wayne Van Leer was an American ironmaster and owner of the Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County, Tennessee. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family, the son of Samuel Van Leer, captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and nephew of General Anthony Wayne. The town of Vanleer, Tennessee is named after him.
Isaac Van Leer was a Pennsylvania ironmaster and owned the Hibernia Furnace, Springton Forge and historic Hibernia House in West Caln Township, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family and was the son of Samuel Van Leer, a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
The Van Leer family, originally spelled Von Lohr, is an influential German–American family that emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in the 17th century from the Electorate of Hesse near Isenberg, Germany. The family made their fortune in the United States through the ironworks business. The family includes American business owners, academics, civil rights activists, women's rights activists, university founders, inventors, politicians, and military officers. Earlier spellings include Von Leer, Von Lohr, and the ancient surname Valär.