Glendon Iron Company

Last updated
Glendon Iron Company
Glendon Iron Company
IndustryIron production
Founded1842  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
FounderCharles Jackson, Jr.
Defunct1896  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
FateFailed in 1896
Key people
Charles Jackson, Jr., William Firmstone, Francis Cabot Lowell II [1]
Products Pig iron
Production output
7000 tons per year
OwnerCharles Jackson, Jr. (initially)

The Glendon Iron Company was an iron company in the Lehigh Valley, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It was the second iron furnace in Lehigh Valley to be fueled by anthracite. [2] The company was established in 1842 and disestablished in 1896. Its leaders were primarily based in Boston and Hazleton. The company's main methods of export were via the Lehigh Canal and the Morris Canal. [3] The company started out with a single furnace, but eventually came to own five furnaces.

Contents

Description of the furnaces

The first furnace of the Glendon Iron company received its power from two waterwheels in the Lehigh Canal. The waterwheels were 15 feet (4.6 m) in diameter. The waterwheels powered a pair of horizontally positioned blast cylinders. The second furnace to be built was 45 feet (14 m) high. Its bosh measured 10 feet (3.0 m) by 14 feet (4.3 m). After 1850, it was powered by a common blast. The common blast was powered by both steam power and water power. The third furnace to be built was the same height as the second. However, its bosh was 14 feet (4.3 m) by 16 feet (4.9 m). This furnace was powered by the same common blast as the second furnace. The fifth furnace had a stack that was 75 feet (23 m) high. It had a bosh that had a diameter of 18 feet (5.5 m). The stack was made of sheet iron. This was the most productive of the furnaces owned by the Glendon Iron Company. [4]

In 1874, the first furnace of the Glendon Iron Company was rebuilt by William Firmstone with the intent of modernizing it. After being rebuilt, the furnace was 63 feet (19 m) tall, and its bosh had a diameter of 18 feet (5.5 m). In 1881, the second and third furnaces were rebuilt by Frank Firmstone, William Firmstone's son. The purpose of the rebuilding was again to modernize the furnaces. After being rebuilt, the furnaces were both 80 feet (24 m) tall. They had boshes that were 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter. All of the first three furnaces were modernized once more in between 1887 and 1889. [4]

History

The Glendon Iron Company was established in 1842. [2] The land was secured by the Boston businessman Charles Jackson, Jr. The company began to produce pig iron in 1844. A second furnace was built in 1846. [3] The third furnace belonging to the company was constructed in 1850. In 1852, the company purchased the Teabo mine in Hibernia, New Jersey. They stopped using this mine in 1892. Charles Jackson, Jr. bought the South Easton Iron Furnace for the Glendon Iron Company in 1854. [4] The company was incorporated in 1862. [5] A total of five furnaces were owned by the company by 1868. The company began to decline in 1884. [3] It bought steam-blowing engines from the I.P. Morris Company in 1893, but failed to stop the decline. [4]

Due to a decrease in demand for pig iron and difficult economic times, the company closed in 1896. [3] The buildings of the company's furnace were demolished at the beginning of the 1900s. [2] The demolition was completed by 1914. [3] The steam-blowing engines were bought by the Empire Steel and Iron Company. The land that the Glendon Iron Company was on were eventually regained by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. [4]

The Glendon Iron Company was the largest industry in the vicinity of Easton for large portions of the 1800s. [4]

Employees and leaders

The leaders of the Glendon Iron Company were capitalists from Boston and Hazleton. The company was managed by William Firmstone. While under Firmstone's leadership, the company's furnace became one of the largest in Pennsylvania. [2] When William Firmstone died in 1877, his son Frank took his place. Frank Firmstone resigned from the company in 1887. After Firmstone's resignation, John Thomas became the superintendent of the company. John S. Fackenthal succeeded Thomas for the position in 1889. [4] By 1855, most of the residents of Glendon were employees of the company. [3] The Glendon Iron Company was initially owned by Charles Jackson, Jr. [5]

Import, production, and export

A large amount of the pig iron produced by the Glendon Iron Company was mined in Williams Township, Northampton County. [3] The mines used by the company contained six mine shafts. These ranged from 250 feet (76 m) deep for Shaft Number 6 to 325 feet (99 m) deep for the Glendon Shaft and Shaft Number 3. [6] The remaining pig iron was brought to the furnace from New Jersey, via the Morris Canal. [3] Magnetite was also brought to the company from New Jersey. [4] The finished product was then sent to the Morris Canal by the Lehigh Navigation company. From the Morris Canal, the iron was shipped by sea to New York City [3] and Boston, where it was rolled into bars at the Glendon Rolling Mill and also made into finished products. [2] [3] However, after the Glendon Rolling Mill closed in 1857, the Glendon Iron Company began selling their iron to what was known as the Grey Forge market instead. [4] By 1846, the company was producing 7000 tons of iron per year. [3] Typically, the 25% of the raw ore being used by the Glendon Iron Company was magnetite from New Jersey and the remaining 75% was brown hematite from the nearby Williams Township. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chesapeake & Delaware Canal</span> United States historic place

The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal is a 14-mile (22.5 km)-long, 450-foot (137.2 m)-wide and 35-foot (10.7 m)-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Canal</span> Canal in New Jersey

The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a 107-mile (172 km) common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jersey to New York Harbor and New York City through its eastern terminals in Newark and on the Hudson River in Jersey City. The canal was sometimes called the Morris and Essex Canal, in error, due to confusion with the nearby and unrelated Morris and Essex Railroad.

Anthracite iron or anthracite pig iron is iron extracted by the smelting together of anthracite coal and iron ore, that is using anthracite coal instead of charcoal in iron smelting. This was an important technical advance in the late-1830s, enabling a great acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and in Europe.

<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">Lehigh Crane Iron Company</span> Defunct ronmaking firm in the Lehigh Valley, USA

The Lehigh Crane Iron Company, later renamed Crane Iron Company, was a major ironmaking firm in the Lehigh Valley from its founding in 1839 until its sale in 1899. It was based in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, and was founded by Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, who financed its development through their Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, which promoted the then-novel technique of smelting iron ore with anthracite coal. This was an important cost and energy savings technique, credited with eliminating the need for either expensive charcoal or coke producing processes and transport costs that proved central to the acceleration of the American Industrial Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Iron Company</span> American iron manufacturing firm

The Thomas Iron Company was a major iron-making firm in Hokendauqua, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania from its founding in 1854 until its decline and eventual dismantling in the early 20th century.

The Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad was built in the 1850s to transport iron ore from local mines in Lehigh and later Berks County to furnaces along the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. Originally owned by two iron companies, the railroad later became part of the Reading Company, and parts of it remain in operation today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onota, Au Train Township, Michigan</span> United States historic place

Onota was a village in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It was located on the Grand Island Bay of Lake Superior near the present-day community of Christmas about five miles (8 km) west of Munising in Alger County. The site of Onota is within the Bay Furnace Campground and Picnic Area of the Hiawatha National Forest. The remains of Bay Furnace, a blast furnace used for smelting iron, is the only extant remnant of the town. Bay Furnace was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1971.

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

The Lehigh Canal is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern regions of Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of 20 years beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton and present-day Jim Thorpe. In Easton, the canal met the Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division and Morris Canals, which allowed anthracite coal and other goods to be transported further up the U.S. East Coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.

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

Oxford Furnace is a historic blast furnace on Washington Avenue, near the intersection with Belvidere Avenue, in Oxford, Oxford Township, Warren County, New Jersey. The furnace was built by Jonathan Robeson in 1741 and produced its first pig iron in 1743. The first practical use in the United States of hot blast furnace technology took place here in 1834. The furnace was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 1977 for its significance in industry during the 19th century. It was later added as a contributing property to the Oxford Industrial Historic District on August 27, 1992.

The Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company is a defunct coal mining, iron producer and railroad company that operated in Maryland from 1835 to 1863.

<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.

The Medway and its tributaries and sub-tributaries have been used for over 1,150 years as a source of power. There are over two hundred sites where the use of water power is known. These uses included corn milling, fulling, paper making, iron smelting, pumping water, making gunpowder, vegetable oil extraction, and electricity generation. Today, there is just one watermill working for trade. Those that remain have mostly been converted. Such conversions include a garage, dwellings, restaurants, museums and a wedding venue. Some watermills are mere derelict shells, lower walls or lesser remains. Of the majority, there is nothing to be seen. A large number of tributaries feed into the River Medway. The tributaries that powered watermills will be described in the order that they feed in. The mills are described in order from source to mouth. Left bank and right bank are referred to as though the reader is facing downstream. This article covers the watermills on the tributaries that feed in below Penshurst and above Yalding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eylesbarrow mine</span> Disused tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England

Eylesbarrow mine was a tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England that was active during the first half of the 19th century. In its early years it was one of the largest and most prosperous of the Dartmoor tin mines, along with Whiteworks and the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines. Its name has several variant spellings, such as Eylesburrow, Ailsborough, Ellisborough, Hillsborough etc. It was also known as Wheal Ruth for a short period around 1850. The extensive remains lie to the north of the River Plym, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Drizzlecombe, on the southern shoulder of the hill called Eylesbarrow on top of which are two prominent Bronze Age barrows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josiah White</span>

Josiah White (1781–1850) was a Pennsylvania industrialist and key figure in the American Industrial Revolution.

Resolution was an early beam engine, installed between 1781 and 1782 at Coalbrookdale as a water-returning engine to power the blast furnaces and ironworks there. It was one of the last water-returning engines to be constructed, before the rotative beam engine made this type of engine obsolete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catasauqua Creek</span> River

Catasauqua Creek is an ENE–SSW oriented creek draining 6.6 miles (10.6 km) from springs of the Blue Mountain barrier ridge several miles below the Lehigh Gap in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians located upriver and opposite from Allentown in Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company</span> Iron mining and smelting company

The British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company (BTCIC) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated from 1874 to 1878 in Northern Tasmania, Australia. It was formed by floating the operations of a private company, the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company that operated between 1871 and 1874.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New River Railroad</span> Railroad in Virginia, U.S.

The New River Railroad was founded as the New River Mining and Railroad Company on May 24, 1874, at the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, in Virginia. Construction of the railroad began on September 16 at the New River Depot on the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilfracombe Iron Company</span>

The Ilfracombe Iron Company (I.I.C.) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated in Northern Tasmania in 1873 and 1874. The company's operations included a blast furnace, ore mine, water wheel, village, and jetty. The I.I.C. rebuilt a disused timber-haulage tramway, terminating at Ilfracombe—now the southern part of modern-day Beauty Point—which it extended at both ends to reach its iron ore mine and its jetty. The ruin of its blast furnace is significant, as one of the only three such ruins of 19th-Century iron-smelting blast furnaces in Australia and the only one in Tasmania. It is the only remaining ruin—in Australia—of a 19th-Century blast furnace that had an iron shell.

References

  1. Francis Cabot Lowell (1803-1874) Papers , retrieved September 10, 2013
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 National Canal Museum (2005), Glendon Iron Company, archived from the original on October 14, 2013, retrieved September 4, 2013
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Glendon , retrieved September 4, 2013
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Lance Metz (June 13, 1993), Rise And Fall Of Glendon Iron , retrieved September 6, 2013
  5. 1 2 Karen Samuels, THE BOROUGH OF GLENDON. , retrieved September 10, 2013
  6. New Jersey. State Centennial Board (1877), Report of the New Jersey Commissioners on the Centennial Exhibition , retrieved September 10, 2013