John Winthrop Jr. Iron Furnace Site | |
Nearest city | Quincy, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°14′44.8″N71°1′37.5″W / 42.245778°N 71.027083°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1644 |
NRHP reference No. | 77000192 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 20, 1977 |
The John Winthrop Jr. Iron Furnace Site is a historic archaeological site at 61 Crescent Street, Quincy, Massachusetts. The site is called Braintree Furnace in some texts; the West Quincy location at the time of operation was in a part of Braintree, Massachusetts, that later became Quincy. [2] [3] Its importance lies in the fact that it was the first iron blast furnace established in what would become the United States. [4] Furnace Brook, a stream which begins on the eastern slopes of the Blue Hills and meanders for about four miles from southwest to northeast through the middle of Quincy toward Quincy Bay, was named for the works site. [2]
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
During the 17th century, iron was an used to manufacture a number of indispensable goods, including nails, horseshoes, cookware, tools, and weapons. The production of iron required a complex manufacturing process, which was not available during the early years of the North American colonization. Thus, all of the colonists iron goods had to be imported. As it took at least two months to sail to the nearest foundry, iron goods were very expensive. [5]
John Winthrop the Younger wanted to establish an iron works in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He believed that because the colonies had a cheap and abundant supply of raw materials, an iron works in Massachusetts could produce goods that could be sold profitably in the New England and Chesapeake Colonies as well as in England. In 1639, Winthrop sailed to England to get the capital he needed to fund the project. [5] The Company of Undertakers for the Iron Workes [sic] in New England was founded to finance the venture. [6] Winthrop selected Braintree as the location of the first iron furnace. Construction began in 1644 and was completed in 1645. [7] On October 15, 1645, Winthrop secured the Undertakers an exemption from taxes and a 21-year monopoly on iron production from the Massachusetts General Court. [5]
The Braintree iron furnace, however, was unsuccessful due to a lack of iron ore in the area and an inadequate supply of water to power the machinery. [5] The furnace shut down in 1647, not long after the Saugus Iron Works was completed. [7]
Several workers from the Braintree Furnace would go on to establish iron works in other locations. In the 1650s, James Leonard would help establish the Taunton Iron Works on the Two Mile River in Taunton, Massachusetts. His brother Henry Leonard would return to Saugus for a while before establishing a new works at Rowley in 1668. He would later move to New Jersey with his sons where several other works were built. [8] Ralph Russell, another ironmaster from Braintree moved to Dartmouth where he set up a forge at what became known as Russells Mills, on the Paskamanset River.
Quincy is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 101,636, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. Known as the "City of Presidents", Quincy is the birthplace of two U.S. presidents—John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams—as well as John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first and third governor of Massachusetts.
Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America.
Bog iron is a form of impure iron deposit that develops in bogs or swamps by the chemical or biochemical oxidation of iron carried in solution. In general, bog ores consist primarily of iron oxyhydroxides, commonly goethite.
John Winthrop the Younger was an early governor of the Connecticut Colony, and he played a large role in the merger of several separate settlements into the unified colony.
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks.
Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is a National Historic Site about 10 miles northeast of Downtown Boston in Saugus, Massachusetts. It is the site of the first integrated ironworks in North America, founded by John Winthrop the Younger and in operation between 1646 and approximately 1670. It includes the reconstructed blast furnace, forge, rolling mill, shear, slitter and a quarter-ton trip hammer.
The Iron Act, also called the Importation, etc. Act 1749, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which was one of the legislative measures introduced within the system of Trade and Navigation Acts. The Act sought to increase the importation of pig and bar iron from its American colonies and to prevent the building of iron-related production facilities within these colonies, particularly in North America where these raw materials were identified. The dual purpose of the Act was to increase manufacturing capacity within Great Britain itself, and to limit potential competition from the colonies possessing the raw materials.
Falling Creek Ironworks was the first iron production facility in North America. It was established by the Virginia Company of London in Henrico Cittie (sic) on Falling Creek near its confluence with the James River. It was short-lived due to an attack by Native Americans in 1622.
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.
Principio Furnace and village is in Cecil County, Maryland, 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Havre de Grace.
The Old Colony Iron Works-Nemasket Mills Complex is a historic industrial site located on Old Colony Avenue in the East Taunton section of Taunton, Massachusetts, United States, adjacent to the Taunton River at the Raynham town line. The site was first occupied by the Old Colony Iron Company, which had originally been established in the 1820s as Horatio Leonard & Company. The western part of the complex was sold to Nemasket Mills in 1889. The eastern part was acquired by the Standard Oil Cloth Company. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Thomas Baylies was a Quaker ironmaster first in England, then in Massachusetts.
Furnace Brook Parkway is a historic parkway in Quincy, Massachusetts. Part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston, it serves as a connector between the Blue Hills Reservation and Quincy Shore Reservation at Quincy Bay. First conceived in the late nineteenth century, the state parkway is owned and maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and travels through land formerly owned by the families of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, passing several historic sites. It ends in the Merrymount neighborhood, where Quincy was first settled by Europeans in 1625 by Captain Richard Wollaston. The road was started in 1904, completed in 1916 and added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2004.
Tobias Saunders was a Deputy to the Rhode Island General Assembly, a Conservator of the Peace and a founding settler of Westerly, Rhode Island.
The Taunton Iron Works was located on the banks of the Forge River in what is now Raynham, Massachusetts. It was the first iron works established in Plymouth Colony, and only the third in New England. Much more successful than earlier works at Saugus, and Braintree, it operated for a remarkable period of two hundred and twenty years, from 1656 to 1876.
Robert Child (1613–1654) was an English physician, agriculturalist and alchemist. A recent view is that his approach to agriculture belongs to the early ideas on political economy.
Richard Leader (1609–1661) was an English businessman who was the first manager of the Saugus Iron Works, the first integrated ironworks in North America. He later engaged in business in Maine and Barbados.
Roland Wells Robbins (1908–1987) was an American archaeologist, author, and historian who is known for discovering the site of Henry David Thoreau's house at Walden Pond. His other discoveries include the Saugus Iron Works and the John and Priscilla Alden Family Sites.
Joseph Jenckes Jr., also spelled Jencks and Jenks, was the founder of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he erected a forge in 1671.
Joseph Jenckes Sr., also spelled Jencks and Jenks, was a bladesmith, blacksmith, mechanic, and inventor who was instrumental in establishing the Saugus Iron Works in Massachusetts Bay Colony where he was granted the first machine patent in North America.