Woodstock Iron Works

Last updated September 20, 2019

The Woodstock Iron Works ran from 1848 to 1884 and was located in what is now Upper Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada. In its prime, the iron ore that came from the works was thought to be some of the highest quality ore. The Iron works was closed in 1884 due to increased competition from the United States.

Woodstock is a town in Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada on the Saint John River, 103 km upriver from Fredericton at the mouth of the Meduxnekeag River. It is near the Canada–United States border and Houlton, Maine and the intersection of Interstate 95 and the Trans-Canada Highway making it a transportation hub. It is also a service centre for the potato industry and for more than 26,000 people in the nearby communities of Hartland, Florenceville-Bristol, Centreville, Bath, Meductic, and Canterbury for shopping, employment and entertainment.

Iron ore ore rich in iron or the element Fe

Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe^₃O^₄, 72.4% Fe), hematite (Fe^₂O^₃, 69.9% Fe), goethite (FeO(OH), 62.9% Fe), limonite (FeO(OH)·n(H₂O), 55% Fe) or siderite (FeCO₃, 48.2% Fe).

An ironworks or iron works is a building or site 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.

Discovery

While there were suggestions that settlers around the Woodstock area had recognized iron deposits in the surrounding landscape in approximately 1820, it was not until sixteen years later in 1836 that Dr. Jackson of Boston, who was on a geological survey conducted by the state of Maine, confirmed the presence of iron ore.^[1] The ore was immediately recognized as high quality with great potential. Dr. Jackson allegedly identified it as a compact red haematite, the mineral form of iron that can range in colours from black and silver to red. The ore was said to be able to produce a yield of 44 percent pure iron or 50 percent cast iron, and one cubic foot of the iron would weigh approximately 200 pounds.^[1] Surveyors speculated that there was roughly 45,000,000 cubic feet of ore, which translated into about 225,000,000 pounds worth of iron that could be mined from the area.^[1]

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States, as well as the 21st most populous city in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km²) with an estimated population of 694,583 in 2018, making it also the most populous city in New England. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States.

A geological survey is the systematic investigation of the geology beneath a given piece of ground for the purpose of creating a geological map or model. Geological surveying employs techniques from the traditional walk-over survey, studying outcrops and landforms, to intrusive methods, such as hand augering and machine-driven boreholes, to the use of geophysical techniques and remote sensing methods, such as aerial photography and satellite imagery. Such surveys may be undertaken by state, province, or national geological survey organizations to maintain the geological inventory and advance the knowledge of geosciences for the benefit of the nation. A geological survey map typically superimposes the surveyed extent and boundaries of geological units on a topographic map, together with information at points and lines. The maps and reports created by geological survey organisations generally aim for geographic continuity and completeness in establishing the spatial patterns of near-surface rock units. The map may include cross sections to illustrate the three-dimensional interpretation. Subsurface geological and geophysical maps, providing limited coverage of deeper geology, are maintained internally by major oil companies and regulators. Some geological survey organisations have collaborated with them to include subsurface geology in their systematic surveys, for example, the Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Subsurface maps typically depict the three-dimensional form of geological surfaces by means of contours and cross sections. Computer-based models are increasingly used to provide more comprehensive information storage and greater flexibility of presentation. In the United States, the 50 state surveys are coordinated by the Association of American State Geologists.

Maine is the northernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Maine is the 12th smallest by area, the 9th least populous, and the 38th most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. It is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Québec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. Maine is the only state to border just one other state, is the easternmost among the contiguous United States, and is the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes.

Mining Company

In 1837, local residents petitioned the provincial government asking to incorporate a mining company in order to harvest and explore the economic potential of the ore.^[2] It took the provincial government ten years of study and examining until the York and Carleton Mining Company Bill was passed, thus permitting the company (The Woodstock Charcoal Iron Company) owned by Mr. Norris Best and Mr. Ellis Smith^[1] to construct roads and obtain woodland among other necessities in order to create and maintain a functioning iron works. Then in 1848 the first of two blast furnaces was erected on the western bank of the Saint John River near the mouth of Lanes Creek. The first furnace was thirty seven feet in height and thirty three feet wide at its base being constructed of sandstone. The crucible, which is where the ore was melted, was three feet six inches by four feet and was six feet high, the capacity of this first furnace was approximately seven tons per day, later on a smaller second furnace was constructed which had a production capacity of around five and a half tons per day.^[1] The main fuel of the blast furnaces was hardwood charcoal, which was obtained from local wood lots mainly consisting of maple, birch and beech trees. There were ten charcoal kilns located on the premises of the iron works and each had an approximate capacity of seventy five cord of wood which would yield between 2,800 and 3,200 bushels of charcoal. It took three tons of ore to produce one ton of "pig" Iron, which is the most basic form of processed iron, and one hundred and twenty six bushels of charcoal were required to produce one ton of the pig iron the annual capacity of pig iron produced was 2150 tonnes, which was enough to plate two naval frigates from the time period. The Dispatch, a local paper in 1898, stated that in 1864 12,000 cords of wood were used in the production of iron in Woodstock, this was enough wood to have cleared four hundred acres of woodland.^[3]

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized mineral particles or rock fragments.

A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles historically were usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents.

Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood contrasts with softwood.

Employment

The mines employed roughly seventy five men in the mines and at the furnaces, ten to twelve teams of men and horses were employed hauling ore to the furnaces, using wagons in the summer and sleds in the winter months. The iron works further generated employment by employing over one hundred and fifty men to harvest wood and another sixty teams of horses and men to haul the wood to the charcoal kilns in order to be processed.^[3] In addition to these employees, more workers were used to transport the finished product to Richmond station to be shipped to Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, loaded onto schooners then sailed to Saint John, New Brunswick, and then from there shipped to England.

Saint John is a port city on the Bay of Fundy in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The port is Canada’s third largest port by tonnage with a cargo base that includes dry and liquid bulk, break bulk, containers, and cruise. In 2016, after more than 40 years of population decline, the city became the second most populous city in the province for the first time, with a population of 67,575 over an area of 315.82 km² (121.94 sq mi). Greater Saint John covers a land area of 3,362.95 km² (1,298.44 sq mi) across the Caledonia Highlands, with a population of 126,202. After the partitioning of the colony of Nova Scotia in 1784, the new colony of New Brunswick was thought to be named 'New Ireland' with the capital to be in Saint John before being vetoed by George III. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada. During the reign of George III, the municipality was created by royal charter in 1785.

Quality

The quality of iron from the Woodstock mines was world-renowned in its day as being one of the best quality irons available of the time. During the first provincial exhibition held in Saint John in 1851 the report issued from the commissioners stated that the Woodstock iron appeared to be of top quality having bent and twisted the iron, while cold, in multiple directions there was no visible damage to the fiber. The most famed tale of Woodstock`s iron and its impressive quality is that in 1865 the English Admiralty instituted several experiments at Shoeburyness England in order test the resistance of iron plate against heavy ordnance, allegedly in the trial every plate of iron was shattered by the shot fired at it, except for one triple plate made from the Woodstock iron, this piece only sustained an indent, this caused an immediate interest in the product.^[1] Several more tests followed and resulted in great success. The success of the Woodstock iron was attributed to the smelting process which allegedly allowed for more carbon to be absorbed into the final product.

Shoeburyness is a town in southeast Essex, England, at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. It is within the borough of Southend-on-Sea, situated at its far east, around 3 miles (5 km) east of Southend town centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it became part of the county borough of Southend-on-Sea. It was once a garrison town and still acts as host to MoD Shoeburyness.

Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons built to launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry's small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the large share of an army's total firepower.

Carbon Chemical element with atomic number 6

Carbon is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Three isotopes occur naturally, ¹²C and ¹³C being stable, while ¹⁴C is a radionuclide, decaying with a half-life of about 5,730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity.

Closure

In 1884, competition from newly discovered deposits in the United States paired with the increasing cost of transportation and the scarcity of fuel caused the Woodstock iron works operation to close, after having mined and smelted approximately seventy thousand tons of iron ore between its opening in 1848 and its closure in 1884.^[4]

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 New Brunswick. General Assembly. Legislative Council (April 1864). "Report on Mines and Minerals: Woodstock Iron Works". Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of New Brunswick ... . Early Canadiana Online. pp. 55–59.
↑ Henderson Miller, Maud (1940). "The Iron Works". A History of Upper Woodstock. St. John NB.: Globe Printing Co.
1 2 October 26, 1898 Upper Woodstock Iron. The Dispatch
↑ Potter R. R., 1983: The Woodstock Iron Works, Carleton County, New Brunswick. CIM Bulletin (1974) 76(853): 81-83; New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources. ISSN 0317-0926 (Subscription required.)

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[assembly-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 New Brunswick. General Assembly. Legislative Council (April 1864). "Report on Mines and Minerals: Woodstock Iron Works". Journal of the Legislative Council of the Province of New Brunswick ... . Early Canadiana Online. pp. 55–59.

[miller-2] Henderson Miller, Maud (1940). "The Iron Works". A History of Upper Woodstock. St. John NB.: Globe Printing Co.

[dispatch-3] 1 2 October 26, 1898 Upper Woodstock Iron. The Dispatch

[potter-4] Potter R. R., 1983: The Woodstock Iron Works, Carleton County, New Brunswick. CIM Bulletin (1974) 76(853): 81-83; New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources. ISSN 0317-0926 (Subscription required.)