From the source: Singewald,
Joseph Theophilus. The Iron Ores of
Maryland: with an account of the iron industry ... Baltimore: 1911 -
Furnaces & foundries
Elkridge
Furnace.—The Elkridge furnace was situated on the Patapsco River, a half mile
east of Elkridge Station. The site is still marked by the ruins of the stack, a
photograph of which is shown on Plate X, Figure 1. On November 3, 1755, Caleb
Dorsey, Alexander Lawson, and Edward Dorsey, of Annapolis, were granted a
patent on one hundred acres at Elkridge, on a run of the Patapsco, near C.
Dorsey's house. They paid £300 damages in currency. A furnace and forge were
erected here which were in operation before 1759. At Elkridge Landing, a Dr. Howard owned a
tilting forge in 1783, which was probably on the same site as this furnace.
In
1826 Andrew Ellicott, Jr., and brothers, erected a furnace on this same site, 32
feet high and 8 1/2 feet wide, with the blast driven by water-power from the
Patapsco, and a forge was still run in connection with the furnace. The annual
output was 1400 tons of pig iron, which was almost entirely produced in
castings of various kinds, principally water and gas pipes. One hundred hands
were employed at that time. In 1835 they made cast-iron water pipes for the
Croton Water Works of New York.
This
furnace was rebuilt in 1854, and operated by the Great Falls Iron
Company. It was a steam and water hot-blast charcoal furnace, 32 feet high and
9 1/2 feet wide at the boshes; and in thirty weeks in 1857, made 1564 tons of
forge iron for Baltimore, Wheeling, and the Avalon Works above Relay. During
the Civil War, it was leased by Brooks and Moore. After the War, it was run by
James P. Ellicott, and later by Howard Brown until 1872, when it was finally
abandoned.
Savage
Furnaces.—The Savage furnaces were on the north bank of the Little Patuxent River,
at Savage, to the west of the present cotton-duck mill. Two furnaces were
erected here about 1835 by the Savage Manufacturing Company, but a foundry had
been in operation on the site for some time before. They were run but a short
time, as Lesley says they had been out of blast for twenty years in 1859, and
that a cupola furnace there was never used, and was then in dilapidated
condition.
A
furnace and foundry was again operated from 1864 to 1866, by John Burroughs,
and after that until 1874 by Thomas Fairall, when the works were abandoned. The
foundry made a specialty of all kinds of machinery.
Carbonate ore sites
Howard
County. All the carbonate ores that have been worked in Howard County, with the
exception of one locality near Bridewell, are in the vicinity of Hanover, and
form but a part of an area, the greater portion of which lies in Anne Arundel
County, which has been one of the greatest sources of these ores.
Haslup
Ore Bank [186].—Three-quarters of a mile west of Bridewell, on the farm of Mr.
Lewis Haslup, is an area about 100 yards in diameter, from which ore was taken.
Work was begun here about 1865, when the ore was hauled to the Savage furnace;
later, it was shipped to Baltimore and to Muirkirk. This deposit was last
worked about fifteen years ago by Mr. Thomas King, on a royalty of 50c. per
ton. He went to a depth of thirty feet, and except near the surface obtained
"white ore."
Scaggs
Ore Bank.—Adjoining the Haslup Bank, on the property of Mrs. Scaggs, is an
opening 100 by 40 feet, which was worked at the same time.
Talbott
Ore Bank [187].—At the west end of West Elkridge, on the north side of the
Washington Road, is a large opening 300 feet wide extending back from the road
for a distance of 500 feet. No work has been done here since 1870; but before
that time, when it was in the hands of Jefferson Talbott, this bank was worked
extensively on royalties of from 50c. to 70c. per ton. The bank was opened in
the first half of the nineteenth century, when the property belonged to the
Tysons.
Brooks
Ore Bank [188].—One-half mile north of Hanover, on property now owned by a Mr.
Bedford, is an old opening formerly worked by George W. Hobbs, which is 300
feet long, 200 feet wide and 30 feet deep.
A
quarter of a mile southwest of this point are two small openings, 25 feet in
diameter, from which paint ore was taken about eight years ago by Mr. Robert
Wilson. These are only about six feet deep as the bed of paint ore occurs near
the surface, and fragments in the soil give it a bright red color.
Hobbs
Ore Banks [189].—There are several large openings on the property of the heirs
of George Hobbs, three-quarters of a mile southwest of Hanover. The largest two
are on Deep Run. One of these has a width of 200 to 300 feet, and extends back
from the run for a distance of about 800 feet, with a depth of 50 feet or more.
The ore was chiefly "white ore," many nodules of which are still
exposed in the bottom and cropping out on the sides. Immediately adjoining this
opening on the east is another, 150 feet in diameter; and a hundred yards to
the northeast is a third, 300 by 100 feet and 25 feet deep. There were also a
number of smaller openings on this property. These banks were formerly worked
very extensively, and as high as fifty to sixty men are said to have worked
there at one time; but nothing has been done during the last twenty years.
Brown
Ore Banks [190].—One-half mile south of Hanover, are two large banks, which
formerly belonged to the Great Falls Iron Company, and later to Howard Brown,
when they were worked on a royalty by various operators until about 1890. These
banks are described in the Tenth Census, at which time they were in operation.
The easterly opening1 extends from the west bank of Deep Run a distance of 600
feet to the west, is 100 feet wide, and from 20 to 50 feet deep. At the time of
the Census Report it was operated by Mitchell, Wilson, and Riley. The following
section was then exposed: 5 to 8 feet of soil, sand, and gravel; 5 to 15 feet
of light brown, somewhat siliceous clay, containing nodules of carbonate ore of
the same color as the clay, and also somewhat siliceous; and below that, a drab
gray plastic clay, with nodules of white or light gray carbonate ore, of very
fine texture, without the siliceous appearance of the nodules of the upper
part.
The
nodules of the lower bed yielded 37.87 per cent. Fe and .063 per cent. P.,
those of the upper bed 36.17 per cent. Fe and .049 per cent. P.
The
other opening lies one hundred yards to the southwest and extends 500 feet
along a north-south strike. It is 200 feet wide and 50 to 75 feet deep. The
thickness of the various beds is quite different in different parts of the
mine. The following section is given for this opening: 5 to 10 feet of yellowish
sand, and yellow and white quartz gravel; 5 to 10 feet of red, somewhat sandy
clay; Tenth Census, 1880, Vol. XV, p. 253.
©2017 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD
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