State

Early Iron elting Or. («iMlgcr outlines some interesting fnets pertaining to the existence of iron works in tin* ancient anil now forgotten town of Averasboro. By E. W. GIJDGER OMRTIME ago, there appeared in Tub St.vtk a series of article*, bearing the florid title, “Dreams of Empire,” purporting to give the story of the founding of extensive iron works at the extinrt town of Averns- boro on the Cape Fear River. Having some small knowledge of the geology of North Carolina, the whole thing looked preposterous to me. Rut seek* ing for more exact information. I turned to the Encyclopedia Лтепгапп and in vol. 15 ( 1936) on page 372 I found the following statement in an article entitled "Iron and Steel In¬ dustry in the United States." “Iron works were probably built in North Carolina previous to 1730 near the coa»t in the neighborhood of ling- ore deposit*. It is certain that iron works were in operation in that State before the Revolution. The following may be mentioned : furnace and iron works on Peep Run; iron works in Guilford County, including the Troublesome Forge, and the Buffalo Creek Furnace; two furnaces, four forges and two hloomnries in Lincoln County, etc. Practically all these works as well ns those built later have now been abandoned.” How the Controversy Started Now it is noticeable that there is no mention of iron works at Averasboro. and so I wrote a letter to Тпк Statk and criticised pretty sharply various statements in those previous communi¬ cations. However, the author of “Dreams of Empire” has by letter t<* ine made certain allegations, which if set forth in his “pieces” in place of such "fine writing" as “sad eyed Slo¬ vak pick and shovel artists." etc., would have given at least some veri¬ similitude to what he wrote. This, he unfortunately did not do. Furthermore this writer answered my criticism by calling mo a “critic," a “skeptic" and several other names - every one of which was correct. The more fact that a thing is printed in a book or quoted from a would-be authority means nothing to me. I have read too many books and run too many “authorities” to earth. I wish to know why a man is an au¬ thority; what he has done to estab¬ lish himself as such. lint when I road that the author of this huge article in the Encyelo- Ptdia Americana was Albert Sauveur. ro feasor of Metallurgy nt Harvard University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I knew that 1 had found the authority. The "Bloomarics” The “hloomnries” referred to were small open-hearth furnaces in which iron ore and coal, or more likely char¬ coal were charged. Tin- blast was sup¬ plied by a water wheel operating a bellows, or the bellows луп* worked by band. When the ore wa* reduced, the “Ы«>отп" of iron луп* placed on an anvil and impurities were driven out by trip-hammers operated by a water wheel or else лгеге hammered out and the iron shaped into crude bars by men swinging sledge hammers. Tn Haywood County in mv early boy¬ hood such iron was peddled to the blacksmiths by itinerant dealers who hauled it in wagons from Cherokee County in North Carolina, and from Tennessee. Such crude bars always had nt one end a mn<* shaped like a flattened potato— the remain? of the Idoom. Such was our main source of iron in our mountain countv in the early 1870’s. Rut T wanted still further informa¬ tion on iron smelting in North Caro- In Raleigh, it's olwoys THE SIR WALTER More than о hotel — A North I Corolino institution Finest accommodations Air-conditioned Coffee Shop The center of everything - = line am! a- Professor Sauveur had indicated that his chief authority was James M. Swank whose encyclopedic work, “History of the Manufacture of Iron in all Ages, and Particularly in the United States from Colonial Times to 1801." was published in sec¬ ond edition at Philadelphia in 1802 by The American Iron and Steel In¬ stitute. Here then it seemed was tin- last word on this subject. So I bor¬ rowed the book and here is what I have found a* to “Iron Smelting in North Carolina”: Several small iron works were oper¬ ating before the Revolution on the upper tributaries of the Dan, Cape Fear, and Yadkin Rivers. One John Wilcox had a furnace on Deep Run. There were others in Guilford County probaldv on the same stream. Wilcox and the furnace? in Guilford are said to have manufactured some iron nt the behest of the provincial congress for easting ordnance and shot. There was also a furnace nt this time on Buffalo Creek not far from Kings Mountain. Prior to 1800, Swank says that there were also in operation sev¬ eral furnace? and forges in Lincoln County— one on Anderson’s Creek, built in 1780 and operate*! down to 1873. Around Danbury there was in those early days a bloomarv on Snow Creek and. because ore was found near there, other forges wore built on this creek. Another was built on Rig Creek, another on Town Fork. Another made iron on Tom’s Creek in Surry County, and in this county other forges лгеге built near the Yadkin. In Wilkes there was a forge on Troublesome Creek. And in Burke three bloomarie? were built before the close of the 1700’s. In hi* chapter “The Manufacture of Iron in North Carolina." there is not a single word as to blast furnaces, bloomarie* or forges at old Averas- boro on the Cape Fear. Had there been any records of such Swank would pretty surely have dug them up and put them in his encyclopedic work. The Averasboro iron works would seem to be a “Carolina solar myth” as Mr. Kipling would have put it. 39 i