The history of the development of the steel industry in Baltimore and vicinity / John M. Leach.

THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT

OF THE STEEL INDUSTRY IN

BALTIMORE AND VICINITY

John M. Leach

INTRODUCTION

The value of iron from a philosophic standpoint and
its status in our present civilization can be best determined
by visualizing a world entirely devoid of any iron or steel
creations. Such a condition would denote a period many
thousands of years removed from our own. It merely serves
as ample proof of the statement, iron is the backbone of
civilization. Because of its versatility it creates industry
thereby producing wealth which is the tool of advancement.

This thesis is a short history of the development
of the steel industry in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland.
As all other industries it did not develop^ suddenly but
gradually as the demand arose. Every incident connected
herein will not be related, but an effort was made to
emphasize the outstanding conditions and influences which
caused the birth and growth of the industry in this vicinity.

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HISTORY

EARLY PERIOD

Captain John Smith is credited with being the first
man to discover iron ore in the vicinity of Baltimore. In 1608
while sailing up the Patapsco River he discovered ore which
looked to be rich in iron. Two barrels were sent to England
for analysis by him later in the same year, but whether they
were Maryland or Virginia ore and the results of the analysis
are not recorded.,

Plantagenet became interested in a superficial iron
deposit in 1648. This was a bog ore deposit of a type which
waB numerous over the entire Eastern Shore. However the
art of iron manufacture did not develope at a very early
date despite an effort on the part of the Legislature to
turn the industry of the colonies into iron channels in 1681
by imposing a duty on iron export. The Assembly further
encouraged the industry a short time later by offering a
grant of one hundred acres with certain limitations to any-
one who would errect a furnace for the reduction of iron ore.

COLONIAL PERIOD

The first works of which a record is known was

located at North East and was mentioned in a deed of 1716,

It was probably a bloomary. Doubtless other blooraarys

were in operation at the time as Maryland and Virginia

together exported 3 tons 7 c. w. t. to Englaii in 1718.
PR INC I PI COMPANY

In 1722 an English iron master began the erection

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of a furnace at Talbots Manor in Cecil County. The Principio
Company consisting of Joshua Gee, William Russell and John
Rouston absorbed this furnace and also consolidated with
John Onion and Company. During the same year the Principio
Company purchased three hundred eighty three acres in Lord
BaltimoreB Manor of North East. There was a falls at North
East having a twenty-five foot head which made it particular-
ly desirable for a furnace site as the water furnished power
for the blowers. A forge wae erected in 1735 at the foot of
the falls. The ore used by this forge was dug about fifty
miles from North Hast and conveyed by small ore boats to the
forge. The ore was gray and white in color and contained
about 50% iron. Good order and efficient management was
maintained in the Company by John England who was in charge
at the time. Ore for the furnaces and forges was later
obtained at Gorsuck's Point on the eastern shore of the
Patapsco River opposite Port McHenry, and still later at
Whetstone Point. The lease at Whetstone Point was three-
hundred pounds sterling and twenty pounds current money of
Maryland. Kingsbury Furnace at Herring Run on Baclc River
was next acquired by the company. It was built in 1744-45
and the first blast ran from April to December 1745 during
which time four hundred eighty tons of pig iron were pro-
duced. The first four blasts from 1745 to 1751 produced
three thousand eight hundred fifty three tons or about
seventy- five tons per working month. Three thousand three
hundred tons of this iron was shipped to England.

MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

WM. BULLOCK CLARK, STATE GEOLOGIST

2D 40

A.liwn^U f.irh-fli

THE. LOCATION OF TH El PRINCIPAL IRON ORE DEPOSITS

IN THE VICINITY OF BALTIMORE

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The Lancashire Furnace was next purchased from
Dr. Charles Carroll of Annapolis in 1851* It was located
near Kingsbury. The deed called for eight thousand two
hundred acres and was signed by Lawrence Washigton, a
half brother to George Washington. The Principio Company
had built a furnace for George Washington's father at
Accokeek in hfaryfand. Lawrence Washington had succeeded to
his father's interest and was in this way connected with the
company. The Lancashire Furnace was in operation up until
the time of the Revolution and was the last acquisition of
the company in America,

The Principio Company was the largest of its time,
being in direct control of four furnaces and two forges at
the outbreak of the "Revolution. In 1780 the Maryland
Assembly passed an act to confiscate all British property
whithin the state which marked the formal end of the Principio
Company.

OTHER COLONIAL PURNAC5S

A furnace which is credited with being the second
in the state was erected at the mouth of Gwynns Palls on land
belonging to John Moale in 1723. The Maryland Legislature
proposed to lay out a town on surrounaing ground which met
with vigorous protests .from John Moale as he considered the
ore on the land worth more than a town site. The founding of
Baltimore City was thereby delayed and the site changed some-
what. Old Joppa was at that time the leading town of the
province .

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About two and a half miles north of Towson a
furnace known as Northampton was built about 1760. Thie
furnace operated seventy years on a single deposit of
brown ore.

By the outbreak of the Revolution Maryland had
constructed seventeen furnaces and eighteen forges.
England had at first discouraged the iron industry in the
colonies as she was afraid of draining her own industry.
Near the middle of the eighteenth centruy she realized
that it was cheaper to brng her imported iron in through
the colonies tax free, than to pay high taxes on Swedish
and other foreign iron. Consequently the industry in the
colonies received encouragement and a ready market in
England. Iron was the leading industry of the state
during the Colonial period with the possible exception of
the western end. This section did not develope its iron
resources until after the Colonial period. Towards the
close of the period Maryland and Virginia combined were
exporting more than two thousand five hundred tons of pig
iron yearly to England. Catoctin Furnace in Frederick
County, constructed in 1774 was the last to be built
prior to the war.

REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

During the Revolution the furnaces of Maryland
furnished America with cannon and munitions. Utilizing ore
that had been used to supply Virginia furnaces earlier in

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the century. The pig iron from Ridgely's furnace was in
particular demand by the gun makers of Massachusetts as
it was reputed to be the best in the state. This was the
Northampton Furnace in Baltimore County.

A few words concerning the type of furnace used
during this period and the manner of operation will be
appropriate at this time. The furnaces were at beat very
crude affairs. Charcoal was the only fuel used to reduce
the ore. The furnaces were very small compared to the
present day blast furnaces and were very wasteful of
energy. Several waterwheels were often required to operate
one furnace. Each waterwheel operated one bellows. Very
little was known regarding the chemical reactions within
the furnace. Consequently very little control over the
quality of the finished product was maintained. The stand-
ardization of the iron depended principally on the uniformity
of the ore.

NINETEENTH CENTURY

During the period 1780 - 1830 only seven furnaces
were built in the state and four of these were in the western
part.

Thomas Russell built a furnace at North East in 1802
which was in operation for four years. The furnace did not
prove as profitable as had been anticipated so it was discon-
tinued upon the death of Russell in 1306. Whittaker Furnace
was build in 1310. The iron from the furace was used for
making shovels. It was later bought by Horace Abbott

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who used the iron for making steamboat shafts. Gunpowder
Falls, below Eranklinville was the site of the furnace.
It waB abandoned prior to the Civil War. The Joppa iron
works were built by J. W. and E. B. Patterson in 1920.

The Avelon iron works were located about a half
mile from the Relay House on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. It was erected by several members of the Dorsey
family about J.7S5. It made nails and bar iron and later
on rolled rails. It closed down about 1860.

A rolling mill was built about five miles north
of Elkton on the Big Elk River in 1810 on the site of the
copper workB which were active before the Revolution. Its
chief product was sheet iron and it remained in operation
until about 1860.

The era of furnace building was between 1830 and
1855. This is considered the most important period in the
history of the Maryland Iron Industry. The Joppa iron works
were rebuilt in 1851, It consisted of six puddling furnaces
and one heating furnace, two trains of rolls, thirty-seven
nail machines and one hammer. Thie was one of the largest
furnaces in the state at the time and it remained in operation
until 1860. Stephen Onion withdrew from the Principio Com-
pany soon after its formation and started a furnace of his
own. The Jootjs iron works were probably built over the site
of the old Stephen Onion iron works. The Yohogany iron works
were built at Friendeville on Bear Creek in 1834. A furnace
was built on theEaetern Shore about five miles from Snow Hill

A.HWli ^ C' a _ LWh. R*llir, 1 , > r».

LOCATION Of FURNACES IN THE VICINlTr OF BALTIMORE

i
x

3

s

6
7

ASHLAWD
CEDAR POINT
CHESAPEAKE
CUKTL5 CfcEEK

ELBA

ELM FSIDGE
GUNPOWDC R.

8 GWVNNS FALLS

3 HARTFO/tD

/O J OP PA

fj Kl NGS&uf&Y

JZ LA 6R-AW6E

/3 LAVS EL

/* LEGH

'<" LOCI/5T G HOVE.

16 MAH.Y LANO

IT *MARYL AND STEELC&XG f£OU 6H AND EEADir

/g MUIRKJRK

19 NA5SAVVAW60

Z» NORTHAMPTON

Zl ORE.&0N

2Z PATAPSCO

23 PATUXENT

1* PfllNCI PIO

OS R.I/SSELL

27 SARAH

28 SAVAGE

29 STJCKNCV

30 WW tT TAKER

* NOW BETHUHfM STEEL COMPANY

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in 1830 by Mark Richards. It used "bog ore yielding only
28% iron. Its annual production four years later was
seven hundred tons. It was the only furnace in the state
which used hog ore exclusively. In 1840 it was bought by
T. A. Spence who called it Kassawango. A bloomary which
utilized bog ore was located near Federalsburg but was
later abandoned. The iron resources of the western part
of the state were now being developed much more rapidly
then before. In 1837 a furnace was built at Lonaconing
near Frostburg by the George* b Creek Coal and Iron Com-
pany. It was fifty feet high and fourteen and one half
feet wide at the boshes. Cose was to be used as fuel in
nlace of charcoal. The Mount Savage Iron Company started
another furnace but never completed it. The use of coke
in refining iron by the western part of the state no doubt
detracted from the industry in the eastern part as iron was
produced cheaper by coke than by charcoal. The Mount Sav-
age rolling mill was built in 1843 as a rail mill and the
following year it rolled the first "U* pattern iron rails
to be rolled in the United States weighing forty-two pounds
to the yard. Thus two of the highest honors in connection
with the American iron trade goes to Alleghany County
Maryland. That of building the first successful furnace for
the use of coke and the rolling of the first heavy rails.
A furnace called Lena was erected at Cumberland in 1846. It
used charcoal at first and later coke but soon was abandoned.

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Locust Grove furnace web built in 1844 by Robert Howard
near Stemmer Run. It orodwced twelve hundred Beventy-
seven tons of pig iron in 1851 and was discontinued in
1885. Ashland Furnace was built in 1837 to use the ores
from the Oregon ore banks. This furnace was in operation
until the early eighties, Oregon Furnace was built in
1849 but was soon abandoned as the Ashland Furnace could
make pig iron cheaper. Gunpowder Furnace at Gunpowder
Falls produced eleven hundred tons of foundry and forge
iron during a thirty week run in 1856. No new furnaces
were built between 1855 and 1864. 1865 to 1885 marked a
rapid decline in the iron industry in Maryland. Only
two or three new furnaces were built and twenty- seven
old ones were abandoned. Practically all of the Baltimore
County furnaces were among those closed. In 1870
Maryland was fifth in rank of the iron producing states
with an output of fifty- four thousand two hunrded four
tons of pig iron. In 1880 it was in eleventh place with
fifty-three thousand two hundred seventy-one tons of pig
iron. The other iron producing territories were stead-
ily forging ahead while Maryland was standing still.
Hinety-eight thousand three hundred fifty-four tons of
iron ore in 1870 wsb worth $600,246. or $6.10 per ton,
while in 1880, one hundred thirty-nine thousand six

hundred twenty-eight tons was worth only $421,691 or
$3.02 per ton- A drop of such enormous proportions in a

space of ten years made the Maryland Ore extremely un-

PRODl/CTION OF IfcON ORE
fN MARYLAND

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1370

1890

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profitable to mine. There was however a definite cause

for such s rapid decline. The Arundle ores were used to
produce a high quality charcoal iron. This iron was so
much in demand that it brought even higher prices than
other charcoal iron. The increasing demand for this iron
rendered the supply inadequate. Consequently prices rose to
a high point. With the development of transportation, the
Lake Superior and Alabama iron mines opened with cheap ore
and coke produced iron. This was exactly what the iron
industry required. The result was that Maryland, with its
high priced ores, was left behind in the rush for cheap ores.
The introduction of the Bessemer process of producing steel
further shut of f the demand for high grade iron. In 1885 only
seven furnaces remained active within the state and two of
these closed soon after. In 1891 Principio at North East
abandoned the production of pig iron and in 1903 Catoctin
closed down. The two Stickney furnaces had closed during
1895-96 so with the exception of the Maryland Steel Company,
Muirkirk was the sole survivor at the beginning of the
twentieth century. This furnace supplied a high grade
charcoal iron having a tensile strength of forty-one thousand
pounds per square inch. Muirkirk was abandoned about 1916.
In 1911 all of the ore mined in the state was sent to outside
furnaces with the exception of Muirkirk. Renewed interest
had developed at Catoctin and in the Bachman Valley in ore

mining between 1907 * 1911 but it never reached its previous
state of production.

TABLE OF ERECTION 0? BALTIMORE COUNTY
FURNACES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDSR

FURNACE

Gwynne Falls

Stephen Onion

Kingsbury

Lancashire

Northampton

Whittaker

Pat ap sco

Ashland

Maryland

Cedar Point

Locust Grove

Chesapeake

Laurel

Gunpowder

Oregon

Sparrows Point

DATE 'ERECTED DATE APANDONED

about

about

1723
1743

1744
1744
1760
1810
1835
1837
1840
1843
1844
1845
1846
1846
1848
1889

after

about
about

about
about

1769
1780
1780
18 50
1866
1849
1880
1888
1880
1885
1882
1885
1860
1856

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SPARROWS POINT IRON WORKS

This organization , because of its present rank among
the steel manufacturing interests of the world, deserves
special mention with regard to its origin and growth.

The Pennsylvania Steel Company was operating a plant
in 1867 at Baldwin (now Steelton) Pennsylvania for the
manufacture of Bessemer steel to be used for rolling rails.
The large amount of ore needed by this and other plants,
brought about by the develpment of railroads and similar
enterprises requiring steel, rendered the supply of American
ore inadequate to the demand.

Large deposits of low phosphorous ore had been
discovered in Cuba as early as 1882 of which the Pennsylvania
Steel Company had acquired extensive interests. A factory
site for refining this ore in the United States had to be
easily reached by water and at the same time be accessible
to the West Virginia and Pennsylvania coal fields. Consider-
ing these requisites, . Sparrows Point, fourteen miles from
Baltimore, was selected as the site. This Point is adjacent
to a natural thirty-five foot channel and is also close to
the coal fields. Construction was immediately started on
four blast furnaces. It waB originally intended to ship
the pig iron from these furnaces* which were completed in
1891» to the Pennsylvania mills for rolling. The later
development of manufacturing methods required that the mills
be located near the furnaces, so later in 1891 the Maryland
Steel Company was organized under the same management as the

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Pennsylvania Steel Company.

As the plant grew and more modern methods were
adopted, new machinery was Installed. The four blast
furnaces were of the regenerative type, having four
stoves, ninety feet in height, for each furnace.

The open hearth department consisted of five, fifty
ton tilting, open hearth furnaces and the necessary cranes
for handling the metal.

The Bessemer department contained three, twenty ton
converters which were fed by ladles bearing the hot pig iron
directly from the furnaces.

In the blooming mill the ingots were passed through
thirty-six inch reversing rolls, and then twenty-eight inch
reversing rollB.and then to the different finishing machines
such as plate rolls.

There was a by product coke plant containing two
hundred ovens as well as docks for receiving coal and ore
and shipping finished steel products.

Foundries, machine shops, and a shipyard capable
of building large steel vessels were in operation.

By 1911 the average output of rails per month
was thirty-five thousand tons, which gives an estimate of
the size of the plant at that time.

In February, 1916 the entire plant and grounds
consisting of ten square miles were purchased by the
Bethlehem Steel Company. This Company has during its
twelve years of ownership expended flQQ t O00,000. for
improvements.

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The present monthly production of ingots ie one
hundred forty thousand to one hundred fifty thousand tone,
and the plant is operating at 69% capacity.

The following products are now being manufactured:
Pig Iron Coke

Rails Plates

Tin Plate Sheets, blue, black,

Pipe, Lapweld and Buttweld and galvanized
Billets Hails

Wire Sheet Ban

This Plant is the largest of itc kir^d in the state
end is one of the largest In the United States. A personnel
of ten thousand workers, occupying three shifts is main-
tained at the present.
CONCLUSION

The State of Maryland, and especially the vicinity
of Baltimore, has played no small part in the development
of the steel industry of the world. It was foremost among
the colonies to build furnaces of any size, and it now
contains the moBt modern blast furnace in the world; located
at the Bethlehem Steel Company at Sparrows Point.

The progressive trend in iron manufacture would no
doubt have placed Maryland at the head of the list of iron
producing states had it not been for interfering geological
and geographical conditions.

Lake Superior ie furnishing the creem of the ore
mined today. The rapidity with which the fields are being

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exhaunted will soon create a demand for other deposits.

Abojc 15% of the United states' supply is already-
being secured from scrap iron.

HIThen the 'ire am is gona the milk will be used. So it
is highly possible that the ore deposit© within the State of
keryland will again becowe profitable to mine g and will place
the state in a position to supply its own as well as oa^side
plant 3 with ore as in previous times.

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EIBLIOGRAPHY

The following books were used ae references for the
preparation of this thesis:

History of Iron in All Ages

Iron Ore

A Report en the Iron Ores of

Maryland

Maryland Mineral Industries

J. M. Swank

C. S. Eckel

J. T. Singswald

C. D. Wright

W. B. Clark

B. B. Mathews

The A, B. C. of Iron and Steel A. 0. Backert
Industrial Evolution of the
United States
The following men were consulted with regard to the
material for the preparation of this thesis.

Dr. E. B. Mathews Baltimore, Maryland

Dr. Prank L. Hess Washington, D. C.

Mr. Joseph B. Coster Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. C. E. Eckel Washington, D, C.

Mr. Jones Muirkirk, Maryland