364 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 9, 1826. 



Od^The following letter a copy of which has 

 been communicated for publication, gives a con- 

 cise history of the Iron Works first established in 

 our country. The writer is pretty generally known 

 throughout New England as a " working bee," as 

 w.ell as for his eccentricity. [Boston Patriot.] 



Canfoji, 23(£ of 2d month, 1836. 



To Dr Waterhouse : — Since the wish ex- 

 pressed in your letter of the 10th of last month 

 that in pursuing the business of my Lead Mine, I 

 might not relinquish that of Iron, and the making 

 of Steel, I have tliought it vvortli wiiile to save 

 from oblivion our family tradition of their workers 

 in Iron. 



It was not that four generations of workers in 

 Iron, which induced the late Chief Justice Par- 

 sons, to call me JVcstor Ironsides, but six genera- 

 tions. My ancestors wlio delved, dealt, and work- 

 ed in iron, came from Pontypool in England, and 

 have been in that line ever since. In the year 

 164.5, leave was obtained of the General Court, to 

 make Iron at Lynn, which was set up with good 

 aatronage, and was for a considerable time carrieo 

 on v.ith spirit, but at length foiled. The reason, 

 accor ling- to Hubbard, was, that " instead of draw- 

 ing out bars of iron for the country's use, there 

 was hammered out nothing but contention and 

 law suits," The tradition, howevf;r, h.in'led Juwn 

 by my ancestors, is, that after the furnace had 

 done considerable business, the inhabitants became 

 alarmed through fear, that the charcoal used would 

 occasion a scarcity of wood, and from that weak 

 notion arose a discontent which brpke up the busi- 

 ness. 



A few weeks afterwards Iron W^rks wore erect- 

 ed in the town of Braintree, undergood patronage 

 from England ; but after working three or four 

 years, those concerned were tauglt to believe that 

 labour was too dear in this country to make bar 

 iron to profit ; and so that worl was abandoned 

 also. About the year 16,52 a forge was erected 

 m that part of Taunton which i? now called Rayn- 

 ham, by James and Henry Leonard, wlio had some 

 Assistance from the town of Dorchester, After- 

 wards several forges were erected in Taunton, 

 Middleborough, Easton, and Bridgewater, and in 

 several other places in that quarter of the country. 

 Most of them were more or less in operation down 

 to the period of our revolutionary war ; but have 

 since rather declined. 



Within a few years past several old forges have 

 been fitted up, to make iron suitable for anchors, 

 and for drawing iron into sucli shapes as are not 

 commonly imported, but which we use in our fac- 

 tories, houses, and coasting business. 



Tliere are, if I mistake not, ten or twelve blast 

 furnaces at this time in the counties of Plymouth 

 and Bristol, and one in Norfolk. General Leach 

 seems to have the load, of late years, in the fur- 

 nace business. The iron made from hngg-urt at 

 his furnaces in Easton, and Foxborougli,is thought 

 to be softer and better than in other places for 

 machinery. Before the revolution there were 

 ihree slitting mills in this province, one or more 

 in Connecticut, and several in New Jersey and in 

 Pennsylvania. 



The making of bar-iron was carried on exten- 

 sively m the .Terseys, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts 

 and Connecticut. Even before the revolution 

 there was a sufficient quantity to supply the colo- 

 nies, and some for exportation. I .well remember 

 that it was said, that Salisbury & Livingston's 



bar-iron bore a good character and brought a high 

 price in the English market ; and that it was one 

 of those manufactories which excited jealousy in 

 the mother country. I have often thought that if 

 the digging, smelting and working of iron laid the 

 line which separates the civilized man from the 

 savage, that this government was the most civiliz- 

 ed of any in the world.* Has not our government 

 been negligent in protecting this all-important 

 branch of national industry. I expect that tliis neg- 

 lect has grown out of the late wars in Europe, 

 i which produced an unnatural state of things in 

 i this country. It brouglit on to the sea coast a set 

 I of men whose only creed lies in ships, banks and 

 ; foreign dealings and that no othe' branch of in- 

 dustry was thought worth practising, but was sub- 

 1 servient to Ihexf interest. 



- My opinion is, that if the same protection hau 

 been given to the manufacturers of iron, steel, 

 cloth, and raising of bread and meat, wiiich has 

 , been given to the owners of ships, that \.e si.oiild 

 have had no complaints of tiistress in the interior 

 of the country, but we should see signs of pros- 

 perity in every part of the country, produced hy 

 \ native industry. It •..as Thomas Jefferson's o.d- 

 ' vice- to place the artisan and the manufacturer by 

 • the tide of the agrictilturalist, and let the settle- 

 i ments advance into the woods of the west, carry- 

 ing the arts of civiliation with them, making a 

 I demand and a needful supply go hand in hand. — 

 The lack of this policy has palsied the protecting 

 ' arm of industry, and almost stunted this young, 

 but giiut nation into a dwarf. On this subject, I 

 approve the sentiments in the speech of Governor 

 I Do Witt Clinton, and of Richard Puish, in liis 

 j Treasury Report, and of our own James Lloyd, on 

 [ the discriminating duties. 



As to the making of Steel, the first attempt 

 made in this country, as far as my knowledge goes 

 was by my father, Eliphalet Leonard, at Easton, 

 ' about the year 1775, or 76. He was led to that at- 

 tempt by tiie extreme scarcity of steel, and the 

 difiiculty of producing it for his manufactory of 

 fire-arms, tlien in great demand for the defence of 

 the country. He constructed several furnaces, and 

 so far succeeded as to supply himself and som.e of 

 the most urgent wants of his neighbours. 

 1 In 1787 I obtaineil further insight into the busi- 

 ness, and erected at Easton a furnace capable of 

 making three tons at a batch. This was contin- 

 \ nod until 1808, when, in consecpience of the com- 

 mercial restrictions, I erected anotlier at tlic same 

 place, capable of making ten tons at a batch, and 

 afterwards, from twenty to thirty tons a year. — 

 Jn 1813, I erected another furnace at Canton, 

 where I now live, where I made at times, about 

 one hundred tona of steel a year. 



*The meaning of Or Waterhouse is, that that nation 

 whicli has a knowledge of iron ocF, and can smelt it, 

 and thtiL-with form weapons of war,tools of agriculture 

 .inil cutting instruments, emerges, in consequince, 

 from the savage state. The Mexicans and Peruvians 

 had no knowledge or iron, when the .Spaniards first in- 

 vaded them, but they had of silver and gold, and were 

 therefore more than half civilized ; hut they lacked the 

 powerful metal, the conqueror of all the rest, Iron.— 

 Our Indians arc sa\ages still, although they have cut- 

 ting tool<i of iron, muskets, hoes, nails, &c. which 

 were supplied them by the French and Kngli^h, and 

 are rendered more savage by their use. But "they must 

 separate the me.lal from its heterogem ou.^ ore, heat and 

 draw the iron into useful instruments, Ihenstlfes, be- 

 fore they can rank among civilized people; and it is 

 this knowrlidge and art which lays the separating hue 

 betweep the civilized and savage state. 



Towards the close of the revolution, Samuel 

 Downing of Trenton, New Jersey, made considera- 

 ble blistered steel. During the progress of the 

 revolution, a certain German at Cumberland in 

 Rhode Island, made steel from the pigg, after the 

 mode of hie country. During the same time, some 

 was made at Amenia, in the state of New York. 

 In 1809, a steel furnace was put in operation at 

 Middleborough, and a another at Canton by Adam 

 Kinsley, and another at Plymouth. 



About the year 1799, steel was made at Canton 

 by Leonard & Kinsley, after the German manner, 

 and afterwards by Dunbar &, Leonard. The manu- 

 facture of blistered-stcel is carried on extensively 

 in New- York and Philadelphia. 



The duty on imported steel is, I believe, only 

 one dollar per cwt. and on iron not quite so much. 

 The quantity of steel imported into the U, S, in 

 1816 was 1188 tons. The quantity of bar iron then 

 made in 1810 was 27,051 tons. Tins account of it 

 was taken from the Marshals' returns, by William 

 Milner, and from the Custom-House books. 



Cast-steel has got much into use within a few 

 years. Some was made here during the late war, 

 but it was then difficult to obtain clay that would 

 #ndure a heat sufficient to melt and take it out of 

 tile fire. 



There w.aa one Daniel Pettybone, wdio pretend- 

 ed that he invented the welding of cast-steel with 

 oorax, and got a patent for his invention about the 

 year 1802. He put tlie blacksmiths tinder con- 

 tribution, and alter his patent had run out, ho 

 petitioned to Congress to renew it. I told them it, 

 was an art considerably well known among black- 

 smiths, and I procured several depositions from 

 aged blacksmiths to prove that they had done it 

 in this country as early as tlie year 1772, aiV-1, 

 oceasicjually, from that time to 1819. 



Cast-steel has been welded to iron in Canton in 

 17t*6, six years before Pettibons dated his inven- 

 tion. This was done by the use of borax. It h,as 

 likewise been welded by tlie help of bog-iron ore 

 powdered fine and sprinkled cm the .^teel when in 

 a white heat, and formed, at tliat temperature, a 

 kind of gluey (glassy) substance, which would 

 stick tlie bars together. 



On the whole, I conclude that the introductiorj 

 of the manufacture of cast-steel would be to us a 

 natbnal advantage. I would do it myself, were it 

 not attended with more expense than is at present 

 convenient, besides encountering some oppo.sition. 

 Governments are sometimes more dispo.^ed to 

 patronize the Fox than the Beaver ; ami whenever 

 they become corrupted, as in some of the old 

 monarchies, they pay more attention to the drones 

 than to the working-bccs : not but that human 

 society would be as imperfect without some drones 

 as a swarm of bees, with none beside those who 

 collect honey. 



Altlioiigh our Lead Mine occupies nearly all 

 my attention at this time, yet I thought I would, 

 agreeably to your information, give a history of 

 our labours in iron. JONATHAN LEONARD^ 



MILK. 



A few weeks since, we noticoil the opinion of 

 an English agriculturist with respect to the quan^ 

 tity of milk required for a pound of butter and 

 cheese. A woman in a neighboring town, who 

 has for m.iny years superintended an extensive 

 dairy, says the Englialiman's rule is c.iactty right. 

 She has ascertained by long experience that nine 

 quarts of milk are requisite to produce one pound 



