Notice of Peter Hasenclever. 



201 



The one at Cortland was on the east bank of the Hud- 

 son, in the town of Cortland, near St. Anthony's Nose. 

 This furnace was early abandoned because the ore proved 

 to contain too much sulphur, as did the ore of the sixth 

 furnace in the highlands, forty miles above New York, near 

 Haverstraw. The mine to this day is called Hasenclever's 

 mine, and is now worked by the Bayards of Philadelphia. 



Previous to Hasenclever's operations, the only notices 

 of iron manufacture in the state of which I have know- 

 ledge were at Ancrarn, in Columbia county, and the Sterling 

 works in Orange county. There were no rolling or slitting 

 mills at that time, as they were forbidden by the British 

 authorities to the colonists. Gov. Delancey, in 1757, states 

 that from 1750 to 1757, the quantity of iron produced by 

 Robert Livingston at Ancram was in all about 2,000 tons, 

 and that it was the only place where iron was then smelted 

 in the state. 



The Stirling mine, in Warwick, Orange county, was 

 purchased by Lord Setrling in 1750 ; and in 1751, Messrs. 

 Ward & Colton commenced making iron from the ore, 

 and in 1752 the first forge was erected there ; but work 

 was soon temporarily abandoned. At a later date Peter 

 Townsend, formerly a merchant of New York, worked 

 the Stirling mine, and continued to do so for many years. 

 He was the forger of the Hudson river chain at West 

 Point. There is in the possession of Gen. Franklin Town- 

 send a piece of iron casting, the back of a Franklin fire place, 

 having the date of 1767 upon it, with the letters "A. T., 

 New York ;" probably meant for A. Targee, of N. Y., an 

 iron founder. 



Hasenclever's pot and pearl ash manufactory was at New 

 Petersburg, near the German Flats, on the Mohawk, 

 where he had built two frame houses and thirty-four log 

 houses, and had a fine settlement begun for the cultivation 

 of hemp, flax and madder, in addition to his other enter- 

 prises. 



Trans. viii.~\ 26 



