IRON MANUFACTURE. 449 
ridge, which run near to and parallel with the lake, are frequent de- 
posits of bog ores, the deposits from springs, but which nowhere are 
abundant or rich, containing only from 20 to 30 per cent. of iron, 
Several furnaces were erected along the lake shore to work these de- 
posits, as at Conneaut, Painesville, Elyria, Vermillion, ete., but the ore 
was in limited quantities, and becoming exhausted, the furnaces were 
all abandoned many years ago, and their existence is almost forgotten. 
The ores in the coal rocks of the northern part of the State were never 
very abundant, and after the exhaustion of the accumulations in the 
valleys and streams, they became searcer and more difficult to obtain, 
and on this account some furnaces met with indifferent. success and 
were finally abandoned. The shales beneath the coal strata in many 
places contain quite considerable amount of iron as nodules, and 
attempts were made to use them, as at the old furnace near Painesville. 
The nodules in the Erie shales, though quite abundant at this place, 
were insufficient to sustain successful smelting operations. 
The increasing scarcity of the timber necessary for charcoal, in a 
country rapidly filling up with agricultural settlers, entailed an addi- 
tional difficulty upon these early iron masters. The capital also re- 
quired in the operations of iron smelting, and the many risks involved 
by these pioneers in a country whose resources were but very imper- 
fectly comprehended, rendered the undertaking one peculiarly difficult 
and hazardous, and too often ended in discouragement and failure. 
And in fact, it was not until the introduction of the use of mineral fuel 
and the rich ores of Lake Superior that the iron industry in the north- 
ern part-.of the State was firmly established on a remunerative basis. 
A great stimulus was given to the iron industry in the southern 
part of the State by the discovery of the extensive and rich deposits of 
the now celebrated Hanging Rock region. The first furnace, called 
the Union Furnace, was built in 1826, about four miles from the Ohio 
river, in Lawrence county, near the present town of Hanging Rock, by 
Messrs. Sparks, Means & Fair, and the first iron was made in 1827. 
In the same year, 1826, the Franklin furnace was erected in Scioto 
county, about one-half mile from the Ohio, and 16 miles east of Ports- 
mouth. ‘These early furnaces were of but small capacity, and cold-blast 
only ; they produced from 1 to 2 tons of C. B. iron per day, which was 
mostly cast directly into pots, kettles, ete. The ores which have made 
29 G. 
