Marble Furnace
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| A cast iron fat lamp made at the Marble Furnace, circa 1820s, 7.5″ high |
In the early nineteenth century small deposits of iron ore were often discovered by surveyors opening up the new state of Ohio. These pockets of ore were frequently located within basins in limestone cliffs found throughout southern Ohio in particular. These discoveries started an economic boom as settlers built local furnaces to smelt the iron ore into pig-iron. The boom lasted from about 1812 to the mid-1830s and came to an end when it was found that iron makers with access to coal could make better, and cheaper, pig-iron.
Marble Furnace was located in Adams County, Ohio (southeast of Dayton and east of Cincinnati) and was in operation from 1816 to approximately 1830. It was the third furnace built in the county, the first being the Brush Creek furnace and the second being the Steam Furnace (so called because it derived its power from a steam engine).
The history of Marble Furnace is recorded in a History of Adams County, Ohio by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers and published in 1900. They discuss the furnace as follows:
“The third furnace was erected on the east fork of Ohio Brush Creek, south of the Great Serpent Mound, in what is now Bratton Township, and named the Marble Furnace for the beautiful white limestone from which the [furnace stack] was constructed. This fine white limestone was quarried nearby and, when dressed and bush-hammered, had, from a distance, the appearance of white marble. This was in the year 1816 and [General] Duncan McArthur [later Ohio's eleventh governor] and Thomas James of Chillicothe were the original proprietors. Henry Massie…was also [affiliated] with the furnace. [Massie had discovered the iron ore deposit when surveying the area.]
[Unlike many of these local furnaces, which simply smelted pig-iron and sold it to fabricators elsewhere] “there was a foundry at the Marble Furnace, and quite an extensive industry in connection with the furnace was carried on here until 1834, when the furnace and 1,200 acres of land was purchased by Jacob Sommers [spelled Summers in other sources], who abandoned the furnace in 1835.
“The stack of the furnace stood on the lot now owned by Charles Miller. It was so located that from the cliffs to the rear a kind of trestle bridge was constructed, over which trucks were propelled carrying charcoal, limestone, and iron ore to the top of the stack. The power to supply the blast was furnished by a canal or race leading from the creek above.
“There were here at times from 400 to 600 men employed in the various divisions of the work, including wood-choppers, colliers, furnace men, ore diggers, teamsters, and so forth. The pig-iron was hauled overland to Benner’s forge on Paint Creek, to Chillicothe, or to the Ohio River at Manchester, via West Union. While the hollowware made at the furnace was distributed throughout the settlements for miles about. One of the prominent characters at the furnace for many years was Robert Ivers, a kettle moulder. Afterwards Peter Andrews and others built the cupola and molded stoves, kettles, pots and dog-irons [and fat lamps].
“Among the wood choppers Fred Griffith, Mathew Gorman and Abraham Wisecup were unequaled. It is said that either of these persons could cut seven and one-half cords per day, a feat never performed by any other person of the hundreds of choppers who worked at the “coalings”. Twenty-five cents a cord was the price paid in those days. David Gardner was overseer of the ore diggers, who received thirty to forty cents per day in “furnace script”. There was a double log cabin on the lot where the old frame building now stands, which was in early days a famous boarding house. Just across the creek from it stood Joseph Thompson’s cabin, where whiskey was sold, and many a foot race, wrestle or fight has taken place on this historic spot for a quart of Thompson’s “Old Monongahela” made up from some one of the spring branches that flow into Brush Creek. Labels were a deception then and now.
“About the year 1830 work at the furnace ceased, from the fact that charcoal cannot compete with stone coal, that ox teams cannot compete with more modern means of transportation, and limited supply of ore cannot compete with supplies almost inexhaustible. In 1834 Henry Massie, one of the proprietors of the furnace, sold his interest to McArthur and James, and they disposed of 1,200 acres of furnace land, including the old furnace, to Jacob Sommers, then a resident of Middlebury, Loudon County, Virginia. Here in December, 1835, he came with his family and moved into the old brick house built by Henry Massie, where now resides Captain Urton, a son-in-law of Mr. Sommers”.
EPILOGUE: “Jacob Summers, father of Mrs. Urton, was a farmer from Loudon County, Virginia. He was also a slave holder, but believed the institution was injurious to the States permitting it. In 1835, he sold his slaves and came to Ohio. He sold most of his personal effects and brought his family out in a two-horse carriage. His goods, such as he brought, followed in a four-horse wagon. He bought twelve hundred acres of land at Marble Furnace at the time the furnace was abandoned, and owned it until his death, July 19, 1852. His wife died in 1874. He was a Whig all his life.
“Jacob Summers brought to Ohio four daughters and one son. He and his wife buried two infant sons in Virginia. Of the five children who grew to maturity, Mahala Elizabeth, born May 2, 1821, married Hector Urton; the next, Susan F, the wife of Mahlon Urton, was born June 23, 1823; Ruhama Ann, born July 27, 1825, married Towshend Enos Reed; James F., the only son, who was born January 15, 1830, and as Captain of Company B, 70th O.V.T., was killed before Atlanta, July 28, 1864; Mary Ellen, born January 19, 1834, married Isaac Hannah.
“Returning to our subject, Mahlon Urton, the farm on which he now resides was set apart to Captain J. F. Summers in the division of Jacob Summers’ estate. Mr. Urton purchased it of him and moved on it the fourth of January, 1859. The home, a one-story brick, was built by James and McArthur, proprietors of Marble Furnace. In front of it a long lawn has two rows of locust trees, the bodies of which have attained great proportions, and the surroundings proclaim that the builder of the home was a Virginian”.
The above information was extracted from various places in the volume: