The Highlands' Iron Industry During the Revolutionary Period
Dr.Theodore W. Kury (1972)

Despite British prohibitions on iron manufacture in the colonies, the iron industry was critical to the economy and the population growth of the Highlands region both before and during the Revolution, explains Dr. Theodore W. Kury, a geography professor at the State College at Buffalo. Kury surmises that the Highlands iron industry supplied Washington’s iron with cannon and cannon shot, particularly during the army’s three New Jersey winter encampments at Morristown and Middlebrook, noting that Washington’s cartographer was master of the Ringwood iron works.

From the inception of permanent, European-derived settlement, industry has been a prominent component of the economic scene in New Jersey. For almost two centuries, economic pursuits such as lumbering, tanning and several types of milling were carried on within or adjacent to those districts possessing conditions favorable to agriculture. It was not until the mid-eighteenth century that the most significant industrial activity — the manufacture of iron — began to exert an influence upon the economic life of New Jerseyans. Requiring abundant natural resources, large tracts of land and technological and commercial expertise, iron manufacturers frequently located in areas of limited agricultural value and remote from the mainstreams of settlement. In this setting, the Highlands became the premier iron-making region of colonial New Jersey.

My intention today is to deal with two concerns relating to the early industry. Firstly, its role in bringing about permanent occupance of the Highlands and, secondly, the part played by the industry in the struggle for American Independence.

As I present my remarks many of you may feel that my research interests are more appropriate for the historian rather than the geographer. Indeed, we can recall Boyer’s definitive study, the work of Ransom on the northern Highlands and the efforts of individuals affiliated with local historical societies, advisory groups and the like. This bias toward the historian results from our having been taught from an early age that history deals with the temporal and geography with the spatial aspects of people, places and events. Unfortunately, in practice such divisions often promote the view that human behavior is strongly influenced, or determined, by the natural environment. Instead, we now recognize that the environment presents a number of choices from which man makes known his preferences based upon his cultural values, attitudes and technological capabilities.

In recent times geographers have undertaken a serious reappraisal of their field. No longer content to study space relations in a static sense, we have expanded our concerns to include a variety of temporal and human conditions. Geographers have focused increasingly upon spatial change through time as it reflects man and his culture. One result of this redirection has been the growth of an important sub-field within geography known as historical geography.

Relative to New Jersey, the past decade or so has seen geographers display a greater interest in the cultural attributes and settlement patterns of the state’s seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century inhabitants. In the tradition of relating habits to habitats, a small band of historical geographers has dealt with topics as diverse as the sequential occupance of a major river valley, the origin and spread of the log house, colonial ports and trade patterns, regionalization of ethnic groups and the changing uses of our woodlands in addition to the iron industry.

As stated earlier, my intention is to sketch the development of the iron industry and settlement in the Highlands from approximately 1750 to 1780, with emphasis upon the Revolutionary War period. Nevertheless, it may be worthwhile to note briefly the physical and cultural situation within the region prior to the middle of the eighteenth century.

Trending in a northeasterly-southwesterly direction the Highlands extend from the Hudson River, below Cornwall, to about twenty miles above Trenton on the Delaware River. Varying from eight to twenty miles in width, the region is actually composed of three distinct parallel “mountain ridges of medium height, lying close to one another and completely covered with earth and masses of loose stones, with narrow valleys between them.” Although the greatest elevations barely reach 1600 feet, erosional forces — especially ice and water — have combined to produce a rugged topography, for valleys often lie 400 feet below the upland crests. Moreover, the elongated, steep-sided ridges and broad mountain masses tend to be somewhat oblique to the general trend of the range. Thus, travel from one end of the chain to the other following the course of the mountains was accomplished easily; whereas a journey from east to west could not be completed without surmounting at least one line of ridges. The only low-level gaps in the Highlands front from the Ramapos to the Delaware River are located at Newfoundland, in the vicinity of Pompton and along Spruce Run from Clinton to Changewater. In each instance, the central Highlands with its 1000-foot elevations impeded travel.

The topographic configuration of the Highlands exerted considerable influence upon initial settlement patterns and, later, upon Revolutionary War troop movements. Settlers entering the Highlands throughout the eighteenth century utilized routes which followed the major stream valleys — the Walkill, Musconetcong, Pohatcong and Raritan — or passed through the previously mentioned gaps along the eastern margin.

Kemble Widmer, New Jersey’s State Geologist, has pointed out that the Highlands region sheltered several important avenues of travel between New England and Pennsylvania during the Revolution. Between the eastern and central ridges lies an imposing depression linking the Ramapo Valley with the area around Hoff’s (present day Clinton). The continuous nature of this valley and low elevations — seldom in excess of 400 feet — enhanced the value of this route. A second route existed between Cornwall, New York and Easton, Pennsylvania. It followed a depression occupied, in part, by the Walkill and Musconetcong Rivers. The most heavily travelled route lay along the western edge of the Highlands from the Hudson River to the Delaware River. It was along this line that General Washington received reinforcements from northern New York just prior to the Battle of Trenton. A fourth passage more or less paralleled the present U.S. Highway 206 from Somerville to Suffern, then continued to Stony Point on the Hudson. Although vulnerable to periodic raids by the British, this last route was utilized whenever possible as it was shorter and had fewer terrain obstacles than the others.

A few short statements on the natural vegetation and soils of the Highlands might also be in order. The early agriculturally minded European settler initially sought out land having deep, well drained soils and covered with forests. Trees were thought to be indicative of the goodness of the soil and also provided the essentials for housing, barns, fences and so forth.

A hardwood forest of oaks, hickory and chestnut dominated the original vegetation cover of the region. Dogwood and sassafras appeared in the understory and mountain laurel, sumacs and other woody shrubs served as ground covers. As one might surmise, studies by Raup and Muntz indicate that the preEuropean forest was really more extensive than it is today, and Hermelin observed that “The mountains are forest-clad where there has not been cultivation.” Moreover, in spite of fires, clear-cutting for timber and charcoal and other human disruptions, the composition of the vegetation in the Highlands has changed very little through time.

Local topographic and geographic circumstances did combine to produce considerable variation in pedologic conditions within the region. In northern sectors, covered by the continental glaciers of the Pleistocene, soils exhibit poor development, contain numerous rock fragments and are generally infertile. On the other hand, soils south of the Pleistocene terminal moraine are derived chiefly from limestone, water-borne materials or glacial outwash. They are generally deep, well drained and fertile; providing an excellent foundation for an agricultural economy.

It may be appropriate at this time to describe several aspects related to the manufacture of iron. The basic technology in use during the eighteenth century was derived from European sources. In this context, iron making required large quantities of iron ore, charcoal and limestone.

Most local iron ores were high-grade magnetite, a component of the country rock and readily obtainable from surface deposits or by shaft mining. In the reduction process at least two tons of raw ore were needed to yield one ton of metal. Few mines were large enough or their ores rich enough to single-handedly sustain a manufactory. Thus, it was necessary to cart ore from mines within a several-mile-radius of the ironworks. In 1783, the three mines at Mount Hope were reported as being sufficient to supply that iron enterprise. Nevertheless, the ironmaster at Mount Hope, John Jacob Faesch, claimed he had to haul iron ore from Succasunna and Horse Pond because the local ores were poor.

Charcoal was produced in the forests surrounding the iron manufactory. Wood was obtained by clear cutting; a practice which yielded both hard- and soft-woods, although the former were preferred for a uniform, high-quality product. Eight to ten cords of logs were placed in a conical mound, or pit, and allowed to smolder for a week or more. It has been reported that fourteen cords of wood, converted to charcoal, were needed to manufacture one ton of iron.

Limestone, utilized as a flux in the reducing process, was required in lesser amounts and was obtained from surface outcrops located in most Highland valleys.

The central feature of the iron community was the blast furnace. Usually a four-sided tapered stack of native stone, it was some 20 to 30 feet square at the base and up to 40 feet high. The ideal site for the furnace combined ready access to a continuous water supply with a proximity to a low hill which facilitated charging of the works. An air blast was furnished by leather bellows or wooden tubs driven by a waterwheel.

Loads of charcoal, iron ore and limestone were carted to the charging hole at the top of the furnace. The raw materials needed for making one ton of finished iron varied with each furnace. However, if we consider the furnaces at Hibernia and Mount Hope typical of the period, about 36 tons of ore, 3 1/2 to 4 tons of limestone and 5,600 to 6,000 bushels of charcoal were consumed to produce 20 tons of iron per week. In a single blast season, a large furnace was capable of making over 700 tons.

The furnace was tapped several times a day and the molten iron was allowed to flow into sand moulds on the floor of the casting house. This product was called pig iron. In addition, several furnaces had facilities for making cast iron articles.
As the market for pig iron generally was poor, most of the furnace production was reworked in a forge. Successive healings and hammerings converted pigs into refined bar iron. This was also rolled and slitted into nail stock. Yearly production at a forge with two fires and a hammer would amount to between 250 and 300 tons.

The first half of the eighteenth century brought the initial influx of settlers into the Highlands and its environs. Dutch from Ulster County, New York, occupied the Walkill Valley on the western edge of the region. Wacker has detailed well the activities of German, Scotch-Irish and English settlers from Pennsylvania in the southern Highlands. Newspapers of the period advertised the sale of well timbered land, plentiful meadows and wheat acreage on the Rockaway River in an attempt to attract migrants from East Jersey and New York. John Reading’s early eighteenth-century surveys mention only occasional farmsteads in the area of Whippany, Passaic and Rockaway Rivers. Clearly, the land-use perception of these early pioneers was directed toward agriculture.
By the second decade of the eighteenth century, attention was drawn to numerous reports of iron ore to be found throughout the Highlands. Limestone and timber for charcoal were also available in abundance. Power might be furnished by erecting dams at countless stream sites. This alteration of resource perception became increasingly evident as newspaper advertisements and surveyors’ logs promoted these attributes deemed most desirable for the manufacture of iron.

Following the establishment of the initial Highlands ironworks at Whippany about 1720, several manufactories sprouted convenient to the major river valleys and migration routes. In the Musconetcong and German valleys and adjacent to the plains area around Morristown, land was touted for its ability to sustain iron making as well as agriculture. John Lawrence reported the existence of a “Black River Iron Works” near Lamington, a setting dominated by agriculture. Occasionally the operation of an ironworks might prove beneficial to the agriculturalist. Small forges were erected to rid the countryside of surplus forest and furnish implements for the farmer. Likewise, in poorly drained valleys, the creation of a forge pond by damming turned formerly worthless land downstream into exploitable fields and meadows. Many of the manufactories around Mendham existed in this manner. When the wood was gone, the ironworks ceased and agricultural products became the primary trade item.

From the outset, many manufactories encountered economic difficulties as the sparse local population provided little market for ironware. The transport of iron products to markets outside the Highlands was severely hampered by the lack of roads and uncertain market conditions.

The latter situation was a consequence of the colonial mercantile policies of the English. The North American colonies were usually thought of as sources of cheap raw materials and semi-finished products and as profitable dumping grounds for finished goods.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, colonial iron makers had captured much of the domestic implement market and manufactured large quantities of nails and anchors. English ironmasters, already burdened by high labor and material costs, viewed this competition with alarm. A long series of import restrictions and tariffs on colonial manufactures culminated with the passage of the Iron Act of 1750. While providing a duty-free English market for colonial bar iron, the act hoped to check further expansion of iron making in North America with a provision that allowed construction of “no mill, or other engine for slitting or rolling of Iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel” after June 24, 1750.

In practice, the Iron Act did little to hamper the growth of manufactories along the eastern seaboard as its terms were openly violated. Within the Highlands, a steel-making furnace at Sterling and slitting mills at Boonton and Speedwell were placed in operation between 1750 and the Revolutionary War. The duty-free market for bar iron brought a boom in the construction of forges and furnaces. Consequently, the colonies became self sufficient in all iron products by the mid-1770’s.

The expansion of the iron industry in the Highlands placed heavy demands upon the region’s natural resources and, ultimately, brought settlement to even the most remote sectors. By the Revolution, practically every known ore body had been taken up, woodlands leased or purchased, power sites acquired and roads built. Fragmentary data and the ephemeral nature of the smaller works made an accurate determination of late eighteenth century Highlands iron manufactories extremely difficult. Nevertheless, Bishop reported that travelers thought it impossible to journey across the region without meeting with some forge or furnace. A survey taken in 1783 revealed the operation of six furnaces and some thirty forges. My own investigations have uncovered at least thirty-five forges and sixteen furnaces active between 1750 and 1780. Meanwhile, the focus of iron manufacture had shifted to the headwaters of the Rockaway, Pequannock and Wanaque Rivers and their tributaries.

The military activities on both sides during the Revolutionary War seemingly did little to disrupt the operation of most Highlands ironworks. Manufactories at Andover and Union (High Bridge), owned by the Philadelphia loyalists, William Allen and Joseph Turner, were confiscated by the Provincial government and subsequently closed. Examination of the Revolutionary War Damage Claims shows that one forge in Morris County, owned by Alexander Carmichael, was destroyed by the Continental Army in August, 1777, along with quantities of coal and iron. Malone is the most recent of several authors who postulate the destruction of Charlotteburg by military action; however, this claim is not supported by primary evidence.

A first step in the development of the iron industry north of the terminal moraine was the procurement of large tracts of land. The amount varied, but the ironworks at Andover, Hibernia, Mount Hope and Ringwood encompassed over 5,000 acres each. When fully developed, the land supplied charcoal, iron ore and limestone for the ironworks, furnished food for the workers and their families and provided pasturage for livestock.

The establishment of an ironworks provided employment for men of diverse backgrounds and skills. The size and composition of the labor force was governed by the type of manufactory. A small furnace or four-fire forge employed as few as forty men; whereas the Sterling works engaged 183 men — including fifty five woodcutters, thirty-five furnace and forge workers and eighteen ore and charcoal haulers. Although Hermelin reported that “at most of the works the owners attend to all carting themselves with their own horses,’’ neighboring farmers and their teams augmented the winter hauling force.

In greatest demand as ironworkers were indentured servants from the British Isles or Germany and newspaper advertisements frequently carried the notation, “Those who are Germans, or who can work in the German way, shall be preferred.” Catholic circuit riders in the Highlands between 1758 and 1781 identified sizeable groups having German surnames at Ringwood, Charlotteburg, Long Pond and Mount Hope; at the latter especially after 1776. Irish surnames were prominent at Pompton and Changewater. Low wages and primitive living conditions for unskilled laborers led to high rates of desertion. Skilled personnel fared somewhat better; yet, the “help wanted” sign was always out.

The labor situation became especially critical during the Revolutionary War. Service exemptions were sought for fifty men at Mount Hope and twenty-five men at Hibernia on the grounds that these furnaces might then furnish the Continental Army “with a Quantity of Cannon, Cannon Shot, refined Bar Iron, Shovels, Axes, and other implements and Utensils of Iron.” In spite of these efforts, Mount Hope was out of blast in 1777 and 1780 because of a shortage of men.

The quality of housing associated with the ironworks frequently reflected the dweller’s position at the manufactory. Colliers and woodcutters lived in shelters crudely constructed of logs and mud. Situated around the ironworks were more permanent dwellings of log, stone, frame and plaster over stone rubble. However, differences between the manager’s house and the workmen’s cottages were great enough for an observer at Andover to note “an elegant Stone dwelling-house ... and a Number of Outhouses for Workmen."

A number of other activities were associated with the large iron manufactories. Cultivated gardens occupied cut over land near the home sites. Small patches of meadow land for hay and pasture were found in marshy valleys. Finally, saw mills, grist mills and a general store often completed the scene.

The business of iron manufacture was dependent upon a number of economic factors — locational advantages, transportation and markets. There was a natural attraction of forge for furnace as the pig iron produced in the blast furnace was converted to bar iron and other articles in a forge. For example, a number of forges were clustered about the furnaces at Hibernia, Mount Hope and Boonton. Quite often the operator of some prominent furnace would also manage several forges and incorporate the various enterprises into an iron plantation. Established ironworks also attracted farmers who found a ready market for their beef, pork, flour and grains in return for manufactured goods. The New-Jersey Journal of June 22, 1779, carried this advertisement:

To be SOLD for cash, or exchanged for any kind of country produce, at Mount Hope Furnace,
SCYTHES, nails, pots, kettles, griddles, and-irons, smoothing-irons, morters, cart and waggon boxes, six and ten plate stoves, weights, etc.

Accordingly, a flourishing local trade developed between furnace, forge and farm.

Durable goods and other articles were available at Aquackanonk, Morristown, Elizabeth and other towns peripheral to the iron region. Clothing, household articles, salt, sugar and liquor were among the purchases made by ironworkers on their periodic journeys to town.

Since only a small portion of the iron production could be consumed by the rather sparse Highlands population, markets outside the region — nearby cities, neighboring colonies, Europe and the West Indies — were coveted by the ironmasters. Newspapers in New York and Philadelphia periodically carried advertisements for pig and bar iron, hollow ware and other castings, and iron articles of all sizes, shapes and weights.

The extent of this external trade and the tonnage involved is obscured because few Jersey ports handled cargoes of iron and many furnace records for this period have been lost. Most ironworks shipped their products to New York and Philadelphia where merchants seldom identified the origin of the wares. Ringwood Manor, one of the largest furnaces, sold almost 400 tons of bar iron in New York in 1776. Hermelin estimated that 1,200 tons of bar iron was received in Philadelphia in 1783 from Pennsylvania and West Jersey sources and noted “the greater part of the iron production in (New) Jersey, is sold in the city of New York.”

I have been unable to unearth reliable information relative to purchases of sundry iron products by the Continental Army from Highlands ironworks. It is known that Batsto, a South Jersey manufactory, supplied munitions and cannon through Philadelphia channels. Also, I mentioned a petition to exempt ironworkers from duty on the basis of their potential service to the military, but little else survives. We can assume that while quartered at Morristown during the winters of 1777 and 1780, General Washington requisitioned shot and cannon from nearby ironworks. Moreover, the master of Ringwood, Robert Erskine, served as Washington’s cartographer and was in an advantageous position to supply ironware to the military. Lastly, the great chain across the Hudson River at West Point was fabricated at the Sterling and Ringwood furnaces. A link of this chain is preserved in this museum.
The assembling of raw materials and the need to trade encouraged the development of transportation routes to support the ironworks. The earliest pioneers had traversed the rugged, forested Highlands along old Indian pathways. These avenues were replaced by ungraded, unsurfaced tracks for carts and wagons. Better roads were to be found only in the open cultivated valleys or near the populous settlements. William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, summarized the importance of road building in much of the Highlands:

The roads which have been built here, we apprehend, have been very expensive. Places which before were inaccessible, even to horsemen, on account of the steepness of the rocks and mountains, are now good carriage roads; but this expence was absolutely necessary to enable them to carry off the iron to market, to have access to their roads and mines, and to a grain country from whence we are supplied with provisions and to open a communication between the different works.

As water transportation proved cheaper than overland carriage, navigable waterways were employed wherever possible. Schoepf remarked that the proximity of the Highlands to the Delaware, Hudson and Raritan Rivers and “their tributaries, adds no little to the convenient working of the mines and transportation of the product.”

By the close of the Revolutionary War, settlement and economic patterns in the Highlands had become fairly well established. Although endowed with the necessities for iron manufacture, the fertile soils and moderate slopes of the southern Highlands had proven more receptive to general settlement than had the more remote and rugged northern areas. An analysis of population growth by county supports these statements:

POPULATION OF HIGHLANDS COUNTIES

Hunterdon, the most populous county at mid-century, lay entirely south of the terminal moraine and continued to attract a goodly number of settlers for the remainder of the eighteenth century. The northern tier of counties — Morris, Sussex and Bergen — also encompassed territory outside the glaciated Highlands and their population figures are thus inflated. Nevertheless, the rise of iron manufacturing did coincide with the population spurt between 1772 and 1790. The most inhospitable areas, such as the Ramapos and the northwestern sector, exhibited little in-migration and had the lowest rates of growth.

A comparison of cultural landscapes on either side of the terminal moraine will best illustrate these contrasts. Over much of the southern region, defunct ironworks were replaced by agriculture, milling, lumbering and urban activities. A dramatic transformation occurred as ironmaker gave way to agriculturalist. Fields of flax and grains blended with fine orchards and meadows of English grass. Grist mills occupied riverine locations once favored for iron making and flour supplanted bar and pig iron as the major trade item. Describing the countryside about Whippany in 1780, Chastellux wrote:

I pursued my journey, sometimes through fine woods, at others through well-cultivated lands and hamlets inhabited by Dutch families. One of these villages, which forms a little “township,” bears the beautiful name of Troy. Here the country is more open and continues so to Morristown.

Conversely, the areas north of the terminal moraine were still regarded as marginal for settlement. As the most accessible forest areas were cut over for charcoal or cleared for farmsteads and towns, iron makers had turned to the interior valleys and ridges to sustain their manufactories. Nevertheless, poor soils and transport problems combined to inhibit general economic growth. Few settlers chose the region for agricultural or milling pursuits and the demise of ironworks did not pave the way for urban development. The only appreciable clusters of people were situated in certain favored valleys or near the dispersed ironworks which served as central places. Chastellux described one such place:

Ringwood is little more than a hamlet of seven or eight houses, formed by Mrs. Erskine’s manor and the forges which she operates. I had been told that I should find there all sorts of conveniences, whether in point of lodgings, if I chose to stop, or in procuring any information I might stand in need of.

The persistence of this settlement pattern is affirmed by Gordon who, several decades later, described a portion of northern Morris county as “inhabited sparsely, by persons dependent upon the iron works.”

We can conclude that the pace of eighteenth-century settlement in the Highlands developed more slowly than elsewhere in New Jersey. Moreover, there were noticeable differences in occupance patterns north and south of the Pleistocene terminal moraine.
Since land in the southern Highlands was more accessible and of a better quality, it was taken up first. Environmental conditions were conducive to both agriculture and iron making and, for a time, the two endeavors co-existed. Nevertheless, by the Revolutionary War, a general economy dominated the cultural landscape. Population growth had been rapid and substantial. Urban places and transport networks were well established.

The: situation in the northern Highlands was markedly different. Only scattered ironworks and related settlements dotted the forest clad landscape. Land and the raw materials for iron making were abundant. The thriving iron industry attracted workers of diverse skills and varied ethnic backgrounds. Crude overland roadways were constructed in spite of rugged terrain. Trade, the economic heart of the industry, incorporated local markets, nearby colonies and foreign lands. However, the decline of iron manufacture was not succeeded by urban growth and an agricultural economy.

Iron making also permanently altered the region’s natural environment. Remnants of mining operations — open pits, shafts and heaps of rock waste — may still be observed along many mountain ridges. Perhaps the greatest change was the effect upon the forests. Repeated dear cutting, fires and the remova1 of trees for cultivated fields and meadows permanently modified the extent of the natural vegetation cover. Few trees of large size are to be found anywhere in the Highlands. Relics of the pre-European forest cover remain only on the upland crests of the most remote sectors of the region.

In closing, I wish to make a plea. As I have tried to indicate, , the iron industry is a vital part of our cultural heritage. The ever-expanding urban scene and the growth of technology threatens to destroy the vestiges of the past. It is urgent that we act now to preserve and record what remains of earlier times. Unfortunately, little has been done in northern New Jersey to protect the few remaining relics of the iron period. The Wawayanda and Split Rock furnaces are crumbling into ruin. A highway will destroy the oldest surviving ironworkers cottages in the Ringwood area. Must we stand by and let this happen? Spurred by the coming Bicentennial celebration, we should redouble our endeavors to safeguard the heritage of the Highlands for future generations and bring about the restoration of at least one iron community to its former glory.

Thank you.