It Happened Here -- The "Rust Belt" of Colonial New York

From the 3d quarter of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century a broad swath of land from America's upper mid-West to the middle of New York State was America's industrial heartland. Coal was mined and baked into coke; iron ore was mined and smelted into iron and steel; and all manner of products based on iron and steel were produced here. It was only after this area fell into decline and factories were closed and abandoned that this area received the pejorative label "rust belt."

One might argue that Colonial New York had its "rust belt" too, though it certainly differed in some significant ways.

Early in the 18th century the Livingston family was looking for ways to make their vast holdings east of the Hudson river profitable.  Their enterprise to make pine tar and pitch for the British Navy had been an unmitigated failure as the white pine stands on their property were unsuited for making "ship stores".  The German Palatines they brought over were equally unwilling to sell themselves into feudal bondage and become Livingston tenants. So Livingston manor lands remained for decades undeveloped and underpopulated. Then in the swamps and lowlands that bordered the Taconic hills, part of the Berkshires, bog iron was discovered. Bog iron came from iron oxides that washed from the hills and precipitated out, over time, into these low areas. Biochemical reactions with the bog flora caused the iron oxide to accumulate in lumps and nodules of "rust".  Judge Robert R. Livingston, the grandson of Robert Livingston, the founder of the Livingston dynasty in America, built the first smelter and forge.

The first smelters at the Livingston works may have been "bloomery" forges--essentially kilns filled with charcoal and iron ore in which the burning charcoal melted the ore into a plastic mass. The carbon monoxide produced by the burning charcoal combined with the oxygen locked in ore to produce carbon dioxide, and iron. Other impurities, including carbon and silicates, tended to concentrate in pockets throughout the iron. Once the ore had been heated and reduced, it was shoveled out. Then it was hammered at a forge, reheated, folded and re-hammered repeatedly until most of the impurities were broken out of it--a process dating back to the beginning of the iron age.

NYS 82, Ancram

Probably, very soon after the discovery of iron in the Taconic region the Livingstons invested in blast furnace technology. Blast furnaces used a larger kiln with air pumped into the base of the furnace to produce a hotter fire which melted the iron ore, facilitating the reduction process. Blast furnaces could be run continuously as the heavier molten iron and impurities called slag, could be drained out of the bottom of the furnace twice a day, and additional charcoal and iron ore shoveled into the top. Powdered limestone was added to the mix causing the impurities to form a glass-like slag. The lighter slag could be raked off the iron when it emerged from the furnace into cooling troughs, and broken up and discarded when it was cool. From a central trough formed in sand at the base of the furnace, the iron was channeled into other rectangular troughs on either side of the main trough, where it cooled into ingots. The arrangement of troughs was said to resemble a mother sow with piglets nursing on either side of her, so the iron produced became known as "pig iron."

A Cannon form at the Copake Iron Works

This iron could be remelted and cast into objects such as fire backs, kettles and cannon balls. Fine grain sand was used to make a mold by pressing a wooden form into it, then pouring the molten iron into the mold.  In 1755 Robert Livingston wrote a letter to the army apologizing for his failure to deliver on an order for wagon wheels and cannon shot for the expeditions against Crown Point and Fort Niagara due to labor unrest and a border dispute with Massachusetts that caused significant vandalism at his Ancram works.  The following year he made up for it by producing 36 tons of cannon balls for the British army.

Water wheels operating on 
the nearby Roelff Jansen Kill 
and Claverack Creek provided
mechanical power to
operate mechanical bellows
for the blast furnaces, turn 
lathes in the wood pattern 
shops, and operate heavy
trip hammers used in processing pig iron into malleable, weldable wrought iron.

The blast furnace at Copake
Ironworks Historical District.  
Built in 1825, the furnace was 
last updated in 1872. In recent 
years the site was stabilized and 
the wood structure built over it
to protect  it from the elements. 
 





The original bog iron was supplemented and eventually replaced by ore mined in Salisbury Connecticut and brought to the Ancram works by ox cart.  Later, hematite iron ore was discovered south of Copake by a Captain Weed. An open pit mine that would reach a depth of 50 feet was dug at the Weed Ore-bed in 1775. The following year, the Morgan Mine was opened by the Livingstons, two miles south of Ancramdale.

SITE OF WEED MINES
MINING BEGUN 1775   MINE                        NYSHM featured in a 1950's newspaper
ABANDONED 1890    ORE                             article (I was unable to find this marker)
WAS USED BY IRON WORKS
 AT ANCRAM
Location: Weed Mine Rd. (?)

 By 1750 Pig and Bar Iron (malleable wrought iron) accounted for most of the exports from the New York colony. On June 11, 1755 Governor William Tryon reported to the Lords of the Board of Trade in London:
             There are few mines discovered in the province [of New York].  One of Iron Ore, in the
                 Manor of Livingston, belongs to Robert Livingston,Esq; another in Orange county, the
                 property of Vincent Matthews, Esq; and one in the manor of Phillipsburg. The works 
                 belonging to the First [Livingston] are carried out to great advantage.*

Livingston records show from 1750 through 1756, 2016 tons of iron (presumably pig iron), 1302 tons of Bar Iron (presumably wrought iron) and 66 tons of Castings were produced.

The success of the Ancram forge encouraged the Livingston family to build the Marysburgh forges and the New Forge works.

New Forge Rd. II, Suydan (Taghkanic)

SITE OF
NEW FORGE
IRON WORKS 1770-1790
GRIST, FEED AND PLASTER                                            NYSHM near the Marysburgh forge site
MILLS, BLACKSMITH SHOP,                                            (I was unable to find this.)
STORE, DWELLINGS, 1800-1876
 Location: TN. RD., NORTH OF SUYDAN

The British encouraged the production of pig iron and wrought iron in the colonies because, although iron ore was mined in the United Kingdom,  refining iron used vast amounts of charcoal.  A single blast furnace could consume an acre of mature hardwood forest, converted into charcoal, in a day.
Britain did not have the forests that could sustain a sizable iron manufactory and until techniques for using coal began to replace charcoal use at the end of the 18th century, iron manufacturing lagged in Britain.  In line with mercantile theory,  Britain encouraged the production of commodities in her colonies she could not produce at home, and prohibited to the extent possible/practicable industries that would compete against her home industries. Thus pig iron could be produced and individual artisans like blacksmiths were allowed to practice their trades in America, but in 1750 rolling mills, slitting mills and steel refineries were forbidden in the colonies.  It would not be until the first part of the 19th century that small factories producing goods (mostly agricultural implements) of iron and steel sprung up in and near the Taconic region.

NYS 199, west of Pine Plains

SITE OF
PLOW FURNACE
ESTABLISHED 1830 BY JOHN
C. WHEELER ON CHRYSLER
POND OUTLET. 6 STYLES OF
PLOWS MADE. ABANDONED 1905
Location: CO. RD. W. OF CHRYSLER POND

                  Co.Rte 83, 3 mi. SE of Pine Plains

Gallatinville Rd., Silvernails

Taconic State Park Rd., Copake Falls

 

The Ancram Iron Works continued until 1864 and were joined by the Copake Iron Works in 1845. Lead ore was discovered in 1818 south of Ancramdale when a farmer, Henry Keefer, holding a "stoning bee" with his neighbors to help him clear a new field, began turning up rocks with a metallic lustre.  Robert Livingston leased the property and ran a small smelting operation there for ten years. Then the property went through a succession of leasers and owners until 1863 when the demand for lead for bullets encouraged a group of investors to invest in equipment to profitably process the ore there. The end of the Civil War, and the collapse of lead prices brought an end to the Ancram Lead Mine.

The use of coal in smelting operations and the development of rail transportation led to the eclipsing of iron production in the Taconics.  Henry Burden developed iron works in Albany and Troy, bringing iron from Linlithco mines in western Columbia County and the Port Henry/Ironville region on Lake Champlain, and coal from the Pennsylvania coal fields**.  He, in turn, was eclipsed the iron and steel giants that developed around Pittsburgh.

NYS 4, left side,  N end of the village

Marker of the Week --The First NYSHM?
The village of Schuylerville has many historic markers
reflecting the community's colonial and revolutionary past.
The marker on the right is arguably a New York State Historic Marker--a free standing sign, made of cast iron, painted blue with raised yellow letters, but look at the date on the post! It was made a full fifty years before the first New York State issued historic markers were produced in 1927, apparently at the centennial of the battle of Saratoga, 1877.

Next week we will look at other Schuylerville markers that seem to predate State issued markers.





*quoted in  Ellis, Franklin. History of Columbia County. 1878. p.136.
**The remarkable, inventive Henry Burden will be the subject of a future post.  Ironville was featured in  "It Happened Here--The Electric State--Part I",  posted on October  8, 2013 

It Happened Here--The Marksman

General Simon Fraser was a good battlefield commander. He was out where you would expect a good battlefield commander would be—out with his men, observing, directing their officers, encouraging his men by his words and his example. Everywhere he went up and down the battle line, the units under his gaze seemed to respond to orders with a little more speed and precision, formed up and discharged their weapons with a little more alacrity, fought a little harder. With a practiced eye he looked out across the fields and scattered woodlands and observed where the enemy was gathering and advancing and where the weak spots were developing in the enemy's line.

General Benedict Arnold was also very much a front line-combat general. He saw what needed to be done and gave the order to Colonel Morgan who relayed it to a dozen of his best marksmen.

General Fraser probably noticed the small party of rebels roughly in front of him, hiding behind fallen logs and trees, but he probably didn't give them a second thought, firing, as they were, from an impossibly long distance. They certainly didn't look like soldiers, either, dressed in linen hunting shirts, and floppy farmers hats. One of them was even climbing a tree! Besides, he had more important concerns as the rebels had pressed them hard, pushing them out of the wheatfield, and his line was beginning to falter. When a rifle ball clipped the mane of Frasier's horse, one of the general's officers suggested he was their target and perhaps he should retire to a safer location.  Rejecting his junior officer's suggestion, he spurred his horse into a gallop to continue down the line, when another puff of smoke emerged from that tree top. A searing pain split the General's abdomen and he toppled from his horse. The General would die the next day.

General Fraser marker at the Barber Wheatfield Battlesite

• THE SHOT THAT KILLED
  GEN. FRASER
  OCT. 7, 1777
  WAS FIRED FROM NEAR HERE
  BY TIMOTHY MURPHY
  OF MORGAN'S RIFLEMEN.
  Location: SARATOGA NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
  (Original NYSHM marker removed when new Signage was installed) 
  

 Where Fraser fell
at the edge of the
Wheatfield

Hibernian marker Honoring Murphy

The man in that tree top was a 26 year old farmer/frontiersman from the Minisink region along the Delaware River*. Though they didn't look the part, Timothy Murphy and his companions were battle hardened soldiers. Murphy had joined the Continental Army in June 1775, as part of Thompson's Rifle battalion, and marched to the siege of Boston in June or July. He fought in skirmishes before and during the Battle of Long Island and retreated with Washington's beaten army across New Jersey. In December he had crossed the icy Delaware River with Washington's troops to defeat the Hessians encamped at Trenton and fight the British at Princeton, a few days later, before retiring to winter encampment at Morristown. That winter, George Washington ordered Daniel Morgan, of the 11^th Virginia Regiment to raise an elite corps of riflemen. Five hundred  of these men, including Murphy, were dispatched to the Northern Department to support the troops opposing Burgoyne's invasion in July 1777.

  

Following the Saratoga battles American artillery and Morgan's Riflemen kept up the pressure on the camp Burgoyne's army had retreated to, encouraging them to surrender

--Corner Rte 32 and Mennen Rd., Victory


After Murphy's detachment returned to the main army outside Philadelphia,  Morgan's riflemen
skirmished with the British during their withdrawal from Philadelphia, and the following year Murphy and other riflemen were again sent north to help garrison the forts along the New York frontier that were being thrown up to counter the threat of Indian attacks.  Murphy and others were sent to the Schoharie Valley where he was stationed at the Middle Fort, at the Dutch/Palatine settlement of Weiser's Dorf that would one day be renamed Middleburgh. From there he participated in

"scouts" to look for signs of Tory/Indian activity.  The following year he rejoined the rest of Morgan's Riflemen  in the Sullivan Campaign against the Iroquois.  Toward the end of that campaign, deep in Seneca territory he was with the ill-fated scouting party led by Lieutenant William Boyd that was ambushed. Murphy and a few others managed to escape but the others were killed and Boyd, and his Sargent were captured and tortured to death by the Iroquois.

In 1780 Murphy's enlistment was up and he chose not to reenlist, settling, instead, back in the Schoharie Valley where he was attracted by the rich farmlands and the young daughter of John  Feeck, perhaps the wealthiest man in the valley whose house, enclosed within a stockade, served as the central building in the Upper Valley Fort. The Feecks were unimpressed by this brave but illiterate frontier soldier whose future seemed destined to end with his scalp hanging on a trophy pole in some distant Iroquois longhouse. So, Timothy Murphy courted Margret in secret; had the banns of matrimony published at the Middle fort and with the connivance of friends and fellow soldiers manage to elope to Schenectady, where they were married. Only when Murphy threatened to leave with his bride to the Pennsylvania frontier, did Mr and Mrs Feeck warm to their new son-in-law, and Murphy and his bride settled near them after war's end.

Not surprisingly, Murphy joined the militia and volunteered for hazardous patrols deep in Iroquois territory, but he became best known for his actions when the Middle Fort was attacked late in October of 1780.

NY Rte 30, south of Middleburgh (both)

After raiding Johnstown in May of 1780,  Joseph Brant launched a second assault from the southwest, following the Indian trail that followed up the  Susquehanna, through the Charlotte valley, and the Panther creek to the upper (southern) end of the Schoharie Valley. Brant shared command with Lt. Col. Sir John Johnson and together they commanded a mixed force of 90 British Regulars, 130 Butler's Rangers, 250 King's Royal Regiment (Loyalists), 30 German Jagers, 80 Indian Department Men** (under Brant) and some 200 Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Delawares.  With them on sledges they pulled a small bronze cannon on removable legs that fired a 3" solid ball, called a "grasshopper" and two mortars (probably Coehorns) that lobbed 4" hollow exploding cannon balls. Brant chose such a late date to begin his raid because a main objective was to destroy the grain harvest after it had been collected into barns up and down the Schoharie  and Mohawk Valleys.

                                                                                                                                                Schoharie Co. Rte 20, Summit          

             NY 30, Fultonham                                                                          
                         
                                                                                                                  





                        Replica Coehorns at a
Monument on the Ticonderoga Battlefield
Johnson's were slightly smaller 4"mortars.




In command of the three Schoharie Valley forts, stationed at the Middle fort, was a Continental officer, Major Melanchthon Lloyd Woolsey,  apparently a dashing, charming figure known for his equestrian jumping ability. Major Woolsey, however, had a flaw fatal for a military officer.

NY 145, Middleburgh

Brant and Johnson's force by-passed the Upper Valley Fort, hoping to get nearer the center of the valley to begin torching barns and homes before they were discovered. But then a party from the Upper fort stumbled into the rear of their column, and soon an alarm cannon was sounding from the Upper fort.  A scouting party, that included Murphy, was sent from the Middle fort to investigate,  and was forced to  make a fighting retreat back to their fort north of Weiser's Dorf.  The Crown forces quickly surrounded the Middle fort as the Indians and their Indian Department handlers fanned out to systematically burn and pillage, and the Regulars employed their meager artillery against the fort.  Johnson, after a short while, became disappointed at the seeming lack of effect his artillery was having on the Fort, so he attempted a different tactic--he would try to negotiate a surrender.

Meanwhile, inside the fort the exploding shells were having a negligible effect, except on the fort's commander.  Major Woolsey was gripped by fear--uncontrollable fear.  No doubt his fear was heightened by the knowledge that the fort had not received a promised allotment of gunpowder, and had precious little to withstand a determined or protracted assault. Perhaps from his vantage point he could get a sense of how outnumbered his garrison was. (There were actually less than 250 defenders to repel nearly 800 attackers.)  And of course there was the awful specter of the fort being overrun with the carnage and scalpings and mutilations and ritual tortures of survivors that characterized this war on the frontier. Woolsey must have shown a palpable sense of relief when he saw a green uniformed Tory officer coming forward with a fifer and flag bearer carrying a white banner to discuss surrender terms.  He retired to get ready to meet them when he heard a shot ring out from his own palisade warning them off. Enraged, he raced up on the firing platform, pistol in hand, demanding to know who had fired the shot. As the fort's officers gathered around, Timothy Murphy spoke up declaring he had. Woolsey threatened to shoot him if he attempted to fire again. Murphy responded that rather than see the flag enter the fort, he would put a bullet through the major's heart.  Woolsey ordered Murphy's arrest but the fort's officers were on Murphy's side, and no one moved.  Woolsey stormed off, hesitating only when he heard Murphy's rifle chasing back the Tory officer for a second time***.

NY 30, south of Middleburgh on the roadside turnout

Johnson, perhaps observing the dissension in the fort, sent his officer out a third time, only to be chased back a third time by a shot from Murphy's rifle; and the battle resumed. The major sought cover in a protected area of the fort where the women and children were being sheltered but was driven out by their threats and derisive comments. Seeking shelter between buildings near a cellar that served as the fort's magazine, Woolsey encountered militia Colonel Peter Vroman****, bringing up powder and shot. (Vroman had chosen to carry the powder himself, so the defenders didn't realize how short they were of gunpowder.) Vroman asked  Woolsey why he wasn't up in the fort directing his men.  The Major abjectly replied that the men refused to follow his orders and now Vroman was in command. Just then a cannon shot from the Tories' 3" cannon ricocheted between the buildings and fell at the Colonel's feet. Vroman picked it up and playfully ordered Woolsey to return it to the Tories.

Burial site marker for P. Vroman at the Old Stone Fort Church

Woolsey made an obscene comment and Vroman replied he regretted he had left his sword behind when he came to fetch the gunpowder for otherwise he would run him through with it.

After the Brant's Indians and Tories had completed their work of destruction in the vicinity of Weiser's Dorf, Johnson's forces melted away as suddenly as they had come, continuing down the valley to Schoharie. They surrounded the Lower Fort, a palisade encircling the stone Schoharie Dutch Church, and commenced burning barns and houses in the area. They kept up a desultory fire for a few hours before moving on to set up overnight camp near what became Sloansville, and continued their raid up the Mohawk Valley. The following day, Major Woolsey mounted his horse and left the Schoharie Valley, never to return.

The "Old Stone (Lower Valley) Fort" Fort Rd., Schoharie

Rte 30A, Sloansville

Early the following year Timothy Murphy enlisted in the Pennsylvania Line, under "Mad" Anthony Wayne, participating in the Southern Campaign that culminated in the surrender of Cornwalis at Yorktown. After the war he returned to the Schoharie Valley, became a successful farmer, ran a gristmill, and although he never learned to read or write, entered local politics. He had several children with Peggy and after she died in 1807, he remarried and moved to the Charlotte Valley where he continued to farm and raised a second family.  In his final year he returned to Fultonham and when he died was buried in the Middleburgh Cemetery next to his first wife, in 1818.

                               At the Murphy home,
                                       Charlotteville, NY

Rte 145, south of Middleburgh

*In recent years historians have backed away from the assertion that Murphy was the rifleman that killed Gen. Fraser. The only evidence comes from Jeptha Simms who says he got the story from one of Murphy's sons who reported his father told him he had made the fatal shot. Another witness claimed he had seen an old farmer with an exceptionally long rifle shoot the General. (Rifles at that time were individually crafted, and could be made to a buyer's specifications.) Daniel Morgan, who spoke about the incident on several occasions never identified the shooter, however, there is no doubt that Murphy was at the battle, and acknowledged as one of the best marksmen in the corps, he would likely have been one of those chosen for the assignment.
**Indian Department men were quasi-military leaders whose job it was to accompany the Indians and act as liaisons between
the warriors and the British military. 
***Murphy was said to own a rare double barreled rifle which though perhaps to heavy to carry on long patrols, he probably had with him on garrison duty. 
****Also written as Vrooman.

It Happened Here -- At the Liberty Pole

Fourth of July weekend is a time for parades, fireworks and patriotic displays. One of the first displays of patriotism, (or at this time--rebellion), was erected a little way west of Caughnawaga (present day Fonda) near the house of John Veeder.

The Liberty Pole dates back to Roman times when a pole was erected in ancient Rome to celebrate the assassination of Julius Caesar, and the brief restoration of the power of the democratic Senate over the Emperor. It was topped with a red cap (Latin--pileus) traditionally worn by freed slaves on feast days. In the last decade, in America, the "Sons of Liberty" had erected poles in Boston and New York to protest British taxes and sanction imposed on the Colonies.

N. William St., Johnstown

Events were moving rapidly in the spring of 1775 both in the Colonies, and locally in Tryon County to polarize Whig and Tory factions. In March, Loyalists at the courthouse in Johnstown had put forth a declaration condemning the actions of the Continental Congress; in April militamen and the King's troops had come to blows at Lexington and Concord;

 In June a much more serious battle would occur at Bunker hill;  in June a local Committee of Safety would be formed in Tryon County to protect citizens from the threatened actions of the Tories; and Sir John Johnson and his loyalists would begin fortifying Johnson Hall.

Hall Avenue, W.State St. Johnstown

 At the Veeder homestead perhaps two hundred farmers and tradesmen had gathered to hear speeches and declarations of resistance to British taxation and regulation. At the culmination of the rally the crowd surged forward to lift a large liberty pole and set it in a prepared hole in the ground.  As they did Sir John Johnson came thundering up in his carriage, surrounded by his lieutenants, Col. Guy Johnson, Col. Daniel Claus, and Walter Butler, with a retinue of retainers from Johnson Hall, armed to the teeth.

Rte. 5, west of Fonda

Guy Johnson forced his way onto the front stoop,which served as a speakers platform. Had Johnson chose to address the crowd in a conciliatory manner, reminding them of the great affection they had had for his late-uncle, Sir William Johnson and the role the British monarch had played in bringing many of their Palatine fathers and grandfathers to this valley he might have won over many of the uncommitted participants and spectators.  But instead, Johnson, his blood up, began to berate the participants for their disloyalty and ridicule any thoughts they might harbor of warring against the mighty British empire, capping his tirade with a threat to turn loose the feared Iroquois into the valley to scalp and pillage.  Johnson's words only served to infuriate the crowd.

Standing among participants was a respected farmer, Sampson Sammons and two of his sons, Jacob and Frederick.  Jacob, a volatile teenager rushed the platform shouting "Villian!"
Johnson holding the whip from Sir John's carriage struck him with the lead-weighted handle of the whip, then struck him again when he attempted to rise and aimed a pistol at the boy before it was batted away by another bystander. Shoving and blows followed until cooler heads in the crowd intervened to stop a melee between unarmed protestors and the Johnson's armed retainers that could have turned into a massacre.

DAR Monument at the site

The crowd dispersed, but the feelings generated at the Liberty Pole that day would ignite a war that would burn in the Valley for the next seven long bloody years.






                      
                                      Rte 30A,  Fonda

The Sammons family would
suffer greatly during the Revolution.

Rte 5, Amsterdam

Guy Park was abandoned 
when Col. Guy Johnson
left for Canada later that
year 


A few years ago Guy Park
was severely damaged by
Hurricane Irene floodwaters

Marker of the Week -- Reflected Glory?

Rte. 7, Worcester

In the U.S., Presidents are the closest
thing we have to royalty, so any
connection with a president is apt
to have a certain cache, even if that
connection is only that it was the
residence of the father of a  president
born, raised and served as a
congressman from Ohio, who served
only seven months and is known
mainly for being assassinated.




I suppose it is at least as "historic" as this marker:

 Broad St., Port Henry