Sterling Iron Works
The Sterling Iron Works owned by Peter Townsend was one of the first steel and iron manufacturers in the American colonies and the first steel producer in the colony of New York. The company was most famous for forging the Hudson River Chain that kept the British Navy from sailing up the Hudson during the American Revolution, and served to protect the strategically important fort at West Point. The works were operational from 1761 to 1842.
In 1750 the first discovery was made of a rich superficial deposit of iron ore at the south end of Sterling Mountain, in the town of Monroe, New York. In the following year, Ward & Colton erected at the outlet of mine and Sterling Pond, in the extreme southern part of Warwick, near the Monroe line, a charcoal blast-furnace, which was the first in Warwick. These works were called the Sterling Iron-works, honoring General William Alexander (American general) known as Lord Stirling, the owner of the land, and later an officer in the Revolutionary army. They were built for the manufacture of anchors, including for the United States frigate, USS Constitution. A second Sterling furnace was built in 1777.
Several other veins of magnetic ore were later opened in the vicinity of the Sterling mine, which itself covered about 30 acres (120,000 m2). The Forest of Dean mine, a very extensive bed six miles (10 km) west-northwest of Fort Montgomery, as early as 1756 supplied a furnace, and was abandoned twenty-one years later. The vein is over 30 feet (9.1 m) thick and 150 feet (46 m) broad, and made good cold short iron.
The Long Mine, belonging to the Townsends, was discovered in 1761 by David Jones and supplied about 500 tons of ore annually to the Sterling Works over the next 70–80 years for an aggregate production of about 140,000 tons. It was the only mine at which systematic mining was attempted in that time, and was worked to the depth of 170 feet (52 m) on a single vein 6 feet (1.8 m) thick. The ore yielded 62 per cent, of strong tough metal, from which cannon, muskets, wire, steel, fine malleable iron, and harness-buckles were made.
The Mountain Mine, half a mile southwest of Long Mine, was found in 1758 by a hunter, in consequence of a tree having been blown up by he roots. The Iron from this mine was remarkable for its strength and fine polish, and was in consequence chiefly exported to England to be tinned.
Mr. Peter Townsend, who became the owner of Sterling Iron before the Revolutionary War, made iron anchors in 1773, and in 1776 produced the first steel in New York, at first from pig and afterward from bar iron. The first blister steel made in the State was made by his son, Peter Townsend, Jr., in 1810, from ore of the Long Mine on the Sterling estate. In the manufacture of edge-tools it was considered equal to the famous Dannemora mine Swedish Iron.
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