06/28/2021
Did you know that North Central and Northwest CT was once a hot bed of smelting? Yes - they smelt it AND dealt it.
As early as 1719 the owners of the English Iron Works companies had tried, and failed, to shut down fledging operations in Massachusetts which had already constructed six furnaces and 19 forges for smelting ore and manufacturing iron implements, even though the House of Commons had passed a bill stating “'that none in the plantations (colonies) should manufacture iron wares of any kind out of any sows, pigs, or bars whatsoever”.
Clearly England considered America to be a land of consumers, and not manufacturers to challenge the Crown.
In 1728 Samuel Higley bought 143 acres of land from William Dement of Enfield, and dug two mining pits into the earth, removing hundreds of tons of iron ore which were shipped to England for smelting.
By 1732 Thomas Lamb purchased 5000 acres of land and water privileges on the Salmon Fell Kill in Lime Rock, 60 miles west of Enfield, successfully extracting and smelting iron at his forge at Furnace Hollow.
Two years later, in 1734, large deposits Limonite, also known as Brown Hematite, were discovered in Salisbury, a small town nestled in the northernmost left corner of the Nutmeg State. The iron smelted from this mineral was of such high quality that forge masters travelled great distances to purchase the ore, carrying the nuggets back in leather saddlebags or in horse drawn carts.
Ever independent, Connecticut blacksmiths mostly eschewed the furnace in favor of the simpler forge, as it gave them greater control when producing iron for horseshoes, hinges, hasps, latches, nails, tools, and any implement required to withstand bending or sudden shock.
