IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. It is not known whether the mound-builders or other contempo raneous inhabitants of the United States were acquainted with the use and manufacture of iron, nor is it on record that any iron imple ments were ever found in the ruins of the ancient civilization of America. It is stated by Prescott that iron Was not used by the natives of Mexico and Peru at the time of the conquest although at that time they were the most ad vanced in all the arts of civilization. It is like wise believed that at the time of the discovery of America the Indians were unacquainted with the use of iron. Hammered implements and ornaments of meteoric iron, however, have been discovered notably in the ancient mounts of Ohio.
Iron ore was first discovered within the lim its of the United States in 1585 in North Caro. ling by an expedition organized by Sir Walter Raleigh but no use was made of it at the time. The first export of iron took place in 1608 when in April of that year a boat of the Vir ginia Company of London (the first permanent English colony) loaded with iron ore and other roducts of the soil sailed for England from Jamestown, Va.
The first iron works in the United States were erected at Falling Creek, Va. (near Rich mond), in 1619 by the Virginia Company, but Indian troubles and the revocation of the char ter of the company in 1624 caused this first at tempt at manufacturing iron in the States to end in disaster. Doubt even exists as to iron hav ing ever been made at these works. Nor is it known whether they included a blast furnace and refinery or only a bloomary. The first suc cessful Iron Works in the United States were located on the Saugus River, near Lynn, Mass., where iron ore had been discovered in 1629. The works were built in 1643 by John Win throp, Jr. (the son of the governor), and 10 other Englishmen forming the Company of Undertakers for the Iron VVorks.° They prob ably included a blast furnace, and seven to eight tons of pig-iron were produced weekly. It is
believed that they were discontinued in about 1688 owing to lawsuits over the overflow of water and unpopularity caused by a fear that they would cause a scarcity of timber. It is at these works that the first iron casting was made consisting in a small iron pot. The pot is still in the possession of some of the descendants of one of the owners of the land on which the works were erected.
In 1647 Joseph Jenks built at the Lynn plant a forge for the °manufacture of scythes and other edge tools,° and it is at these works also that in 1652 were made the dies for the first silver pieces coined in New England at the mint established that year at Boston, as well as, for the city of Boston, the first engine made in America.
In about 1646 the Lynn Company built a fnrnace and a forge at Braintree, some 10 miles south of Boston, where, however, operations ceased in 1653 for lack of suitable iron ore.
In 1652 iron works were built near Taunton, Mass., being put in operation in 1656. Bar iron was made directly from the ore in a bloomary. These works were still active in 1865, at which time they consisted of four forge fires, two hammers and two water-wheels. They were soon after abandoned and dismantled.
Other iron enterprises in Massachusetts fol lowed those that have been mentioned, notably at Topsfield, near Ipswich, in 1677, at Boxford in 1680, on Strong Brook and at other places near Taunton in 1696 It is apparent, there fore, that Massachusetts remained for over 100 years after its settlement the chief centre of iron manufacture in the United States. The works consisted chiefly of bloomaries although they included some blast furnaces for the direct production of castings but not for the making of pig iron. The iron was derived from bog and pond ores, charcoal was used as fuel and water power utilized.
Tice names of the New England settlers Winthrop, Jenks and Leonard and of some of their descendants are closely associated with these early enterprises.