Farrandsville's furnace is a blast from the past

By DAVID KAGAN dbkagan@comcast.net

Massive front wall of the Farrandsville Iron Furnace, with Clinton County Historical Society plaque, is shown here. The roar of the furnace has been stilled for a century-and-a-half, but the 54-foot-high front wall remains. It is a memory wall, with a Clinton County Historical Society plaque on the front, on which are inscribed the words, "Farrandsville Iron Furnace 1837. The first successful hot-blast furnace in North America to produce high quality pig-iron. An outstanding example of dry masonry. One of the largest early furnaces in existence in America today."

FARRANDSVILLE - One might say that Clinton County's village of Farrandsville was built on a foundation of iron and brick. Named after William P. Farrand, the community was, arguably, the industrial center of the county by the late 1830s.

Farrand of Philadelphia first arrived in the area around 1830 as an agent for Boston investors. Discovering bituminous coal in what would be named Colebrook Township (originally Coalbrook because of the deposits), he set a plan to mine it for shipment to eastern markets.

Farrand focused on the wild region about six miles above Lock Haven, on the eastern side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, near the mouth of Lick Run (named so for the deer licks in the vicinity). His exploration of the area during the winter of 1831-32 became almost legendary.

Accessible then only by horse path, the mountainous spot was covered by snow up to 3 feet in depth that year. Farrand reportedly spent many nights there without shelter, sometimes roused by the growls of bears or the screams of panthers.

Whatever the truth of his ordeals, within about three years, mainly through Farrand's direction, the town of Farrandsville was established. Finding both coal and iron ore veins, Farrand apparently was integral to initiating the mining of both.

By 1836, the so-called Lycoming Coal Co. was sending coal to markets from three mines. A small community of miners and their families, called Minersville, had developed on the mountain just northeast of Farrandsville.

By 1837, the Farrandsville hot-blast iron furnace had been erected and was operating. With limestone brought in from nearby Nittany Valley (some of it via the extension of the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal to Farrandsville completed in 1835), with fossiliferous red oxide iron ore mined from around Farrandsville and with coke made from the nearby mountain coal mines and brought down to the furnace by an inclined plane, the furnace produced pig-iron at a rate of up to 1,100 tons per year. Records show that it took 70 men to maintain the steady blast that created one ton of iron from each 3,000 tons of iron ore, 3,000 tons of coke, and 2,000 tons of limestone.

A second industrial enterprise began in 1836, just south of Farrandsville in the vicinity of Queen's Run. Commercial quality hard and soft clay had been discovered, and in 1836 the county's first firebrick works was established there.

A Professor Rogers, in his 1840 "4th Annual Geological Report" of Pennsylvania, wrote that the area's "fire-clay" vein was 6- to 7-feet thick, lying immediately below a layer of coal. And by 1840, "6,000 9-inch bricks each week" were being produced, "worth about $45 per hundred."

From November 1873 until the spring of 1874, Fredericks, Munro and Co. constructed even more extensive firebrick works in the Farrandsville area. It erected a large main firebrick plant and three storage buildings, each capable of holding 40,000 bricks.

In the late 1800s, knowledge of brick-making was at a high level, with its steps (preparation, mixing, forming and drying, and firing and cooling) understood down to a science. Beehive kilns, for example, an immensely improved firing method, were adopted throughout the county.

By 1913, Harbison-Walker owned the Farrandsville area brickworks, along with over a dozen other Clinton County brick companies. Their Farrandsville plant lasted until 1926, ending a successful run of 90 years.

The Farrandsville iron furnace, unfortunately, didn't experience the same long-lasting success. But there was a short heyday from the mid-1830s through the early 1840s. A nail factory produced up to 10 tons of nails a day. A rolling mill also existed. Three boarding houses, a large hotel, two "reputable" taverns, a school, and about 90 family dwellings existed. The census of 1840 listed Colebrook Township's population as 546, but by 1850 it was down to 326.

Why did the Farrandsville iron industry fail after such a short time? Historian John Blair Linn, in his 1883 book, the "History of Centre and Clinton Counties," wrote, "Probably the real causes leading to abandonment were lavish and injudicious expenditure at the outset, inferior transportation facilities (the Sunbury and Erie Railroad wasn't completed to Lock Haven until 1859, with no connection up to Farrandsville until a number of years after that), the great distance whence a supply of (high quality) ore was obtained, and, finally, disagreement among the members of the company regarding the manner of conducting operations."

Despite the collapse of the iron industry, Farrandsville survived. Along with the flourishing firebrick industry, respectable lumbering operations developed. In 1860 the greater Farrandsville area had sawmills that cut about 6 million feet of boards. Steam "gang mills," with their very efficient "up-and-down" arrangements of saws, buzzed through the lumber.

In the 1870s, Newton Fredericks and Charles and Frederick Kreamer constructed a large sawmill (with a capacity of 25,000 feet per day) along Lick Run. It employed up to 30 men, with its logs cut from up the run.

A very interesting historical note about early Farrandsville involves the erection of an elaborate structure called the "Queen's Mansion" about a mile above the community on the same eastern side of the river. Most likely built in the late 1840s or early 1850s, with money provided by the Spanish royal family, it reputedly was to be used by Maria Christina and her daughter, Isabella II (who had succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1833 at the age of three, when King Ferdinand VII died) as a retreat in the event of trouble in Spain, but they never came to the United States.

Spanish agents for Christina and Isabella, John and Christopher Fallon, had come to America, bought large tracts of land in the Farrandsville area, and supervised construction of the "palace." Interestingly, the brothers also built Lock Haven's Fallon House in 1855. The Fallon House stands today as a hotel, but the Queen's Mansion was abandoned by about 1860 and then plundered of its interior furnishings and decorations, including marble mantels and exquisite fireplaces. Soon after, only ruins were left at the site.

Notable in the 20th century was the construction beginning in April 1933 of a log lodge not far up Queen's Run. With the labor provided by men who only received food for their efforts (the first work relief project in Clinton County, predating the Works Progress Administration by at least six months), "Rocky Point Lodge" served through the years since then as a youth camp, church camp, sports camp, hunting lodge, a popular restaurant and now a private residence.

Today, just past the bridge over Lick Run and along the side of Farrandsville's main street, is the Colebrook Township Municipal Building, where the supervisors meet once a month. A recent addition to the structure provides the 179 residents of Farrandsville with a place to go for get-togethers and parties.

Behind the municipal building is the Farrandsville Community Park, established in 1978. With its pavilion, picnic tables, baseball field, tennis court, basketball court, and children's playground, the park is a center of activity, especially in the summertime. Additional summer activity at the park this year will include a karate camp and a motorcycle trials event (both in July).

Groundskeeper Shane Miller, who drives to work each day from Mill Hall, is proud of the way the park looks. "I replanted all the grass seed, and it should look good by the middle of this summer," he said.

Township supervisor and secretary, Pauline Simcox, a lifelong resident of Farrandsville, is very satisfied with her life there. "It's just peaceful," she said. "Of course, I don't know any better, as I've been here my whole life, but it's always good to come home."

Farrandsville's place of worship, the People's United Methodist Church, was established in 1887. Up the hill at the east end of the 40 to 50 dwellings that make up the village, the small, wooden church overlooks bubbling Lick Run far below it. Pastor Sharon Nestlerode, a lay minister, conducts services every Sunday at 9 a.m.

The roar of the Farrandsville iron furnace has been stilled for a century-and-a-half, but the massive, 54-foot-high front wall remains. It is a memory wall, with a Clinton County Historical Society plaque on the front, on which are inscribed the words, "Farrandsville Iron Furnace 1837. The first successful hot-blast furnace in North America to produce high quality pig-iron. An outstanding example of dry masonry. One of the largest early furnaces in existence in America today."

SOURCES: (1) "Clinton County: A Journey Through Time," a 1989 book published for the Clinton County Sesquicentennial, with Centennial committee members Susan Hannegan and Jean May as editors; (2) "A Picture of Clinton County," a 1942 book published by the Commissioners of Clinton County under a PA Writers' Project of the Works Project Administration; (3) "History of Centre and Clinton Counties," an 1883 book by John Blair Linn; and (4) "Historical View of Clinton County, Pennsylvania," an 1875 book by D. S. Maynard.

Sourced from Williamsport Sun-Gazette