Colonial and Early Ironworks, Berks County, Pennsylvania, 1716-1830

2025-12-19T09:33:24-05:00

Vendor: Masthof Press
Type: Book
Price: 26.00

The Pennsylvania iron industry began in Berks County, Pennsylvania, at Pine Forge in Douglass Township in 1716. Thomas Rutter, Germantown blacksmith, assembly member, and 7th Day Baptist minister went up the Schuylkill River to the Manatawny Region and built a bloomery forge there, the first ironworks in Pennsylvania. Four years later, he converted his bloomery to Pennsylvania’s first refinery forge and built Colebrook Dale Furnace on the Manatawny Creek, its first cold-blast charcoal furnace. Pennsylvania’s iron industry began in earnest. By 1776, Berks County had six active furnaces and nine forges that were making cannons and munitions for the Continental Government. This volume provides brief sketches of those early ironworks and the ironmasters who ran them.

Daniel A. Graham

2025, 6" x 8.75", Paper, index, 257 pp.

ISBN: 9781601269881

118-4627