The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-01-01
NUMBER 80.
COLONIAL RELICS.
Four Revolutionary Cannon UneartheSl
80 fn P6nMsy lvania. ~ sskifs sNss

philadelphia Record.l
Half dozen Of stalwart horses pulled
a wagon iato the yard of the Bush Hill
Iron Company, al Twentieth and But
tonwOod Streets, on recent afternoon.
On the wagon were four cannon They
were SO red that at a dista oce they
might have been taken for rolls of clay.
\ close inspection prove, however, that
they we're covered with thick coat of
rust; so thick, in fact, that large pieces
could have been Clipped out in some
parts with penkniie. The passer-by
who noticed these musty pieces of ord
nance did not deign second glance, but
the employees in the yard eyed the ar
rivals with considerable curiosity. Per-
haps their breasts at the moment were
filed with patriotic fire. for the history
OF the cannon is intimately connected
with the independence of the country.
A hundred years ago, between War
wick and Valley Forge a charcoal iron
as the :, Potts : furnace, from the fact
that it was owned by family of that
name. Here the cannon was moulded
into form, and here they. were lyingia
-f777, but a few days before the battle Of
lBrandywine. General Anthony Wayne
was connected with the Potts family,
and fearing that the. cannon might fall
into British hands, sent q request only a
day before that memorable battle that
they might be hid beyond the possibil-
sity of discovery. How to comply with
this request, was q matter which much
puzzled the honest and patriotic Pottses.
Finally they hit upon device. Thera
was swamp in the meadows a short
distance away, and there it was deter
mined to inter the guns. Oxen were
procured, snd the iron weapons were
dragged across the fields and allowed to
sink down deep in the mud. There they
we're safe from being counted with the
British spoils. .-7, ara. se fsasss ,,,;g-
For the last hundred years the Potts
family, one generation succeeding
another, has remained on the homestead,
and the story of the buried cannon has
been handed down. In 1875 the idea OF
recovering them occurred to the present
represen tatives of the race, and before
the year had closed the cannon were
above ground. One of the four was
in such good state of preservation that
| a six-pound charge of powder was fired
out of it on the first day of the Centen-
NAL year. Recently Mr.. Potts con.
to furnace owner, and, in spite Of the
circumstances of his neighbors, who de.
clared that it would be nothing less thar
sacrilege to destroy such historic arti.
cles, be carried out his idea
| The cannon will be melted prepara-
| tory to being turned into rolling mill
machinery. They weigh about two tons
each, and. are six feet in length, with q
diameter of eighteen inches at the butt
and six-inch BORE Each has the letters
"P. w. F"-(Potts' Warwick Fur
| nace) but although originally cut very
! deep, the let ers arc almost obliterated
| by decay of the material. e
/ The improvement of the art OF man
ufacturing weapons of war was strik
| ingly illustrated at the yard when thest
four Colonial engines were dumped be
side couple of thirty two Founders
] each ten feet long, of modern make
| The outside of these were jet black, and
| almost as smooth as glass. They belong
| to the now obsolete smoothbore pattern
4 and came from Fort McHenry. Th,
two weigh IA 400 pounds. Near thes.
again were a dozen or more rusty ole
guns, which came recently from Port
ugal as ballast for ship laden will
cork. They are of about five-pount
| caiiber. and the scarcely decipherabl,
date 's1628' attests that they are twt
aad a-half centuries old IE the shop
on the other side of the street. were
couple of smoothbore guns which dit
good service on the Constitution durin.
| her enoapement with the Guerriere II
the war Of 1872.
| The business of melting down ole
cannon. for remanufacture into rolling
machinery, or of turning the arts 8
war into arts of peace, is attaining larg
dimensions at the, Bush Hill works
=, Tens of thousands of tons of iron hav,
4 been transformed in the same way. Il
one single week 833 tons of old cannon
have been received at the yard from th
lyGoyernment arsenals. II ssefs.s ~