The Newtown bee., 1909-08-27
The NeWtoWn Bee. Newtown, Friday, August 27, 1909.
Kent.
IRON INDUSTRY OF KENT.

One Of the llfst feholhtiehs passed at q town meeting in Kent referred to the "iron ore pots" This leads the writer to believe that antedating the settlement of the town iron had been discovered in the hills to the east and had been mined. The tra- dltlon is that the ore was taken in bags across the backs of horses and transported to small forges in neigh boring places. The first owners so far as known were Robert Walker of Stratford, Jabez Hurd of New town and John Warner and Thomas Noble of New Milford, the mine be- ing located in tract of land known as the Fairweather purchase. This was in 175S. The year before Joseph Wooster claimed he was one of the owners of copper mine in Kent and had petitioned the General Assembly to be allowed to work 1t at the ex- pense of himself and other members of the company until the profits paid the expenses, which goes to show that copper was sought for, too. In l7S6 Q committee was appointed to view and measure the severau roads leading from the iron ore beds tow ard the iron works who reported the distance of the north road from the bed to the crotch of the road south ward of the Widow Mary Hall two miles,, two quarters and 26 rods and the south road to Dea Isaac Dayton's place two miles, two quarters and 50 rods.
 After being worked for at least 150 years, the product going to Kent Furnace to be put into pig iron, the mine is now abandoned. The ore was originally taken by tunnelling into the side of the hill, but later it be- came necessary to sink a shaft about 300 feet deep, from which 70 pas sages were extended into the ore, the hill where the ore lies now being literally honeycombed with under ground tunnels, some of them several rods long. The veins usually were from two to eight feet thick. The ore was hoisted in buckets, the miners also ascending or descending in them when necessary to go up or down, although there was another shaft called the "man-hole" for that purpose. It is related that round broke once as a workman grasped it and he descended until his legs caught in the rounds below. When found his limbs wers broken and he died in the hospital shortly after The old machinery is housed in a small building beside the shaft, in- cluding a steam engine used fol hoisting ore and constantly pump ing to keep the mine free of water but for which 1t would have soon filled up. From 10 to 20 tons of ore were taken out daily and carted in teams six miles. The shaft Is now boarded up, and it is hardly probable that 1t will ever be opened again as the cost of transportation to market is too much to compete with large mines that have railroads at their shafta The property is still owned by the Kent Iron Co.,, better known as Stewart, Hopson & Co.,, which had a capital of t30,OOO and were also owners of the Kent Furnace, which will be described later. The Bulls Falls Iron Works capitalized at $70,000 was a very successful con- cern for several years but finally had to close it's doors. When it was at its height half . century ago Bulls Bridge was . hourishing community. There was . regular network of small forges in the surrounding villages which wrought all kinds of iron work from a nail to heavy wagon tires, getting their supply from Bulls Falls works, which beside casting the ore into pigs also worked it into small bars and strips. The majority of the iron was taken in two and four horse teams to Poughksepsie 30 miles away, where it wasprobably shipped down the Hudson to New York, the teams going one day and returning the next, stopping at Quaker Hill for | load of ore. This when 1t arrived was weighed in a very primitive way. Chains would bS placed around the aXles near the wheels, large steelyards would be put in place, and the load would be drawn up on a windlass. Twenty to 25 teams were kept in constant use and from 15 to 20 tons of iron was put into pigs daily. Regarding the industry we cannot describe it better than by quoting from an article from the pen of the late J. A. Bolles of the