The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-25
Canaan'S Iron
 And Lime Part Played in the Revolu- tionary War William HI. Barnum Figures in the Story-Iron that Beats the World
tFrom the Berkshire Gleaner1

CFrom the Berkshire GIeaner.)
 Our second article on Canaan, Con-
 necticut is to be the story of the lime and iron industries. It is these two
 natural products that have been *he making of Canaan, from the early be- ginningS of the town until to-day. There is little agricultural wealth, but very slight water power, and no for est.
 The greater historical interest is at
 tached to the making of iron. It ais
 somewhat singular that a town which
 never produced a pound of iron ore should successfully continue Smelting
 past the oldtime conditions and through those of modern times. Many towns Smelted iron ore hauled from mines perhaps twenty miles away pre- vious to the day of railroads, but long since gave up the contest with new methods of handling ore. Not so with Canaan, she still haul s foreign ore and
 keeps cn reducing it at the old stand.
 Canaan's industry has been built up successfully from the beginning and
 While to a certain extent all iron found in this mountain section goes under the name of "Berkshire iron" yet the ore found in Salisbury has greater tensile strength than that found in the mines in this county
 When in Canaan recent y We walked
 to East Canaan, four miles, saw the operation Of smelting, the ore wheele0
 
 liquid metal ready to draw off.
 The pioneer iron forge in this sec ton of tine country, making iron di- rect1y from ore mined on the spot. was at Lime Rock and the date 1734. Squire Samuel Forbes of Canaan was the discoverer of the deposits. By his great success in building up the smeIting works in his own town he was given the title of the iron prince which he retained and was so spoken vf after death, the local Carnegie of ed Furnace Village Ethan Allen of Ticonderoga fame was member of the Salisbury company in revolutionary days. The mines were owned for a time by an Eng1ishman, and later for another period by the same man. Squire Forbes began making iron in East Canaan about 1750. He made ship anchors which weighed frorn-half a ton to two tons each These were shipped to Boston, the Hudson and other seaport points, hauled by 6-yoke OK teams, the longer trips taking six weeks. The Squire was also one of the owners of the Sa 'isbury mines and the principal workings in the early days was known as the Forbes bed The ore was brought on horseba ok from Salisbury to Canaan, fourteen miles. later by wagon, long processions of teams in line making a spectacular feature in the country which the old CT people still remember and speak of. This continued up to the opening of the western railroad at the close of 1S41.
 Why was the sneltinE business started in Canaan with such a heavy handicap In the hauling? It was ow- ing, primarily. to the man, Squire Forbes, who wished to create an in dustry for his own town There were 6ay The Blackberry river, small as it Is, has a good fall hidden under the edge of the mountain close to the present smelter, while Salisbury has no water power Then in those days Canaan mountain was heavily timber ed and this furnished the material fo~ making the fine charcoal iron for which the town of Salisbury Is fla nous. The charcoal used in the smelters in Canaan and Salisbury is now and has for many years been Squire Forbes established in Canaan, sitting mill for making nail rods There were then but two in the coun- try, at Boston and Maryland. The process was a close secret and was se- cured for the squire by his young wife who made a trip on horseback for the purpose and by womanly tact, was permitted to see the closely guarded secret, her identity being unknown,
 Squire Forbes a so operated a forge in Salisbury and made cannon for the revolutionary army He made anchO s, large kettles and other articles of iron. The anchors were the principal busi- ness, they being hammered out by hand with large sledges direct from the SnGIt6d ore. lie naQ paper m l in Canaan, which was burned in 1900 and not rebuilt.
 The old sForbes property eventually came into the possession of the fla concern that piled up great wealth For several years money poured into the treasury of the national democratic party by William H. Barnun, national l money coined from the 1 iron furnaces, was the power behind | the tn one that did much toward mak- | ing the party an aggressive factor. It | was his father, Milo Barnum, that en- bury, the firm later buying the Canaan forge. The output of the latter in | the early days was ? 1-2 tons of iron in l A hours. Now the product of the two | Canaan furnaces, one the year around, | the other part of the year only, is 1O,- 900 tons a year.
 It was under Barnum that the car wheel manufacture began, soon after 1S40. Car wheels require the kind of iron made in Litchfield and, Berk- shire counties to stand the continu- subjected. Wonderful stories are told of mileage runs of individual car wheels made from this iron.
 There were other furnaces started at different periods, one very import ant one about 1S45 by John Beckl y and William G. Pierce, which is stiI In commission and runs part of the time. 4 third furnace is standing In running order but is not used. All passed into the hands Of the Bar num- Richardson Company, who own ad in 1879 over 10000 acres of land, the greater part bought for charcoal producing.
 One of the oldest furnaces was at Lake wangum on the summit of Can aan mountain, built and run by the for hundred years. Only pare traces are left. There was a tra- Hilton that the great iron chain which vas used in the revolution to stop iraz he nd | ,on. was forged at these works, but we doubt it. other forges claiming the lonor. The Hanchetts made cannon or Washfngton's armies, and anchors irLnr n he a I1at fa 1 ,