The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1944-04-13

the big iron fur
mace located here
was in operation. There were also
furnaces at the Old Forge, on the
Antietam and on Licking Creek, in
the western section of the county at
Park Head Maurice w. Ditto dis
tinctly remembers the furnace at
Park Head 1t was on land adjoin-
ing his fathers farm. Where the
ore came from at some of these fur
naces is not known. Some no doubt
was gotten out of the earth where
the furnace was. At Mt. Aetna
there is today, Stag strewn about,
representing offal from the furnace.
It may be that some of these places
made cannon for the Revolutionary
War. At the Old Forge the Hughes
Bros. manufactured large template
stoves-large enough to accommo-
date a cord of wood and keep fire
over night. They also made nails
At the Licking Creek location Mr.
Ditto says he saw plenty of Stag.
An iron mine was located years
ago near Keedysville. For informa-
ton regarding this mine we are in
debted to Mr.. j. A. Miller, veteran
merchant of that place, IS years old,
believe it or not.
Here is what Mr. Miller says:
81 worked in these mines several
months in 1880. Previous to that
time l know very little. l have
been told that Elias Snavely lived
on his 300-acre farm about a mile
from the mines. AS a sideline he
undertook to operate the mines but
it did not pay him TO keep on the
job. About the year 1880 a Mr..
Krebs, OF York, Pa, interested in
an iron furnace, came on the job,
put in an ore washer and put men
to digging out the ore and washing
all the dirt or soil out Then ne
had practically pure ore. This ore
was then hauled on wagons a dis
lance of nearly four miles to Ante
tam station on the Washington
County Branch of the B. & o. and
shipped to York. Within a year
railroad connection was made in
Hagerstown between the B. & O..
and c. V. Railroads. Then the ore
was hauled to Keedysville about a
mile and loaded on the B. & O.
tracks.
'tMr Krebs discontinued the work
soon after, saying the iron ore in
western Pennsylvania, Minnesota
and elsewhere could be mined much
cheaper and delivered to the East
ern States. During that time 1
worked on the 'Geeting' mines and
also hauled ore to shipping points.
Aaron c.. Wyand was general
manager here for Mr.. Krebs. On
one occasion Mr. Wyand and myself
went to Clear Spring, in the Horse
and Buggy Days; to the mountains
near that town-nearly 81 years
ago-to inspect mine.
THE ore on the Geeting farm at
Keedysville was called Red Mema-
tite,' among the most valuable of
iron ores. In this field it was any
where from 10 to so feet or more
below the surface, which made it
costly to mine. A tunnel was run
under a hill to the depth of Is or
more feet, and all this made it cost
the more. There are visible evil
dences today of iron ore deposits at
Red Hill, where the ground is dis
tinctively red.
MANY charcoal pits are remind
ers of the days when the mountain
timber in the southern part of our
county was converted into charcoal
and hauled, by horse and wagon, of
course, to Antietam Furnace, three
miles from Sharpsburg, to be used
IN the manufacture of iron. That
was before the method of making
coke out of bituminous coal was
known.
Some traces of ore have been
found in the Keedysville Cemetery
when graves were opened. On the
c. M. Keedy farm, not far away
from the cemetery, Mr. Keedy sunk
shafts in search of ore but only
slight traces were found not
enough to encourage further eff
forts"