Bellefonte Furnace
Encyclopedia
Hot blast
Hot blast refers to the preheating of air blown into a blast furnace or other metallurgical process. This has the result of considerably reducing the fuel consumed in the process...
iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
furnace
Furnace
A furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven.In American English and Canadian English, the term furnace on its own is generally used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace , and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device used in the...
located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Bellefonte is a borough in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies about twelve miles northeast of State College and is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Founded in 1888, it was the first hot blast, coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
-fueled iron furnace to be built in Centre County, Pennsylvania
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Centre County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 153,990....
. While its founders hoped to transform Centre County's iron industry with modern technology, the furnace struggled to operate at a profit and was out of operation from 1893 until 1899. Thereafter, it operated more or less continuously until 1910, and was demolished four years later. It should not be confused with the charcoal-fueled Bellefonte Furnace and Forge on Logan Branch, which was replaced by Valentine Furnace.
Founding
The Bellefonte Furnace Company was formed in April 1887 by a group of investors from Bellefonte, HollidaysburgHollidaysburg, Pennsylvania
Hollidaysburg is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, on the Juniata River, south of Altoona. It is the county seat of Blair County. It is part of the Altoona, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is one of the communities that comprises the Altoona Urban Area...
, and Philadelphia. Principal investors included John Reilly
John Reilly (Pennsylvania)
John Reilly was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.John Reilly was born in Abnerville, Pennsylvania. He received home instruction and attended the public schools. He entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, on April 10, 1854. He was appointed...
, railroad contractors Phil and Tom Collins, and their nephew, Tom Shoemaker. The Collins brothers had already constructed the Buffalo Run, Bellefonte and Bald Eagle Railroad from Bellefonte to Struble
Struble, Pennsylvania
Struble is an unincorporated community in Ferguson Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, located at .The town was named after Conrad Struble, who owned a farm there which proved to lie over rich deposits of iron ore. Mining began in 1880...
, opening up the iron ore deposits of the western Nittany Valley
Nittany Valley
The Nittany Valley is an eroded anticlinal valley in the central portion of Centre County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is separated from the Bald Eagle Valley by Bald Eagle Mountain and from Penns Valley by Mount Nittany. The valley is closed to the north by a high plateau that joins...
. Building a modern furnace to smelt the ore was a logical extension of their interests, since as yet all the furnaces in Centre County were charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
-fueled cold blast
Cold blast
Cold blast, in ironmaking, refers to a furnace where air is not preheated before being blown into the furnace. This represents the earliest stage in the development of ironmaking...
furnaces.
The new furnace company had ore rights at Blair Bank, near Stormstown
Stormstown, Pennsylvania
Stormstown is a census-designated place in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Red Bank, near Scotia
Scotia, Pennsylvania
Scotia was a village in Patton Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, at . Although the community was called Scotia, the name of the local post office was Benore ....
, and Johnson Bank, near Struble, and shared rights with the McCoy & Linn iron company at Oreland, to the east of Struble. The BRB&BERR built additional branches to reach these ore pits, extending the Red Bank Branch to Blair and Red Bank and the Oreland Branch to Oreland in 1887. Bellefonte Furnace itself was to be located on the former site of the town fairgrounds, a 12 acres (4.9 ha) site on the northwest edge of town, just south of Buffalo Run.
The furnace and associated buildings were built from brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
quarried along the Oreland Branch. They were designed by Taws & Hartman, a Philadelphia engineering partnership that specialized in the construction of blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
s. The furnace complex included a stock house for storing raw materials, the furnace itself, 70 feet (21.3 m) tall, three stoves and an engine house for heating and pressurizing the hot blast, and a cast house where the molten iron could be formed into casting
Casting
In metalworking, casting involves pouring liquid metal into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowing it to cool and solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or broken out of the mold to complete the process...
s. The smokestack for the stoves, 153 feet (46.6 m) high, was the most prominent part of the complex. The BRB&BERR, which ran along the north side of Buffalo Run here and had its shops immediately to the north of the furnace, laid a spur into the furnace complex, with several tracks for delivering supplies and receiving products.
Ore was supplied by the furnace's own ore holdings and by other local miners and was shipped in over the BRB&BERR. Limestone for ironmaking was quarried at a 30 acres (12.1 ha) site nearby, just north of the BRB&BE shops. Coke was obtained from the Connellsville
Connellsville, Pennsylvania
Connellsville is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA, 57 miles southeast of Pittsburgh on the Youghiogheny River, a tributary of the Monongahela River. It is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. In 1890, 5,629 people lived in Connellsville, which was a borough at that time...
region. With ample space on the site, slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
was dumped in a heap between the furnace and Buffalo Run. When running at full capacity, the furnace could consume 100 short tons (90,718.5 kg) of limestone, 150 short tons (136,077.7 kg) of coke, and 225 short tons (204,116.6 kg) of ore per day and produce 100 short tons (90,718.5 kg) of iron.
The furnace was first put into blast on January 31, 1888, in a ceremony attended by Bellefonte native and ex-governor Andrew Curtin. Two months later, Valentine Furnace, another hot blast iron furnace, had also gone into blast on the south side of Bellefonte. While Valentine Furnace was operated separately from Bellefonte Furnace, Shoemaker and the Collins brothers had engineered and built the Nittany Valley Railroad
Nittany Valley Railroad
The Nittany Valley Railroad was a Pennsylvania shortline built to haul iron ore to blast furnaces near Bellefonte.The company was incorporated on March 15, 1887. It was controlled by B.K. Jamison, president of the Centre Iron Company...
, which supplied ore to Valentine Furnace.
With Bellefonte and Valentine Furnaces both in blast, the Beech Creek Railroad
Beech Creek Railroad
Beech Creek RailroadIn 1890 the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad took out a long term lease of the Beech Creek Railroad yet the Beech Creek maintained independent operations until July 1899...
began to consider an extension to tap the furnace traffic from Bellefonte. However, all was not well with the iron firms. A statewide construction boom had led to a surplus of ironmaking capacity, depressing prices. Both furnaces were also suffering from a shortage of ore. The Nittany Valley hematite
Hematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...
banks could not supply enough ore to run Bellefonte Furnace at more than 80% of capacity, a reduction in its economy of scale that made it unprofitable to run with the depression in iron prices. High freight rates discouraged buying ore from more distant local mines. On January 31, 1891, Bellefonte Furnace went out of blast for maintenance. A strike during the spring pushed up the price of coke, and the furnace remained idle. With Bellefonte Furnace cold, the BRB&BERR lost two-thirds of its trade, and was thrown into bankruptcy in July.
Reorganization
The ensuing reorganization of the BRB&BERR brought the railroad under separate management from the furnace. The bondholders did not choose to reinstate Reilly, who remained president of the furnace company. Reilly and the Collins brothers clashed with the railroad, now reorganized as the Bellefonte Central RailroadBellefonte Central Railroad
The Bellefonte Central Railroad was a shortline connecting Bellefonte and State College, Pennsylvania. Constructed in the late 19th century to haul local iron ore to furnaces in the Bellefonte region, it later hauled freight traffic to Penn State and lime for steelmaking from local quarries...
, over freight rates. The railroad would not ship ore for less than 30 cents per ton, which Phil Collins considered too high to operate the furnace profitably. Despite this dispute, Tom Shoemaker remained superintendent of both the railroad and the furnace company. The two companies were unable to come to terms until July 1892, when a meeting between Reilly and Frazer in Philadelphia persuaded the latter to grant the furnace a rate of 20 cents per ton from nearby banks and 25 cents for those further up the line. With this assurance, Reilly began to repair the furnace, rehire workers, and raise money for payroll. It went back into blast in April 1893. With the furnace starting back up, Shoemaker, who was also running a mining company at Graysdale
Graysdale, Pennsylvania
Graysdale is an unincorporated community in Patton Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, located at .The Red Bank Branch of the Bellefonte Central Railroad, from Mattern Junction to Red Bank, was built through the town around 1887. The branch was built to carry iron ore, the mining of which...
, found himself overwhelmed with responsibilities and resigned from the railroad in May 1893 to devote his time to his other enterprises. However, shortly after his departure, the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
rattled American industry. In the financial shock that followed, Bellefonte Furnace once again found it impossible to make iron at a profit, and went out of blast again in July 1893. With Bellefonte Furnace out of blast and Valentine Furnace operating only sporadically, the Bellefonte Central began to remove some of the ore mine branches. The Oreland Branch had already been removed in 1892 to lay track into State College
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...
, the siding to Johnson Bank was removed in 1894, and the Red Bank Branch beyond Graysdale in 1896. The railroad considered buying the furnace, but found John Reilly's terms unsatisfactory.
The Gephart era
In a surprise announcement on May 5, 1899, J. Wesley GephartJ. Wesley Gephart
John Wesley Gephart was a Bellefonte, Pennsylvania lawyer and industrialist. Educated in Bellefonte and at Princeton University, Gephart's dilligence and intelligence were already marked when he was admitted to the bar at the end of 1876 and joined the Bellefonte law practice of James A. Beaver in...
, a prominent local businessman and sometime president of the Valentine Iron Company, announced that he had collected New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Philadelphia capitalists to invest in and restart the furnace. Gephart assumed the presidency of the new Bellefonte Furnace Company, which owned the furnace and the ore leases at Mattern Bank and Red Bank. Furthermore, Gephart revealed that the company had bought the large ore deposits at Scotia
Scotia, Pennsylvania
Scotia was a village in Patton Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, at . Although the community was called Scotia, the name of the local post office was Benore ....
from Carnegie Steel to augment the furnace's ore reserves. Gephart's Central Railroad of Pennsylvania
Central Railroad of Pennsylvania (1893-1918)
The Central Railroad of Pennsylvania was a short railroad of built to connect Bellefonte, Pennsylvania with the Beech Creek Railroad at Mill Hall, Pennsylvania...
was to build a trestle across Spring Creek
Spring Creek (Pennsylvania)
Spring Creek is a tributary of Bald Eagle Creek in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Spring Creek passes through a water gap in Bald Eagle Mountain and joins Bald Eagle Creek at Milesburg....
to reach the plant. John Reilly was retained as vice president, and Tom Shoemaker was one of the directors. The furnace was relit on July 24, 1899, for the first time in six years.
Because of the removal of the Red Bank Branch in 1896, Bellefonte Furnace initially began receiving ore via a roundabout route, shipping over the Scotia Branch and Fairbrook Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
to Tyrone
Tyrone, Pennsylvania
Tyrone is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Altoona, on the Little Juniata River. Tyrone was of considerable commercial importance in the twentieth century. It was an outlet for the Clearfield coal fields, and it was noted for the manufacture of paper products. There were...
, and then north over the Bald Eagle Branch to Bellefonte. To shorten the route, the Bellefonte Central quickly laid a new Scotia Branch of 1.4 miles (2.3 km) from Graysdale to Scotia, where a narrow gauge
Narrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
line owned by the furnace company hauled ore from Red Bank to the Scotia washer. Ore from both pits was cleaned and shipped from Scotia, the first train leaving on October 31, 1899. The Bellefonte Central also rebuilt the Red Bank Branch from Graysdale to Mattern Bank, which opened August 11, 1899.
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
either via the Bellefonte Central and the PRR or by the Central Railroad and the Beech Creek Railroad
Beech Creek Railroad
Beech Creek RailroadIn 1890 the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad took out a long term lease of the Beech Creek Railroad yet the Beech Creek maintained independent operations until July 1899...
(part of the New York Central system), giving it leverage for better freight rates. It also gave the railroad easy access to a Gephart-owned lime quarry at Salona, on the Central Railroad.
Ominously, however, the furnace shut down for repairs during summer 1900. As before, the effects of the shutdown rippled through the economy of Bellefonte, with workers at the ore pits and the lime quarry at Salona and railroad crews being furloughed. The furnace did, however, return to blast on schedule on September 27, 1900. Valentine, now Nittany Furnace
Nittany Furnace
Nittany Furnace, known earlier as Valentine Furnace, was a hot blast iron furnace located in Spring Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States...
, was also closed at the time, but Gephart and another group of investors bought this furnace as well in December. It would, however, be managed separately from Bellefonte Furnace. Gephart announced that Bellefonte Furnace would be run more steadily than Nittany, which would only be operated at peak periods.
Despite Gephart's success in attracting investors, the iron markets remained weak, and Bellefonte Furnace closed down in June. Repairs were under way to bring it back into blast by September 1904. It was back in blast again by the end of October. Gephart's death the next year robbed his numerous numerous enterprises of leadership, although it brought Bellefonte and Nittany Furnaces under a single management. They were still owned by different parties, and Bellefonte Furnace benefited somewhat from being tied to the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania. However, the Panic of 1907
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on...
proved to be the final blow for the iron industry in Bellefonte. Bellefonte Furnace went out of blast for the last time on December 21, 1910. For the time being, its most remunerative asset was its pile of furnace slag, which was used by Tom Shoemaker in the construction of a PRR railroad yard in Northumberland, Pennsylvania
Northumberland, Pennsylvania
Northumberland is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,714 at the 2000 census.-History:Northumberland was founded in 1772. The land that became Northumberland was purchased from the Iroquois in the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, and the...
. In 1914, the furnace and its ore holdings were sold to the John Lowber Welsh estate, one of its bondholders. The furnace was demolished for scrap in 1915, and the ore pits were shut down and the company houses there dismantled. The Central Railroad of Pennsylvania was dealt a mortal blow by the loss of the furnace traffic. Under the presidency of Gephart's son, it struggled on for a few more years before abandonment in 1918.
Legacy
Bellefonte Furnace did not live up to the sanguine expectations of its original investors. Bellefonte, where iron furnaces had prospered since the 18th Century, appeared to enjoy all the advantages necessary for successful iron production: ample iron ore to be mined, limestone in abundance, easy access to coke from ConnellsvilleConnellsville coalfield
The Connellsville Coalfield is located in Fayette County and Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, between the city of Latrobe and the small borough of Smithfield, and is sometimes known as the Connellsville Coke Field. This is because the section of the Pittsburgh coal seam here was famous as one of...
and the Snow Shoe
Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania
Snow Shoe is a borough in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
region by rail. Why, then, did the furnace struggle financially during its initial period of operation? Gephart thought the key lay in railroad rates, so he built the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania to break the PRR's monopoly on traffic from Bellefonte. Certainly Bellefonte Furnace was more successful under his leadership, shipping over the Central Railroad, then under the Collins brothers and Shoemaker, successful businessmen in other areas.
However, by the end of the furnace's lifetime, other problems had become apparent. The pig iron market was already in decline by the time the furnace was built in 1888, with prices rarely rising above $22 per ton until World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. But it was the rise of the integrated steel plant that really sealed the fate of Bellefonte's furnaces. As steel producers increasingly made their own iron and converted it to steel on site, the utility of merchant pig producers such as Bellefonte Furnace dwindled. Easily mined, high-grade Mesabi Range
Mesabi Range
The Mesabi Iron Range is a vast deposit of iron ore and the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. Discovered in 1866, it is the chief deposit of iron ore in the United States. The deposit is located in northeast Minnesota, largely in...
iron ore negated the advantage of the local deposits in the Nittany Valley; in fact, it was the availability of Mesabi ore that led Carnegie to sell the Scotia mines to Gephart.
Gephart's prestige and ability to attract investors were able to keep Bellefonte and Nittany Furnace and the associated railroads and ore mines active. But this was an Indian summer
Indian summer
An Indian summer is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the autumn. It refers to a period of considerably above normal temperatures, accompanied by dry and hazy conditions, usually after there has been a killing frost...
of prosperity for Bellefonte. The lime industry, though increasingly important for the region, was unable to sustain the prosperity that iron had brought to Bellefonte, making it the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
and the cradle of governors Curtin and Beaver
James A. Beaver
James Addams Beaver was an American politician who served as the 20th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1891...
. The closing of the iron furnaces represented but one step in the decline of Bellefonte and its replacement by State College as the principal community of Centre County
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Centre County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 153,990....
.
External links
- History of the Bellefonte Central Railroad: mentions Nittany Furnace as a source of traffic for the railroad.
- Iron Industry in Centre County: mentions construction of the furnace.