Robert Habersham Coleman
Encyclopedia
Robert Habersham Coleman (1856 - 1930) was an iron processing and railroad industrialist and owner of extensive farmland in Pennsylvania. He was the fourth- and last-generation scion of a family which controlled Cornwall Iron Furnace
, in Cornwall, Pennsylvania
, a major coal-burning ironmaking facility that was founded in 1742 by Peter Grubb and which produced pig iron, domestic products and, during the American Revolution
and Civil War
, cannon barrels. Robert Coleman shut the facility in 1883, opening new facilities for the company. In 1881, at the time he took over his family's business, Coleman was worth about seven million dollars. By 1889 he was estimated to be worth thirty million dollars. By 1893 the fortune had vanished. One of his homes, Cornwall Hall, was a "symbol of the rise, fame and decline of the "king" of Cornwall (Pennsylvania) during America's Gilded Age
" and was demolished after 1914.
The Cornwall Furnace facilities, donated by his descendants, with their surviving stone furnace, steam-powered air-blast machinery, and related buildings were once the nucleus of a huge industrial plantation, and are part of a designated National Historic Landmark District.
He commissioned architect (and fraternity brother) J. Cleaveland Cady
to erect the chapter house of St. Anthony Hall
at Trinity College
(1878), which still stands in Hartford, Connecticut
.
Cornwall Iron Furnace
Cornwall Iron Furnace is a designated National Historic Landmark that is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in Cornwall, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The furnace was a leading Pennsylvania iron producer from 1742 until it was shut down in 1883...
, in Cornwall, Pennsylvania
Cornwall, Pennsylvania
Cornwall is a borough in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Lebanon, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,486 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, a major coal-burning ironmaking facility that was founded in 1742 by Peter Grubb and which produced pig iron, domestic products and, during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, cannon barrels. Robert Coleman shut the facility in 1883, opening new facilities for the company. In 1881, at the time he took over his family's business, Coleman was worth about seven million dollars. By 1889 he was estimated to be worth thirty million dollars. By 1893 the fortune had vanished. One of his homes, Cornwall Hall, was a "symbol of the rise, fame and decline of the "king" of Cornwall (Pennsylvania) during America's Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
" and was demolished after 1914.
The Cornwall Furnace facilities, donated by his descendants, with their surviving stone furnace, steam-powered air-blast machinery, and related buildings were once the nucleus of a huge industrial plantation, and are part of a designated National Historic Landmark District.
He commissioned architect (and fraternity brother) J. Cleaveland Cady
J. Cleaveland Cady
J Cleaveland Cady was a New York-based architect whose most familiar surviving building is the south range of the American Museum of Natural History on New York's Upper West Side...
to erect the chapter house of St. Anthony Hall
St. Anthony Hall
St. Anthony Hall, also known as Saint Anthony Hall and The Order of St. Anthony, is a national college literary society also known as the Fraternity of Delta Psi at colleges in the United States of America. St...
at Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
(1878), which still stands in Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
.
Timeline
Adapted from http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/cornwall/page5.asp?secid=31- 1877, Graduated Trinity CollegeTrinity College (Connecticut)Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
, Hartford, Connecticut. - 1879, Recently married, takes over managing control of the family's holdings.
- Death of his young bride, Lillie, soon followed.
- By 1881 he embarked on opening technically advanced anthracite furnaces to supplant older facilities.
- 1883, he shut down obsolete Cornwall Furnace.
- 1883-1893. His "glorious decade."
- Modernized production and marketing on the family's thousands of farm acres in Lancaster, Lebanon, and York Counties
- Obtained controlling interest in a bank in Lebanon and opened a rolling mill.
- 1889, created the summer colony of Mount Gretna, a pleasure stop on his Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad.
- Built houses, schools, and a church for his workers and their families.
- By his second wife, Edith Johnstone of Baltimore, he had five children.
- In Florida, he acquired a railroad construction company and a fifty-mile stretch of the Jacksonville to Palatka Railroad.
- Noted for philanthropy to Trinity CollegeTrinity College (Connecticut)Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
, St. Anthony HallSt. Anthony HallSt. Anthony Hall, also known as Saint Anthony Hall and The Order of St. Anthony, is a national college literary society also known as the Fraternity of Delta Psi at colleges in the United States of America. St...
, and his Episcopal parish in Lancaster, PA.
- Decline
- Before 1891? lost a lawsuit against the Grubb family (descendants of the original builder of Cornwall Furnace), which had been taking ore without compensating the Colemans.
- 1891, lost another suit, to the Pennsylvania Trust Company. The award: a staggering one-and-a-half million dollars.
- Diagnosed with tuberculosis.
- 1893 stock market investors panic over low gold reserves, Coleman fortune vanishes.
- At the age of thirty-seven, Coleman and his family left Lebanon County for Saranac LakeSaranac Lake, New YorkSaranac Lake is a village located in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406. The village is named after Upper, Middle, and Lower Saranac Lakes, which are nearby....
in New York's Adirondacks, where he lived as a recluse until he died in 1930.