LEDGER POST # 7

Furnace Area Construction Work

Some Doctor Work

Scan-Page 42, Nov 8, 1830

There is a lot of good information in the above scan, there are three sections to the scan, the most important being the top and bottom ones. The total charges for the top section was $676.32, this was really big money for that time period. It looks like the people who did this work were a E & W Fare, (The name might be "Fehr" instead of Fare) back in those days people doing the writing sometimes didn't bother to ask how a name was spelled, they wrote it down the way it sounded to them, I'll have to look it up in the Census when I have time. I am going to write down some of the lines from the top part of the scan because they might be hard to read even when you enlarge the scan.

"For Excavating Head Race" $190.26. The last time I visited the head race site it was still in pretty good shape.

"Wheel Pit", $65.34. This is the water wheel pit, it's also still in good shape.

"Tail Race, $19.60". I'm not sure what the "Tail Race" is; when I have time I will contact the NPS people at The Hopewell Furnace to get an answer; I think the Tail Race might have been the section that ran from the water wheel pit and into the creek.

"Foundation for Furnace, $23.94".

" Foundation Coal House, $25.92". Coal House means Charcoal House, the Charcoal House was located on the Furnace Bank. Back in the late 1980's Lloyd Stager showed me the exact location of the Coal House, if you dig down a little bit through the dirt you will find some charcoal.

"Cellar Drain, $34.56". Have no idea what that was.

"Embankment, $168.60". This refers to the Furnace Bank, this is the flat area directly behind the top of the Furnace Stack, this is where the charcoal, limestone and ore were stored, a bridge from the bank to the top of the furnace stack enabled the work crew to dump charcoal, limestone and iron ore into the furnace. The excavators had to dig away a good portion of the mountain side to set up the Furnace Bank.

"Loop Rock, $12.80, and Solid Rock, $15.30". I have no idea what these mean.

"Digging holes for Coal House, $1.50". See Foundation Coal House above.

"Grubbing, $35.00". ???

"88 1/2 Days work in Qarry, $83.50". Stone Quarry ???, maybe this was where they got the stones for the Furnace Stack.

Lets jump down now to the third line in the bottom section of the scan.

"To G. N. Eckert,  Medical Attendance, $3.00 ".

As most of you know by now George Eckert was a Medical Doctor, I can't imagine Eckert charging one of his workers for medical services, perhaps this was for some local non furnace worker that needed medical attention.

That's it for this post.