Swatara Furnace - Page 20, July 12th and 14th

Some Blacksmitthing Things

Water Supply For The Big House, Fountain 
and Garden

Ledger Post

Page 20, 1830 Middle - July 14th

Note: There are only three new surnames on Page 20, one new name was listed at the top of page 20 for July 12th, (Not included on the above scan); also one new name at the bottom of page 20 that doesn't show up on the above scan.

Page 20

Craig, Andrew, 7/12/30 To Store for Tobacco - .03. (Top of Page)

A new Meas, (Not scanned, bottom of page)  this makes three so far.

Meas, Adam - 7/14/30 - .64

The next new surname is in the second block from the top in the above scan, I can't figure out what his name is, looks like "Sam Filiec", I think Mr. Filiec sold things to the Company Store, there are twelve pairs of Men's shoes and six pairs of Women's shoes, plus eighteen "Coars??? and four of something else. The grand total for this stuff was $69.75, far right of the ledger page, (not shown on the above scan). Some profit is being made at the Company Store; the woman's shoes cost the store one dollar thirty-seven and a half cents, John Meas (bottom block) paid one dollar sixty-two and a half cents for a pair of women's shoes.  In the top block, Mr. Wonder is selling E&G beef at .04&3/4 cents a pound, the store is selling the beef at .06 a pound.

Blacksmith Products

The Blacksmith Shop made most of, or all of the things needed for the construction of the Furnace complex, see pictures below.

My Son John has done quite a bit of Blacksmith work as a hobby, John gave me some advice on the above support rods. From the ground level the rods seem to be about one inch square; the above rod is on the East side of the Furnace above the Cast Arch; they were bent on an angle and would have served to help support the Cast House roof. There are two ways to put the slot into the bar, one would be to use a "Hot Chisel" to cut the hole into the bar while the bar is at it's highest temperature, the other would be to "weld" two 1 by 1/2 inch rods together with a spacer that was pulled out before the rod cooled.

I took the above picture ten years ago on Oct 15, 2006. This is the back of the Furnace facing the Furnace Bank; the two rods, red circles, 1 and 2 stick straight out, I believe they helped support the "Bridge" that went to the top of the Furnace Stack, the workers hauled charcoal, limestone and iron ore from the Furnace Bank to the top of the furnace stack and dumped it into the stack. I hope all of these rods are still in the furnace stack and that nobody pulled them out and took them home.

Furnace Castings - Water Supply to the Big House, Fountain and Garden

I took the above picture and the one below on Oct 15, 2006. The red circle at the top,number 1 is the West end of the Big House, number 2, red circle, is modern day PVC pipe, probably installed by Boyer's after 1961, number 3, oblong red circle is what I believe is the cast iron pipe that supplied water to the Big House, garden and lower yard water fountain.

Above is another piece of partially buried pipe which I think supplied water to the house, garden and fountain. 

I would like to have some assistance  -  would somebody who is working on the current Furnace preservation project be kind enough to cross the creek and see if that old pipe is still there, and perhaps looks like ancient cast iron?

I took the above photo at one of the Pine Grove Historical Societies Lawn Party's in the early 1990's. This is a cast iron drain pipe that a roof downspout went into at the Northeast corner of the wooden section of the Big House; you can see the mold seam inside the red circle; this pipe was most likely cast at the furnace.