Etowah Iron Furnace   

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On the 4^th and 5^th of September my sister (Jane Stroupe Hornsby) and I took a road trip to Cartersville, Georgia. We wanted to visit the site where Jacob Stroup and his son Moses built one of many iron furnaces. Below I will best describe each location and what we discovered? If you are considering a trip it was a great experience and I highly recommend you go. I think 3 days would have been better and four would be best. We stayed in Kennesaw, Georgia because Jane brought along her German Shepard and it was the nearest motel that allowed pets. There are plenty of places to stay in Cartersville on highway 41. We didn’t do a lot of sightseeing; we were pretty focused on our mission. Oh another thing we cooked this trip up on less than a 24-hour notice, it’s a Stroup way of doing things. Thinking back there were some things we could have planned better.

Day 1

 Cartersville News Tribune

 This was our first stop. Here we were looking for the article that was on the front page of the paper in 1904. We had a handwritten copy that was missing a lot of the words due to poor copying. I had a hunch for a number of years that there were photos along with the article. The lady at the desk was very helpful and directed us to the archive section. One of the staff writers (Jon Gargis) assisted us. First we found the article from 1975 titled “Etowah Village”. At this point our spirits were good. Then we started looking for 1904. Well as far back as the records went was 1914. Now that put a pin in our balloon. So right off the bat we had a disappointment. Our next scheduled stop was the Bartow County Historical Society, which didn’t open for about another hour so we decided to look for some lunch. We headed west on Tennessee St looking for lunch. We didn’t see any of the normal fast food places then I spotted a small hot dog eatery and the parking lot was full, I knew then this was the place I wanted to stop. This comes from my Cherryville days where we eat at local stops like the “Shake Shop” “Blackwoods” (Moms favorite) or “Blacks”. If you eat at chain food stops you are really missing out on a real treat plus it helps the local “Mom and Pops” survive. Needless to say the hot dogs were great. Now I know why old newspaper reporters carried little notepads because the name of the hot dog stand is gone. We discovered the main commerce is all out on highway 41 but that’s not why we came here. Now it was time to walk the dog, she had a hot dog also. We were downtown near Main St and found a place to park near the railroad tracks when Jane saw a place to visit.

 Bartow History Center 

This place looked like a retail store but I went inside and looked around. I thought it looked pretty small to be of much use to us. They charge $3 to view the exhibits, which I gladly paid because the young man that took my money said they had an exhibit on the old iron works. Well what they had was a photo of Mark Cooper and an old iron pot and railroad spike, which he said were made at the ironworks. This was an unscheduled stop so I didn’t have my camera with me. I just discovered today (20 Sept 2007) that they have a archive section on the second floor that Jane and I totally missed. I just got a very nice email from Sandy who was very gracious to help us with research. This is a place that needs more investigation, so I suggest you check it out. As we were returning to the car Jane saw a small shop called Cartersville-Bartow County Visitors Bureau. She said, “Lets check it out”. I said OK your turn to go in.

 Cartersville-Bartow County Visitors Bureau

Jane was inside a couple of minutes when she called me in (the dog was welcome to come in). Now they had very little information on the iron works but then we met Ellen Archer then it got real interesting. First let me say she was one of the nicest people we met the entire trip. She knew all about the iron works and its history. She gave us directions to places we had planned to visit the next day. She also gave us the names and numbers of two gentlemen who would be interested in our quest. She also told us stories of going to Mark Coopers old home place. She was as excited as we were, as she loves old Cass County history too. She gave us some exciting news on Jacob Stroup (1771) that I will share with you as soon as I get more details. Again wish I had my camera. I recommend you make this stop just to meet Ellen. It was now time for Etowah Historical Society to open, so off we went.

Etowah Historical Society

This is located in the old courthouse with the gold dome. It is easy to find and parking is in the rear. One of the volunteers met us when we entered. We decided to take a shot at the 1904 news article not expecting any results. She said they had some old microfiche of news articles and showed us the file cabinet. Needless to say neither Jane nor I had ever touched a microfiche machine. It was our lucky day because an experienced researcher was there and said she would help us. Sharon pulled out the old film and started searching and then she said here it is and I looked over her shoulder and saw the photo of Jacob Decatur Stroup and Jane and I let out a great big “YESSSSS”. So not only did we get the full article, we got a photo. I cannot describe how happy we were. At this point the microfiche machine stopped working, so we turned it off thinking it needed cooling down. Sharon then entertained us with her family research tales. When we turned on the machine again it still wouldn’t work. The volunteer then made a phone call to the person in charge who told her the second machine had been repaired so we were back in business. We then copied the full article and copied the photo numerous times with different settings but the photo quality was not good however we were tickled just to have the photo. We still had a few hours of light so we decided to go check out the Goodson Cemetery.

Below are a transcript of the article and the photo of Jacob Decatur Stroup.

Cartersville, Georgia Thursday Oct. 20-1904

WAS A GIANT IN ITS DAY-Headline

Pioneer Iron man visits site of Great Cooper Works

 "My expected swim in the Etowah was a disappointment but I paddled in the shallow water among the rocks and thought of old times," observed Mr. Jacob D. Stroup, a few weeks ago when he went to explore the ruins and lands around the old Cooper Furnace. The soap and towel he carried along were all right, but the great dam and the fine eddy water above it were mere traditions. 

 Mr. Stroup ought to and he did know that locality well, for with his father and brothers he had been connected with the busy Pioneer life that lent importance to the place sixty years ago. And theirs is an interesting story. 

 During the flight of years the old ruins of the Cooper Works have been embalmed in song and story, and every adjective almost has gone into retirement from overwork in describing the scenery and weird belongings, but so rarely have historical detail been gone into that stories on this line ought to have a special interest. 

 Jacob D. Stroup is a son of the man who built the first iron furnace in Georgia. He is 76 years of age and lives in Warsaw, ILL. He left Georgia in 1849, and his present visit of a month or more, the guest of his relative, H.J. Galt, and his family, is the first one to the state since 1856. He first went to Alabama. He erected Round Mountain furnace, with which he remained as owner and manager up to the year ’56. He then went to Illinois and settled. Mr. Jacob D. Stroup wears a G.A.R. button (Grand Army of the Republic), the fortunes of the times having carried him into the Union Army. He visited Judge R.R. Harris at Rome, while here, the judge being a relative of his wife and his very warm friend.

 Mr. Jacob D. Stroup was much pleased with the progress of this section remarking the superior advantages of this particular region. He met only two of his old industrial acquaintances of the long ago, one of them being old Bill Rash, a Negro brought to Georgia by his father, and Joshua Knight at present living at Stamp Creek. 

 In his meanders he visited his father’s old home, two miles from Cooper monument. Here he picked some apples from a tree growing up out of the old cellar and these he carried back to show his family in Illinois. His father kept a tavern, and General Scott, in a trip to here during the removal of the Indians, was his guest. 

 He went out to the site of the old Laughing Gal tavern, kept by an Indian woman called Laughing Gal. She amassed a great deal of money and owned numerous slaves. 

 The elder Stroup (1771), whose name was Jacob also, was of the Pennsylvania Dutch. He went from that state to South Carolina and from there he moved to Habersham County, where he erected the first iron furnace ever erected in the state, making him the veritable pioneer in iron manufacturing. In 1835 he came to this locality and put up a small furnace at Stamp Creek. 

 A saw and gristmill was also part of the original plant. When the Indians were removed in 1838, this iron furnace was in full blast, making iron direct from the ore. 

 In 1844 Mark A. Cooper came on the scene, and Jacob Stroup the elder, sold his interests to him and his son Moses Stroup, Cooper was considered a very shrewd business man, with fine foresight, and beheld, as he believed, a great future for iron in this section. 

  Moses Stroup and Mark Cooper, in addition to putting up a furnace, went ahead and erected a flouring mill with a capacity of 150 to 250 barrels of flour a day. The mill itself was a model in its construction. Timber of the choicer kind now being no object, the inside work was all walnut. The work was by the finest workmen.  

 In 1849 a man named Wylie, from Charleston, came in and bought a third interest for his two nephews, with a view to purchasing the whole plant if they were pleased. The Wylies not being pleased sold back to Moses Stroup and Mark Cooper. Then Moses Stroup sold out entire to Mark Cooper. 

 Meantime, the older Jacob Stroup (1771) having sold out to his son Moses went to Allatoona and erected a furnace. He died while operating that plant November 9, 1846. He was buried at the old home place at Stamp Creek. 

 The Cooper works at the zenith of their existence consisted of a flouring mill, blast furnace, foundry and rolling mill, giving out vast products that were hauled away in wagons to different points through out the country, these products being flour, pig iron, rolled bars, nails, hollow ware and railroad iron, The iron with which the Georgia and W.& A. and Macon & Western, now a division of the Central, was built came chiefly from these works. The force employed directly and indirectly about these works amounted to about a thousand people. Jacob D. Stroup the younger in one capacity or another was identified with all these interests. 

 The lottery drawing, in which men in different parts drew lots in this country, known as the Cherokee purchase, attracted a great many here, among the number being the elder Jacob Stroup (1771), he having drawn a good number of lots. In addition to the purchase of the Stroup possessions, Mark Cooper bought yet many more properties, finally gaining in his possessions the vast area known as the Etowah property. 

 “I have been to Atlanta”, said Mr. Jacob D. Stroup, “ When there wasn’t a house there. The first was that of old Martha, unique personage who sold cakes, and for whom the first settlement or village was called ‘Marthasville’. She lived in the forks of the road and I could go now and locate the place.” “You see” said he “we would haul iron for the Georgia railroad to points between Marthasville or Atlanta and Macon, and our caravan consisted of from two to four big wagons with six mules to them, and one of these journeys was a sort of frolic.” 

 “In my Alabama experience”. Said Mr. Jacob D. Stroup “I had seen the time I could have bought Birmingham dirt at a bit an acre. Plenty of iron men knew there was iron in plenty there but transportation facilities reached no nearer than the Tennessee River.” 

  Mr. Jacob D. Stroup is a man of fine general knowledge and is of pleasing address, and his Georgia visit was the source of pleasure to old and new acquaintances.  

Copied from Cartersville Newspaper, Georgia- Front page Oct. 20 1904 (Thursday). I obtained a copy from the Etowah Historical Society on September 4, 2007. A photo of Jacob Decatur Stroup accompanied the article as well as a photo of the Furnace ruins however the photo of the ruins was blacked out.

Goodson Cemetery

Day 2

Red Top Mountain Lodge

Photos of Bethany Bridge (click on photos to enlarge)

As we were observing the surroundings, we saw what we thought was an island across the lake on the other side of the bridge. Ellen at the visitor’s bureau told us a story about Mark Cooper’s home being on an island. We could see a parking area over there so off we went. When we got to the parking area we saw it was actually not an island, so as we got ready to leave we saw a lady exercising her 2 dogs. We asked her to give us directions to the Corps of Engineers. We described to her that they had a lot of artifacts. She said she knew exactly where it was to just follow her. Off we went trailing behind her SUV. When we arrived we discovered it was the Red Top Mountain Lodge. It appeared to be just a motel or lodge for guests. We parked and decided what the heck it won’t hurt to just take a quick look. We went in and asked the receptionist if she knew of any artifacts from the iron works, she said “we have a little, take first hallway on your right”. When Jane and I turned the corner our eyes about popped out. They had a bunch of photos, iron pieces and stacks of pig iron plus a miniature scale model of an iron works. I ran back to the car for my camera equipment. Now this was totally unexpected, as we had no knowledge of this display. Again we found information from an unexpected source. Below are a couple of photos

.

You can see a piece of railroad rail, railroad spike and the bars of pig iron.

A note posted about Moses Stroup along with a nice photo.

Scale model of an iron works

Red Top Mountain Railroad

Bartow County Iron Works note that there were 4 iron works connected to the Stroups. Etowah #1, Etowah #2, Coopers and Allatoona.

Not sure which furnace this is but I don't think it's Cooper Furnace

Corps of Engineers Office

We were off to find the Corps of Engineers Office. It was easy to find. Once inside we asked the receptionist for information and she referred us to one of the young rangers. He pointed us to their display, which wasn’t much. We chatted with him a bit about our reason for being there and he said he couldn’t give us directions to the cemetery because it was protected, well if it is so protected then they need to clean it up and make it appear protected. Jane said “That’s ok we were there last night, but couldn’t find Jacob’s marker”, the ranger looked a little taken back. He went to his office and got his book on old cemeteries and verified that Jacob, his wife Sarah, his son Thomas B. and stepson Edmond were buried there. The book showed who was buried there but not the exact location of each grave. That needs to be documented soon as that information will be lost or destroyed. Below is one photo I took. It said this is one of the last pieces Jacob made at Allatoona Furnace. It is a large cooking pot. You can also see nails to the right of the pot.

Charcoal making process

Cooking pot made at Allatoona Furnace

A footnote to this visit, I considered it not very fruitful but on your visit if you have ample time I would make this stop.

Etowah Furnace

We saved the best for last. This was a little difficult to locate but not real difficult maybe I was just anxious. The furnace was located with a nice campground and picnic area, which were well maintained. I took numerous photos of the furnace. What caught my attention was the size of it. I had the impression or read where it was 20 feet tall, but it appeared to be about twice that size. Below is a photo of Jane standing next to it and you can see it is quite large. I also took photos of the inside showing the brickwork on the inside.

The furnace has three openings like the one above. To the left of Jane there is not an opening. Each opening had an iron locked gate so you could not enter the furnace.

A view of the inside of the furnace. Note the brick work.

When we finished looking at the furnace we thought we would take a break and look around the grounds. There were a couple of maintenance men on a break also, so we sat and chatted with them for a bit. We started telling them why we were here and asked them if there were any more structures nearby. One of them said, “Did we see the small path behind the furnace? If you go up that path and look to the left in the woods we would see some walls built of rocks.” Up we jumped and back to the furnace, around back we found the path, which was going, up a steep hill. Maybe 50 feet up we could see the rock formation to our left. I took off up the hill to get a closer look and left Jane on the path. I took a couple of photos then looked up and another 20 feet up was another rock wall. I took some more photos then yelled down to Jane how to get to the top level. These rock walls were definitely man made and my thought is they were to prevent erosion and create level places almost even with the top of the furnace. I think the purpose of these levels was to give the ironworkers a place to dump the ore then wheelbarrow the ore across a short bridge to the top of the furnace. My question is why the Corps of Engineers let this area grow up. It would make a lovely backdrop to the furnace and was part of its operation. Below are photos of the walls.

One last thought, if you decide to make the trip don’t be afraid to ask questions of locals. Two of our best “finds” came from tips from strangers.