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Jacob Stroup IronmasterBorn- 18 March 1771 At- Valley Forge, Chester Co, Pennsylvania Died- 8 Nov 1846 At- Cassville, Cass Co. Ga Buried- Goodson Cemetery, Cartersville, Ga
(1) Married- Elisabetha "Betsy" Dellinger Marriage Date- 25 August 1790 Born- 23 Nov 1774 Died- Mar 1807 Buried- Elliott Cemetery near Dallas, Gaston Co., N.C.
(2) Married- Hannah Hoyl Rhyne Marriage Date- 13 March 1809 Born- 2 August 1763 Died- 20 August 1820 Buried- Unknown
(3) Married- Sarah Jennings Fewell Marriage Date- November 1820 Born- 22 March 1787 Died- 6 April 1860 Buried- Cass (Bartow) County, GA
This is our Stroup Group for exchanging Stroup information and thoughts. We are interested in all lines of Stroups. We have photos and documents from North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, and Alabama Stroups plus others. I have Ethel Stroupe's files and am posting them as fast as I can convert them from Apple to Windows files. She has Bio's on most of the early Stroups which I have posted. We have several members that are very active in research and make frequent "road trips", so come join us and enjoy all the information available.  Click to join Jacob_Stroup_Family
Jacob Stroup's marker in the Goodson Cemetery (Furnace Cemetery) just outside Cartersville, Ga Second photo is a small furnace erected next to Jacobs marker done by Mr. John R. Jackson
I haven't decided how much more information I want to add to this page. Jacob the Ironmaster deserves a place in Southern history of Iron Making. It has been discovered through DNA testing that Jacob II was not a Stroup but was from the Biddle family. For more info email me.
IRON WORKERS
High on wooded hill in Bartow County, Georgia, that overlooks Allatoona
Lake and into the beautiful valley of the Etowah river, standing as a sentinel
tower is the squared off, granite stack of an iron furnaces, down this steep
hill from the grave of its builder, Jacob Stroup, born in Pennsylvania in 1771,
A pioneer iron master Extra-Ordinaries...who had a great part in developing the
use of iron ore in South Carolina and Georgia.
The medieval method for manufacturing iron persisted into the American
Colonial era, starting with bloomery that was built by digging a pit, lining it
with rocks fitted snugly together, then sealed with a heavy layer of a special
type of insulating clay to prevent it from exploding under extreme heat.
At the top of the forge a rock chimney was built, and at the bottom an
air vent and bellows were attached. Meanwhile,
trees were felled and reduced to charcoal (which burns with a greater intensity
than raw wood), and a supply of ore was dug, usually by strip mining the side of
a mountain. The reduction of ore
required at least two men, one to intermittently drop into the chimney a mixture
of ore, charcoal and limestone, while another man pumped the bellows (with his
feet in primitive forges). Third
Generation in Maryland
The immigrant’s German Bible was passed to
Adam’s younger son, Jacob Strope (born Jan 7, 1722) who Anglicized the
spelling of his last name to “Stroup”, and moved across Chesapeake
Bay to Baltimore County. About 1745, Jacob Stroup (SR) married Maria
“Caterina” Frensch, and in 1746 lived in south Baltimore County when their
son Adam was born.
Adam later said, “I was born in 1746 three miles from the City of
Baltimore...I have no proof of my age because I was boarded out at the age of
eight and have lost my indenture papers.” The
birthplace Adam described was his father’s tract in Major’s Choice in South
Patapsco Hundred when the iron industry flourished around Baltimore ”Major’s
Choice” had been settled by Col. Edward Dorsey of the English iron
manufacturing family who established Colonial iron works at Elk Ridge about
three miles east of “Major’s Choice” where Caleb Dorsey owned a manor
house. Jacob Stroup (SR) grew wheat on his 160 acre farm which consisted of two tracts in Major’s Choice and Jacob’s Lot.
About 1752, after Jacob’s (SR) first wife Catherine died, he
indentured his eight-year-old son Adam through the Court, and out of his home by
apprenticing him to a blacksmith, his brother Peter, a court action
that probably took place in Lancaster or York County, Pa. From all indications, little Adam was indentured, reared and trained by his own “Uncle Peter Stropes” (born March 8, 1728 Md.) (POSSIBLE) his father’s younger brother, now a blacksmith who probably lived at Little Valley Forge, old Lancaster, later York County, Pennsylvania, which seems to be how and where young Adam Stroup learned to to be a blacksmith. BLACKSMITH
PETER “STURUP’
“Jacob Stroup had a brother named Peter.”
Deeds dated Nov. 12, 1759 in the Maryland Archives, show the purchase of
100 acres in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by “Peter Sturup”, blacksmith,
of Lancaster Co., Pa., witnessed by Samuel Owings (who was also a Baltimore
County iron worker). MIGRATION TO
N.C.’S PIEDMONT
About 1765, when Jacob Stroup (SR) was middle-aged man with a
large family by three wives when he began migrating south.
They stayed a while in Frederick Towne, Maryland, and then came straight
to North Carolina. Jacob’s (SR)
brother moved with him, but went back after a quarrel.
About 1770, Jacob Stroup (SR) settled at upper Hoyle’s Creek,
South Fork of Catawba, in central North Carolina, a location he selected for
fertile soil to grow wheat, and for its rich deposits of iron ore, coal and
limestone.
When he arrived, pig iron was being manufactured at nearby Ironton and
Iron Station as small “cottage industries” because the British instituted
laws to stop Colonial iron works from competing with their works at Birmingham
in producing finished pieces. British
restrictions were not strictly observed, but American pig iron was supposed to
be shipped to England, processed there and the finished goods shipped back to
the Colonies for sale at exorbitant prices. ADAM STROUP
FOLLOWS
While Jacob (SR) was raising a second and third family of
children, eldest son, Adam, completed his indenture c1767, married a girl named
Catherine, and they had two children, the second of which Jacob (JR), b.
Mar. 18, 1771, and named for his grandfather, was the future “Southern iron
master Extra-Ordinaire”.
In
1772 Adam and Catherine Stroup, left from York Town, Pa. “coming in a horse
and wagon” [from family lore]. They
were almost certainly in a wagon train that included the family of his Uncle
Peter Stropes, and traveling the usual route down the Shenandoah Valley’s
Indian Trading Path. Riding in
Adam’s wagon was little Caty and baby Jacob (who later told his grandchildren
he was “born in Pennsylvania”.)
Arriving a few miles south of where Lincolnton now stands, Adam and his
Uncle Peter had been out of touch with relatives who had preceded them, and went
at twilight toward the sound of an axe to ask directions, only to find the man
cutting wood was Peter’s older brother and Adam’s father. (New twist on
old story) After their reunion, neither Adam nor Uncle Peter settled in the same neighborhood on upper Hoyle’s Creek near Jacob Stroup, but found suitable farms about a mile NE of him. Adam’s deed is dated Jan. 23, 1773 for 200 acres on George Richie’s branch of Leeper's Creek. “They were camping in their wagon while Adam built a cabin”. 1780,
THE BRITISH ARE COMING!
In early 1780 riders on horseback brought the news to the settlements
along the South Fork of Catawba that the British had landed an army in South
Carolina led by George, Lord Cornwallis, and that his “redcoats” were
marching and pillaging their way north on the road leading to Tryon County, N.C. THREE STROUP
MEN JOIN THE ARMY
To confront Lord Cornwallis and the British army marching toward them,
Adam Stroup drove his horse and wagon to Tuckaseegee Ford of the Catawba River
where he was mustered into the American army, Capt. William Armstrong’s
company of Lincoln Militia, on June 24, 1780.
This left nine year old Jacob (JR) and his mother to run their
200-acre farm on Leeper's Creek. THE DISASTROUS
BATTLE OF CAMDEN, S.C.
On Aug. 18, 1780 Militiaman Adam Stroup returned home saying he had been
in the disastrous Battle of Camden, S.C., and escaped capture but lost his horse
and wagon. After his Militia
Company “had scattered,” he spent two days walking home from South Carolina.
After the disaster at Camden, General George Washington was able to
persuade Congress to replace the incompetent Gates with a wily tactician, Gen.
Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island. AFTER CAMDEN,
THEY MADE BAYONETS
Although the primary reason for the American army's crushing defeat at
Camden was the military incompetence of Gen. Gates, there was an additional
factor: until this battle, nobody in the southern colonies had ever seen a
bayonet, a new weapon added to British rifles.
Both the British and Americans were using single shotguns, but only the
Americans became sitting ducks after getting off their first shots, because
after the British fired, they mounted fixed bayonet charges, and used these
sword-like blades to butcher Americans trying to reload.
For this reason, American soldiers who broke formation and ran from
bayonet charges were not cowards, just using common sense “and live to fight
another day.” However, at Camden,
entire companies were surrounded, and those not killed were forced to surrender
to the British.
Adam Stroup’s Lincoln County Militia Company scattered to avoid
capture, so he walked home from South Carolina, then spent the next four days
working at his forge rearming himself and his neighbors while awaiting the
assembly call from their Militia Captain. During
these busy four days, nine-year-old Jacob (JR) worked alongside his father.
A strong lad was useful to fetch fuel or to pump the bellows as Adam repaired rifles, and welded carving knives onto guns for use as makeshift
bayonets. (Family tale, no sources)
On Aug. 22, 1780, Capt. William Armstrong regrouped his Militia Company
at Daniel Gray’s plantation. Nine-year-old
Jake and his mother were again left to maintain the family farm at Richie’s
Branch. REDCOATS IN
THEIR HOME AREA
In the winter of 1780, Lord Cornwallis’s troops had captured South
Carolina, and were now invading the Stroup’s neighborhood. “The redcoats
came marching, drumming and tootling” on the road bordering Jacob’s farm on
the east. They
entered at a slow march, because these crude and thievish soldiers (many had
been recruited from the slums of London) were burdened with loot from rich
plantations in South Carolina, but Cornwallis needed a quick march to engage
American Gen. Greene, so ordered all nonessentials be discarded.
His troops filled a millpond with silver and pewter, while Cornwallis
campaign chest was dumped in a ditch beside the road bordering Jacob Stroup,
Sr.’s property.
Cornwallis marched a few miles north, and made camp at the
home of the Stroup’s friend and leader of the German community, Jacob Forney.
Here his Lordship locked the elderly couple in their own cellar in midwinter and
slept in their feather bed. As punishment to the Forney’s for having three
sons in the Whig army, British officers all but destroyed their farm, broke
fences, ate all their food, and stole the jewelry Forney inherited from his
family in Alcase and hidden down his well. Drunken officers bayoneted his best
mare in the barn, and, on leaving, used neighbor Ormand’s large leather Bible
for a saddle. (It was found later
in a creek). Until now, many
Germans in the Catawba area had been neutral, but these callus atrocities turned
them strongly anti-British. REDCOATS AT
DELLINGER'S TAVERN Henry
Dellinger’s tavern at Magnolia Grove was where a company of British
lobster-backs camped when the innkeeper's children, Betsy and Philip, were
eleven and nine years old. Seven
years later, Betsy would marry young Jacob Stroup (JR), but at this time
they were still children, yet old enough to have these events imprinted on their
memories. The British treated the
Dellingers very roughly, knocked the heads off the tavern's ale, wine and brandy
barrels, got roaring drunk and did much damage. CORNWALLIS'
ARMY DEFEATED IN N.C.
Gen. Nathaniel Greene, with the aid of other patriots
(including “The Old Waggoneer” Morgan Bryan) led Cornwallis troops on a
merry chase across North Carolina, engaging in small skirmishes which the
British appeared to win while sustaining heavy losses.
When the British were marching, American frontiersmen sharpshooters hid
in the trees, and picked off the highly visible redcoats. Cornwallis entered
North Carolina with an army so strong it was considered invincible, but he left
with it so weakened that he sent frantic messages to New York pleading for
reinforcements. He received only a
few Tories, no British regulars and no naval support, weakness that helped
Washington achieve victory at Yorktown. REVOLUTIONARY
PATRIOTS
The Stroups were Whigs as were their associates, Col. Frederick Hambright
and Jacob Forney. One of Forney’s
sons in the American Army was Captain Peter Forney, who entered service in 1776
when Adam Stroup hired him as his paid substitute for the Cherokee Campaign.
In June 1776, Adam Stroup, who had a wife and three children (including
Joseph born May 1, 1776) was drafted for the Cherokee Campaign.
Unwilling to leave his wife and small children to fight Indians in
Tennessee, he rode to the Forney brothers “Bachelor Hall” where he hired his
bachelor friend, Peter Forney, as his paid substitute.
Because the Revolutionary draft made no exceptions for family men, hiring
substitutes was both legal and honorable (although unfair to poor men). The
local schoolteacher was among the first to join the army, and the school closed
in 1775, so that young Jacob Stroup (JR) “never had the advantage of
schooling”. Jacob Stroup, Sr. supplied corn and other (unnamed) goods to the American army in exchange for script. 1785, AMERICA
AT PEACE
After the founding of the new country, the United States of America, most
soldiers who earned its freedom went home to their farms and shops, and daily
life slowly settled back to normal. In
1782, when young Jacob Stroup (JR) was 11, his father officially
apprenticed him to the blacksmith trade. POST-WAR, HIGH
SHOALS IRON WORKS
During the war, John Fulenwider, a native of Switzerland, had fought in
the Rowan County Militia at Ramseur’s Mill and in the American victory at
King's Mountain. With the war over,
the British monopoly on the manufacture and sale of iron goods ended, and it was
again legal for Americans to compete in this trade. Fulenwider
built a foundry called High Shoals Iron Works, about a half mile from Jacob
Stroup’s home place at Hoyle’s Creek, probably the largest enterprise of the
sort in that part of the state. He
used the same procedures the Stroups later put into practice in their mills,
including the one at Etowah, Georgia.
The rushing current of the river was used to operate the bellows and the
trip hammer that beat and worked the ore. Trees
were cut into timber, and then converted into charcoal for fuel to heat the
furnaces where the raw ore was smelted. The molten ore was ladled into rows of
molds called "pigs" (for the molds resemblance to a row of suckling
pigs at a sow).
In this same South Fork of Catawba neighborhood, after the Revolution, at
Washington Furnace (Ormand’s) pig iron was converted into kettles, cannon
balls, rifle barrels, etc. 1786, MOVE
FROM LEEPER'S TO HOYLE'S CREEK
Jacob Stroup, Sr.’s large farm was at "The Grove", on upper
Hoyle's Creek of the South Fork of Catawba, between modern Alexis and High
Shoals. In 1786, when young Jacob
Stroup (JR) was fifteen, his family moved to a 307 acres farm on Saylor's
Branch of Hoyle Creek, purchased from Jacob, Sr., adjoining him on the northwest
but separated by the creek. 1790 - 1806
Jacob Stroup (JR) was nineteen when he went to the Lincoln Co.
courthouse on Aug. 15, 1790 with his kinsman (perhaps a brother-in-law) William
Goodson for a Marriage Bond and License to marry eighteen-year-old Elisabetha
“Betsy” Dellinger. ”He had no schooling”, but, being too proud to sign
with an X, he scrawled his name as “Jacob Str--p.”
(He signed it Straub in German script) FIRST HOME
PLACE Jacob Stroup (JR) and Betsy first set up housekeeping on a tract of his father's land, where they were listed in the 1790 census. Adam owned between 950 to 1,000 acres, so lent young Jacob the use of a tract. JACOB STROUP,
THE MAN
Young Jacob became “a man of fine physique”.
The Revolutionary war had closed the only public school in the area. He
received no formal education. “He
was a man of indomitable energy and a great worker.
He had no schooling, but was a fine rifle shot and the best judge of men
and horses I ever knew.”
After his marriage, Jacob Stroup (JR) energetically began
educating himself in various fields, and entirely through his own efforts,
became a highly successful iron master, and real estate speculator who kept
extensive ledgers of his business transactions.
In 1807, his wife, Betsy Dellinger Stroup, who had borne nine children,
died at age thirty-six following the birth of her last child, Alexander, and was
buried in the Dellinger cemetery on Elliott Road. SECOND WIFE,
HANNAH (HOYLE) RHYNE
Jacob Stroup (JR), a widower with children and an ironworker,
married Hannah Hoyle. She took over
as stepmother to his, children and brought to the Stroup home her teenaged son,
Jacob Rhyne, who a year later married Jacob’s daughter Caty Stroup. SON MOSES
APPRENTICED AT AGE ELEVEN
The industrious Germans put more emphasis on learning craft skills than
on "book learning”, and Jacob Stroup (JR) raised his sons the same
way he was raised, by teaching them a trade.
His son, Moses Stroup, born Oct. 12, 1794 in North Carolina, seemed
endowed with a natural talent and intense personal fondness for the useful
industry he chose so early in his profession. In those days schooling was not
available, and Moses had none, only what he got by his pine knot light.
Beginning at age eleven, while working with his father, he would later
help put the iron industry in South Carolina and Georgia on firm footing.
But
all his life he was a great student, well posted on every subject, and he became
a man of fine judgment. MOSES STROUP,
FULL PARTNER
When he was 15, he helped his father erect an iron furnace at Ironton,
Lincoln County, N.C. (No sources) His
father taught him the family trades of making gunpowder, mining coal and iron
ore, quarrying limestone, making charcoal, smelting and casting large iron
pieces, so that at a very early age he became his father's business partner,
entrusted to carry out projects his father started.
He became his father’s “good right hand”, his partner in
constructing and operating iron works, gristmills and flourmills. MOSES
DELLINGER'S INDENTURE
Following the custom of the time, Moses N. Dellinger was indentured to
Jacob (JR) and Moses Stroup...skilled ironworkers operating an iron
furnace and processing plant for the household and on the farm in those days.
On Sept. 7, 1820 Moses N. Dellinger married Mary Stroup, Lincoln Co.,
Marriage Bond dated 4 Sept 1820, Moses N. Dellinger & Mary Stroup.
Bondsman, Simon Dellinger. WAR OF 1812
Jacob
Stroup (JR) remembered when his father and grandfather fought the British
in 1780, and raised a company of men from Lincoln County to fight them again in
the War of 1812, and was elected Captain of this company. He returned home
safely. SOUTH CAROLINA
About
1813 Jacob Stroup (JR) and Edmund Fewell (Fuel, Feuell), both of Lincoln
Co. N.C., went into partnership in the iron business, and bought land together
on King’s Creek, about thirty miles down the old wagon road that ran southwest
across the N.C. state line into York District, S.C., as shown by a deed dated
1814 to Jacob Stroup & E. Fewell from George Hood 500 acres of land on Kings
Creek and Wolfs Creek. In
1815, Jacob Stroup sold to Edmund Fewell “of Lincoln Co., N.C.” a
"tract on King's Creek by agreement". MOVE TO
COWPENS, S.C.
In 1814 Jacob and Hannah Stroup moved their large household by wagon
about 30 miles southwest from Hoyle's Creek, perhaps in company with William
Goodson, who was probably his relative. SOUTH
CAROLINA'S IRON ACT
The reason for this move to South Carolina was because the State
Legislature had passed an act to encourage the building of iron works, offering
free land and ten years tax exemption to any new ironworks that produced a
specified amount of iron.
Jacob knew he could produce this amount, because York District had rich
veins of ore, and he could ship lime and coal by wagon from Lincoln County, N.C.
The State of South Carolina granted Jacob Stroup deed rights to 1,000
acres of land, as part of this land bounty; this type of document never gives
the purpose of a grant, but he used this State bounty land to manufacture iron.
BUILDS COWPENS
FURNACE
Jacob built his new home at Blacksburg, York District, S.C. near where
the Battle of Cowpens had been fought on Jan. 17, 1781.
The new iron works he built with Fewell, called “Cowpens Furnace”,
included the earliest rolling mill in the South, and employed so many workers
that a town of the same name grew up around it with a church, school, tavern and
general store. Cowpens
Furnace tavern was operated by Jacob’s son Adam Washington Stroup (who
followed the trade of his maternal grandfather, Henry Dellinger) while Jacob
Stroup’s large home doubled as a boarding house and inn.
To operate his furnace and his family’s other enterprises in the town
around it, Jacob Stroup employed coal miners, limestone and ore miners,
mechanical engineers, lumbermen, charcoal manufacturers, carpenters, furnace
workers, millers, brewers and laborers. Amazingly,
he acquired most of these skills himself, and when necessary, taught them to his
employees.
By 1818, he began buying land from his business partner, Edmund Fewell,
whose health was failing. Deeds
between 1816 and 1818 show more of Jacob Stroup’s land transactions. ACQUIRES MORE LAND
1816 Jacob Stroup Fr Hugh Quinn.
25 acres Broad River. York Bk. H:401.
1816 Jacob Stroup fr Samuel Moss. 142 (?) acres Kings Creek.
H:401.
1816 Jacob Stroup fr Samuel Moss. 103
acres Kings Cr.
H:403.
1816 Jacob Stroup from Samuel Moss. 163 acres Broad River
H:404.
1817 Jacob Stroup from Reuben Moss.
200 acres Doolittles Cr. H:406.
1817 Jacob Stroup from Joseph Reid.
872 acres Wolfs Cr.
H:409.
1817 Jacob Stroup from Joseph Reid.
65 acres Wolfs Cr.
H:411.
1817 Jacob Stroup from Ross Bird. 60
acres Kings Cr.
H:412.
1818 Jacob Stroup from Reuben Moss.
387 acres.
H:410.
1818 Jacob Stroup from E. Fewell. 618
acres.
H:406.
1818 Jacob Stroup from Jas. Love. 158
acres Broad River.
1818 Jacob Stroup from John Powell & Edmund Fewell.
450
acres Broad River.
K:348.
1819 Jacob Stroup from Lewis Moss. 380 acres Kings Cr.
I:212.
1819 Jacob Stroup fr Thos. Putnam. 777 A Doolittles & Kings Cr.
I:532.
1819[1]´ Jacob Stroup from Geo. Bird. 200 acres Broad River.
I:535.
1819 Jacob Stroup from Andrew Davison.
100 acres Broad River.
I:537.
1819 Jacob Stroup from Gilbert Moss. 412 acres Broad River.
K:345. 1820 SOUTH
CAROLINA
Page
170 of the 1820 Federal Census listed Jacob Stroup in York District, S.C. with
23 people in his household and no slaves. Some
unidentified males in this large household were ironworkers and apprentices in
his employ. Although he owned no
slaves in 1820, Jacob Stroup hired some who were owned by others, and one of his
most highly skilled ironworkers was a free Negro man named Bill Rash he trained
and took with him to new locations. HANNAH
STROUP'S DEATH
In late summer 1820, Hannah (Hoyle, Rhyne) Stroup died, and Jacob took
her body to Hoyles Creek for burial in a family cemetery, stone: “Hannah
Stroup who departed this life Aug. 20, 1820, aged 57 years.” 1820’S LAND
PURCHASES
Jacob Stroup’s land acquisitions in York District, S.C. continued:
1820 Jacob Stroup from D. R. Martin. 181 acres Broad River.
I:533.
1820 Jacob Stroup from Jas. Dickson. 14 acres Broad River.
I:536.
1820 Jacob Stroup from John Powell & Edmund Fewell.
1441
acres Wolf Creek.
K:349.
1821 Jacob Stroup from Jos. Parker, Jr. 319 acres Doolittles Cr.
I:537.
1821 Jacob Stroup to George Carruth. 200 A & 29 A Doolittles Cr.
I:407.
1822 Jacob Stroup to Gilbert Moss. 99 acres Islands in Broad Riv.
K:22.
1822 Jacob Stroup from Gabriel Lockhart.
20 acres between York and Union Districts, S.C.
I:530. SARAH
(JENNINGS, FEWELL) STROUP
About 1822, Jacob’s business associate, Edmund Fewell, died, leaving a
young widow and three minor children, Irena Fewell, Theodore Fewell and Edmund
M. Fewell. About 1820, 49-year-old
Jacob Stroup married Fewell’s 36-year-old widow (nee Sarah Jennings) born Mar.
22, 1787. STARTS A THIRD
FAMILY
By his young third wife, Jacob began his third family of children, some
being younger than his grandchildren, but some of them knew so little about
their grandfather that one of them told a historian he was David Stroup, a
Continental Line soldier who made guns in Pennsylvania. (That would be Jacob
Decatur telling Ethel Armes)
1824 - 1825
LAND RECORDS
Jacob
Stroup continued acquiring York Co., S.C. land:
1824 Jacob Stroup to Horatio Fulton. 118 acres Kings Cr.
K:235.
1824 Jacob Stroup from V. H. Powell. 500 acres Broad River.
K:346.
1825 Jacob Stroup from Comr. in Equity.
1,350 acres Barr Creek
And Broad River. (This may have been iron bounty land) K:346.
1825 Jacob Stroup to Duncan Campbell. 8,705 acres,
9 tracts on Broad River.
K:350.
1825 Jacob Stroup from Andrew Davison. 150 acres.
K:350.
1825 Jacob Stroup from Wm. McGill. 906 acres.
4 tracts to islands of Broad River.
K:356.
1825 Jacob Stroup fr Horatio Fulton. 150 acres Broad River.
L:248. A FLASH FLOOD
About
1825 a flash flood sent King's Creek over its banks while Jacob’s furnace was
in operation, and the influx of cold water caused the hot furnace to explode.
Instead of rebuilding where this might occur again, he sold out and built
another furnace in the vicinity of Spartanburg.
Of this move, his son Jacob Decatur Stroup said, "He sold out his
iron works to Col. Will Nesbitt, leaving my brother Moses with Nesbitt to clean
up the deal." They did a
large business, casting cannon for the Nullification Party in South Carolina.
(Deeds show he sold Cowpens Furnace to Nesbitt in 1828, two years after
he had moved to Spartanburg and into Georgia, while also maintaining a residence
in South Carolina. Deeds drawn between 1825 and 1828 show that although he was
living in Georgia, Jacob was dealing in land in York, S.C., traveling between
the these two states to conduct real estate transactions in several locations.) 1826 LAND
PURCHASE FROM FATHER
In 1826 Jacob made a trip home to Lincoln County, North Carolina, at
which time he had a business transaction with his father, buying a tract of land
from him by means of a mortgage:
Indentured to Jacob Stroup of York District, S.C., for $500, a
certain tract of land on the waters of Hoyle's Creek from Adam Stroup containing
704 acres adjoining Jonas Friday, Michael Stroup and others, being part of land
originally granted to Jacob Stroup, Sr., by patent bearing date of 1775, the
others granted to the said Adam Stroup by patent dates 1790, the others dates in
1805, granted to Thomas Buchanan May 18, 1789.
Jacob
paid $500.00 for 704 acres, the market rate.
Although he perhaps wished to help his father by sending him regular cash
payments towards the mortgage, he also wanted this land for its deposits of
coal, lime and ore that could be hauled down the old wagon road southwest from
the Catawba area to his South Carolina foundry. DOCUMENTARY
PROOF: JACOB STROUP, SON OF ADAM
This 1826 land sale showed Adam Stroup of Lincoln Co., N.C. as Grantor
and Jacob Stroup of Union District, S.C. as Grantee, without stating their
relationship, but three years later Jacob sent his son-in-law and business
partner to Lincoln:
Nov. 25, 1829, Jacob Stroup, Power of Attorney to James Strain:
South Carolina. I Jacob Stroup of the State aforesaid and District of
Union...do appoint James Strain of said State & Dist. of York my true &
lawful Attorney...on my behalf to enquire into and examine the Situation of a
tract of land containing 704 acres purchased by the said JACOB STROUP of his
father ADAM STROUP Situate in Lincoln County North Carolina on the waters of
Hoyles Creek Joining land of Michael Stroup and others".
Also one other tract or parcel of land containing 45 acres...on the
waters of Kings creek purchased by said Stroup of Arthur & Josiah Patterson,
joining land of Robert Wees and others.
This Power of Attorney was witnessed by Jacob Stroup’s younger brother
Michael Stroup, and their first cousin, Joseph Stroup, and proved in open court,
Lincoln County Session of January 1830. TO GEORGIA BY
1826
By
1825 Jacob Stroup was doing business and prospecting
Never one to miss an opportunity, he qualified as a Georgia resident for
the Cherokee Land Purchase Lottery of 1827 which gave as much as 400 acres to
families who had lived there at least a year.
There were earlier Georgia land lotteries, but Jacob participated in the
ones of 1827 and 1832, which "attracted a great many here, among them the
elder Stroup, he having drawn a good number of lots". 1826-1831
SOUTH CAROLINA LAND RECORDS
Jacob StroupÕs land deals in York Co., S.C. continued:
1826. Jacob Stroup fr. Jas. Buford (by Sheriff) 1900 A Doolittles Cr
K:416/7
1826. Jacob Stroup fr
Ephraim Moss. 286 A Doolittles Cr.
L:244.
1826 Jacob Stroup fr Jos. Parks. 896
A Doolittles Cr.
L:247.
1827 Jacob Stroup fr Thos. Robertson. 405 A Broad River.
L:246.
1828 Jacob Stroup fr. Robt. Neelands. 399 A Broad River
L:246.
1828 Jacob Stroup fr Jas. McElwee. 155 A Kings Cr.
L:248.
1828 Jacob Stroup to Wilson Nesbitt.
Tract.
M:57.
1829 Jacob Stroup fr Jas. McElwee. 120 A Kings Cr.
L:245.
1829 Jacob Stroup fr Christian Reinhardt. 200 A Kings Cr.
L:249.
1829 Jacob Stroup fr Robert Stacy. 586 A Doolittles Cr.
L:257.
1829 Jacob Stroup to Robert Nesbitt. 50 acres Doolittles Cr.
L:341.
1829 Jacob Stroup to Arthur Moss. 124 A Doolittles Cr.
L:273.
1829 Jacob Stroup to Aaron Moss. 13 acres Broad River
L:342.
1829 Jacob Stroup to Oliver Quinn. 150 A Doolittles Cr.
L:237.
1830 Jacob Stroup to John Bryce. 487 acres,
7 tracts Broad Riv & Kings Creek.
L:344
1831 Jacob Stroup fr James McElwee. 25 A Kings Creek
L:500.
1831 Jacob Stroup to James Strain (his son-in-law).
586 acres on Doolittles Creek. TOTAL S. C.
LAND HOLDINGS
The
above deeds show Jacob Stroup bought over 15,370 acres of land in South
Carolina, and sold 10,532 acres to Wilson Nesbitt which included his King's
Creek furnace site, the business deal his son Moses Stroup “stayed behind to
clean up.” TO SHOAL
CREEK, GEORGIA
Jacob Decatur Stroup wrote that, “In 1828 my father settled on Shoal
Creek in Habersham Co.” He
brought to this new location his wife, his younger children, his Fewell
stepchildren, his daughter Caty and her second husband James Strain, his Rhyne
grandchildren, Moses N. Dellinger, his former apprentice, and Bill Rash, the
highly skilled Negro iron worker he had trained. THE FIRST IRON
FURNACE IN GEORGIA
Their new settlement was near Waleska; in the part of old Habersham Co.
that later became Cherokee. Here
“Jacob Stroup built the first iron furnace in the state of Georgia, making him
the veritable pioneer in iron manufacturing." It
was described as, "A small operation...Jacob Stroup got John C. Calhoun
interested in developing the organization of the company known as the Habersham
County Iron Works and Manufacturing Company, and Calhoun was the man back of it
(financially)...This plant prospered until the War Between the
States." BIRTH OF JACOB
DECATUR STROUP
On Nov. 28, 1828 Jacob and his third wife, Sarah (Jennings) Stroup, were
in Decatur, DeKalb Co., Ga. when she gave birth to a son they named Jacob
Decatur Stroup, there being a fad at this time in South Carolina and Georgia of
naming infants for their birthplaces. MOSES' LAND
RECORDS
Although Moses Stroup had followed in his father's footsteps as an iron
works builder, manufacturer and real estate speculator, he also learned from his
father's financial mistakes, and did not go as deeply in debt in his business
ventures.
In 1828, Moses sold 3,195 acres and 55 acres on Kings Creek to Wallace
McDaniel. In 1829 he sold 150 acres on Doolittles Creek to Oliver Quinn, and in
1829 sold 124 acres on Doolittles Cr. to Arthur Moss.
1831, MOSES
STROUPE MARRIES
For years Moses had been too occupied with business to court a girl and
marry. He was thirty-seven years
old in 1831 when the Western N.C. Spectator and Advocate reported his marriage: Wednesday
at Cowpens Furnace, Spartanburg, S.C. on 30th of January Moses Stroup to Miss
Permelia Richards, daughter of B. W. Richards, Esq. 1832 - 1836
In 1832 Georgia's Nullification Party threatened to secede from the Union
over the issue of a Federal tariff, which caused the State of Georgia to
purchase large quantities of cannon, cast at the Stroup Iron Foundries in South
Carolina and Georgia. “In 1836
Jacob sold out" in Waleska, Georgia, and moved on.” TO STAMP
CREEK, GA. SENDS HIS SON
ALEX TO GEORGIA
In 1836, Jacob Stroup sent his son Alexander to Cass County, bought land
lot 290 in the 21st District and a second section from Jesse Lambert.
Here he erected a cold-blast furnace and a gristmill.
This site is now covered by Allatoona Lake...Mark Anthony Cooper
(later) held a half interest.
In 1837 Jacob and Moses Stroup came to Cass County where rich deposits of
iron ore had been found to exist around the town of Cassville, an inexhaustible
supply of ore for their furnace. As
the surrounding countryside was being rapidly developed after the removal of the
Indians westward in 1832, it also offered them a ready market for their
products.
1838 BANK LOAN
TO BUILD ETOWAH IRON WORKS
On Oct. 18, 1838,
Jacob Stroup made a promissory note for $460 to be paid to Robert Moore at the
Central Bank at Milledgeville, Ga., cash borrowed to construct his fifth works.
From his ledger: "Oct. 5, 1839 we started building stack". (Where
is this ledger?)
He built a great dam across the Etowah river, a cold blast furnace, a
forge, a sawmill and a gristmill. Soon
his furnace was in full blast, making iron directly from the ore. Once again, as at
Cowpens Furnace, he employed so many people that a town sprang up around his
enterprises, this one named “Etowah”, for its river.
Moses N. Dellinger, being an excellent ironworker, came with the Stroups
to this area and helped with the early development of the iron industry in the
area. The Stroup furnace was
located on Stamp Creek near its confluence with the Etowah River. As this was
before the building of the W. & A. R.R., the output of the furnace was
limited almost entirely to local demand.
1833 - 1846
GEORGIA LAND RECORDS
1832. Jacob Stroup.
Cherokee Land. Pg 9. Lot 66,
Dis 21, Sec 2.
1833, 22 Aug. Jacob Stroup of Habersham Co. Fr Thomas D. Speer of Morgan
Co. Page 178. Lot 509, Dis. 21, Sec. 2.
1834, Apr 26. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Leonard Ballew of Habersham Co page 135, Lot 21, Dist 4, Sec. 3.
1837, Sept. 30. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. David Mitchell of Franklin Co. Page 263, Lot 297, Dis 21, Sec 2.
1840, Mar. 2. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. R. N. McLin of Cass Co. Page 5, Lot 273, Dis 21 Sec 2.
1840, Oct. 16. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co. Fr. Sheriff Bogle, land of Nathan
Butler. Page 24, Lot 277, Dis 21,
Sec 2.
1841, Mar. 24. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Charles Baker of Cass Co. Page 154, Lot 139, Dis. 21, Sec 2.
1842, July 27. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Reuben Herndon of Floyd Co.,
page 14, Lot 303, Dis 21, Sec 2.
1844, July 5. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Henry Strickland of Cobb Co. Page
152. Lot 642, Dis 21, Sec 2.
1844, July 5. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Henry Strickland of Cobb Co. Page
152. Lot 642, Dis 21, Sec 2.
1845, Jan. 6. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. John Hodge of Meriweather Co. Page 178.
Lot 655, Dis 21, Sec 2.
1845, May 13. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Charles McCullens of Newton Co.
Page 192. Lot 579, Dis 21,
Sec 2.
1845, July 5. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. George W. McGee of Troup Co. Page 193. Lot 502, Dis 21, Sec 2.
1845, Nov. 18. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. Thomas M. Brown of Warren Co. Page
192, Lot 652, Dis. 21, Sec 2.
1846, Aug. 19. Jacob Stroup of Cass Co.
Fr. E. A. Daves of DeKalb Co. Page 153.
Lot 868, Dis 21, Sec. 2.
Between 1833 and 1846, Jacob Stroup purchased 15 lots in Cass County
land. MOSES
STROUP’S CASS COUNTY LAND RECORDS
Nov. 14 1842, John Hammons of Chambers Co., Ala. to Moses Stroup of Cass
Co., Lot 299 District 21 Section 2. [1]
Jan. 10, 1843, William Berry of Russell Co., Ala. Grantor, to Moses
Stroup of Cass Co., Ga., Grantee, Lot 278, District 21, Section 2, Cass Co.,
Georgia.[1]
Jan. 10, 1843 James Kirkpatrick of Cass Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.
Lots 501 and 466, District 21, Section 2
Aug. 29, 1843, Absolom Stewart of DeKalb Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.,
Lot 367, Dis. 21, Sec. 2.
Feb. 25, 1844, Jacob Stroup of Cass Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co., Lots
154, 227, 272, 273, 277, 280, 281, 297, 298, 250 & 636. [1]
Aug 20, 1844, John Hodge of Meryweather Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.
Lot 214, District 21, Section 2.
Jan. 10. 1844, Samuel Forbes of Campbell Co. to Moses Stroup
of Cass Co., Lot 311, District 21, Section 2.
Feb. 3, 1844 R. T. Gaines of Elbert Co. to Moses Stroup of
Cass Co., Lot 429, District 21, Section 2.
May 20, 1844, Edward Gault of Cherokee Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.,
Lot 423, District 21, Section 2.
Jan 1, 1844, J. W. Lewis of Cherokee Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.,
Lots 368, 427, 428, 503, 705, 594, 291 & --- all in District 21, Section 2.
Aug. 21, 1844, Miller Whitlow of Walker Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.,
Lot 159, District 21, Section 2.
Oct. 1, 1844, Sheriff Linn, John Bullard, auction to Moses Stroup of Cass
Co. Lots 495 & 514, District 21, Section 2.
Apr 3, 1845, John Morris of Franklin Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co. Lot
443, District 21, Section 2.
Dec 10 1846, James Paxton of Cass Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co., Lot
227 District 21, Section 2.
Jan. 1, 1846, Thomas Hamilton of Cass Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co,
Lots 427, 428, 368, 503, 705, 425, 594 & 308, District 21, Section 2.
JUN. 14, 1846, Donna Hangerford of Upson Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.,
Lot 274, District 21, Section 2.
Nov. 10, 1846, Ivester Harrie of Cass Co. to Moses Stroup of Cass Co.,
Lot 443, Dis. 21, Sec. 2. GEORGIA
LOTTERY LOTS
Jacob Stroup’s Georgia Lottery lots were all in the 21st District,
Section 2: Lots 75, 139, 154, 227,
280, 281, 295, 359 and 636. Added
to lots he purchased, he now owned 24 lots in Cass County. FROM A GEORGIA
HISTORY
About the time of the Removal of the Cherokee Indians, Moses and Jacob
Stroup, Germans, began manufacturing iron about 1837.
A bloomery forge was built on Stamp Creek, making only hollow ware and
castings.
Jacob and his large family settled near Cartersville, Cass County,
Georgia, and put up a small furnace, sawmill and on Stamp Creek of the Etowah
River. His home place was two miles
from his iron works at a place that is now called "Cooper's
Monument".” OWNER OF THE
BEST TAVERN IN THE AREA
Jacob Stroup (whose maternal grandfather owned two highly profitable
taverns) (I found this highly unlikely, no sources for this) built and
owned the best tavern in the Cartersville area, where in 1838, during the
Removal of the Cherokee, one of the guests was Gen. Winfield Scott, the U.S.
Army commander in charge of that military operation. 1840 GEORGIA
CENSUS
In 1840 Cass County census Jacob Stroup’s household had 10 males, 2
females and 5 slaves. His sons
Joseph and Alexander were heads of their own households. JACOB AT CANE
CREEK, CALHOUN CO., ALA.
Jacob’s “clerk and bookkeeper” for many years was Noah Goode, with
whom he engaged early in the 1840's to build iron works in Calhoun Co., Alabama.
"Alabama's second furnace, Cane Creek near Anniston in Calhoun
County, did not go blast until 1840 or 1843.
The furnace was the work of Jacob Stroup, another in a long line of
Pennsylvania iron masters who would make Alabama home.”
SON JACOB
DECATUR STROUP’S ACCOUNT
Son Jacob Decatur Stroup wrote, "In 1843 my brother Moses
joined Jacob in Cass Co., and bought him out, and Jacob built another works at
Allatoona." A HISTORICAL
ACCOUNT
In 1842 Mark A. Cooper, a 42 year old banker turned politician, was
stumping for the Governorship of Georgia when he visited Etowah where he was
much impressed by the vigor and optimism of Jacob and Moses Stroup who were
building a new iron works and town in a rural area without even a crossroads.
After losing the election, Cooper withdrew to Etowah in 1843, and, being
a banker, offered a business loan to 72 year old Jacob Stroup to finance an even
greater expansion of its mills and town, a deal Stroup should have turned down
because the local market for iron ware was nearly exhausted, and road shipment
of iron goods to other markets was unprofitable.
When Jacob Stroup was unable repay this loan, because iron sales were
depressed, Cooper foreclosed his note, and took over a half share in Stroup’s
Stamp Creek works. Jacob then sold his other half share to his son Moses Stroup.
In
1843, after Moses Stroup became Cooper’s partner at Etowah, he began building
a blast furnace, rolling mill, and a mill to make fine wheat flour.
These works, at the zenith of their existence, consisted of a flouring
mill, blast furnace, foundry and rolling mill, giving out vast quantities
products that were hauled away in wagons to different points throughout the
country, including flour, pig iron, rolled bars, nails, hollow ware and railroad
iron.
The iron for the Georgia and W. & A. and Macon and Western Division
of the Central railroads came chiefly from these works.
The work force employed, directly or indirectly, was about a thousand
people. ANOTHER
ACCOUNT
"Coming to North Georgia in 1842, Mark A. Cooper bought a one half
interest in the Stroup furnace and immediately began the expansion of the iron
industry in this area. The town of Etowah was founded, and a large flourmill
built on the Etowah River that had a capacity of 300 barrels a day.
A new furnace and a rolling
mill were built and the rolling mill alone required 130 men to operate it and
produced 30 tons of iron per day. The first railroad rails made in Georgia were
turned out at Etowah. THE STRAINS
RETURN TO WALESKA
As Jacob migrated from place to place, he left behind married children
who did not wish to move, but others followed him, and some later moved back to
earlier locations. His eldest daughter, Caty, and her second husband James
Strain, came with him to Stamp Creek, but after her father lost a half interest
in his mill to Mark Cooper in 1842, James Strain was not longer his business
partner, and they moved back to Waleska, Georgia, where they were highly
respected and raised a large family of children by both of her marriages. LEDGERS AND
LETTERS
"An old ledger found in Canton, Ga. shows Jacob’s payments to
Alexander Stroup (his son), Monroe Fuell and Theodore Fuell (stepsons) and
Samuel White (a grandson). He also wrote letters to Jacob Stroup in Habersham
Co., Ga. and to Jacob Stroup in Cass Co., Georgia." (This doesn’t make
sense, where is the ledger?) THE ALLATOONA
CREEK FURNACE
Jacob Stroup was recorded in various Georgia histories: Jacob Stroup
erected another furnace on Allatoona Creek, which was in operation until 1861.
Jacob Stroup was an Iron Master Extra-Ordinaire...He went on to erect another
furnace on the east bank of Allatoona Creek." Having sold his foundry at
Stamp Creek, in spite of his advancing years, Jacob erected a furnace at
Allatoona, which he was operating when he died at age seventy-five on Nov. 8,
1846. BURIAL
Jacob was buried in the Furnace Cemetery near his home place
at Stamp Creek, next to the grave of his son Thomas B. Stroup and his stepson
Edmund Fewell, Jr.
His tombstone reads: "Sacred to the Memory of Jacob
Stroups Who Was Born in 1771 and Departed This Life the 8th Day of Nov. 1846.
Age 75 Years".
In later years, Jacob Stroup’s cemetery on his land was called
"The Goodson Graveyard", and “The Furnace Cemetery”, located on
the hill above one of Jacob’s granite stacks and the Etowah River.
In the woods behind the main cemetery are three heart-shaped grave
markers fashioned German style of wrought iron with fancy curlicues and linked
together at the bottom by a rod, marking the graves of three children. ESTATE
SETTLEMENT RECORDS
Although
Jacob Stroup left no will, his estate settlement named his children as heirs
without identifying kinship. Disbursements
were made to them as goods were sold.
Estate records show he died owning land in Lumpkin, Carroll and Cass
Counties. On Apr. 12, 1848 his
remaining property in Cherokee County was sold at public auction for $6,000. His
$460 debt from 1838 to build the first furnace at Etowah was paid to the bank in
Millidgeville, Ga., as were other business debts.
In 1853 Moses returned to Stamp Cr., Etowah, Georgia to collect his share
of his father's estate. On March
17, 1853, Moses signing for $105.81 as agent for his brother Jacob Decatur
Stroup, whom he had left tending to business in Cherokee County, Alabama. WHAT BECAME OF
HIS WEALTH?
Jacob’s widow received $33.12 on Feb. 1, 1853, and on Mar. 29, 1853,
$202.69, a total of only $235.81. The
shocked family wanted to know what had become of the land and wealth he had
accumulated, wondered why so little was left, and were upset about the pittance
left his widow and small amounts to his children. Estate
records disclose some went to business debts, some to lawyers, and the balance
was divided between more than a dozen heirs, but it fails to show what became of
real estate holdings that should have been worth more than $6,000.
What became of part of his assets remains a mystery, although his son
Jacob Decatur Stroup said, “He made much money, but lost heavily in a gold
mine.” SON MOSES
STROUP AT ETOWAH
After Moses Stroup bought out his father he enlarged the
(Etowah) plant, built more furnaces, a rolling mill and a flourmill.
He took Mark A. Cooper into partnership with him, and in 1847 sold out to
Cooper and Wiley.
Cooper and Wiley then operated the Cass County plant until the
Civil War when General Sherman destroyed it.
It was at this rolling mill that Moses Stroup made the first railroad
iron in the South; it was strap iron, used on the Old State Road, which is now
the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
Jacob Stroup is also credited with having built the first ironworks in
Georgia and South Carolina.
His eldest son, Moses, would go on to gain fame in his own right as
builder of three Alabama furnaces, Round Mountain (1852), Tannehill No. 1 (1859)
and Oxmoor. (1863)
In 1848 Moses Stroup came to Alabama...took up several hundred acres of
ore land from the Government. He
started building his Round Mountain furnace in 1849. TO CHEROKEE
CO. ALABAMA
Moses father died Oct. 8, 1848 in Georgia, and "In 1848 Moses Stroup
came to Alabama, prospected through Cherokee County, and took up several hundred
acres of ore lands from the government."
In 1849 in Cherokee, Alabama, Moses started building his Round Mountain
Furnace on the site of a forge erected by William Milner, and Henry Milner went
into partnership with him. At this
time he had his young half-brother Jacob Decatur Stroup, b. 1828, working with
him. 1852 ROUND
MOUNTAIN FURNACE
By April 1852, Moses Stroup’s newly built Round Mountain Furnace was in
operation in Cherokee Co., Alabama. MARCH 1855
LETTER
On Mar. 28, 1855 Moses Stroup wrote a letter about his Round Mountain
plant, "The ore used is the red fossiliferous kind.
It is taken from the side of the mountain, very near the furnace...The
number of hands employed for all purposes connected with the furnace is
forty-five. It is over half a mile
from the Coosa River, on which is shipped the pig iron to Rome, Georgia. OLD TANNEHILL
FURNACE
After writing this, in early 1855 Moses sold his Round Mountain plant to
Samuel P. S. Marshall. He then
"moved to Tuscaloosa Co. where his son-in-law, John Alexander, had
purchased the forge at Tannehill from Colonel Tannehill" who had by 1847 a
forge here in connection with a foundry.
"The ironworks was sold to John Alexander in 1857 and it was about
this time that his father-in-law, Moses Stroup, was engaged to oversee a major
expansion of the plant.
"After coming to Tuscaloosa County Moses Stroup began at once the
construction of his big group of furnaces.
He used slave labor, and cut his own timber, quarried the sandstone,
constructing the furnaces by means of skids.
He built a tramway to the ore fields, and saw and flour mills.
He made plows, axes, firedogs, and all kinds of hollow ware.
His coaling bed was a mile east of the furnaces.
"He (Moses) took John Alexander into partnership.
Machinery was brought from Philadelphia.
A flourishing little settlement grew up in the vicinity of the furnaces. A foundry was built just south of the single furnace and cast
sheds and a cast house near the double furnaces.
"The furnaces were constructed of huge boulders of sandstone, each
weighing four hundred pounds, and the in walls, bosh and crucibles were lined
with fire brick imported from Stowbridge, England.
"The stone jacket was fashioned precisely like the early furnaces of
England and Wales. A rough log
trestle from the high bridge on its near side carried the teams laden with the
furnace burden. Something like
3,400 acres of heaver timber were cut down during the life of the old furnaces
for charcoal. 1858-1859
"J. P. Lesley, in the 'Bulletin of the American Iron Association of
1858', lists "Stroup’s Forge" as a "bloomery, making bars for
home market from hematite ores, brown and fiberous (sic) from neighborhood.
Made in 1857 up to October 1...60,394 pounds in 100 days. That averaged out to about 27 tons.
"The great difficulty in getting men of capital to come here from
the North", wrote Moses Stroup in 1859, "is you cannot get them to
believe what we say about this country, and they won't believe it is healthy
here."
FURNACE
DESCRIPTIONS AND OPERATIONS
"All these furnaces (Round Mountain 1852 Tannehill 1859 and Oxmoor
1863, built by Moses Stroup in Alabama) were similar in that they followed the
same basic design, a truncated pyramid built of stone blocks around a hollow
chamber, the height ranging from 19 to 40 feet and in the bosh (the widest
portion of the chamber) from four to eight feet in diameter.
A brick stack might add another 10 to 20 feet.
"The work...involved slave labor, although the proprietor or iron
master may not have actually been a slave owner.
It was common practice of the day to hire slaves from local owners on an
annual basis. The operator would
feed, clothe and guard the slaves.
"Early Alabama ironworks were largely rural operations located near
ore beds, a stream for water power and alongside large stands of timber needed
for charcoal. They were all located
near a hillside used to anchor the charging bridge as they were top-fed a
mixture of ore, limestone and charcoal.
Built much in the same fashion as the earlier stone furnaces in Alabama,
Tannehill No. 1 used sandstone carved from a quarry site on the hillside 300
yards to the west. Many of the big stones, which were transported to the furnace
site by the use of skids, weighed in excess of 400 pounds.
The quarry site can be seen today much the way Moses Stroup left it a
century earlier. When the stone
stack was completed, a wooden trestle was built connecting the furnace to the
hillside behind it for the purpose of charging the ironworks from the top.
Stroup’s stone stack was 30 feet high and 8 1/2 feet in the bosh.
Given the obstacles of reducing the ores, it is thought production did
not exceed five to six tons a day.
"Slave labor was used extensively in cutting the stone, building the
furnace and digging charcoal pits which were located on the high ridge behind
the plant.
A wooden flume brought water from Roupes Creek on whose banks the furnace
stood to an overshot wheel, which was mounted on a wooden axle that turned on
stone bearings.
To the end of the axle was attached a cam which in turn operated a set of
huge bellows by means of a lever. The
forge hammer was also operated by waterpower in much the same manner.
From the hearth at the bottom of the furnace molten iron was tapped into
sand beds or ladled into molds. This
operation took place in a casting shed or foundry built onto the furnace itself.
The depression in the sand where the iron poured from the 'tap hole' had
runners to each side resembling a cow with suckling piglets thus came the
description of 'pig iron'.
The craftsmanship of the furnace work -- and of Furnaces Nos. 2 and 3,
which would follow in 1863 -- was a tribute to the skill of slave artisans whose
work would stand into the next century. Slaves
dug the brown hematite ore from open pits in the Goethite deposit in the same
area Hillman and Tannehill received their supply some two to three miles from
the plant." TANNEHILL
FURNACE No. 2
When the Tannehill No. 2 went into blast it was the first major
technological rebuild in the iron making operation here since Hillman built his
forge in 1830. Moses Stroup added a
foundry as well as cast houses for making plows, axes, firedogs and all kinds of
hollow ware. In the vicinity of the
ironworks Stroup located a store or commissary, a nail factory, various small
forges and nearby dozens of slave houses." 1860 CENSUS
The 1860 Alabama census lists Stroup and Alexander as owners and
operators of a forge at Tannehill representing a capital investment of $20,000.
It may have been filed just as the No. 1 blast furnace at Tannehill was
nearing completion, because in 1850 Col. Tannehill had only a $4,000 capital
investment in the iron operation and employed but six workers. TANNEHILL'S
SIZE AND IMPORTANCE
"There are reports that as many as 600 slaves worked at Tannehill at
one time in all phases of the operation including iron manufacture, timber
cutting, charcoal production, ore mining and transportation.
Tannehill Furnace is considered the birthplace of the Birmingham, Ala.,
iron industry, and is now in Tannehill Historical State Park near Bessemer,
Alabama. 1862 SALE TO
SANDERS
In 1862 John Alexander sold the ironworks to William L. Sanders
(Saunders) of Marion. Moses Stroup,
who remained as superintendent for a few months, then moved to Jefferson Co.,
Alabama. 1863 RED
MOUNTAIN'S OXMOOR FURNACE
Arriving in Jefferson Co., Ala., Moses Stroup built Oxmoor Furnace, the
first ironworks in that county and almost a copy of Tannehill No. 1.
It went into operation in October 1863.
While there is no doubt that brown ore was used extensively in the
Tannehill operation, there is a report that Stroup experimented with red ore
from Red Mountain which would have been its first use on record in a blast
furnace.
"The Oxmoor plant, under Moses Stroup’s practical hand, kept up
steadily its twenty tons per day. Historian
Mary Gordon Duffy wrote: "The
Furnaces gave employment to a large amount of skilled labor and created quite a
settlement of worthy people..." PIONEER
FURNACE BUILDERS
Jacob Stroup was recorded in old histories as a pioneer furnace builder
and iron maker. One of his sons
wrote, “He was a man of indomitable energy and a great worker,” an accurate
description for a man whose route through South Carolina into north Georgia can
be traced by the ruins of huge, cone-shaped, brick stacks of his bloomery
foundries. His iron works, large
and small, were highly profitable, and provided employment to many people.
Jacob Stroup and his son Moses built the
first iron works in South Carolina (not true); the first iron
works in Georgia, the first rolling mill in the South and the first railroad
iron ever in the business. They were the oldest and most experienced iron
makers, the pioneers of this industry in the South, the builders of at least
eight different furnaces and rolling mills in North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia and Alabama. Their passing
closed a chapter in the Southern Iron Industry. This information came from the files of Ethel Belle Stroupe. The text in red are items I believe are incorrect, items in italics are my remarks.
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