Boonton Iron Works
Encyclopedia
Samuel Ogden
Col. Samuel Ogden was a businessman, developer and land speculator who fought on the side of the patriots during the American Revolutionary War.-Biography:...
who, with others in his family, purchased a 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) tract along the Rockaway River
Rockaway River
The Rockaway River is a tributary of the Passaic River, approximately 35 mi long, in northern New Jersey in the United States. The upper course of the river flows through a wooded mountainous valley, whereas the lower course flows through the populated New Jersey suburbs and former industrial...
, near Boonton
Boonton, New Jersey
Boonton is a town in Morris County, New Jersey that was chartered in 1867. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 8,347. The town was originally called "Boone-Towne" in 1761 in honor of the Colonial Governor Thomas Boone....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Here rolling and slitting mill
Slitting mill
The slitting mill was a watermill for slitting bars of iron into rods. The rods then were passed to nailers who made the rods into nails, by giving them a point and head....
s were erected that engaged in the manufacture of nail rods and bar iron. With the construction of the Morris Canal
Morris Canal
The Morris Canal was an anthracite-carrying canal that incorporated a series of water-driven inclined planes in its course across northern New Jersey in the United States. It was in use for about a century — from the late 1820s to the 1920s....
in 1830, the New Jersey Iron Company was organized. This company built a new plant costing $283,000 and imported skilled mechanics from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Under Fuller & Lord (1852–1876) the enterprise tended to become an integrated industry with ore and timber reserves, canal boats, furnace
Furnace
A furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven.In American English and Canadian English, the term furnace on its own is generally used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace , and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device used in the...
s, mills and auxiliary plants. After 1881, the business slowly declined. The plant closed in 1911.
Source
Dictionary of American History by James Truslow AdamsJames Truslow Adams
James Truslow Adams was an American writer and historian. He was not related to the famous Adams family...
, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940