It’s tempting to concentrate on the furnaces, the charcoal, the iron ore, and the processes associated with our iron heritage. After all, we’ve got artifacts to visit and look at and even touch. It’s unfortunate when we overlook the human side — the people who worked in the historic iron industry. But when we overlook the human side, we overlook the extent to which the iron industry in the Upper Housatonic Valley was part of the human tableau that has made up American history.
Who were the people who made iron in the Upper Housatonic Valley?
Where did they come from?
What were typical roles in the iron industry?
How were workers compensated?
Did the iron industry use enslaved workers?
This is an interesting question! Although we have looked — and looked hard — for evidence that enslaved people might have been workers in the historic iron industry, we have not been successful in finding any during the period that Beckley Furnace was in use. In fact, it’s very rate to find evidence of enslaved workers in the iron industry of the Upper Housatonic Valley. Some of this no doubt is due to the relatively early reduction and ultimate elimination of human slavery in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts.
We do know that one of the earliest ironmasters in the area, Thomas Lamb, who owned a forge in the Lime Rock area of the Town of Salisbury, had two enslaved persons in his household in the early 1730s. We do not know if they were involved in the iron industry or if their duties were in his household or in farming. We do know that Lamb had left the area before 1740, presumably taking his enslaved people with him.
What was the role of women in the iron industry?
In most respects, women in the iron industry had roles comparable to those of women elsewhere in American society of the times. There were isolated exceptions, including one notable woman who operated a charcoal business based in Sharon that harvested trees, made charcoal, and contracted to sell it to the blast furnace owners.
There is scant evidence of women holding down production jobs in the furnaces or foundries. Here, however, the women had the vital role of feeding, clothing, and generally maintaining the men who did.
Where did the people who worked here live?
When iron industry people lived tended to be determined by the segment of the industry they occupied. As some examples, workers involved in making charcoal tended to live (usually with their families) in the “charcoal bush” — the acreage where trees were harvested, made into charcoal piles, burned, and moved out to railheads for transportation to the iron furnaces — particularly when the cutting and burning season was underway.
People who dug the iron ore tended to live in families near the mine they worked on. For example, there was a fairly sizeable village called Ore Hill clustered around the Ore Hill Mine (visible today as a pond adjacent to Route 44 between Lakeville CT and Millerton, NY).
People who worked in the blast furnaces tended to live in single family housing (or in boarding houses if workers were single) within waling distance of the furnaces. As the industry developed, more and more of the workers lived in houses built by the iron companies, many of which are still residences today. You can see several from Lower Road west of Beckley Furnace. (Please respect that these houses today are private property and are NOT open for viewing.)
People who lived in the foundries where the pig iron was made into useful objects, such as railroad car wheels, tended to live near the foundry. Many of these workers also lived in company-provided housing, whether boarding houses or single family homes, but an increasing percentage lived on small, privately owned farms in the general area. Many “company houses” are still present in Lime Rock village, ranging from mansions to ordinary worker housing. (Please respect that these houses today are private property and are NOT open for viewing.)
Who were some of the more historically significant leaders in the industry?
