Page 12C-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Thursday, July 18, 1985
Wofford Probes Mystery
Wofford College students
will soon be using techniques
from a variety of academic
disciplines to probe the
mysteries of the area of South
Carolina once known as the
‘Old Iron District.”
The effort will be directed
by Terry A. Ferguson, in-
structor of geology at Wof-
ford. A 1975 Wofford
graduate, Ferguson is a can-
didate for the PhD in ar-
chaeology and anthropology
at the University of Ten-
nessee.
Financial support will be
provided by a grant from the
National Park Service, ad-
ministered by the South
Carolina Department of Ar-
chives and History.
Through historical
research, the Wofford group
will attempt to locate as
many of the colonial and
antebellum ironworking sites
in the Upstate as possible. By
observing intact features,
mapping, and doing ar-
chaelogical surveys, they
hope to provide sufficient
documentation to place many
of these sites on the National
Register of Historic Places.
“The project grew out of an
Interim study a group of
students at Wofford did last
January,” Ferguson said.
“We found that ironmaking
in what is now Cherokee
County and surrounding
areas of York, Union and
Spartanburg Counties was so
extensive that it was almost a
harbinger of the industrial
revolution. In an area that
before the American Revolu-
tion was still part of the fron-
tier, it was a tremendous
economic and social
change.”
Iron ores, limestone,
forests and water power were
essential to iron production
prior to the Civil Ware, and
all of these occurred close
together in a belt along the
Broad River in Upstate South
Carolina. A high grade
‘gray’ iron ore suitable for
bars and castings could be
found on the west slope of
Kings Mountain, while a
lower grade or “brown’’ ore
for pig iron was also abun-
dant.
Although thie Wofford
researchers hope to find
evidence of smaller forges of
an earlier date, the ironmak-
ing industry in the state
began in earnest in 1773 with
the establishment of
Wofford’s Iron Works on
Lawson’s Fork Creek at what
is now called Glendale.
Within several years, nearby
farmers were buying locally
made pots, pans, and farm
impliments, and sup-
plemented their incomes by
making charcoal to sell at the
forge.
Supported by large loan
from the government of
South Carolina during the
American Revolution, the
establishment is said to have
supplied many of the
weapons needed by local
patriots, and apparently was
burned by loyalist troops in
1781.
Other large ironworking
businesses established short-
ly after 1800 were in the Kings
Mountain Iron Manufactur-
ing Company at Cherokee
Falls and the Nesbitt Iron
Manufacturing Company on
‘T'hicketty Mountain. which
also operated a rolling mill
and foundry at Hurricane
Shoals on the Pacolet River.
These large companies
were causalties of the Civil
War, not only because of the
economic pressures of war
production but also because
they made extensive use of
slave artisans. In addition,
the development of steel
manufactuing in western
Pennsylvania and an improv-
ed transportation system
made iron making in South
Carolina unprofitable. Never-
theless, many of these earlier
manufacuting sites continued
in use as the location for
some of the early cotton tex-
tile factories.
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