Iron Ore Mining & Forging
In 1585, the Lane Colony found iron ore deposits in two locations, but it would be in 1729 that the first shipments of iron ore were sent to England. One of the first iron works would get started around 1770 near present day Reidsville. Most commonly known as the Troublesome Creek
Iron Works, a forge was constructed as early as 1771 and a furnace was added during the American Revolution (1776 – 1782).
Another early furnace (1777) was located on Tick Creek in Chatham County for the Revolutionary government of North Carolina. James Miles managed the Chatham furnace.
In the late 1770s, the Wilcox Iron Furnace and Forge was opened near present day Siler City. It produced cannon and shot for the North Carolina Council of Safety. The furnace and forge were abandoned by 1780.
In 1786, General Joseph Graham built the Vesuvius Iron Furnace near present-day Lowesville along Anderson’s Creek.
In 1788, the North Carolina legislature passed the “Act to Encourage the Building of Iron Works in This State” which titled 3,000 acres to anyone establishing a furnace operation — “every set of iron works, as a bounty from the state to any person or persons who will build and carry on the same.”
That same year, Peter Forney discovered the Big Ore Bank near Lincolnton. On May 18, 1789, North Carolina awarded 300 acres along Leeper’s (or Leaper’s or Leiper’s) Creek to Abraham Reinhart, Abraham Forney, Turner Abernathy, and Peter Forney.
In 1790, Turner Abernethy built the Mt. Carmel forge, located on Mountain Creek.
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