Speedwell Forge facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Speedwell Forge Mansion
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 Location in Pennsylvania
Location in the United States
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| Location | 465 Speedwell Forge Rd., Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania |
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| Area | less than one acre |
| Architectural style | Georgian, Federal |
| NRHP reference No. | 06000429 |
| Added to NRHP | May 24, 2006 |
The Speedwell Forge Mansion, also known as Speedwell Forge Homestead, is a very old and important house. It is located in Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This mansion was built around 1760 for the person who ran the iron forge.
The house is made of brownstone and fieldstone. It has a classic Georgian style. Later, around 1795, a new part was added. Other old buildings are also on the property. These include a stone summer kitchen, a workshop, a paymaster's office, and a small outdoor toilet.
The iron forge at Speedwell worked non-stop until 1854. That's when iron making started moving to other parts of the country. Today, the property has been fixed up. It is now a bed and breakfast, which is a place where people can stay overnight. It is also home to the Wolf Sanctuary of Pennsylvania. The mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. This means it is a special historic site.
Contents
Meet the Ironmasters: Owners of Speedwell Forge
Many important people owned or worked at Speedwell Forge over the years. These "ironmasters" were in charge of making iron. They were very important to the economy of early Pennsylvania.
Peter Grubb: Discovering Iron in Pennsylvania
Peter Grubb was a very important person in Pennsylvania's iron history. He started the Cornwall Iron Furnace. He also found the Cornwall iron mines. These mines were the richest source of iron ever found in America east of Lake Superior.
In the 1730s, Peter Grubb was a stonemason. He started looking for minerals in what is now Cornwall, Pennsylvania. He accidentally found one of the biggest and richest iron mines ever. People mined iron there for over 240 years! In 1742, Grubb built the Cornwall Iron Furnace. This furnace used a special oven called a blast furnace to turn iron ore into "pig iron."
Peter Grubb's sons, Curtis and Peter Jr., took over the ironworks after 1765. Peter Jr. ran another forge called Hopewell Forges. He hired a young man named Robert Coleman.
John Jacob Huber: Starting Elizabeth Furnace
Around 1735, John Jacob Huber came to America from Germany. He opened a tavern on Newport Road. This road went from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to the port in Newport, Delaware. (That old tavern is now a bed and breakfast called Forgotten Seasons.)
In 1746, Huber sold his tavern. He bought about 400 acres (1.6 km²) of land in what is now Elizabeth County. By 1750, he built Elizabeth Furnace. Here, he started making five-plate stoves. Some of these old stoves are still around today!
Henry William Stiegel: Taking Over the Furnace
Huber hired another German immigrant, Henry William Stiegel, to work as a clerk. In 1752, Stiegel married Huber's daughter, Elizabeth. Five years later, in 1757, Stiegel bought the furnace from his father-in-law. The township where the furnace was located later took its name from the Elizabeth Furnace.
James Old: Building Speedwell Forge
James Old (1730-1809) came to Pennsylvania from Wales in 1750. He first worked at Windsor Forge in Caernarvon Township. A few years later, he started his own business. He built Poole Forge, also in Caernarvon Township.
In 1760, James Old and his business partner, David Caldwell, bought land from Huber. This land was along Hammer Creek. There, they built Speedwell Forge.
Robert Coleman: From Clerk to Millionaire Ironmaster
Robert Coleman (1748–1825) was born in Ireland. He came to Pennsylvania in 1764. He arrived with no money. But he had beautiful handwriting, which helped him get a job as a clerk.
After two years, he was hired by Peter Grubb Jr. to work as a clerk at Hopewell Forge. But after only six months, James Old hired Coleman. Old had just leased Quittapahilla Forge. Coleman lived with the Old family. He traveled between Speedwell and Quittapahilla forges.
A forge was often far from towns. This meant it had to be like its own small community. It needed farmers, lumberjacks, blacksmiths, and even horses and other animals. The ironmaster was in charge of the whole community, not just the forge.
In 1767, Old took Coleman to Reading Furnace. In 1773, Coleman married Old's daughter, Anne. With help from his father-in-law, Coleman leased Salford Forge. This was the start of his big iron business. In 1784, Coleman bought Speedwell Forge from James Old for 7,000 pounds.
After selling Speedwell, James Old bought a share in Hopewell Furnace. He also worked as a judge and was a member of the State Assembly.
Robert Coleman owned several furnaces during the American Revolution. He got many contracts to make weapons and iron chains. These chains were stretched across bays to stop English warships. Coleman used his money to buy more forges and furnaces. He even bought the Cornwall iron mine. He became Pennsylvania's first millionaire! Speedwell Forge was used to train his sons before they moved on to bigger furnaces.
The End of an Era: Anthracite Coal and Moving West
By the 1850s, new ways of making iron appeared. People started using anthracite coal. This coal burned much hotter and more efficiently than older types of coal. New furnaces were built that used this coal.
The iron industry began to move west to places like Pittsburgh. Because of this, many old furnaces and forges in Pennsylvania closed down. Speedwell Forge closed in 1854. Cornwall Furnace lasted a bit longer, until 1883. Some very large furnaces, like Cornwall and Hopewell, survived because they were too big to tear down. But smaller forges, like Speedwell, could be completely taken apart and left behind. That's why there are no original forges left in America today.
Speedwell's New Life: Horses and Parks
The Speedwell property stayed in the Coleman family for a long time. They started breeding special horses called standardbreds. These horses were used for sulky racing, where a person sits in a small cart pulled by the horse.
The quarter-mile training track for these horses is now the driveway for Speedwell Forge Mansion. You can still see the half-mile racing track at the top of the hill. It's now part of a cornfield.
In 1942, Margaret Coleman Buckingham sold the Speedwell property. This included about 1,000 acres (4 km²). In the 1960s, the state of Pennsylvania bought about 500 acres (2 km²) along Hammer Creek. They built a dam, which created Speedwell Forge Lake. In the 1990s, Lancaster County bought about 300 acres (1.2 km²) along the creek. They created the Speedwell Forge County Park there.
Speedwell Forge Today
Today, you can't see any parts of the original forge above ground. Some old artifacts might be underwater, but no one knows the exact spot of the forge anymore.
The ironmaster's mansion was fully restored in 2005. Dawn Darlington, whose grandparents bought the property in 1942, did the restoration. She turned it into a bed and breakfast. In 2006, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This property includes the mansion, the old summer kitchen, and the paymaster's office.
