Henry Clay Furnace

Henry Clay Furnace. . The Henry Clay Furnace, one of eight anthracite-fired iron furnaces on the Susquehanna floodplain between Marietta and Columbia, was built here in 1845 by Peter Haldeman, a Columbia merchant. It produced pig iron which was sent to rolling mills to make railroad rails. , Remnants of the canal bed which brought coal to the furnace from northeastern Pennsylvania are still visible across the trail behind you. Iron ore came from the local Grubb mines and later from other sources. You are standing on the bed for rail lines which serviced the furnace beginning in the 1850s., Although the site is partially buried under flood deposits and fill, remains of furnace buildings can still be seen. To the left, across Jones Creek, are remnants of the casting house wall and the furnace's stone stack liner., In front of you and to the right are the foundations of Furnace Row--a row of buildings which housed the furnace office, the furnace manager and the furnace workers who occupied the 98-foot-long, six-unit tenement house., In 1875 Clement Brooke Grubb, owner of the St. Charles Furnace near Columbia, bought this furnace and ran it until the late 1880s. It was abandoned in 1889.