Moratock Iron Furnace

Moratock Iron Furnace. Rural Ironworks. During the Civil War, the Confederacy relied on small rural ironworks for the metals needed to manufacture cannons, swords, and firearms. The furnace here, owned by the Moratock Mining and Manufacturing Company, was typical of the charcoal blast furnaces operated throughout the North Carolina piedmont. It utilized charcoal made from trees cut in the area and local iron-ore deposits to produce pig iron and cast iron. Early in April 1865, Union Gen. George Stoneman’s cavalry moved from Virginia south through Danbury and put the ironworks out of commission. Stoneman had expected to encounter resistance in Stokes County, but found none and soon learned that Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army in Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9. The furnace operated intermittently after 1870 until it closed in the 1890s., (Sidebar): , In the 18th and 19th centuries, North Carolinians established small ironworks in this area to exploit the plentiful ore belts. Some early works were bloomery forges, in which burning charcoal melted the iron, and workers used an iron bar to gather the pasty mess, which was then hammered into bar iron. Soon, however, charcoal blast furnaces were constructed against hillsides, and workers trundled iron ore, charcoal, and limestone flux across a short bridge to the furnace stack, dumped the loads into the furnace in layers, and then ignited the charcoal. Giant bellows, typically powered by flowing water, heated the mix to melt large quantities of iron, which pooled at the bottom of the stack. When the ironmaster decided the time was right, the furnace was tapped, and molten iron flowed from the front arch into channels in the sand of the casting floor to form pig iron. Some of the molten iron was poured into molds to produce castings such as pots and firebacks. When the pig iron cooled, it was carried to the forge and hammered into bars., Nathaniel Moody and John Pepper built “Moody’s Tunnel Iron Works” here in 1843. Reuben Golding, who formed the Stokes Iron Mining Company, purchased the works in 1854. He and his partners incorporated the Moratock Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1862.