Musselman / Vesta Furnace

Musselman, also, Vesta Furnace. . , The Musselman/Vesta Furnace was built in 1868 by Henry Musselman and H. M. Watts from Marietta. It was the last of eight anthracite-fired iron furnaces built on Susquehanna floodplain between Columbia and Marietta. Located adjacent to canal and rail lines which brought coal from northeastern Pennsylvania, Musselman's furnace produced pig iron, which was sent to local rolling mills to make railroad rails., Over the years the furnace experienced a series of ownerships and remodelings. By 1886, under the ownership of Watts, Twells and Company and known as the Vesta Furnace, it was producing 22,500 tons of pig iron annually under the brand name "Vesta"., In 1917 the furnace was bought by E. J. Lavino, who put it into operation smelting scrap and producing ferromanganese, used for high grade steel during World War I. Ten carloads of scrap iron and manganese ore fed into the furnace each day produced a daily output of 80 tons of ferromanganese., The furnace ceased operations in the 1920s and was dismantled shortly thereafter. The furnace office building (under restoration) still stands, as does a workers tenement house nearby. Scattered foundations and railroad supports in the adjacent wood mark the former presence of the furnace itself.