Iron refining begins on the Blackberry River in East Canaan, Connecticut

Although the Forbes family was the moving force in creating an iron industry along the Blackberry River in East Canaan and Norfolk they weren’t the ones who began refining iron along the Blackberry River. The credit for that was Richard Seymour who built a bloomery on the south bank of the Blackberry in East Canaan during 1736. Seymour’s operation attracted the attention of John Forbes, a blacksmith, who came from Simsbury, Connecticut to work at Seymour’s Forge. In turn he attracted his son Samuel Forbes who moved from Simsbury to first live in Sheffield, Massachusetts to join his father at Seymour’s forge in 1743. Samuel Forbes later became famous as an early industrialist, and was the iron master that cast the cannon during the Revolution for George Washington.

Although they were making iron from iron ore in East Canaan over two and a half centuries ago Mother Nature beat them to the punch by several hundred million years by producing native iron in the area. This is one of the few places where native iron exists on the face of the earth. The only other locality in the western hemisphere where it is found is in Greenland.

The Forbes family originally came from Taunton, Massachusetts an early iron center in the eastern part of the state where iron had been produced from bog iron in the early part of the 1600s. John Forbes had worked there in his youth and following the dictum, Go West young man, he did eventually finding himself in East Canaan. In 1746 he built his own forge alongside the Blackberry and by 1751 had bought half interest in Seymour’s forge.

By 1759, his son Samuel built his own forge on the Blackberry the second one that was located in East Canaan. By 1760 Samuel and his brother Elisha owned a one-eighth interest in the Iron Mine at Ore Hill in Salisbury, Connecticut. That marked the beginning of Salisbury Iron gaining a worldwide reputation.

The Salisbury Iron District

Early Iron Work in Connecticut

by John Carter

Connecticut used to be a renowned far and wide for its manufacturing, but what is less well known is that mining was also a very large part of Connecticut's industrial scene. According to the Connecticut Geological Survey in Hartford there are over 600 abandoned mines and quarries within the borders of Connecticut. The iron ore of the Salisbury District gave rise to some of the largest mines in Connecticut. The Salisbury District was not just one town it consisted of seven towns in Connecticut as well as other iron producing towns in Western Massachusetts and Eastern New York. Iron was produced throughout the district that at its peak contained twenty seven blast furnaces producing cast iron as well is innumerable forges capable of producing wrought iron for almost two centuries.

Iron itself was not a monopoly of Salisbury as the first iron furnace in Connecticut was erected in West Haven at the outlet of Lake Saltonstall by the first Governor of Connecticut John Winthrop Jr. Winthrop had been active in setting up several of the furnaces and Eastern Massachusetts including the one located at Saugus. The Saugus Massachusetts furnaces have sense been reconstructed and are now part of the National Park Service.

In 1644 Winthrop petitioned the General Courts of Connecticut for permission to erect an iron furnace in what is now West Haven at the outlet of Lake Saltonstall. In 1651 he finally gained the General Courts permission or wrecked a furnace under some very liberal terms. This was the earliest iron furnace that was located in the State of Connecticut. Winthrop’s furnace continued in production until 1678 to produce “sowes” (pig iron) and pots until the ore bed was presumably depleted. The furnace was allowed to go out of blast, and it wasn't until some 80 years later that another iron furnace was erected in Salisbury, Connecticut. In the intervening 80 years all the iron that was produced in Connecticut came from small forges.