GA -- Cartersville -- Coopers Iron Works:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- COOPER_980605_01.JPG: Cartersville; Cooper's Furnace
- COOPER_980605_02.JPG: Cartersville; Cooper's Furnace
- Description of Subject Matter: The furnace is the only remnant of the 1830's town of Etowah, and Georgia's Iron Empire run by Mark A. Cooper until the Civil War.
Mark Anthony Cooper's Iron Works:
These ruins of an old iron furnace built by Moses Stroup are all that remain of Cooper's Iron Works, developed by Mark Anthony Cooper, pioneer industrialist, politician, and farmer.
Cooper was born in 1800 near Powelton, GA. Graduating from S.C. College (now the University of S.C.) in 1819, he was admitted to the bar in 1821 and opened a law office in Eatonton. A member of the Georgia legislature in 1833, he later served in the 26th Congress, filled a vacancy in the 27th, and was reelected to the 28th. Resigning to run for Governor in 1843, Cooper was defeated by George W. Crawford and retired from politics.
Cooper bought an interest in the furnace then owned by Stroup, and in 1847 he and Leroy M. Wiley bought Stroup out. Cooper's plants, including a nail factory, rolling-mill, and flour mill, were destroyed by Sherman's army. Cooper and Stroup were incorporators of the Etowah Railroad, completed to the rolling-mill in 1858. A yard engine of this road, the "Yonah," was involved in the famous chase of the "General" in April, 1862.
Cooper, the first president of the Georgia Agricultural Society, a trustee of Mercer University, the University of Georgia, and the Cherokee Baptist College, died in 1885 at his home, "Glen Holly."
History of the Furnace Area:
The Cooper's Furnace is the only visible remains of the once thriving town of Etowah, Georgia, which stretched for a mile up river from the iron works and was a center for milling and manufacturing. The town was founded in the late 1830s by Jacob Stroup, whose son Moses erected Cooper's Furnace and many other manufacturing facilities in the area. In 1847, Georgia Congressman, Mark Anthony Cooper, with financial help from Andrew M. Wiley, purchased the furnace and related businesses from Moses Stroup.
Also located here were spike and nail mills, a flour mill, rolling mill, a foundry, a hotel, and homes of people who worked in the area. A spur track connected the town to the Western Atlantic Railroad, and the switch engine Yonah was used to haul freight from Etowah to the station at Etowah Crossing. The Yonah played an important role in the Great Locomotive Chase during the Civil War.
Products from Etowah were pig iron, nails, spikes, rails, pots, tools, cannons, and other related items. The fine flour milled here was once used by the Queen of England, who sent a letter to Mr. Cooper praising it. The first railroad rails manufactured in the South were produced here.
During the Civil War, the Confederacy operated Etowah's iron industry until General Sherman's troops destroyed the town in 1864. [Cooper had sold the iron works to the Confederacy in 1862. Union Gen. John Schofield's men destroyed the works shortly after CS General Joseph Johnston abandoned Cassville on May 22, 1864.] Some industries were rebuilt after the war, but they eventually folded due to competition from modern northern mills.
Iron-Making at Cooper's Furnace:
Like other area iron works, the Cooper facility was a cold-blast furnace utilizing iron ore, limestone, and charcoal, all of which were available locally. Raw materials were carried along a trestle to an opening at the top of the furnace. First, a load of charcoal was dumped into the opening and ignited. Then alternate layers of charcoal, iron ore, and limestone were added. Blasts of air from a bellows were used to heat the ore and limestone until they melted. The molten limestone absorbed impurities from the iron and rose to the top to be drawn off as slag. The molten iron sank to the bottom and was removed by unplugging an opening there. This liquid iron then flowed from the furnace to a casting shed and into a central trench with lateral spurs which resembled a mother pig feeding her young. Hence, the finished product was known as "pig iron."
A pump which was powered by an overshot waterwheel provided the air used to heat the limestone and iron ore. The water used to turn this wheel was carried by wooden flume from the creek located on the north side of the furnace. This flume extended abut one quarter mile upstream where the water entered it. Cooper's Furnace operated an average of forty-five weeks per year and produced some 20-30 tons of pig iron each week. The selling price of this iron ranged from $20 to $25 per ton.
Near the furnace are five stone supports in the Etowah River. In 1862, Andrews raiders crossed this bridge, only to be followed by Fuller on a handcar, which he abandoned here to borrow the Cooper's Furnace yard engine, Yonah, which motorized his pursuit to Kingston. Johnston burnt the bridge during his retreat and it was never rebuilt.
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