Elkridge Furnace - First Elkridge Furnace

First Elkridge Furnace

The existence of iron was known from the time John Smith sailed up the Patapsco in 1608 and the settlement of Elkridge Landing is given as 1690, Likely many attempts at iron production took place after 1690.

Caleb Dorsey built his home "Belmont" on a tract of land patented in 1695. The "Save Belmont Coalition" credits Caleb Dorsey and his brother as building several iron forges on the creeks that ran into the nearby Patapsco River. This seems likely, considering the effort that would be required to move the iron ore some distance to one furnace. A Journal in the Maryland Archives by Caleb Dorsey & Co. operator of Elk Ridge Furnace has dates of 1758/10/01-1761/08/31.

The existence of more than one forge was recorded in the following extraction. Extract: Elkridge Landing description by Louis-Alexandre Berthier of the French Army during the March to Yorktown, Va. in 1781 — "The detour that must be taken to cross by the ford is not great and I estimate the difference as about three-fourths of a mile, or a mile. The road leading to the ford is bad and filled with stones and foot-high stumps. As it approaches the ford the road is dangerous along the bank of the river, which is very deep in those places where the waters are dammed up to operate the forges. This ford is very good if you pass between the big stones as marked here; if you stray from this line, you find large rocks and holes."

The Maryland 1753 Navigational Damage Act - definitely proves the iron industry had been in existence before 1753, and had grown to the point of damaging the Patapsco.

James McCubbin, MacCubbin patented a tract of land named "Cupola Hill" 220 acres (0.9 km²) in 1743 and built the Elkridge Furnace Inn in 1744. The definition of "Cupola" is a vertical furnace for melting iron to be cast, "Foundry" . Although the term is also used in architecture, "Cupola Hill" was one of the tracts of land purchased by Dr. Walker for the establishment of a new furnace specified in his Will. The word Cupola seems to indicate that a small furnace was in operation at one time prior to 1744.