Cumberland Furnace: A Frontier Industrial Village
This information is generously supplied by : George E. Jackson the Author of: “Cumberland Furnace A Frontier Village”.
Cumberland Furnace 1793-1943 — In the old deeds and records of Dickson County it shows up as Ironworks, Cumberland Iron Works or Iron Works on the Cumberland. It was the first to be built in Middle Tennessee and it has the longest history of operation.
| 1793 | On June 21, 1793, James Robertson and William Shephard purchased 640 acres on the West Fork (now Furnace Creek) of Bartons Creek from James Campbell, a privat in the Revolutionary War. It was on this tract of land that Robertson built an iron plantation village (protected by a fort) and erected the first iron works on Tennessee’s frontier. The village is the oldest community south of the Cumberland River, between Nashville and Clarksville, and the oldest in Dickson County. |
| 1796 | Probable date the furnace went into operation; Some give the date as early as 1790 and as late as 1797; most say 1793 when the land was purchased. Robertson’s operation was an integrated ironworks consisting of the furnace and a forge which was buit near the mouth of Barton’s Creek. |
| 1802 | In the autumn of 1802, Montgomery Bell, with his first and faithful slave James Worley, left Lexington, Ky for the ironworks on the Cumberland. |
| 1804 | On June 18, 1804, Robertson sold Cumberland Furnace to Montgomery Bell for 16,000. Bell received the ore mines with Robertson retaining the other mineral rights. Sale did not include the forge. |
| 1805 | Montgomery Bell petitioned the county court to build a dam at Cumberland Furnace. |
| 1809 | On December 2, 1809, from Cumberland Furnace, Bell notified the Secretary of the Navy that he had molds of 18, 24 and 32 pound cannon balls. |
| 1810 | Between 1810 and 1820, Montgomery Bell built and improved frunace about one-half mile east of Robertson’s frunace. This site is east of the Methodist Church, located where the Jon Cannon house stands and which is now owned by the Dannenmaers. |
| 1810 | Tench Coxe’s Manufactures’ report for 1810 shows Dicksno County with two furnaces and one forge. One furnace was Cumberland Furnace; the other was Tennessee Furnace near the mouth of Barton’s Creek built by Richard C. Napier. The forge was the one built by Robertsown wh sold it to Napier in 1805. About 1815, Napier leased the furnace and forge to Anrthony W. Van Leer and Joseph Haslep. |
| 1812 | During the War of 1812, Bell furnished General Jackson’s Southern Army with cannon shot: from two ounce canister to 32 pounders, double-head and single-head. |
| 1820 | The federal census of 1820 showed Bell’s furnace employed seventy people and produced an annual output of three hundred tons of hollowware, fifty tons of pig metal and six tons of machinery. |
| 1824 | Bell advertised in the Nashville Whig that his two furnaces at Cumberland Furnace and the forge on Jones Creek were for sale. |
| 1825 | On April 4, 1825, Bell made an agreement with Crosby and Spicer to erect a stamping mill at Cumberland Furnace. They had the use of the water from the race but they could not interfere with the operation of the furnace, sawmill, and gristmill. |
| 1825 | On July 25, 1825 Montgomery Bell sold Cubmerland Furnace and his Jones Creek forge to anthony Van Leer and his partners, Isaac H. Lanier nad Wallace Dicksno(Dixon) for $50,000. |
| 1833 | ON August 26, 1833, Van Leer bought Lanier’s and Dickson’s interest for $70,000. Van Leer dismantled the Robertson furnace and rebuilt Bell’s second furnace, introducing steam power. Anthony Van Leer had other interest with other partners but from 1833 he kept Vumberland Furnace a family business, turning over management to his son-in-law Hugh Kirkman. |
| 1850 | The federal census of 1850 showed Van Leer’s Cumberland Furnace employed 121 persons and produced two hundred tons of castings and fourteen hundred tons of iron blooms. |
| 1857 | The Leslie report of 1859 showed Cumberland Furnace made, in 1857, 1,831 tons of foundry metal out of brown hematite ore mined within a mile or two. The roeport stated the furnace was 29 feet hig awith 9.5 feet across the bosh(the part fo a blast furnace lying between the stach and the hearth) Charlotte was the postoffice. |
| 1860 | The federal census for 1860 showed Cumberland Furnace the only one in Dickson County in operation, truning out 1,831 tons of pig iron. It had a capital investment of $100,000, employing 93 men and 7 women. |
| 1861 | Hugh Kirkman, who married Anthony Van Leer’s daughter and managed his Cumberland Furnace operation, died. |
| 1862-1865 | After the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862, the furnace went out of blast during the Civil war. Anthony Van Leer died in 1863 and his Kirkman grandchildren, Van Leer Kirkman and Mary Florence Kirkman inherited the Cumberland Furnace. The furnace was still intact when Van Leer died. |
| 1864 | Mary Florence Kirkman shocked Nashville society by marrying Union officer Captain James Pierre Drouillard on September 21, 1864. |
| 1865 | James and Mary Florence Drouillard reopened Cumberland Furnace and operated it as a family business until 1882. Colonel Robert Stone was the manager. |
| 1867 | Cumberland Furnaace Post Office established, with James P. Drouillard as Postmaster. |
| 1868-1870 | The Drouillards built the large mansion. |
| 1870 | On May 31, 1870 Mary Florence Drouillard bought out her brother’s interest in Cumberland Furnace in exchange for $20,000. and her interest in the Nashville properties. |
| 1878 | The Drouillards built the St. James Episcopal Church. |
| 1881 | On March 21 1881 the trustees of Vanlier Academy applied for charter of incorporation. |
| 1882 | In 1882, in Drouillard Iron Wodrks, a stock company was formed with James P. Drouillard as president. |
| 1882 | James and Mary Drouillard gave the St. James Church property including the rectory lot to the Protestant Episcopal Church of Tn. for $5.00. |
| 1889 | On October 19th the Drouillard Iron Works sold to Southern Iron Company. |
| 1891 | The L&N Railroad built the Mineral Branch with a six-mile spur to Cumberland. |
| 1892-1893 | The Southern Iron Company dismantled the charcoal furnace and built a modern coke furnace between the site of the old Robertson furnace and the one errected by Montgomery Bell. |
| 1896 | The Buffalo Iron company (controlled by the Warner family) took over the operations of Cumberland furnace. |
| 1899 | The Warner Iron Company with Joesph warner as president, became the new owners of Cumberland Furnace. |
| 1917 | The Warner Iron Company conveyed property to Joseph Warner. |
| 1928 | The L&N Railroad ends passenger service to Cumberland Furnace. |
| 1931 | The freight service to Cumberland Furnace ended |
| 1936 | The tracks of the spur to Cumberland Furnace were removed and all railroad property located. |
| 1938 | THe Warner Iron Company close Cumberland Furnace and the property went into recievership. |
| 1940 | July 12, 1940 a decree of the chancery court for a price over $60,000. awarded Cumberland Furnace to Roger Caldwell of Nashville who represented Cumberland Iron Works. The litigation was 18 months. |
| 1942 | After being closed for four years, Cumberland Furnace was reopened under the name of Cumberland Iron Company with Roger Caldwell as president. Epps Stone was in charge of operations. On Sept 16, 1942, Cumberland Iron Works was placed in receivership |
| 1943 | By order of the court the ironworks building and property were sold to Sol Chazen, a Chattanooga scrap dealer, for $25,000. |
| 1988 | Cumberland Furnace was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District |
| 1993 | The village of Cumberland Furnace celebrated its bicentennial. |