Alabama Blast Furnaces

Hale & Murdock Furnace; (Known also as Wilson's Creek, Old Winston and Weston Furnace) Lamar County, near Vernon

HALE & MURDOCK FURNACE (Known also as Wilson's Creek, Old Winston and Weston Furnace) Lamar County, near Vernon 1859 IN 1859, when war clouds were already gathering, two New Englanders -Harrison Hale and Abraham Murdock-who had moved South to Columbus, Miss., built the first and only blast furnace ever erected in western Alabama. Five years before they had erected a bloomery forge on Wilson's Creek about 2 1 /2 miles west of Vernon in the county of Fayette, later Sanford, and now Lamar County. In that same locality they built a small stone furnace. Cost of both imported and domestic iron was high, so they utilized the brown ore deposit near the town of Vernon, Alabama. Charcoal, the furnace fuel, they secured locally, burning it with slave labor. The usual line of small castings, hollow ware, plow points, horse shoes and other domestic implements were produced and hauled by wagon the 24 miles to Columbus, Miss. The Hale and Murdock's Iron Co. charter was granted by the Alabama legislature in November 1862 with an authorized capital of $500,000 . The charter carries this addendum: "They having erected a blast furnace on Section 20, Tovlnship 15, Range 15 West, no spiritous liquor, in less than 5 gallon lots, is to be sold within 5 miles of said furnace." During 1862 a new furnace was built under the direction of Joseph Weston, an experienced furnaceman, to replace the old one. This new plant went into blast early in 1863 and immediately began making small field ordnance under a contract with the Confederate government. In connection with the furnace was a forge. Size of the operation may be estimated from the fact that 150 men were employed. Much of the laber used not only in building but in operating the furnace was slave labor, the Confederate government supplying the skilled workmen. It is said that General Nathan Bedford Forrest, C. S. A., had his horses shod here on his march to Corinth. Because the furnace was off the beaten path, it escaped the Federal raiders and operated for about four years after the surrender. In January 1870 the company went out of business, largely because of the lack of transportation (25 miles from the railroad) and the competition of more favorably located furnaces. Last official notice of the Hale & Murdock's Iron Co. is an amendment, in 1871, to the company's charter allowing the sale of liquor within 2 miles of the then abandoned furnace. -,o~~f 74 1~~Q'- ...