Mount Vernon Furnace was one of five furnaces constructed and owned by ironmaster Isaac Meason. Built in 1798, it was rebuilt and operating again by 1801 after a terrible explosion in which many men lost their lives. It was named in honor of President George Washington, who was a good friend of Isaac Meason and came from the same area in Virginia. Its success depended on four natural resources—iron ore, limestone, timber, and water—all of which were available along the base of Chestnut Ridge and in the streams flowing into Mounts Creek. The site was once the bustling village of Mount Vernon, with a general store, boarding house, grist mill, saw mill, schoolhouse, and log cabins for workers and their families. Ore mines stood on the hillside across the road, while woodsmen cut trees by hand, hauled them by workhorses, and turned them into charcoal in a process that took about five days. The furnace consumed 800 bushels of charcoal every 24 hours and produced between 1 and 2 tons of metal daily. Its iron was cast into kettles, coffee and tea pots, skillets, stoves, utensils, cannonballs, many other molded items, and pig iron bars, which were sold locally, shipped through Connellsville to Pittsburgh, and in some cases sent as far as Louisiana. Pig iron also went to Meason's Union Forge near Connellsville to be refined and then returned to the general store. Mount Vernon Furnace operated very successfully for 32 years before it was blown out in 1850, and this charcoal furnace began the iron and steel industry that later thrived in the Pittsburgh area for many years.
