Texas Civil War Iron Works

In 1863, Chapel Hill Manufacturing Co. established a plant on this site to make farm and kitchen tools needed in wartime, processing native iron and using Cherokee limestone to purify the ore. Nearby hardwood supplied charcoal, and the crew included 100 Louisiana slaves. Ore from Hilltop was fed through smokestacks into furnaces on lower ground, where slag was caught in furnace grates and melted iron fell through to be cast into molds. The plant also had associated sawmills, brickyards, and a commissary that freighted goods from Mexico. By the 1880's, at least 16 iron works operated in East Texas.

Texas · United States