The Snowden family owned the Patuxent Iron Works until 1847, when Andrew and Elias Ellicott bought land from them and built the Muirkirk Furnace. The Ellicotts operated it until 1860, when William E. Coffin, a leading Boston iron manufacturer, bought it. His son Charles renamed it the Muirkirk Ironworks and managed it until his death in 1912, after which his son Ellery took over. After emancipation in Maryland in 1864, little changed in the racial composition, treatment, or conditions of the labor force. Coffin provided homes, schooling for ironworkers' children, employment for their wives, and a company store that extended credit. Living and working together fostered a thriving nearby community. In 1868, six men paid five dollars each for a plot on Muirkirk Road to build Queen's Chapel, a log chapel that served as both a church and a school for the neighborhood's African American residents. Twenty years later, ironworker Augustus Ross bought land east of the ironworks and built a two-story log home, and other ironworkers also bought property and built houses, forming the community of Rossville. Nearby land was sold to the Benevolent Sons and Daughters of Abraham, who built Rebecca Lodge #6, also called Abraham Hall, and pooled money for an insurance fund that paid illness and death benefits. The Patuxent Iron Works and Muirkirk Ironworks helped shape the identity of the greater Laurel area, and African American ironworkers were essential to that identity. The communities they built as enslaved and free people remain vital reminders of their place in America's industrial past.