America's First Iron Puddling Furnace

America's First Iron Puddling Furnace is a Pennsylvania historical marker in Smock, Fayette County, dedicated 2017.

519 Laurel Hill Rd., at PA 51, Smock

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

In 1817 ironmaster Isaac Meason and Welshman Thomas Lewis built a puddling furnace and bar rolling mill here using a process from Wales that revolutionized the iron industry. It removed carbon from brittle pig iron creating malleable wrought iron in one step, making iron production much more efficient and less costly. Later, "puddlers" in Pittsburgh formed the first metals union, the Sons of Vulcan, fore-runner of United Steelworkers.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1810 · United States of America, northern part. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1816 · Pennsylvania (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1823 · Pennsylvania. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1825 · Map Of Pennsylvania And New Jersey. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1827 · Pennsylvania. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Pennsylvania, 1823, covering the location of America's First Iron Puddling Furnace, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Pennsylvania, 1823, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission via data.pa.gov

America's First Iron Puddling Furnace

Historical maps covering this location

More markers nearby