a compendium of facts about Ohio history
by Dan Chabek
Birth of Ohio's Iron Industry
The iron industry obtained a foothold in eastern Ohio as far back as 1803 when Jefferson County began producing nails by hand.
In the same county in 1805, a defendant was sentenced to prison for stealing part of a nail-cutting machine. His case was tried before a common pleas court as The State of Ohio vs. Joshua Kelley.
The first blast furnace west of the Alleghenies was built in 1807 by Gideon Hughes, a quaker, in Columbiana County.
About 1811 the Ohio River bank at Steubenville was chosen as the site for a foundry in which President McKinley's father later was employed.
Also, it was in this locality that cannonballs used in the War of 1812's famous Battle of Lake Erie were manufactured. They were made by a Scotsman named Grant, who was an early furnace operator. He had the ammunition transported to Lake Erie on pack mules.
© 1998 Dan Chabek
Buckeye Chronicle - Battle of Lake Erie