| Pig Iron |
TIME was when the Maumee river and the canal at Defiance during the open river months carried several boats loads of iron ore weekly. This ore was bound for Paulding Furnace, located where the C. N. railroad now crosses the abandoned Wabash and Erie Canal was the only handy means of transportation in the era when ambitious minds sought fortune by using the abundant hardwoods of North Paulding county as fuel for smelting ore.
This era of the iron foundry, one of the farthest inland iron foundries ever established in the state, began in 1871 and continued for about 12 years. Leaders in the enterprise were Evans, Bennett and Marshall, one huge frame shed was floored with sand which was moulded while wet into forms for the molten purified ore. These forms were called "sow" and "pigs." This name was applied because the main form of each mould was long with narrow opening along the side, appearing much like a sow with suckling pigs. Before the ore was thoroughly cold men wearing wooden shoes took heavy bars and broke the "pigs" from the "sow", and also broke the sow into smaller pieces to make the handling of the iron easier. It is from the nickname of "pigs" applied to the smaller forms that the name "pig iron" comes.
This era of the iron foundry, one of the farthest inland iron foundries ever established in the state, began in 1871 and continued for about 12 years. Leaders in the enterprise were Evans, Bennett and Marshall, one huge frame shed was floored with sand which was moulded while wet into forms for the molten purified ore. These forms were called "sow" and "pigs." This name was applied because the main form of each mould was long with narrow opening along the side, appearing much like a sow with suckling pigs. Before the ore was thoroughly cold men wearing wooden shoes took heavy bars and broke the "pigs" from the "sow", and also broke the sow into smaller pieces to make the handling of the iron easier. It is from the nickname of "pigs" applied to the smaller forms that the name "pig iron" comes.
