Belfont Iron Works

The Belfont Iron Works and the Belfont Furnace were owned and operated by the same company. Belfont Iron Works made muck bars, pig irons, and cut nails. They were both located in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio.

One of the oldest and best-known industries engaged in manufacturing muck bars, pig iron, and cut nails is the Belfont Iron Works.

The Belfont Furnace, owned and operated by the same company, is also a prominent feature among Ironton’s industries, giving employment to a large force of men and producing vast quantities of foundry pig iron and all grades of Bessemer.

The nail works operate 126 nail machines and give employment to about 300 men, with a capacity for producing 1400 kegs of nails daily. Muck bar, in large quantities and have the highest quality known to the trade, is also made at these works. The products of the Belfont Iron Works and Belfont Furnace are shipped to all quarters, and the city profits much through the representation of such old and honorable institutions.

The officers of the Company, Messrs, J. G. Peebles, President; B. H. Burr, Vice-President, and S. G. Gilfillan, Secretary, and Treasurer, are staunch in business and finance, able in judgment and executive ability, and ranking among the most honored and respected citizens of Ironton.

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Submitted by: Robert Kingrey for The Lawrence Register website; Taken from “The Headlight” no date taken.

The Vinton Record, McArthur, Ohio 21 May 1868 – Ohio Valley Editorial Union. The following should have appeared last ‘week but was crowded out. The meeting of the Ohio Valley Editorial Union, at Ironton, on the 7th inst was an occasion both of pleasure and profit. We were pleased to see 60 of the faces we met at Portsmouth last January and the number of new faces, indicating that our Union is destined to extend itself.

The meeting was called to order at one o’clock and dispatched the business presented harmoniously and promptly, after which, upon invitation, they visited the Belfont Furnace to witness the starting of their engines. This furnace is entirely new, very large, and complete in all its details…

Ironton Journal, Jan. 11, 1871 – One Randolph McDonald, from about Center Furnace, wandered intoxicated into Belfont Furnace last Monday night and was found near one of the gas conductors, dead. The jury was called and rendered the following verdict: “That we do find the deceased, Randolph McDonald came to his death by intemperance, exposure, and inhaling gas escaping from the ground conductor at Belfont Furnace.“

Ironton Journal, Jan. 18, 1871– Attention has just been called by Dr. Percey, an eminent metallurgist, to the danger of using the waste gas from the blast furnaces. A principal ingredient of the gas consists of carbonic oxide, which is sufficient to destroy life. The employment of the waste gas of blast furnaces for heating steam boilers, etc., is extending daily, and Dr. Percey fears that death from its inhalation may be frequent unless those who use it are fully aware of its physiological action. Numerous cases of poisoning of this kind are already on record, one of which occurred in Ironton last week.

Ironton Register, February 28, 1878 – The Belfont Furnace made, last week, 325 tons of pig and did it on 49.8 bushels of fuel per ton of pig, using but one-fourth of Iron Mountain ore. Where can the furnace show a smaller fuel per ton of pig? The average for several weeks will not exceed 52 bushels. They received on last Monday 100,000 bushels of coke.

Ironton Register, October 1, 1885 – Fire was started in Belfont stack last Tuesday to dry it out. The stack has been overhauled – new hearth, in-wall, and lining complete. The hearth and top have been reduced slightly, but the bosh remains the same. The furnace is now supposed to be in better fix than ever before. It also has a new bell. The furnace will probably start this Fall sometime. The company has about 18,000 tons of ore at their mines, which they will work up if the business gets so they can do it. They have no coke as yet.

Ironton Register, November 19, 1885 – Belfont furnace blew in on Monday and made her first cast Tuesday morning – ten or twelve tons of No. 2. Mr. Rodgers says she is working well.

Ironton Register, November 19, 1885 – Belfont furnace blew in on Monday and made her first cast Tuesday morning – ten or twelve tons of No. 2. Mr. Rodgers says she is working well.

Ironton Register, November 26, 1885 – (Iron News) – Belfont furnace is running nicely, making about 50 tons daily.

Ironton Register, January 14, 1886 – Belfont Furnace is now running on 30 percent of Missouri Ore.

Chillicothe Gazette, Chillicothe, Ohio 11 Dec. 1898 – This is Prosperity – One hundred and seventy-eight cars loaded with lake ore are lying in the N&W yards near Belfont Furnace, says the Ironton Republican. The company needs the cars badly, and Superintendent Robinson was here today trying to get men to unload them.

He was unsuccessful. In this, the laboring men in Ironton are all employed. Men from the shops at Kenova will be sent here Sunday to empty the cars: The Norfolk & Western railroad has more business than it can attend to here, hence this rush for rolling stock. The cars will be unloaded at the expense of the railroad company,

Belfont Steel and Wire Company Properties Will Go Under Hammer Wednesday

Ironton Tribune, 27 March 1932, Sunday, Page 8.

Finis will be written this week for the Belfont Steel and Wire Company, long one of Ironton’s most substantial industrial institutions. [Belfont Iron Works – Belfont Furnace]

On Wednesday at 11 a. m. all properties of the Belfont company, including the nail mill, two furnaces, loading docks, and real estate holdings in the city proper and out in the county, are to be sold at public auction by a United States marshal to satisfy a court judgment.  The sale is to be conducted at North Second Street’s Belfont offices.

The entire property was appraised recently at $88,950, permitting sale at a two-thirds bid of $59, 950.  Unless there is a surprise bid of $59,300, the holdings will probably be taken in by a representative of financial institutions now carrying bonds for $475,000.

These concerns include the Fifth-Third National Bank of Cincinnati, First National and Citizens Banks of Ironton, and others.  Aside from payment of taxes and court costs, payment will be permitted in the now practically worthless bonds.

The two furnaces—Belfont and Sarah—have not been operated for many years, though both were improved and modernized before the company went into receivership.

Not Single Bid Made; Re-appraisement Is Next Bargain Price for Properties Foes Begging

Ironton Tribune, 30 March 1932, Wednesday, Page 2.

Holdings of the Belfont Steel and Wire Company, including a nail mill, two modern furnaces, a giver loading wharf, and valuable city and county real estate, were offered at the bargain price of $59,300 this morning at a public sale conducted by U. S. Marshal Paul H. Creswell of Cincinnati.

There was no bidder, the marshal submitted a no-sale report to U. S. court, and re-appraisement and re-advertisement of the property will be the next stop. [Belfont Iron Works – Belfont Furnace]

It has been rumored that Fifty-Third Union Trust Company of Cincinnati, represented at today’s attempted sale by Wm. A. Stark, was to submit a bid on behalf of bondholders. The Fifth Third corporation is a trustee for bondholders, controlling Belfont papers and interest in the sum of $603,000.  No bid came from the concern, though the bill of particulars gave bondholders the right to submit bonds in their purchase price, following payment of taxes, court costs, and the like.

The Belfont properties had been appraised at $88, 950, with a two-thirds bid of $59,300 being the lowest the marshal could receive.  He started at that figure and stayed there, with absolute silence from his audience at his repeated query of “any bidder.”  A hundred or more former Belfont workers and others attended the auction.

County property owned by Belfont consists of 640 acres in Decatur township and 200 acres in Elizabeth.  In addition, there is the old Kelly nail mill land tract on the South Side.

Belfont closed down on Nov. 25, 1929, when it was thrown into receivership through court action brought by Hickman-Williams and the Company of Cincinnati.  D. T. Croxton of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company and I. P. Blanton of Ironton was appointed receiver.

Foreclosure was ordered, and the local properties were appraised at $88,950 by a board composed of J. R. Paul, A. D. Markin, and Clarence C. Massie.  Bondholders, including the Fifth Third company, local banks, and other institutions, joined, and Fifth Third was named trustee to protect the interests of all concerned.

The lack of bidders today means that the ultimate disposition of the property has been delayed for many weeks, as re-appraisement and re-advertisement will be necessary.

Representatives of a salvage company were present at today’s sale attempt, but no offer came from them.