Hanging Rock, Ohio, is located on the western side of Ironton, Ohio. It got its name from a larger overhanging rock overlooking the Ohio River. Folklore says that the Indians used to sit on a large rock and watch for intruders coming up the river.
However, today Hanging Rock, Ohio, is notorious for travelers on State Route 52, and everyone needs to be aware of the alleged “speed trap.”
Below is a story about the history of early Hanging Rock found in a Dayton, Ohio newspaper, Dayton Daily News, 21 Jan. 1952. We hope you enjoy the story.
By H.H. Abels, Camerica Feature Writer
In the southeast corner of the Buckeye state stands a high cliff, 400 feet high, bordering the majestic Ohio River. The upper portion projects over like the cornice of a house….This is Hanging Rock.
A little village, with its log cabin post office, also bearing the same name, nestles nearby. Today it is just another little river settlement. However, there were years of past glory. It was the “capital” of 1000 square miles over southeastern Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The Ohio counties in its orbit were Scioto, Lawrence, Jackson, and Vinton. It was the era when iron was king in this section. Hanging Rock Iron Region played a major role in supplying the sinews for the Civil War.
The saga of Hanging Rock opened in 1819. A South Carolinian, John Means, convinced that slavery was wrong, was pushed out of Spartanburg. He could not free his slave in his native state, so he came to Ohio to follow his abolitionist convictions.
In 1826, he built a charcoal furnace near his home. He began the manufacture of pig iron…at Union Furnace. The word was soon out that Hanging Rock ore was tops in quality. Over 80 furnaces were going full blast in the Hanging Rock region. By 1837, Thomas Means, a son of the pioneer, had taken over at Union.
Henry Howe visited the region in 1846 and left an account of the ore enterprise. “Each of the 21 furnaces employs, on an average, 70 yoke of oxen, 100 hands, sustains 500 persons, consumes 560 barrels of flour, 1000 bushels of corn meal, 10,000 bushels of corn, 50,000 pounds of bacon, 20,000 pounds of beef, 150 bushels of potatoes, besides other provisions and tea, sugar and coffee in proportion.”
Dr. Caleb Briggs, educated as a physician, gained immortality by conducting the first survey of Ohio’s coal and iron regions. He inaugurated his work in 1837 and chartered his findings in Athens, Gallia, Jackson, and Lawrence.
However, their leading figure was John Campbell, born near Ripley, in Brown County, [Ohio] on 14 Jan. 1808. He noted Hanging Rock Iron Region on a trip to Pittsburgh in 1833.
He had turned 24 when he sought out Robert Hamilton, iron master of the Hecla Furnace, for work. He was assigned as a driver of eight teams of oxen, hauling ore. John was fascinated by the enterprise. He grasped every detail. He was promoted to weighmaster and then paymaster.
The ever-alert Campbell then made a historical contribution. The record states: “It was here that he changed to place the boilers and hot blast over the tunnel head, thus utilizing the waste gases…a process now generally adopted by the charcoal furnaces of that locality and others elsewhere in the United States.”
Again, “In 1837, through the guarantee against any loss by Campbell and three other ironmasters, Vesuvius Furnace was induced to test the hot blast principal. Thus, the first hot blast ever erected in America was put up by William Firmstone. Though, by those opposed to the principle, it was contended that the iron would be weakened and rendered unfit for casting purposes. The result proved satisfactory to all concerned in producing an increased iron of the desired quality for foundry use.”
Campbell steadily rose as the dominant leader. In 1849, noting the competition of Portsmouth in the industry, he purchased 400 acres of land three miles west of Hanging Rock and laid out and named a town…Ironton. Then he built a railroad to Jackson and onto Chillicothe. By 1852, he had purchased the celebrated Hecla cold blast furnace.
Hanging Rock Iron Region, with its new town of Ironton, was booming by 1854. Then disaster struck…a depression. The price of iron fell from $35 to $14 and $10 a ton. The fires died out in one furnace after another. But John Campbell hung on doggedly. Eventually, iron wouldn’t sell, so he stacked it up along the river valley. Workers were paid in pig iron which they piled alongside their humble homes. By 1860, Campbell was at the end of his string.
Then, the Civil War broke out. Overnight the demand for ore skyrocketed. It was well known that the celebrated gun, the Swamp Angel of Charleston Harbor, was cast from Helca iron. The Fort Pitt Works at Pittsburgh used every ton of Hecla iron for casting heavy ordnance and field guns. The great piles of pig iron diminished, and once again, the furnace fire burned brightly in the Hanging Rock Iron Region and hit $90 a ton! Ironton soon became a city of mysterious neutrality. There were also agents from the South, seeking iron…
Today the area of Ironton purchased by Campbell a century ago is less than one-fifth of the city.
But the days of the Hanging Rock Iron Region are over. The ascendency of the Pittsburgh-Youngstown region made for the decline. The last of the furnaces shut down following the first World War. Today the ruins of the old iron furnaces bespeak the fading years of past glory…
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