Principio Furnace

Principio Furnace and village, Cecil County, Maryland, 4 mi/6.4 km NE of Havre de Grace, MD. The Principio Iron Works were started here in 1719 by Joseph Farmer with capital from England and an ironmaster, John England, who made it one of the most successful in the colonies by the 1740s, producing iron good enough to be sold in London. Thomas Russell, Jr., England’s successor, produced cannonballs for the Continental Army during the Revolution. The works, destroyed by the British in 1814, were rebuilt and produced iron until 1925. Part of the stone furnace still remains on the site and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Colonial Maryland's economy was heavily dependent on agriculture, with only one significant manufacturing industry, iron production. When Maryland settlers established the colony in 1634, most investors were buying land for tobacco plantations, the presence of iron ore attracted little attention. It was not until 1715 that Maryland had its first ironworks, a small bloomery operation, located near North East and owned by Robert Dutton. Around the same time blooms were being manufactured in North East, the Maryland General Assembly approved "An Act for the Encouragement of an Iron Industry" in 1719.

Influenced by the Maryland act and seeing the potential for profits by furnishing iron for British industry, a group of investors in London formed the Principio Company as a joint stock company on March 4, 1720. The original investors were Joshua Gee, Joseph Farmer, William Russell, Thomas Russell, John Ruston, and Stephen Onion. Ironmaster John England joined the partnership two weeks later, and would have a key role in the successful construction of Principio Iron Works. By 1729, one of the partners was Augustine Washington, father of George Washington. When Augustine died, his share in the company passed on to his son Lawrence.

The Company sent Stephen Onion to America to establish the ironworks. Stephen Onion proved to be more interested in pursuing his own business opportunities- such as acting for a consultant on the Joppa Iron Works, and the work at Principio languished. Ironmaster John England arrived next. Appalled by the lack of progress at the site, he immediately moved to correct the situation. John England supervised construction of Maryland's first blast furnace and first refinery forge; in 1725, the furnace was producing pig iron, and in 1728, the forge workers were hammering out wrought iron.

Most of the pig and bar iron manufactured here was exported to England, where it would be made into finished goods; Britain did not permit the colonies to compete in production of finished goods, one of the economic grievances expressed by the colonists before the Revolution.

After the American Revolution, iron production decreased in the United States. However, Principio had experienced several decades of decline even before the Revolution began. Originally, The Principio Company over-estimated the amount of iron ore available in the immediate area, and this quickly became apparent to John England when he arrived to oversee the operation of the ironworks. Even before the ironworks complex was in full production, the company purchased land at other locations to increase the supply of iron ore. One site, Accokeek, located in Stafford County, Virginia, was acquired in 1725, on land owned by Augustine Washington. In an agreement with Washington, ore was mined on his land and processed in a blast furnace constructed at that site. The iron was then sent to Principio for refinement in the forge. In 1727, a site was purchased at Whetstone Point, near Baltimore harbor. Iron ore from Whetstone and pig iron from Accokeek were shipped up the Chesapeake Bay by company sloops to a landing near the mouth of Principio Creek. In 1735, the Principio Company established a refining forge at North East to expand processing capacity.

Decline became visible at Principio. In 1749, a visitor reported that "the furnace and buildings were in a very poor condition. Existing company records indicate the blast furnace at Principio ceased operation around 1753. The refinery forge remained active for a while longer, refining pig iron shipped from the Stafford County furnace before that furnace was shut down around 1755, and then continuing to refine iron from the two more profitable Baltimore County furnaces. The Principio Forge deteriorated, and in spite of repairs in 1772, it was no longer in operation by 1776.