Greenwood Furnace: The Collier

Ben Ranney, Park Naturalist
  at Little Buffalo State Park
 dressed as a collier

What is a collier?

A man who made charcoal to fuel the furnaces that produced iron in the 1800s and early 1900s.

How was he taught?

A collier was trained by working under a master collier.

Where did he live?

The collier’s families lived in the company’s town, but the collier lived in a hut or cabin near where he built the pits to make charcoal from April through November.

How much did he get paid? Read More

Greenwood Furnace: The Woodcutter

Piles and piles of wood. Does it sound like our yard now that my husband is ready for the wood burning season? No, I’m referring to the piles and piles of wood prepared by long ago employees of Greenwood Furnace, woodcutters.

First, woodcutters visited the company office in the fall to get their contracts. Since the furnace shut down in winter, iron workers sometimes turned into woodcutters. Greenwood Furnace paid for 5,000 cords of wood each year to be made into charcoal to fuel each of its furnace stacks. That much wood came from approximately 150 acres of woodland. The best cutter from the previous season Read More

Pennsylvania History Class 2

They got it! How many times have I taught, and I come away wondering if they learned anything. The boys I am teaching right now are so much fun. Their minds work like crazy, and I don’t have to spell everything out.

For instance, I brought my slides of a charcoal burn. Here’s a little background, for those of you who have never participated in a charcoal burn. Have you ever seen the remainder of the iron furnaces? They look like huge brick pyramids without the pointed top. Within driving distance from my house are the two at Greenwood Furnace State Park near Belleville and the one at Centre Furnace along East College Avenue in State College. There are many others located all over Pennsylvania.

Back in the 1700s and 1800s, the inside of these furnaces were filled with charcoal, set on fire, and then filled with iron ore.  As the ore melted, it ran into trays to make cast iron.

Making charcoal took lots of wood stacked by “wood choppers.”  The “colliers” then made the charcoal. At sites within the woods, they formed a large teepee of wood about 35 feet in diameter,

                                                             covered it with leaves,

                                                                    and then dirt.

The colliers then added hot coals from a campfire to the stack.

The leaves and dirt kept the stack smoldering, not burning openly.

For up to two weeks, the colliers worked day and night to patch any holes that appeared in the stack, adding dirt to cover the holes.

 

At the end of the burn, they covered the stack with more dirt to put the fire out. When cooled, the colliers raked open the stack. Inside they found charcoal 

which they loaded in wagons and took back to a storage site near the iron furnace.

They got it! The boys watched the slides, and without my explaining every little detail caught on to why the wood had been covered with leaves and dirt. 

I wish every teaching session went that well! 

P.S. Here’s my collier’s certificate in case you wondered about my qualifications for this lesson. Paul Fagley at Greenwood Furnace State Park offers a class almost every summer for teachers to learn about this process. In 2010, we built the small charcoal stack shown above and made charcoal in two days instead of two weeks. The wagon is in the museum at Greenwood Furnace.