Salisbury in the Revolution
by Lila Nash, Salisbury Town Clerk (1945 - 1981)

"Our mines furnished the material, our steams the power, and our citizens the labor, by which much efficiency was given to the greatcause of American Independence". . . Judge Samuel Church.

Connecticut's first operable blast furnace was built in "Furnace Village", now called Lakeville. It was located adjacent to the water rights of Lake Wononscopomuc controlled by Thomas Lamb, the first Englishman to live here. In 1742 Lamb sold his land and water rights to Benajah Williams, Josiah Stoddard, and William Spencer, who erected a small forge. Then in 1762 Col. Hazeltine of Massachusetts, Samuel and Elisha Forbes of Canaan, and Ethan Allen of Cornwall acquied a deed of aproperty from the previous owner, Leonard Owen. The proprietors erected the first blast furnace which became "The Arsenal of the Recolution".

After passing through the hands of Caldwell Bros. of Hartford, the blast furnace was putchased by Richard Smith, an Englishman and merchant of Boston. When the War broke out Smith returned to England. His property was not confiscated, but was taken over by the State from 1776 to about 1780. Governor Trumbull appointed Col. Joshua Porter, the town's most distinguished citizen to superintend the furnace operation; however, Col. Porter left after a year to take an active part in the War.

The Lakeville furnace was located on the site of the Holley Mfg. Building which now stands on Pocket Knife Suare. Here from 1776 to the end of the American Revolution the roaring furnace lighted up the darkness of the nights with its red hot iron, ore extracted from the local hills. It was a tempting target for the British and the American Tories. The furnace was used to cast cannon, 8 - 18 pounders, cannon balls and hand grenades and shot. All were used by the Revolutionaary forces on land and sea. More than fifty men worked around the clock to keep the furnace going. The records show that the largest cannon weighed from 2000 to 4000 lbs. The cannon balls were tested by shooting then out over Furnace Hill over what is now Farnum Road to finally hit into the sod on Bostwick Hill.

According to records dated May, 1777, a Military Guard was thrown around the furnace plant and village. Guards patrolled what is now the Lakeville Park area starting about where the old railroad station is located (then called Furnace Hill) and marching down town to the residence of Col. Joshua Porter, now a commercial building on the corner of Porter Street and Main Street, opposite the Lakeville Post Office.

"THE PROOF DOES NOT LIE IN THE PUDDING", that the Lakeville Furnace was "The Arsenal of the Revolution", but in the State Records in Vol.I, page 130 where on December, 1776, the General Assembly said:

"It is of the greatest importance for the safety and defense of this and the United States of America, that the foundry (sic) of Cannons should continue at Salisbury. This state is also applied to by the Honorable Continental Congress for a large number to be sent to the Northern Forts and for the ships, and they are greatly needed for our immediate defense, and there appears no way to obtain them than by our foundry at Salisbury."

"Echoes of Iron in Connecticut's Northwest Corner" by Ed Kirby

"Echoes of Iron in Connecticut's Northwest Corner" is a history of the region's iron industry written by local resident and historian Ed Kirby, published by the Sharon Historical Society in 1999. The book includes scores of photos, maps and drawings, plus a "field guide" with directions to iron industry sites, including furnaces, dams, kilns and mills, from Norfolk in the east to New York's Harlem Valley in the west, and from southern Berkshires of Massachusetts to Kent and Roxbury in Connecticut. A grant by the Connecticut Humanities Council and support from several area businesses and individuals financed the printing of 2,000 copies. The book is dedicated to Fred Hall, town historian of Canaan.

Iron ore was first discovered in what's now the town of Salisbury in 1731, Kirby reports, and by 1744 ore was being mined in several locations. Forges had been established by Thomas Lamb in Lime Rock and Lakeville, by Richard Seymour in East Canaan, by Joseph Skinner in Sharon and by Ebenezer Barnum in Kent.

Demand for the high quality "Salisbury District" grew rapidly and by the eve of the Revolution three decades later Connecticut's Nothwest Corner was ready to meet the armament needs of the patriot armies. Iron workers in these towns, especially Salisbury, forged more than 800 cannons, the great majority of those made to fight the British.

Salisbury Cannon Museum

Visit the Salisbury Cannon Museum to learn more about the area's historic role as a principal cannon producer during the American Revolution. The museum is located next to the historic site of Connecticut's first iron blast furnace that was originally built by Ethan Allen and Samuel Forbes in 1762.

The museum is owned and operated by the non-profit Salisbury Association, Inc., and is located in the carriage house of the Holley-Williams House Museum in the center of Lakeville, CT.

The Salisbury Cannon Museum is open Saturdays and Sundays from 12 - 5:00 pm, during July and August. Allow one hour for your visit.

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