The 1857 Iron County Militia Project: Content / Background of the Militiamen / The Cedar City Ironworks and the "Iron Men"

The Cedar City Ironworks and the "Iron Men"

An Examination of the Ironworkers Involved in the Massacre
on Friday June 18 2010
by The Editors

in Background of the Militiamen
comments: 0
not rated -

In the 1850s, Cedar City was the site of the pioneer ironworks in Utah Territory. Principally Americans held key leadership positions in the town, church and militia. Not so, however, with the ironworks whose principal engineers and foremen were immigrants from Great Britain (northwest industrial England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland) who brought with them firsthand experience with the iron foundries of Great Britain. Who were these (largely) British emigrants and why were some of them but not others sucked into events leading to the massacre at Mountain Meadows?

The Cedar City Ironworks and the "Iron Men"

The following is substantially based on Morris Shirts's description of the Iron Mission

in Utah History Encyclopedia. I have supplemented it with material drawn from the

Deseret Iron Company Account Book, 1854-1867, as well as Shirts's monograph, A

Trial Furnace: Southern Utah's Iron Mission. The Deseret Iron Company Account Books

is a ledger book listing employee accounts, division of labor, and payroll for the Iron

Mission pioneers in Cedar City, Utah from 1854 to 1867.

In December 1850, at the direction of Brigham Young and under the leadership of George A. Smith, a company of approximately 120 frontiersmen and iron manufacturing tradesman, mostly from the Great British, departed for southern Utah to establish an iron manufacturing plant there. Originally called the Iron County Mission, the name of the enterprise was shortened by common usage to the Iron Mission.

By January 13, 1851, they had reached Parowan, 250 miles distant, in what was then known as the Little Salt Lake Valley. They built a small fort and began farming to support themselves during the iron-manufacturing attempt.

The proposed ironworks would require charcoal which they made from the extensive forests of juniper (known locally and throughout much of the West as "cedar"). Iron ore could be had at Iron Springs, twenty miles southwest of Parowan. Originally, they planned to build the blast furnace there. However, when abundant coal was discovered Coal Creek, nineteen miles south of Parowan, they decided to locate the blast furnace at the mouth of Coal Creek, present-day Cedar City. Coal was mined six miles up the canyon and transported by wagon to the furnace located on the banks of the stream at the canyon mouth where the water for power was accessible. The iron ore was to be transported from Iron Springs to the blast furnace by ox-drawn wagons. Limestone for the process was also abundantly available.

In November 1851, a small work force from Parowan founded Cedar Fort, eventually renamed Cedar City. In the beginning, farming and survival took precedence over iron manufacturing. However, over the summer months of 1852, a small test furnace was erected that produced some low grade iron on September 29. An express rider was dispatched to Great Salt Lake City with some samples to prove that the manufacture had been accomplished in the Great Basin. Thereafter, newly arrived European immigrants were carefully screened in Great Salt Lake City and those with iron-making skills were strongly encouraged to move to Cedar City to strengthen the settlement.

During the next six years many furnace test runs were made, with varying degrees of success. Many unforeseen problems developed and the iron works were never a commercial success. But occasionally, especially in 1853 and 1855, the blast furnace was operated on a short, sustained basis.

The period that interests us here is from 1855 through 1857 and particularly the time immediately before the massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857. Who were the leaders of the enterprise? Who were the ironworkers themselves? Which of them became involved in the massacre? Why were some involved and others not?

The experiences of some of the ironworkers from the British Isles will illustrate the development of the Iron Mission in Cedar City. John Weston/Western was born in Devonshire, England in 1807. Little is known of his early life. However, judging from his later life, he had work experience in the British iron works, he had a musical background, and he seems to have been a person of at least modest means. During the 1840s while he was in his mid-30s, Weston heard the message of Mormon missionaries that many English in that era found so hopeful. He converted to Mormonism in 1848 and became an enthusiastic follower in Great Britain.

Meanwhile, in 1849, Mormon explorers in southern Utah discovered significant iron deposits. Because of the enormous cost of importing iron goods to Utah Territory, it was inevitable that early Mormon settlers in the Great Basin would attempt to establish an iron industry there. It was natural, then, that with the conversion to Mormonism of Englishmen such as John Weston with experience in iron production, they would become involved in various ways in these early attempts to establish an iron industry in Utah. Thus, in 1852, John Weston was among a group of British Latter-day Saints who met in Liverpool, England to form the Deseret Iron Company (DIC). While others contributed significant financial backing, Weston's vital contribution was his practical experience as an overseer of an iron works. Around the same time in Utah, Mormon leader Brigham Young established the Iron Mission in southern Utah with headquarters in the new settlement of Cedar City.

In April 1853, Weston attended the organizational meeting of the DIC in Liverpool and became a subscriber to its articles of incorporation. Weston received one of the eight shares issued, each valued at 500 pounds British sterling ($2,420), and became a member of the DIC's board of directors. Quickly, Weston made plans to immigrate to Utah. While some early Mormons came to Utah with no clear idea of where they might settle, such was not the case with John Weston and other British Saints in the Deseret Iron Company or with experience in the iron mills. They were bound for the "Iron Mission" in Cedar City.

Soon Weston and his family immigrated to America and moved west across the plains to Utah Territory. Then they headed south into southern Utah. By spring 1854, Weston was settled in Cedar City. City records reflect that he was the owner of a series of building lots. In the mid-1850s, Weston also served as director of the "English Choir" in Cedar City with its English, Welsh and Scottish voices.

On 8 October 1858 Brigham Young advised Isaac C. Haight, the director of the Deseret Iron Company, to shut the operation down. The assets of the company were gradually liquidated, culminating in a public auction of the remaining company equipment on 20 December 1861. Although all the elements for the successful establishment of an iron-making industry were present, the project failed in its basic objective: the making of pig iron and then making useful objects from it. The need and the desire were there. The basic ingredients for the blast furnace were present--abundant iron ore, fuel, water, limestone, and sand. A cadre of frontiersmen along with skillful and experienced iron workers from Europe and the United States were involved. However, there were also a number of major reasons that probably contributed strongly to the project's failure.The furnace and allied structures were too close to the banks of Coal Creek. The soil was too spongy to adequately support the weight of the works. Coal Creek flooded frequently, washing away diversion dams and/or inundating the entire operation, which was also too far from the ore body. The fire clay and sandstone used in the furnace lining, bosch, and hearth spauled, bubbled, and liquefied at temperatures lower than required in the smelting process. The power needed for furnace blast and related equipment came from a water wheel, with water supplied by mill races running directly from the stream bed. The water level in the creek fluctuated seasonably and with unpredictable flash floods. A steam engine acquired from Salt Lake City arrived too late to prove its value. Attempts to use both charcoal and coke (made from unsuitable coal), and the occasional use of "raw" coal and wood in the furnace, indicate that the riddle of inadequate and inappropriate fuel was difficult to solve.An acute lack of circulating currency existed in the territory and little of it surfaced at the Deseret Iron Company. Laborers were credited on the company books for their services, against which they were to draw the necessities from the company store, which was also the church tithing office. Generally the labor credit exceeded the store inventory. Although there were some territorial and church cash appropriations, most of the help came in the form of labor tax assessments.Weather in the area also was unpredictably bad and not conducive to sustained furnace operation. Snow, ice, drought, and grasshoppers had a deleterious effect. Extreme isolation, high marketing costs, and lack of personal and company supplies also impacted the problem.The magnetite ore presented smelting problems for the English and Scottish iron workers which they tried to solve through on-the-job experimentation, although some hematite ore was found and easily reduced. The equipment and furnaces were mostly handmade.Some management personnel had never seen a blast furnace, and some serious judgmental mistakes were made. The available management talent was also dissipated through many contiguous civic, political, and ecclesiastical offices. Top management jobs paid cash and were considerably higher paid than those of labor. Ethnic and cultural differences also created problems, fostering disunity. Personnel changes affected the efficiency of the operations. Church mission calls, defections, and excommunications took their toll of key personnel.Hostile Indian actions caused constant concern and required individual and militia vigilance, interrupting the Iron Works. The Utah War was the last nail driven into the Deseret Iron Company coffin. Also, the Mountain Meadows Massacre in September 1857 could be considered the first armed skirmish of this affair. Over half of the Deseret Iron Company cadre were involved in it, including the leadership. This shattered the spirit of the enterprise. The strategic value of the iron works to an occupation force also may have been a factor in Brigham Young's decision to close down the works.

You must be logged in to make comments on this site - please log in, or if you are not registered click here to signup

Promoted News

Main Menu

Welcome

Search The 1857 Iron County Militia Project

Recent Additions

Latest Comments

Backend

Link to us

Powered by

W3C Compliance

The Cedar City Ironworks and the "Iron Men"

Scroll Your News

Links Menu

new since your last visit

EasyGallery

Main Menu