Michael Conte, Jr.
In Connecticut, the iron industry possessed a high degree of esteem and posture in the United States for a very long time. It was an industry that became extinct, not because it had exhausted all of its resources, but for many other reasons.
The Connecticut Iron Industry was primarily located in the northwestern section of the state in Salisbury, Sharon and Kent. The industry in Salisbury existed until 1923 with a history almost two centuries long. Interestingly, one of the early iron works was located in our own backyard and fully operational in the middle 1600’s, its location was East Haven!! The shift however, to upstate Connecticut was a logical move. There was a large supply of “quality“ iron ore, water power, a source of fuel and the fact that the supply of iron ore from North Haven, that supplied the East Haven factory, was exhausted.
The iron industry began to handle orders from many different concerns such as the Whitney and Springfield Armories which made muskets contracted for with the federal government, needed large quantities of iron. It was soon discovered and the source of great concern by the gun makers that the Salisbury makers could not guarantee and maintain a high quality of iron products and much business was lost to the Europeans.
Some factors involved in this loss were: not modernizing plants, poor managers, inconsistent quality of iron in the size and distribution of slag, high phosphorous content in the iron and European technology and competition.