C22—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 5,1981
Joanna Furnace festival sheds light on old iron-making life
MORGANTOWN Leave your
modem day problems behind for a
weekend and journey back into the
past to discover how life was lived
in southeastern Pennsylvania
during the mid-l Boos.
This invitation to join in an
historic festival is extended to
everyone by the Hay Creek Valley
Historical Association. Their time
warp event is the Hay Creek Valley
Fall Festival, taking place in the
present time of September 11-13 at
the site of an old iron making site,
Joanna Furnace.
Although tune has changed what
used to be a hustle-bustle com
munity of 1500 people into a land
mark frequented only by oc
casional visitors and historical
resurrectionists (volunteer
masons, carpenter, archeologists,
etc,), for three days in September
the Joanna ‘community’ will once
again become a boom town as folks
gather to take part in the fall
celebration.
According to an Association
spokesman,. the festival will
‘recreate’ the life of an early
American iron platation from the
1790 s to the early 1900 s. Skilled
craftsmen will be on hand to
demonstrate their own special
talents and to show visitors the
basic fundamentals of their craft.
“Years ago, craftsmen and
farmers didn’t write ‘how-to
manuals’ they showed their sons
and daughters how to do things.
The crafts people at the festival
learned in that way and are now
teaching others how to practice
their crafts,” stated John Fleming,
Association president.
“This oral education is what the
fall festival is all about. In 20 or 30
years, if these traditions and
techniques are not passed on, they
will be gone forever.”
To give everyone a lesson in the
ways of the past, skilled
housewrights will form lumber and
structural beams from logs. They
will demonstrate the construction
of an actual building by joining the
structural members using the
colonial peg method.
Other craftsmen will split fence
posts and also produce hand and
machine split shakes that at one
time were used as shingles,
Blacksmiths will make wrought
iron farm implements and kitchen
utensils. Others will demonstrate
how wooden water pipes were
made.
Also on hand will be a
wheelwright, broommaker, cooper
and basketmaker.
For those with an eye toward the
less physically demanding crafts,
ile will be demonstrating the
ln its ‘hay day' during the last half of thelSOOs, Joanna '
. The company store, left foreground, was the from the ironmaster. The original mansion at rnTth*
place where ironworkers received their pay in the. Furnace, background, dates back to 1792. ma< * e U P the stoves tops, sides, and
form of supplies and their orders for the day ootioms.
if: ’>y >. >
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Historical Joanna Furnace, located near Morgantown, is volunteers of the Hay Creek Historical- Association. This
being reclaimed from neglect and nature’s efforts to shadow photo shows the abandoned furnace as it appeared on
the old iron making factory behind brush and trees by the December 17,1916.
art of spinning, dyeing, weaving,
chair caning, making herbal
medicines and sauerkraut,
quilting, and other domestic
crafts.
And, to the delight of the most
discerning palates, the festival will
provide taste-tempting homemade
bread, shoefly pies, apple cider
and apple butter.
Since the Joanna residents of the
1800 s toiled hard in the
manufacture of iron stoves and
ammunitions, they enjoyed the few
leisure moments granted them by
the ironmaster. For many, their
off-work hours were spent in
singing, especially hymns
probably vital m bolstering their
courage to face those 12 hour work
days for 6 or 7 days a week.
And music will highlight this
year’s fall festival bringing lots of
toe-tapping fun on Friday and
Saturday evening and Sunday
afternoon.
Although not of the tune period
during which the Joanna furnace
was in operation, more than 200
steam engines will be on display
during the festival, including
steam traction engines, old
gasoline-powered tractors and
stationary gasoline engines. The
engines will be running and many
will be used for powering
machinery during demonstrations
of wheat threshing, feed grinding,
corn meal milling, and the
'ration of a large sawmill.
Serving as an ever-present
reminder of the past, the restored
Joanna Furnace will be the scene
of colorful excitement. For the
history buffs, there will be self
guided walking tours of the .fur
nace. Association interpreters will
be on hand to discuss the process of
iron making, and tell tales of what
took place in each of the five
buildings on the site.
The furnace has undergone a
major facelifting operation since
the' Association, made up of
volunteers from Lancaster, Berks
and-Chester counties, was given
the 10-acre site by Bethlehem Steel
in 1979. During the two-years ot
ownership, nearly 700 people have
freed the historical site from vines
and brush, patched and repaired,
and have given the once forgotten
furnace rebirth.
Now, the Joanna Furnace
historical site has grown to 25
acres with a recent donation of
land by Bethlehem steel, and the
Association is planning a festival
that reflects this progress
bigger and better.
Admission to the festival is fl for
adults, and children less than 16
years old are admitted without
charge. Joanna Furnace is located
along Route 10, miles north of
the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the
Morgantown Interchange 22. In
case of severe weather, the festival
will be postponed one week.
Vw-
Forming a geometric marvel of perfectly placed stone, this
entrance to -the furnace stack in the casting house formerly
spewed out molten iron every 12 hours.. It flowed' across a
sand floor to pig molds, there it was cast into cannon balls,
stove plates, etc.
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