By Frank Meloi.

In 1775, with the Revolution in full swing, the Continental Army was in desperate need of munitions and supplies. Heeding the call, the forges and blast furnaces of New Jersey were worked feverishly to keep our soldiers properly equipped. In an age when iron was king, no army could remain in the field very long without a continuous stream of it. Iron kept horses shod, wagon wheels rolling, and provided the wherewithal for countless other items and accoutrements so vital to life in the field.

It was black iron, carved from the hills of the highlands, and wrenched from the ore by the fire of the furnace, which was fired at the British from the plains of Monmouth to the streets of Yorktown. So crucial was iron to the war effort, that Congress had authorized an exemption from military service for any man directly involved in its manufacture. At the Horse Pond Mine (Later known as Beach Glen) the ore was worked by means of an open pit. In the spring of 1775, workers from the Boonton Iron Works were busy mining the ore alongside those from Hibernia. Although historical records seem to indicate that this mine had no actual owner, Lord Stirling, (part owner of the Hibernia Works) became alarmed at the continued use, by a competitor, of what he believed was "his" ore.


William Alexander, Lord Stirling.
(Wadsworth Atheneum)

In typical fashion, Stirling rode out to the mine one day and drove off the Boonton men, using his horse whip to drive home the point. When word reached Samuel Ogden, owner of the Boonton works, of Stirling's actions, he became incensed. The following day, a mob arrived from Boonton armed with clubs. The day after that, they were accompanied by twenty armed guards. The situation grew tenser each day, until the workers at Ringwood and Charlotteburg declared that they would side with Ogden. While Stirling refused to relent, Joseph Hoff, manager of the Hibernia works, realized that this matter would soon erupt into all out conflict. Ogden, for his part, threatened to take the matter to the courts to protect his interests at Horse Pond.

The details of the reconciliation have, unfortunately, been lost to history. Whether Ogden pursued some form of official arbitration, or not, is not known. We do know however, that the matter was soon laid to rest as both furnaces continued to make use of the ore.

The American Revolution would go on for another six years. Throughout the remainder of the war, the furnaces at Hibernia and Boonton continued to be important suppliers of war materiel. While the contributions made by these two iron towns have long since eclipsed any memory of the incident at Horse Pond, it is still interesting to hearken back to a few tense days in 1775, when two New Jersey towns nearly came to blows over ore.

Works Cited:

Thayer, Theodore. Colonial and Revolutionary Morris County. Morristown: Compton Press Inc., 1975.

Boyer, Charles S. Early Forges and Furnaces in New Jersey. Philadelphia, 1931