Iron Works

NUGGET #40

Iron Works: 1. Deeds in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s mention the “Iron Works,” a short- lived operation by Timothy Keeler Jr., Nathan Dauchy, and Elijah Keeler near Lake Mamanasco whose waters it used; work on it began in 1789 along the stream from Mamanasco to the Titicus River just east of the Route 116 bridge opposite Craigmoor Road; by 1797, it was gone; probably converted iron ore to pig iron. Whether various implements were then manufactured from the iron at that location is unknown. The source of the ore is unclear, although iron ore is known in Ridgefield; a map of Connecticut, drawn by Samuel Huntington in 1792, bears the legend “Iron mines” in a section of Ridgebury north of George Washington Highway and along Briar Ridge Road; may have ceased operation because of difficulty in getting ore, or fuel for furnace; or competing iron works at Starrs Plain ran the Ridgefield operation out of business; 2. Ridgefield land records mention an iron works at Starrs Plain in Danbury that received its water supply from Ridgefield. In 1792, Benjamin Sellick of Danbury leased Eliakim and Abijah Peck of Danbury eight acres in Ridgefield “at Bennits Farm or Pond… for the purpose of raising a dam across the stream that leads to said iron works and save the water for the use of said works during the term of five years.” The works probably stood on or about the pond that still exists along Route 7, opposite Bennett’s Farm Road just into Danbury.

From Jack Sanders, Ridgefield Names.