Montgomery Bell-- Part 2: Emancipated His Slaves

Montgomery Bell immediately began to enlarge the operations by building other furnaces and mills.

In 1808, he was buying wood at 50 cents a cord to fire the Cumberland Furnace which cast cannon balls used by Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.

He built a home called Bell View.  His business interests were severely hurt by the Panic of 1819.

By 1835, he had sent fifty of his freed slaves to Liberia and in 1853, sent fifty more.  Eventually he emancipated 150 more.  He even went so far as to hire a teacher from Philadelphia to teach them how to read and write, something that was very illegal at the time.

--Brock-Perry

Cumberland Furnace-- Part 2: Montgomery Bell's Ironworks

The Highland Rim around Nashville and area was found to have abundant iron ore deposits, so locating in the area was a natural choice.

In 1793, General James Robertson and William Sheppard purchased 640 acres from James Campbell, a private in North Carolina's Continental Line during the American Revolution.  They erected a furnace for an ironworks.

It was in operation by 1796.  In 1804, Montgomery Bell of Chester, Pennsylvania, bought the furnace for $16,000 and built a second furnace and by 1812 had a contract to furnish the U.S. government with cannon shot, gunpowder and whiskey.  (Not sure what the whiskey had to do with the ironworks.  It must have been a side business for Bell.)

During the War of 1812, Montgomery Bell became the chief supplier of heavy armaments for both the Navy and Andrew Jackson's army.

--Brock-Perry

Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee-- Part 1: Still a Town There

From Wikipedia.

In the last post I mentioned the Tennessee militia on their way to New Orleans in November 1814 having cannonballs made by Ironmaster Montgomery Bell from his Cumberland Furnace.

There is still an unincorporated town of Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County.  It, of course, received its name from the ironworks.  The Cumberland Furnace Historical District was designated September 28, 1988.

Cumberland Furnace is the oldest community south of the Cumberland River between Nashville and Clarksville.

--Brock-Perry

Tennessee Volunteer Militia Leave Clarksville for New Orleans

The Tennessee Volunteer Militia left Clarksville, Tennessee, on November 15, 1814 and got to New Orleans in time to take part in the night battle on December 23, 1814, and then the decisive Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

In addition to guns, powder and supplies, the transport boats also carried cannonballs made by Ironmaster Montgomery Bell from his Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County.

Clarksville had a reenactment of the event on November 15, 2014, two hundred years later.  Bicentennial, you know.

--Brock-Perry