Ref: The Hearthstone Town and Country Pennsburg, Montgomery County, PA Thursday - August 28, 2003 VALLEY PAST By Larry Roeder FORGING GREEN LANE Long before the ice houses, Perkiomen Railroad, and the Goshenhoppen Turnpike there was the Green Lane Forge. It was one of the earliest industries in the Upper Perkiomen Valley, and operated for nearly a century and a quarter from a location just north of where the Macoby Creek meets the Perkiomen in the town that inherited its name. There are many historians who feel the Green Lane Forge was, in fact, the first established industry in the area. Between 1730 and 1742 a wealthy Quaker named Thomas MAYBURRY acquired several large tracts of land in Marlborough and Frederick townships and modern day Green Lane Borough. The buyer's name has lent itself to some confusion, as the spelling of the name appears as MAYBURRY, MAYBURY, MAYBRY, MABURY AND MAYBERRY in several official documents! But we can be sure that no matter how you spell it, Thomas started the Green Lane Forge. MAYBURRY was born around 1692 in Herefordshire England. By 1717 he traveled to Massachusetts, and by 1730 found his way to Penn's Woods. Along the way he married Sophia RUTTER. Being a member of the Thomas RUTTER family, the first iron master in Pennsylvania, Sophia was familiar with the ways of the forge and furnace. If the name Thomas RUTTER doesn't ring a bell, I'll fill you in. In 1717 RUTTER was producing iron along the Manatawny Creek, near modern day Pottstown. In 1720 he hired a friend of his named Thomas POTTS (as in Pottstown and Pottsgrove) to serve as his iron master and the rest, as they say, is history! In 1742 MAYBURRY acquired four tracts of land from John, Thomas and Richard PENN. In addition to the four parcels he attained from the PENN family, he purchased another 1,000-acre tract near Tylersport from William ALLEN in the same year. An interesting side note to this is the road that boarders the William ALLEN tract still bears the name "1,000 Acre Road." The waters of the Perkiomen Creek and its tributaries were an inviting power source. A place where dams could easily be built to harness the energy needed to operate a large scale iron plantation! The abundance of wood from the lush green forests nearby provided the charcoal to fuel the forge. By 1733, MAYBURRY's forge was up and running. In the early days of operation, pig iron was transported from Durham Furnace. It was a 25-mile journey from the lower Bucks County site along the Delaware River to Green Lane. Without a furnace to turn the raw iron ore into molten iron, MAYBURRY was forced to purchase and ship the product to his forge to make it into usable "bar iron." The bar iron was then heated, hammered and shaped by blacksmiths into wheels, horseshoes, nails, hinges and other more recognizable items. The Green Lane Forge was kind of a community unto itself. Over time, an ironmaster's house, large stone barn, workers quarters, charcoal kilns, coalhouse and blacksmith shop were added to the property. All kinds of workers were needed to support the work of the forge. Folks moved into the area to work at cutting trees, driving wagons, supplying food, running stores and just about anything else a growing industrial town could need. According to an account of Conestoga Wagons and Colonial Roads by local historian H. Hammond ARMSTRONG, it was estimated that "about 1,000 tons of pig and bar iron were transported annually." Pulling the freight was a four, six, or eight-horse team hitched to a large wagon capable of carrying six to eight tons. Teamsters charged two pounds to haul a ton of iron from Green Lane to Philadelphia. MAYBURRY didn't confine his efforts to Green Lane. In 1745 he built the Hereford Furnace in Berks County, and began supplying pig iron to his Green Lane facility. By the way, the Hereford Furnace is credited with producing the first 10-plate cook stove with oven, made in America! Thomas Sr. died in 1747, but the Green Lane Forge stayed in the family. William MAYBURRY, Thomas' oldest son, ran the operation until his death in 1764. The forge stayed in William's family until 1784, when Thomas Jr. took over. He ran the operation until his death in 1797. Thomas Jr.'s son William managed the forge for two years before bringing brother Willoughby on board as a partner. That lasted until Willoughby sold his share to another brother, Thomas III in 1813. It was reported that the Green Lane Forge provided cannon balls and wrought iron to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. I'm not surprised since several of the Thomas MAYBURRY descendents were gunners in the Pennsylvania State Regiment of Artillery during the war. By the late 1700's powder mills had sprung up along the neighboring Swamp Creek area. They too needed to burn the wood for charcoal. According to Armstrong's Collection of Some Facts and Stories About Green Lane, Sumneytown, and Vicinity in the Days of the Early Settlers, "the extensive cutting of wood for about a full century had created a shortage of supply for charcoal making. About 50 acres of woods had to be cut each year to supply one forge fire with enough charcoal, and the Green Lane Iron Works had three forge fires." In 1814, William and Thomas MAYBURRY sold the forge to the firm of WALKER, GEORGE, WILLIS and YARDLEY. They paid $46,000 for the idle forge property. WALKER and GEORGE sold their shares to their other two partners in 1821. In 1834 the Montgomery County Sheriff sold the property to William SCHALL. SCHALL built a furnace on the site to augment the forge. The operation employed 30 workers, but the second life was short lived. SCHALL sold the property in pieces. By 1871, what was left of the Green Lane Forge Plantation took its final breath and passed quietly into history.