Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee

Cumberland Furnace is an unincorporated community in Dickson County, Tennessee, United States.[1] Cumberland Furnace is served by a U.S. Post Office, ZIP Code 37051.[2]

History

General James Robertson purchased the land in 1793 and built the first furnace.

In 1804, Montgomery Bell moved to Middle Tennessee and purchased James Robertson's iron works business for $16,000. Bell expanded his operations and built other furnaces and mills including a hammer mill south of Charlotte, at Tennessee on Jones Creek using water power.

By 1808, Bell was buying wood at 50 cents per cord for charcoal to fuel his Cumberland Furnaces which cast cannonballs used in the War of 1812 by General Andrew Jackson's troops at the Battle of New Orleans.[3]

A nearby unincorporated community where many of Bell’s workers lived is called Bell Town. Bell suffered losses in the Panic of 1819 and in 1824 he advertised the Narrows and other properties for sale in the Nashville Whig. Bell offered to sell his ironworks to the U.S. Army for an Armory but floods on the Harpeth were well known and that idea failed. Bell sold the ironworks to Anthony Wayne Van Leer, who was a member of a well known historical family in Pennsylvania and noted in the anti-slavery cause.  [4] Van Leer’s granddaughter married a Union Captain James P. Drouillard and built the nearby historical Drouillard House on his property. His mansion was also used as a Union headquarters.[5] Captain Drouillard operated the furnace until it was sold in 1889 to the Southern Iron Company.[6]

The Cumberland Furnace Historic District was designated September 28, 1988[7]

Further reading
  • A History of Dickson County, Tennessee by Robert E. Corlew, Tennessee Historical Commission, Nashville, 1956, reprinted 1980

References
  1. "Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. United States Postal Service (2012). "USPS - Look Up a ZIP Code". Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  3. Smith Futhey, J. (2007). "History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Biographies". History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Biographies. pp. 687–688. ISBN 9780788443879.
  4. Smith Futhey, J. (2007). "History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Biographies". History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Biographies. pp. 687–688. ISBN 9780788443879.
  5. "Anthony Van Leer's House a Union Headquarters".
  6. Gail Hammerquist (March 1977). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form: Drouillard House" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-07-28. Five photos (1977)
  7. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/88001109 (#88001109)

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