Martha - Ghost Towns on Waymarking.com

A few miles north of Harrisville is where Martha was located,there also was the Martha Furnace. Isaac Potts who named it after his wife built the furnace in 1793. That was the custom in those days. Isaac Potts & Co. was an iron merchant in Philadelphia. Perhaps Potts noticed the success of New Jersey bog-iron furnaces during the struggle for independence. In any event, he began acquiring land in the Martha area until his holdings reached a peak of nearly 60,000 acres. In less than three years, a sizeable town had sprung up around the furnace. In its heyday, the village had a population of four hundred people. There were forty to fifty houses, a store, a school, a sawmill, a gristmill and numerous other buildings. Potts sold the furnace in 1800 to a group of four men. The products of the furnace included the usual stoves and firebacks, sash weights, sugar kettles, shot, cannon wheels, and various utensils. Today there is little left to suggest the village and its furnace ever existed. iT IS NOW JUST FOREST.When you get to the site of the Martha Furnace ruins, what you will find is a chain link fence, surrounding a pile of dirt with small trees and weeds growing on it. In the vicinity are some old Catalpa trees, which are in really bad shape, yet still alive. Also some Black Walnut trees.
REMAINS: The furnace ruins are there, although they can't be seen. A long time ago, the state photographed and cataloged every inch of the ruins. Then they buried them under an enorous pile of dirt, and put a chain link fence around the FURNACE, presumeably to prevent the ruins from being carried off, brick by brick and rock by rock...

Reason for Abandonment: Economic Date Abandoned: 01/01/1800 Related Web Page: Not listed

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