​Texas Civil War
Iron Works

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Marker Text: ​To make farm and kitchen tools need in wartime, Chapel Hill Manufacturing Co. in 1863 set up plant on this site, processing native iron; used Cherokee limestone to purify the ore. Nearby hardwood supplied charcoal.
     Crew included 100 Louisiana slaves. Ore from hilltop fed through smokestack into furnaces on lower ground. Slag caught in furnace grates. Melted iron fell through and was cast into molds. Plant had associated sawmills, brickyards and commissary -- freighting goods form Mexico.
​    By the 1880s, at least 16 iron works operated in East Texas. (1965) 

Marker No: 6825

Aluminum 18 x 28 Subject Marker

Geographic: 31.907421,-95.386040

Location: ​about 8 miles west of Jacksonville on US 79