The
Douglas Furnaces.
In 1869 Jonas J. Pierce purchased
fifty acres of land on the southwest suburb of Sharpsville, on the line
of the Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad. In 1870 the firm of Pierce &
Kelly was organized, and furnace No. 1 built, with a stack fifty feet
high and an eleven-foot bosh, and put in blast in March, 1871.
The following year (1872) Gen. Pierce and
son, Wallace, obtained an interest in the
firm, which then became Pierce, Kelly & Co.
Furnace No. 2 was erected the same year, the stack being sixty
feet high and fifteen-foot bosh, and blown in February, 1873.
In 1879 No. 1 was rebuilt and enlarged to a fifteen-foot bosh and
sixty-foot stack, and in 1881 No. 2 was likewise enlarged. The Douglas
was the pioneer of the upper furnaces. Bessemer, foundry and forge pig
metal are the products. The individual members of the firm are Jonas
J. Pierce, George D. Kelly and Wallace
Pierce, with Mr. Kelly as general manager.
History
of Mercer County,
1888, pages 194-195
The
Douglas furnaces
(two stacks) were built in Sharpsville in 1870 by J.
J. Pierce, Wallace Pierce and G. D. Kelly,
who sold out to the Shenango Furnace Co., who have torn down the two
stacks and rebuilt one modern stack with arrangements for one other
stack, making the plant the most modern in the state.
Twentieth
Century History of Mercer County,
1909, page 357
