In 1940 Henry Beck was again visiting Martha Furnace with John Gill who was a Haddonfield naturalist, and they discovered that someone had found the 500 pound cupola of the forge at Martha. The jersey Bog iron was laying by the raceway where it had been dragged waiting for someone to return and remove it. Keep in mind this property was at this time owned by the Wharton Estate.
In the article below from April 1940, "Jersey Industry" is mentioned which is a publication that the newspaper apparently prints occasionally.
Edited:
Bog Iron Bar Shows Name Of Old Forge
Jersey Industry Seizes Rare Find at Martha Furnace
Acting to rescue for NJ what may prove one of the most valuable finds linked with an industrial era that is almost forgotten, Jersey Industry tuned archaeologist this week, taking possession of a 500 pound bar of bog iron, at least a century old.
Not only is it an authentic bar of Jersey's own iron of the forge and furnace days but it is a relic plainly stamped with the name of the forge village that produced it --- Martha.
State Notified of Find
At the time Beck notified the Department of Conservation and Development of the discovery, urging the department to make arrangements to perhaps be placed in the state museum. The department, it was understood, was proceeding along unorthodox channels, contacting the Wharton estate. It was further assumed that the bar had been obtained and that an announcement would be made that it had been placed on exhibit in a setting it deserves.
This week however, Beck found the bar still there, moved by the same or new marauders several feet nearer the old raceway, where an obvious attempt had been made to hurl it to the bottom in several feet of murky water. Perhaps it was someone's plan to hide it and salvage it later on.
Thus Jersey Industry acted on the principle that possession is nine points of the law, at the same time announcing the bar from Martha is in safe keeping until such time as all the red tape has been cut.Sheltered from the weather of the woods and protected from the miscreants who through more than a century have stolen and sold some of the best relics of early industry, the bar will be held pending new developments.Unquestionably, a product of Martha Furnace belongs in the state museum.
Beck recalled that less than ten years ago two large stone wheels of grist mill were half buried in a hole near the lake, formed by the dammed Oswego River, at Martha. A short time later, it was discovered, the wheels were stolen. A sawmill was built by Jonathan Hough at Martha in 1758.
The Jonathan Hough stone
View attachment 11197
Tradition says that a mile above the furnace there was a brickyard which unquestionably yielded the bricks that lie today under overgrown trees and layers of moss in the wreck of the cupola. Over the doorway there was once an iron plate, probably a furnace product, bearing the inscription, "Issac Potts, 1793." This vanished long ago. Authorities have said that two trip hammer heads, weighing hundred's of pounds, were removed and sold for scrap iron during the Spanish-American war.
Obviously so tangible a remembrance of an industry so important, a village furnace so outstanding and an owner so celebrated deserves a better setting than a clearing in the woods or the yard of a junk dealer.
One month later in late May 1940 this is published. Edited:
Relic of Martha Furnace Awaits Owner's Intention
Several weeks ago, after Jersey Industry had assumed charge of a 500-pound ingot of NJ iron, announcement was made that the "protective custody" would be terminated when assurance was given that the relic would attain its proper place.
The NJ State Museum was suggested and copies of the article were forwarded the museum, the Department of Conservation and persons believed interested.
Two weeks ago the overseer of this section of the Wharton Estate said that the estate had brought Jersey Industry's action to his attention. Following that, counsel for the newspaper revealed that a representative of the Girard Trust Company, trustees for the estate, had conferred with him.
Upon insistence of the Wharton Estate through the trustee, the Girard Trust company, the ingot from Martha is about to be returned to the estate overseer. Jersey Industry hopes it is not going back to rust in the woods. Jersey Industry can do no more than hope.The legal owners of this relic have divulged no information as to its ultimate destination.
The question is, where exactly is this relic???
