In the village of Clementsport, Annapolis County, in the 1820s "a company was formed under the auspices of two American men, for the working of the valuable iron mines in the neighbourhood. Smelting furnaces were constructed and coalsheds and other buildings" necessary for their business were erected. "The beds of iron ore which they worked are situated to the southward of the village, and at a distance of about three miles five kilomteres from it." Moses Shaw (senior) of Clementsport was instrumental in setting up the Annapolis Iron Mining Company which was incorporated in 1826.
Iron ore was transported from the quarry along a railway built with maple rails, to the furnace at the mouth of the Moose River. Stoves and iron hollow-ware (pots, kettles, etc.) were cast in the foundry nearby. Power was provided from an undershot water wheel. Local farmers made charcoal and sold it to the company for use in the blast furnace. The dam wall and archway remain as part of our present-day (2000) road bridge.
The trip hammer used for crushing the ore can be seen at the parking lot by the bridge (the old village square). Many acres of land granted to Loyalist settlers in Clements Township only about forty years earlier, in 1784, along with ungranted land were bought and used for the mining of ore and manufacturing. L.V. Shaw, Moses Shaw's grandson, has written about this rather important and interesting episode in the history of Clements.
[Digby Courier, 14 June 2000]
The above was excerpted from a report in the Digby Courier of a meeting of the
Upper Clements Historical Society held on May 4th, 2000. The quotes are from
The History of the County of Annapolis, by W.A. Calnek, published in 1897.