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A Village Born Of Iron
"Trouble In The Ravine" (Part 7 Of 8)
Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, the American Civil War had formerly concluded. Now its tragic scar would commence revealing its profound horror for eventual inclusion in the history books.
A startling void now blanketed the West Point foundry, as if the impassioned flow of adrenaline was suddenly sapped from an emotional "high." Giant trip hammers would still pound with resounding authority. Ovens of scorching heat would continue piercing the stifling air. The stench of human sweat, intercoursed with caustically odorous oily leather belts turning the vast labyrinth of clamorous machines, would hang defiantly in the humid reaches of many shops. Yet, the factory’s emotional verve that had played so vital a role in its success, especially during the Civil War, had displayed signs of ebbing. Fevered deadlines concerning meeting federal military contracts for four years began lapsing into an uncommon lethargy. Noticeably diminished had become the tireless rushing and straining to feed a terribly cruel conflict. But there remained numerous contracts to be met regarding every imaginable kind of non-military manufacture for about another fifteen or so years. And although commitments to armament production still persisted, such was accomplished on not nearly the explosive schedule of war’s demand.
Robert Parrott dismissed himself from the foundry during 1867, turning his
full attention to the Greenwood Furnaces, across the Hudson in Orange County.
His sudden passing, on Christmas Eve, 1877, in Cold Spring, electrified the by then firmly established incorporated village, and more acutely, the West Point foundry. Gouverneur Kemble, just two years prior, had expired Sept., 1875, leaving in his wake an even greater imprint on not only his beloved iron dream, but on the community that loved him and accepted his presence as having been the major force behind Cold Spring’s having emerged into being. The expiration of these two local dynamos had ever so much to do with the eventual demise of the foundry---no longer could their presence, power and leadership be tapped as a restorative force in helping save the iron works in Cold Spring.
Once incredibly energetic, now tiring, the illustrious iron factory, around
1880, began laboring its every breath. The stock market panic in 1873 couldn’t have occurred at a worse time for the struggling plant. Relative to such fiscal uncertainty, federal orders for military demands from the plant commenced declining with ominous dispatch. Some years previous, the foundry, out of necessity, and for monetary frugality, had begun, for some while, importing coal from Pennsylvania while having its iron mined and smelted in that same state. Signs of faltering were exhibited more glaringly with this burdensome expenditure of import adding to the plant’s financial and psychological woes. Funding for retooling had become imperative to the foundry’s manufacturing newer products. Now, with much of its original tools and machinery deemed almost archaic, (having valiantly served a bygone era) new production equipment and methodology would have to be implemented if death of the foundry was to be postponed. Such retooling capital, at best, was becoming increasingly difficult to come by.
Receivership had placed its unwanted, though warranted countenance of last resort upon the proud factory, around 1884. Negotiations to preserve the foundry were doubtless lengthy and arduous, since so much was at stake. Businesses along Main St. would be first severely hit by expiration of the iron works. So ingrained had become the presence of the foundry in local business prosperity that irradication of the factory could only create fearful monetary havoc. Numerous families and deep friendships, reared from the onset of the foundry, now faced tearfully the inglorious tempest of being uprooted from home and fellowship to accomodate a search for employment elsewhere. And even if some families or friends chose riding out the storm while remaining in the village, yet working a distance away, the question had to be asked: could a deteriorating business climate sustain their needs? In the proverbial nutshell, survival of the heart and soul of Cold Spring was being placed in severest jeopardy with the disheartening prospect of the passing of a massive and extraordinarily enduring local industrial facility.
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