Thomas Rutter I (c1660-1730) of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the Birth of the Pennsylvania Iron Industry PADutch Dettweiler

Dettweiler

Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong Counties

421 pages)

and Spangler

Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County

Thomas Rutter I (c1660-1730) of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the Birth of the Pennsylvania Iron Industry PADutch DettweilerThomas Rutter was an English Quaker and blacksmith who immigrated to Philadelphia in 1684. In 1714, he traveled up the Schuylkill River to Manatawny Creek and built Pennsylvania's first ironwork, a bloomery forge. Five years later, he converted his forge to a refinery forge and built Colebrook Dale Furnace, Pennsylvania's first cold blast furnace. When he blew the spark of life into it, the vast iron and steel industry of Pennsylvania was born.