John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 172

Continuing with the errors in a recently published article, the statement is made,

"It is also no coincidence that Alexander Spotswood of Virginia had discovered iron ore lying about the ground in the Rapidan River area of Orange County at Germanna.  It ran as ribbons of volcanic flow, which made it much easier to mine than the deep shaft mining of the Siegen area..... Spotswood was eager to obtain miners to begin his operation."

First, there is no evidence that Spotswood ever discovered any iron ore.  That there was a good quality iron ore in Virginia was public knowledge at least twenty years before Jamestown was settled in 1607.  A complete iron furnace employing hundreds of people was completed in 1622 on the general site where Richmond is now located.  Before Spotswood got off the boat in 1710, he well could have been aware there was iron in Virginia.  Certainly people in Virginia were aware there was iron ore.  One person who knew was William Byrd, who owned land in the vicinity of where the 1622 furnace had been built.  He immediately told Spotswood about this ore and offered to yield up his claim to it if it could be developed and he could have a job in the running of the operation.  Spotswood put forth a couple of proposals for the development of an iron industry by the colony and by the Queen herself.  Nothing came from these.

After a couple of years, Spotswood's attention was focused on a potential silver mine of 3000 acres which was located in modern Orange Co., about four miles from where the future Fort Germanna was built.  It probably was no coincidence that Graffenried was also interested in silver.  When the owners of this projected silver mine were disclosed in 1713, the owners included Spotswood for a one quarter interest and Graffenried for a one sixteenth interest.  Also the Earl of Orkney, Spotswood's boss in England, was in for a one sixteenth interest.  Several Virginians were in for a share also.

At no time did Spotswood recruit miners for this projected silver mine or for an iron mine.  The Nassau-Siegen people were recruited by agents for Graffenried on behalf of the George Ritter Company and Graffenried to mine silver in the Shenandoah Valley.  This operation went bankrupt and left the Nassau-Siegen people stranded in London.  Col. Blakiston knew that Spotswood had hopes for the silver mine, but Spotswood was not recruiting people for this yet.  Col. Blakiston bet that the potential problems could be resolved and committed Spotswood to paying something over one-half toward the transportation costs of the people.  The Germans paid the other part themselves.  Though the decision had not been Spotswood's, he did pay the balance due on the transportation costs.  He settled them in Fort Germanna about four miles from the projected silver mine.  At this time, it strongly appears that he had no specific knowledge of any iron ore.  In fact, when the ore was eventually found, it was thirteen miles from Germanna.  This shows that Germanna was located, not on the basis of any iron ore location, but by the location of the projected silver mine.

By 1716, Spotswood was writing to London that the Germans had done no work for him.  He had not allowed them to develop the projected silver mine, nor to work on any iron project.  In fact, he did not let them start a search for iron, according to his own words, until about 1717.

If Spotswood had found iron ores before the Germans came, it would seem that he would have located them near to the ore, not thirteen miles away.  This distance alone shows that he did not have any proven iron ore mine before the miners came.  For two years they did nothing for him.  During 1717 and 1718, they searched for ore and the search took them thirteen miles from Germanna.  When found, these ores were on the Rappahannock River and not on the Rapidan River which is a few miles from the Rappahannock proper.