At a later period, about the year 1801 to 1804, during the operation of the forge by Mr. Brown, he used some ore, mixing it with pig iron brought from Salisbury, Ct., and turned out excellent wrought iron. This was called refining. The business was superintended by Edward Witherell, practical iron maker. The wrought iron business at this time paid well, from the fact that the product commanded $140 per ton. Subsequently these works passed into the hands of a Mr. Sprague, who undertook to make iron from the ore; but owing either to the poor quality of the material, which was hauled in the winter, or a decline in the price of the product, or some depressing cause, it entirely failed.

The town in its history can boast of having had three trip-hammer shops. The first opened was that of Joseph Darby’s, on the road to the notch, and which has been described on a previous page of this work. The next was erected about the year 1800, on the site of what was afterward the Cupola furnace, on or near the present site of the Freeman Print Works. About 1828 Giles Tinker had a trip-hammer shop near his machine shop, occupying the present site of Hodges’ grist mill.

About 1817 Loring Darby of this village and Buel Norton of Bennington fitted up for a cupola furnace the building which had previously been erected for a trip-hammer shop, on or near the site of the Freeman Print Works. The building was afterward used in connection with the print works under Caleb Turner.

Darby & Norton made iron castings for mill gearing and machinery, and sold the same from six to eight cents per pound. Iron machinery was then coming into more eneral use, from the increased skill in its construction and the development of cotton and woolen manufacturing, as confidence began to revive from the effects of the then late war with Great Britain.

Machine parts were made of foreign goods in order to break down our infant efforts at home manufacture. In consequence of this American industry was paralyzed to some extent for a certain period.

But very few stoves were then in use, or even manufactured, and these were principally cooking stoves of inconvenient and clumsy shape. Some kinds were made at the cupola furnace of Darby & Norton, such as box stoves and cooking stoves, nearly square, with two ovens, one above the other, and boiler holes on top. The plates were very thick, and held together by rods and nuts. This cupola furnace, after being in operation a short time, stopped — it did not pay. Scarcely any branch of manufacturing was permanently profitable then. Capital, labor-saving machinery and ease of transportation were all lacking, and the factory kings of Great Britain spared no effort to crush our republican enterprises. They were aided in this scheme by narrow-minded legislators, its they have often been in more recent days.

About 1826 Otis Hodge, Jr., purchased the above premises, and, in connection with William E. Brayton, carried on an extensive business for some two years in the manufacture of machine and plow castings — the latter of which was rapidly coming into use. The aggregate value of the castings made the last year was about *5000. The real estate was soon purchased by Caleb B. Turner.

The first regular machine shop in this village, and probably the first in the county, was started by Giles Tinker in 1811, in a portion of what was known as the “old yellow building,” which stood at about the centre of the Davenport block, on the south side of Main street. This building-was enlarged by Mr. Tinker three different times. Here all the machinery for the old brick factory was made. Mr. Tinker continued the business for several years in this shop, doing his own forging and brass casting. Most of the machinery was of wood, and the iron work was wrought instead of cast. Loring Darby was foreman of the shop for many years. In 1825 the business had become so extended and the need of water so great that Mr. Tinker purchased of Captain Colgrove a lot and mill privilege near the Main street bridge. In 1828 Mr. Tinker erected a brick building for preparing his own castings. It stood east of and near his machine shop, on the present site of Hodges’ grist mill.

After Mr. Tinker’s decease, in 1832, Alanson Cady and Loring Darby, both practical machinists, hired the furnace and machine shop and carried on the same. Afterwards Mr. Cady rented the furnace alone, and made castings. It was also hired and run four years by William Hodgkins. Finally the whole property came into the hands of James E. Marshall. In 1847 the furnace building was taken down.

Caleb B. Turner (afterward Turner & Laflin) in 1831 commenced a machine shop in the building known as the Gould mill,