Mabel Furnace

Ormsby Furnace

Mabel Furnace, owned by Perkins & Co., limited, have two stacks, each sixty-five feet high, and a bosh of fourteen feet. No. 1 was built in 1872 by J. W. Ormsby & Sons. No. 2 was built in 1880. Both were rebuilt in 1883. They use as fuel block coal and coke, and have an annual capacity of about 85,000 net tons of foundry and Bessemer pig iron. The management consists of Simon Perkins, Jr., chairman and manager; L. C. Hanna, secretary and treasurer. M. A. Hanna & Co., of Cleveland, are selling agents.

History of Mercer County, 1888, page 195

The Mable [Mabel] furnace was built in Sharpsville in 1873 by J. W. Ormsby and others and sold to Perkins and Co., and now owned by the Shenango Furnace Co.

Mabel: This furnace was formerly known as the Ormsby Furnace, being built by J. W. Ormsby and Sons. No. 1 was built in 1873 and No. 2 in 1880.

W. P. Snyder of Pittsburgh bought all three of them [Douglas, Mabel and Spearman Furnaces] and later incorporated the Shenango Furnace Company in 1906. Stack No. 1, which had been on the site of the Douglas, was torn down in 1970. Stack No. 4 was torn down in 1924. Stack No. 3 stands [in 1974] on the site of the old Spearman Furnace. At this moment it is doubtful if No. 3 will ever operate again. For the first time in over 125 years, Sharpsville will be without an operable blast furnace. 

Sharpsville Centennial Commemorative Booklet, 1974, page 28