Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 29, 1994 TAG: 9403290047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SHELORS MILL LENGTH: Medium
It's been 20 years or more, but there are some things that just can't be forgotten, or forgiven.
As the story goes, some highway workers repairing a washed-out bridge in this southeastern Floyd County community needed some big rocks. Nearby stood an old stone furnace, so they pried the top corners off, dragged the rocks down the creek and fixed the bridge.
But that was no ordinary furnace. That was the Shelor furnace, built at least 150 years ago and perhaps the first industrial iron smelter in Southwest Virginia.
"I mean, we were sick that the VDOT did that," Nola Albert said, shaking her head. "Wouldn't it have been pretty if they hadn't done it?"
Nonetheless, it's still an impressive structure - 20 feet tall and 25 feet square at the base. Some of the rocks weigh more than a ton.
Albert is a descendant of Capt. Daniel Shelor, a veteran of the Revolutionary War who owned this land and the iron mines up on the hill. The captain built a furnace about 1790 to process the ore, but it's unclear whether the one standing today was his or is another one built later.
Shelor made his fortune making cooking vessels, strengthened by the copper alloy in the iron. It's said he would throw the pots into the streets to demonstrate their durability.
He was called away to fight in the War of 1812 and could not revive the once-thriving industry when he returned. Robert Toncray bought the land in the early 1850s and made a go of it, until he lost all his wealth in 1861.
The history of the mine and furnace is sketchy for the next several decades, but in 1905, a New York City investment company took over the business. Quite a stir was created when a massive boiler was brought in to modernize the operation. It took one week and 12 yoke of oxen to pull the boiler from Christiansburg. All along the way, people turned out to view the spectacle.
The industry shut down for good during the mid-1940s, and the land passed from owner to owner.
In 1990, Shelor's descendants formed the Captain Daniel Shelor Furnace Memorial Inc. and bought the land back.
"We were getting old and started having family reunions and needed some project to do," Albert said. They decided to update the family genealogy, clean up the family cemetery and buy the furnace.
Last year, about 150 Shelor relatives had a morning meditation at the furnace in the first reunion on the property. They plan to have more and build some trails, campgrounds and cabins for the growing clan.
The family corporate members have debated restoring the furnace. One thing they have decided, Albert said, is not to take the bridge apart, because they probably couldn't put the rocks back in their exact places.
by CNB