A production of: (Mary Long) Steel...the primary building material for modern society.

Life as we know it would be impossible without it.

Man was able to progress only after he gained a practical, working knowledge of metals.

This knowledge lifted him from the crude developments of the Stone Age, through the age of bronze, and into the production of iron, and from the fiery furnace came the future.

Today we would like to look at the man whose dreams and accomplishments not only created one of the first ironworks in the Carolinas, but he also helped create a nation from 13 fledgling colonies.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We're on Nanny's Mountain in York County, South Carolina, standing on an extremely rich vein of iron ore.

Even today, with the outcropping rocks, you can chip them away and find rich iron right on the surface.

Two hundred years ago these trenches were extremely active for many years.

In 1780 they were one of the most active iron mines in the Eastern Seaboard, and indeed, in what is now the state of South Carolina.

Men would chip away the rocks, pile them in carts, and take them to the furnace and the foundry where the iron would be made into useful objects for the farm and the home.

We would like to tell you about the man who made this possible.

You won't find his name in history books.

I doubt if you find his descendants on the board of U.S. Steel.

But he contributed tremendously to the growth of South Carolina.

A tremendous patriot, a wonderful gentleman, his name is William Hill.

[leaves crunching underfoot] [hammer striking rock] clack, clack, clack [leaves crunching underfoot] William Hill was born in Ireland in 1737.

His early years are still lost in the mists of history.

We know that he and his family immigrated to the colonies and that, later on, he married Miss Jane McCall.

We know that he bought 5,000 acres of land here in the New Acquisition, including this mountain.

Did he buy the land and discover the iron, or did he know that the ore was here?

This is yet to be determined.

However, there is a record that in 1760 th is area had a mineral survey, and the amount of iron was dutifully recorded.

William Hill was a tremendous man.

He was the owner of the property.

He built the furnace, the foundry, and the forge, based on Allison Creek, a mile and a half away.

This is Allison Creek, part of the 5,000 acres purchased by William Hill in 1762.

It's a very beautiful, peaceful spot.

He came to the frontier, cleared the land for his home and ironworks, and here he left a tremendous heritage of courage and independence.

Allison Creek is wider and deeper than it was due to backup waters from Lake Wylie, but it remains a very beautiful spot.

It's hard for us to imagine today the tremendous effort it took to create the ironworks and the plantation.

It's known that William Hill employed the men of the area with carts to help with bringing the ore down from Nanny's Mountain and also for the creation of the various types of manufacturing he had here.

We know that his home was across the creek in that general direction, and considering that he employed 92 slaves, somewhere there had to be fields and pastures so that food used by the people working here could be raised.

We were far from what they would then call civilization.

William Hill developed the furnace in which the iron ore was melted and the rock taken away.

The hot iron was released into the proper containers.

From there it was cast into cannon or large pots or whatever.

Others were made into bar iron, which were later reheated in the foundry and again cast or shaped at will.

Smaller pieces were sent to the forge, or as you and I would call it, the blacksmith's shop.

There was also a nail manufactory here, because nails were extremely important in the building of everything in this part of the Upstate Carolina.

Along with this he had sawmills to provide the wood needed for the various buildings, and he also had gristmills for the grinding of wheat and corn for the use of people.

This was, indeed, a village.

Isaac Hayne came to see the installation, was tremendously impressed by what William Hill had created.

The two gentlemen went into partnership, William Hill working here at the ironworks and across the creek on the plantation, and Isaac Hayne went to Charleston, from which he would sell the items which came downriver.

After the goods were made, they were sent by cart to Camden-- a six-day trip, three days each way-- and then down the river to Charleston where Hayne was the salesman for the works.

If you notice, the cannon and cannonballs were a very large item in the manufacturing done here.

To me it's extremely interesting that all of that was highly illegal.

The British had passed the Navigation Acts in 1752, making the manufacturing of any in strument of war very illegal.

Do you suppose we could consider William Hill to be an outlaw?

Be that as it may, the things that he constructed were greatly needed by people for 40, 50, 60 miles around.

They needed things for the home, for the farm, and as the clouds of war came over the colonies, his cannon, his musketry, and even beating the plowshare into the iron sword, which he literally did, was needed tremendously by the people of South Carolina.

The stones of this wall on which I'm sitting are part of the foundations of one of the original buildings, and the home in front of us is on the foundations of the furnace or the foundry.

This area was known to the people of the New Acquisition.

It was a logical place for gatherings when William Hill sent word to meet here because the British had a message for all the people of the New Acquisition.

The years between Yorktown and 1780 were dreadful for the Patriot Army.

In 1780 William Hill called men of the area here to talk with an emissary of Lord Rawdon, the British commander in South Carolina.

The emissary said that all of the Southern states had been completely neglected forever by the Congress of the new United States, and that George Washington was completely defeated.

William Hill had a newspaper from Virginia, and he said, "That is a lie!"

Consequently, the men of the area, with cheers and laughter, ran off the British.

But after Hill, Lacey, Bratton, and others had gone to join the forces under General Sumter, the British came again under Christian Huck.

They burned everything for which William Hill had worked.

They burned the ironworks, his home, the farm.

They stole away the 92 slaves.

They left Mrs. Hill without jewelry, with very little to live with in the only log hut which was standing.

When William Hill came back and found the desecration of everything for which he had worked, his heart became stronger for the Patriot cause.

He and others harassed the entire Loyalist forces throughout this area.

In one engagement it was necessary to burn a house holding several regiments of dragoons.

He ran four times over an open space of 100 yards.

At the end of the fourth run, his clothes had been shredded and even locks of hair clipped from his head by the flying bullets, but he was unscathed.

He was wounded at the Battle of Hanging Rock, and the rest of his military engagement had to be spent as leader and advisor.

With Colonel Lacey he led Patriot forces toward the defeat of Patrick Ferguson at Kings Mountain, 14 miles from here.

His leadership was tremendous.

Without him giving new heart-- and guns and ammunition-- to the Patriot cause, this entire area would have suffered a great deal more than it did.

Finally, the war ended.

Hill came home, and along with everyone else, there was much rejoicing over the years of peace.

That rejoicing is best expressed in a lovely prayer offered by John Moore from Rutherford County.

"Good Lord, our God in heaven, "we have reason to thank Thee for the battles we have won.

"There is the glorious Battle of Kings Mountain, "where we killed General Ferguson "and took his whole army, "and the great battle at Ramseur's and Williamson's, "and the glorious Battle of Cowpens, "where we made General Tarleton run down the road.

"Good Lord, if you had not suffered "the cruel Tories to burn Billy Hill's ironworks, we would not have asked any more favors at Thy hands."

Then came the years of peace.

He suffered the loss of his partner, Isaac Hayne, one of the last Patriots hanged by the British just before they left Charleston.

William Hill then did a most remarkable thing.

He completely rebuilt his ironworks, his home, and his farm.

He added another furnace to the era and the old furnace, which were here on this land.

Twelve miles away he built the Etna furnace with all of its accoutrements.

He never again was able to achieve the great wealth that he had prior to 1780, but he devoted his remaining years to the budding legislature of what is now the state of South Carolina and devoted time to his church.

He died in 16-- in 1816 at the age of 79, a very happy man.

Now I would like you to meet Wade Fairey, director of the York County Historical Commission in the Revolutionary home of William and Martha Bratton at Brattonsville, where we would like to look at artifacts which are similar to those made here at the William Hill ironworks.

It's very kind of you to gather these metal items so that we can see them today.

Were these made by William Hill?

(Wade Fairey) We don't have any of Hill's items in York County.

The ones found so far have been in Charleston, where his partner was working.

Two of the items found were firebacks, used not only to reflect heat into the room, but also to save the brick in the fireplace from deteriorating.

The other item is the small cannon on exhibit on the Battery in Charleston which has his foundry mark, denoting that he made it before the American Revolution.

It requires a foundry mark to authenticate the item?

That is correct.

He used three different marks in noting the items that he made.

This would be a sickle, but what is this?

That's an adze, Mary.

It's heavy.

They would've had, probably, about a three-foot handle.

It would have been used to smooth up logs when making a log house.

They didn't have sawmills.

They could use an ax and an adze to smooth up the logs with.

Are these house-building items?

Yes, they are also house-building items.

This one was used for boring holes.

Didn't have an electric drill in the 18th century.

They had to use manpower, and it works just as well as our electric drills.

This is one of my favorite items, the froe, used to split shingles for houses.

They couldn't buy ready-made shingles.

They would find a good source of oak and split out the shingles with the froe.

It's a very useful tool.

This iron appears different.

Was this the pig iron right from the furnace?

No, they would have worked this iron.

It would have probably been made into bar iron, and then a blacksmith or farmer who had a forge would make it into a froe or other implements that he would need.

Items such as the Dutch oven here would have been made out of cast iron, which would have come directly in molten form out of the furnace.

The Dutch oven is n't dissimilar from the ones today.

No, they're wonderful in 20th century as they were 200 years ago.

William Hill had a nail manufactory.

These are square nails without the head.

This would be necessary on the frontier.

That's correct.

These old houses do have a large amount of nails.

They had to have nails for the flooring, for the shingles.

Nails were very important in that period.

The cooking items here are fascinating.

We think barbecuing is one of our 20th-century inventions.

Here we have the barbecue spit, hangers from a long bar.

What was suspended... things such as this pot?

Right...you would use these S-hooks to adjust the height of the pots over your coals.

You don't actually cook on the flames, so it's important to be able to adjust your pots and pans.

And the iron skimmer.

What is this flat item here?

This is an item we found recently.

This is a griddle for making griddle cakes.

You could use this suspended from the S-hooks, or you could rake the coals onto the hearth and set it on that.

The ladies at that time were extremely strong.

I can't lift some of these pots... and don't you laugh!

Some of them are very heavy.

For instance, the waffle iron here-- Waffle iron?

Right, th e waffle iron.

They're fun to use ev en in 20th century, but they're very heavy.

Most of the schoolchildren here don't like to imagine even using them.

You would put the batter and enclose it and hold it over the flames?

You need to heat it up first, then put your dough in there.

You can ei ther let it heat just like griddles do today--or waffle irons, or you can put it back into the coals and just scrape off the burnt edges.

They're delicious!

Life 200 years ago, cooking-wise, except for modern conveniences, was not too different.

No.

Here is a rather roughly made candlestick, a metal container in a bar of wood; of course, your lovely pewter plates; and the lantern made of iron so that you could carry it.

Of all the iron implements we have here, this piece of ancient iron fascinates me the most.

It was found where the William Hill ironworks were, in the water of Allison Creek.

This is part of the old ironworks.

It was used for manufacturing more iron, and yet the iron itself came from ore from Nanny's Mountain.

I believe you told me what part of a machine this would be.

This was part of the gear that, perhaps, ran the bellows at the furnace.

From its shape we were able to find out that it was about 15 1/2 to 16 feet in circumference.

It was a very large gear th at helped run the mill.

It's a wonderful find.

Well, it's amazing to me that we are among the first people to see this after 200 years.

Very necessary in the growth of the Upcountry, the product of a man, William Hill, with a most remarkable mind, well-educated gentleman able to produce a huge industry working well over 200 people, completely destroyed by the British, and yet he fought through the campaigns to preserve his land and his family, built it all back... a remarkable gentleman.

Very much so.

I find him amazing!

I found a quote that I thought you would like.

He wrote this as he finished his memoirs in 1815.

"That the present generation "may copy the example of their forefathers "and make use of the means "which God and nature hath given them-- "and to hold that independence "purchased so dearly by their fathers, "and have a proper trust in that Power who governs the affairs of nations."

He was a most remarkable man, this forgotten Patriot, Colonel William Hill.

[no audio] (Long) History is composed of stories about people.

In the cemetery of the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church in York County, we find a memorial to a beautiful lady because a promise was kept.

We are here at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, the site of one of the oldest churches in upper South Carolina.

Here, surrounded by a low rock wall, is the churchyard.

Many, many people have their final resting place here.

I attended a meeting at the church once, and it required 40 minutes to complete the roll call of the veterans within this area, veterans who fought in every war in which our country has been engaged.

Their descendants today are influential and important members of our community.

They were involved in the issues of their lifetime, so it's perfectly all right that one border of the cemetery is a very busy highway.

One of the most colorful and interesting people who rest here is Mary America Avery Toland.

♪ This is the family plot of the Avery family.

Their home stood just several hundred yards east of here.

Mary America Avery was born in 1832.

She spent her early life here in Ebenezer as any girl would and grew to be the most beautiful girl in the state of South Carolina.

The most important social event of the year was the State Ball held in Columbia at the Statehouse.

When she was 20, she was the belle of the ball, attracted the eye of many a gentleman.

Dr. Hugh, or Huger, Toland fell in love at first sight.

She and Dr. Toland were married.

In 1852 the idea of "Go west, young man," was very important to a lot of people, and Dr. Toland had a great desire to see the Pacific coast.

Mary America was not a very strong girl, and her mother agreed that a change from the heat and humidity of South Carolina might improve her health.

Shortly after they were married, Mary America and Dr. Toland set forth for California.

They had a very well-appointed caravan.

Her brother went with them.

Among her possessions was a pair of silver-mounted pistols given to her in case she needed them.

With every comfort that could be provided, it still took six months for the caravan of Conestoga wagons or whatever to make the trip from Ebenezerville to California.

Their final destination was near San Francisco.

Without their knowing it, this very young town of mud, crudely erected huts, lots of tents, was under an epidemic of cholera.

Very shortly after they arrived, Mary America contracted cholera and died.

Dr. Toland was heartbroken.

He had her body preserved in a leaden casket.

He had to go about his own life, which was very productive.

He founded the Toland School of Medicine in San Francisco.

Later he married a lovely lady who was a writer, and their son became an actor.

Dr. Toland kept the casket with the body of Mary America Avery-- some say in his office-- for 25 years, until he felt it was time to send her back to Ebenezer.

Before they had left here on their journey west, she had promised her mother that if anything happened, she wanted to come back to Ebenezer Presbyterian Church for her final resting place.

Here the stories vary.

One says that Dr. Toland had her body placed in seven coffins, one inside the other.

Life having progressed in 25 years, by railroad the casket-- or caskets-- was brought back to York, where it was placed upon a wagon, brought to the Ebenezer Cemetery, and there Mary America Avery Toland was buried in the family plot.

You can see her grave marker slightly to the west of the family marker in the grove of cedar trees.

Mary America lived in the time of the very gracious ball gown, swaying as young ladies waltzed with the gentlemen.

She must have been a truly beautiful girl, and as such she's been remembered for well over 130 years.

On her grave marker we have the note reminding us of her beauty... A very short life for a beautiful girl.

She loved her husband very much, enough to go with him across the continent.

As you think about the long trip, do you suppose Mary America Avery Toland ever had to use her silver-mounted pistols?

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