Thomas Bird Coleman (1794-1836)
Owner of the Cornwall Furnace, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania
His father died in 1825 and left the Cornwall Furnace to his three older brothers, William, James and Edward. Thomas - and his three brothers - all then received a further quarter share in their father's ore mines. In 1825, they built a roasting oven (to roast the iron ore before burning off the sulfur) next to the coal-house. Soon afterwards, William and Edward sold ownership of all of their iron properties to James and Thomas, and when James died in 1831, Thomas became sole owner of all of the family's ironworks. After he died in 1836, his brothers William and Edward stepped in to keep the furnaces going for his two young sons who would take control on reaching adulthood.
