Past Meeting
This Society meeting was held at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday April 21, 2024
at, and co-sponsored by, Tredffrin Public Libary in Strafford, Pa.
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Warwick's Buried Cannon
presented by Daniel A. Graham
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One of the cannon unearthed at Warwick Furnace in 2022.
One of the enduring legends about Warwick Furnace
is the Revolutionary War story about the buried cannon and the bell that was rung to call the neighbors to come and help bury them.
During the 1777 British advance on Philadelphia, cannon cast at Warwick were buried
in the fields next to French Creek, and the fields then flooded, to keep the cannon from falling into British hands. At the last moment, the British
turned east to invade Philadelphia and did not molest the furnace.
The buried cannon, all 18-pounders, were never dug up and laid there
for almost 100 years—unmentioned but not completely forgotten. Seven were dug up in 1875; five more were found in 1895, one in 1903,
and four in 2022. This is the story of how they were made, hidden and found once again.
Daniel A. Graham is an early Pennsylvania iron researcher and a Potts and Rutter family historian.
He has written more than 60 articles, papers and books on the iron industry in Berks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties,
and on Pottstown, Valley Forge and the Revolutionary War. He holds a B.S. from West Virginia University and an MPA
from George Washington University. He is retired and lives in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
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