Peter Hasenclever, 1762-1764

Hasenclever is not remembered for the length of his tenure at the Forges & Manor of Ringwood (about two years) but because he built prodigiously and wrote a book about it, thereby leaving a historical account of his efforts.

The following excerpt was taken from Ringwood Manor, Home of the Hewitts, by Edward Ringwood Hewitt, Trenton Printing Co., Inc., 1946.

The Ogden advertisement of the Ringwood property immediately appealed to Peter Hasenclever and he purchased the property at once. This was the beginning of an extraordinary development for those times. He states he found the Ringwood furnace in bad condition, with the blowing machinery in poor shape. He at once set about getting the enterprise on its feet with surprising energy. In his published book he states that he built at Ringwood � 1 furnace 4 forges and 11 fires; 1 stamping mill; 5 coal houses; 3 blacksmith shops; 17 frame houses with bricks; 4 square log houses; 3 stone houses; 1 store house; 25 colliers' houses; 1 sawmill; 1 grist mill; 1 horse stable; 1 carpenter's shop; 4 barracks and barns; 1 reservoir; 4 ponds; 2 bridges�It seems incredible that such an amount of work could have been done in the short space of under two years. At the same time he reports that he purchased 122 horses, 214 draft oxen, 51 cows, and a vast number of tools. He opened and examined 53 different iron mines. Is it any wonder that he expended 54,000 Pounds instead of 40,000 and that he became over-extended and unable to carry on?

His work did, however, establish Ringwood as the most complete economic unit in America at that time. One of his contributions was the construction of a dam across the end of Tuxedo Lake, 860 feet long and 12 to 22 feet high, in order to run the water from the lake down to Ringwood so that there would be enough water to run the waterwheel at the furnace for driving the blast at all times. The water from the lake was led by a ditch from the south end of the lake into a brook flowing into the Ringwood River. This ditch can still be seen to the East of the wagon road near the south gate of Tuxedo Park. Water flowed to the Ringwood River in this way for over one hundred years before it again reached Ramapo, as it does now.