Ryerson Family, 1807-1854?

Link to Ryerson wing photographs

The Forges & Manor of Ringwood were sold to Martin John Ryerson in 1807. Ryerson was already operating ironworks at Pompton Lakes. The Ryerson family operated the forge for many years and built the house that subsequently became Ringwood Manor. The following excerpt was taken from Ringwood Manor, Home of the Hewitts, by Edward Ringwood Hewitt, Trenton Printing Co., Inc., 1946.

It is not known whether he pulled down [the Erskine] house, or whether it burned, but we know that he built a new house about that time which was located behind the old site to the North. This building forms the west end of the present house.

Martin John Ryerson was most successful in his operation of the iron works, which at that time proved very profitable. There are orders extant for shot and shell made for the Army during the war of 1812. He passed away in 1832 and the property was inherited by his two sons. Jacob M. Ryerson lived in the Manor House at Ringwood, and ran the iron works. He does not seem to have inherited the business ability of his father, and allowed the workmen to overdraw their accounts at the Company store to such an extent that real money became very scarce at times, so he was obliged to issue paper money of his own, redeemable at the store in goods. My father had a number of these shin plasters at one time.

Even though the use of hot blast for the furnace was adopted, and the Morris Canal Company built the present dam at the foot of Greenwood Lake in his time, Jacob Ryerson failed to make the property pay, but got more and more deeply in debt until it was finally sold at Sheriff's sale to my grandfather, Peter Cooper, of New York, in 1853. The Ringwood furnace had been finally blown out in 1848, after having been operated 106 years.