City Directories and History: (Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Company; Swedish Iron Manufacturing Company) Coopersville is the largest surviving antebellum iron manufacturing complex in South Carolina. The complex includes foundations of four large factory buildings, with a system of canal/sluiceways between them, and the remains of three furnaces. The Coopersville Ironworks complex exhibits the most complete and intact set of features associated with the early iron industry in northwestern South Carolina. The Coopersville Ironworks and Susan Furnace were developed between 1835 and 1843 by the Nesbitt Iron Manufacturing Company, the largest iron company in South Carolina. The Nesbitt Company was dissolved in the late 1840s, and the Swedish Iron Manufacturing Company of South Carolina operated the ironworks from 1850 until the Civil War. The main factory complex of the Coopersville Ironworks Site is the best preserved factory complex of any of the nineteenth century iron manufacturing companies of the region. The outlying furnace, Susan Furnace, exhibits a partially collapsed furnace and associated features, including foundations, sluiceways, slag heaps, and adjacent ore pits. This site is the one of the best preserved furnace operations in the area with the only disturbance being an early twentieth century railroad bed which passes through the site along the route of the old tram road. Listed in the National Register November 13, 1976.
View the redacted text of the nomination form for this National Register property. In addition the Historic Resources of Early Ironworks of Northwestern South Carolina includes historical background information for this and other related National Register properties. (Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History)
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