Henry W. Shoemaker

“ Let us follow in history’s paths, marking the worthy footsteps of our predecessors where they have builded wisely, and always conforming to local color, local traditions, local pride, so that we may in our turn re-enact the splendid chain of destiny from redmen to pioneers, from farms, furnaces and mills, down to the great day of this locality when State College shall have realized the ideal of her founders, as the foremost inland school of learning. ”

“ It is not battlegrounds alone that will tell the history of our people in the years to come, but the landmarks of domestic activity, commerce and manufactures. It is fitting that an important stage in the industrial development of Pennsylvania, like the charcoal iron furnaces should be marked. Every one of them, as far as known, should be as adequately commemorated as is this one here today. It is astonishing how little is known concerning the charcoal iron industry, which is only now going out of existence. ”

“ Surely this great novel of Pennsylvania will take its plot from the lives of our early Ironmasters, or in some sketch of Indian forays along the Blue Mountains of Berks County during the French and Indian War. If marking these old furnaces begets the great novel, then those devoted souls concerned in marking this historic spot today have builded better than they knew. It will serve as a landmark to link the earlier days of this part of Centre County, with its busy, teeming present, the great intense life of State College, and the industry of the olden times. They have one point in common. ”