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14
There they erected the Green Spring Iron Furnace and began manufacturing
pig iron, which was floated down the Potomac on rafts to Georgetown.
Shortly thereafter Johnson obtained a patent from Lord Baltimore for
7000 additional acres of mineral land in Frederick County which eventually
became his Catoctin Furnace property. Meanwhile, Johnson's brothers
had also included in their holdings property that either was or shortly
would become the Bush Creek Forge, the Johnson Furnace, the Potomac
Furnace, and the Bloomsbury Forge, all on or near the upper Potomac.
Consequently, it is not surprising that ~vihen, in response to the
"or)ening"of
the west in 1768, the Maryland Assembly passed "An Act to Prevent the
Obstruction of the Navigation of the River Patowmack," Thomas Johnson was
on the P.ssembly committee which had drafted the bill. Serving on that
same committee with Johnson was Thomas Cresap. The act required the
destruction of weirs, dams, and other nuisances to navigation. 21 With
renewed hope for clearing the Potomac, Johnson revived his efforts to
secure subscriptions to the 1762 plan.
Johnson now saw the improved Potomac as being not only an asset
to the colonies but also to Great Britain. He noted that England's
production of grain had fallen off in recent years and that the Maryland-
Virginia area was well-suited to provide the resulting deficiency.
Alluding to the lack of inland development in America, Johnson added that
"if the security and happiness of America is in the strength of Britain,
we had better forgo manufacturing for which we are not yet ripe and
21Delaplaine, Life of Thomas Johnson, pp. 12-36; Kilty, ed., Laws
of Maryland, May session, 1768, chapter 5; Votes and Proceedings of the
Maryland House of Deleqates, microfilm, in Records of the States of the
United States Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1949 , June 11, 1768.
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