Parrott, Peter P.

PETER P. PARROTT.

Mr. Parrott is a native of New Hampshire, having been born in Portsmouth. During the year 1837 he removed to Orange County and located at Woodbury, in the township of Monroe, where he assumed the management of the interests of the Woodbury Iron Company. The following year he became identified with the charcoal furnace located at Greenwood) in the same township, having removed to the latter place, and managed successfully the business of both enterprises. The Greenwood property was at this time in the hands of individuals with whom Mr. Parrott became soon after associated as joint proprietor. In 1853, in connection with his brother, Robert P. Parrott, he constructed the present anthracite furnace, and eventually became its sole owner. He continued in this relation until his sons were recently admitted to a partnership, under the style of The Parrott Iron Company. The ores of this immediate section are superior in quality, and embrace the Warwick, Bull, Hogencamp, Mount Bashan, O’Neil, and other mines. Of these, the O’Neil mine, owned by Mr. Parrott, has yielded the main supply, and been successfully worked for a period of fifty years. The capacity .of the anthracite furnace is 200 tons per week, which is principally used in the manufacture of hardware and stove- plates. An important branch of industry in connection with this enterprise is the manufacture of mineral wool or silicate cotton. This is produced from the vitreous molten earthy refuse called slag while the latter is yet in a liquid condition. Steam or air- jets are blown with strong pressure through small streams of the slag, converting the latter into a continuous spray of red- hot filaments, which are intermixed with small particles of chilled slag in the form of globules or shot. By means of air- drafts and subdivisions of the receiving chambers different grades of wool are obtained, which are pressed in bags and boxes to a consistency which will prevent its further settling when in use. This material has been proved a perfect non-conductor between heat and cold, and has found a ready market.

This apparent digression in the biographical sketch of Mr. Parrott will doubtless convey an accurate idea of the successful career which he has achieved; not as the result of promising beginnings and ample capital, but wholly as the reward of energy and business capacity. He may in the largest sense be identified with the self-made men of the county of Orange. Mr. Parrott, though not ambitious for public distinction, is ever found associated with the best interests of his village and township, Greenwood being substantially a hamlet founded and nurtured by himself. In politics Mr. Parrott is a Republican. His religious predilections are in harmony with the tenets of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Together with his brother he erected St. John’s Episcopal church at Greenwood, and also donated land for the building of a Roman Catholic house of worship. Mr. Parrott was in 1843 united in marriage to Miss Mary, daughter of Richard D. Arden, Esq., of Phillipstown, Putman Co., N.Y., to whom eight children were born.