In 1791 Samuel Miles and John Patton, two Revolutionary War officers from south-eastern Pennsylvania, established Centre Furnace in the iron-ore rich Nittany Valley. A self-sufficient community developed around the ironmaking operation, with the furnace and ironmaster's mansion at its center. Approximately fifty years later two local men, General James Irvin and Moses Thompson, took over the ownership and operation of Centre Furnace until it shut down in 1858.