IRONTON  , a

city and the county-seat of Lawrence county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, about 142 M . E.S.E. of Cincinnati . Pop . (1890) 10,939; (1900) 11,868, of whom 924 were negroes and 714 foreign-born; (1910 census) 13,147 . It is served by the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, the Norfolk and Western, and the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton railways, and by river steamboats . The city is built on a plain at the base of hills rising from the river bottom and abounding in iron ore and bituminous coal; fire and pottery clay also occur in the vicinity . Besides mining, Ironton has important lumber interests, considerable river traffic, and numerous manufactures, among which are iron, wire, nails, machinery, stoves, fire-brick, pressed brick, terra-cotta, cement, carriages and wagons, and furniture . The total value of its factory product in 1905 was $4,755,304; in 1900, $5,410,528 . The municipality owns and operates its water-works . Ironton was first settled in 1848, and in 1851 was incorporated .