Throughout the years, others passing Horseshoe Bend on dreary nights saw the ghostly figure of a man with a length of stovepipe in place of his head. As each of these people shared their otherworldly encounter, the legend of Stovepipe was born.
William A. Young, a descendant of two established families of Washington and Greene counties, purchased a plot of land in Rices Landing in 1900. The following year his mother, Rachel A. Young, bought the adjoining lot and sold it to her son in 1902. William Young built his foundry and machine shop on these two parcels of land and operated the facility until his death in 1940. Young’s sons, Walter and Carl, carried on the operation until 1965.