USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume I > Part 30
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Again quoting from the very valuable treatise of Dr. Smith on "The Iron Ore of Alabama", to which the writer is indebted for much interest- ing information, "the old catalan forges in Alabama were set up where good water power and easily reducible ores were to be found in close proximity. We find them, therefore, in north Alabama along the foot of the escarpment of coal measures, using the rich limonites of the sub-car- boniferous formation of Russell's valley ; and in middle Alabama amongst the mountains of the Coosa valley, using mostly the limonities of the silurian dolomite; and in the defiles along the borders of the anticlinal valleys where the lower silurian limonities likewise served as ores." The blast furnaces, having, from their great productiveness, to consider chiefly the means of transportation, were located along the lines of rail- way or on the banks of some navigable river. The earliest constructed in Alabama were located on the line of the Selma, Rome & Dalton rail- road and upon the Coosa river, at Round mountain and Cornwall, where the red ores of the ridges at the foot of Lookout mountains were used. The ores along the railroads were the limonites of the dolomite. At first, charcoal was used for fuel, but when the Alabama Great Southern and the Northern Alabama railroads were opened up, bringing into view in- exhaustible supplies of coal, charcoal was soon replaced by coke as fuel. Although charcoal iron is still produced in the state, and some of the furnaces using this fuel have in late years doubled their capacity, yet the bulk of the iron product of Alabama must come from the furnaces using coke. For this reason, Dr. Smith concludes that the red and brown ores of the silurian formation must, for years to come, supply the material for the greater portion, if not all, the iron produced in Alabama. He classes, in the order of their relative importance in the production of iron, the
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INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS.
iron ores of Alabama as follows: "1st. The limonites of the dolomite and the fossiliferous red ores of the Clinton group of the silurian forma- tion. 2d. The limonites of the sub-carboniferous, metamorphic and Tuscaloosa formation. 3d. The magnetites of the metamorphic region and the carbonates of the coal measures. The ores of the third named class are as yet without commercial value. Those of the second class are not now worked, but have been used in the past in both forges and furnaces, and will sometime again be mined. At the present time the ores of the silurian formation monopolize the attention of iron miners.
The wonderful developement in iron mining in Alabama can better be realized by comparison with the iron products of other states. In the year 1850, among the twenty-one states in which iron was then produced, Alabama ranked nineteenth. In 1860 she advanced to the fifteenth place. In the next decade-1870-she dropped to the sixteenth place. Ten years later, 1880, she advanced to the seventh place among iron producing states. In that year her product was 171,139 long tons. In 1889 she bounded to the second rank among the states 171,139 in product, passing Penn- sylvania, and being second only to Michigan. The ore produced in Ala- bama in 1889 was as follows: Brown hematite, 379,334 long tons; red hematite, 1,190,985; total production, 1,570,319 tons, an increase of 1,399,180 tons-more than 800 per centum. The iron production in the United States in 1889 shows a total increase over 1880 of about 100 per cent. It appears that no carbonate or magnetite ores were mined in Alabama either in 1880 or 1889. There were forty-five mines in actual operation in the state in 1889, and the value of the product was $1.511,611, equal to 0.96 per long ton. The amount actually realized for the product in that year is given as $1,457,314. The lowest average value given for iron ore in any of the states is that of Alabama, and the reason. assigned, by the superintendent of the census, is that "new but liberal under-ground explorations of limited depth, or large open workings and facilities of mining, due to the character and location of the ore deposits, contribute to place the value of iron at the mines at a low figure." It is doubtless due to the location of these mines that iron ore is produced in Alabama at so low a cost as to enable the miner to sell so cheaply and yet. realize a profit on his work. The average product in long tons for iron ore mining operations in 1889 were, in Alabama, 34,896, while the average
Nearly all in the United States was only 24,529 per mining operation. the ore produced in the state was used in the blast furnaces in operation in Alabama, and the average pig iron producing value of these ores is given at forty-six per cent., the range being from 30.5 to 51.6 per cent. of iron. Reports from Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Texas, Oregon, Virginia and Pennsylvania show a lower average from native ores; Kentucky is about the same; while Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin and New York show a larger average value than the Alabama ores.
252
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
The amount of capital invested in mining iron in Alabama in 1890 is estimated at $5, 244, 906, distributed as follows: Invested in lands $4,258, 465; in buildings and fixtures, $306,713; in tools, implements, live stock, machin- ery, etc., $382,548; cash and stock on hand, $297,000. The total capital invested in 1880 was $536,442, showing the great increase in ten years of $4,708,484-over 800 per cent. The average expenditure for labor in operating the iron mines in Alabama in 1889 was $0.69 per ton, the lowest in the union, while the average in the United States was $1.06 per ton. The only states approximating Alabama in this respect were Georgia and North Carolina. The number of employes at the iron ore mines in Alabama in 1889 is given as follows:
EMPLOYEES ABOVE GROUND.
Capacity.
Number.
Average wages per day. $2.40
Average number of days worked.
Foremen and overseers .
54
259
Mechanics.
79
1.94
241
Laborers
1,533
1.20
228
Boys under 16 years
96
0.53
236
EMPLOYEES BELOW GROUND.
Foremen and overseers ..
8
2.95
274
Miners
598
1.92
245
Laborers.
706
1.47
256
Boys under 16 years ... . . .
7
0.67
116
Total number of employees above ground
1,762
Total number of employees below ground.
1,319
3,081 Total number of employees above and below ground Total amount of wages to employees above and below ground. .$995,222
In the number of employees engaged in the work of mining iron ore Alabama ranks fourth among the iron producing states of the Union. In the table of output per employee, Alabama ranks first-her production being an average of 509.68 tons of ore per man. Next to Alabama is Minnesota, with an average output of 492.60 tons per employee. The amount expended for supplies and materials in Alabama in 1889 was but eight cents per ton, while in Michigan it was forty-one cents; in New York forty-six cents, and in New Jersey seventy-six cents per ton. In the total cost of producing iron ore, Alabama easily ranks first in cheapness of production, and is the only state in which the cost per ton is less than one dollar. The cost of producing iron ore in Alabama in 1889 was only eighty-two cents per ton. Next comes Texas, with ore costing $1.05; next Tennessee, cost $1.08; next Pennsylvania, cost $1.10; next Georgia, and North Carolina, cost $1.14. The highest was in Colorado, where the cost of producing iron ore reaches the large figure of $3.49 per ton. The ex- penditures of all iron ore mines in Alabama in 1889 were as follows: For officeforce, with forty-one employees, $37,170; total other employees, 3,122, costing $1,032,392; total value of supplies and material of all kinds during 1889, $128,924; total of all expenditures for the mines or works, $38,680; total mining expenditures, not including contract work, $1,199, 966: amount paid for contract work in 1889, $87,322; grand total of expendi- ture, $1,287,318. For working the iron ore mines of Alabama only a small number of steam-boilers and engines are required, for the reason
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INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS.
that much of the ore is obtained from open cuts or from new explorations. The power used in Alabama in 1889 was: steam-boilers, 46; horse- power, 1,971; steam-engines, 40; animals used, 283. The extraordinary ad- vantages of the mineral region of Alabama in the location of its mines of iron ore, in the facilities for working them; the comparative cheapness per ton for labor; in its abundant and inexhaustible supplies of coal, will soon place this state in the lead of iron producing states, both for amount of production and the cheapness with which its ores are mined.
Comparatively little iron was manufactured in Alabama before the war. Some small furnaces were established in Shelby and Bibb counties. The Briarfield iron works, at Briarfield, Bibb county, were in active oper- ation during the war, but were under the charge of officers of the confed- erate army and were run exclusively for the benefit of the southern con- federacy. They were remodeled and enlarged after the war and a nail factory was added to the works, but they have only been operated at intervals. The late Senator Plumb, of Kansas, was largely interested in these works at the time of his death. In an appendix to the geological report, for 1875, of Dr. Eugene A. Smith, is a list of the iron plants then in existence in this state. There were twelve in all, but not all of these were in operation, and compared with the furnaces of to-day they were small affairs. The Alabama furnace, located on the Selma, Rome & Dal-
ton railroad, was started October 1st, 1873. It had but one stack, which was forty-one feet high. The yield was from twenty to twenty-two tons.
of foundry iron per day. The fuel used was charcoal; the ore, brown hematite. The ore beds were only about one-fourth of a mile from the
furnace. Limestone was found at about the same distance. . The Tecum- seh Iron company's furnace was put in blast February 18, 1874. It is located on the Selma, Rome & Dalton railroad-in Cherokee county. Wil- lard Warner, sometime senator from Alabama in the United States senate, was for many years the president and general manager of the company. The capacity of the furnace was twenty tons per day; the product was hot. blast charcoal pig iron. The ore used was brown hematite from beds close by the furnace. Limestone was plentiful within a quarter of a mile from the furnace. The fuel was charcoal manufactured in bee-hive ovens, which yield about fifty bushels of coal to the cord of wood. The Stone- wall Iron company had a charcoal furnace, with a capacity of eigliteen tons per day. These works were also on the Selma, Rome & Dalton rail- road, in Cherokee county-only three or four miles from the Georgia line. The ore beds were near the furnace. The ore was brown hematite. The power was steam, and the engine was one hundred horse-power.
The Shelby Iron company was organized about 1844. In 1875 it operated two furnaces, furnace No. 2 having been put in blast January 6, 1875. The average yield of furnace No. 1 was thirteen tons per blast. This furnace blew out December 15th, 1874, after an uninterrupted run of three years nine months and fifteen days. The capacity of furnace No. 2
254
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
was thirteen tons per day. The ore was brown hematite and the ore banks were near the furnace. Limestone was found three miles from the furnace and the beds were connected with it by a narrow gauge railroad. The Woodstock Iron works are located at Anniston, Calhoun county, and at one time were well managed and exceedingly prosperous. Mr. A. L. Tyler, the president, and Samuel Noble, the secretary and treasurer, were among the best known and most respected names in the state. Their first furnace went in blast April 13, 1873. It had one stack 43 feet high, 12 feet bosh, closed top. Its capacity was five hundred tons per month. The product was pig metal for car wheels and foundry purposes. The furnace was arranged for either hot or cold blast. Gas was used for heating the boilers. The ore is within a quarter of a mile of the furnace and limestone is found within four miles. The ore is brown hematite and the beds are apparently inexhaustible. The Cornwall Iron works were located at Cornwall, Cherokee ceunty, and the Rock Run furnace, at Pleasant Gap, same county, but no record of their operations has been preserved. The Eureka Iron company had two furnaces at Oxmoor, Jefferson county, which were first used for making charcoal iron, but were remodeled for using coke. They had six steam-boilers, four of them forty-two inches and the other two twenty-eight inches in diameter, and all of them fifty feet long. There were twenty-eight coke ovens, twenty- four feet long, at the furnace, built upon the horizontal or Belgian system. The ore was Red Mountain fossiliferous ore, mixed with one-fourth limonite. The limestone is found, below the ore, in Red mountain. The Chaba Iron works were located at Irondale, Jefferson county, on the Alabama & Chattanooga railroad. They were idle when this list was compiled. There were also, at that period, iron works in course of construction at Woodstock, Bibb county-on the Alabama & Great Southern railroad. The Capital Iron works, located at Helena, Shelby county, have been in operation nearly forty years. R. W. Cobb, for four years governor of Alabama, is president, and R. Fell, superintendent of these works. The establishment has four puddling furnaces and one heating furnace; three engines, one of which is one hundred and twenty horse-power and drives the mill; one muck mill; one guide and hook mill complete; also shears, squeezer and punches necessary for the operation of the mill. This mill was the first in the south to manufacture iron cotton ties, of which it turned out about one thousand tons a year for several years.
As in the production of iron ore, so in the manufactured product; the greatest strides have been made within the last decade. Jefferson county, now the thriving center of the iron product of the state, had in 1870 only 12,845 inhabitants, and was scarcely known among the influeneial counties of the state. Even in 1880, ten years later, it had a population of only 23,272-while in 1890, ten years later, it had twenty-six iron furnaces with an aggregate capacity of 2,645 tons, and a population of 88,501 souls. This remarkable development, unexampled in history, is 'chiefly
1
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INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS.
attributable to the vast mineral resources which have made this favored region famous in Europe and America and attracted capital and labor from nearly every civilized country in the world.
Among the first to discover the hidden wealth and the great possibili- ties of this region were the brothers Hillman (Daniel and Charles E.), late of Nashville, who made early investments in mineral lands near Bir- mingham, and with their nephew, Tenny T. Hillman-who has been part and parcel of the growth of Birmingham and aided largely in its develop- ment-laid the foundations of Alice furnace No. 1-which, with occasional intermissions for repairs, has been at work ever since. This furnace is located in the city of Birmingham, between 8th and 9th streets. on First avenue, and has a capacity of seventy-five tons per day. Three or four years ago a companion furnace, called Alice No. 2, was erected by the same owners, which has a capacity of one hundred tons per day. These furnaces were recently put in the combination formed by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad company and are now operated by that corpora- tion. Next in order are the Ensley furnaces, located at Ensley city, about five miles from Birmingham. They are four in number, having a capacity of 150 tons each, daily, aggregating a product of 600 tons per day. No. 1 of this group of furnaces is now (1892) out of blast, tempo- rarily, for repairs. The Sloss Iron and Steel company have two fur- naces in Birmingham and two in North Birmingham. City furnace No. 1, located on First avenue, has a daily capacity of seventy-five tons, the other three have each a capacity of 100 tons per day. The Williamson Iron company have a furnace on Fourteenth street, having a capacity of seventy tons. The Vanderbilt Iron and Steel company own the Clara furnace, located at "Boyle's Station," two and a half miles from Birming- ham, having a capacity of seventy-five tons per day. The Mary Pratt Furnace company have a furnace-at present out of blast-with a daily capacity of seventy tons. This furnace is located on Fifth avenue, about one and a half miles from the court house. At Thomas-three miles from the court house-are two furnaces of 100 tons each daily, operated by the Pioneer Mining & Manufacturing company. The Woodward Iron com- pany have also two furnaces of 100 tons each, located at Woodward, ten miles from Birmingham. The DeBardeleben Iron and Coal company have a magnificent plant at Bessemer, eleven miles from Birmingham, consist- ing of five large furnaces, with an aggregate capacity, daily, of 475 tons, and two at Oxmoor-five and a half miles from Birmingham-one with a capacity of 130 tons, the other, of 100 tons per day, making the aggre- gate possible production of this company, upward of 700 tons per day. At Trussville, thirteen miles from Birmingham, is the furnace of the Birmingham Mining and Manufacturing company, having a capacity of 100 tons per day, and at Woodstock, forty-two miles from Birmingham, is the Woodstock furnace, Giles Edwards, manager, having a daily capacity of seventy-five tons. Thus in the city of Birmingham and vicinity are
256
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
found twenty-six well built furnaces, having an aggregate daily capacity of 2,645 tons.
In addition to the list of furnaces named, the following may be men- tioned : At Anniston are the three furnaces of the Woodstock Iron company, with a daily aggregate capacity of 300 tons; the Clifton Iron company's charcoal furnace at Ironton; a new charcoal furnace at Decatur; three furnaces at Sheffield; the Fort Payne and Bay State furnaces of Fort Payne, each having a daily capacity of seventy-five tons; the fur- naces at Ironton Junction and the Clifton Iron company at Jenifer, in Talledega county; the Coosa Charcoal furnaces-the best in the state-at. Gadsden; the plants of the Stonewall Iron company, the Tecumseh Iron company, Rock Run furnace, Alabama Iron company, Cornwall Iron works, and Round Mountain furnace, all in Cherokee county. There are in all twelve furnaces in blast in the valley of the Coosa, having an out- put of 490 tons daily, or 175,000 tons per year. The output of all the furnaces in Alabama for the years mentioned is stated as follows: In 1876, 25,000; in 1880, 77,000; in 1885, 227,000; in 1886, 283,850; in 1890, 914,940.
The total production of pig iron in the United States in the first half of the year 1891, as given by the American Iron Steel association, was 3,776,556 net tons, of which Alabama produced the large proportion of 379,121 tons. The falling off in the output in 1891 was very large in the United States, showing a decline of twenty-six per cent. Alabama heads the list of southern states in the tons produced, and shows the smallest. comparative percentage of decreased production.
STEEL.
An attempt was made in Alabama in 1887-8 to manufacture steel from the pig iron produced at the ordinary blast furnaces. The process adopted was new and was the discovery of Mr. Henderson, for whom the company was named. The company was organized in August, 1887, and an experimental plant was erected, which was put in operation in April, 1888. The plant consisted of one ten-ton Siemens open hearth furnace lined with imported Syrian magnetite. The pig iron used was fur- nished by the DeBardeleben Coal & Iron company. The experiment was considered so successful that preparations were made for duplicating the works. The plant was located in North Birmingham, and so promising was the venture considered, the stock of the company was at one time in demand at $800 to $1,000 per share, the par value of which was $100. A considerable quantity of plow steel was made for the agricultural works at Atlanta and subsequently the rolling mills at Bessemer contracted to take the entire output at what was considered a remunerative price. The company, however, was handicapped from the beginning by an insuffi- ciency of capital, which compelled early realization of the product. The steel, itself, was thoroughly tested and pronounced excellent, but the:
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INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS.
venture was a new one, the process was novel, and many iron men found it hard to believe that good steel could be made from the poorest quality of pig iron produced in a blast furnace. The consensus of opinion, how- ever, was in favor of the enterprise, so far as the manufacture of a good article of steel was concerned, but the general impresison was that the cost of manufacture was too great to leave any margin for profit. Doubt- less the small capacity of the plant considerably increased the cost of production, but before the claims, in this respect, of its originators could be established, a financial crisis came upon the country; their chief cus- tomer, the Bessemer rolling mills, were obliged to succumb and the Henderson steel works, not having sufficient capital to tide over until a new market was found, were also obliged to suspend work. About 200 heats were made in all. Efforts are now making to establish a steel plant at Birmingham on the basic process, (like the one recently estab- lished and in successful operation at Chattanooga), with a capital stock of not less than $1,000,000, and capable of turning out a large steel pro- duct per day. Some of the wealthiest and most enterprising citizens of Birmingham and elsewhere are enlisted in the enterprise, and, sooner or later, it must succeed. The enormous product and low prices of pig iron, the tendency, growing daily more apparent, of steel to supplant iron for many purposes, and the cheapness with which the better metal can now be manufactured, have convinced the more intelligent and practical manu- facturers of iron that steel plants must soon be established in the mineral district of Alabama, or that many of their iron furnaces must necessarily go "out of blast."
COAL.
The coal beds of Alabama are numerous and varied in quality. They extend from the Tennessee river on the north to the cotton belt on the south, and east and west across the state from Georgia to Mississippi. For convenience and with regard to situation the coal measurers are considered as separated into three divisions, taking their names from the rivers that wind their way along or through them. Thus they are called, respectively, the Coosa, the Warrior and the Cahawba coal fields. The first attempt at mining coal for shipment was made in the Cahaba coal field about the year 1853; the coal being mined by drifts and loaded on barges to be floated down the river. A few barges were loaded and started down the Cahawba, but only one of them reached the Alabama river safely, and that was turned up that river to Montgomery. All the rest were wrecked upon the rocks and shoals of the Cahawba below Centerville. This untoward beginning caused an abandonment of the enterprise, until more reliable means of transportation were secured. Previous to this period, as we are informed, by notes of Mr. T. H. Ald- rich (published with the report of the state geologist in 1875), citizens of Bibb and Shelby counties had been in the habit, for years, of obtain-
17
258
MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
ing coal for smithing purposes from the Cahawba coal fields, and as far back as 1836 coal was obtained from what is now known as Fancher's pit. In 1852, a Mr. D. H. Carter mined several car loads of coal from what is now known as the Lemley seam, hauled it to a point on the Selma, Rome & Dalton railroad, and shipped it to Montgomery, where it was sold at $6 per ton. The intrinsic value of the coal and the prospect of early railway facilities, stimulated public interest sufficiently to lead, in 1855, to the organization of the Alabama Coal Mining company, composed of enterprising citizens from various parts of the state, who commenced operations in the eastern part of the Cahawba fields and continued them until about 1860, when, owing to the difficulty of keeping a sufficient force employed and the slow and expensive process of obtaining a remunerative market, the scheme was abandoned. Some of this coal, during the fifties, found its way to Mobile, where it was highly valued. The writer of these pages used it for several months in the grate of his office and liked it very much. It burned freely, and except in the considerably quantity of ash it made, he regarded it equal to the Scotch cannel, which it resembled in several particulars. The largest shipments made by this company for any month averaged only thirty-three tons per day. The war, soon coming on, directed attention afresh to these fields, and in 1863 the Montevallo Coal Mining company was organized, and commenced energetic work on the Montevallo vein, opening several new pits along the outcrop of this vein. The largest shipment per day made by this company was eighty tons, although the capacity of the works was much greater than this amount. The requirements of the confederate government, for its ordnance works at Selma, stimulated work in this field, and, while the war continued, large quantities of coal were mined for its use.
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