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 35
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The Tuscaloosa Manufacturing company, limited, was organized in 1877, with a capital of $90,000. The mills are located at Cottondale, about seven miles east of Tuscaloosa. The late lamented Dr. P. Bryce was presi- dent; B. Friedman, treasurer, and H. M. Somerville, secretary of this company. This mill has fifty-two cards, three hundred looms, and 10,000 spindles, is run by steam power and manufactures checks, plaids, stripes, yarns, rope and twine. The business office of the mills is in Tuscaloosa.
Beside the two mills just named, Tuscaloosa has a yarn mill owned by George A. Searcy, having over 2,000 spindles. The motive power is steam. Cotton, rope, yarns and small cordage are manufactured. The mill was not in operation in 1890-91 and was offered for sale, but work has since been resumed.
The Union Springs cotton mills were incorporated in 1889. The capital stock is $80,000. The officers are C. H. Franklin, president; J. H. Rainer, Jr., secretary and treasurer; S. Randall, superintendent. They
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have sixteen cards and four thousand spindles. The product is hosiery, yarns, skein warps, ball seine thread and twine:
These mills went into operation in 1891, with a capital of $45,000. One thousand additional spindles have been ordered and are expected to be at work by the spring of 1893.
The West Huntsville Cotton Mills company, commenced work in 1892. The capital stock is $100,000; number of spindles 5,200, number of cards thirty; steam power is used.
The West Point Manufacturing company has its business office in West Point, Ga., but the mills are located in Chambers county, Ala. They were put in operation in 1882. They are supplied with 14,000 spindles 312 looms, and 104 cards; water power is used.
The foregoing list comprises the cotton mills in operation, or ready for work, in Alabama. The following corporations are either building mills or arranging to do so at an early day: Bessemer Manufacturing company at Bessemer; the Florence Cotton Mills company at Florence; the Lua Cotton Mill company at Bridgeport; the Lauderdale Manufac- turing company and the State Farmers' alliance at Florence; C. H. Allen & Co .. at Gainesville; the Jasper Cotton Mill company at Jasper; the Pell City mills, Pell city, the Tredegar Manufacturing company at Jack- sonville, and a large cotton factory at Birmingham.
The consumption of cotton by the mills in Alabama during the year 1891 was 39,145 bales, an increase of about 4,000 bales over 1890; in 1892 the consumption was 42,265 bales, an increase of 3,120 bales over 1891. The tendency of the times indicates, a large increase in the manu- facture of cotton goods in the near future. Instead of transporting the fleecy product of the cotton fields thousands of miles to the north and east to be manufactured into goods and returned-thus paying freight both ways-factories will be erected near the fields where the staple is grown, and the more valuable manufactured product, or the surplus of it, will be sent out to market. As the iron manufacturer finds it wise to locate where coal and iron ore are abundant and near together, so the manufacturer of cotton goods will locate near the cotton fields, and in the not distant future the cotton grown in Alabama will be manufactured within the state of Alabama.
WOOLEN GOODS.
Not much has as yet been accomplished in the manufacture of wool in the state of Alabama, but a fair beginning has been made. Mr. M. F. Usery has a wool carding mill at High Shoals; Mr. E. C. Walker has a similar mill at Montevallo; the Fall Manufacturing company also manu- facture woolen goods at Darlington; Mr. T. J. Killebrew manufactures jerseys and jeans at Newton; woolen mills are reported in course of con- struction at Bridgeport; and the Chattahoochie Knitting company have established a factory at Girard. Beside these, the Opelika Knitting com- pany was organized in 1889, with a capital of $10,000. Mr. W. B. Shep-
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hard is president; B. F. Coleman, secretary and treasurer, and E. . A Brown is superintendent. The company has sixty knitting machines driven by steam power. The product is seamless and ribbed hosiery. The Henderson Knitting mills, located at Troy, were also incorporated in 1889, with a capital of $30,000. Mr. Charles Henderson is president; Mr. Fox Henderson, secretary and treasurer, and Mr. J. H. Dwyer, superintendent. Their mill has eight cylinders. The goods manufactured are principally gentleman's knit underwear. Steam power is used. The Eufaula Bag- ging mills, James Sherry, proprietor, recently established in Eufaula, have six looms, use steam power and manufacture bagging out of jute. In 1880, there were fourteen establishments in the state making woolen goods, having a capital of $28,900. employing eighteen hands, paying $3,037 in wages, using 1,200 pounds of wool daily, working ten narrow looms on woolen goods. One hundred and sixty woolen spindles were in use; 135,366 pounds of domestic wool and 112,866 pounds of shoddy and scoured wool were purchased during the year, value at mills, $46,246. The cotton warp used with woolen goods was 10,000 pounds, valued at $2,000. The cost of wood consumed was $115; value of chemicals, $500; total value of material, $49,361, value of product, $63,745. Production, 40,000 yards; jeans, 90,900 pounds of rolls; number sets of cards, 15.
COTTON COMPRESSES.
Akin to cotton factories are the cotton compresses, of which there are now several in the state. Mobile has four; the Magnolia, with a capital of $100,000; the Talyor press, with a capacity of about 30,000 bales for the season; the Townsend press and the Merchant's press. Montgomery has two compresses, with a capacity of 750 bales each per day. Tusca- loosa has one, of moderate capacity; Huntsville, one; Anniston, one; Sheffield, one; Decatur, one; and Selma and Eufaula, and probably other towns, have or soon will have similar facilities for compressing cotton, which is now marketed and shipped from every considerable railroad town in the state.
COTTON SEED OIL.
The discovery of a method of utilizing the cotton seed which was, until recent years, regarded as a waste product, has created a new and impor- tant industry, the immediate effect of which has been to increase the value of and afford a ready market for cotton seed, and thus to add materially to the income of the planter. This fact tends to ameliorate the condition of the average planter and to help to render less burden- some the low prices for the staple which have recently been the rule. The rapid growth and extent of this branch of industry may be seen by a glance at the following list of oil mills, well distributed over the state: The Demopolis oil mills, at Demopolis have a capacity of twenty-five tons; Eufaula has one mill operated by the Eufaula Oil and Fertilizer company, with a capacity of thirty tons; Gadsden has a mill of ten tons
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capacity, owned by the Etowah Alliance company; Mobile had an oil mill of fifty tons capacity, which was destroyed by fire in 1890, but is about to be rebuilt in a new locality and on a larger scale. It is called the Gulf City oil mills; Montgomery has two oil mills, one called the Montgomery Oil works, capacity sixty tons; the other the Alabama Oil works, capacity sixty tons; Opelika has an oil mill of twenty tons capac- ity, operated by M. T. Frawick; Selma has a fine oil mill of 100 tons capacity, called the Central Oil company; Troy has an oil mill owned by the Troy Fertilizer company, capacity thirty tons; Tuscaloosa has an oil mill of thirty tons capacity, operated by the Tuscaloosa Fertilizer company; Union Spirngs has an oil mill owned by the Bullock County Manufacturing company, which has a capacity of thirty tons; Woodly has a small oil mill, ten tons capacity, operated by Walter Bros. These establishments aggregate thirteen oil mills, with a combined capacity of 657 tons per day. This statement does not include four mills which have been closed or abandoned.
COTTON GINS.
Another branch of manufacturing industry, depending upon the cotton product for support, is the cotton gin factory, of which there are a num- ber in this state. The pioneer establishment for the manufacture of cot- ton gins was founded by the late Daniel Pratt, at Prattville, before 1850, and has been continued in successful operation ever since. The product of this factory has found a ready market all over the cotton producing states and has been shipped, on orders, to Europe. The corporation now conducting this factory are erecting extensive works at Birmingham, designed to manufacture a greatly improved gin and attachments which, like the modern grain thresher, can be taken to the cotton-field and gin, condense and pack the cotton as it is gathered. Public cotton gins are as plentiful as grist mills, and are scattered. at convenient distances apart, all over the cotton producing region. The Barbour Machine com- pany of Anniston, are also engaged in the manufacture of cotton gins, presses and other machinery for handling cotton, in which they do a large business.
FLOURING AND GRIST MILLS.
As has been already stated, there were several merchant flour mills in the state prior to the war, which did a fair shipping business. Since the war, but little if any flour has been made in Alabama for the general market, the immense mills in the northwest, located in the great wheat region, with their superior facilities and greatly improved machinery, being able to lay down in our cities and towns the best quality of flour at prices which defy competition by the smaller and less well equipped local mills, whose business is restricted to their several localities. Among the flouring mills in the state are: one at Birmingham, one at Florence, one at Tuscumbia, and two in Chambers county. The census
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of 1880 makes the number of flouring and grist mills then in opera- tion in the state, 807; the aggregate capital employed, $1,803,514; the amount paid for wages, $211,243; the cost of material used, $3,787,711, and the value of the product, $4,315,174. The water mills had in all 750 wheels of 7,992 horse-power; the steam mills had 252 boilers of 5,670 horse-power, making the total horse-power used 12,662.
Corn mills abound. They are found, of greater or less capacity, in every city, town, village and hamlet in the state. Where water power is found it is utilized for driving these mills, but the greater number are worked by steam power. The United States census returns for 1890, not as yet available, will doubtless show a large increase both in the number and capacity of the corn and grist mills in the state, in the amount of capital employed, and in the product of the mills. There are not less than six steam corn mills in Mobile county, representing an investment of $200,000, having a combined capacity of 10,000 bushels of grain per day. These mills are owned and located as follows: The Merchants' mills, corner of St. Anthony and Commerce streets, Mobile, Cleveland Brothers, proprietors. The Alabama Steam mills, Charles W. Stanton, proprietor, Nos. 158 to 164 North Commerce street, Mobile; Christian & Craft Grocery company, new roller process mills, northeast corner Government and Commerce streets, Mobile; Mountain & Sons, grain and rice mills, 56 and 58 St. Louis street, Mobile; Royal Street grist mills, William Turner & Co., proprietors, Nos. 325 and 327 North Royal street, Mobile; the Empire steam grist, mill, on the Fulton road, Steiner & Brother, proprietors. Four of the above named mills are in full opera- tion, and after supplying the home demand, the product is sold in Ala- bama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Georgia. Sample orders have been placed for Cuba and Mexico, and it is probable that a good shipping trade will be established with both countries.
The Alabama mill is the newest and largest of the mills named. Its construction was begun in the fall of 1891, and it commenced work in March, 1892. This mill has attracted much attention from milling men and many others on account of its completeness and the adoption of mod- ern apliances, for its labor saving devices and for the thoroughness and economy of its operation. Railroad tracks pass in front and rear of the mill and conveyors unload the grain from the cars and store it in the second and third stories of the mill. The conveyors are so contrived that one man does the work which formerly would require twenty men to perform in the same time. By these devices the manager can store as many as 800 bushels of .grain per hour. The storage capacity of the grain bins is 30,000 bushels. The capacity of the mill is 2,500 bushels per day. The motive power is furnished by an engine of over ninety horse-power, supplied by a boiler of 100 horse-power. The mill is well equipped with "perfection dryers, automatic degerminators, roll scalp- vers, return air purifiers, Cransom scourers and automatic separators."
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The products of this establishment, probably the most complete in the state, are hominy, grits, pearl meal, granulated meal, brewers' goods, cream meal, corn flour and feed.
ROLLING MILLS, FOUNDRIES AND MACHINE SHOPS
are quite numerous in Alabama. Anniston has two rolling mills, one with car works attached; Birmingham has four; Fort Payne has one; Helena, Shelby county, has one, and Bessemer has also one, not now in operation. Mobile has two large and several small foundries and machine shops; Birmingham has fourteen; Montgomery has three; Decatur has one, beside the extensive shops of the Louisiana & Nashville Railroad company; Huntsville has two, one employed in the manufacture of the patent coulter, the other produces novelties in iron, copper and brass; Sheffield and Fort Payne have foundries for the manufacture of stoves; Selma has two foundries and machine shops; Bessemer has one, and Tuscaloosa has two foundries. In 1880 Alabama had only two rolling mills. The capital employed was $203,000; the number of employes was sixty, and the amount paid in wages was $18,000. The machines used were two single puddling and two heating furnaces and three trains of rolls, having a daily capacity of six tons. The materials used daily were, 150 tons of iron ore, valued at $600, and 600 tons of pig iron, valued at $15,000; 200 tons of scrap iron, value, $5,000; 500 tons of anthracite coal, value, $5,000; 300 tons of bituminous coal, value, $4,800; total value of all material, $30,400. Five hundred tons of hoop iron were manufactured, valued at $37,500. The total value of all products in 1880 was $47,500. A bloomery for the conversion of iron into steel ingots has been established at Anniston.
LIME.
Lime is manufactured in several portions of the state. The Shelby lime has an established reputation and finds a ready market. There are several lime works in the Birmingham district. The Birmingham Min- eral and Manufacturing company have two establishments-one at Gate City, with a daily capacity of 500 and an output of 300 tons; and one at. Blount Springs, with a capacity of 500 tons per day. J. W. Northington & Co., have also two plants-one at Bangor, with a capacity and output. of 250 tons per day, and one at Lanna, with a capacity and output of 1.250 tons per day. Musgrove & Co., have lime works at Lime Siding, having a daily capacity of 150 tons, now idle; and L. D. Hatch & Co. have an establishment at Tomahawk, with a daily capacity of 250 tons and an output of 200 per day. There are also valuable lime works near Greensboro in Lee county, on the Columbus & Western railroad. The lime from these works is of superior quality and is marketed in east Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. Builder's lime is manufactured extensively in Shelby county near Calera and Siluria. The limestone of Alabama is of very fine quality, uniform in its composition,
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and noted for the whiteness, hardness and general excellence of the mortar made from it. It is found in inexhaustible quantities in the various localities in middle and north Alabama, and lime burning is now a considerable and rapidly growing industry in the state. According to the United States census of 1890, the value of the product of the census year was $324,814. The cost of manufacture was $259,118; of which $199,480 were paid for labor. The total capital employed was $353,071. The percentage of profit on capital was 18.61; on value of product, 20.23. The percentages of wages to total expenses was 79.68; to total value,. 6.14.
MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
Agricultural implements used in Alabama have generally been brought from the middle and western states, but as early as 1880 there were twenty establishments engaged in the manufacture of implements of hus- bandry, employing the moderate capital of $13,075, and paying in wages that year to thirty-six hands the sum of $7,510. The value of material used was-lumber, $1,750; iron and steel, $5,118; all other material, $1,938, making the total cost of material, $8,806. The products were one corn planter, sixty cotton planters, 215 fertilizer distributers, twelve clod crushers, 4 cotton choppers, 82 cultivators, 252 plows, 34 shovels, 30 rollers, 33 grain cradles, 8 hand rakes, 3 horse rakes, 1 reaper and. mower combined, 7 threshers, 1 syrup evaporator, and a number of pro- ducts not specified, valued at $7,890. The total value of the product of these establishments was $29,014. Since 1880 a plow factory has been established in Tuscumbia. Formerly an excellent plow was made at the machine shops of the late Dr. Leech of Tuscaloosa, but after his death this branch of the work was abandoned.
Brick and tile were manufactured to a considerable extent in 1880, but not nearly to the extent that these articles are now produced. There were then in Alabama thirty-eight establishments, with a capital of $78,525, employing 660 hands, to whom $68,397 were paid in wages. The fuel used was 12,300 cords of wood, costing $9,055. The value of all material used was $53,225. The product was as follows: Common brick, 24,695,000; fire brick, 1,250,000; pressed brick, 650,000. Tile was manu- factured to the value of $3,500, and drain pipe to the value of $12,100. The total value of brick and tile products was $159,952. Montgomery has an establishment for the manufacture of pressed and fancy bricks; Fort Payne has fire clay works; Birmingham has two establishments for making fire brick; Selma has well appointed and prosperous brick and tile works, and Bessemer has one large establishment for making fire brick. Common bricks are made by hand and machinery all over the . state. In Mobile there are three large plants, whose annual output is about 5,000,000 of brick, supplying the local needs and allowing large shipments to the interior. Tanneries also are nearly as old as the state. Although not very abundant, tanners and curriers have always been with
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us. In 1880 there were 62 currier establishments in the state, with a working capital of $32,354, employing 48 men at a cost for wages of $8,291. The materials used were 33,146 sides, 12,307 skins, and 4,742 gallons of oil. The total value of the materials used was $88,033. The product was 33,146 sides of leather, and 12,300 skins, the combined value being $130,123. In the same census year there were 82 tanneries, with a capital of $86, 876, and employing 136 hands, to whom $24,658 were paid . as wages. These tanneries used 11 tons of hemlock bark, 3,591 tons of oak bark, 44,308 hides, and 15,073 skins. The total cost of material was $127,742. The products were 88,616 sides of leather and 15,073 skins. The total value of the product was $212,545.
Sash, blind and door factories abound, and the number is increasing almost yearly. Mobile has two establishments of the kind, one having been in existence a long time, the other built recently. Birmingham has two sash and blind factories. Montgomery, one; Tuscaloosa, one; and others are scattered through the state. Planing mills also abound, run- ning separately and in connection with saw mills.
Extensive car works are found in Anniston and Sheffield, and several of the railroad companies make their own cars, or the greater portion of them. The shops of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad company are thoroughly fitted up, employ the best workmen-make nearly all the flat cars, gondo- las and freight cars required by the company, do all the repairing of the rolling stock, and have turned out some very handsome passenger cars made of native wood, reflecting credit on the shops and showing the adaptability of Alabama woods to the highest style of ornamental finish. A locomotive was at one time built throughout at these shops and did good service on the road, the first and only one ever built in Alabama and probably the only one ever built in the south. The car works at An- niston are owned by the United States Rolling Stock company and are probably the largest of the kind in the southern country. The capacity is twenty-five cars per day and the company manufactures all the parts required at its own works. When in full operation, these works can give employment to one thousand men. This establishment makes a high grade of iron car axles. A large order from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad was received in 1891 by this company, conditioned upon the axles being able to sustain certain tests of unusual severity. They were required to sustain a weight of 1,640 pounds, dropped from a height of fifteen feet, dropped three times in succession, and the same weight dropped twice in succession from a height of twenty feet. The result of these tests was highly gratifying and in every respect successful. The axles did better than this, as they stood three blows in excess of the number stipulated without a single fracture. The same company have a plant at Decatur, where there is also a manufactory for car wheels. Be- sides the works named, Peacock's Iron Works, located in Selma, manu- facture many car axles and patent self oiling train wheels. The annual
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product of these works is 35,000 car wheels and 15,000 small plate wheels. The Blufton Car Wheel company at Blufton, make cast iron car wheels and can turn out 200 wheels per day. The capacity of the works at New Decatur is 50,000 chilled cast iron car wheels per annum. The Elliott Car company, at Gadsden, turn out 2,000 freight cars, complete, per year.
Nail works have been established in Brierfield and Anniston, and Birmingham has a nail and tack factory. There is a furniture factory in Montgomery, two more at Birmingham, and one was sometime ago in operation in Mobile (probably the first built in the state), but was des- troyed by fire and has not been rebuilt.
The tendency of late years to the "intensive system" of farming, which is based upon the free use of fertilizers, led to the erection of fertilizing factories or phosphate works in different localities in Alabama. Montgomery has two such establishments-the Alabama Fertilizer works. and the Montgomery Fertilizer works, which draw their supply of phos- phate from the Carolinas and Florida and manufacture their own chemi- cals. The Mobile Fertilizer and Chemical Manufacturing company built, in 1890, a factory at the junction of the Mobile & Ohio and the Mobile & Birmingham railroads-about three miles from the city, which went into operation January 1, 1891, and turned out about 2,000 tons of commercial fertilizers from that time to September 1, the beginning of the next com- mercial year. Since that time this company have doubled their works and are now prepared to supply a large demand. Their sales in 1882 were increased 3,000 tons. A cargo of brimstone from Bristol, England, was imported during the commercial year for use in the phosphate works of the state. The value of fertilizers sold in Mobile during the year 1891 exceed a half million dollars. The Troy Fertilizer company, at Troy, Ala., has one of the oldest and largest establishments of the kind to be found in the south. Its consumption of cotton seed and its output of cotton seed meal, oil, etc., is something enormous. Mr. Oscar Wiley is. president of this company.
The Florence Wagon company's works, located at the beautiful town of Florence, promise to become an important industry. These works are able to turn out ten thousand complete wagons per year. They make single and double wagons of excellent workmanship, and their product is sold in every state in the south, successfully competing in price and quality with northern manufactories. The "Florence" wagon is pro- nounced the best in the country, and is steadily finding its way to the towns and plantations of Alabama and the south. Mobile, Montgomery and other towns in the state have wheelwright and carriage making establishments, but these are generally on a small scale and do not aspire to more than a local business. Harness and saddle making are now carried on quite extensively.
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