USA > Indiana > Perry County > Cannelton > Cannelton, Perry County, Ind., at the intersection of the eastern margin of the Illinois coal basin, by the Ohio River : its natural advantages as a site for manufacturing > Part 12
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MANUFACTURES OF IRON, POTTERY, GLASS AND WOOD.
With the exception of a thin stratum of about four inches of the Cannelton lower coal seam, this coal is not adapted to the forge; it has the heat and evaporative power, but does not "cake" and make a hol- low fire. In the opinion of iron masters who have made experiments with it on a small scale, it is of sufficient purity and freedom from "clinker" to be used in a furnace without coking. If such should be fact, no position on the Ohio can compare with this for the manufacture of iron. One advantage compared with other places may be seen from the following statement:
A rolling mill, of $100,000 capital, will make abont 3,000 tons of assorted bar iron and nails, and require about 225,000 of coal per annum-the number of men employed will average near 150.
For Western demand of iron we have the advantage over the East of cost of freights, cheap living, and cheap fuel. It is to be presumned that we cannot afford to buy Boston nails made of Pennsylvania iron and with Pennsylvania
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aud Nova Scotia coal; and it is doubted whether the central West will will- ingly continue to pay the extra cost of freight of 1800 miles on iron in the pig and the bar to and from Pittsburg and Wheeling.
The Cincinnati rolling mills doubtless pay a large profit, for. although they pay a higher price for coal than its cost at Pittsburg, the freight between the two points is saved and is more than an equivalent: but a large part of the iron made at Cincinnati passes the coal beds of the lower Ohio on its way to the consumer; for this demand a rolling mill, at one of these coal beds, would save say 450 miles of transportation and on the average at least 43 cents a bushel on coal. or, for the mill of the size above, $10,125 per annum.
Nearly all the pig iron used at Cincinnati, and no inconsiderable part of that used at Wheeling and Pittsburg is from Missouri and Tennessee.
'The price of this supply of pig iron depends on the cost of that part which comes from the points most remote and under the obvious rule that, where the home supply of any article is deficient in quantity, the cost of the deficiency fixes the price of the whole.
For the pottery business our coal and clays are peculiarly adapted- and have been fully tested between Cannelton and Troy at the works of Messrs. Casseday & Co. This business is new, and difficulties have been and yet must be met to obtain the proper labor and skill: yet it is one of vast importance and must soon be carried on to a great extent. It cannot be that we shall long continue to import common ware from Staffordshire at a cost of over 50 per cent for freight, 30 per cent duty, and over 30 per cent factorages, and pay for it in Indiana pork and wheat, when we have clays and coal as good and cheaper than the same materials in Staffordshire. For the finer fabrics of the potter we have feldspar in southern Illinois, kalin in Missouri, and silex in Arkan- sas, and all probably within a more limited circle.
Our coal is also remarkably well adapted for the glass maker, and, in the opinion of Mr. Ridgeway, we can easily find in the lower strata of our sand-stone the different sands required by the glass maker. The Wheeling and Pittsburg glass workers obtain all their lead and much of their sand and find their largest markets west of us.
For the manufacture of wagons, agricultural implements, furniture &c., Cannelton is at a convenient point for the collection of materials and the shipping of the products. The banks of the upper Ohio and its tributaries have been nearly denuded of valuable timber, while the forests on the lower Ohio are comparatively unculled. The demand for these articles for the southern market is enormous. The best of cherry, black walnut, oak, gum and maple lumber can be had in any quantities in this district at $10 to $14 per m., while the price in the Eastern markets is from $30 to $60 per m.
VALUE OF COAL LANDS.
We may approximate the value of the Cannelton coal beds by the answers of Mr. Geo. Ledlie, of Pittsburg, to queries made by me in 1847.
1. What is the price per bushel for mining coal in the vicinity of Pittsbur
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and on the banks of the Monongahela? Ans .- 13 to 2 cents per bushel.
2. What rent is paid by lessee of coal lands? Ans .- 4 to & cent per bushel, and when fixtures are found, & to 2 cent.
3. What is the present value of these lands, and what increase of value in 10 years? Ans .- $400 per acre on the Monongahela between Locks 1 and 2
150 “ 50 “ 66 66 2 and 3
3 and 4
and the appreciation since 1837 about 100 per cent.
4. What is the average price of coal at Pittsburg, and what delivered on coal boats at the bank? Ans .- 43 to 5 cents at Pittsburg, and 33 to 4 cents at the mouth of the mine.
5. What is the average thickness of the coal strata on the Monongahela? Ans .- From Lock No 4 down 4} feet working coal.
The coal lands in the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg are chiefly owned by manufacturers in the city and a very high value is attached to them.
Pittsburg owes its manufacturing importance entirely to its coal beds. It imports its iron, fire.clay and sand. The nearest iron ore is found about 60 miles above, on the Alleghany River: the fire-clay is obtained on the Ohio, about forty miles below, and much of the sand is brought from Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River.
The two following papers are by Hon. E. M. Huntington, Judge U. S. District Court of Indiana.
MANUFACTURING ADVANTAGES ON THE LOWER OHIO.
If, as is conjectured by some, the recent extensive failures in Great Britain have been chiefly confined to the manufacturers of cotton, and to those who as merchants, factors and bankers, have been connected in some shape with the cotton trade, it is very clear that they cannot bear up against American competition any longer. If the high price of pro- visions during the last year has affected the price of labor in their facto- ies-which does not appear from anything we have seen, still, their re- moteness from the raw material must far more than countervail any ad- vantages they can ever have over us on the score of cheap labor, or the perfection of their machinery. Indeed, under the late improvements in machinery, the cost of manufacturing in this country has been greatly reduced: added to this the comparative cheapness of living, and, above all, the price of the raw material-having, as the English manufacturers do, three thousand miles of ocean transportation-it is impossible that they can ever again compete with us in this branch of industry. Under all the changes of our tariff laws, our manufactories have been steadily increasing, until they have acquired a solidity which no legislation can possibly shake.
But is the manufacture of cotton to be confined chiefly to the rugged hills of New England? To the minds of some of us, the day is com- ing when the valley of the Ohio will, so far as this great interest is con- cerned, bear the same relation to New England, that New England now
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does to Great Britain. It is now settled incontestibly, that steam power, where coal is cheap, is cheaper than the cheapest water power for pro- pelling machinery. This, then, is our position in the West. The great Illinois coal field touches and crosses the Ohio river, say 100 miles be- low Louisville. There, on either the Kentucky or Indiana side, for one hundred miles, may be found large quantities of the finest coal for steam purposes, which may be had at the river banks for four to five cents per bushel. In New England, where steam power is used-and that is the case in many of the most extensive and recently created factories-the cost of coal is, on an average, full 20 cents per bushel; making a differ- ence in our favor, in this single important item, of full three hundred per cent. Here, on the Ohio river, we are within ear shot of the cotton fields of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas-on a river navigable at all seasons of the year-where provisions are, and always will be, cheaper than in any other part of the United States-in a per- fectly healthy position, and as far south as is compatible with this im- portant consideration. Add to this that we are in the centre of the great Mississippi Valley, where our market for the manufactured article is known to be the best in this country. With these manifest advantages over New England, why should we go there for our manufactured cot- tons? Or, rather, why should we not avail ourselves of our superior po- sition and resources, and supply the markets of the world with cotton fabrics? Nor must it be overlooked that, for the manufacture of iron and hemp we possess the same natural advantages, viz: the raw materi- al and the moring power.
Allow me to make another suggestion for the consideration of the South. It is certain that. at no distant day, a railroad communication will be established between the Southern Atlantic cities and the naviga- ble waters of the West. This noble scheme of internal communica- tion will connect the whole great Valley of the Mississippi with the Southern Atlantic sea-board; and when that is accomplished, it requires no prophet to foresee that the commanding ascendency of the Northern cities in the business of foreign importations and internal commerce, must be greatly impaired. It is impossible to estimate the effect which the opening of such a direct communication will have upon all the rela- tions of the South and West. Is it not, then, in the present and pros- pective condition of the cotton trade, and of cotton manufactures, also clearly the policy of the South to foster the establishment of manufacto- ries of cotton, iron and hemp, on the tributaries of the Mississippi? Not by the enactment of Tariff laws for protection-for Nature has given all the protection necessary-but by the investment of a portion of her surplus capital in these enterprises, whereby she will enlarge her market at home for the product of her cotton fields, and, in time, link indissolubly together these great interests of cotton production and cot- ton manufacture? Connected as we are by an immense extent of navi- gable rivers which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, our geographical affin- ities are all-powerful: and if, superadded to these, our interests are com- bined by the system of policy to which I have alluded, no agitations
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growing out of Southern institutions can ever disturb this powerful sym- pathy. The Western free States, in the angry controversies between the North and the South, so much to be deplored. occupy neutral ground; but Na.ure, by those powerful arteries of commerce, our noble rivers, and by those immense coal fields which lie along the southern boundaries of the free States of Indiana and Illinois, and which, with the cotton of the South, constitute the pabulum of the most important manufacturing interests of the country, must forever, with prepondera- ting force, throw the West and the South together .- De Bow's Com- mercial Review, 1848.
In the National Intelligencer, of the 13th of December, there is an able article on the subject of the "immense value of cotton manufac- tures to Great Britain." I should be glad to see it copied entire by eve- ry paper in the West, for the facts there stated are well calculated to set men to thinking upon this subject. The writer shows that, while the United States receives "only $35,000,000 for the growth, picking, bagging, carrying to market and selling, expenses of the cotton," Great Britain realizes "an accumulated value of $69,000,000 on its manufac- ture," or in the ratio of two for one.
In Porter's Progresss of the Nation, he says: "the rise and progress of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, form, perhaps. the most ex- traordinary page in the annals of human industry." It is not necessary on this occasion to trace its early growth, or to describe the mechanical inventions, by means of which it has come to exercise so powerful an influence upon the destinies of the civilized world. Those who are cu- rious to do this, are referred to the memoir of Mr. Kennedy on that sub- ject, published in 1800, among the memoirs of the Manchester Library and Philosophical Society, to Mr. Baines's History of the Cotton Man- ufacture in Great Britain, and the Essay of Dr. Ure on the Philosophy of Manufactures. The manufacture of cotton cloth in England, may be said to have really commenced about the year 1800, for, prior to . that time, Dr. Cartwright's Power Loom had not been practically ap- plied to the weaving of co ton goods. From that period even to the close of the American War, the manufacture of cotton in England lan- guished, but from the Peace of Ghent to 1840, it increased to an extent : almost incredible, until now the manufacturing power of Great Britain constitutes the chief element of her political strength and national great- ness. Strike from the realm of England her Manchester, her Birming- ham, her Leeds and her Sheffields, and that power which has shaken the world for the last century would be gone. The armies and navies of Great Britain have penetrated the remotest parts of the earth; but the factories-the workshops of Great Britain, have furnished the very ali- ment on which they have existed. With her cotton and other factories, she has been able to force a commercial intercourse with every portion
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of the world, savage and civilized-always taking good care to foster these great home interests by the most powerful protective policy.
In the last ten years American skill and capital have entered the field of contest with Great Britain, and at this moment the cotton manufacto- ries of Manchester are sinking under the force of American competi- tion.
And why is it, that for thirty-five years we have permitted a foreign country to snatch from us all the profit of manufacturing the cotton which grows upon our own soil? It is needless, now, to refer to the early struggles of our manufacturing interests. The vascillating policy of the government has rendered these interests, at times, somewhat inse- cure; but under all the changes of parties and policy, they have gradu- ally acquired strength, until now they may be said to be almost inde- pendent of legislation. But had that liberal policy, which thus nursed them into an early maturity, been steadily pursued from the beginning, instead of sending $50,000,000 worth of cotton to Europe, to be man- ufactured at a profit of $120,000,000 to the manufacturers, we should now be manufacturing our own cotton, adding at least $100,000,000 per annum to our wealth, and with our cotton fabrics driving the En- glish manufacturers from the markets of the world. In time, this will be the result, but it will not be so until the subject is examined and un- derstood by the leading men of our country. New England has seen it, and how splendid are the results of her enterprize! Struggling early and steadily for the prize-in spite of all obstacles-pursuing with zeal and with confidence one uniform policy-rejecting the counsels of the timid, and resisting the influence of all hostile theories-she has succeed- ed in fixing these great interests upon firm foundations.
But while New England enterprize and industry have been struggling against the preponderating capital and cheap labor of Europe, what have we been doing in the great Wes!, either for ourselves or for the country? Did Nature group together her finest productions in all their grand proportions in this great valley, for no other purpose than to excite the cupidity of strangers? With rivers running from the base of the Alleghanies on the east, and from the rocky mountains on the west to the Gulf stream, traversing for tens of thousands of miles the richest valleys in the world, she has blended together, in one vast combination, all the elements of an extended internal commerce, a most varied and unrivalled agriculture, and of manufactures the most profitable and the most splendid.
Portions of the west are teeming with the most valuable minerals, such as iron, lead, zinc, copper, &c., and with coal fields which sur- pass in richness and extent the finest coal measures of Great Britain .- Within the range of 500 miles of uninterrupted and connected river navigation, can be found the best cotton, iron and hemp country or. this continent; and, within the same space, is also to be found the coal with which to manufacture these great materials into every form of which they are susceptible, for the use of man.
About one hundred miles below Louisville, on the lower Ohio, the
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great Illinois coal basin crosses the river. There, this great and indis- pensable element of manufacturing power is placed in close proximity to the iron and hemp of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and to the cotton fields of Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The question is now beginning to be asked, "why is our cotton carried to Boston to be manufactured at the Lowell and Law- rence factories, and then sent back here for sale, when we have these manifest advantages over New England ?" That steam is cheaper than water power is no longer doubted by any one who has examined the subject. Here, then, is the cheap moving power, for coal can be had for manufacturing purposes at 4 to 5 cents per bushel. Here is the raw material, and here is the best market. But this is not all, for here now and in all time to come, will the cost of living be less than any where else in this country. There are, on the lower Ohio, several points where, in process of time, these coal beds must be appropriated to man- ufacturing purposes. At Bon Harbor, Triplett and Barrett have already made a commencement. They are on the Kentucky side of the river, and perhaps occupy the best point for such purposes on that side. They have already erected a cotton factory, which has, by its complete suc- cess, more than vindicated their most sanguine views. The thing is no longer an experiment; their success is a "fixed fact."
On the Indiana side of the Ohio, as a prominent point, I will men- tion Cannelton, which is about thirty miles above Bon Harbor, and about 120 miles below Louisville. " The American Cannel Coal Com- pany" own at that point some six or seven thousand acres of coal land. Although, for ten or twelve years past, inconsiderable quantities of coal have been dug there, it is only within the last five or six years that the business has assumed any degree of importance.
A part of this extensive property is now leased to James Boyd, Esq., late of Boston, under whose judicious and energetic management the business is rapidly increasing. He employs about forty hands in the mines (most of them Englishmen from the English coal districts,) and is selling to steamers from two to three thousand bushels per day. The coal resembles the Cannel coal of England, and is the very best known in this country for the generation of steam. It is placed on boats, and sold to steamers at 7 cents per bushel, and can be furnished there to manufactories at 4 cents. The coal beds are inexhaustible, as is proved by a thorough geological examination lately mnade, and increase in rich- ness of quality and quantity the further they are worked. The position of the town (Cannelton) is extremely handsome, being on a plain, just above high water mark, on the north bank of the Ohio river, in Perry county, Ja., running back, with a gentle second swell, some 700 yards, to a line of hills in which is embedded this vast coal seam. The coal has a gentle dip towards the river, by which the mines drain themselves. Unlike the coal beds of England and Wales, which are found from 300 to 1500 feet below the surface of the earth, and worked at a vast ex- pense and great hazard, here the entry into the mines is on a level, and the cars, which are drawn out by mules, are emptied from a platform
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into cars below, which go by their own gravity to the river, where the coal is dropped into boats. The front on the river is beautiful, present- ing, for several miles up and down, one of the most attractive landscapes which can be found from Pittsburgh to the mouth. The depth of the river on the side of the town is, for several miles, from 12 to 16 feet at low water, furnishing the very best possible river anchorage for vessels of every class. The neighboring hills are covered with fine timber for ship-building, there being an abundance of oak, locust. &c. Immedi- ately on the river, at the upper end of the company's lands, the bluffs are filled with the finest building stone, easily quarried, and inexhaust- ible in quantity, where now the United States are procuring their stone for the government works at Memphis. Fire stone and fire clay are found there of good quality and in unlimited quantities. Added to all his, it is in a free State (which by some may be regarded as an import. ant fact,) and is as healthy as any position west of the Alleghany moun- tains.
I will not say that this point presents more advantages as a manufac- uring position than any other in the wide world, but it presents enough o render it prominent. It is impossible that these advantages can be ong overlooked. If those who are most interested in the progress of Western manufacturers do not go forward, others will. New England enterprize and capital would long ago have appropriated these generous gifts had they been within their legitimate field of action; for, in spite of capricious legislation-in spite of the high price of labor, the high price of coal, the high price of provisions, and the vast cost of trans- portation-New England, at this moment, is the acknowledged rival (if ival she has) of the greatest manufacturing power of the world, so far s the article is concerned.
How long will it be before we manufacture our own cotton, and iron, nd hemp, and wool-how long shall we yield to Manchester the sixty millions of dollars annually for the manufacture of a single article, the rofits of which legitimately belong to us-remains to be seen. Four undred millions of dollars are invested in Lancashire, England, in the manufacture of cotton, while in our whole country, the amount employ- d in the same way does not probably reach fifty millions. In the Vest, with all our advantages over New England, we have scarcely made a commencement, and how long we shall yield to Lowell the rofit of manufacturing what we can manufacture and prepare for mar- et from 15 to 40 per cent. cheaper than she can, seems yet to be un- ettled. The men are here qualified to go forward in this enterprize. A ew have made a mere commencement, but the fears of the many are Iways apt to be stronger than their convictions. The capital is here, ut it is hoarded up by the more cautious, or invested in business more miliar to us in the West than the business of manufacturing. This ate of things cannot last, for when the subject is examined, every man ill be convinced that the employment of capital here, in manufactur. g, under good management, cannot fail to yield larger and most cer- in profits than any other business .- Louisville Courier, 1848. H.
d
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The foregoing estimates show our advantages over New England fo manufacturing. The following extracts from a paper in the Louisville Journal of August 8, 1849, show some of the advantages we posses over Great Britain:
In our discussions and legislation on our manufacturing interest, we have generally taken it for granted that at least a revenue tariff was absolutely re quired, to sustain the western mill owner; consequently, the impression has everywhere obtained, that manufactures, on a large scale (and it mattered not at what position in our valley,) must be unsafe depositories of capital until the general policy of government could be fully ascertained and continu: ons protection relied on.
This opinion, almost universal here and abroad, must be wholly changed before we can make rapid progress in the establishment of mannfactures.
The foreign artisan will not leave a country where he does not require pro tection, for one where protection is required; he will not abandon certainty foi uncertainty. And our own capitalists will not embark in a business, which, as they daily hear from the East, is subject to constant fluctuations and losses, un til they are satisfied that they can place themselves on safer ground.
With the suggestion, that there may be some "method" in the complaining of our rich eastern brethren; that they may have had no desire to foster com petition in a country where there are greater elements of manufacturing snc cess than in their own; we proceed to show, that, in the home combination o food, iron, cotton, hemp, wood and wool, and in sections where the other ele ment, power, can be obtained cheap, the western manufacturer is independen of foreign competition. We refer chieflly to coarse fabrics, and shall state tli relative advantages of the counties of Lancaster, Staffordshire, and the Wes Riding in England, and of the counties of Perry and Greene, Ind., and Da viess, Crittenden and Caldwell, Ky.
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