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 8
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This is the answer. We have only had the most important of these avantages for two or three years. Within that time it has been found hat our steam power was cheaper than the castern water power-with- that time the labor in the mill has been diminished one-half-within hat time we have accumulated a large part of the capital we have now spare for manufacturing purposes-and within that time many circum- tances have occurred to bring our valley to the notice of those whose kill and labor and capital we need. Besides, how few there are here r abroad who know anything of the extent or cost, or accessibility of
* Mr. A. A. Lawrence, in the December No. 1819, of Hunt's Merchant's Iagazine, states the average dividends of 26 first class mills in Massachusetts nd New Hampshire for the preceding 11 years at 8 and 0-10ths per cent. er annum. No statement of the actual earnings of these mills has been rade.
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the coal on the Lower Ohio-and although its field is 70,000 square miles in extent, it has not yet found a place in the school geographies.
It could not have been expected that the New England manufacturer, or Pennsylvania coal owner would advertise our advantages if he knew them-neither can we complain that our Pittsburg friends have desired the continuance of our profitable custom. They who have built cotton mills at Cincinnati and elsewhere along our river have had their individ. ual interests only to subserve and cared not to encourage competition.
It will be observed that in this summary of advantages, only the im portant items of savings have been carried out. Except some trifling materials which go into the fabric of cotton-such as dye-stuffs, acids. and some other "chemicals," we have the advantage in every particular -or should have as soon as the work was fairly started-from the dig. ging of the foundation of the mill to the lading of the steamboat with the goods; and, indeed, far beyond this, for we shall be able, withir. sight of the mill, to build ships from the keelson to the maintruck, and fit them out 25 per cent. cheaper than they can be built on the seaboard from Passamaquoddy Bay to the river Neuces, and send them lader. with our manufactured goods to every port where our flag can float.
The axiom that the cheapest food, the cheapest power and the cheap est materials will produce the cheapest goods is one which even the tyrd in political economy can fully comprehend.
CANNELTON, AND ITS ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION.
To show the central position of Cannelton in reference to the natura and artificial channels of inter-communication; to the certain and cheat supply of food, cotton, wool, hemp, timber, iron, lead, copper, &c., have prepared the following outline map:
According to the able Report (No. 441, H. R.) made in 1844, by Gen. Armistead and Col. Long, there are, on the Mississippi river and its tributaries, 17,169 miles of steamboat and 747 miles of canal navi. gation, and the hydrographical or commercial centre is at a point neau the mouth of the Ohio. The strong points they make for the establish ment of an armory on the Lower Ohio apply with equal force to the establishment of cotton, hiernp, woollen, and iron mills. These are:
The superiority of steam over water power; the facility of procuring articles of subsistence and all other necessaries; the facility of distribu tion; the prospective healthfulness of the site; the obtaining of minera and agricultural supplies by descending navigation; the certainty of ob taining supplies of iron, lead, &c., from Tennessee, Missouri, and Illin ois, and by rivers whose navigation to the points of supply is rarely ob structed; and the fact "that the point at which supplies of all kinds fur nished by the Western country can be had in the greatest abundance and variety, and at the cheapest rates, is nearly or quite coincident with that designated as the commercial centre; with respect to this point, i should moreover be observed, that in the event of a dearth in one por tion of the vast region above it, and plenty in another, (which is likely
5
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Albany
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OUTLINE MAP of the APPALACHIAN& ILLINOIS COAL FIELDS
and the position of the most important CITIES, RIVERS,RAIL ROADS & CANALS in the valley of' the Mississippi. and the relative position of CANNELTON
Rail Road completed
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l'anals
completed unfinished
50
in of Fine & Bruder, Louisville
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the coal on the Lower Ohio-and although its field is 70,000 square miles in extent, it has not yet found a place in the school geographies.
It could not have been expected that the New England manufacturer, or Pennsylvania coal owner would advertise our advantages if he knew them-neither can we complain that our Pittsburg friends have desired the continuance of our profitable custom. They who have built cotton mills at Cincinnati and elsewhere along our river have had their individ. ual interests only to subserve and cared not to encourage competition.
It will be observed that in this summary of advantages, only the im. portant items of savings have been carried out. Except some trifling materials which go into the fabric of cotton-such as dye-stuffs, acids, and some other "chemicals," we have the advantage in every particular -or should have as soon as the work was fairly started-from the dig. ging of the foundation of the mill to the lading of the steamboat with the goods; and, indeed, far beyond this, for we shall be able, within sight of the mill, to build ships from the keelson to the maintruck, and fit them out 25 per cent. cheaper than they can be built on the seaboard from Passamaquoddy Bay to the river Neuces, and send them laden with our manufactured goods to every port where our flag can float.
The axiom that the cheapest food, the cheapest power and the cheap. est materials will produce the cheapest goods is one which even the tyro in political economy can fully comprehend.
CANNELTON, AND ITS ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION.
To show the central position of Cannelton in reference to the natural and artificial channels of inter-communication; to the certain and cheap supply of food, cotton, wool, hemp, timber, iron, lead, copper, &c., I have prepared the following outline map:
According to the able Report (No. 441, H. R.) made in 1844, by Gen. Armistead and Col. Long, there are, on the Mississippi river and its tributaries, 17,169 miles of steamboat and 747 miles of canal navi- gation, and the hydrographical or commercial centre is at a point near the mouth of the Ohio. The strong points they make for the establish- ment of an armory on the Lower Ohio apply with equal force to the establishment of cotton, liemp, woollen, and iron mills. These are:
The superiority of steam over water power; the facility of procuring articles of subsistence and all other necessaries; the facility of distribu tion; the prospective healthfulness of the site; the obtaining of minera and agricultural supplies by descending navigation; the certainty of ob taining supplies of iron, lead, &c., from Tennessee, Missouri, and Illin. ois, and by rivers whose navigation to the points of supply is rarely ob- structed; and the fact "that the point at which supplies of all kinds fur- nished by the Western country can be had in the greatest abundance and variety, and at the cheapest rates, is nearly or quite coincident with that designated as the commercial centre; with respect to this point, it should moreover be observed, that in the event of a dearth in one por- tion of the vast region above it, and plenty in another, (which is likely
15
SCANJIR'T
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Buffalo Dunkirk
Albany
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Chicago
Mississippi
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Cleveland
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Philadelphia
Indianapolis
Wheeling
Springhill
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OUTLINE MAP of the
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APPALACHIAN& ILLINOIS
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COAL FIELDS
Athens
Huntsville
Atlanta's
Columbia
Hamburg
in the valley of' the Mississippi and the relative position of CANNELTON
Macon
Charlestono
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Savannah
Alabama Ruer
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Mobile
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Orleans
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Tennessee K
Nashville
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Texungton
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Missouri River
and the postion of the most important " CITIES, RIVERS,RAIL ROADS& CANALS
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to be the case more or less frequently) supplies of provisions, &c., can be had with more certainty, and at a cheaper rate, at an entrepot in its vicinity than at any other point."
This is a view worthy of special consideration. Droughts, rains, and foods, cannot be expected at the same time to affect the alluvions of the Mississippi, Wabash, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers, whose descending products nearly approach the commercial center.
The railroads made since 1844 will bring this commercial centre of the Mississippi valley near Cannelton.
The following article, from the American Railroad Journal, of May 4, 1850, traces the route of a railroad which Nature herself has indicat- ed by unmistakable signs:
Railroads and Manufacturing in the West .- In our paper of the 20th ult. we endeavored to urge upon the people, engaged in the construction of railroads, the great importance of manufacturing the materials of their construction. We again recur to this subject for the purpose of showing the peculiar adaptedness of our country for manufacturing pursuits, particularly the West; and the in- fluence of our vast coal fields-the great repository of power -- in giving direc- tion to our industry and in developing our resources.
Up to 1847, the Indiana railroad system was wholly based on agricultural sur- plus products and foreign travel. For instance, the Madison road was the result of an obvious necessity of cheapening the transportation of the heavy, bulky and perishable staples of central Indiana to the Ohio river; the line from Terre Haute eastwardly was organized to be a portion of the line extending from the seaboard to the Mississippi. and at first but little importance was attached to its home business. The Madison road has proved highly profitable to its stock- holders, and beneficial to the section of country through which it passes. 'The appreciation of lands within five miles on either side of it has, as is said, been far greater than the entire cost of the road. This was the obvious consequence of increased and cheaper facilities of removing the surplus products of the land to a market. The new routes from Lawrenceburg, Jeffersonville, New Albany and Evansville, that are now being pushed forward with vigor, (chiefly by the aid of landholders along the respective lines) to the interior counties, are the results of the benefits and success of the Madison road.
Notwithstanding all that was said of the vast amount of travel that would pass over a rod from St. Louis to the seaboard and on the same parallel, the Terre Haute line moved along at a snail's pace, and the Vincennes ronte was abandoned. It was evident that through passengers and light freights would not pay dividends, and that lines of inter-communication, to be highly profita- ble, must connect districts of exchangeable commodities.
Since 1847, however, new elements of railroad progress have been develop- ed in this State, and must, to a great extent, direct and control the movement in question.
The margin of the Great Illinois Coal Basin, as will be seen by referring to the geological map of Dr. Owen. is cut by the Ohio river a little east of the mouth of Anderson river, and by the Wabash about 15 miles north of the mouth of Coal creek. Its line is slightly curviliniar and passes through the western sections of the counties of Lawrence and Monroe, and extending northwest, approaches within 50 or 60 miles of the head of Lake Michigan .- It will be observed that this line passes through the rich alluvions of the Pato- ka, north and south forks of White, Elk, Raccoon. Wabash and Vermillion riv- ers, that are not surpassed in fertility by any lands in the world, and which, per- haps, have a food producing capacity equal to the wants of all the manufactu- rers of Enrope and America. Along this margin are coals, potter's marle. fire and building sandstones, limestone. ironstone, and bog iron ore, all in close proximity, and above the plane of high water, all of the best qualities and in- exhaustible quantities. Such an important line of power and materials cannot, as we apprehend, be found elsewhere on the globe. None can come near it,
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except, possibly, the western margin of the Appalachian coal field in Tennes- see, Georgia and Alabama. Perhaps that district has coal and iron fully equal, but it has not the same food producing capacity.
It will be further remarked that this fine runs, for some 300 miles, nearly north and south: that it passes parallels of different staples and of exchangea- ble products; that, at its southern terminus on the Green river in Kentucky, it is within an hundred miles of the cotton district; that it passes the great natural highways of the central sections of this valley, and over the tobacco, the hemp, flax, corn, and wheat districts; that at the northern pomt, south of Chicago, it almost touches the great chain of our northern lakes; that it comes within an attractive distance of the rich copper ores of Lake Superior, and that it runs into the lead district; it lies wholly in the temperate zone, and cuts the com- mercial and hydrographical centre of the great valley of the Mississippi.
ofNow, when we examine the map of Europe, and observe the concentration captal and population-the railroads and canals-over the coal fields from the Severn to the Ribble: from Solway Frith to the Tyne and the Tees, and from Valenciennes to Leige; when we notice the growth of Cumberland and Pottsville, of Pittsburg and Wheeling, and many other towns on the margin of the Appalachian coal field, we cannot but see that this margin of the Illinois coal field, so central and in so rich a food producing country, must inevitably and in a short time, become a great seat of manufacturing and railroad enter- prise.
When the Terre Haute line was nearly abandoned, it was ascertained that Indianopolis and the rich district around it, could afford to transport coals from this margin, and the work was renewed with vigor. In a few years it will be completed, and will enable Indianapolis to obtain fuel and motive power at one half the cost of either in Providence or Philadelphia. Manufacturing towns must spring into existence where the road cuts the beds of iron and coal. The Madison road is now pushing forward a branch to intersect this mineral district beyond Bloomington; the Jeffersonville road will form a connection with that branch; the New Albany road will cut the coal and iron strata near Bedford; the Evansville road will pass through one of the inner strata of the great basin. The Wabash and Erie canal, at several points between Evansville and Point Commerce, passes through solid walls of coal, iron and fire clay; the Mount Carmel and Vincennes routes will soon connect the lower Wabash with these rich deposits. Wherever these lines de intersect the margin of this coal field, there will be manufacturing towns; and by and byc these towns will be con- nected with each other by a continuous road from Cannelton, near the month of' Anderson river, on the Ohio, to Chicago. This, extended into Kentucky. eventually will-nay must-be the most important railroad line in the State, if not in the world. It will be over 300 miles in length; it will connect the lakes with the Ohio, and, joining the main lines of road between the Mississippi and the Allegheny mountains, it will connect the cotton, tobacco, hemp, subsistence and mineral districts.
It will, by and by, be fully understood that, other things being equal, the true lines of artificial communication, especially when they are of any consid- erable length, are north and south, and to connect districts of exchangeable commodities, and people of different climates. The valley of the Mississippi is so level and expanded that natural forces and affinities can and will be exert- ed with their full power. That valley, as Mr. Webster has recently and forci- bly said, is soon to be America. It will soon have a population and wealth far beyond the seaboard States. It is idle, then, for the seaboard cities to expect that their roads, running west and on the same parallels, are to be the main lines of commerce and travel in that valley. No artificial highway is likely to compete with the Father of Waters; for, even with every facility for making railroads, it is not probable that the western people can ever reduce freights on their roads to less than one cent per ton per mile. The rates of steamboat freights now average less than four mills per ton per mile, and as business in creases: as coal is substituted for wood as fuel, and as greater system prevails, these rates must be largely reduced. The main trunk, or stem in that valley with which all others will connect, must be from the lakes to the Gulf, and over
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the best route between the Appalachian chain of mountains and the lowlands of the Mississippi and its large eastern tributaries. This route, as we appre- hend, will be on or near the margin of this Illinois coal field and by the Appala- chian coal fields near Chattanooga. Perhaps there will be no need of more than this stem through Tennessee and Kentucky. South of the line of the former, the road will connect with New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston and Sa- vannah-north of the line of the latter it will connect with Upper Mississippi. Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. The artificial system of intercommunication will there be a perfect whole. The territory thus connected, has a capacity of providing food and clothing and materials for shelter to hundreds of millions of people, and then to supply the rest of the world with fabries of cotton, wool, and iron. The internal commerce of that territory will far exceed the foreign commerce of the world.
Perhaps, for the first time in his history. man will then have full "verge and scope" to develope all his strength. Society there will be the commingled off- spring of man-the most vigorous shoots from Saxon and Norman and Frank and Gothie stems have been planted in that fertile soil. From the shore of the Gulf of Mexico to that of Lake Superior will be acclimated almost every tree, shrub, plant and root that are desired by necessity, convenience, and luxury, while the riches of almost every mine will be within easy reach. The mind of man has powers too limited to define the progress and foretell the destiny of that valley and that people.
The natural centre of this great road is at or near Cannelton, or where the coal margin and the road are cut by the Ohio river. The ele- ments to be combined in manufactured articles along the line of this road, will exert attractive forces in about the following order:
Food-
Vegetables, or the largest bulk of subsistence.
Fruits, that will not bear transportation.
Animals, to furnish fresh meat, such as poultry, veal, lamb, &c. Cereals.
Minerals-
Iron ore. Pit coals.
Copper ore. Lead, &c.
Fibrous staples- Wool.
Hemp and flax. Cotton.
The climate and soil most favorable to the production of vegetables, fruits and hemp, are between the parallels of 35 and 40 deg. In the same district the grasses are most abundant and pasturage of longer du- ration. Animal food is therefore cheaper here than in more northern or southern latitudes.
'The cereals flourish best north of 40 deg., and the cotton plant is most luxuriant between 31 and 35 deg.
In the charitable establishments in England, the amount of food al- owed to each person (generally children and old persons who take but ittle exercise) varies from 500 to 750 lbs. per annum. The average consumption of food by our manufacturing operatives will probably xceed 1000 lbs. per annum, of which the largest portion will be bread. ruits, vegetables and milk: the food of the horses, cows, and other ani-
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mals which must necessarily be near these operatives, would, in bulk and weight, be much larger. The cotton mill of 10,000 spindles re- quires and will support a population of at least 2000.
Here, then, we can approximate the relative importance of the mate- rials that are combined in 840 tons of cotton cloth, No. 14.
Food of man and beast at least 2000 X 2000= 4,000,000
lbs. or 2,000 tons, 1,600 “ 900 «
Coal, 50,000 bushels, or say
Cotton, say
Without taking into view the uses of the coal for domestic and other purposes about the mill, it is seen here that it is economy to move the cotton to the coal, and, if they cannot be found together, to move the cotton and the coal to the food. This illustration is the one most favor. able for the manufacturers at the extreme north and south of the line laid down. To make finer cloth we need relatively more labor, more food and more power. To make bar iron the difference is still greater; while to make steel and the nicest fabrics of cotton, wool, iron, &c., the amount and cost of the raw material sinks into insignificance when compared with the amount and cost of the food and of the fuel for heat and power.
To recur again to this outline map it will be seen that the line of the mineral district from, say Covington, Ind., to Rumsey, Ky., is in the very heart of the best food producing district on earth, and that this food and coal, clays, building stone, iron, &c., must attract the cotton. It will be noticed that Cannelton is at a central position where this line is crossed by the Ohio River and where food and materials can be dis- charged from steamboats freighted at the bases of the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and at the north as far as the Falls of St. Anthony. There must eventually be a great mart of exchange as well as the chief seat of manufactures of this valley. It has vastly more natural advantages for manufacturing than Manchester, Birmingham or Sheffield, in addition to great com- mercial advantages The money and labor that have been expend- ed in improving the navigation of the Mersey, in building the Liv. erpool Docks; in embankments and excavations to connect that port with the coal mines of Lancaster, and in sinking shafts to and cut- ting "adit levels" from these mines, would build a city on that section of the Ohio larger than all the cities of Lancaster. The very labor em- ployed in transporting stone from Scotland and the English channel to Liverpool would here build mills enough to work up half our cottor crop; and the greater taxes paid by these English cities within the present century would more than fill these mills with the most improved machinery.
I shall not attempt to fix the period of time when the great city of the West will be at the point here designated. As every country progresse in civilization, the tendency of population and wealth is to concentrat in manufacturing cities. Macauley has graphically described the rapi changes that occurred in England after the invention of the spir ning jenny, power loom and steam engine, when "a constant strear
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of emigrants began to flow to the regions north of the Trent that pos- sessed, in their coal beds, a source of wealth far more precious than the gold mines of Peru."
In the last quarter of a century the changes have been equally great in New England. Had the power of Lowell, Nashua, Pawtucket, and Hadley been found on the Lower Connecticut, Hartford or Middleton would now be the great city of New England, and Boston might have retrograded. Had the eastern margin of the Appalachian coal field touched the navigable shores of the Delaware or Chesapeake Bay, at that point would now be the chief manufacturing and a great commer- cial city of our seaboard. No one can, for a moment, doubt the cor- rectness of these positions. That country compared with ours is barren and stationary. The sites on the seaboard have but one back country. The Lower Ohio has a navigation more safe and subject to fewer inter- ruptions than the Connecticut or Delaware, and cities on its banks would be at the centers of great supporting circles. The like causes must produce like effects. The greater here must be as important as the lesser there.
Some of these views are more fully expressed in the following extract from a recent editorial of the Cincinnati Price Current.
N'estern Manufactures .- The ruling prices of cotton, for a series of years preceding the present, were exceedingly low, even when compared with other leading staples of the country. As a consequence, the cotton planters, and those who depended on the market for hemp, stock, food, &c., in the planta- tion States, have become conscious of the necessity of diversifying their pur- suits and encouraging home manufactures. Cotton mills have been springing up at various positions in the south and west; and now, at favorable positions, such as Graniteville, S. C., Angusta, Ga., and Cannelton, Ind., systematic etforts are being made to lay the foundations of manufacturing cities. Indeed, we are now taking precisely the same steps that England, Belgium, and New England have already taken-the same canses that have built Manchester, Birmingham, Ebberfield, Lowell, &c., are now operating in this valley, and with immense power, and if our cities, when surrounded by a sparse popula- tion, and only required for the purposes of factorage, grew up with unex- ampled rapidity, what may we not expect when our clothes, hardware, &c., are niade at home. One of our merchants can sell the product of the constant labor of a thousand manufacturers. We shall not lose the merchant, but we shall attract the thousand manufacturers Our expanding markets, peaceful and secure government, light taxes, abundant food, cheap materials, and genial climate, wonderful facilities of intercommunication, are all combining to make the central section of this valley the chief seat of inanufactories in the world. We now control the cotton commerce, and our exports of cotton will aver- age, in valne, over forty millions of dollars yearly. When we export (as we soon shall) cotton yarns and cloth, instead of raw cotton, the value of these exports will average yearly over 200 millions dollars.
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