USA > Kentucky > Jefferson County > Louisville > The city of Louisville and a glimpse of Kentucky > Part 10
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I roth Harper a Slagmettre
Lopyrigue, 1050, by Harper & Brutlerse
THE OLD ALEXANDER HOUSE.
beginning with the ore just described, resting upon the subcarboniferous limestone, and extending through 600 to 700 feet of the coal measure strata. The ores are mineralogically similar, but differ somewhat in the physical character and circumstances of deposition. They are popularly known as limestone, block, and kidney ores. They usually occur at well-defined geological levels, but do not always form connected beds. They also differ in thickness, ranging from four to eight inches in some of the thinner beds to fourteen feet in one local deposit. This latter is the Lambert ore of Carter county. The most common thickness is from six inches to one foot. There are from ten to twelve ore beds which are more than local in extent in this region. In addition, there are numerous local beds, one or more of which is found at nearly every furnace. This region supports eleven charcoal and two stone coal furnaces. The Hanging Rock iron bears a reputation for excellence for general foundry purposes which is unsurpassed by any iron in the United States.
The iron produced is mostly hot-blast charcoal iron, but some of the furnaces are worked with cold-blast for the pro- duction of car-wheel iron. The reputation of the iron of this region is, however, chiefly founded upon its excellence for castings of all sorts. The iron combines in a remarkable degree great strength with fluidity in casting and non- shrinkage on cooling. The stone coal iron of this regiou is used almost entirely for the manufacture of bar iron and nails.
The stone coal iron is made from the ores of this region, mixed with a considerable proportion of ore from other States. The fnel used is the celebrated Ashland or Coalton coal ; it is a dry-burning, non-coking coal, which is used raw in the furnace, and is of such excellent quality that no admixture of coke with it in the furnaces is necessary, as is the case with most of the other non-coking furnace coals of the West.
The charcoal iron is manufactured exclusively from the native ores, which yield, as shown by the books at a num- ber of furnaces, for periods ranging from one to four years, an average of between thirty-one and thirty-two per cent. of iron. The pres of the region are known as limestone, block, and kidney ores. These names are due to peculiarities of structure or position, rather than to any essential difference in chemical composition. As a rule, however, the limestoue ores are the richest and most nniform in quality. The kidney ores are next in valne, while the block ores preseut greater variations in quality than any other, some of them being equal to the best of this region, and some of them so silicious and lean that they can not be profitably worked.
NO. 2.
NO. 3.
NO. 4.
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The following analyses, by Dr. Peter and Mr. Talbutt, of the Kentucky Geological Survey, show the composition of some of the ores of each class in this region :
CONSTITUENTS.
NO. I. NO. 2. Per Cent. Per Cent.
NO. 4. NO. 3. NO. 5. Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent.
NO. 6. Per Cent.
Iron peroxide
67.859
71.680
54.530
68.928
61.344
66.200
Alumina ..
1.160
4.155
2. 120
2.768
4.236
3.907
Manganese brown oxide
.980
.090
1.380
.290
.030
Lime carbonate
.120
.380
.040
.680
750
-430
Magnesia
1.275
.050
1.823
.641
.208
.345
Phosphoric acid
.143
.084
.908
.249
.795
. 130
Sulphuric acid
.270
.336
.748
.041
. 182
Silica and insoluble silicates
15.560
12.650
28.360
15.240
21.480
16.530
Combined water
12.903
10.800
10.900
11.100
11.200
11.730
Total
100.000
100.159
100.397
100.644
100.054
99.484
Metallic iron .
47.501
50.176
38.171
48.249
42.941
46.340
Sulphur
.108
.134
.298
.016
.072
Phosphorus
.062
.036
.428
.098
.347
.057
No. I, lower limestone ore, Kenton Furnace, Greenup county ; No. 2, upper limestone ore, Graham bank, near Willard, Carter county ; No. 3, lower block ore, Kentou Furnace. Greenup county ; No. 4, upper or main block ore, Laurel Furnace, Greenup couuty ; No. 5, yellow kidney ore, Buena Vista Furnace, Boyd county ; No. 6, yellow kidney ore, Mount Savage Furnace, Carter couuty.
WESTERN KENTUCKY.
The most extensive aud best developed ore region of Western Kentucky is called the Cumberland river iron region. It embraces the whole or parts of Trigg, Lyon, Livingston, Crittenden, and Caldwell counties. The ores of this region are limonites, found resting in the clay and chert above the St. Louis or subcarboniferous limestoue. They occur in deposits of irregular shape and uncertain extent, but iu the aggregate the amount of ore is immense. The ores are dis- tributed with great irregularity throughout this region, but they seem to be found in greatest abundance and quantity where the limestone has been most extensively worn away, and where, as a cousequence, the clay and chert, which are the result of its decomposition, are of the greatest thickness.
The ores are, perhaps, found in greater abundance iu the country between the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers than in any other portion of this region, although there are extensive deposits on the east side of the Cumberland river which have been largely worked. As a rule, however, the deposits decrease iu size and frequency in going from the Cumberland river toward the east, and after a few miles' distance from the river is reached they are scattering and small. The ores are of excellent quality, being almost entirely free from sulphur, and containing but a small amount of phosphorus; but they are sometimes mixed with chert and sand. The quality in this respect is as variable as the size of the deposits, the ore in the same deposit frequently showing all degrees of admixture with chert, from a chert breccia to a rich, pure ore, with only an occasional lump of chert inclosed. The average yield of iron, from the ore at the furnaces of this region, where it is not very carefully selected previous to roasting, is between thirty and thirty- five per cent. With careful sorting the yield can be brought much higher-from forty to fifty per cent.
The iron produced from these ores is of a very high grade. There are three active furnaces in this region which use charcoal fuel exclusively for the production of pig-iron. From this iron is manufactured the celebrated Hillman's boiler-plate, of which it is said by the manufacturers that no boiler constructed of this iron has ever exploded. This iron ranks equal or superior to any other hoiler-plate manufactured in the United States. It is used largely for steam- boat and locomotive boilers, for which latter purpose it finds an extensive market, even as far as the Pacific Slope.
Considerable ore from this region has been shipped to furnaces at a distance, but within the past two years the depressed condition of the iron market has rendered this unprofitable. This region is well situated as regards trans- portation facilities, it being drained by two navigable rivers, the Cumberland and Tennessee, and on the lower border by the Ohio, so that the iron manufactured here can be very cheaply placed in market. The following analyses of two samples of ore from this region are by Dr. Peter and Mr. Talbutt, of the Geological Survey :
NO. I.
NO. 2.
Per Cent. Per Cent.
Iron peroxide
59-370
70.518
Alumina
1.622
.045
Manganese
.090
. 190
Lime carhonate
.170
.090
Magnesia
.100
Trace.
Phosphoric acid
.179
.275
Sulphur . .
.212
.045
Silica and insoluble silicates
30.000
18.910
Combined water
8.400
9.850
Total
100.143
99.923
Metallic iron
41.559
49-363
Phosphorus
.007
.120
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CONSTITUENTS.
This same variety of ore is found, in greater or less quantity, in many other counties where the St. Louis limestone is the prevailing rock formation, but in none of them, save those mentioned, has any extensive iron industry been established. In the Cumberland river region there are many furnace sites unoccupied where iron can be cheaply and profitably manufactured. This region is capable of, and destined to, a much greater development than it has yet attained. The charcoal-iron manufacture will always be an important and extensive industry, for over a large part of the regiou the most profitable use that can be made of the land is the production of timber for charcoal. There is destined, at no far-distant day, to be a large stone coal or coke iron industry established here, using the ores of this regiou with the coals of the Western Kentucky Coal Field, either raw or coked. The best known of the Western coals at present are too sulphurous for use in iron making, without previous separation from sulphur by washing and coking. It is through the introduction of modern machinery and ovens, hy which these operations can be cheaply and thoroughly effected, and a coke fit for iron smelting produced, that the coal and iron ore of Western Kentucky will be most profit- ably and extensively developed. The Louisville, Paducah & South-western Railroad affords direct communication between the coal and ore fields. Already measures are in progress for the erection of extensive coke works on the line of the railroad, which will doubtless prove but the first step in the successful development of a different form and more extensive iron industry than any yet established in Western Kentucky.
THE NOLIN RIVER DISTRICT.
In Edmonson and Grayson counties, north of Green river, between Nolin river and Bear creek, is an area of
From Harper's Magazine.
. opyright, ibos, by Harper & Brutbers
considerable size, called the Nolin river district. The ores of this region are stratified carbonites and limonites, found near the base of the coal measures ; the ore of the most value occurs above the conglomerate. It is about four feet thick, and so far as present develop- ment indicates, underlies au area of large extent ; it is almost wholly undevel- oped. A number of years since, a small charcoal fur- nace was established on Nolin river, but it was so far from market, aud trans- portation of the iron was so uncertain and expensive that the enterprise soon failed. It rau long enough, however, to establish the fact that an excellent iron could be made from these ores.
The following analyses, by Dr. Peter and Mr. Talbutt, show the quality of a sample of this ore from near the head of Beaver Dam creek, iu Edmonson county :
CONSTITUENTS.
Per Cent.
Iron peroxide
52.926
Alumiua
4.792
Manganese
.210
Lime carbonate
.180
Magnesia
-425
Phosphoric acid
-355
Sulphuric acid
.143
Silica and insoluble silicates .
30.580
Combined water
10.400
Total
100.0II
Metallic iron
37.048
Phosphorus
.154
Sulphur
.057
In addition to the great amount of timber available for charcoal, stone coal in abundance occurs in the same region. This coal is the lowest of the series, and is the most excellent quality, analyses showing it to be far superior to the higher coals of Western Kentucky, which are the ones more generally mined.
This region is more accessible than formerly, as it lies within fifteen miles of the Louisville, Paducah & South-west- ern Railroad ; but the lack of transportation facilities directly to it has prevented its development. It is one of the most richly endowed undeveloped iron regions in the State.
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VIEW OF A ROYAL FAMILY.
In many other localities in the Western coal field iron ores have been found, but they have not been thoroughly prospected, aud little is shown of their extent .. Que of the best known localities of this sort is in Muhlenburg county. In this county are found, at Airdrie Furnace, on Green river, and at Buckner Furnace, near Greenville, deposits of so- called black-band iron ore-a ferruginous, bituminous shale, yielding about thirty per cent. of iron.
At Airdrie Furnace this cre rests immediately above an excellent coking coal, and the two can be mined together very cheaply. At this place iron can be produced very cheaply by bringing ore from the Cumberland river region and using it in admixture with the native ore. For a more detailed description of this locality, see report in the second vol_ ume, new series, " Kentucky Geological Reports on the Airdrie Furnace."
The above described localities embrace all the most important iron ore districts of the State. There are numerous ore deposits at other places, some of which have been worked, but in comparison with the others, to a sinall extent only.
OTHER ORES.
Lead: In uearly all of the regions where the St. Louis group is fully developed more or less lead has been found. The only mining that has been done for the metal, however, has been in Livingston, Crittenden, and Caldwell counties. In Livingston and Crittenden counties a number of pits and excavations of various sorts have been dug for the purpose of working the deposits. With possibly one exception, however, the work has so far proven unprofitable. In Critten- den county considerable lead has been found at a point known as the Columbia mines, leading to the supposition that economically managed they may be wrought at a small profit. So far these lead mines had to contend with the pro- duction from the mines in the Rocky mountains, where a large quantity of this metal has been produced, almost with- out cost, in the reduction of ores for their silver. Should this competition in time be removed, they would become more important sources of profit.
Zinc: Ziuc is frequently found in the form of sulphide (black jack) accompanying the lead. It has uever been found in sufficient quantities for working.
Fluor-spar: Fluor-spar is found in more or less liberal quantities throughout the lead region. In Crittenden county, northwardly from the Columbia mines, fluor-spar is found in great abundance. Considerable deposits of the massive variety, very wbite and apparently free from impurities, are found at the Memphis mines and viciuity. It is not unlikely that other important deposits may be found.
Marl beds: One of the most interesting results of the geological survey was the discovery of potash aud soda in some of the usarls of the Chester group, in such quantities as to prove them valuable as fertilizers.
Attention was first directed to the deposits near Leitchfield, Grayson county, and now they are searched for with interest wherever the Chester group is known to occur. They have been found in Grayson, Edmonson, Breckinridge, Caldwell, Christian, and Livingston counties. Their entire extent is unknown, but it is not iniprobable that further explorations may prove their existence wherever the Chester group is fully developed.
Scarcely too high an estimate cau be placed on these marls in Kentucky, as they constitute a ready and cheaper fertilizer for tobacco lands, the properties of the marl being to renew the vigor of the soil as it is impoverished by the tobacco. The infertility of much of the laud is largely due, not to original poorness, but to the exhaustion produced by tobacco ; these potash marls are expected to serve in placing the lands once more in a fertile condition.
Following is the analyses of a sample of marl collected from Haycraft's Lick, Grayson county :
(Composition dried at 212ยบ Fahrenheit. )
CONSTITUENTS.
Per Cent.
Alumina, iron, etc., oxides
27.811
Lime, carbonate .
.880
Magnesia .
.824
Phosphoric acid . .109
Potash
5.554
Soda
.657
Water and Loss
4.245
Silica and insoluble silicates
59.920
Total
100,000
IRON MANUFACTURE IN KENTUCKY.
The original iron enterprise in the State is said by an early writer upon Kentucky history to have been a small furnace built by government troops on Slate creek, a branch of the Licking river, in Bath county, in 1791. It was successfully operated until 1838. In 1810 there were four furnaces and three forges in the State, two of the former being located in Montgomery county and one each in Estill and Wayne counties, with a forge in each county named, that supplied the neighborhood with blacksmithing irons and castings. In 1815 Lexington had four nail factories, that turned out seventy tons of old-fashioned wrought nails annually. During the same year a Greenup county farmer smelted in a cupola the first iron ore used in the Hanging Rock district, and the business proving successful, be, with two partners, in 1817 built the first blast-furnace in that district. It was located on the left bank of the Little Sandy river, about six miles south-west of Greenupsburg. It had a twenty-five-foot stack and was six feet wide at the poshes, and was merely an excavation in the solid argillaceous rock of a cliff, the archway below being excavated to meet it.
This furnace was operated until 1837 and never turned out a great amount of irou. In 1824, Messrs. Ward & McMurty built the Pactolus furnace, in Carter county, a few miles above that just described, but it was abandoned like the other in 1837. The Pactolus had a large forge which was operated in connection with it during the period named. In 1824 there was likewise a steam furnace in Greenup county, three miles from the Ohio river and five miles from Greenupsburg. This was abandoned in 1860. Bellefonte furnace, on Hood's creek, near Ashland, in Boyd county, was
54
erected in 1826 by A. Paul1, George Poague, and others. It was the pioneer enterprise in that county and is still being operated in a small way. From 1818 to 1834 thirteen furnaces were built in Carter, Boyd, and Greenup counties, all of which, after a short existence, were allowed to become disused and valueless.
Subsequent to 1834 a number of charcoal furnaces were operated in these three counties and in Lawrence county for a considerable period, hut nearly all have been abandoned long since, and these were followed later on by a few
BIG POPLAR TREE, BELL COUNTY (21 feet in circumference).
bituminous coal and coke furuaces, which have all met the same fate. In 1830 there were at least a dozen forges in Greenup, Estill, Edmon- son, and Crittenden counties, but hy 1850 all, with oue ex- ception, had ceased to be operated. These forges turned out blooms, which were disposed of at Pitts- hurgh, Cincinnati, and Ken- tucky rolling-mills. At this time there is hut one forge in the States, at Red river, in Estill county, and it is not active, all this remarkable de- cay being attributable to the difficulty of getting the prod- uct of furnaces and bloom- eries to a profitable mar- ket. Outside of the Hanging Rock district, prior to 1860, furnaces were built in several counties lying in the central and western parts of the State; in Bath, Bullitt, Rus- sell, Muhlenburg, Nelson, Lyon, Crittenden, Trigg, Cal- loway, and Livingston coun- ties, but none are now in ex- istence. During this period eight rolling-mills were oper- ated also, but at present there are but two establish- ments of this kind in the State actively employed, one at Covington, another at Louisville.
Viewing the rapid develop- ment that has been made in routes of transportation since the close of the war period, it is remarkable that Ken- tucky has permitted her vast iron resources to remain un- improved. In 1870 the State was seventh among iron-pro- ducing States and eleventh in 1880, while now she occu- pies a much lower position on the list. With the advent of the various railroads of Eastern Kentucky into the heart of the richest coal and iron districts of the State it may reasonably be expected that all previous difficulties
in the way to a profitable working of iron in the Red river region will be removed, and that this industry will receive such an impulse that it can never again fall back to its present position.
The rush of investment and impulses of development into the coal and iron sections of Kentucky during 1887 have been so impetuous and vigorous as to leave little doubt that the next five years will see the immense stores of natural
55
wealth fully opened to enterprise. Railroads that were projected many years ago have been put under contract, and many miles of track have been laid. In the iron and coal-bearing district of Western Kentucky new lines of railroad have aided to organize several furnace projects, and the coking coals have been promisingly opened. In Easteru and South-eastern Kentucky, new lines of transportation have already reached the edge of the coal fields, and discoveries of deposits of finest iron ores have heen made where they were uot expected. The probability is that the north side of the Pine monutain range contains a continuous and extraordinarily rich deposit of iron ore that will make every rail- road built into the section profitable. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad is now preparing to build its line to a junc- tion with the Norfolk & Western, at Big Stone Gap, and all that remains to be decided is whether the route shall be up the Cumberland Valley of Kentucky or Powell's Valley in Tennessee. This concentration of energy and development means a rich and powerful future for Louisville, the already great industrial city, straight on the road to the great markets North and West. The next ten years will see Kentucky one of the greatest industrial States in the Union and Louisville almost doubled in population.
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Entuck
OVERNOR J. Proc- tor Knott, on June 2, 1887, delivered an address on "Ken-
tucky " to the graduates of the State Agricultural and Me- chanical College, at Lexington, which contains an admirable summary of the condition of the State. It is as follows ;
When I consider the superior intelligence and refinement of the presence in which I have the lionor to appear, I very seriously mistrust my ability, either to contribute to your enter- tainmeut or to add to your present stock of information, by a discussion of any subject whatever. There is one, nevertheless, upon which I may, perhaps, venture with some propriety to address you. Descended from an ancestry who made their homes on "The Dark and Bloody Ground" when it was a savage wilder- ness, with danger and death lurking on every haud; born upon the bosom of the Commonwealth which they, in their humble sphere, assisted to create while the tomahawk and the scalping knife were gleaming around them ; inspired with a passionate pride in her prosperity and her prestige from my earliest youth ; the recipient of the most distinguished houor within the gift of her generous people, aud standing beneath the shadow of this splendid institution of learning- the offspring of her enlightened bounty, and the object of her fostering care-I feel that I may at least speak to you of Kentucky ; of her resources, her progress, and her possibilities.
I desire, however, to have a distinct understanding with you at the outset. I do not propose to abuse your courtesy, or weary your patience with well-worn platitudes. I have no inflated panegyric to prouounce upon the chivalry of her sons, or the beauty of her daughters ; no fervid protestation of impassioned patriotism to make; no fanciful theories to advance, and no gaudy display of stilted rhetoric, or studied declamation to exhibit. All I have to offer you is a plain, uupolished statement of established facts, with, perhaps, an occasional suggestion of such conclusions as may be read- ily deduced from them by your own enlightened judgments.
With the singular State pride characteristic of the native Kentuckian, we are accustomed to congratulate ourselves that our own State is the most heaven-favored land beneath the shining sun, and that, too, very frequently, without any- thing like an intelligent appreciation of the vast variety of fortunate circumstances which so abundantly justify that gratifying conclusion. Yet, with all this happy self-satisfaction, we are overwhelmed with amazement when we come to realize, in the light of well authenticated facts, the astounding munificence with which we are endowed with all the natural elements of material prosperity and grandeur.
CLIMATE.
The very air around us seems to kiss the fair face of our State with affectionate fondness, breathing upon it a delicious and health-giving influence, and thrilling all the manifold forms of organic nature within her bosom with superior life and vigor. This is no mere fanciful idea. It is a simple truth, attested not only by our own experience, but by a variety of familiar facts, which prove conclusively that we are not only favored with a mild and salubrious climate, but with one in every respect among the most desirable to be found upon the glohe. While the seasons are more regular in succession, more nearly equal in their duration, and more distinct in the characteristics peculiar to each, than is usual in other latitudes, it has been demonstrated by careful observations, made by the Signal Service through a series of years, that its lowest temperature in winter very rarely reaches zero. while its maximum heat in summer is frequently far below that of Boston, Montreal, Chicago, or St. Paul.
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Thus free from the ever-acting influences of the protracted summers of the South and the disadvantages of the long and rigorous winters of the North ; with each successive season performing its beneficent functions within its appointed time, our climate is in every particular most favorable to the prosecution of industrial enterprise, and the promotion of physical development. Our cattle are frequently found upon the pasture during the entire winter, requiring but little additional food, while there is rarely a time in winter or summer when a laboring man can not perform a full day's work with comparative comfort in the open air.
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