USA > North Carolina > Historical and descriptive review of North Carolina, volume 1 > Part 4
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TOTAL.
1790
288,204
100,572
4,975
393,751
1800
337,764
133,296
7,043
487,103
1810
376,400
168,824
10,266
555,500
1820
419 200
204,917
14,712
638,829
1830
472,843
245,601
19,543
737,987
1840
484,870
245,817
22,732
753,419
1850
553,028
288,548
27,463
869,039
1860
629,942
331,050
30,463
992,622
1870
678,470
391,650
1,071,361
1880
868,473
531,277
1,399,750
In 1880 the foreign born population numbered but 3,742; the number of persons to thi square mile was 29, increase from 1870 to 1880, was 30.6 per cent.
RIVERS.
The rivers of North Carolina are numerous, but have shifting sand bars at their mouths and rapids in their descent from the hilly regions. Cape Fear is formed by the junction of the Haw and Deep rivers, which rise in the northern part of the State and unite in the south eastern part of Chatham county. The Cape Fear follows a zigzag course, the general direction being east, south-east for about 300 miles, including one of the head branches and empties into the Atlantic near Cape Fear. It is navigable for vessels drawing 16 feet of water to Wil- mington 34 miles, and for sloops and small boats to Fayetteville 120 miles. The Roanoke has its source in the southern part of Virginia. It is 250 miles long, navigable for small sea vessels . 30 miles, and for steamboats to Halifax 120 miles. By means of a canal round the falls very small boats are able to ascend to the Dan and Staunton. The Neuse river, rising in the northern part of the State, takes a circuitous course in a general south east direction and empties into Pamlico sound. It is navigable for boats to Waynesboro'. 120 miles from the sound. The Tar river also rises in the northern part of the State, between Neuse and Roanoke and with Tranters creek forms at Washington an estuary called Pamlico river, and is navigable for steamboats to Tarboro', nearly 100 miles, including the estuary. The Chowan rises in Virginia, flows a little east of south and empties iuto Albemarle sound. It is navigable for 75 miles. Among the others worthy of mention are the Yadkin and Catawba, which rise in the western part of the State run south and reach the Atlantic through South Carolina, the former as the Great Pee Dee and the latter through the Santee. From the western slope of the Blue Ridge flow New river, the Little Tennessee and several other streams, the waters of which breaking through the Iron and Smoky Mountains, join those of the Ohio and Mississippi. .
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
MANUFACTURING FACILITIES.
Extracts from paper read before the General Assembly by W. C. Kerr, State Geologist, in January, 1881 :
"The circumstances which commonly determine the character and location of factories are, a demand for their products, abundant and cheap raw materials, the necessary power (or the means for its generation,) and available capital. It is unnecessary to add to this category skilled labor, because the fore-mentioned conditions usually suffice to attract or create the necessary skill ; and this is true also in general, of the capital required, unless there be ab- normal, hindering conditions.
" Now it can be shown that all the necessary conditions exist in North Carolina for suc- cessful and profitable enterprise in many, and in some important branches of manufacture.
"Consider, first, the most important of the above named manufacturing facilities, viz : abundant and cheap power.
WATER POWER.
"The aggregate water power of the State is about 3,500.000 horse power, and this force is distributed over the entire area of the State, (with the exception of a few seaboard counties,) a: d is thus bronght into juxtaposition with whatever raw materials or other advantageous conditions may be found in any part of its territory. This is equal to the total power, water a id steam, employed by all the manufacturing industries of Great Britain, the foremost r anufacturing nation, and considerably exceeds that of the United States. Estimated in another way, it is equal to the power which would be produced by the combustion of nearly 4 000,000 tons of coal per annum.
"This power is due to an average annual rainfall of upwards of fifty inches, and an average e evation of 640 feet. Allowing 75 per cent. for evaporation, we have a residuum of about 46,000,000 tons to be discharged by the rivers. And a consideration of the greatest importance il estimating the availability of this power. is, that the rainfall is nearly equally distributed ti rough the months of the year, being as follows: For January, 4.5 inches ; February, 5.3 ; March, 4.0 ; April, 3.9 ; May, 4 9 ; June, 4.3 ; July, 4.9 ; August, 6.1 ; September, 4.5 ; October, 3.3 ; November, 3.4 ; December, 3.7.
"If the whole of this force were employed in cotton manufacturing, it would be adequate to turn 140,000,000 spindles. All the cotton mills in the United States contain not quite 11,000,000. The water power of North Carolina would manufacture three times the entire crop of the country, whereas all the mills in operation on the continent only spin one quarter of it. Putting the crop of this State at 400,000 bales, she has power enough to manufacture fifty times that quantity.
"The manufacture of cotton has been taken for illustration, because all the conditions of it are so well known, the raw materials are at hand in unlimited amount and on terms which give a great advantage to the domestic manufacture. and the market is everywhere, and Especially because the staple is produced in five-eighths of the territory of the State and the water power of eight-ninths of it (all east of the Blue Ridge) is within seventy-five miles of the cotton fields; and these advantages are enhanced by a most favorable climate, a varied and elastic agriculture; capable of furnishing food supplies to any extent to meet the local demand an l by the presence of not only ample power for such other affiliated and ancillary industries as might be developed along with this, but also of abundant raw materials for these other in- dustries.
STEAM POWER.
The abundance of wood furnished by our forests and wooded portions of almost every farm will make it, on account of its cheapness, the fuel for steam power and for ordinary heating purposes for many years to come. Saw mills get their motive power from waste lumber and from tops of trees, after a log is removed. Cotton gins, grist mills, and what may be generally formed plantation mills, are all run by steam produced from wood cut near them. In the interior, where there is no railway or water transportation, all the small factories, such a
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
wagon factories, foundries, plow factories, &c., have their machinery moved by stcam made from wood. Wood can be bought at prices from seventy-five cents to three dollars per cord, delivered, and until the supply is perceptibly diminished, or freight rates on coal are reduced very considerably it will be relied on to create the power needed.
The estimate of wood for domestic purposes made by the census office is 7,434,690 cords, valued at $9,019,569.
The completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad across the Blue Ridge to the Tennessee line at Paint Rock has opened the East Tennessee coal fields to people living along the line of this road and its immediate connections. Good bituminous coal is delivered at stations along these lines at about five dollars and fifty cents per ton.
The coal from the Chatham mines, on Deep River, when worked, is sold at a price even less than this, but the supply is not regular.
In no part of the State where there is an eligible location for purposes of manufacturing, and where the raw material is cheap, abundant and accessible, is there any want of the means necessary for generating the needed power, whether this power is natural or created.
MANUFACTURES.
COTTON FACTORIES.
Cotton manufacturing has long been an established industry in North Carolina. Though generally prosperous it advanced cautiously until within the last six or eight years, within which time it has been doubled.
In 1870 the census reported thirty-three establishments, with a capital of $1,030,000, opera- ting 618 looms and 39,897 spindles.
The census bulletin on specific cotton manufactures states the number of establishments to be forty-nine, an increase of sixteen over that of 1870, with a capital of $2,855,800, an in- crease of $1,824,900 ; 1,790 looms, an increase of 1,172; and 92,385 spindles, an increase of 52,488.
The actual number of completed mills in the State, acertained by reports from mill owners made to the Department of Agriculture, in 1882 was sixty-four. These mills operate 2,858 looms and 156,030 spindles. It will be seen that within the past twelve years the number of establishments has almost doubled, and if two mills now under construc- tion and with machinery on the floors counted in, there are exactly as many mills again as in 1870. The number of looms has increased four hundred and fifty per cent. and the number of spindles three hundred per cent. There are no accessible statistics by which a comparison of products can be made, but the large increase in looms will add greatly to the money value of the total product. Number 14 is the average yarn spun. The cloths, bags and bagging woven are of excellent quality and rank as leading standard goods on the markets. All these mills except about twelve are operated by water power. While good water powers will always be favorite investments, the low rates at which coal is and will continue to be delivered at stations along the lines of railway that run through the cotton belt, and where raw material for manufacture can be bought at fac- tory doors, will modify the almost exclusive use of water as a motive power and will aid in building mills in localities that are supplied with the other governing facilities for manu- facturing.
The amount of capital invested in cotton factories in the State by other than native citizens is considerable.
MANUFACTURES OF WOOD.
By the census enumeration of 1880 there were 776 establishments, with a capital of $1,743,217, employing 5,334 men, receiving $447,431 wages. The products in part were 241,822,000 feet of lumber, 13,340,000 laths, 8,707.000 shingles, 1,253,000 spool and bobbin stock. The value of logs $1,490,616, mill supplies $85,523, and the total value of all products was $2,672,796. Most of these establishments are saw mills. Almost in every village there are
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
carpenter shops, furniture and wagon factories, with capacities suited to the wants of the communities supplied.
The most valuable cabinet woods, such as walnut, cherry, maple and birch have been felled in large quantities far in the interior and shipped abroad. Buyers from the North and West have made large purchases of these trees during the past year in the mountain counties, Since the display of unknown and almost incredible wealth of the State in its various woods, at the Atlanta Exposition, there has been a very active and growing demand for them. The supply is ample for shipment beyond the borders of the State for years to come, and it offers certain profits to enterprising and skilful workmen who will build their shops near it.
IRON MANUFACTURES.
The Bulletin of the census of 1880 on the iron and steel production of the United States puts down twenty manufacturers of these materials in North Carolina, with a capital of $759,400. As long as it took five or six tons of coal to convert two tons of ore into iron, the transportation of fuel was so heavy and expensive that it put manufacturers in the State at a disadvantage, and made it profitable for miners to ship their ores where they had facilities to the great iron making centres. But now, when under the present improved system of manufacture, one ton of coal makes a ton of iron, the advantages are reversed, and the fuel will be brought to the ore beds. The introduction of cheap coal, and the completion of the Western North Carolina railroad and the Pardee road to the Cranberry mines, will build up furnaces and manufactures, and make them among the most important industries.
There are large machine shops, railroad shops, foundries, agricultural implement works in all the cities and large towns, and in every village and at most of the country stores black- smiths ply their trade.
FLOURING AND GRIST MILLS.
Mills of these sorts are, as a rule, of limited capacity, and are run to grind the wheat and corn grown in the neighborhood, and brought to their doors. But little of the grain converted into meal or flour is sent away to market, and when they have supplied the communities for whose apparent convenience they were built, the mill wheel stops. A few large mills, some run by steam and others by water power, make excellent meal and flour for the large pro vision markets, and their brands have wide reputations.
At the last Mechanic's Institute Fair, held in Boston, wheat, corn, flour and meal grown and ground in North Carolina attracted especial attention, and were pronounced the best on exhibition. The wheat was plump and full, and weighed from four to five pounds above the commercial standard, and the flour produced from it was white and smooth and rich.
The corn of the State is a hard flint corn, heavier than the Western corn, and better. It makes a white, sweet meal, and is largely bought by millers to mix with Western corn in grinding, to give the meal color and body. Formerly these mills were run almost entirely by water power, and there is still a strong feeling among dealers and consumers in favor of water ground meal. This, however, will not continue long. Improved machinery, driven by steam, produces a meal that defies detection ; and cheap portable engines, and mills that can be placed wherever it is wished, will make convenience overcome prejudice.
COTTON SEED OIL MILLS.
The cultivation of cotton has grown to such an extent as to make the seed sufficient in quantity to attract the attention of cotton seed oil manufacturers. If the statistics are correct 180,000 tons of seed were used by the mills in the United States in 1881. The cotton crop of the State is estimated at 421,000 bales for 1882, and allowing 800 pounds seed per bale, the cotton seed of this State would furnish all the mills in operation in the United States. The regular growth of the industry would seem to indicate that it is profitable. Of the mills in this State, one was built in 1880, and the other three in 1882. It is generally agreed that if the raw material, the seed, can be bought at reasonable prices, there is no more certain man- ufacturing enterprise. The supply of seed is large enough, but whether the farmers will sell
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
them at prices which the manufacturer can afford to pay for them is the problem that is to be worked out. The mills are owned by prudent and successful men, and unless the diffi- culties referred to are insurmountable they will become an established branch of our manu- factures.
SILK CULTURE.
Among the undeveloped resources of North Carolina there are probably none deserving of more thoughtful consideration than silk culture.
The mulberry, which supplies the food for the silk worm, is indigenous, and grows in great abundance in almost every section of the State, and it attains its fullest development with scarcely any cultivation. Nor is the silk giving quality of its leaves less noticeable, for wher- ever North Carolina grown silk has been put to a test it has been found of most excellent quality, and equal to the best French and Italian.
There is no branch of agriculture that offers so generous a reward for so little capital invested as silk culture. The making of a crop, from the hatching to the gathering of the silk, be the crop small or large, will consume but six weeks' time. Moreover, the otherwise unemployed members of the family, as the women, the children, the aged, and even infirm, can here find profitable occupation. Nor is silk culture limited to the farm or country, but where there is room and food for the silk worm available, whether it be in town or city, silk can be raised. It is computed that there are 270,994 families in North Carolina now ; if only 10,000 would make a small crop each year of two hundred to three hundred pounds of silk, the aggregate income would amount to between one and two millions of dollars. Three-fourthis of the silk in France is the production of small crops, from two to four hundred pounds. It is a source of great wealth to that nation, and contributes more than any other branch of industry to the general prosperity of the people. The French call silk culture une de nos gloires industrielles. (one of our industrial glories.)
Our endless tracts of cheap and uncultivated lands, so well adapted to the growth of the mulberry, and our mild and equable climate, present strong inducements to French and Italian colonies of silk growers, with whom the culture of silk has become an hereditary occupation.
The rapid progress and fast increasing production of the American silk manufacturies can- not but have an encouraging influence upon silk culture in this country. The raw silk im- ported, duty free, last year, amounted to about twelve million dollars.
The prices for cocoons and raw silk have of late years very much fluctuated. While the cocoons sold in 1876 at $3.00 per pound they are selling to-day at $1.25. These are the ex- treme figures, the average price may be fairly stated at $1.50 per pound.
Two hundred mulberry trees will grow very well on two acres of land. A good medium size tree will; yield one hundred and fifty pounds of leaves, which will give 30,000 pounds of leaves on two acres. As it takes seventeen pounds of leaves to make one pound of fresh cc- coons, 30,000 pounds will give 1,765 pounds of freshi cocoons.
The 1,765 pounds of fresh cocoons will make 588 pounds of dried cocoons.
A ready market for these cocoons can be found in Philadelphia through the medium of the Department of Agriculture.
The expenses of cultivating two acres in trees feeding the worms, &c., may be stated as follows :
1 Grown person first 10 days. $10.00
2 Boys or girls first 10 days .. 6.00
3 Grown persons second 10 days 20.00
5 Boys or girls second 10 days 15.00
5 Grown persons third 10 days. 30.00
16 Boys or girls. 38.00
$129.00
If a few dollars for food be added, a few days work for pruning and cultivating the trees, and a few sundries, it will cover all the expenses which would not exceed $160.
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
TAR, PITCH AND TURPENTINE.
For a long period this State was the principal source of supply for these products. The census of 1870 shows that this industry was much more largely developed in this than in any other State. The returns of the census of 1880 bearing upon this product have not yet been published. During the intervening period the pine forests of Georgia have been extensively worked, exactly to what extent has not been ascertained from any authoritative statistics. The precise status of North Carolina with reference to this peculiar industry cannot there- fore be stated. It is presumed, however, that the disproportion no longer exists that form- erly obtained between this and one or two other States.
There were, according to the census of 1870, 456,141 barrels of rosin ; 300 barrels of tar ; 3,799,499 gallons of spirits of turpentine.
The Census Bulletin on the subject for 1880, has not been completed, but will show when published, 663,907 barrels of rosin, and 6,179,200 gallons of spirits of turpentine.
From the line of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad in 1882, there were shipped 79,603 barrels of rosin, and 17,451 barrels of spirits, 68,653 tar, and 87,486 crude.
From Fayetteville, 10,725 barrels spirits turpentine, and 54,650 rosin. From New Berne, 10,000 barrels spirits, and 3.000 barrels tar.
NOTES ON THE MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA.
BY ARTHUR WINSLOW, ENGINEER AND GEOLOGIST, RALEIGH, N. C.
Eastern North Carolina is almost entirely covered with the sands and clays of the quater- nary period which are comparatively barren in workable ores or other valuable mineral deposit. Mining in this portion of the State has, therefore, been prosecuted only on a small scale and in few places. The center of mining activity lies west of the lines of the Raleigh and Augusta and the Raleigh and Gaston Railroads.
RALEIGH has in its immediate vicinity only one productive mine, i.e. the Heron Graphite Mine. It is located about 3 miles northwest of the town. The deposit is a bed of quartzitic and talco-argillaceous slate with 20 to 60 per cent. of graphite. It extends N. E. and S. W. for a distance of 18 or 20 miles with a thickness of from 2 to 4 feet, and is said to be the largest deposit of the kind known in the world. Several openings have been made upon it. At the Heron Mine the workable deposit is about 2 feet thick. The graphite can be gotten out for about $1.00 per ton.
A deposit of copper pyrites has been discovered within a few miles of Raleigh which may prove of value in the future.
The coal mines of Chiatham county, though some 30 miles distant from Raleigh, deserve mention here. The coal beds belong to a band of Triassic rocks which stretches from the Virginia line on the north, near Oxford, southwestwardly across the State, past Wadesborough, into South Carolina. They have been described and reported upon by various authorities, such as Dr. Emmons, Col. Laidley, Admiral Wilkes and Prof. Kerr, and all these gentlemen seem to agree in considering some of the seams of coal as of fine quality, well adapted for use as a fuel, for cooking, and eminently suited for the production of gas. Emmons states that the quality of the coal is such as will " give it the highest place in the market; " and he writes glowingly of the natural advantages which the Deep River region offers for the development of a manufacturing centre. Wilkes speaks of the associated bituminous shale as capable of yielding 30 per cent. of kerosene.
The mine at Egypt was opened as early as 1855 and was wrought quite extensively botlı before and after the war. The shaft in 1858 was some 460 feet deep; the coal about 6 feet thick divided by some 18 inches of slate.
During the past year Dr. H. M. Chance has been employed by the State Board of Agricul- ture in making further explorations. His final report has not, as yet, been received. He states, however, that coal has been found for a distance of 25 to 30 miles southward from Deep and Haw rivers. Five beds of coal were found at Farmville within a thickness of 40 or
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
50 feet, but only two of these were of workable size they being 2 and 3 feet thick respectively. The analyses of specimens collected by Dr. Chance do not indicate as fine a quantity of coal as is described in previous reports. The percentage of ash ranges from 3 to 25, averaging perhaps 10; and that of sulphur from 2 to 10, with an average of perhaps 4.
The Buckhorn Tram Mine is not far from the coal mines of Chatham county. It is situated on the east bank of the Cape Fear river, about 9 iniles below the junction of the Haw and Deep rivers. The ore is found in a hill about 200 feet high and consists of a seam of pure hematite ranging from 8 to 36 feet in thickness associated with manganese. The deposit is said to be exhausted but this is disputed by others and further exploration there would proba- bly be rewarded by fresh discoveries.
DURHAM lies in the same belt of Triassic rocks which contains the coal beds of Cliatham county near the position of its greatest breadth; but neither the coal or the associated black slates extend as far north as Durham and, with the exception of occasional carbonized re- mains of isolated tree trunks, no coal has been found in this vicinity.
The Chaple Hill Iron Mine is the only one of any importance near Durham. It is situated about one mile north of the town of Chapel Hill. The ore is a fine gray hematite yielding some 65 per cent. of metallic iron and carrying little sulphur or phosphorous. The deposit is in separate veins and aggregates some 50 feet in thickness. A shaft has been sunk about 75 feet in a vein about 12 feet thick and a level driven 150 feet northwards. Some two to three thousand tons of ore have been taken out. A lot of 1,000 tons was shipped to Chester, Penn- sylvania, where it was reduced with good results. Owing to the present low state of the iron market work has been discontinued at this mine.
North of OXFORD, in Granville county, is the Gillis Copper Mine. The ore is of good quality and occurs as vitreous copper, black oxide and carbonate: it also contains gold and silver. A little west of this is the Venable Mine a gold ore associated with sulphide of copper and iron.
East West of HENDERSON, in Franklin and Nash counties, are gold placers which have been worked to a considerable extent. Chief among the mines is the Portis situated in the north- east corner of Franklin county. The property covers nearly 1,000 acres. The mine is well equipped with apparatus for hydraulic washing, with crushers, batteries and concentra- tors. Over $1,000,000 have been taken from these gravels. Close to this, in Nash county, is the Arrington property of some 2,000 acres. It has not been so extensively worked as the Portis property, but portions of the gravels have been tested to yield 90 cts. per cubic yard, and abundance of water is procurable for washing. A number of smaller workings are scattered over the country in this vicinity, but they are local and on a small scale. They all constitute an isolated group of mines remote from the main productive area of the State.
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