USA > New York > Clinton County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 60
USA > New York > Franklin County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 60
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK.
capacity was there seems to be no means of determining, but it is known that they were charged with wood and char- coal, and blown by a cold blast, of course, for such a thing as a hot blast had not then been thought of, and that hollow and other iron-ware was cast here as well as pig-iron, the castings having been made direet from the furnaccs. These furnaces stood between the present rolling-mill and the foundry. On the 28th of January, 1828, a cable-factory was ordered to be built, and an anchor-forge had also already been some time in operation. Here the largest ship-anchors and iron-cables were manufactured of the Arnold Hill iron, which seems to have been well adapted to the purpose. Some time in 1829 the nail-factory was erected, and during the same or the following year a freshet swept the forges away on the east side of the river, whereupon the company built the lower dam, together with the present canal, which is nearly half a mile in length, by which they get a fall of about 15 feet at the lower end. Here, at the lower end of the canal, they built a large forge, the building being of wood. This stood until Sunday, July 31, 1836, when it was burned to the ground. But the same season the forge now standing was crected,-a massive stone building about 200 by 75 feet, with 16 fires,-undoubtedly one of the finest bloomer-forges on the continent to-day.
About this time a great change seems to have been made. The lease of the Arnold ore-bed having expired, it was found necessary to look elsewhere for ore. Previously to this time a considerable quantity had been obtained from the Palmer Hill mine, probably for the forges, while it is presumed that used in the blast-furnaces was taken from Arnold Hill, as was also, doubtless, some for the forges,- this being so rich that it needed no separating. Previously to about this time such a thing as separating ore by water was unknown in this section ; but at Palmer Hill a magnetic separator had for a long time been in operation. The eon- pany's first separator was built on the brook which runs off from Palmer Hill. The sieves were worked by hand for the first year or two, and many men are living who can recollect working at this laborious employment, jogging the sieves up and down. But in 1837 the present separator was built at Clintonville, on the canal already mentioned, about halfway from the lower dam to the forge below, and here improve- ments were soon afterwards made by which hand labor was to a great extent dispensed with. This period, from 1826 to 1836, and perhaps later, was probably the most prosper- ous one which the Ausable Valley has ever seen. At Black Brook the Rogerses had commenced making iron in 1832, and five years later at Ausable Forks. There was a large iron-manufactory at New Sweden, two miles above Clinton- ville ; there were forges at Wilmington, on Lake Placid, and other points above; near the Arnold ore-bed there was the Batty forge of two fires, and a short distance above was Batty's upper forge and separator, while on the place now owned by Elisha Allen, on the west slope of the Little Ausable, was the Etna blast-furnace, which was built in 1826 by Ketchum, Hart & French, under the name of the " Peru Smelting Company ;" and a short distance farther north was another blast-furnace, which had been built in 1822 by Watson & Drury.
Closely connected with the interests of the Peru Iron
Company from a very early date stands Palmer Hill. Among the earliest settlers in this region was a man by the name of Palmer, who, with his son, Zephaniah, located somewhere in the vicinity of Ausable Forks, some time pre- viously to the year 1825. Zephaniah Palmer was a sur- veyor, and in some of his rambles about the country he discovered indications of iron-ore on the bold, uninviting summit which was subsequently by common consent named after him, of which he soon afterwards obtained possession. This hill is situated on what was known as the Sloeum tract of the eighth division of Livingston's patent, lot No. 15. In 1825, Mr. Palmer began to raise ore from this mine, selling it mainly at first to the Peru Iron Company, and Aug. 22, 1826, we find a memorandum to the effect that " Palmer & Lee are to furnish ore (raise it) at the same rate as Z. Palmer has raised it heretofore, and each to share equally in the sum paid by the Peru Iron Company." The ore at that time was taken from near the surface, at the north end of the tract now occupied by the works of the company. But as the Arnold ore was much richer and cheaper, and the difference in quality had probably not been discovered, this was used mainly in preference to the Palmer Hill ore. The lean quality of the latter, together with the heavy cost of separating by magnets, made it much more expensive,- the former being so abundant that the ore which required separating was not used at all. At this time teams were simply backed down into the Palmer Hill mine and loaded up, no hoisting or pumping apparatus being required.
Somewhere about the year 1828 or 1829, Palmer sold or mortgaged three-eighths of the hill to the Peru Iron Com- pany, while Aiken was manager, and there is a tradition that the dissatisfaction which the company felt in conse- quence of this move was one of the causes which led to Aiken's removal soon afterwards. But the property steadily increased in value as the excellence of the ore and the ex- tent of the deposit became known, and whatever regrets were felt at the time have probably long since disappeared. About the same time, or perhaps a little later, Palmer sold or mortgaged the remainder of the property to different parties ; litigations sprang up in consequence of the great desire by different individuals to get hold of a portion of the property, and the final consequence was that Palmer found himself dispossessed of his property by sharper par- ties, and was driven to the necessity of laboring by the day in his old age upon this very hill and for the very men who had become enriched by his fortunate discovery. He left several sons, one of whom is ex-Governor Palmer, of Illi- nois, and it is said he died and was buried near the mouth of the Ausable River, about fifteen years ago, while the body of his father lies in a neglected spot under a pine- tree in or near the village of Ausable Forks.
Palmer Hill is now in the joint, undivided possession of the Messrs. J. & J. Rogers Co., of Ausable Forks, and of the Peru Steel and Iron Company, of Clintonville, the former company working the opening on the south side, and the latter that on the east or northeast side. The works at Clintonville remained under the management of the old Peru Iron Company until 1865, when the present com- pany was organized under the name of the Peru Steel and Iron Company. Francis Saltus, the old president, had died
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TOWN OF AUSABLE.
several years before this, and the business had during the latter portion of this period been managed by his sons, of whom he had four, Theodore having been the one who made the transfer of the property.
The president of the present company is Charles Bliven ; Francis J. Dominick is vice-president and secretary ; and Edward Dodge is treasurer. The trustees are H. A. Har- ley, Wm. Henry Gunther, and Mr. Hurlbut, all these offi- cers having other business of various kinds in New York City. The present resident manager is D. Cady, who has filled this office since the fall of 1872. At the upper dam arc a saw-mill, grist-mill, rolling-mill, with three trains of rolls, besides a slitting-machine, foundry, wheelwright-shop, carpenter's shop, blacksmith's shop, etc.
Half a mile below is the lower dam, and from here the water which drives the forge and separator below is taken into a canal about half a mile in length. About midway on this canal are the separator and roasting-kilns. The scp- arator is after the usual style, the ore being first roasted and stamped, and afterwards sifted under water, and ample provision is also made for saving the fine particles of orc, which in the ordinary separators are carried off by the stream and wasted. About a quarter of a mile still farther below is the forge, which has 16 fires and 4 hammers.
The new iron truss-bridge between the two dams was constructed a few years since at an expense of $18,000, and on the street of the village, which runs along a bluff some fifty feet above the rolling-mill, we find the company's barn, one of the finest in this whole section, together with a handsome store and office, the latter containing a large vault in which is stored away the books and papers of the present and former owners, which cover a period of almost three-quarters of a century.
The company owns the dam at Lake Placid, by far the largest reservoir on the river, with the exclusive privilege of using it at will, in this possession having a decided ad- vantage over all rival corporations on the river. They also own land in all directions within a circuit of fourteen miles, from which are drawn their immense supplics of charcoal, of which they use about 5000 bushels per day when in full operation. They have 11 lots in the southwest corner of Peru, on which is a deposit of plumbago ; about 30 lots in Lewis, where there is another rich vein of plumbago, from which some 600 tons have been raised ; about 40 lots in Chesterfield, and many in other localities. On their tract in Peru are 3 square brick coal-kilns ; near Poke O'Moon- shinc are 3 kilns of the bce-hive pattern ; in Black Brook, 4, square ; in Ausable arc 2, bee-hive ; in Jay, 3, bee-hive ; in Lewis, 13, square; in Chesterfield, the Wrisly kiln; 2 bce-hive kilns at Trout Pond; and at Auger Pond, 2 bce- hive kilns. These kilns are all within a distance of fourteen miles, and the cutting of wood and manufacture of charcoal in them furnish employment to a small army of men, as it has done for over forty years. The Winter ore-bed, named for its former owner, Judge Winter, of New York, which probably determined the location of the works at Clinton- ville, it being within a short distance, is on lot 210, Maule's patent. An immense quantity of ore has been taken out from this bed, which is probably the oldest iron-mine in this part of the country. A tunnel 100 feet in length lias
been constructed here into the side of the mountain, which greatly facilitates the raising of the ore, as well as pumping out the water. The quantity of this ore is about the samne as that of the Arnold ore-bed. Although abandoned for the present, it is not improbable that it will be again worked extensively, as the ore is far from being exhausted in it.
The past and recent present of the Peru Iron and Steel Company have thus been viewed in detail on account of their importance as an industry of the town. The present status of affairs at Clintonville is certainly deplorable. Compared with its past, it is as a thing that has passed away. Financial reverses have visited the company and paralyzed all its enterprises. But few men are employed, and but little is doing. The affairs of the company have been under the control of Francis J. Dominick, as receiver, since February, 1879. There is, however, a prospect of re- organization, and the hope is entertained that the further prosecution of the enterprises of the company will be re- sumed at an early day.
Some reference has already been made to the commence- ment of industrial life at New Sweden.
In 1822, MeLean, Pierce & Co. formed a partnership with Maj. Isaac Finch for the manufacture of iron. A good two-fired forge was crected, ore was procured from the Arnold bed, and the business was pushed briskly. Mr. Finch appears to have been at the head of the iron busi- ness, from whom the name of Finchville was derived. Mr. Finch was formerly a major in the United States army, and was wounded in one of the battles in the war of 1812.
In 1830, citizens concluded that the place ought to have a name more in keeping with its importance as a manufac- turing centre. A liberty-pole having been erected for the celebration of the 4th of July, a new flag was thrown to the breeze, on which was inscribed in large letters " New Sweden." And it was afterwards more generally known by that name.
Mr. McLean having died, his interest in the property passed through the hands of a brother to a nephew, Dr. William V. K. McLean, who came on from Washington County, and entered the business in 1832. In 1835, Mr. Pierce sold out his interest in the mill and forge on the north side of the river, which passed into the hands of Dr. McLean and Mr. John Fitzgerald. For a period of twenty years from that date, the firm of McLean & Fitzgerald was a household word through the valley of the Ausable. These and other manufacturing and mercantile industries made New Sweden one of the most thriving and promising vil- lages in the Ausable Valley, outside of Keeseville. Another two-fired forge was built on the south side of the river by Philip Brewster, in 1838, afterwards owned by John Hath- away, Mr. Brockway, and others, and run almost continu- ally till the great freshet of 1856. A saw-mill was also built on the south side by Pope & Ball, and subsequently purchased by L. W. Pierce and B. C. Pierce, by whom it was run for two years, in connection with the store and the old homestead farm. The property then passed into the hands of L. W. Pierce, by whom it was managed for many years.
But little or nothing now remains to tell of New Swe-
230
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK.
den's former prosperity and importance. The lumber busi- ness on the lower Ausable dwindled into insignificance many years ago. The depression in the iron business in 1856 forced McLean & Fitzgerald into bankruptcy, and, to put a final end to all manufacturing enterprises at New Sweden, the memorable freshet of 1856 carried everything away. Forges, saw-mills, coal-houses, blacksmith-shops, the dam, the bridge, and even the earth on which they stood were swept down the Ausable. Barren and jagged rocks and deep gullies in the sand are now all that is to be seen where these once thrifty manufactories stood. It is even difficult to mark the exact spot where some of them were located. Many of the houses have been torn down or have tumbled down, and the locality wears a desolate appearance. But few people reside there, and New Swe- den is wellnigh one of the things that were.
John Fitzgerald died in 1865. A son is living, Mr. J. C. Fitzgerald, now of Black Brook, and a daughter, Mrs. Fairbanks, of Ausable Forks. Dr. William V. K. Mc- Lean, well known and respected for his character, ability, and influence, died a few years ago at a good old age. He was one of the principal supporters of the Presbyterian Church at Clintonville. His sons living are Judge Camp- bell McLean, of Fond du Lac, Wis., P. V. N. McLean, of Keeseville; and daughters living, Mrs. Elisha Arnold, of Keeseville, and Mrs. W. W. Hartwell and Mrs. C. H. Foote, of Plattsburgh.
The immense hydraulic power afforded by the Ausable River, at Keeseville, was early utilized, and some reference has been made to its early industrial life.
The first iron manufactory, a rolling-mill, was constructed in 1815, and operations commenced in 1816, by the Keese- ville Rolling and Slitting Mill Company. Two principal members of the firm were Richard and Oliver Keese, bro- thers, the former the father of our informant, and of Oliver Keese, 2d, who died a few years since. The other members of the firm were John W. Anderson, Rodman and Caleb Brown, and last, but not least, Joseph Call, the great wrest- ler, perhaps the strongest man of his age. Richard Keese was immediately succeeded by his son, then Richard Keese, Jr.
The old rolling-mill of 1815 manufactured nail-plate principally, and the "slitting" process, which the name of the firm indicates, was one which is now superseded. They then slit the wide plates up into horse-nail rods, whereas they now roll them out. The old mill did something at making boiler plate, and had the honor of making the plate of the old steamer "Congress," on Lake Champlain.
The lumber business on the Ausable River at that early period was immense. Large saw-mills were constructed at Keeseville, and at frequent intervals up the river, and this was the general outlet and trading centre for this large business. Seth and Martin Pope built a large mill on the Chesterfield side of the river, at the upper bridge, in 1821, and Fisk & Keese (Oliver 2d) soon after built a gang-mill on the Ausable side.
In 1816, the Keeseville Rolling and Slitting Mill Com- pany put in a machine, run by water, for cutting straight, headless nails. These nails all had to go through the slow process of being headed, which required ten machines run
by hand. Such was the stage of nail-manufacturing no longer ago than 1815.
In 1824 or 1825, Joshua Aiken and Pascal P. Spear (many of our readers will remember the latter) introduced nail-machines run by water and cutting nails with heads, very much like the nail-machines now in use.
In 1820, Richard Keese built the upper dam and put in a two-fired forge on the Ausable side of the river. The ore was from the Arnold mine, and the iron was worked right up by the rolling-inill. Elias A. Hurlburt soon after became an equal partner. In 1826, Mr. Keese was elected to Congress, and sold out his entire interest in the forge to Hurlburt, Aiken & Prindle.
In 1832 this company was formed, and consolidated the entire iron business of Keeseville, except the extensive furnace of which we shall speak elsewhere. The company was a strong one, mnuch of the stock being taken in Troy. They did a heavy business for many years. The old forge at the upper dam was abandoned about 1840. They built a new one of four fires at the lower works, and used the escape heat for heating iron in the rolling-mill, an econom- ical process which worked well.
In 1840, Edmund and Jacob D. Kingsland, who had formerly been doing business at Bouquet Falls, built a forge of six fires at the lower dam, or Birmingham, where the rolling-mill now stands. The firm was E. Kingsland and J. D. Kingsland.
In 1847 the firm of E. & J. D. Kingsland & Co. was formed, which bought out the Keeseville Manufacturing Company, and consolidated the business with the works at Birmingham. They did an immense business, not only in manufacturing, but in buying up all the surplus iron in the country and sending it to market. They rebuilt the rolling- mill and nail-factory at Keeseville, with all the latest im- provements, putting in about 50 cut-nail machines, turning out about 60 tons of cut-nails a week. In 1852 they built a rolling-mill at Birmingham. Their rolling-mill turned out about 4000 tons of iron a year,-3000 tons into plates for cut-nails, and 1000 tons into merchant iron. The firm struggled hard and manfully against the general depression in the iron business, and not till 1862 did they even tem- porarily abandon the field. In that year the entire ma- chinery of the rolling-mills and nail-factory was sold to the Burlington Manufacturing Company, and the Keeseville works were effectually dismantled.
Then followed an area of business stagnation in Keese- ville which was never before witnessed. The events of the the war gave it some signs of life, but in other respects it seemed a perpetual Sunday. One could stand on the prin- cipal street, on a weck-day, without being able to see a single person from one end of the street to the other. Not until about 1865 did Keescville begin to resume its wonted liveliness and thrift. But during its years of depression a business cloud no bigger at first than a man's hand was accumulating its forces, until it at last poured out upon the village a copious and continuous shower of prosperity.
The foundry business has always been an important branch of industry in Keeseville. The first foundry was built by Joseph Goulding in 1829, and in 1832 the co- partnership of Goulding & Peabody was formed.
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TOWN OF AUSABLE.
In 1842 the old wooden building constructed by Gould- ing was taken down, and the more substantial one now used for a foundry was erected. For many years it was the only foundry on this side of Lake Champlain. They did a large business, employing about sixty men, casting the principal machinery for all the forges, saw-mills, grist-mills, etc., in the valleys of the Ausable and Saranac, and even extended the business into Canada, and filling orders from California and the South. They did considerable at making steam- engines. They used the Port Henry and Salisbury pig- iron.
In 1848, Mr. Peabody sold out to Albert Conro, and Henry Green was taken into the copartnership, called Goulding, Green & Conro. Mr. Goulding died in about 1854, and the firm was changed to Green & Conro, and immediately after to A. W. Kingsland & Co., who con- ducted the business till 1860. In 1860 the establishment went into the hands of Burton & Noyes, of Burlington, and for one year was under the management of E. K. Baber, of Keeseville. In 1865 the property was bought by Nelson Kingsland.
In 1870, Hon. E. Kingsland (2d), son of Nelson Kings- land, purchased a half interest in the foundry, and re- mained in partnership with his father until 1878, when he removed to Chicago, where he is engaged in the manufac- ture of agricultural implements. The enterprise is now under the sole charge of Nelson Kingsland, and is in suc- cessful operation. The buildings and machinery are of the finest character for the purpose, and the foundry is capable of turning out from 3000 to 4000 tons of castings per year.
Previous to 1860, E. & J. D. Kingsland leased the old woolen-factory, and started a machine-shop for the manu- facture of drawing-knives, axes, chisels, etc. They did quite a large business at it for a while, but it did not prove a success in all particulars, and they finally concluded they would not meddle any more with edge-tools.
About 1860, Mr. Levi Scribner commenced the manu- facture of axle-trees, and did quite a brisk business at man- ufacturing wrought axle-trces. The machinery was moved to Chicago in 1862.
In June, 1870, the manufacture of wire was commenced in the basement of the old factory building, and was con- tinued till the spring of 1873, when, the lease of the build- ing running out, the business was abandoned. Over 500 tons of wire were manufactured.
NAIL MANUFACTURE.
Many persons will remember when such a thing as a horse-nail made by machinery was not known. We well recollect when old blacksmiths and farmers, on being told that Daniel Dodge, of Kecseville, was trying to invent a machine for making hammered horse-nails, shook their heads in derision. They admitted that this was a great age for improvement, but there was a knack about making a good horse-nail that could never be acquired by machinery. Nothing but the direct application of human intellect and human muscle could ever produce a good horse-nail. But to-day a horse-nail made by hand is ahnost a thing unknown, in the enlightened portions of the United States at least.
Machine nails have entirely superseded them, and are now as much a commodity as board-nails, and are as uniformly quoted in the market. All blacksmiths use them.
Mr. Dodge commenced studying on this subject in 1848. Various attempts had previously been made by others to invent a machine for manufacturing forged horse-nails, but all were unsuccessful. Machines were made producing an inferior article of cut horse-nails, but they never became popular. Mr. Dodge had labored seven years at the black- smith trade during his minority, and had a familiar acquaint- ance with the laborious process of making nails by hand. In later years he devoted much study to the general prin- ciples of mechanism and mechanical movements, which peculiarly fitted him to attempt an invention of this kind.
After experimenting for four years, he secured a patent in 1852, and put nails into the market. But they were greatly inferior to the nails now made, did not give entire satisfaction, and he finally got up a new patent on entirely new principles, in 1856, to which he added two other pat- ents in 1859, and another in 1864.
Some machines were run in Keeseville from 1857 to 1862 with the successive improvements, but the machine was not settled upon as a complete thing till 1862. The machines were then put upon the market. Mr. Dodge has retained the exclusive right to manufacture these machines, selling them at from $400 to $500 each, and receiving a yearly royalty from each machine. Mr. Dodge has thereby realized a handsome property, with a constantly-increasing annual income, as a reward for his years of anxious study, being muore fortunate than the majority of inventors.
The fundamental principle which distinguishes it from all other horse-nail machines is that it forges the nails, -- hammers them out as effectually as is done by the black- smith's hammer. Each nail receives just 18 distinct blows, 9 from a roller and 9 from a hammer, no more and no less, and all this is done in the space of one and a half seconds. By the side of the machine is a little furnace, in which a number of small iron rods are heated. The operator, usu- ally a boy, or young man, takes out one of these rods and places the heated end in the machine. You hear a r-r-r-r- r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-rat, just one and a half seconds long, and out comes a complete horse-nail, more perfect than can be made by hand. You hear 45 of these rats, or 810 strokes of the roller and hammer, in a minute, and see as a product 45 perfect horse-nails. As one iron grows cold it is replaced by a hot one from the furnace, and it is interest- ing to see with what skill this is done,-done so quickly that not a "rat" is lost. Ten pounds of nails is a good day's work by hand for a skilled workman. A boy of sixteen years can make 200 pounds a day with one of these ma- chines. The nails are perfect and all alike. The pressure and hammering which they get while passing through the machine renders them very firm and tough. The best Norway iron is used, and no other.
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