History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 82

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922

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 82
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 82

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In richness this bed is excelled by few, if any. Selected lots yield nearly 70 per cent. of pure iron (72} per cent. being the utmost limit the very richest ores ever reach), while the general average of the mine is from 50 to 65 per cent. In quality the ore is certainly unsurpassed, and the elosest analyses show an entire absence of phosphorus,- that element which is the bane of so many otherwise rich ores, and renders them totally unfit for the manufacture of steel,-and only a slight traec of sulphur. The location of the vein is remarkably favorable to its economical and rapid development. On the surface it appears to be in the form of the arc of a circle, or, more properly, of a flattened ellipse, curving upward upon the slope of the hill. This remark- able feature, as will be seen, makes it possible to work the mine so as to avoid all pumping and hoisting : commencing well down the slope on the surface, opening from that point

and working into the vein on a level, at the bottom, but necessarily increasing the depth upwards as the work pro- ceeds. Thus the ore can be taken out on a level tramway and run down to the separator, which is nearly a mile below, and has an altitude of some 300 feet less than the highest point of the mine. With this system, which we understand will be adopted soon, the expense of pumping and hoisting will be saved, both the ore and water running out to the surface by the force of gravity.

The present yield of the mine is about 100 tons of ore per day. Of this sufficient goes to the separator to turn out 40 tons of pure separated ore,-the product of every twenty-four hours. A portion of this goes to Russia, on the Saranac, for Williams & Moffitt's six-fire Catalan forge, and the balance to Belmont to feed the twelve-fire Catalan forge of the Chateaugay Iron Company. The balance of the product of the mine is " chunk" ore, which brings us to mention a remarkable quality.

About a year ago three or four thousand tons of this ore were shipped to Pittsford, Vt., for Pritchard's blast-furnace. Before it could be used the proprietor dicd, and the ore lay untouched through the winter, and last spring the great iron and steel firm of Naylor & Co., who were in some way interested in the Pittsford furnace, sent on Prof. Kimball, of the Lehigh University, of Bethlehem, Pa., who ranks high as an accomplished metallurgist, to examine the ore, who made an analysis, and at once decided that the ore was not only well adapted to the ordinary requirements of the blast-furnace, but that in its own chemical combinations were to be found all the flux needed.

This remarkable assertion was at first doubted, but the result has demonstrated the correctness of Prof. Kimball's decision. The first shipment of ore was smelted in the furnace without any separate flux, and since then several shipments have been made, and the furnace has been in successful operation on this ore from that time to the pres- ent without any separate flux. This remarkable quality places the Chateaugay ore on a plane by itself, and has already created an unrivaled demand for it from various parts of the country.

Everything about the ore-bed and separator bears the appearance of thrift. A steam saw-mill is in almost con- stant operation, turning out lumber for buildings, plank- roads, ete .; an addition is being made to the separator which will increase its capacity from 40 to 60 tons of ore per day ; 100 miners are constantly employed, and about 30 men around the kilns and separator. A good school- house has been built, which also answers the purposes of a church, and about 40 comfortable dwellings, with outbuild- ings, dot the clearing; a base-ball ground has been laid out, and the click of the eroquet mallet and music of the piano herald the advance of civilization and refinement. Capt. R. Kitto, formerly of Arnold Hill, a practical miner of wide experience in Cornwall, England, Lake Superior, and the East, and F. A. Butler, have the contract for rais- ing and separating the ore, and our townsman, Charles Richardson, looks faithfully after the interests of the com- pany, weighing the ore and seeing that its quality is kept up to the proper standard. A small dam on Separator Brook, which comes brawling down from Mount Lyon, secures a

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head of 48 feet, which is sufficient to run the separator a good portion of the year, and a 30 horse-power engine supplies whatever force is lacking for either the separator or saw-mill. The Chateaugay Ore Company, individually and collectively, own over 35,000 acres of land in this immediate region, a great portion of which is covered with heavy timber well adapted to lumbering or coaling pur- poses. They also have a forty years' lease of 4000 acres more, on which the orc-bed is located, with the privilege of cutting every tree which grows upon it. Thus it will be seen that they have the control of nearly 40,000 acres of forest, with an illimitable supply of first-class iron ore in the heart of it. What better facilities could be asked for manufacturing iron ? A ride of four miles over a smooth plank-road takes us to the dock on Chateaugay Lake, where the separated ore for the forge-fires at Belmont is hauled and dumped. The company's stout little steamer, the " Maggie" (named after Miss Maggie Weed, daughter of Hon. S. M. Wecd), soon comes puffing up from the Nar- rows with an empty orc-barge in tow. Capt. John Peets is at the helm, and Chief Engineer Rollo Ballard looks after the machinery.

The " Maggie" is 28} feet long over all, 11 feet beam, draws 4 feet of water, and can be driven by her 25 horse-power engine ten miles an hour. All aboard ! the tow-line is fas- tened to another ore-barge, the "Iron Age," 80 by 17 fect, and loaded with 150 tons of ore, and away we go down past Bluff Point on the left. Nearly opposite Bluff Point a sand-bar reaches out from the cast shore almost to the west; just below is Squaw Island, and near that a little rocky cape, known as Buckhorn Point, projects from the east shore,-a noted run-way for deer. Now we are in the Narrows, through which we steam for the next four miles past coal-docks, coal-kilns, and wood-rafts, farm-houses, and sporting houses, until we emerge upon the Lower Lake, which stretches out to a width of very nearly a mile, and directly afterwards pass from the foot of the lake, where the first dam stood many years ago, down half a mile, through the narrow, crooked " mill-pond," and now we are at Belmont. The ore-barge is hauled up to the dock ; the wooden tram- way on deck forms the continuation of another ashore, which runs up a steep grade on trestle-work ; a car comes creeping down the track on board ; in a jiffy it is loaded, and away it goes, drawn with a cable, by water-power, oper- ated from the forge below ; the car ascends the incline, dumps itself, and goes back about its business without visi- ble direction, and thus the work of unloading goes on. Here we find J. H. Moffit, Esq., agent and general manager of the Chateaugay Iron Company, one of the most efficient of business men, under whose supervision everything goes on like clock-work. Just below is the forge, about 200 feet long and 50 wide, with its ten chimneys furiously belching their hot smoke and flames, while inside the ten forge-fires, with two improved combination forge-hammers, which never break, are in constant operation. Our old friend, Martin Tormey, is in charge here as overseer of repairs, under whose personal direction every tool in use about the forge has been manufactured. A few inquiries of Mr. Moffit elicits some information which will be of interest to the public. Ground was broken for the ercction of the present

dam and works Aug. 29, 1874, and the works commenced running Jan. 1, 1875, since which they have run continu- ously, day and night, Sundays excepted. The entire works are driven by water-power, under a head of 18 feet ; the mill-pond is 12 miles long, both Upper and Lower Lakes having been raised by the dam about 43 feet, and averaging about one mile wide,-no danger from sudden freshets or annoyance from low water,-one of the finest water-powers in the world, with a dam so strong that there is no fear of a break, which would produce fearful consequences, letting loose over 10,000,000,000 gallons of water on the valley below. All the wood, coal, ore, etc., are now moved on the lake in barges, rafts, etc., by the " Maggie," and prob- ably a supply of ore, ctc., will be stored at Belmont before the close of navigation to run the forge through the winter. There are ten first-class fires, and two more being erected, -the largest Catalan forge in operation in this country, if not the world. This forge turns out 12} to 15 gross tons per day of half blooms, which, by the way, the company find no necessity for piling up, being almost constantly behind their orders. Consumption of charcoal, per day, 2325 bushels, or an average for the past year of 266 bushels per ton ; annual consumption of wood, 20,000 cords. The company also own a saw-mill on this dam, containing a circular saw capable of cutting boards and lumber of any dimensions, planer-, lath-, and shingle-mill, and at Brainardville, one mile below, they own a saw-mill with a 16-feet head, con- taining a circular, gang, English gate, lath-mill, and edger, while five miles down the river is the Roberts mill,-also owned by them,-a first-class saw-mill, besides several other unused water-privileges on the river, one only one-fourth of a mile below the forge, where a dam with a 16 feet head might be erected. Everything about these works moves with mathematical precision under the direction of Mr. Moffit, who assumed charge as manager March 15, 1877, since which time he has slept away from the works only one night, when he was called to the ore-bed on urgent business.

We have thus sketched, somewhat in detail,-but im- perfectly, as we are well aware,-some of the features of this enterprise, because the subject specially demands it; for if there is in this or any other iron region such a rare combination of facilities for the manufacture of iron and steel in any or all of its branches, we are not aware of it. Other iron mines are as rich (but rarely), and other forests as dense, but where will you find, in New York, Pennsyl- vania, or elsewhere, the case of a company owning 30,000 or 40,000 acres of excellent timber, with several hundred thousand acres of available forests lying within the circuit of a few miles; a valuable and inexhaustible iron mine in the heart of their own tract, and a continuous body of navi- gable water, twelve miles long, owned also, mainly, with its shores, by them, and available for transportation purposes ? We doubt whether this rare combination exists elsewhere.

They can, undoubtedly, sell every ton of ore they may be able to mine, and every pound of blooms they can turn out at their forge. One thousand tons of this iron are now being manufactured into steel wire for the great Brooklyn Bridge, and the demand is constantly increasing. Will they allow this irou to be drained away in its crude state by great iron-

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manufacturers,-will the capitalists of this region allow it ? A single illustration will serve to point the significance of this question. The fact recently came to light that the tires and some other of the most important parts of the three- foot-gauge engine " Centennial"-which is to be used on the Dannemora Railroad, and after which many of our readers rode over the railway on the Centennial grounds at Philadelphia-were manufactured from iron ore taken from the Chateaugay Ore-Bed. This was of course not the re- sult of a design in order to make a case, but because that iron was the best that could be found for the purpose. Thus the iron ore was mined in Chateaugay, shipped to Cleveland, Ohio, where it was smelted and rolled, and re- turned to Scranton, Pa., to be manufactured into a locomo- tive which now comes back under the shadow of its native mountain, within sixteen miles of its own bed, and may yet be heard rumbling out through the Chateaugay forest, over the ore-bed and down the valley.

What is to hinder the erection of iron and steel works right here in this forest, where all the labor possible to be expended upon the products of the Chateaugay Ore-Bed may be expended at home ? If iron and steel men of Ohio and Pennsylvania can afford to pay transportation-rates and do this, why cannot the iron men and capitalists of North- ern New York manufacture their own products and put the transportation-rates into their pockets ? Perhaps they can and will. For our own part we expect to see the time when in the old forest lying about the base of Mount Lyon, in- stead of the hooting of owls and howling of wolves, will be heard the clang of hammers and rolling-mills, and the musie of blast furnaces. The Chateaugay Iron Company employs about 500 men; the Chateaugay Ore Company 150 men, and Williams at Clayburgh and at Russia about 400 more,-making over 1000 men to which these firms and their individual members give constant employment.

1879 .- The above sketch was written in 1878, showing the progress that had been realized up to that time in the great iron mine known as the " Chateaugay Orc-Bed," where a post-office has since been established under the name of Lyon Mountain. The record was made as complete as possible then, and yet the task of bringing it down to the present time seems like a new one altogether, so great are the changes wrought within the past year,-changes which rival the mushroom-growth in the gold and silver regions of Colorado, of mining-camps into densely-populated cities. In the article already alluded to, the fact was noticed, which had then just come to light, that some of the important portions of the little pioncer three-foot-gauge locomotive on the Dannemora Railroad were made of steel manufactured from Chateaugay ore, and the prediction was ventured that perhaps the same locomotive might yet be heard rumbling through the Chateaugay forest back to its native bed. The prediction scemed at the time about as unlikely to be ful- filled as of a railroad to the moon, but it is nevertheless now a reality, the steps towards which may be briefly glanced at.

The present chief proprietors of the Chateaugay Ore- Bed-Hon. Andrew Williams and Ilon. Smith M. Weed- doubtless realized long ago that in order to develop the rich resources of this property to the best advantage they must

secure railroad communication with the great iron markets of the country. The question was which way should they strike out from their mine, lying in the very heart of the wilderness. Before they first acquired possession of that property, in company with other associates, it was consid- ered of little value. There was believed to be no certainty that the deposit was comparatively more than a flake upon the surface, a mere strata vein, or perhaps a " pocket" which would soon work empty. And if it proved to be more it was twelve miles from a road, and ore could only be taken out to the forges through a swamp, or around it, over steep grades,-a surface so rough in either ease as to be impass- able, except in winter, when the surface was frozen and cov- ered with several feet of snow. Our readers have already scen how persistently these men worked. First satisfying themselves that there was an inexhaustible supply of the most valuable iron ore on their property, and then building a plank-road to the treasure, twelve miles into the solid wilderness,-a private enterprise, which certainly up to that time had not been equaled in this section,-and now that the time had come when they saw a railroad was needed, they went at that job with the same old determina- tion and persistence to accomplish the great work.

Two routes were open to them,-one down the Chateaugay Valley to Chateaugay Station, connecting with the Ogdens- burgh and Lake Champlain Railroad, and the other to Dan- nemora, to connect with the Plattsburgh and Dannemora line; and in February, 1879, when the snow was four feet deep in the woods, the work of making a preliminary survey was commenced, and early in the spring the follow- ing data were at hand. Distance to Chateaugay seventeen miles,-an almost straight line, with an easy grade all the way, and the line running nearly half-way through the company's own lands, past their mammoth Catalan forge at Belmont, and the other half through a fine farming coun- try, from which considerable local traffic would be derived. Distance to Dannemora seventeen miles, ten of which lay through the solid wilderness; a crooked line, running around two mountains, and alternately towards all points of the compass ; a hard line to grade, with the promise of little local traffic. Everything seemed to indicate the selec- tion of the Chateaugay route as the most natural, cheapest, and best. On the 20th day of May, 1879, the Chateaugay Railroad Company was organized, with Thomas Dickson (president of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company) as president, and his influence, in consequence of his interest in the New York and Canada Railroad, together with the fact that both Mr. Williams and Weed resided and were largely interested in Plattsburgh and on the Saranac River, turned the scale in favor of the Dannemora route, although the interests of the company, as related to their Chateaugay iron property alone, plainly pointed the other way. Subse- quently the lease of the Plattsburgh and Dannemora Railroad was secured from the State, and about the 5th of June the contract was let for grading the Chateaugay Railroad from Dannemora to the ore-bed. On the Sth of June the work was commeneed, and December 6th track-laying was fin- ished to the first shaft. On the 17th of December the first regular train ran over the entire line, and December 18th the first train of ore was shipped to Plattsburgh.

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During the latter part of this month (Deeember, 1879), we made a trip over the line for the purpose of giving our readers some idea of the present condition of affairs at this new settlement in the heart of the wilderness, which has grown in four years from almost nothing into a plaee of some 700 inhabitants. Starting from Plattsburgh at six o'clock in the morning the route is traversed with which our readers are already acquainted to Dannemora, rising in sixteen miles twelve hundred and sixty-eight feet from the starting-point, and thirteen hundred and fifty-five fect above the level of the sea. The track over this part of the line, built by the State, is probably as smooth as it could be made with the old half-worn rails with which it is ironed, but at Dannemora, when the wheels strike the new Bessemer steel rails and even road-bed, a pleasant change is at once noted, and the train bowls along smoothly to the southward, well up on the eastern slope of Johnson Mountain. The Saranac Valley lies at the left, far below. In front, southward, are some of the highest of the Adi- rondack Mountains, and to the northward is a fine view of the valley, with Plattsburgh and Lake Champlain, and the blue Vermont hills in the distance.

Four miles in this direction brings us to a turn to the right; now we swing around the southern spur of Johnson Moun- tain, and gradually, as the curve is rounded, the dark ever- green slopes of Mount Lyon-but tinged with a light fleece from fresh snow-loom up in front, to the westward; and about five miles from Dannemora a halt is made at Saranac Station, fourteen hundred and eighty-eight feet above tide- water, and near the old Phillips ore-bed, in the lean work- ing of which thousands of dollars have been sunk. From this point the track approaches a still more westerly course, and swings by a broad curve across a level country, past Bowen's coal-kilns on the left and around a hill which lies in the more direct path at the right, to near the base of Lyon Mountain, with a fine view of the True Brook Valley, to the southward, and the highlands lying along the Upper Saranae in the background of the picture. Hereabout is the point where one of the proposed stage-routes to Paul Smith's will interseet with the line. Now the train turns to the northward, and plunging into the wilderness runs along the base of the mountain on the left, and for six miles the road-bed is nearly a dead level. Now we cross the main inlet of Chazy Lake,-a fine trout-brook ; about four miles from Saranac Station is a clearing to the right, with seven or eight new dwelling-houses and a set of four charcoal- kilns,-the Williams kilns ; a little farther is the old Par- sons shanty and another small clearing; now we reach the head of Chazy Lake, only a few rods to the right and one hundred feet below the track, which is here sixteen hundred feet above tide-water. At this point there is a small elear- ing and the Davis House, and right here is the trail which leads to the top of Lyon Mountain, some fourteen hundred feet above, and nearly three miles by the deviously winding path, away to the west. Here a depot is to be erected for the accommodation of mountain-climbers and visitors to Chazy Lake. Now we run north ward, nearly parallel to the west shore of Chazy Lake for about two miles, and from forty to one hundred rods distant from it, passing all the way through the grand old forest, broken only by the swath

six rods wide, which has been cut through it for the track, leaving a dense wall of heavy timber on either hand, but oceasionally a little opening marked by a boarding-shanty. On we go to the north ; two spurs of Mount Lyon are passed ; we cross the plank-road which runs over to the left, between the second and third, but the grade thereabout is too steep for a railroad, and we pass on still farther northward, but pres- ently begin to swing around to the left and the westward once more; Ellenburgh Mountain shows up to the right ; around we swecp, through a snow-laden forest so dense that you can hardly see into it more than a few feet ; the ground is thick with bowlders; now the track crowds well up the northern base of the third spur, called the Elbow, through two earth-cuts, but no ledge; Bradley Pond, famed for good trout-fishing, is within a third of a mile, to the right ; now we run nearly southwest, with Birch Hill to the right, and Lyon Mountain stands in front, as if to wall up the path of the iron horse ; the tract is smooth, as it is all the way, in fact, but the grade herc is steep,-one hundred and fifty feet to the mile; several trestle-works are crossed, spanning brooks which run to Chateaugay Lake ; the plank- road is crossed again, and presently we see an opening ahead ; a big pile of ore looms up,-some 6000 tons, ready for shipment,-and here we are at the " Old Opening," and " Williams Opening," the old opening being the first one that was made, in 1867. On we go still, the old separator is puffing away below at the right; now we are at Separator Brook, which is crossed on a high trestle nearly five hun- dred feet long; here is the depot, new separator, etc. ; on . still, the track keeping ncarly on a line with the ore-vein something over a mile and a quarter, and finally halt at the end of the road, nineteen hundred and ninety feet above the sea and near the most westward shaft, and at the base of a sugar-loaf-shaped northwestern spur of Mount Lyon. You look around, and unless your recent visits have been frequent you will feel as Rip Van Winkle did when he woke up from his long sleep. Steam-engines are puffing all about you, there is a clatter of hammers on growing buildings, massive foundation-walls of masonry are going up; air-drills are clattering; cars and buckets loaded with rich iron ore are creeping up out of narrow openings from the bowels of the earth ; below is a village with streets, a church, and an overcrowded school-house; and all this where only two or three years ago, when we first saw it, there were two or three little log hovels, and an opening so small that one had to look pretty straight up to see the sky, while in the mining district, where men are now working two hundred feet below, there was just a scratch on the surface.

Let us examine these wonders a little more in detail, commencing with the first shaft we reached. This is the Williams opening, near the old pit where the first blow was struck towards developing the Chateaugay Ore-Bed in 1867. Last August there was only one house at this point, erected in 1867, by H. C. Foote, then one of the proprietors, when there was no house nearer than Chateaugay Lake, four miles away. Last August all was dead here; now there are fifteen comfortable dwellings,-some of them double,- of hewn logs, erected on a mathematically straight line. Here are two shafts about three hundred feet apart, with 6000 tons of ore lying on a substantial timber platform

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TOWN OF DANNEMORA.

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History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 82

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 922

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922