USA > New York > Essex County > The military and civil history of the county of Essex, New York : and a general survey of its physical geography, its mines and minerals, and industrial pursuits, embracing an account of the northern wilderness > Part 39
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Highland Forge was located on Howard's brook, near Willsboro' bay, and seven miles from Keeseville. It was owned and worked by A. G. Forbes ; built in 1837 and suspended operations in 1857.
West Port Furnace stands upon the margin of North West bay and about one mile from Westport village. It was erected about the year 1848 by Mr. Francis H. Jack- son, and called by him Sisco furnace. The cost of its original construction exceeded one hundred thousand dollars. For a term of years it was in the possession of Hon. G. W. Goff. The premises are now owned by the Champlain Ore and Furnace Company, but the works have been suspended for a long period. The motive power of this furnace was steam, and its products pig iron. The ore used was chiefly from the Cheever bed, and in part from a bed two or three miles west of the village of West- port, and owned by the proprietors of the furnace, who are also owners of the Goff ore bed in Moriah. Mr. Lewis H. Roe is superintendent of this company.
MORIAH.
The enterprise of Moriah has been diverted from the manufacturing pursuits, which its magnificent capabilities were calculated to cherish, by the more tangible and certain remuneration afforded by the raising and sale of its ores. The works which do exist, however, are on a scale of great magnitude and perfection.
1 R. W. Livingstone.
464
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Port Henry Furnace. Major James Dalliba, formerly of the army, in connection with Hon. John D. Dickenson of Troy, erected the first furnace at this place, about the year 1822. A notice of the work produced by the earlier furnaces will strikingly exhibit the vast progress which a quarter of a century has accomplished in both the practical and scientific operations of these works. The furnace of Major Dalliba yielded a product of only fifteen to eighteen tons of iron a week, about one-half of the yield of the present furnace per day. The former run from three to six months for a blast. The ore used was obtained from a vein near the furnace, from another about three-fourths of a mile distant and from Vermont. The iron made was exported to Troy until 1827, when the production of pig metal was abandoned and the works were appropriated to the manufacture of stoves and hollow ware. On the decease of Major Dalliba, the property passed into the hands of Stephen S. Keyes, who sold in 1844 to Cole, Olcott & Tarbell, and they transferred it the succeeding year to Powell & Lansing. These proprietors erected a second furnace on the lake shore. In 1838, the title be- came vested in Horace Grey, Jr., of Boston, and was trans- ferred by him in 1840, to the Port Henry Iron Company. Mr. Grey was the principal stock holder in this company. He leased individually the furnace property and the Cheever ore bed, in 1846, at a nominal rent. The original furnace was demolished and a new one built, which commenced operations in 1847. On the reverses which occurred to Mr. Grey in the fall of this year, the works were temporarily suspended. Improved intelligence and the application of the hot blast has gradually augmented the yield of the furnace, from two and three tons per day to ten and twelve tons for the same period.
In 1852, Mr. Benjamin T. Reed, of Boston, purchased all the property of the Port Henry Iron Company, and in the following year, the Cheever ore bed was transferred to the Cheever Ore Bed Company, and the furnaces to the Port Henry Furnaces. These were distinct corpora-
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INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND RESOURCES.
tions organized under the laws of this state. The Port Henry Furnaces company conveyed its property in 1867 to the Bay State Iron Company, a corporation formed under the laws of Massachusetts, and doing business at South Boston. The stockholders of both incorporations were the same individuals. Under the latter title the business of the furnace property is at this time conducted. The officers of the company are: Samuel Hooper, president; John H. Reed, treasurer; and Wallace T. Foot, superin- tendent of the works at Port Henry. In 1853, the old charcoal furnaces were repaired and a blast anthracite coal substituted, with water as the motive power. The year after a new furnace was erected on the margin of the lake near the former structure of Powell & Lansing. "This furnace was constructed on a new plan, having an outer casing or shell of boiler iron rivetted together and standing upon plates, supported by cast iron columns. This was the first erection of the kind built in the country, and so far as I am aware in the world; although some have been constructed in Europe, with a boiler iron shell supported by brick arches.1 The furnace is forty-six feet high, six- teen feet diameter at the top of the boshes, eight feet at the top of the furnace, and is blown through five tuyeres, by a vertical steam engine having a steam cylinder thirty inches in diameter, six feet stroke, and a wind cylinder eighty-four inches diameter, six feet stroke. In 1860 another furnace was commenced, but not completed until 1862. This furnace is propelled by machinery similar to the other, but somewhat enlarged in its proportions and power. The furnace built by Powell & Lansing was taken down in 1855, and that erected by Gray was demo- lished in 1865.
During the last five years, these furnaces have produced 58,100 tons of pig iron, consuming 107,700 tons of coal
1 Mr. W. T. Foot, the accomplished manager of the works, to whose courtesy I am indebted for most of the facts on this subject incorporated in the text.
30
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
and 100,800 tons of ore. The ore used is chiefly from the Cheever and Barton beds. The English method of work- ing a high furnace with a closed top has been recently adopted, and each of the furnaces has been raised twenty feet, giving them an elevation of sixty-six feet. One of them, after an operation of three months under this charge shows a very satisfactory result by an increased production of iron, with a less comsumption of coal per ton of iron made. The company obtains lime from a quarry upon its own property a short distance from the furnaces. The anthracite coal is exclusively used, and is principally trans- ported in return boats from Rondout. The fabrics of the furnaces are chiefly exports to the mill of the company at South Boston. A foundery and repairing shop is attached to the works for the convenience of the establish- ment. The former is a large edifice one hundred and sixty feet. The last year the foundery has made about two hundred tons of castings. A carpenter's shop contiguous, is worked by the same motive power as the cupola and in it are formed all the patterns required in the works. About one hundred and thirty-five men are usually employed at the furnaces. The coal and cinders are transported in hand carts upon a small rail road to and from the works. The latter are used for filling in the wharf property of the company.
Fletcherville Furnace. This furnace is situated seven and a half miles north-west of Port Henry. It is owned by Messrs. S. H. & J. G. Weatherbee & F. P. Fletcher; its erection was commenced in 1864, and it was blown in, in August, 1865. The stack is of stone, and the boiler house of brick. The height of the furnace is forty-two feet, and width of the boshes eleven feet. The construction and mechanism of this furnace is somewhat peculiar and com- plicated. As it is not my purpose to present any scientific or technical views, I shall refrain from an attempt to describe it. The ore used in the establishment is obtained mainly from a number of beds owned by the company, but not at present fully developed, which are
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contiguous to the furnace. Steam is the motive power of the works, and charcoal the only fuel consumed. This is burnt in ten large kilns, capable of containing sixty-five cords of wood .. Nearly fifty bushels of charcoal is yielded in these kilns by every cord of seasoned wood The com- pany own extensive ranges of timber land, which supplies the material for the kilns. The average product per week of this furnace has been at some periods seventy-six and a half tons per week.1. A large proportion of the iron pro- duced here is manufactured in the Bessemer works at Troy. Mr. Thomas F. Weatherbee is the resident agent and manager at this furnace.
Crown Point Iron Company's Furnace. This work is situated ten miles west of Crown Point landing, and is owned by that company, consisting of J. & T. Hammond & E. S. Bogue. A furnace was built on this site in 1845, was burnt down in 1865, and immediately erected anew. It is forty-two feet high, and nine feet across the boshes. It is a charcoal blast furnace, the escape heat being used for generating steam, for power for blast, stamping, saw- ing coal brands and grinding feed. The furnace consumes 6,500 tons of ore and 650,000 bushels of charcoal, which yield 3,500 tons of pig metal. In the last eight years the furnace has not run more than three-fourths of the time, owing to the insufficient supply of fuel. The charcoal is chiefly burnt in kilns. The ore used is taken from the bed owned by the company, situated about one mile from the works, and the lime is procured from their own quarry about the same distance. This furnace has been pecu- liarly successful, both in the manner of its operation and the quality of iron it produces. Since the establishment of the Bessemer steel works at Troy, a large portion of the iron from this furnace has been purchased by that institu- tion. The harder and higher qualities of this iron secure a constant market from the manufacturers of malleable
1 Mr. Neilson's report.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
iron. For their use it is esteemed an eminently desirable material.
In approaching this furnace, then owned by Hammond & Co., in 1852, I observed the road formed for some dis- tance by a very beautiful material, exhibiting a surface soft and lustrous, and glowing in every shade and tint. This substance was the concretion of the slag or cinders of the furnace. When gushing from the stack in fusion, it will form and draw out, by a wire thrust into the boil- ing mass, an attenuated glass thread the entire length of the furnace, a distance of sixty feet. The glass presents the most delicate and diversified coloring; although com- bined in the eruption from the furnace with extraneous properties. Thus beautiful in its crude and adulterated condition, may not this substance, purified and refined by science, be rendered subservient to the arts ?
Irondale Iron Works are situated six miles west of the lake, and upon Putman's creek, which affords the motive power. The forge which now contains four fires, one wooden twelve hammer, weighing one thousand eight hundred pounds, and two wheels, was erected in 1828. It is at present owned by Penfield, Harwood & Co. The forge consumes charcoal, which is principally burnt in covered kilns, about four miles from the works in the west part of Ticonderoga. Ore from the bed of the com- pany located about five miles from the works, is used in the forge. It manufactures blooms and bars. The iron made in this forge has established the highest reputation. This statement is sustained by the fact that in 1829, the company received an order from the government for a large quantity of their iron to be fabricated into chain cables. It is extensively used for the fabrication of fine ware, and at Pittsburg it is used for making cast steel. The company have a separator near their works, in which the ore is prepared for the forge. It is stated that two tons of separated ore will yield a ton of iron. The annual amount manufactured at this forge is about five hundred tons. There are a saw mill and grist mill standing a
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INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND RESOURCES.
few rods below the iron works, and owned by the pro- prietors.1
The other minor industrial pursuits of Crown Point embrace, at the centre village, three miles from the lake, a tannery, woolen factory, grist mill, saw mill, tub and barrel factory, and wheelwright shop; one mile below are a sash and door factory, and a pail and tub factory ; still nearer the lake are a grist and saw mill, and wheel- wright shop. All these works stand upon Putnam's creek, a small stream I have already described.
TICONDEROGA.
Horicon Iron Company. This forge was erected by the Ti- conderoga Iron Company, in 1864, under the direction of Col. W. E. Calkins. It is a very superior forge, and is es- teemed equal to any in northern New York. It is built of wood and roofed with slate, and contains six fires with a capability of working twelve. It has two wooden helve hammers weighing about twenty-seven hundred pounds. " The blowing is performed by water power. A forty-eight inch Chapman wheel is used. There are two blast cylinders of five feet in diameter with five feet stroke." This forge, which is supplied by the water that forms its motive power, by a tube four hundred feet long, and about six feet in dia- meter stands at the Lower Falls about two miles from the steam boat landing, and at the head of the navigation acces- sible to canal boats from Lake Champlain. These boats may moor directly alongside of the works for discharging and loading. The company own large tracts of woodland on the shores of Lake George. The wood is transported on barges, which are towed by a small tug, to the foot of the lake, where it is burnt into charcoal in five extensive kilns, capable of burning sixty-five cords each. The char- coal is carted a distance of about two miles to the forge. The ore now used, although the company owns extensive mineral property, is principally shipped from Port Henry
1 C. Fenton.
470
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
and landed at the works. A separator is erected near the forge. The product of the works, which was bloom iron, in 1865, was about four hundred and fifty tons; in 1866, about three hundred; but at present the forge is not in operation.1
A cupola furnace was erected on the lower falls in 1832 by John Porter & Son, and continued until recently, in the occupation of the same family. It is now owned by Clark, Strain & Hooper. The furnace and machine shop connected with it fabricates about eight thousand dollars worth of agricultural implements, stoves, mill irons and general work adapted to home consumption.
The census returns of 1865 report three woolen facto- ries in the county. The most important of these is the works of Messrs. Treadway, situated on the lower falls in Ticonderoga. This factory embraces all the modern im- provements, and produces work of the highest quality. It is at this time performing an extensive and prosperous business, but possessing an unemployed capacity of execut- ing very large operations.
American Graphite Company. The business conducted by this company is rare and of peculiar interest. The vast deposits of plumbago or black lead, in this vicinity attracted early attention to its manufactures. In 1832, William. Stuart and Nathan Delano commenced mining and pre- paring the article for market. The former in connection with his sons maintained the business to a late period. Appollos Skinner engaged in it in 1833. He was suc- ceeded by Messrs. Ives & Arthur. They soon after con- structed separate works. The business in Ticonderoga is now in the exclusive control of the American Graphite Company. They have erected a large and expensive mill, which is worked night and day, and produces about five hundred tons of black lead annually. The native impu- rities of the ore are separated by an ingenious process possessed by the company. About sixty men are employed
1 W. G. Neilson. A. Weed, and II. G. Burleigh & Bro.
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INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND RESOURCES.
in the mines and works of this concern. The article pro- duced is of very superior quality, and is largely used in the manufacture of crucibles. Mr. William Hooper is superin- tendent of the company at Ticonderoga.1 About the year 1818, Guy C. Baldwin introduced the process of grinding the plumbago in millstone with iron ore. Mr. Baldwin subsequently invented a method of manufacturing crayons and pencil points, from this material. He erected a factory for the purpose of fabricating these articles, which was worked many years. This manufacture at Ticonderoga is now discontinued.2 The amount of lumber at present cut in this town, is computed at about five hundred thou- sand feet annually.
THE VALLEY OF THE HUDSON.
The head waters of the Hudson pervade every section of the south-western towns of Essex county, and furnish an immense water power. The mountains bear a limitless supply of fuel, and throughout the territory the presence of iron ore is manifested by the clearest indications which research constantly corroborates. All these advantages should tend to the creation of much more extended manu- facturing occupations than now exist, but a remoteness from market, and the absence of appropriate artificial communication have impeded the development of the vast natural resources of the district. A new era is dawning upon this seclusion, and very soon enterprise and improve- ment will awaken the dormant energies of these valleys and mountains. The expense of transportation to Crown Point, a distance from the nearest point of about nineteen miles, over a difficult route, is highly onerous, but at present, the fabrics of the Schroon have no shorter or more direct route to market. The rail road already constructed to Warrens- burgh, will soon, it is claimed, reach the confines of Essex county.
1 Alfred Weed. Messrs. Burleigh.
2 Cook, Weed and Burleigh,
472
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Schroon River Forge stands upon a branch of the Hudson twenty-four miles south-west from the village of Elizabeth- town. It was built in 1857 by Mr. Jacob Parmerter, and was operated by E. B. Walker & Co., with which firm he was for a term associated. It became the property of Mr. John Roth in 1861. It has two fires, a hammer of about eighteen hundred pounds weight, and two wheels. One grist and one saw mill occupy the same dam. A little village, marked by the usual appliances of manufacturing hamlets, has sprung up around these works. The ore used is ob- tained from the Norway bed near Paradox lake, and some portions from the Moriah beds. Three closed kilns are situated near the forge and in the midst of an inexhaustible supply of wood. The works produce blooms, billots and slabs.
Head of Paradox Forge is located near Paradox lake; was built in 1864, and is owned by John Roth, the pro- prietor of the above. This forge has contained only two fires, but a third is now being introduced. It has one hammer and one wheel, and is principally supplied with ore from the Roth or Norway vein. The charcoal consumed in these works is made in pits at the forge. Three hundred bushels of this coal is required to produce one ton of iron. The two forges of which Mr. Roth is the proprietor, are embraced in the same general system of operations. He esteems the iron produced in these works from the Norway ore of unsurpassed excellence, possessing in its qualities an assimilation to the fabrics of Russia and Norway. Its rare properties, it is pronounced, are recognized in market and control maximum prices. He now manufactures finished billots, which are sent to Pittsburg for the fabrication of steel and other purposes. These forges, with their increased facilities and power, it is anticipated, will possess a capacity of yielding a thousand tons of iron annually, produced in 1866 five hundred and fifty tons. Two forges, the Dead Water Iron Works and the North Hudson Iron Works situated in the town of North Hudson, were formerly owned
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by the Hon. James S. Whallon, but have long been abandoned.
The Minerva Iron Company have commenced measures for the establishment of a first class forge in that town, and have already expended a large amount in the scheme. The works are incomplete, being not more than half finished. Castings and other materials for the construc- tion of the forge, are already upon the ground. The forge is designed to contain eight fires, with steam as a motive power. It is located about two and a half miles from Olmstead hill, and a little more than six miles from the projected rail road track at Birds Pond Falls. These measures are guided by a powerful and energetic company, and must exert a most auspicious influence upon the development and prosperity of that section of the county.
TANNERIES.
A number of works devoted to the manufacturing of the different descriptions of leather exist in various sec- tions of Essex county. These are chiefly supplied with the raw material by the hides of animals furnished from the district. In the year 1864, two thousand one hundred and forty-three neat cattle, and two thousand one hundred and fifty-four sheep were slaughtered in the county, besides the skins of other animals and those dying from disease or accident. In the towns of Schroon, Minerva and North Hudson, this business is now the predominant and a highly important industrial pursuit. The vast hem- lock forests, which spread over that region, afford an abundant and accessible material for these works. It is rare, in manufacturing economics, that a raw material so valuable as the hemlock bark, can be procured not only" without ·detriment to another substance, with which it is connected, but that the process essentially enhances the value of the latter. Such, in these forests, is literally the fact in reference to this bark. The logs, when cut for market, are stripped of their bark and relieved of its heavy weight, they are more easily transported, the floating is
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
facilitated, and the timber preserved from decay and the depredations of insects. By a judicious management, the hemlock of these forests will be adequate to the supply of bark to all the tanneries of the district through a series of years.
The Burhan's Tannery is situated upon a small branch of the Schroon river, and in the town of North Hudson. The original works were erected by Erastus B. Potter, and purchased about the year 1859 by the present proprietor, Edgar W. Burhans, who has through large additions and improvements, rendered it one of the most complete tan- neries in northern New York. It has the capacity of tan- ning from twenty-five to thirty thousand sides of sole leather annually. It is chiefly propelled by a steam engine of forty horse power for grinding bark, for pumping and heating the liquor, and with steam for steeping the bark. Spent tan supplies the fuel for running the engine. The works yield a sufficient material for the purpose, and thus secures great economy in the saving of wood. The rolling machine is moved by water power. The hides manufac- tured in the works are principally South American. They are purchased in New York, and from thence shipped to Crown Point. The leather produced is transported to Crown Point, a distance of nineteen miles from the tan- nery. The hides are conveyed from the landing to the works by the same route. From twenty to thirty men are occupied about the works and a large additional number are employed both summer and winter, in lumbering, in peeling and transporting bark, and drawing logs by sleigh- ing to the Schroon river, an important tributary of the Hud- son, by which they are floated to Glen's Falls and Sandy Hill to be manufactured into lumber for the southern market. All the tanneries pursue the same system. In the efficient management of Mr. Burhans, the business of this establish- ment is very extensive and equally prosperous.1 Schroon Lake tannery, was erected in 1852, by Lorenzo Hall, and
1 John Roth.
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INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND RESOURCES.
is now owned by Milton Sawyer of Glen's Falls. It is situated on a small brook about one mile west of Schroon lake, and twenty-five miles west of Lake Champlain. The capital employed in these works is about ten thousand dollars. This tannery is capable of producing about six- teen thousand sides per year, and consumes about one thousand five hundred cords of bark.
Schroon Tannery stands on Schroon lake, at the mouth of the stream just mentioned, and was erected in 1861 by William C. Potter and Daniel Wyman. After several transfers the title of the property is now invested in Mr. Gridley T. Thayer. This tannery manufactures about one hundred tons of leather per annum.
Wickham Tannery is a small establishment occupying a site at the mouth of the same stream, and opposite to the Schroon tannery. It is owned by Mr. Benjamin Wick- ham, and is used exclusively for the manufacture of upper leather.
Hoffman Tannery was erected by Bracket & Boyle, in 1856, but is now owned by Mr. Milton Sawyer. It is situated about six miles west of his Schroon lake tannery, and about thirty miles from Lake Champlain. It pos- sesses the capacity of tanning about one thousand sides, and consumes nine hundred cords of bark yearly. Mr. Sawyer is engaged in erecting a new and extensive tannery on the branch in the north part of Schroon. Sawyer & Mead are now building a first class tannery on the west branch of the Schroon river, about three miles from the state road. It is two hundred and sixty-three by forty feet; will be capable of tanning from two hundred and fifty to three hundred tons of leather per annum, and will consume yearly about three thousand cords of bark.
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