History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 57

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 57

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Stiles Mason's tannery makes skirting from foreign hides. Robert Bathurst makes harness, skirting, and upper or shoe. Berner Domsley and James Shanks operate exten- sive sheepskin-tanneries ; and a small yard in connection with the collar-factory of George Marsh furnishes the leather for his shops. Most of the domestic hides are shipped to other points. The bark used is mostly chestnut- oak, obtained from the mountains about Tracy City and from North Alabama. There are six dealers in hides, the chief of which is the firm of Walsh & McGovern.

Three tanneries in the city in 1873 produced about 13,000 sides harness leather; 5000 sides skirting; 2000 sides sole; and 1000 sides wax upper leather and kip, ag- gregating $115,000. There are now four tanneries within the city, besides the product of which, there were 200,000 pounds, worth $50,000, imported during the first half of 1880.

GUNPOWDER .- Nashville has been the depot and dis- tributing-point for the Sycamore Powder Company since the opening of its works in Cheatham County, on Sycamore Creek, twenty-five miles distant, in 1845. The mining interest furnishes their present custom, the sales reaching 25,000 kegs per annum from this point. E. C. Lewis, secretary and superintendent of the company, has his office at 28 Market Street, while the magazine is located just outside the city, to the north ward.

COTTON-SEED OIL AND OIL-CAKE .- A new industry was commenced in 1870 by the organization of the Dixie Oil Company, for the manufacture of crude and refined cotton-seed oil, seed-cake, and meal, under the management of the present officers of the company, Robert Thompson, President, and Henry Sperry, Secretary. A large brick building was built for the works near the Chattanooga de- pot, and " a 32-box" manufactory put in operation. The oil found a ready market for mixing paints and use in the mechanical industries, while the secd-cake and meal were shipped in large quantities to the distant Eastern States or to Europe, where it was used as feed for farm-stock. An unmarketable grade of oil was utilized in the manufacture of a superior grade of toilet and laundry soap. Previously the seed had been wasted, or spread on the fields as a fer- tilizer. After three years the capacity of the mills was doubled. The present consumption of seed is between 5000 and 6000 tons per annum, giving employment to fifty operatives, and producing daily about thirty barrels of oil. There are $150,000 invested in this manufactory.

A second oil-works was established by the Tennessee Oil Company near the Decatur depot, in the south part of the city, soon after. Of this M. J. O'Shaughnessy, Esq., is · president. There are here six mills and a complement of machinery.

NASHVILLE AS A CENTRE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON .*

Middle Tennessee possesses two classes of iron ore, the brown hematite or hydrous oxide, and the red hematite or anhydrous oxide. The last is limited in extent and con- fined to two or three banks near Clifton, in Wayne County, about one hundred miles southwest of Nashville. Rich specimens, however, are found associated with the hydrous oxides at other points. Brown hematite is found in work- able quantities and of excellent quality in Stewart, Mont- gomery, Houston, Dickson, Humphreys, Hickman, Perry, Lewis, Wayne, Decatur, Benton, and Lawrence. These counties lie from Montgomery on the northwest around to Lawrence, a little west of south from Nashville, the nearest county being Dickson, due west about thirty miles. The most distant are Wayne and Lawrence, about one hundred miles at the farthest point on the Alabama line. This is the great western iron belt, running north and south en- tirely through the State and embracing over five thousand square miles. It is traversed by the Cumberland River in the counties of Stewart and Montgomery, about seventy- five miles by river below Nashville, where the Cumberland enters into the iron-fields of Kentucky.

In the counties of White, Putnam, and Overton, lying east of Nashville, are also deposits of the hydrous oxides in sufficiently large quantities to justify working.

Of the various forms of hydrous oxides in Middle Ten- nessee the chief are :

1. Pot ore,-hollow concretions, stalactitic, botryoidal and velvety on the interior surface. From crust to interior are various layers with different shades of brown, having a varied crystallization. A very valuable ore.

2. Pipe ore, which resembles reeds agglutinated ; rust- colored and very highly prized by furnace-men.

3. Black Jack ore, a compact black or bluish ore, rich, but more refractory in the furnace than the two first men- tioned.

4. Honeycomb,-filled with small cavities, sparry and easily smelted.

5. Brown-clay ironstone, having contorted laminæe, like a mass of adhering and closely compressed shells, concre- tionary and sparry .*

6. Shot ore,-small angular masses. Never much used alone; usually obtained from screening other varieties.

7. Bog ore,-rough, pock-marked, porous, spongy, and silicious. Never used to any extent, though abundant in places.

8. Yellow ochre,-soft, crumbly, dull, and earthy.

Associated with these, and more especially with the pot ores, is turgite, and for that reason often taken for hydrous oxide, but really an anhydrous oxide. It often constitutes one of the concretionary layers that form the hollow, ball- like mass, but it may be distinguished from the hydrous oxide by its superior hardness, its red streak, and by its decrepitation. The line between this and the hydrous oxide is very distinct and the cohesion is very slight. The presence of turgite gives great richness to many of the

*Py J. B. Killel rew, A.M., Pb.D., Commissioner of Agriculture, Statistics, Mines, and Immigration.

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JOSEPH W. HORTON.

Joseph W. Horton was born in the County of Davidson, Tenn., on the 15th of August, 1792, and died Oct. 31, 1846, at his residence near Nashville. He was a son of Josiah Horton, who removed from Wilmington, N. C., about the year 1790, and settled in Davidson County. He was a good business man, of fine practical sense and of unsullied character. His son, Joseph W., received a fine classical educa- tion, and graduated with honor and distinction at the Nashville University ; he was prominently identified with all the local public enterprises of the day. He filled many places of trust with integrity and marked ability ; was the cashier of the Bank of Tennessee, and was for two terms the efficient sheriff of David-

son County. He was a man of great firmness of character, of strict truth and honor, and of great popularity. Tolerant though firm in his political principles, he was of the Jackson and Jeffersonian school of politics, a great admirer of Gen. Jackson, who had the highest confidence in him, and the most confidential relations existed between them.

Joseph W. Horton married Sophia Davis, daugh- ter of John Davis, of Davidson County, Jan. 18, 1815. They were the parents of seven children, three of whom are now living. Elizabeth J. is the widow of Alexander Fall; Joseph W. is a merchant in Nashville; Dr. William D. resides at Providence, R. I.

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

banks in the western iron belt, and analyses of specimens show sixty-three per cent. of metallic iron, and even more when disassociated from the hydrous oxide.

Still another valuable associate is goethite, or fibrous hematite (needle ore or onegite), found in the western iron belt. This, though a hydrous oxide, contains a very small percentage of water and about ninety per cent. of the ses- quioxide of iron. This ore is not so abundant as the tur- gite, but adds great value to the banks in which it occurs. The presence of these two ores makes the brown hematite of the western iron belt resemble those brought from Bil- boa, Spain.

The following are analyses of ores made by J. Blodget Britton, of Philadelphia. The first specimen is from Cum- berland Iron-Works, Stewart County, taken from the north side of the Cumberland River, and the second is from the south side :

North Side.

South Side.

Pure metallic iron ..

57.84

59.22

Oxygen with iron

24.37

24.88

Water.

11.96

11.06

Insoluble silicious matter.

3.59

3.21

Soluble silica

0.78

0.13

Sulphur ..

none

Phosphoric acid

0.54

0.36

Alumina Lime

0,05

0.17

Manganese.

0.03

0.06

Manganese, undetermined matter and 1088.

0.71

0.42

Total

100.00

Phosphorus

0.24

0.16

A specimen from Bear Spring Furnace, Stewart County, gives, as analyzed by Prof. Burton :

Water. 10.94

Silica 4.77

Metallic iron.

59.98

Oxygen combined

26.70

Sulphur

0.11

Phosphorus.

0.40

A specimen from Mill Creek Bank, in Hickman County, gives (Britton's analysis) :

Metallic iron. 49.23

Silicious matter.

17.59

Sulphur.

none

Phosphorus. .304

Near Mill Creek Bank is another deposit called Claggett's Bank, covering about fifty acres, an average specimen from which, according to J. Blodget Britton, gives :

Pure metallic iron 54.16

Insoluble silicious matter. 13.98

Sulphur

none

Phosphorus ... .365

From the AEtna Banks, in Hickman County, covering many square miles, and varying in thickness from a few feet to eighty or more, the following analyses were made by the same analyst :

No. 1-

Pure metallic iron 46.49 Insoluble silicious matter 18.36

Sulphur. none

Phosphorus .. .371

No. 2-

Pure metallic iron 57.56

Insoluble silicious matter 3.90

Sulphur nono

Phosphorus

.201

No. 3-

Pure metallic iron 53.17

Ins duble silicious matter. 10.01

Sulphur. none

Phosphorus .136

No. 4-

Pure metallic iron 53.72

Insoluble silicious matter 3.73

Sulphur.

none

Phosphorus.

.084

No. 5-

Pure metallic iron 59.89

Insoluble silicious matter .. 3.35

Sulphur.

none

Phosphorus. .041

Numbers 4 and 5 are very large deposits, about sixty feet thick, and covering in the aggregate, over one hundred acres. It will be seen that these ores are very rich, and with an exceedingly low percentage of phosphorus and no sulphur. The undetermined elements in all these analyses are oxygen with iron and water, the first varying from 20 to 28 per cent., and the last from 10 to 14 per cent.

No. 6, another large bank, gives :

Pure metallic iron .. 55.59

Insoluble silicious matter. 7.11

Sulphur

none

Phosphorus.

.327

No. 7, a specimen of turgite from the Cumberland Iron-Works, gives :

Pure metallic iron 59.64

Insoluble silicious matter. 5.41

Sulphur. none

Phosphorus .141

No. 8, a specimen of Needle Ore or onegite, gives :

Pure metallic iron 63.37

Insoluble silicious matter. 1.71

Sulphur none

Phosphorus .123

All the analyses numbered have been made within the past month from average specimens taken from the several banks. The insoluble silicious matter consists of pure sand. Very little trace of manganese could be de- tected in any of the specimens.

A dozen analyses might be given of ores from Stewart and Dickson Counties, showing metallic iron, sulphur, phos- phorus, and silica. Those given are, however, fairly typical. Take one, limonite, however, from Lawrence County, in the extreme south, from a bank on the dividing-ridge between Knob and Chism Creeks :

Water 11.83

Silica.

1.01

Iron

59.60

Iron with oxygen .. 25.54

0.16

Phosphorus.

1.06

One specimen taken from La Grange Furnace, in Stewart County, on the Tennessce River, shows, as analyzed by Prof. E. S. Wayne, 65.75 per cent. of metallic iron. Another specimen from the same place, analyzed by Prof. Barton, gives :

Water ... 3.65

Silica 1.96

Iron. 65.92

Oxygen combined.

28.25

Sulphur .. .

0.04

Phosphorus

0.12

Another specimen from Stewart County, analyzed by the same chemist :

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Sulphur.

0.13

0.49

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

Water.

8.38

Silica.

2.19

Iron.

63.09

Oxygen combined. 27.03

Sulphur.

0.07

Phosphorus

0.38

. The first of the last two was calcined, and the last tur- gite. The same character of ore may be found on many of the banks in every county of the western iron belt.

The three ores, analyses of which I have given-namely, limonite, gothite, and turgite-when pure, turn out as fol- lows :

Limonite .. ... 85.6 ses. oxide iron = 59.92 metallic iron

Turgite ...

94.7 =

66.25

Gæthite .... 89.9

62.92 "

The best ores from this belt, with the imperfect means of smelting, turn 'out from fifty to fifty-four per cent. of metallic iron. The run of the mines will yield from forty- two to forty-five per cent.

The iron product of Middle Tennessee, with few excep- tions, is either neutral or slightly cold short. Red-short iron has been made in Dickson County. Any amount desired can be made by bringing the easily-accessible Iron Mountain ores to Nashville, or other points in the western iron belt, at a cost not exceeding seven dollars per ton. As to the amount of iron ore to be had in the western iron belt that is accessible, both by river and rail, it is sufficient to say that many of the banks cover from one to five square miles, and the ore is from a few feet to one hundred feet in thickness. In some of the counties it forms great bluffs on the small streams that interpenetrate every portion of the iron-field, in others the ore lies deep beneath the sur- face, but generally it is found cropping the hills and ridges that separate the stream-beds. Some of these banks have been worked for half a century with no sign of exhaustion. In a word, the ore exists in such abundance that it is prac- tically inexhaustible. Good beds of ore, as yet known only to citizens, exist within a mile of the railroads in Dickson and Humphreys Counties. One of these, in the last-named county, near Box Station, is very pure and very rich in metallic iron.

I now propose to give some figures to show the relative cost of making iron at Pittsburgh and at Nashville, not with the view of displaying the disadvantages of Pittsburgh, but

· the advantages offered by Nashville.

It is claimed that one and a half tons of the best Lake Superior ore will make one ton of pig-iron in the furnaces at Pittsburgh ; but since mill cinder enough is always used to make one-tenth of a ton, we may infer that one and six- tenths of a ton of Republican ore are required to a ton of pig-iron. The most favorable estimate of cost claimed by workers of Pittsburgh furnaces is as follows :

Cost of Material for Ton of Pig-Iron at Pittsburgh.

One and six-tenth tons of Lake Superior ore at Cleveland, at $9. $14.40

Freight from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, $1.90 per ton .. 3.04

Transfer at Pittsburgh at 10c. per ton. 16

Total cost of ore for ton pig-iron .. $17.60

Coke, 80 bushels at 4c. 3.20

Limestone, three-quarters ton at $2. 1.50

Salaries and labor per ton. 2.00

Contingent expenses.

Total $24,80

The cost of material and labor for making a ton of pig- iron at Nashville, the furnace to be located on a railroad, is as follows, taking average ore :

Cost of Material for Ton of Pig-Iron at Nashville.

Two and one-fourth tons of ore, delivered, at $2. $4.50

Eighty bushels coke, at 5c .. 4.00

Limestone .. 50

Salaries and labor 2.00

Contingent expenses. 50

Total. .$11.50

Coke will probably be a variable quantity, but contracts may be made on a sliding scale, to be regulated by the price of pig-iron, so as to give to the manufacturers of coke and pig-iron an equitable division of the profits.

These figures are startling exhibits. Let them be ex- amined minutely. Every point can be thoroughly investi- gated, and every one will be thoroughly established. It is strange that capital has not occupied such a field, this being the truth. Capital is slow to adventure, however,-even to inquire,-and then slow to occupy. The world is full of similar cases of slow conservatism, waiting for years before it acquires the courage to occupy, or even to investigate, fields which when developed have been found sources of individual wealth and national prosperity. For three hun- dred years after the discovery of America the rich prairies of the Northwest, now the granary of the world, were un- occupied and thought to be valueless.

In many places in the western iron belt a man can raise from four to six tons of iron ore a day, especially at the iron bluffs overhanging ravines, as in Hickman County, where the ore can be chuted on board the cars. One man can average daily three tons. Contracts can be made for ore to be delivered on the cars at seventy-five cents to one dollar and ten cents per ton ; freight, eighty miles to Nash- ville, eighty cents and royalty ; if the iron banks are not owned by the furnace, ten cents,-making the whole cost, including royalty, from one dollar and sixty-five cents to two dollars per ton. The estimate of the cost of labor and salaries per ton of pig produced is based upon information received at a locality where two furnaces, each producing fifty tons a day, are in operation.

The following estimate of the cost of making a ton of iron at Nashville was made in June, 1879, by a Pennsylvania manufacturer, who spent some time in investigating the subject :

Two tons of ore at $1.50 $3.00

85 bushels of coke at 5c.

4.25

Limestone

Sand for casting.

Labor and repairs

2.25

Incidentals

Total $10.60

In none of the estimates has the interest on investment been included, but as the investment would probably be less in Nashville than Pittsburgh, and certainly much less in rural districts, owing to the comparative cheapness of real estate and building material in Tennessee, it would change the relative results in favor of Tennessee.

For the manufacture of charcoal-iron this region has been noted for balf a century. Before the civil war there were at one time thirty-five charcoal-furnaces in operation. Tim-

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CITY OF NASHVILLE.

ber is very abundant and timbered lands cheap, ranging from one dollar to ten dollars per acre, depending upon location and differences of soil. Charcoal can be delivered at a furnace for about six cents for five peck bushels. An experienced iron-maker estimates the cost of making char- coal hot-blast iron in the western iron belt as follows, per ton :

150 bushels charcoal at 6c. $9.00

2} tons of ore at $1.50

3.37

Limestone per ton.

Labor and repairs

2.25

Sand for casting. 10

Incidentals

Total.

$15.72

Cold-blast charcoal-iron would probably cost two dollars per ton more ; but as all furnace-owners keep a supply store, the profits on goods sold will reduce the cost from ten to twenty per cent. on the prices given for material.

Nashville is situated on the Cumberland River, navigable from December till June, and oftentimes throughout the whole year for small steamers, and Nashville may be con- sidered as the centre of the iron and coal region of Middle Tennessee. Within a few miles to the west it has the vast western iron belt, extending out of Kentucky into Ten- nessce and crossing into Alabama, accessible now by the Cumberland River; by the Memphis division of the Louis- ville, Nashville and Great Southern Railroad; by the Ten- nessee River, connecting with the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad at Johnsonville; by the Nashville and Tuscaloosa Railroad, a branch of the Nashville, Chat- tanooga and St. Louis Railroad from Dickson's Station, now building, to cut the great iron banks of Dickson and Hickman Counties, and already completed to large and val- uable banks. The ores of Iron Mountain are accessible by the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad and the Iron Mountain Railroad, which are connected by the Mo- bile and Ohio Railroad at Union City and Columbus, Ky. The great Clinton (dye-stone) ore scams of Alabama are within reach by the Decatur branch of the Louisville, Nashville and Great Southern Railroad, connecting with the North and South Railroad at Decatur. In addition, there are iron fields along the western spurs of the Cum- berland table-land, to which the Manchester and McMinn- ville Railroad, a branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, is graded and built within a few miles. This, however, is purely speculative. The great and vir- tually inexhaustible sources of the best ore are the western belt, with Alabama and Iron Mountain ores easily accessi- ble for manufacturing all grades of pig-iron.

The Appalachian coal-field, about sixty thousand square miles in extent, passes clear through Tennessee, from north- east to southwest. Of this, five thousand one hundred square miles are in Tennessee, covering, in whole or in part, twenty- one counties, and including the whole of the Cumberland plateau. This plateau bifurcates near the longitudinal cen- tre of the State, one prong ending a short distance within Alabama, the other prong narrowing at the fork and then spreading out, in the shape of a heart, in Alabama, giving to that State about four thousand square miles of valuable and rich coal area. Nashville now reaches these fields, one hundred and six miles distant by rail, in Grundy County,

at the Sewance Mines; in Franklin County, at the Uni- versity Mines ; in Marion County, at the Battle Creek Mines, the AEtna Mines, and the Vulcan Mines,-all by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and its branches, except the two mines first mentioned, which are reached by the Tennessee Coal Company's railroad, connecting with the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad at Cowan. Coal from the Appalachian field is also obtained from Kentucky by the Cumberland River above Nashville, and by the De- catur branch of the Louisville, Nashville and Great South- ern Railroad from Alabama.

The Illinois coal-measures extend into Kentucky, begin- ning at Rome, on the Ohio, and running nearly to the mouth of that river and nearly over the western end of Kentucky, to within a few miles of Hopkinsville, seventy miles from Nashville. This is now one of Nashville's large sources of coal supply by the Evansville, Henderson and Nashville Railway, which cuts the coal-measures, and along which many extensive mines have been opened.

Recently the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad pur- chased the Owensboro' and Nashville Railroad, contem- plating its extension between Nashville and the Ohio River, cutting a very rich portion of the coal-measures.

These are the sources and means of reaching iron and coal now. The figures given are carefully made up from examination into the prices at which iron and coal can now be furnished. They show what can be done with these sources and the present means of reaching them.

As to transportation, taking Nashville as the natural centre of this iron region, it now has the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, connecting with the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia road, and the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad with the seaboard at Norfolk and with the Southern system of roads to the Gulf; also, soon with the Cincinnati Southern at Chattanooga. It has connection with the Mississippi River and with St. Louis by the north- western branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, and very early the same road will complete a new connection with the Ohio River and Chicago by the Owens- boro' road, while it is now pushing a road into the iron-field southwest along the Tennessee River. We have the Louis- ville, Nashville and Great Southern Railroad giving con- nection with Louisville, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis on the north, on the south with Montgomery, Mobile, and New Orleans, and with the Mississippi River on the west, and by the Evansville branch reaching St. Louis, Chicago, and other great centres of trade. At least six months in the year there is river connection with Louisville, Cincin- nati, and St. Louis, and also for a like period we have river connection at Point Burnside with the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, by the upper Cumberland, during the busiest iron transporting season, giving a competing line to Cin- cinnati as a check upon the Louisville, Nashville and Great Southern Railroad, in case a check is needed.

Clarksville is another point on the Cumberland River with splendid facilities for making iron. Ore can be reached by the Louisville and Memphis Railroad and by the Cum- berland River, along whose banks below the city are immense deposits of both pipe and pot ore. A narrow-gauge rail- road, built twenty-eight miles into Kentucky, will give un-

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

limited supplies of coal, but supplies can now be obtained by the Evansville branch of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and by the Cumberland River.

Both Nashville and Clarksville are also amply supplied with labor available at present, while they are the centre of an agricultural region, both in the central basin and on the river-lands, unsurpassed in fertility and variety of soil and productions, contributing an unfailing and easily and cheaply available source of home-produced food, and, added to this, excellent transportation facilities for supplies from abroad.

As to local conveniences, furnaces may be established directly on the railroad and on the river, and occupy any desirable or convenient situation near the road as to eleva- tion. The railroads are all connected, so that terminal facilities are the very best for receiving coal and ore and shipping iron, while both places are built on limestone, cropping out everywhere and rarely more than four feet beneath the surface, requiring slight labor to raise, and now obtainable at less cost than I have given in my estimate.

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 57

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013