USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 3
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"The first smelting works were erected in 1867, under direction of Mr. William H. Long, the present general superintendent and treasurer of the company.
"Mr. Long was formerly in charge of the smelting works at Point Shirley, near Boston, for a number of years, and left there on account of ill health. He came to Fairlee, Vt., and purchased a farm, with a view to residing there to regain his health. The management of the copper company induced him to engage with them for a year, giving what time he could to erecting some furnaces and smelting ore. Four furnaces were put up and the ore was re - duced to 'matte' of from thirty to forty per cent. copper, in which condition it was sold and shipped to smelting works on the sea coast, the greater part of it going to the old works at Point Shirley.
" The business was carried on in this way for about two years, the man- agement working carefully, paying up the debts of the company, and having a handsome balance of profits on hand, and laying the foundation for a largely extended business.
" In 1869 Capt. Pollard, who was superintendent of the mines, left, and Mr. William H. Long was appointed general superintendent, and called to his assistance his brother, Mr. Daniel F. Long, who was formerly with him at the Point Shirley works, and who has since that time held the position of as-
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sistant superintendent. They immediately set to work and enlarged the smelting works, adding new furnaces, erecting tenements for the workmen, and the present village of Ely began to grow up around the works.
" The new furnaces reduced the 'matte' to ' pig' copper of about ninety-five per cent. The former reduction of the ore to 'matte' had made a great saving in the matter of the freights, and this last reduction made a further large saving in the same direction. Though of course the smelting of the ore here necessitated. the freighting here of large quantities of ' coke' and coal.
" Since 1870 the works have been gradually enlarged and increased, new buildings erected, and the village has grown up, until to-day these are the most extensive copper works in the country, the village has grown to be, in a busi- ness point of view, one of the most important in the state, with a population of over 2,000 inhabitants.
" In 1856 there were three farm houses here ; and up to 1869 there were only six houses on the Main street, and a half dozen or more shanties on the road leading up to the mouth of the mine. Now the village has a large num- ber of fine buildings; has two churches-a Catholic church, Rev. Father Michaud, priest ; and a M. E. church, which has been enlarged and improved this year, the pulpit of which is supplied by Rev. P. M. Frost and Rev. William Paul. There is also a graded school which has an average attendance of over 150 scholars in the various departments.
"In 1878 Mr. Ely purchased the mine known as the Union mine in Cor- inth, formerly run by the Union Copper Mining Company, which is a very valuable mine, and is now being worked to its fullest capacity; the ore being brought to this place, after being dressed, and is here roasted and smelted. The headquarters of both mines are at this place.
" Corinth mine is now called the Goddard mine. this name having been adopted by those in charge of it and the workmen, in honor of Mr. E. Ely- Goddard, a grandson of Mr. Smith Ely.
" The mine is reached from the village by going straight up the hill about three-fourths of a mile, or by a new wagon road which winds around the hill, a distance of about a mile. We took a seat in Capt. Thos. Pascoe's wagon at about 7 o'clock a. m., and started for the mouth of the mine. Capt. Pas- coe, who has been captain of this mine for the past eleven years, is a Corn- nish miner, from Cornwall, England, who came over to this country in 1853, and went to the Lake Superior mines, where he staid a short time, and then went to California, where he was engaged for five years in gold mining. From there he went to the Frazer river mining district in British America, and finally came to this mine in 1861. He has spent his life in mining, and is said to be one of the best mining captains in the country.
" Arriving at the mouth of the tunnel we make some shift of clothing, as the inside of the mine is by no means the cleanest place in the world. We get into the iron car which is drawn by a horse over the track through the tunnel. We go in on the level 800 feet, and come to a halt. We have struck the shaft, and right here, 300 feet below the surface on the pitch of the vein, is an eighty-horse-power engine, which does the hoisting of the cars up the incline from the bottom of the mine 2,000 feet below. A steam pipe from the boilers of this engine operates a donkey engine and force pump down the shaft 500 feet away, to force water up from that part of the mine. And by the way this is a remarkably dry mine, as besides the surface water which is caught by dams along down the shaft, only two or three car loads of water a day has to be drawn up out of the mine. The engine operates a large drum around which a steel wire rope, one and one fourth inches in diameter, winds
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COPPER MINES.
or unwinds as the car is drawn up or let down. A bell with a wire attached and running to the bottom of the mine gives the signal to 'let down' or ' hoist away'; 'ore car,' ' water car' or ' truck.' Of course all is total dark- ness in here, except where the flickering miner's lamps throw what seemed to our unaccustomed eyes an uncertain light into the gloom around. The cars in which the ore is drawn up and out of the mine, are made entirely of iron, are about six or seven feet long, some two feet wide at the bottom, and a little flaring towards the top. They are set on four wheels, the trucks being set pretty near together, we suppose for greater convenience in tipping the box of the car up endwise, which is the way they are unloaded. The vein is a very rich one, and varies in thickness from two feet to twenty or more, while it spreads out in places to a width of a hundred or two feet, and again draws in to a narrow limit. The shaft runs down at an average angle or dip of about twenty-six degrees, while the vein varies in its dip, sometimes running out entirely on a certain angle, and then a shaft has to be sunk perpendicu- larly to strike it below, and the ore is then taken out on a level to the shaft, which is continued down at a convenient angle, in many places independent of the vein.
" The vein carries, besides sulphuret of copper, sulphuret of iron, a trace of zinc blend, or 'black jack,' as the Cornish miners call it, mica slate, quartz, etc., and also contains a trace of gold.
"With Capt. Pascoe for a guide we start down the shaft, walking upon the track. And here let us remark that it is anything but sport to pick your way down this 2,000 feet of slippery track by the light of a miner's lamp for one unaccustomed to it, and we found the muscles of our legs severely taxed before we reached the bottom. As we go along down some of the way we are shut into a narrow passage where we have to stoop a little to keep our head from striking the overhanging wall, and again we come upon vast cham- bers a hundred or two hundred feet in extent, and twenty-five or thirty feet high. All the ore and rock has been blasted out of those large chambers and drawn up in the little cars. In these places the roof has to be supported, which is done by heavy timbers, or by columns of what they term 'poor rock,' kept in place by timbers. In one place we saw an immense rock, or portion of the roof wall which fell some years ago, which is 100 feet long, twenty to thirty feet wide, and eight to ten feet in thickness. But so care- fully does the captain of the mine guard against accidents of this kind, or in fact of any kind, that we believe only three men have been killed in the mine since it started. As we go along down we strike off from the main shaft in places to loo'x into some old drift or shaft, and the captain calls a halt, holds his lamp forward, and we are standing on what might be the brink of the ' bottomless pit ' for aught we know. We cast a stone down, and it seems a long time before we hear it strike the bottom; and then a miner from way down below carries a lamp into the bottom of the shaft, going in on a level from where he is, and we get some idea of depth and extent of the shaft and the amount of labor that has been expended here.
" About two-thirds of the way down another main shaft branches off, and there are two tracks from here to the bottom of the mine.
" Soon we begin to hear the click of the miners' sledges upon the drills, and presentiy we come upon them. They work in gangs or 'pairs,' three men to a drill, two striking and one turning the drill. They generally work by the light of a candle set in some soft clay and stuck against the wall It was surprising to see the rapidity and accuracy with which the strikers dealt
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the blows with the sledge upon the head of the drill. A mis-stroke would crush the hand that turns the drill.
" These men are nearly all Cornish miners, and have spent their lives at this business. They work in three shifts of eight hours each. They make good pay, and many of them have money in the bank or in bonds. The tram-men work in two shifts of ten hours each, and are not generally skilled miners. After the hole is drilled in the vein, and the blast blown out, the workmen sort out the poor rock from that which bears ore, and each is drawn up separately.
"After looking at the various places where the miners are at work, we start on the ascent, but have not gone far before the captain orders the ' truck' sent down, and when it arrives we find that it is made specially to ride upon, and we get on, partly lying down, and with the caution to us to look out for our head and arms, the captain gives the signal to 'hoist away,' and we are trundling along up the steep incline, and soon reach the landing.
" At the mouth of the tunnel is the blacksmith shop where a gang of hands are kept at work day and night sharpening the drills and repairing other iron work used in the mine; and this business is terribly destructive to tools, cars and machinery, and uses up a vast amount of iron and steel in the course of a year.
" Upon arriving outside the mine we met Capt. R. W. Barrett, who has charge of the next department, the wash-house or dressing-house, etc., where the ore is prepared and forwarded to the roast beds. Capt. Barrett is also a Cornish miner, and thoroughly understands his business.
" We first come to the weigh-house, where the ore from the Corinth mine is all weighed, on a set of ten ton Howe scales. The ore is then drawn to a chute where it is dumped down some eighty feet to a level with the ore of the Vermont mine after that has gone through the dressing-house.
"We next visit the chute where the ore from this mine is let down from the track overhead. Here it is sorted, the large pieces broken up and then wheeled to the dressing house, which is about 102x30 feet, where about 115 men and boys are at work, washing, sorting, cobbing, etc.
"The fine ore is first taken to a long bench with troughs and running water upon each side. Here it is all washed, that which is of the proper size to go to the roast beds-from half the size of a hen's egg to twice that size-is wheeled to another chute. The large pieces having some poor rock or worth- less substance mixed with the ore is taken to the 'cobbers,' who sit around one end of the room, with a good sized hard stone in front of them, upon which they break up the large pieces with hammers. In the process of blast- ing, breaking up and handling, a large quantity of the ore is broken up very fine, and this has to be washed or 'jigged' in seives, with fine screen to take the dirt out. All the ore from this house is wheeled to a second chute where it goes over screens and is separated into three classes-the coarser ore, a finer grade called 'ragging ' and the ' fine ore.'
" From the chute-house the ore goes into another building, whence it is loaded into the cars to be sent down the incline to the roast beds, and it is so arranged that two men can load into the cars 300 tons of ore a day.
" Everything about these works is arranged to save labor in handling the ore. After it reaches the landing in the shaft of the mine it is all the way down hill, and the buildings, tracks, roast beds, and furnaces are so arranged that every time the ore is moved it goes down until it finally comes out in a molten stream from the mouth of the furnace. At the chute-house the ore is loaded into cars and sent down the track to the roast beds. The track is
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COPPER MINES.
of peculiar construction. The upper half having three rails forming two tracks while the lower half has a single track. The cars are let down and drawn up by a wire rope which passes around a drum at the head of the in - cline, which has a brake to regulate the speed of a descending car.
" Between here and the roast beds is a large amount of fine ore, spread out over a surface of nearly an acre, from a foot to two feet deep. It is left here for about a year, when it becomes so caked and cemented together that it can then be broken up into proper size for roasting. It is very difficult- in fact has always been considered impossible-to roast fine ore alone by the process used here, as it packs down too closely to admit of the fire passing through it. In the course of a few years this fine ore will become so solid that it would require blasting to break it up.
" A large amount-some 2,000 tons- of fine ore has been drawn over here from the Corinth mine, and a 'jigging '-house has been erected for washing it. There are four lever 'jiggers.' A large box or trough is constructed through which a stream of water continually flows ; another box is set inside this with a fine wire screen bottom, into which the fine ore is put, and this box is worked up and down in the water by a long lever, thus taking the dirt out of the ore. What goes through the screens and is not carried away by the stream of water is taken out and carried to what is called a 'tie.' It is simply a trough about twenty-four feet long set at an incline, through which a stream of water flows. The dirt is carried off by the water and the ore left on the bottom of the trough. About one-fourth of what is put in is ore.
"The space occupied by the roast beds is about 900 feet long, and a trestle runs over it at a height of from eight to fourteen feet above the beds. The ore is dumped on to the beds from the cars, in piles about 50x20 feet, and about four to six feet deep. A layer of wood about six inches deep is first laid upon the bed ; then the coarse ore is put on ; then a finer grade, or ' ragging,' and the bed is then covered with fine ore. The wood is set on fire around the edges, and each pile will then burn for from two to three months, the sulphur, of which the ore contains a large amount, keeping the pile burn- ing and emiting fumes which one not accustomed to will get out of as soon as possible after once inhaling ; but the men who work here experience no inconvenience from them, and they are not considered injurious to the health of the workmen.
"The company is now experimenting with a bed of fine ore roasting alone. If successful it will do away with the necessity of spreading it in beds and then breaking up. Two new desulphurizing ovens have recently been put up upon a new plan, with which they are experimenting, to get rid of the sul- phurous acid gas. This gas has killed the trees and vegetation upon the hill- sides and valley for a considerable distance around, and not even the Canada thistle can raise its head where it strikes the ground. The company has spent thousands of dollars in trying to get rid of this gas, so that it will do no damage. They have put in a large flue, with pipes from the desulphurizing ovens running into it, which carries the fumes from them to the top of a hill, a quarter of a mile or more away, and 400 feet high, where a stack eighty feet high and lined with sheet lead, has been erected.
" From the roast beds the ore is wheeled to chutes over the track which runs alongside them, dumped into cars and drawn to the smelting works, the main building of which is about 700 feet long by sixty-two wide. It is a substantial structure and covered with a slate roof.
" There are now twenty-four furnaces, some of which are not yet completed. The new ones are constructed in a more substantial manner than those here-
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ORANGE COUNTY.
tofore built, a large amount of heavy iron castings being used for the frames and supports.
" These furnaces are lined with fire brick, which are imported from Scot- land ; the Scotch brick being much better for the purpose of smelting this ore than any made in this country. The lining of the furnaces has to be repaired every six to twelve days.
" The track from the roast bed strikes the smelting works about in the middle of the main building, and the cars bearing ore, coke or other material, are switched onto a track which is elevated about fifteen feet above the ground floor of the works, and runs around near the outside of the sort of simicircle on which the works are constructed. As they come in each car load is weighed, and then sent along to the furnace, when by pulling a rod the load is dumped, the coke and other material used upon one side and the ore upon the other side of the top of the furnace, and it is then shoveled in as required.
" The power for running these works is supplied by a steam engine, the one now in use being an eighty-horse-power; but this is soon to be replaced by an engine of 125-horse-power, made by the Putnam Steam Engine Co., of Fitch- burg, Mass. Water is also brought to the works in a penstock from a dam about one-fourth mile away. A large double blower in the engine-room sends the blast for the furnaces through a large pipe running the length of the works. Back of the smelting works are the desulphurizing ovens, now seventy in number, but soon to be increased to 100. The recent enlargement of the smelting works by an addition of 200 feet to the length of the main building. and the increase in number of ovens is made necessary on account of the ore from the Goddard mine being brought here to smelt. In their works there is also a set of stamps where they crush quartz aud other material that is used to form the ' basin ' into which the molton mass runs from the furnaces.
" The ore, coke, and whatever other substances are needed for a 'flux,' -that is to make the slag run off clean from the ore when melted, -is put into the furnace and the product of this first melting is a ' regulus ' or ' matte ' of about thirty to thirty-five per cent. copper, but the sulphur has not been got rid of yet, and this ' matte ' is broken up into pieces about the size of the hand, and taken to desulphurizing ovens, placed upon wood and set on fire to eliminate what remains of the sulphur. It remains here burning for about two weeks. It is then taken to another smaller furnace of different construction, from which they get 'pig' copper of about ninety-five per cent., and a small amount of very rich ' matte'; the latter being again taken back to the ovens.
"The dross or slag from the furnaces is taken off into pots shaped like half an egg, set upon wheels, and is wheeled out and dumped after it has cooled a little. About ninety to ninety-four of every hundred pounds of ore which comes into the works has to be wheeled out and dumped, and a mass of this dross has been thus wheeled out since 1868, which is some 600 feet long, 400 feet wide and on an average fifteen feet deep. It has intruded upon the highway that formerly run down the brook so that they have had to construct a new road on the opposite side of the stream, and the road lately used will soon be covered.
"While we were looking the works over there was a display of fire works more brilliant and striking than pleasant to be in near proximity to, which we suppose was gotten up for our especial benefit, as it was something that very rarely occurs. The molten mass in one of the basins, into which the stream from the furnace runs, broke through the bottom, and striking mois-
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COPPER MINES.
ture, a column of the melted mass was thrown into the roof of the building thirty or forty feet high. Fortunately no one was injured and no great dam- age done.
" This company have in their employ at both mines about 1,000 men, and their monthly pay roll amounts to about $20,000. Their freight and cart- age bills amount to from $7,000 to $10,000 a month. They own and em- ploy a large number of teams, keeping about 225 horses on the roads most of the time.
We think it is not too much to say that the successful prosecution of this business to its present magnitude is almost wholly due to the indomi- table perseverance and untiring industry of Mr. Smith Ely. If it had not been for his energy and his capital in all probability there would not be a copper mine at work in this country, at the present time, as this is about the only one now running in the country except it may be the Lake Superior mines, where they find native copper, and are independent of the smelting works. As is usually the case in the running of so extensive a business as this, the management has at times met with active opposition from some parties, and some litigation has resulted. The most important suit on the court dockets of this state-since the settlement of the Central Vermont railroad matters-is a suit brought by Bicknell & Pollard involving the title to what is known as the Dwight Hill property, lying just north of the mine. At the December term of Orange county court, 1873, Bicknell & Pollard brought a suit in trespass against the Vermont Copper Mining Co., and Smith Ely, for mining, as they claimed, upon the property of the plaintiffs. Under that suit the plaintiffs attempted to get an order from the court per- mitting them to explore the mine of the company, but the court refused to grant the order. They then brought their bill in chancery, and under their bill they got leave to enter and explore, and did explore the mine. In this bill in chancery the defendant set up a claim to the Dwight Hill property. After taking testimony on both sides for about one hundred days the case was heard before Chancellor Powers, at Montpelier, last October, occupying more than a week ; Rowell, Gleason and Gov. Peck appearing for the orators, and Farnham and Clark for defendants. At the last December term of Orange county court, the chancellor made a decretal order sustaining the claims of the defendants, as to the ownership of the land. From this order the orators took an appeal, and the case is expected to be heard at the gen- eral term at Montpelier in October next. In some of their papers the plaintiffs claim to have suffered damages to the amount of. $475,000.
" Of the Goddard mines at Corinth, Thomas A. Chase, who has been for many years connected with copper mining at Pike Hill, and at the Ely mines, is general superintendent ; Capt. Pascoe, a brother of Capt. Thomas Pascoe, of the Ely mine, is mining captain, and Harry Holmes has charge of the wash - house. Mr. Chase has recently called to his assistance Mr. C. C. Surgent, who has charge of the books, etc., at that mine."
From 1879 to 1882 the Ely mine reached its greatest product. In 1870 the product of the furnaces was 943,461 pounds of copper ; in 1876, 1.646,- 850 pounds ; and in 1880, 3,186, 175 pounds. But notwithstanding this immense product there were but two dividends made after 1869, to wit, in 1872, of $30,000 each. The price of copper had continued to fall until in 1880 the price averaged but 20.18 cents per pound. In 1881 it averaged only 18.27 cents per pound. In the latter year it had become necessary
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to enlarge the hoisting apparatus, and an immense new engine with large steel boilers, of great hoisting power, was placed at the mouth of the main shaft. The car loads of ore were drawn from the bottom of the mine be means of a wire rope twenty-seven hundred feet long. This new machinery and the setting of it were very expensive, while the work in the mine was interfered with, so that the product was very much diminished while the expenses were greatly increased. The result was that Mr. Ely, who together with his friends owned more than nine-tenths of the capital stock, and was to all in- tents and purposes the corporation, was under the necessity of borrowing money. This he did upon the paper of the company, endorsed by himself. This transaction undoubtedly made him more sensible of the burden of the whole business than he had been before. Mr. Ely was then past eighty years of age, and although remarkably energetic and clear-headed for a man of his years, yet he felt that he was an old man and he determined to dispose of his interest in the property. He entered into negotiations in 1880 and could then have sold his interest in the corporation for about $900,000, but for some reason the negotiations were broken off by him, and no sale was made. In the spring of 1882, copper dropping as low as 18 1-6 cents per pound in May, renewed efforts were made to dispose of the property, Mr. Ely in the meantime having given to his grandson, Col. E. Ely-Goddard, thirty thou- sand shares of the capital stock of the company of the par value of $150,000. In May, through the influence of friends, Mr. Francis M. F. Cazin, a man of foreign birth, came to Ely from New York with the proposition to take hold and relieve the company, and especially Mr. Ely, of the burden that was upon them. Mr. Cazin was a man of considerable experience in mining engineering, and was quite conversant with what the books said upon the subject. He assumed to know all about mining and smelting, was plausible in his talk about the subject, energetic and persistent in enforcing his ideas, and in the end Mr. Ely, supposing that the plan proposed by Mr. Cazin was sanctioned by his friends in New York, entered heartily into the new scheme. It was briefly this: A new corporation was to be organized which should purchase the property of the old company at the price of $500,000. Pay- ment for the property was to be made in the bonds of the new corporation, secured by mortgage, of which $200,000 were to be set aside for the payment of the debts of the old concern. The new company was to take possession at once and run the business, with Cazin as manager, give Mr. Ely and the old company the $300,000 and they step out, and thus be relieved of anxiety and responsibility. The new corporation was to be organized in New York and the property was all to be conveyed to Mr. Cazin and Col. Goddard, who were to hold it until the new corporation was organized and the bonds were ready to be delivered. The deeds and contracts to Ely-Goddard and Cazin were executed on the 16th of May and Ist of June, conveying all of the property of the Vermont Copper Mining Company, both real and per- sonal, including the Union or Goddard mine in Corinth. These two gentle-
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