History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 18

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > West Virginia > Kanawha County > Charleston > History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens > Part 18

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The cost of producing salt at these figures may be stated at 8 to II cents per bushel in bulk, or 13 to 16 cents in barrels, ready for shipment.

The present cost of boring a salt well here, say 1,000 feet, after engine, well frame, etc., are ready, is $1,200 to $1,500. The time nec- essary to bore and ream it complete is 60 to 90 days. The cost of a salt furnace, complete, depends upon size, etc., and varies within wide limits. It may be stated roughly at $40,000 to $100,000.

The people of the United States consume more salt than those of any other country, the estimated average consumption being one bushel of 50 pounds, per capita, for the entire population. The great Western markets, where our product goes, consumes even more largely than the general average, as this is the largest pork-packing region on the globe. This portion of the country is rapidly increas- ing in population, and as rapidly in its meat crop and salt consumption.

It is well known to chemists that salt is a valuable fertilizer on most soils for wheat, cotton, grass, potatoes, turnips, and other crops; and as an ingredient in compound ma- nures it has a wide range of value. It is often recommended by the highest authorities, but, as yet, very little is so used in this country. When agriculture gets to be better understood and practiced, and agricultural people under- stand their interests better, a large demand and consumption will doubtless be developed in that direction.

The most important and, prospectively, promising development in the manufacture of salt here is its probable use on a large scale in the manufacture of alkalies and other chem- icals having salt as a basis or important con- stituent.

With a population of forty million and cov- ering the greater part of a continent, it is an astonishing fact that our last census does not report a single soda ash works in operation in the United States, while the official returns

show the importation of these chemicals into the country to be enormously large.

In 1872 the importation of soda ash, caustic soda, etc., was over 100,000 tons, in 1873 118,000 tons, in 1874 140,000 tons.

These figures, together with the following article, cut from the New York Tribune, a few years ago, are strikingly suggestive and instructive, and present, in a very forcible manner, the great and rapidly growing im- portance of this manufacture to this country.

"GIVE US THE SODA ASH MANUFACTURE"

"Soda ash, within ten days, has gone up 1/2 cent a pound. Well, what of that? Just this : For the bread we Americans eat, for the win- dow glass that lights our houses, and in fact shelters us from the weather, for every pound of hard soap that we use, for every sheet of our letter cap and printing paper, for the bleaching of our cotton cloths, and very many other blessings, we are absolutely dependent upon Great Britain. Her manufactories of soda ash have the monopoly of furnishing the United States with that article, indispensably necessary in itself, and in its correlative prod- ucts, to the supply of the commonest wants of our social and domestic life. There is not a soda ash manufactory in the United States.

There are the skeletons of many, killed dead under a competition under free trade tariffs, or free trade clauses in protective tariffs, which represents the difference of wages paid to common laborers in the United States and Great Britain, 50 cents a day there, and $1.50 a day here. But there is not a single living, kicking soda ash factory in our whole coun- try. Let us restate this, our nation's depend- ence. If a war should break out between Great Britain and the United States we would be instantly cut off from the supply of the mate- rials to make bread, soap, glass, and paper. The manufacturing interests dependent upon soda ash and its correlation would forthwith be brought to the greatest distress, or to ab- solute ruin. So soon as the imported stock on hand was exhausted, we should have to depend on blockade running to obtain the chemical element necessary to enable the nation to wash

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HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

its clothes and raise its bread and cakes. In the event of such a war, soda ash would go up to $2.00 per pound; indeed, it could not be gotten at any price. Our people would expiate with widespread distress their folly in not hav- ing encouraged and established this article of prime and indispensable necessity, at least to the point of independence from foreign supply.

"But soda ash has gone up 1/2 cent a pound. It is a new fluctuation, which we simply wish to employ in urging the solemn duty to make this nation independent of Great Britain, for. the comfort of its social and domestic life. The fluctuation in the price of soda ash in 1865 was between 312 cents the pound and 1212 cents. During that time, the profit the British manufacturers and importers made out of us ranged between 200 and 400 per cent. Money enough was sent out of this country, to pay inordinate profits, to foreigners, to have paid for the successful establishment here of the soda ash manufacture in at least eight dif- ferent states, and to have secured a perma- nently low and steady price of the article in all the American markets. This rise of 1/2 cent a pound, a British tax on every glass, soap, paper and cotton manufacturer in this country, will not excite a protest. How wise it would be for these manufacturers, quitting forever their chronic protests against a tariff on soda ash, to unite in demanding one that should immediately establish the manufacture here, and save them forever from those inev- itable fluctuations in the price of the foreign article, and the extravagant profits from which only home competition between estab- lished producers saves the consumer."

All, or nearly all, of our supply of these chemicals comes from Great Britain. Official reports of 1870, giving the operations of 1869, will give an idea of the extent and importance of the manufacture in that country.

In that year the manufactories there con- sumed 10,184,000 bushels of salt; 26,908,000 bushels, or 961,000 tons of coal; 281,000 tons of limestone and chalk; 264,000 tons of py- rites ; 8,300 tons of nitrate of soda ; and 33,000 tons of timber for casks.

The manufacture, I am told, has largely in- creased since 1869, but I have not seen official reports of a later date.

Is there any sufficient reason why this man- ufacture should be so neglected and ignored in this country? On the contrary the advan- tages are so great and so palpable that it is difficult to understand why capital and enter- prise have not been enlisted in it. To illus- trate, compare the conditions of manufacture at New Castle, on the Tyne, the seat of the largest manufacture in England, with what they would be on the Kanawha.

The New Castle manufacturer buys his salt in Cheshire and transports it several hundred miles by rail. He buys his coal from neighbor- ing collieries, paying railway transportation on that to his works. His pyrites and man- ganese come from Spain and his timber for casks from Canada or Norway.

When the chemicals are made, he sends them to Liverpool or Glasgow by rail for American shipment, thence by steamers to New York, paying ocean freight, insurance, and government duty. At New York he pays commission, cartage, etc., and thence railroad freight to the Western markets, say to Pitts- burg, St. Louis, etc.

Per contra, the Kanawha manufacturer would have salt and coal at his doors, at a small margin over producer's cost, if he did not produce them himself at actual cost. On the line of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, accessible, cheap and convenient, are inex- haustible mines and beds of superior pyrites, manganese and limestone, and timber of the finest qualities abounds throughout the region, and is extremely cheap.

The product, when ready, could be rolled from one door of the factory into boats or barges, and in a short time, by cheap water transportation, be landed at these same large Western consuming markets from Pittsburg to St. Louis, inclusive; or from the opposite door of the factory, on the cars of the Chesa- peake & Ohio Railroad for early delivery into any of the Eastern cities.

It will be readily seen, I think, that the advantages are greatly in favor of the Amer- ican manufacture, and especially at Kanawha, where there are, probably, more advantages combined than at any other point in the coun- try.

With cheap salt, cheap coal, cheap sulphur-

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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

ets, cheap manganese, cheap limestone, cheap timber, cheap labor, and cheap transportation, there is nothing lacking but capital to make the Kanawha the Tyne of America.

West Virginia should at least supply soda ash, caustic soda, and bleaching powder to the great chemical consuming markets of the West, so near and cheaply accessible to us, if not, indeed, to the whole continent, thus saving to the consumers millions of dollars of extra cost for the foreign article, and saving the country from the risk of the unpleasant contingencies described in the foregoing Tribune article.

The inauguration of this industry here on a large scale, it is believed, would promote other enterprises depending largely upon these products as well as upon cheap coal and cheap timber.

Glass works, soap factories, paper mills, etc., might, with advantage, be located here, con- venient to salt and chemical supplies. The products of these establishments would, of course, have the same advantages of cheaply reaching the great consuming and rapidly growing markets of the West.

The Great Kanawha coal field, within which lies the Kanawha salt basin, is one of the finest known coal fields in the world. We have coal of the finest qualities, splint, bituminous and cannel, hard block coal, suitable for iron mak- ing; soft, rich coal for gas; good cooking coal; steam coal and grate coal. Our cannel coals for parlor use or gas making are unexcelled. Iron ores, carbonates of the coal formation, are found throughout the region, red and brown haematites and specular ores are cheaply accessible by rail, and black band of superior quality is found here in large abun- dance. As a timber region, especially for the hard woods, this can hardly be excelled on the continent.

It is not my purpose, however, in this paper to describe the coal, iron or timber; they will doubtless be written up by others; but I wished, simply in a few words, to call attention to the conjunction, or convenient proximity of these great leading staple, raw materials, herein described or mentioned, and all on a great line of railroad and a navigable river, connecting with all the sixteen thousand miles

of waterways draining the interior of the con- tinent into the "Great Father of Waters," the Mississippi, and reaching the teeming millions of population who dwell upon his fertile shores to their farthest limits.

It is upon such valuable, staple raw mate- rials as I have named, and so favorably lo- cated as here, that communities and nations found their industries and build their wealth.

I will not undertake to give any detailed description of the geology of this salt basin- to do so would be to give the geology of the Appalachian coal field. The strata here are simply the usual strata of the coal measures, lying nearly horizontal, and saturated in an unusual degree with valuable brines.

Pure salt, or chloride of sodium, is the same under all circumstances, but no commercial salt is entirely pure. Sea water, brines, springs, rock salt, and all sources of commercial sup- ply contain, associated with common salt. other saline ingredients. These are chiefly sulphates and chlorides, in greater or less quantity and varying proportions.

Probably the most common, as well as the most deleterious of these compounds is sul- phate of lime. Our salt has the advantage of being absolutely free from lime and other sul- phates; our process of manufacture, perhaps better than any other, enables us to separate the hurtful compounds and purify the brines.

The salt when carefully made analyzes 98 to 99 per cent of pure chloride of sodium, the remaining fraction being made up of chlorides of magnesium and calcium. These absorb a little moisture from the atmosphere, relieve the salt from a chappy dryness, and impart to it that valuable property of penetrating and curing meat in any climate or weather, for which it has so long enjoyed a high reputa- tion. In fact, the distinctive characteristics of Kanawha salt may be stated as follows: Ist. It has a more lively, pungent and pleasant taste as a table salt than any other known.

2nd. It is the only commercial salt that is absolutely free from sulphate of lime.

3rd. It does not, under any conditions of climate and weather, cake or crust on the sur- face of the meat, but penetrates it and cures

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HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

it thoroughly to the bone, so that in large pork packing establishments in Cincinnati and else- where, it is found to save meat in very un- favorable weather, where with any other salt known or used the meat would have been in- jured.

4th. On account of its pungency and pene- trating qualities a less quantity of it will suffice for any of the purposes for which it is used -whether table, dairy, grazing or packing.

Certificates from numerous Western firms show that the Mason county salt quotes with this; though at the same price consumers pre- fer that from the Kanawha wells.

There are in this salt district about 120 salt wells, all told. Some of these being in- ferior, have been abandoned, and will probably never be used again. Others are good wells, the furnaces connected with which have been dismantled by "dead rents," or other causes. These furnaces may be rebuilt, and restarted. The good wells, if all run, would supply brine for about 5,000,000 bushels of salt per year. Each furnace requires three to five wells.

There are at present ten furnaces here, of which the following is a list, with name of furnace, name of owner, and capacity. The aggregate capacity is about 2,500,000 bushels per year, if all were run full time. Two of the furnaces, however, are not in repair, and some others that had been idle have only re- cently been repaired, so that the product of 1875 was very small.

LIST OF KANAWHA SALT FURNACES

Name of furnace, Daniel Boone; name of owner, W. B. Brooks; bushels, 300,000.

Name of furnace, Crittenden; name of owner, W. D. Shrewsbury; bushels, 280,000. Not in repair.

Name of furnace, Snow Hill; name of owner, J. P. Hale; bushels, 420,000.

Name of furnace, Washington; name of owner, J. D. Lewis; bushels, 230,000. Not in repair.

Name of urnace, Pioneer; name of owner, Gen. L. Ruffner ; bushels, 180,000.

Name of furnace, Quincy ; name of owner, J. Q. Dickinson; bushels, 210,000.

Name of furnace, Burning Spring ; name of

owner, Mrs. R. Tompkins; bushels, 160,000. Name of furnace, Alden; name of owner, Mrs. S. Dickinson; bushels, 240,000.

Name of furnace, Lorena ; name of owner, Splint Coal Co .; bushels, 240,000.

Name of furnace, Kenton; name of owner, Splint Coal Co .; bushels, 240,000.

STATEMENT SHOWING THE PRODUCTION OF SALT IN KANAWHA

1797-150 pounds per day.

1808-25 bushels per day.

1814-600,000 bushels per year.

1827-787,000 bushels per year.

1828-863,542 bushels per year.

1829-989,758 bushels per year.

1830-906,132 bushels per year. 1831-956,814 bushels per year. 1832-1,029,207 bushels per year. 1833-1,288,873 bushels per year. 1834-1,702,956 bushels per year. 1835-1,960,583 bushels per year. 1836-1,762,410 bushels per year. 1837-1,880,415 bushels per year. 1838-1,811,076 bushels per year. 1839-1,593,217 bushels per year. 1840-1,419,205 bushels per year. 1841-1,443,645 bushels per year. 1842-1,919,389 bushels per year. 1843-2,197,887 bushels per year. 1844-1,874,919 bushels per year. 1845-2,578,499 bushels per year. 1846-3,244,786 bushels per year. 1847-2,690,087 bushels per year. 1848-2,876,010 bushels per year. 1849-2,951,491 bushels per year. 1850 -- 3,142,100 bushels per year. 1851-2,862,676 bushels per year. 1852-2,741,570 bushels per year. 1853-2,729,910 bushels per year. 1854-2,233,863 bushels per year. 1855-1,483,548 bushels per year.

1856-1,264,049 bushels per year. -

1857-1,266,749 bushels per year. 1858. No record.

1859. No record.

1860. No record.

1861. No record.

1862. No record.

1863. No record.

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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

1864-1,300,000 bushels per year.

1865- 861,973 bushels per year.

1866-1,275,017 bushels per year.

1867-1,321,066 bushels per year.

1868-1,528,282 bushels per year.

1869-1,822,430 bushels per year.

1870-1,721,963 bushels per year. 1871. No record.

1872. No record.

1873. No record.

I874. No record.

1875- 967,465 bushels per year.

SALT FURNACES, IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY CAME, GOING UP THE KANAWHA RIVER

On the south side-Joseph Lovell, B. Allen, I. Noyes, 2, Lorena, Tunace, Kenton, Jas. Brooks, Withrows, Donnallys-2, Hurt, Woods, Chas. Reynolds, Frys, Warth & Eng- lish, R. Clendenin, E. Reynolds, Van Don- nallys, Dryden Donnallys, Ankrown, John Crockett, Wilcox, Nash, Geo. Patrick, Steele, Dr. H. Rogers, Sam'l Hanna.

On the north side of Kanawha-Big Chim- ney, on Elk, Wilson, Black Hawk, Brighams, Daniel Boone, Patrick, Lovell, Snow Hill, White Hawk, McMullens, Wilcox, Scott & Milbe, Watt Trimble, Sam Early, John D. Lewis, F. Ruffner, Gen. Lewis Ruffner, Cox and Hanna, Nat Fuqua, Shrewsbury, Georges Creek, Dickinson & Shrewsbury, H. Clay, B. Franklin, Burning Springs, Mouth of Hollow, Black Rock, Barretts, Crockett Ingles, J. D. Lewis, Sam'l Shrewsbury, Joel Shrewsbury, Unknown, Orleans.

KANAWHA SALT MAKERS

1797, Elisha Brooks.

1806, David Ruffner.

1806, Tobias Ruffner.

1815, Aaron Stockton.

1818, William Tompkins.

1820, William Dickinson.

1820, Joel Shrewsbury. 1820, Peter Grant. 1820, James Hewitt.

1820, Armstrong.

1820, John Reynolds. 1820, Luke Wilcox.

1820, Lewis Ruffner. 1820, Dr. John Cabell.

1822, Isaac Noyes.

1824, William Whitteker.

1824, Charles Venable.

1825, Bradford Noyes.

1827, Frank Noyes. .

1828, Charles Reynolds.

1840, John Rogers. 1840, Stuart Robinson.

1840, Sam'l Shrewsbury.

1840, R. C. M. Lovell.

1840, Henry Chapell.

1840, Job. E. Thayer.

1840, John Welch.

1830, Nat Wilson. 1830, J. D. Lewis.

1830, J. B. Davenport.

1830, J. S. O. Brooks.

1830, George Warth.

1830, Job English.

1830, J. G. Foure.

1830, Thos. Friend.

1830, W. A. McMullin.

1830, Henry H. Wood.

1830, Ira Hunt.

1830, Thomas Wells.

1830, Sam'l Watson.

1830, Walter Trimble.

1835, Dr. R. E. Putney.

1835, Moses Fuqua.

1835, Sam'l Early.

1835, W. D. Shrewsbury. 1838, J. H. Fry.

1840, Jas. E. McFarland.

1840, Dr. Spicer Patrick.

1840, Robt. Clendenin.

1840, Henry Robinson.

1840, Dr. Henry Rogers.

1840, Amos Barrett. 1840, Brayton Allen.

1840, \V. C. Brooks.

1840, James Coney.

1840, Silas Ruffner.

1840, Jacob Darneal.

1840, Charles Cox.

1840, Wm. Gray.

1840, Mrs. Charles Cox.

1840, Mrs. W. R. Cox.

1845, Thomas Scott.

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HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY

1845, Wm. Graham.

1845, Wm. A. Brigham.

1845, John Clarkson.

1845, David Clarkson.

1845, A. F. Donnally.

1845, Abe Williams.

1847, Dr. J. P. Hale.

1847, Fritz Walker.

1850, Gus Quarrier.

1850, N. O. Brooks.

1850, Van Donnally.

1850, H. W. Goodwin.

1850, A. B. Ault.

1850, Dryden Donnally.

1853, Jesse Hudson.

1853, Charles Atkinson.

1853, John Slack and Jas. Ogborn.

1855, Dr. F. A. A. Cobbs.

1855, J. M. Laidley.

1855, A. P. Fry.

1855, Jas. L. Davis.

1857, Otey Alexander.

1857, W. R. Cox.

1860, Lewis Ruffner, Jr.

1860, C. C. Lewis.

1860, G. W. Morrison.

1860, J. W. Oakes.

1861, Wm. Dickinson, Jr.

1861, F. A. Laidley.

1861, T. F. Holt.

1863, A. W. Reynolds.

1866, L. F. Donnally.

1866, W. C. Reynolds.

1866, J. D. and \V. P. Shrewsbury.

1866, John Watson & Bro.

1866, Henry Clay Dickinson.

1869, Walter B. Brooks.

1869, WV. H. Tompkins.

1872, Rev. Tallman.

1874, Dryden Harris.

1875, Jas. Corbin.

1875, John Harris.

1875, J. Q. Dickinson.

1875, Geo. H. Huling.

1875, Isaac Ruffner.

1876, O. A. Thayer.

1878, Elizabeth Rooke.

1878, Moses Norton.

1881, James Nouman.

1882, W. D. Lewis.

1882, D. C. Boyce.

CANNEL COAL OIL MANUFACTORIES ON KANAWHA

There were at least three of these factories, counting the Cannelton Oil Factory, which was in Cannelton, either in Kanawha or in Fay- ette, it being near the line. The Mill Creek Cannel Coal and Oil Company, and the Staun- ton Bros. Oil Company were on Mill creek, Kanawha county.

In 1857 Lewis Ruffner conveyed some land on Mill creek to Worthington Hale and Long- more, and they to Collins and Finnell and also to J. G. Staunton, and by that time the war came on. In 1867 a suit was brought to en- force collection of the purchase money, and it was found that the deed by Lewis Ruffner was of a tract by definite description when he owned but an undivided part, and when a partition was made or about to be made, the part bought for its cannel coal did not fall to the vendor of said land. In other words, the said land was land that he could not deilver, and 16 W. Va. 208 held in the case of Worth- ington vs. Staunton, et al, that such a sale could not operate to the prejudice of the other tenants in common, in said land. In this suit it was averred that it was the coal in the hun- dred acres that was of any value to them or that afforded them any prospect of recover- ing back any part of the $50,000 expended in erecting improvements for the purpose of making oil from the cannel coal in said land.

The case is cited to show that there was much money invested in the oil works. The litigation began in 1867 and the decision of the court of appeals was decided in April, 1880, and somebody lost a lot of money, per- haps more on account of the finding of oil in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and the better under- standing of how to refine and prepare it, drove the manufacturers of oil from coal, out of business.

General J. W. M. Appleton, then Major Appleton, resigned from the U. S. Army to take carge of the Mill Creek Company, and he was sent in 1855 to Kanawha, before which time it had been in charge of Theodore Maher, chemist, and was making oil and par- affine, etc. Their factory was out near Mor- gan's cooper shop, on Elk, in Charleston.

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF CHARLESTON, 1854 (From a Painting)

BARRETT & SHOLEY

CASH

GROCERY

----

WARWICK, BARRETT & SHIPLEY COMPANY, CHARLESTON

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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

Maj. Appleton removed the stills, etc., from this lot in Charleston to Mill creek, where the cannel coal was found. He placed these stills on a flat boat and took the boat up Elk river to Slack's landing, thence up Mill creek to the coal bank, and set up the machinery for mak- ing oil, paraffine, etc. The Staunton Bros. property adjoined that of Maj. Appleton's, and they made a good oil which they sold in Philadelphia for seventy cents, and in Charles- ton fifty cents for burning oil. This oil was hauled to Elk river at Slack's landing, taken by flat boats to the mouth of Elk from which the steamboats took it.

The Cannelton works were perhaps more extensive, and they shipped to Maysville, Ky., where Mr. Barbour, the superintendent, made refined oil and paraffine, candles, etc.

There were, farther up the river, about the mouth of Armstrong creek, further prepara- tions to make oil from coal, and considerable money was spent in developing the same, as was also done on Paint creek. There was cannel coal found in other places in the county, but the making of the oil, etc., therefrom had not developed to such an extent that they at- tempted to make oil therefrom wherever found, and the petroleum business developed faster than did the manufacturing business, and the latter had to go out of business en- tirely. The cannel coal could always find pur- chasers in the Eastern cities and it was shipped as fuel afterwards, and was also used for mak- ing gas, and natural gas has about driven this out of business in many places.

GREAT KANAWHA GAS COMPANY

The Great Kanawha Gas Company was or- ganized on February 3, 1909, and purchased the properties of the Capital City Natural Gas Company, consisting of about three thousand acres in Roane and Kanawha county under lease, and the properties of the Coal River Oil & Gas Company, comprising about the same number of acres in Cabell county. These com- panies had about ten productive gas wells, but had not begun to market gas. The new com- pany at once began active development work in both fields, and on September 1, 1911, had twenty-six producing gas wells, with an aggre-

gate daily production of about eight million cubic feet, together with one small oil well.

It is the intention of the management of the company to continue drilling in both fields, until the entire territory has been thoroughly tested, and it is very probable that a large part of this development work will be done within the bounds of Kanawha county. The officers of this company are as follows: Presi- dent, W. C. Sproul, Chester, Pa .; vice-presi- dent, J. E. Chilton, Charleston, WV. Va .; sec- retary and treasurer, F. M. Staunton, Charles- ton, W. Va .; auditor, W. T. Moore, Charles- ton, W. Va.

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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and representative citizens, Part 18

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Laidley, William Sydney, 1839-1917. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1066