THE IRON MANUFACTURER'S GUIDE TO THE FURNACES, FORGES AND ROLLING MILLS OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH DISCUSSIONS OF IRON AS A CHEMICAL ELEMENT, AN AMERICAN ORE, AND A MANUFACTURED ARTICLE, IN COMMERCE AND IN HISTORY.

BY J. P. LESLEY,
SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN IRON ASSOCIATION,
AND PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE SAME.

WITH MAPS AND PLATES.

NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY, PUBLISHER.
LONDON: TRUBNER & CO.
1859.

207. Cumberland Rolling Mill, on left bank of Cumberland river, ten miles southeast of Dover Courthouse, and thirty miles by river below Clarksville, is owned by Woods, Lewis & Company, managed by George T. Lewis, Cumberland Iron Works P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, was built in 1829, has 2 puddling and 7 heating furnaces with 4 trains of rolls driven by steam, and made in thirty-four weeks of 1856 2,530 tons of bar, sheet and plate iron.

478. Randolph Forge, connected with Dover Furnace No. 2 (K. 575) and the Cumberland Iron Works (J. 207) by eight or nine miles of the finest cinder road in Tennessee, and situated Six miles northwest of the latter, is owned by Woods, Lewis & Company, Cumberland Iron Works P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, and managed by A. P. Parrish, was built in 1852, has 2 forge and 18 knobling fires with 2 hammers driven by steam, and made in 1857 2,689 gross tons of blooms.

479. Biron Forge, on Wells creek, four miles northeast from Ashland Furnace, and three miles west of Bowling Green P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, is owned and managed by H. H. Hollister and Brother, was built about 1830, has 1 cupola run out, and 4 knobling fires with 2 hammers driven by steam, and made in 1856 about 300 tons of bars, plough-moulds, and other shapes.

564. Saline Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned like Lineport Furnace by Lewis, Irvin & Co. of the Cumberland Iron Works in Stewart County, Tennessee, was built in 1853, two miles east of the Cumberland River, three from Lineport furnace and fourteen miles north by west from Dover court-house. It is 9 feed wide across the top of the bosh by 36 feet high, ran but one year and will never run again unless new and good ore banks be discovered in the neighborhood.

565. Great Western Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Newell and Pritchett of Clarksville, Montgomery county Tennessee, stands in Stewart county near the State line, on the dividing ridge between the two great rivers and eighteen miles northwest of Dover court-house. It was built by Brian, Newell & Co. in 1854, is 10 feet wide by 40 high inside, and made in thirty-four weeks of 1855 about 1,350 tons of metal out of brown hematite ores of the neighborhood. Idle since in 1856.

566. Iron Mountain Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Ledbetter & Bostick (H. P. Bostick, Nashville, Tennessee), is twelve miles northwest of Dover courthouse, Stewart county Tennessee, was built in the same year by the same parties as Great Western Furnace last described, 10 1/2 feet wide by 42 feet high inside, made about 1,200 tons in thirty weeks in 1855 and nothing since. It used the pipe and pot brown hematite ore scattered over the surface, no permanent bank having been discovered yet.

567. Peytona Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Thomas Kirkman and managed by his son, is situated eight miles west-northwest of Dover court-house, Stewart county Tennessee, between the two rivers. It was built in 1847, rebuilt in 1856, is 9 feet wide inside by 42 feet high, and made in forty-six weeks of 1857 1,812 tons of metal for St. Louis out of brown hematite ores from beds a mile off north and south.

568. Clark Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Cobb, Phillips & Co. and managed by William Phillips, Standing Rock P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, is eight miles southwest of Dover court-house, on Leatherwood Creek, is 9 1/2 feet wide across the top of the bosh and 34 feet high, and made in thirty-one weeks of 1856 perhaps 1,200 tons of iron out of brown hematite ore dug near the furnace. Out for two years.

569. Lagrange Steam Hot and Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Cobb, Phillips & Co. managed by William Phillips, Standing Rock P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, and situated on Leatherwood Creek, one mile north from the Tennessee River, ten miles southwest of Dover court-house, was changed in January 1857 from hot to cold-blast, is 8 feet across the bosh by 36 feet high, and made in thirty-nine weeks of 1857 1,750 tons of iron out of brown hematite ore from banks two miles below.

570. Eclipse Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Cobb, Phillips & Co. managed by William Phillips, Standing Rock P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, and situated on Hurricane Creek, four miles north of the Tennessee River, twelve miles south by west of Dover court-house, is 9 1/2 across the bosh by 35 feet high, and made in thirty-three weeks of 1855 1,291 tons of iron out of brown hematite ore from banks two miles off to the west.

571. Cross Creek Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Jordan, Brother & Co. Indian Mound P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, and situated seven miles north of the Cumberland Iron Works, was built in 1853, 10 feet across the bosh by 41 feet high and made in 1854 1,905 tons of iron for Valley Forge out of brown hematite ore close by.

572. Rough-and-ready Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Barksdale, Cook & Co. Indian Mound P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, and situated five miles northeast of the Cumberland Iron Works, was built in 1850 8 feet across the bosh by 30 high, and made in 1854 1,300 tons; has made nothing since 1856.

573. Bellwood Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Woods, Lewis & Co. managed by E. H. Lewis, Stewart county Tennessee, and situated half a mile back from the north bank of the Cumberland River, four miles north of the Cumberland Iron Works, is 9 feet wide across the bosh by 32 feet high and made in 1857 2,035 tons of iron out of brown hematite ore from the old Bear Spring bank, opened in 1829, a mile due west of the Cross Creeks' mouths.

574. Bear Spring Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Woods, Lewis & Co. Cumberland Iron Works P.O. Stewart county Tennessee, stands a ruin on the Clarksrille and Dover road a mile northwest of the Cumberland Iron Works, is 9 by 28 inside, and made in 1854 962 tons of iron out of a rich ore close by. It was stopped in 1854 and its machinery removed to Dover No 2.

575. Dover No. 2 Steam Cold-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by Woods, Lewis & Co. managed by John A. Irvin, Stewart county Tennessee, and situated on South Cross creek three miles southwest of the Cumberland Iron Works, was rebuilt in 1854 9 feet across the bosh by 32 feet high and made in 1855 2,025 tons of iron out of brown hematite ore from the same bank as that mined for Bellwood Furnace 573.

576. Ashland Steam Coal-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by G. P. "Wilcox & Co. managed by G. P. Wilcox, Bowling Green, Cumberland county Tennessee, but situated in Stewart county and eight miles south by east of the Cumberland Iron Works and six miles southwest of Bowling Green, was built in 1851 with the dressed stones of the Van Buren stack (built by Brunsen more than twenty years ago), 9 by 35, and made in twenty-three weeks of 1857 1,150 tons of iron out of brown hematite ore found half a mile distant.

Geography of the Sub-carboniferous brown hematites, Western Tennessee—Stewart county:

Saline furnace (K564) has exhausted her ore banks and stopped, Christmas 1854.

Great Western furnace (K 565) has its brown hematite banks near by, on the dividing ridge between the rivers.

Iron Mountain furnace (K 666) uses brown hematite, both pipe and pot ore, scattered over the surface of the ground in the neighborhood. No permanent bank has as yet been discovered.

Peytona furnace (K 567) between the rivers, has rich banks within a mile both north and south of it.

Clark furnace (K 568) on Leatherwood creek, has ore within 300 yards north of west. Out since December 1856.

Lagrange furnace (K 569) on the same creek a mile from Tennessee river, has banks one and a half miles down the river.

Eclipse furnace (K 670) on Hurricane creek, four miles north of the river, has banks two miles to the west.

Cross creek furnace (K 571) has ore in the immediate vicinity.

Rough and Ready furnace (K 572) has not run since 1856.

Bellwood, Bearspring and Dover No. 2 are three furnaces clustered between the Cumberland rolling mill and the forge, on the Cumberland river, and with mines in the spurs around them. The Bellwood is on the east side of the river. The ore used (brown hematite) is the same as that which supplies Dover No. 2, and is got from the Bear spring ore bank, situated about three-quarters of a mile due west from the mouths of North and South Cross creeks. This bank, which has been mined since 1829, occurs at the end of one of the fingers of the long dividing ridge between Cross creek waters and Bear spring hollow. Along this ridge, but principally in its fingers, many banks, affording a very superior quality of iron ore, have been opened and are now worked. At one of these banks, some two miles northwest of Dover No. 2 and five miles west from Cumberland iron-works, appears a solid bluff of very rich ore intimately mixed with fine flint rock to such an extent that the ore cannot be used for fear of chilling up the furnace. From these banks small cars drawn by mules convey the ores without transhipment over a cast iron railway of cheap and simple construction to the river bank, where they are let down by a windlass over an inclined plane on to a long boat which is employed to float them to the north bank. There they are taken up by a similar plane to a railway half a mile long leading to the furnace. The Bear spring furnace ore bank is close to it and still very rich.

Ashland furnace (K 576) has a bank of very rich brown hematite, mostly pot and pipe ore, within half a mile, but very hard to get; some of it occurs in thin slabs, which, when struck, ring like bell-metal.

Union furnace (K 577) stopped in the fall of 1854, having only blown, six months, for want of ore in the neighborhood in sufficient abundance.