Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-17

Is ness transactions and in their pr
vate lives. They are Shareholder
L enthusiastic Southerners, and los
g largely blythe collapse Of the Soutl
We trust their visit to Europe ma,
E IN some degree repair their shat
I tered fortunes, and may afford Their
q the means of returning in TRANQUIL
! ity to their former mode of life.
COPPER IN EAST TENNESSEE
The Extent and Richness Of the yein
East Tennessee Vast Red Of Con
per Ore ~
Mr.. John Caldwell, an intelligent
} and experienced mineralogist o.
East Tennessee, recently read q
paper before the Industrial Associa.
ton at Knoxville on the subject Of
copper in its relation to industry
and the future development of the
resources of East Tennessee, from
which We extract as follaYs,,
about copper without abiding, in
cidentally, to other metals. Com
bining readily, as it does, with al
most every variety of mineral sub
stance, its strongest affinity, howev-
er, is for iron-that more useful
and valuable of metals-and in
East Tennessee both are known to
exist in the greatest abundance.
And l will hardly be chargeable
with undue enthusiasm, or being
visionary, when / say that we only
need capital and educated labor 20
develop the mineral, in connection
with the agricultural resources of
East Tennessee, to make it one of
the wealthiest, as well as one of the
most durable sections of our com
mon country. lsp as aa714 10 + IA
Copper, as metal, may Justly lay
claim to the highest antiquity. The
first record we have of is con-
tanned in the 4th chapter of Gene
sis, where Moses tells us that "Tubal
Cain was an artifeer in brass and
iron, and an instructor of all those
who wrought therein ;" and in the
9th chapter of Deuteronomy, "Iron
is taken out of the earth, and brass
is molten out of the stones" and
in speaking of the Land of Promise,
it is said, " It's stones are iron, and
out of its hills thou mayest dig
brass" The light which has been
thrown upon the dark past, by the
research Of learned men Of our day,
in their explorations amid the ruins
of ancient cities, in the recovery of
the many articles of use and orna-
ment, shows us that the brass of the
ancients, as alluded to in the Bible,
was our copper, their manufactured
articles being Of unalloyed copper
AS it was to the ancients, so it is
to us, only in more high degree,
useful and important; how import
ant it is hardly necessary for me to
speak, since we all know how large
ly it enters into the commerce of
the world, its immense consumption
upon land, and the important and
useful part it plays in ship buil ID
ing. =
Much of the copper of commerce
has heretofore been taken from
mines almost inaccessible, at pres.
ent, by reason of the immense
depth to which they have been
worked, in some parts of the world,
in other places on account of eli
mate and the formation in which
the copper is found. As an in
stance of the former, the mines of
Cornwall and Wales have been
worked to such a depth that the
cost of ventilation and of raising
the ore exceed the entire cost of
mining copper in more favored To-
calities and the copper of Lake
Superior cannot be worked for sew
eral months of the year, by reason
of intense cold, and in addition
thereto, is found imbedded in a
formation so hard as to make the
mining both expensive and labo-
rious.
The great desideratum, then, is,
it seems to me, to find copper in
such quantity, and with such sur
roundings as to inspire confidence
in the ultimate success of we'll con-
Quoted mining enterprise.
Can East Tennessee present such
a field for copper mining?
In reply, let me call your atten-
ton to that magnificent mountain
range bordering the valley of East
Tennessee upon the Southeast from
the Georgia to the Virginia line,
and give you a few facts and figures
within nj own personal knowl-
edge.
Early in 1851, commenced min
ing operations, for copper, in Polk
county, Tennessee, near the point
where Tennessee, Georgia and North
Carolina claim a common tree.
These operations, although on
very small scale, sometimes work
ing myself, with one man at the
windlass and one in the shaft re
suited in opening four or five mines,
which have been sold and resOld by
parties owning them, at from $780,
900 to 100000 each, and which
have been proftably worked after
hauling the ore, unreduced, for
forty miles by wagon, shipping
thence by rail from Cleveland, Ten
nessee, to Savannah, Georgia, and
thence by water to Baltimore, Ma
ryland, Orto England, to be smelted
and refined SO rich, indeed, was
the ore here found, that, before
wagon road was cut through noun
tains which were declared to be
impracticable for a wagon road,
company was formed in the North,
and their agent sent out to work a
mine, whose favorite idea was to
pack the crude ore over a mountain
pathway for twenty miles on mules,
to point where wagon transpOrta
ton could be procured to the rail
road.
During the time l was engaged
in copper mining in Ducktown,
Polk county, Tenn, l was called to
Carroll county, Va, where l opened
and directed the opening Of FIVE
mines, and the business at both
these points (which are three hnn.