Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-09-29
Tiumouth Iron Miners.

ORC Utuc VI w y uEsb tAdIulu-
ed shaft that was being sunk upon the
farm of Lyman Cobb. This shaft was To-
Gated near where there there was an old
shaft and works over forty years ago. Mr..
Shaw said he worked in this bed forty-fv
years ago. The whole works had fallen
in and the ieyeling process of nature had
nearly completed its work, so that little
traces could be found of the original min
ing. Geo. W. SWEET & Co. are prospecting
here and hope to find ore that will be
profitable. AS yet their labors have not
been productive of very satisfactory re-
suits. We next visited the farm of Dan
lei Clark, Esq, where we were met by the
gentlemanly foreman of the works there,
Mr.. David K, Lane, at whose invitation
we had made the visit. After sitting
down to a sumptuous dinner at Mr..
Clarks table, we set out for the ore bed,
distanced about 100 rods. By the way,
those that have visited at Mr.. Clarks', and
enjoyed the hospitality of this out-of-the-
way, yet much frequented house,-as dis
pensed by his excellent lady,-can know
we had a good dinner.
A half century ago this bed was extern
sively worked by Rathbone 81 Vaughn,
the owners of the old Tinmouth furnace,
and for few years later by Woodruff &
Parker, the successors of Rathsone &
Vaughn. Here we found extensive traces
of the original works, and the history of
the reopening of this bed is as follows
David K. Lane was foreman for the Ty-
son Furnace Company, and was at work
in the old ore bed on Seth Phillips farm.
One day about the first of June he was at
Mr.. Clark's house to see about some tim
Der for curbing the lead there, when Mr.
Clark asked him to go and look at the iron
ore bed on his farm. Mr.. Lane went with
him, and as soon as he had inspected the
ore he pronounced it to be.of excellent
quality, and soon after he sent 800 pounds
to the Tyson furnace. The ore proved to
fully equal the expectations of Mr.. Lane,
and the Tyson Furnace Company, through
its president, Mr.. Collins, commenced ne
gotiating with Mr.. Clark for the lease of
the mines Before these negotiations
were completed, Mr.. Crawford, of the
firm of Geo. n. SWEET & Co., of Troy, n.
Y, came to Tinmouth, and in an inter
view with Mr.. Lane asked him if there
were any ore beds in TiDmouth not then
under lease. Mr.. Lane told him of the
Clark bed, and conducted him to it. The
nego citations with the Tyson Furnace
Company being then at a staLd, Mr.. Clark
felt at liberty to lease to any one, and
soon made a trade with this company,
leasing to them all the beds on about 100
acres of land, for twenty five cents per
ton for all the ore they might quarry.
Messrs. SWEET & Co. soon after engaged
Mr.. Lane to open the nine for them, and
although it is OF vet six weeks since he
commenced work, yet he has in that time
made new road from the bed to the
highway, making nearly a half mile of
excellent road over very rough country.
At the bed he has commenced near where
the old drift" went into the bed, and in
stead of making a new "drift" has taken
off the whole surface, blasting out many
hundred tons of dirt and solid rock, and
he has already shipped 400 tons of the
ore to Salisbury. He has also built a
dam upon a stream near by and a wooden
spout to conduct the water to place
where he will "wash" ore as soon as the
rainy season sets in. Mr.. Lane il a prao-
teal miner, having worked in iron mines
for upwards of forty years, and in fact his
father before him, opened the first bed
that was ever worked in West Stock
bridge, Mass. This long experience rem
ders him an efficient foreman, and the
Messrs SWEET & Co. can congratulate
themselves upon securing his services.
THE ORE
is what Iron men call the "Brown Hema.
tite," containing the chilling properties,
and the strength qualities that perfectly
adapt it for the making OF car wheels.
Making car wheel that is at once hard
and tough, and not liable to break or
wear out. 1t is now being rapidly tran
sported to SALISBURY where it is mixed
with about an equal quantity of Benning
ton ore, which is of a softer kind, and
made into car wheel iron, for the Troy
Furnaces, where it is made into car
wheels by Messrs. Geo. w. Sweet & Co,
who own one of the largest car wheel and
stove works in this country, and who now
run the Salisbury blast furnace, which
they have leased of the Messrs. Burden &
Son.
Mr.. Lane employs ten men and two
teams at the Clark bed and give employ
ment to three men and three large teams
to draw the ore to Wallingford depot de-
livering about a dozen tons per day.
He says he can get out one hundred
thousand tons per year from the Clark
beds alone if the company will furnish
him the means to push the thing, and
would like no better fun than to do 90.
This new enterprise is doing the whole
town OF Tinmouth great good, as it not
only gives employment to men and teams
to do the work, but it is rapidly enhanc-
} ing the value of the land, and giving new
life to this old town.
, We cannot close this article without
saying a word about
MR.. CLARK's FARM,
4 which Mr. Clark showed ms over. We do
not propose to speak now of his lands in
= an agricultural point of view, his nice fat
cattle, and splendid crop, all of which we
: saw, and which would make lengthy
article to describe; but mineral wealth
that lies beneath the soil we must saw a
= few words. Mr.. Clark took us to a swamp
containing several acres, here be dug a
hole to show us what wealth there was
buried below. The first two feet and a
E half was thorough muck of the peat mould
. then he came to layer of foot and a
Ill It ~