Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-07-19
A OLOSSAL ENTERPRISE.
Sale Of Sewa0e- min 9. Railway and
Furnace to New York. Bssten "a d
Na-hvi le Capt aus.
Nashville American, Sunday.

| Na~hvi lie Capt aus.
Nashville American, Sunday.
The negotiations which have been pend.
ing in this city during the past week, fol
the sale of the Tennessee Coal & RaiIW ay
Company and Sewanee Iron furnaces were
concluded yesterday. Gentleman repre-.
ting combination of New York, Boston
and Nashville capitalists have purchased the
entire property including the Mountain
railway, % miles in length
the mines and coal bed embracing over 10,
600 acres of solid coal running with a thick
ness of from four to eight feet, together
with the iron furnaces and over 400 coke
ovens now in operation. The furnace is a
new one, admirably constructed and now
turning out seventy-five tons of iron daily.
The coal mines are yielding daily average
of l 200 tons per day, and sold as rapidly
as it can be delivered. The fixed improve
ments on the property, aside from the coal
bed cost considerably over a million dol
lars The coal lie mined with great facility
and cheapness, and is regarded the very
best in tbe Southern country for coke-mak-
ing and for steam purposes. Competent
) judges and practical experts have always
pronounced 1t to be the finest property of
the kind south of the Ohio river
An active, able management is provided
for, and 1T Is to be extensively developed
and conducted on strictly business princi-
pies.
The directory is expected to contain such
names as o. Z. Baldwin president of the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company !:
John IL. InInan, of Inman Swan d Co.,
New York; ex-Gov. Jas. d. Porter presi-
dent Nashville, Chattanooga and st. Louis
Rail Nathaniol IN
National Bank of Nashville; J. C. Warner.
of the Rising Fawn Furnace Company +:
! Thomas O'Conner, of Cherry, O'Conner q
Co, Nashville E. w. Cole, president East
Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad ::
c. NJ. McGhee, vice-president of same
road; B. r. Smith, of New York, and
Col. Arthur S. Colyar of this city.
Nathaniel Baxter, president of one of the
largest banking institutions in the South,
has agreed to accept the presidency of the
new company and devote his especial atten-
ton to the enterprise. Mr.. b. r. Smith
an enterprlslng and successful business man
OF New York, will assume the duties of Sec
retary and treasurer, giving up his New
York residence and removing with his fami-
ly to the mines, with view of giving to it
his exclusive attention. Col. A NJ. Shook,
the present manager of the mines, will re-
lam an interest IN the new organization and
continue service with the new company.
In brains, capital and standing, the Or
gan1zatIon is one of undoubted soldity. The
assured success of the enterprise on far
more extensive scale than heretofore is
amply indicated III the personnel of the
directory and IN the willingness of as level
headed and well-fxed business man as Mr.
Baxter, to devote himself heartily to the de-
yelopment of this important home industry.
1t IS a slngularly fortuitions combination of
mnlnS, manufacturing transportation and
banking alliances, backed by almost
unlimited capital One of the New York
capitalists, Mr.. John H. Inman, represents
IN his individual person capital of two
million dollars. This is his first departure
from the line of his legitimate commercial
field of cotton, with an industrial venture
towards the development of his native
State and section, III whose advancement
and prosperity he takes a lively and sincere
interest and pride.
There is significance in this large enter
prise, beyond the ming of coal and making
Oh iron at Sewanee. 1t means blast fur
naces at Nashville and Chattanooga and At
lanta, and possible manufacturing revival
IN the long-neglected South, transcending
the most sangdlne expectations of it's theo-
rists and its prophetic well-wishers, who
have not been without honor, save in their
own country. We confess to a feeling of more
hopefuiness in the South's great commercial
future, from the conclusion of this negotia-
ton, yesterday, than from any event that
has occurred since the war, and we con-
gratulate Nashville and Tennessee that
home capital and home energy are to be ac-
lively applied to the promotion of an un-
dertaking full of promise to the South