The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-05
By ". M. Bunting.

iron. The furnaces III tpiS 'oiStIiCe mdnc high grade soft foundry iron from the brown hematite ores of Wayne and Law , renee Counties, Tenn, on the north and Franklin County. Alabama on the south. The Birmingham furnaces use the famous red hematite ores found in pro fusion in the Jones Valley in which
 Birmingham Is located. The Birming-
 ham district includes Tailadega. Annis-
 ton, Gadsden and the contiguous fur
 naces in that immediate section. The
 F1orence-Sheffield district has only in the
 last few years become an iron produc- ing district in the strict interpretation
 of the term, which implies the produc-
 ton of pig iron at profit. The Sheffield
 furnaces were constructed in 1SS7-8 by the
 late Colonel E. w. Cole and associates
 of Nashville. who built the famous trip
 pie Cole furnaces with a capacity of 200
 tons each, and the late Colonel Enoch
 Ensley of Memphis. who built the Lady and Hattie Ensiey furnaces. These furnaces were not financial success at first owing to the lack of experience on the part of the operators. and the poor facilities for getting out ore. which made the supply irregular a1ii expensive.
 The old Ensley Ore Mines at Russell vile were operated partly by machinery. but a lack of water supply in dry sea- sons and innumerable and unexpected emergencies finally caused their tempora- ry abandonment during the panic of '93 and the low price of iron that followed. The Philadelphia and North Alabama furnaces in Florence were built at about the same time and operated at a loss for several years and finally blown out. The financial panic of .93 put a quitus on the
 iron industry of the Tennessee Valley
 for several years and with the exception
 of the spasmodic and unsuccessful opera
 uon of the Hattie Ensley furnace by
 parties who leased 1t, the production of
 pig iron practically ceased in the Ten
 nessee Valley until 1895. when the Shelf
 field Coal. Iron and Steel Company. with
 President A. w. Willis of Nashville,
 operated the Cole furnaces with success
 until July 1st, 1899, when they became
 the property of the Tennessee Coal, Iron
 and Railway Company, and have been
 operated until the present time. The
 three furnaces have been overhauled and
 remodeled and were recently put in blast.
 The Lady and Hattie Ensley furnaces
 together with the Ensley Ore Mines at
 Russellville became the property of the Sloss-Shefield Steel and Iron Company.
 the latter part of 1899 and the company
 re-organized with a s1o,0Oo,oo0 capital and
 combined their interests at Birmingham
 with Sheffield and Russellviife and later
 purchased the Philadelphia furnace at
 Florence, which has been successfully
 operated for several years. At the time
 this deal was pending a statement is
 purported to have been made by Colonel
 Nat Baxter. late of the Tennessee Coal.
 Iron and Railway Company. which was
 widely circulated over the country, that
 Florence and Sheffield was a non-produc- ing district, which implied that the mill lions invested In the furnaces, ore mines. railroads and improvements was failure as an investment. This statement was serious menace to the future iron in- terests in this section. It was at this juncture that J. w. Worthington of Worthington & Co.,, successful operators of properties in the Birmingham dis trict, and a civil engineer of ability, was sent here and made a close study of the existing conditions. After a most care full investigation and study of the in- dustry, it's methods, cost of production and ore supply. he made an exhaustive report claiming that this section had superior advantages over the Birming- ham district. The Sloss-Sheffield deal was consummated and Mir. Warrington was rendered the general managership of these extensive properties. and began the work of proving the truth of his assertion.
 The unifying and concentration of the various branches of iron making included the mining of ore, and the supply of Aux and limestone. the question of a coke supply, and last, but not least in importance the control of the labor and the operation of the plants, which has taken months to work out but has been finally consummated.
 Early History of Iron Industry.
 The early history ot iron making in the Tennessee Valley is not of recent origin and dates back several generations. While the first furnaces were small and crude compared to the mammoth plants of today, yet they compared favorably | to iron making in the most favored sec l ton of the north at that time. Southern charcoal iron was used for making car wheels up to the time of the war. Dur ing the war Alabama iron was used for making plates for Confederate iron clads as well as cannon, shot and shell.
 The earliest records of iron making in North Alabama Tn the territory adjacent to and included in the Tennessee Valley district, was in Franklin County. accord Ing to Swank, who quotes from Leslie, l who says that the oldest furnace in Alas bama was built in ISIS few miles west of Russellville in Franklin County, near the present mines now operated by the Sloss- Sheffield Company. It was a crude affair and was abandoned about 1897 and from that date until 1SS7-S when the Sheffield furnaces were built and operated, the Franklin County Ore Mines | remained undeveloped. So much for the | early history of iron making in North Alabama, which was not so successful as the several Tennessee counties located on | and cCntnguous t0 and classed as Ten | nessee River Counties. The ruins of | these old furnaces can be found today | along the Tennessee River and | In the hill country back from the river | in Wayne. Lewis, Lawrence and Decatur | These furnaces extended | through Stewart County and into Ken lucky. They were crude charcoal affairs | and used cold blast, producing an aver age of five tons day. This pig iron was shipped by river to Louisville and | Cincinnati. Many of these furnaces were remodeled and enlarged before the war and afterwards used hot blast.
 The old Wayne furnace at Waynes- ooro, Tenn. was built in 1888 by Fps Jackson. In 1855 the Pointers built a new and larger cold blast furnace of ten tons capacity. In 1868 the Gaylords of Ohio bought the furnace and G. W. Boyd from Bellport furnace In Kentucky was put in charge. The furnace was remodeled with hot blast, new engines and boilers and the out put day. The furnace went out of blast in 1874 At this furnace is located the largest deposit of brown ore that has been found in the western ore belt of Tennessee. Napier furnace located on Chief Creek Ia Lewis County was built