The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-28
Strong Officers and Board of
 Directors
VALUABLE MINERAL LANDS.
The Company Has Foundation Plans for Two Furnace Stacks, But Will Build Only One Furnace at the
 Start-capital Subscribed.

At a meeting of the stockholders of the Valley Iron company held yesterday board of directors was named and off cers were elected. The officers are:
 Presldent-J. G. Battelle, vice president of the Columbus Iron and Steel company of Columbus, o.
 Vice President-Ersiine Ramsay Of Birmingham.
 General Superintendent Charles D. Bowron. general purchasing and sales agent of the Alabama Consolidated Coal and Iron company.
 Secretary and Treasurer-J. F. Stlens of Wheeling, W. Va.
 Chairman of the Executive Committee James Bowron of Birmingham.
 Board of directors:
 Archer Brown of New York chairman of the Empire Steel and Iron company.
 H. A. Marting of Ironton. O., of the Martlng Steel and Iron company.
 J. G. Battelle of Columbus, o.
 J. A. Andrews of Newport, Ky, presi- dent of the Newport Rolling Mill com pany.
 James Bowron of Birmingham.
 James L. Gaines of Nashville. formerly assistant general manager of the Ten nessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company In Tennessee.
 G. B. Mccormick, vice president of the Woodward Iron company.
 Erskine Ramsay of Birmingham.
 Charles A. Stillman of Birmingham, resident manager of the Rogers. Brown & Co.'s iron firm.
 The meeting was held in the office of the president of the Birmingham Trust and Savings company, where report of the temporary officers regarding the dis position of stock and the purchase of property made to date was read It was shown that the company had an author ized capital of s1,00O,O00, of which amount $75O.ooO has been placed. The property secured by the company includes hold ings in Dale county. Georgia. and DeKalb county Alabama.
 The company Is the outgrowth of the Ensley Pipe and Steel company. It was organized in April of this year under a charter granted by the legislature of 1S9S-9s. The original proposition was to have a capital of only s5OO00, but this was changed at the April meeting. when stock to the amount of s5oO00O was sold. The additional $250,000 was placed yesterday.
 The property of the company consists of 13,700 acres of mineral lands which lie in a strip one and one-half miles wide and ten miles long, paralleling the Ala bama Great Southern railroad. The coal veins are said to be very fine, resembling the Sewanee, Tenn, product and the Pratt seam.
 A drift has been driven in the center of the strip of the mountain north of Valley Head for 800 feet and the erec- ton of an incline 24OO feet long will bring the coal to the tipple and screens fin the valley where 300 beehive coke ovens will be built at once. The company will be able, consequently. to get into the local market within four or five months.
 The beginning of Red mountain is seen in a chert ridge one hundred feet high at the bottom of and parallel with the main mountain five hundred yards away. In this outcrop are the two regular red ore seams characteristic of Red mountain which aggregate at least eight or nine feet, but having a parting of one hun dred feet. The ore has exactly the same appearance and analysis of the Red mountain product in the Birmingham dis tr1ct.
 The company will construct a ground plan for two stacks but only one will be built just now. This will be of the best type of modern and up-to-date iron appliances. It is expected to be making iron By January. 1904 A creek along the whole property gives ample water for all purposes needed.
 The furnace will be noteworthy in sew eral respects, one that 1t will be the first modern and up-to-date furnace plant erected chiefly by Birmingham capital since the construction of the Sloss and Alice stacks. It will be the only plant ever constructed in Alabama which will lay down all its raw material at the bot tom of the stack without the intervention of railroad cars and without a cent of railroad charge.