The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-10-31
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
ANOTHER GREAT PLANT FOR
ALABAMA.
Will Mean Even More for the Section
Than Even Establishment Of the
Tennessee Company's Steel
Mill at Ensley.

advance made Ia any Southern State Il
a benefit to the whole South. the IN.
ncuncement made In this weeks Issue OF
great plant Is to be built in Alabama Ia
Of general interest. The Manufacturers
Record says: THE entire South is to be
congratulated, for the building OF this
plant will mean even more to this section
than did the establishment of the Enslsy
steel works by the Tennessee Coal. Iron
and Railroad Company. The Alabama
Steel and Wire Company, which for sew
eral years has been buying its steel from
the Ensley works. has now arranged to
build a very extensive furnace and steel
plant at Gadsden. The plans include four
furnaces, 20 feet bosh by 80 feet high,
much the largest ever built In the South,
except the single stack at LIE Toilette,
Tenn. Those furnaces will probably
make about $50 tons of iron a day each,
and with the complete steel works to be
built in connection, will form one of the
strongest evidences yet given of the
South's great future in industrial activ-
ity."
Concerning developments of mineral
p' operties On PottsCreek, Va, Ex-Governor
William A. MacCorkle Of West Virginia,
who is associated with ex-senator john
son NJ Camden of that State. ex-United
States Attorney General Judson Harmon
of Ohio, and others in the enterprise,
writes to The Manufacturers Record that
THE owners of this property have about
10000 acres of ore lands lying on Potts
Creek, Allegheny County, Virginia. They
also have 10000 acres lying on Dunlap's
Creek, within a mile of the Chesapeake
ard Ohio. They have Incorporated the
Potts Creek Railway Company, and pro-
pose to build a railroad from Covingtop
to the Norfolk and Western, through the
Potts Creek Valley. They also propose
to develop their ore lands" Ex-senator
Camden is giving his personal attention
to the development Of the property which
will involve an expenditure of 81 SOC, 900.
Mr.. Owen DAILY of Baltimore. one of
party of financiers who have made
trip over the railways of the Gould sys-
tenn in the Southwest, has returned home
and speaks most enthusiastically about
the remarkable progress and activity OF
the great Southwest. Concerning the
great oil development at Spindle Top,
near Beaumont, Mr.. Daily is reported in
The Manufacturers Record as follows:
THE report that the oil from the Beau
mont fields was found unsuitable for re-
filming is best denied, 1t appears to me, by
the fact that an immense new refinery Ia
being erected about one and a half miles
from Beaumont and is generally said to
be a Standard Oil enterprise. This new
plant is convenient to Spindle Top and
the approach to 1t is through dense for
est. If one did not know where he was
going, he will be surprised to find such
development in that locality. Great Sc
crecy is observed regarding this enter
prise. A solid fence twenty-five feet high
encloses the tract of land occupied and
few persons are admitted. There are
| about 800 or 400 acres of land in this en-
| closure and twenty or thirty substantial
buildings are in course of erection. They
are permanent structures of steel and
brick and when completed with a number
of large oil tanks that are being put to-
| gether will represent an investment OF
probably 100000.
| "Of course we went to Spindle Top
| Judging from the name of the place one
| might imagine it was a mountain, but II
| Is merely rise in the prairie. The oil
| district is small and l should say. did not
| amount to more than seventy-f1ve acres
| The oil wells are not distributed here or
| there, but are as close together as they
| can put the derricks. Oil is everywhere
| and wide stream of oil was running of
with no effort made to save it, They
| have had some destructive fires there. but
in the burned section wells are producing
| again and the railroads cannot carry
away the oil as fast as it Is gotten out
of the ground. We did not go to Sour
Lake which Is eighteen or twenty miles
| from Beaumont, but we of course heard
of the oil developments there. We also
| had an impressive demonstration of the
industrial value of oil and the develop.
| ment of Texas. On the International and
| Great Northern Railroad we found gen.
eral use of oil burning locomotives. Our
train was pulled by such an engine. con.
sequently we were not annoyed at all by
cinders and there was no smoke. All yor
could see coming from the stack was 6
little steam. nor could you smell any odol
| of oil unless you went near the engine
| This cleanliness enabled us to keep the
car windows open and get plenty Of fresf
| air.
| Beaumont Is an old town, but thu
great oil development there has made /
modern city. They are going to Issue
5000, 900 of bonds for municipal improve
ments and the streets are to be paved
with vitrified brick, which is obtained
| from a place called Thurber about thirt!
miles from Fort Worth. You can get any
thing you want in Beaumont. the stores
are large and progressive and prices fo
general supplies of all kinds are the sam'
| as in Baltimore. Many substantial build
ings are being erected. so that the i'm
provements there will be solid and last