The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-07
nY wrLL .. sHEEHAN.

rh. nrassuming little mining town of pvrifon in the northwestern part or ciav County has the interest of the. historical and the picturesque. It has. too. at this time certain commercial importance, for two companies are en- rared in digging into its wealth of 1vritee deposit to get material used for suIphuric acid in the making of acid fertilizers. and 1t is the point twenty miles east of the line of the Louisville ana Nashville at which the Alabama Eastern Raiiroad splits. one line going to Ashland and the other to Lineviile.
 The historical interest to the little mining community in the Talladega foothiils is largely traditional It was the scene, so the visitor Is often told, of the operations of the ordnance de- partment of the Confederate govern ment during the war, where the agents of the government got sulphur tq use in the making of powder for the 'gray clad soldiers on the held. One re- ceives the impression that the sulphur works at Pyriton were of vast import ance to the struggling government oI the Southern States.
 The impression is hardly warranted by the facts one gets from more or less thorough investigation of the TO- mantle story of the Confederate sul- phur works in the remote hills of Clay. They were never of any vital import ance to the Confectionery. Some sul- phur was dug from the ground and shipped for use upon the field but the quantity was never very large, or else those who ought to know, gave out misleading information.
 {, But the presence of Dr. Gessner. the Confederate government scientist, who went down to superintend the sulphur works was indirectly distinct benefit to Clay County. It was he who nrst found the mineral deposits in that par ticular section of the Talladega foot hills He was of an inquisitive turn of mind and he spent much of his time pottering about the mountains. He came across the graphite deposits and told of his discovery. To him Is due the fact that over forty years later an immense graphite plant Is now going up some miles away from Pyriton.
 Pyrites and Graphite.
 And incidentally 1t should be said that Captain William Lucas. the well known capitalist, who made so large fortune out of oil at Beaumont, Is delv- ing In the graphite proposition in Clay County. He has acquired various and sundry options on spots where the graphite ore crops out in apparently promising quantities. In a buggy trip through a section of Clay County we came across many little tunnel that he had dug through the hill, testing the width and depth of the graphite veins.
 The development of the pyrites de- posit is a thing of more recent date: Because iron pyrites for the making of sulphuric acid could be gotten out of the hill in paying quantities the tortu- ous little railroad was originally built in and out and among the mountains. Percy Smith, the promoter of the py- rites proposition and the spirit behind the building of the railroad. is an Au- burn graduate and Is yet a young man. He came over from Atlanta and went to prospecting at the old sulphur works some years ago. He succeeded in interesting Atlanta capitalists in the proposition and a company was formed which bought over the sulphur works and put up some sthree-story wooden buildings, stocked. with modern ma chlnery. 3"r
 The company. which is known as the Alabama Pyrites Company, Is capital ized at $S0,0 Its officers are O. A. Meek Atlanta, President; P. H. Smith. Pyriton. General Manager, and D. H. Thornton, Atlanta, Treasurer. The company has been on the ground at Pyriton for tho past six years.
 Considerable ore has been shipped from Pyriton, but the mill has been shut down for the past several months. force of half dozen men is at work putting in new machinery and prepar- ing in various ways for the reopening of the mIlI fin the fall.
 4 mile and a half away is the busy plant of the Southern Sulphur Ore Company located on the line of the railroad towards Stockdale. This Is practically a Montgomery concern.
 A Montgomery Enterprise.
 It Is a Montgomery concern because the head of the operating company is J. H. Carpenter. the head of the Ten nessee Fertilizer Company, which runs big fertilizer plant in Montgomery. The pyrites works at Pyriton Is fur thermore a Montgomery investment in that it's output is shipped to the plant of the Tennessee Fertilizer Company at Montgomery.
 The plant is operated by the South ern Sulphur Ore Company. The name of the company Is itself indicative of the nature of the mining operations in and around Pyriton. The plants are put up to get out sulphur ore. Once out of the ground the ore is suitably crushed and then shipped to the ferti- lizer plant to be worked up as sulphu- ric acid
 The mill of the Southern Sulphur Ore Company is an active and busy place. No less than sixty tons of sulphur ore are shipped out each day. Thirty men are employed about the plant. It has A.4.. Il.