The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-30
THE IRON AND STEEL
 INDUSTRY IN SOUTH
toontinued From Page seven.)

per week. The blowing engines. or bel lows, cost $500. and one of the ore mines was from b to 20 feet in depth.
 Tn North Carolina we read of a furnace
 built in 17So, which was in operation down to 1873, and in South Carolina 17S7 appears of record The earliest furnace mentioned in Georgia was 1882. and in Alabama in ISIS, near Russellvile. in what is now Franklin county. The plant was called
 Cedar Creek, being from 9 to 90 feet in diameter at the base, and narrowing into a smokestack at the height of about 25 feet. This was operated by water power "It Is recorded that the farmers were glad to give the boulders of iron away to get them out of their way so that they might till their fields more easily. The fuel used was charcoal made from thou sands of the finest cedar trees.s These furnaces supplied the local farmers with cooking vessels, agricultural implements and bar iron.
 Tn the meantime. Kentucky and Ten nessee were closer to civilization than
 were Georgia and Alabama, and in 17el Bourbon or Slate furnace was built near Owingsvile. Ky, which had production of about three tons per day. Castings and bar iron were hauled seven miles to Licking river and 1oated to Cincinnati and Louisville. It is recorded that the workmen digging ore had to be guarded by armed sentinels against Indians. and it was necessary to build strong block house on the principal ore bank. In 1s1O this furnace contracted with the United State government to furnish cannon balls to the navy, and such material was actually used by General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. In Tennessee d furnace and forge were erected in Sulli- van county, near the Virginia line, about 1797. Anyone travelling through the woods 1t,1 fit,dt Inc nt1o af hac h istp
 unless he saw the slag beneath the weeds and brush heaps, might easily conclude he had run upon an abandoned limekiln Development Before Civil War 'In the nature of things, with the growth of population and the development of roads and more particularly with the construction of railroads. the iron trade
 began to lose It's local character and as- sume It's normal aspect as a national in- dustry., In doing this it met with some legislative discouragements so that we
 cannot altogether console ourselves by re- ferring to the good old days, for we find a plaintive petition presented to the general assembly of Pennsylvania on Mo- vember 30 17S5, asking for an additional duty to be laid upon foreign bar iron was adversely reported by the committee, and not until the adoption of the Morrill, tariff, 1861, did this industry obtain a really solid lOunQdtiOH. IL lS true tiidl lic uuiiibSA of establishments multiplied greatly, for prior to the civil war we find record in the south of no less than 19S furnaces, PIT forges and bloomaries and 30 rolling mills, the vast majority of which were then passing or about to pass into a condition of 'innocuous desuetude.'
 Some of these plants. however, had been notable ones. Steamboat men can be found today on the Mississippi river and Ohio. who will speak with pride of the boilers made from Hillman's charcoal iron plates produced on the Cumberland river with brown ore, charcoal fuel and the pudded blooms pounded out by big trip hammer. Memory suggests that the two negroes handling them under the hammer weighed over 250 pounds each. The success of the Hillman family in this Kentucky enterprise was a material fac tor in Birmingham developments later on. The charcoal furnaces from Rome, Ga, to Selma established reputation for car wheel iron, the low silicon cold
 blast charcoal pig being soft at the hub, easily turned. but taking deep chill. Among those producers one notices the rise of the Noble family at Anniston into affluence, laying the foundation for the future success and development of that city.
 Period of the Civil War
 As a traveller passes by railway train through a tunnel from one landscape to another in different valley. so we pass l through the period of the civil war. Enter price throughout the south was neces- sarily almost stopped. Here and there a plant was maintained for the purpose of l furnishing war-lke supplies-cannon, shot and swords; but more important still perhaps for military purposes were locomotives, wheels, rails. nails and bar iron. Establishments within range of federal gunboats upon the rivers in some
 cases were injured or destroyed: in others.
 abandoned for the time The organiza- | tions of peace were broken up, some plants taken by the federal government
 and operated for it's own benefit, includ- l ing the coal mines which later became the 1 foundation of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company. Suffice 1t In a par azraph to say that this was. as all war times are. a period not of construction. but of destruction.
 "Dufing this period shot and shells up
 to 1SU pounds weight were cast for the
 r,ufnd crate rovarnmant ak Natchex and