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CHAPTER III.
THE IRON INDUSTRIES.
Pg. 265
WHEN IRONTON BECAME THE CENTER - PIONEER
LAWRENCE COUNTY FURNACES - HANGING ROCK IN 1833 - OLD ARBILLITE,
OF KENTUCKY - OTHER GREENUP CONCERNS - BRUSH CREEK AND JAMES
RODGERS - PINE GROVE FURNACE FOUNDED - ARRIVAL OF JOHN CAMPBELL
- INTRODUCTION OF THE HOT BLAST - FIRST FURNACE SHUT DOWN ON THE
SABBATH - THE ELLISON AND ROBERT HAMILTON - J. RIGGS AND COMPANY
- MR. CAMPBELL MAKES HANGING ROCK HIS HOME - THE CAMPBELL
FURNACE INTERESTS - THE OLD COLD BLAST FURNACES - HAMILTON AND
CAMPBELL PART COMPANY - THE HANGING ROCK OF 1846 - CAMPBELL AND
WILLARD, DELEGATES TO BUFFALO - SITE OF IRONTON DIRECTED TO BUY
THE ENTIRE SITE - THE HANGING ROCK RAILROAD FALLS THROUGH - DR.
C. BRIGGS, DIPLOMAT - THE OHIO IRON AND COAL COMPANY - CHOLERA
PRECAUTIONS - THE IRON RAILROAD - IRONTON ROLLING MILL BUILT -
OTHER IRON FACTORIES - OAK RIDGE FURNACE AN ILL-FATED VENTURE -
INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1857 - REVIVAL OF THE LATER '60S -
BELFONT IRON WORKS FOUNDED - THE TRANSITIONAL '70S - LATER
FURNACES - MEANS, KYLE AND COMPANY - EUGENE B. WILLARD - DEATHS
OF JOHN CAMPBELL AND CALEB BRIGGS - THE HANGING ROCK IRON
COMPANY - THE HECLA IRON AND MINING COMPANY - OLD HECLA FURNACE
AGAIN - PROPOSED NATIONAL ARMORY - ABUNDANT CHARCOAL SUPPLY -
PROPOSED NAVY YARD - THE CHARCOAL IRON COMPANY - LAST COLD BLAST
CHARCOAL FURNACE - THE BELFONT IRON WORKS - THE KELLY NAIL AND
IRON WORKS - THE MARTING IRON AND STEEL COMPANY.
For more than twenty
years the Village of Hanging Rock was the administrative center
of the largest furnaces in the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio.
From the time John Means and James Rodgers founded
old Union, in 1826, until John Campbell and other iron
masters decided that the mouth of Storms Creek was the proper
site for an industrial and shipping town, with a railroad
running north toward Chillicothe, until the incorporation of the
Ohio Iron and Coal Company and the laying out of Ironton, in the
Spring of 1849, the Village of Hanging Rock promised to be the
leading town in Lawrence County.
WHEN IRONTON BECAME THE CENTER -
PIONEER
LAWRENCE COUNTY FURNACES -
HANGING ROCK IN 1833 -
OLD ARBILLITE,
OF KENTUCKY -
OTHER GREENUP CONCERNS -
BRUSH CREEK AND JAMES
RODGERS -
PINE GROVE FURNACE FOUNDED -
ARRIVAL OF JOHN CAMPBELL
-
In 1832 John
Campbell, then a young man of twenty-four, reached Hanging
Rock in search of employment, and remained in the vicinity for
nearly twenty years, and a leader in the development of the
Hanging Rock Ron Region for about three score years.
In 1836 Hurd, Gould and Company opened Lagrange
furnace on the western borders of Storms Creek, about four miles
northeast of Hanging Rock, Vesuvius, a few miles further north,
having been established in 1833.
INTRODUCTION OF THE HOT BLAST -
FIRST FURNACE SHUT DOWN ON THE
SABBATH -
THE ELLISON AND ROBERT HAMILTON
-
In clearing up the
interesting items which attach to the history of the early
furnaces and furnace men holding the stage before the birth of
Ironton, the writer can conceive of no more effective and
authoritative way then to quote from a manuscript of Mr.
Campbell entitled "Statements of John Campbell and
wife, and of others, made in the year 1875 and up to 1890."
According to that authentic paper, Andrew Ellison,
first cousin of Mrs. John Campbell's mother, came to
Hanging Rock from the Pine Grove furnace, in 1832. With
Robert Hamiltonhe had built that plant in 1828.
Mr. Ellison died in 1836, and at his own request was
buried above ground in a coffin covered by an iron casket, over
all being built a vault made of wood.
Robert Hamilton came from Pennsylvania and
clerked at a furnace in Adams County before locating at Hanging
Rock. He assisted in the building of Mount Vernon furnace
in 1833, opened the coal miens at New Castle and built the
Hanging Rock Railroad running to them. The Ellisons and he
were the wealthiest iron masters in the early days. Mr.
Hamilton married Nancy Ellison, an aunt of Mrs.
John Campbell, which was the beginning of his success and
fortune.
John Campbell, young Andrew Ellison, Robert
Hamilton and others had built the Mount Vernon, William
Ellison, an uncle of Mrs. John Campbell, managing it
from 1833 to 1835. Mr. Campbell superintended it
from 1835 to 1846, when he moved to Hanging Rock, and to Ironton
in 1850.
J. RIGGS AND COMPANY
-
In March, 1833, was
commenced the Hanging Rock Forge, which was the beginning of the
Hanging Rock Rolling Mill. The stockholders in the forge
were the same as those interested in the Lawrence furnace, or
[pg. 272]
Crane's Nest - viz., James Rodgers, Robert
Hamilton, Andrew Ellison, Dyer Burgess and Joseph Riggs,
under the firm style of J. Riggs and Company.
Mr. Campbell had the active superintendence of
the building of Lawrence, and after its completion Andrew B.
Ellison became its superintendent and Mr. Campbell,
clerk. The latter had the privilege of taking stock, but
declined, although he loaned J. Riggs and Company $1,500
to be applied in its construction.
It is said that while Mr. Campbell was clerking
for that firm and assisting in the building of the forge, he
obtained the impression that the company did not care for his
services, because they did not express themselves definitely on
the subject. So he had his trunk quietly taken down to the
river for the steamboat, in order to leave. Just as it was
disappearing over the bank Andrew Ellison espied it and
called him back. The explanation resulted in his remaining
in the iron district.
MR. CAMPBELL MAKES HANGING ROCK HIS HOME -
In January, 1835,
Mr. Campbell visited his home in Brown County, Ohio, and
borrowed money from his father and aunt, which enabled him to
invest in other furnace properties. The Mount Vernon
enterprise also proved very profitable, he being manager of it
from June, 1835, to July, 1846, when, as stated, he located at
Hanging Rock.
While a resident of that place, Mr. Campbell
lived in the Andrew Ellison home, which he had purchased
from the widow. In 1852 Robert Hamilton bought from
his son-in-law, Samuel B. Hempstead, the large house just
above Hanging Rock. James Rodgers, another of the
great iron masters of the early period, lived at Hanging Rock
during the ante-Irontonian period, his death occurring in 1858.
THE CAMPBELL
FURNACE INTERESTS -
In those days it did
not require much money to erect or own furnaces. Thus,
Mr. Campbell had less than $1,000 when he came to Hanging
Rock, which, with a small sum which he borrowed from relatives,
enabled him to get a firm foothold at Mount Vernon. The
original daily capacity of that plant was about sixteen tons,
its actual output being considerably less for some time.
But the furnace so prospered under his management that he was
enabled to subscribe largely to the building of the Greenup (Campbell,
Peters and Culberson) in 1844; to the Olive (John
Campbell, and John Peters), north of the
Buckhorn, in 1846, and Gallia Furnace, still northeast in Gallia
County, in 1847. These furnaces, in turn, kept him in
funds for building Keystone, Jackson County, in 1849; Howard,
Scioto County, 1853; Washington (John Campbell, John Peters
and others), near the northern boundary of Lawrence County, in
1853, and Monroe, also in Jackson County, in 1856.
Besides the furnaces of an early date in Lawrence
County already mentioned were the following: Buckhorn
built in 1833 by James and
[pg. 273]
Findley, original daily capacity fifteen tons; Centre, built by
William Carpenter, in 1836, capacity sixteen tons; Etna,
built in 1832 by James Rodgers and others, with a daily
capacity of sixteen tons.
THE OLD COLD BLAST FURNACES -
In the very early days,
the cold blast was furnished by a small engine located at the
base of the stack, supplying enough air to make one ton of iron
per day. The pioneer iron men let the gas from the furnace
escape into the open air and patiently fired the boiler with
stone coal. One ton of iron required a little over two
tons of the rich red ore on the outcrop and about two hundred
and fifty bushels of charcoal. Two ore carts with oxen
would haul both the fuel and the ore and a little limestone.
The charcoal was made next the furnace. After 1840 the
furnace plants expanded and more money was spent both for land
and buildings.
HAMILTON AND
CAMPBELL PART COMPANY -
We now approach the
events which led to the founding of Ironton, the buying of its
present site, the defection of the Iron Railroad from Hanging
Rock, the incorporation of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company and
the final platting of the town. As pithily stated by an
old-timer, "but for some difficulty between Mr. Campbell
and Robert Hamilton, Ironton would have been an Up-river
Extension of Hanging Rock."
THE HANGING ROCK OF 1846 -
CAMPBELL AND
WILLARD, DELEGATES TO BUFFALO -
SITE OF IRONTON CHANGES HANDS
WILLARD AND PETERS TO THE RESCUE
"On the evening of Oct.
31, 1848, James O. Willard and John Peters met
upon the road as they were passing to and fro from Hanging
[pg. 275]
Rock and their respective furnaces. They stopped and
talked about the failure of the scheme to build at Hanging Rock
and of Mr. Campbell's project to build a railroad above
Hanging Rock and locate a town. These two gentlemen turned
their horses' heads to the rock and, riding all night, awoke
Mr. Campbell just before daylight. His astonishment at
the sudden awakening was great, but he was delighted to find
that they were in favor of the new town. The next day,
Nov. 1st, an article was drawn up in which they agreed to stand
by Mr. Campbell in his purchases of land for the town.
At that time Dr. Caleb Briggs had his office beside
Mr. Campbell's, and he also signed the agreement.
James W. Means, a brother-in-law of Mr. Campbell,
also signed, making five signers in all."
KELLY DIRECTED TO BUY
THE ENTIRE SITE -
THE HANGING ROCK RAILROAD FALLS THROUGH -
DR.
C. BRIGGS, DIPLOMAT -
THE OHIO IRON AND COAL COMPANY -
CHOLERA
PRECAUTIONS -
THE IRON RAILROAD -
IRONTON ROLLING MILL BUILT -
OTHER IRON FACTORIES -
OAK RIDGE FURNACE AN ILL-FATED VENTURE -
INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS OF 1857 -
REVIVAL OF THE LATER '60s -
BELFONT IRON WORKS FOUNDED -
THE TRANSITIONAL '70S -
LATER
FURNACES -
MEANS, KYLE AND COMPANY -
EUGENE B. WILLARD -
Soon after returning
from his Civil war service, Eugene B. Willard, son of
James O. Willard, one of the veteran iron masters of the
region ,
[pg. 284]
became a clerk at the Buckhorn Furnace, and in 1866 became
connected with the Ohio Furnace and Means, Kyle and Company.
In May, 1868, he entered their employ at Hanging Rock and during
the succeeding thirty-four years held successively the positions
of bookkeeper, cashier, general manager and president. As
stated, it was this company, which established the Hamilton Coke
Furnace, which, for years, was among
the leaders of its kind in the iron industries
of the Middle West. During the last twenty years of his
identification with Means, Kyle and Company, and their
successors, the Hanging Rock Iron Company, Mr. Willard
had the active superintendency of all their varied interests.
He retired in 1902 and the Pine Grove Furnace went out of blast
in 1897. Mr. Willard is therefore the best known
personal link connecting the old iron industries of the Hanging
Rock Region with the new.
DEATHS
OF JOHN CAMPBELL AND CALEB BRIGGS -
John Campbell,
the founder of Ironton and the largest figure in the iron
industries of the region as long as he lived, died in his home
town
[pg. 285]
in 1891, his able lieutenant and close friend, Dr. Caleb
Briggs, having preceded him in 1884, at his birthplace, New
Rochester, Massachusetts.
THE HANGING ROCK IRON
COMPANY -
THE HECLA IRON AND MINING COMPANY -
OLD HECLA FURNACE
AGAIN -
PROPOSED NATIONAL ARMORY -
ABUNDANT CHARCOAL SUPPLY -
PROPOSED NAVY YARD -
THE CHARCOAL IRON COMPANY -
LAST COLD BLAST
CHARCOAL FURNACE -
THE BELFONT IRON WORKS -
THE KELLY NAIL AND
IRON WORKS -
THE MARTING IRON AND STEEL COMPANY.
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