Etna Furnace

Etna Furnace, Lawrence County, Ohio
Built: 1832
By: JAMES RODGERS & OTHERS
Researched by Sharon M. Kouns

Ironton Register, March 1, 1877 – (East End Items) – Thomas G. Scott died at his residence, near Etna furnace, last Saturday morning. The funeral services were conducted by the Congregational Church on Monday, from which the remains were attended to Woodland by one of the largest processions we have seen pass out of Ironton.

Mr. Scott has been associated with the iron interests nearly all his life, and outside his large circle of relatives, his loss will be felt to its greatest extent at the Etna, where he has managed the past year with remarkable success.

(Same Date) – Elwood Hussey’s school closed at Etna, last Friday. (Same Date) – Mr. Burt, an experienced furnaceman from Milwaukee, takes charge of the Etna Furnace. (Same Date) A barge with sixty tons of iron which was dropped down to town from Etna was sunk just below the furnace, one-day last week.

Ironton Register, September 23, 1897 – Etna Furnace Sale – Next Saturday at 10 a. m., the big Etna Furnace, in Ironton, will be offered at public sale, on the premises by the trustees, Messrs. Lee and Clark, both of whom are expected to arrive here Friday evening. Mr. Hart a prominent stockholder, is also expected. The notice of the sale is printed in full on the seventh page of this issue. The bondholders are likely to buy the property.

In this connection, we may suggest to the purchasers, why not make an effort to dispose of this splendid property to the government for an armor plate factory? The government proposes to establish such a plant. This property would suit. The location is the very best. No better place could be selected for a ship armor establishment.

The combination of coal and ore is cheap here. We are on railroad and river transportation direct to the ocean. We have the best metal in the world for cannons. Ohio should be favored with his plant, and Ironton is the spot. The people of this city will second every effort of the purchasers in securing the plant here.

Ironton Register, July 13, 1899 – Etna Furnace is now in good working order, since getting their water from the City Water Works. They have plenty of steam and are burning but little coal. Are expecting to have natural gas soon to use when necessary. They are at present making 240 tons daily of fine Bessemer iron. They will begin next week to put in four new boilers.

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Little Etna Furnace, Lawrence County, Ohio
Built:
By: Ironton Register, April 21, 1887 – The glory of “Little Etna” as a furnace, has departed. Her machinery and buildings have all been removed, and only the stack and abutting masonry, which stand amid drifts of ore dust and cinder deposit, are left to mark the site of an ancient and profitable concern. They will blacken with age, and in their widening crevices, tufts of grass and moss may find lodgement ere they feel again the heat of furnace fires.

But the business of the furnace grounds is still kept up. 250 men are employed there among the hills getting out ore and lime for Alice furnace, so the office and store, the main center of these operations, are not forsaken, but very active.

One is reminded as he approaches the company’s office from the railroad, of the wood-cut pictures of a village street found in old-time story books. The office is a very old brick structure with small windows and a steep roof, whose long slopes quite overbalance the height of the sidewalks. Its big gable end rises prominently in the picture.

Just beyond the office the higher walls of the storehouse appear, and beyond these again, the Manager’s residence, almost hidden from view. This row of buildings occupies a slight eminence in the narrow valley, over which the road runs from our point of observation, descending again on the other side as it passes the dismantled furnace nearby.

A well-trodden path leads up to the corner of the office, where begins a stone pavement rudely constructed of angular and uneven blocks of flagging long ago. It has worn smoothly under the pressure of many feet. In the forks of a grand old tree near the corner, there is a bell whose notes proclaim at intervals the working hours of the day.

When the reporter made these observations, the weather was most propitious. The earth was clean from the washings of recent rain. The sun shone brightly through cloudless skies, and a delightful breeze made manifest its bracing influence. Under these lovely conditions, he took a seat beside the Etna manager, George Cox, and accompanied him on his daily ride over to Vesuvius furnace.

The Etna Iron Works Co. owns 16,000 acres of land around Etna and Vesuvius furnaces, and a short time ago, an expert geologist was sent out to determine how much of the tract was ore land. He made an estimate showing there were six or seven thousand acres.

The ore will average at least 12 inches thick, and at that thickness, a square yard produces a ton. The Etna company mines about 30,000 tons a year. Following the calculation based on these estimates they only use a little more than 5 acres per annum and have enough ore to last, at the present rate of consumption, over a thousand years.

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Big Etna Furnace, Lawrence County, Ohio
Built: 1872
By:

Ironton Register, November 4, 1886 – Burned Down – The Etna house near Alice Furnace was destroyed by fire last Friday night, at about ten o’clock. The fire caught from a stove. There were seven families living in the house, but they managed to get out all their property. The blaze made by the fire was terrific. It reddened the entire southern sky.

The Etna house was built when Big Etna Furnace was erected and was used as a boarding house at first, and afterward as a tenement house. It was insured for $3,000. It is the purpose of the company to put up some smaller houses to accommodate their employees.

Ironton Register, December 6, 1888 – BIG ETNA – BLANCHE STACK IN BLAST, AND OTHER NOTES. – When the mammoth furnace of the Etna Iron Works at the upper end of town, was erected in 1872, only one of the twin stacks was completed.

The Alice stacks were finished, but Blanche was left un-lined, and incomplete – a mere iron tube of ponderous size, with the bridge constructed at the top, and the connections, &c., arranged for.

Blanche has now been lined, and workmen are filling the new furnace with stock preparatory to putting on the blast today or tomorrow. The work of lining has been going on for months. It has cost about $23,000, including all necessary changes and additions, and over 400,000 bricks, including red and firebricks, have been used.

Meanwhile, Alice has been blown out and the engines and Whitwell ovens used for that furnace have been connected with Blanche. These changes were practically made some weeks ago, but the starting of the furnace was delayed by the river water rising in the well hole, so it was not possible to reach the pumps until last week.

 Mr. Pleumer, the President of the Company, whom the REGISTER has interviewed on the subject, says he hopes to make 100 tons of iron a day in the new stack when she gets fairly started.

Alice, with the same outer dimensions as Blanche, made on an average about 74 or 5 tons in the last year of her run, but Blanche is new throughout and has been lined after the most approved pattern, hence the expected large increase. The most iron Alice ever made was a very exceptional day’s run, several years ago, of 104 tons of mill iron.

Mr. Pleumer said also, that it is possible in the coming year, that the other stack will be blown in. He has just returned from the East, where he spent several weeks among his associates in the Etna enterprise, and states that if he gets the assurance of Pres. F. J. Kimball, of the Norfolk & Western road, that his projected line to Ironton will be built to Ironton next Summer, and the rates of freight will be such as there is every reason to expect, there is no doubt that the Alice stack will be got in readiness to start at that time.

He is now in communication with Mr. Kimball on that subject and may learn his purpose in a month. If the Alice is started, it will involve an expenditure of $50,000 or $60,000, as the stack must be re-lined, and in order to run both stacks at once, additional hot blast ovens would have to be built, and two more blowing engines added.

The operation of both stacks is simply a possibility of the future, and an event that Mr. Pluemer thinks is sure to follow the advent of the new road, that will furnish us such valuable access to the coking and ore regions of Virginia.

In addition to the Blanche stack, now being started new, the Etna Co.’s Sarah furnace just above, is being overhauled to put in the blast. It was expected to blow her out for that purpose as soon as Blanche was started, but last week the bottom broke out. The contemplated work is thus hastened. The lower part of the stack will be re-lined, so the furnace will be ready to start again, it is thought, by the first of the year.

Sarah’s output is about 35 tons a day, which, if the expectations regarding Blanche are realized, will make an output of 135 tons daily, and this means consumption of 600 to 650 tons, or 40 to 45 carloads, of raw material at the two furnaces each day. Blanche will run on half Missouri ore, of which Mr. Pleumer has just purchased 12,000 tons for monthly delivery, and half native, with New River and Connellsville coke. The Company has also about 20,000 tons of native ore, and 18,000 tons of limestone on hand.

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ETNA IRON WORKS

Ironton Register April 4, 1878 – ETNA WORKS AFFAIRS – JOHN H. MOULTON, APPOINTED ASSIGNEE.

Last week, when we went to press, the Etna Creditors’ meeting was in session, but we stated the probability that no understanding would be reached. The committee waited upon the Director’s returned with a proposition to settle at 40 percent, payable 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years, and no interest in the first year. That proposition was rejected by a close vote.

A resolution was passed recommending that the company make an assignment. A committee was also appointed to view the assets of the company and estimate their value. Said committee is John Means, G. N. Gray, and George Clarke.

The meeting lasted from ten o’clock in the morning until nearly dark, excepting the noon hour. Of the $350,000 unsecured creditors, about $224,000 were represented. Those present seemed desirous of agreeing with the company upon some settlement, but there was a variety of views as to the valuation of the real estate, and this prevented. When the meeting was over, a majority of the indebtedness represented at the meeting manifested a willingness to accept the 40 percent proposition. The following circular has been issued by the Directors:

OFFICE OF THE ETNA IRON WORKS, }
IRONTON, O., MARCH 27, 1878 }

We the Directors of the Etna Iron Works, beg to submit the following terms and conditions as a basis for a compromise and settlement with all of our unsecured creditors; reserving, however, the right to prefer and pay in full all that may be found due our employees to this date:    

To pay forty cents on a dollar, payable in two, three, four, five, and six years from this date, with interest at the rate of six percent per annum after one year; secured by a Second Mortgage upon all the Real Estate owned by the Etna Iron Works in Lawrence County, State of Ohio, amounting to some sixteen thousand five hundred acres, with all improvements thereon. Such Mortgage is to be made to a Trustee, who shall be selected by a majority of Creditors in interest, and for a sufficient amount to cover all of said compromised claims and interest to the date of maturity.      

A majority of the indebtedness represented at a meeting of Creditors held March 27, 1878, expressed a willingness to accept the above proposition.      

You will be waited upon in a few days by a representative of the Company.GEO. K. HOSFORD, SEC’Y.      I

n compliance with the resolution by the Creditors recommending an assignment, the board elected John H. Moulton as Assignee, who accepts the trust and proceeds to work. The appointment is a good one. Mr. Moulton is a bookkeeper, a practical man, and a person fully qualified in every way for the task assigned to him.

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Ironton Register, September 18, 1890 – The Etna Iron Works property will soon be offered at public sale. This will be done on an agreement between the bondholders and creditors, and, of course, the property will be bought in. But it is hardly probable that the work will start up for some time.

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Willard Kentucky built by Etna Iron Works

IJ Aug. 6, 1873 –  Willard. – This little village in Carter County, Kentucky, twelve miles from Grayson, is bound to be a place of some local importance.  The Etna Iron Works will immediately erect 45 cottages and 4 larger houses, a brick storehouse, and ware room 24×80 with an office attached, and a large boarding house.

     The Belfont and Norton Iron Works will build forty more houses shortly and the latter company will build their keg works there and put in $40,000 worth of machinery.

      Messrs. Isaac Peters, of Ironton, – Brown of Monitor Furnace, J. B., and Wm. Bazell of Rock Camp has a large sawmill in operation employing 22 hands and sawing 10,000 feet of lumber daily on a contract from 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 feet to be delivered in monthly lots of 100,000.  They also have a contract for 2,000,000 shingles and 2,000,000 laths.