Thomas W. Means

Thomas W. Means Ironmaster Obituary

Cincinnati Enquirer June 9, 1890 p4

IRON KING’S DEATH

Thomas W. Means Dies Full of Years and Honor.

A Pioneer of the Furnace Business in Ohio.

Kentucky and Other States Also Felt His Influence.

The End of a Career That Was Remarkable For Its Continued Success.

A telegram to The Enquirer from Ex-Mayor William Means at Ashland, Ky., brings the sad intelligence of the death of his aged father, whose business career was remarkable for its continued success. The Ex-Mayor passed through this city a few days ago on the way to the bedside of his honored parent.

Thomas Williamson Means, the deceased, was a pioneer of the Hanging Rock Iron Region and one of the best-known furnace builders of the West.

At his death yesterday morning, he was aged 87 years. He was noted for some years for the prominence he attained as a successful man in all he undertook and for the prominence and power his family attained. His life was a record of unbroken integrity, marked by some of the most notable achievements in the iron industry of the West. He was the father of

EX-MAYOR WILLIAM MEANS

Of Cincinnati, and John Means, President of several large coal and iron companies.

Thomas Means was a South Carolinian, the son of Colonel John Means of Revolutionary fame, extensive planter, and slave owner, who moved to Ohio in 1819 and manumitted twenty-four slaves from the principal. One of six children, Thomas was brought up on a farm. In 1826 he took one of the first flatboats, loaded with Ohio products, to New Orleans. In the same year, he lighted the fire in Union Furnace, the first in the Hanging Rock region.

In 1837 he became a partner of David Sinton, now of Cincinnati, in the same furnace, which was rebuilt in 1855. At the same time, they rebuilt the Ohio furnace,

(David Sinton, sketch)

THEN ABANDONED

In 1859 he bought Bellefonte Furnace, Kentucky, and helped build Vinton Furnace, Ohio. In 1863, in conjunction with others, he bought Pine Grove Furnace and the Hanging Rock Coal Works, and the following year he and David Sinton built a tram road to Union Furnace, the first in the State of Ohio. 

In 1868 he built the Ashland, Ky., Furnace; in 1872, the Norton Iron Works. And in 1874, Princess Furnace. He was also interested in Lowmoor, Va., Furnace. With David Sinton, he put in the second hot-blast stove used in the United States.

He was longer and more closely and directly connected with the growth and prosperity of the iron business than any other man in the Hanging Rock region. He was, too, instrumental in organizing other important enterprises. With Captain Washington, Honshell originated the Cincinnati, Pomeroy, and Big Sandy Packet Company and retained interest to his death. 

He was one of the largest stockholders in the Kentucky Iron, Coal, and Manufacturing Company and, for many years, was President of the Second National Bank of Ironton. He was also interested in the Oxmoor (Ala.) The furnace was also interested with Mack and others of Cincinnati, now litigating with Debar & Delevan of Birmingham, Ala., regarding the control of Eureka Furnace.

He was prominently identified with Ashland from its inception and was one of the original Land Companies that helped lay off the town. He moved here with his daughters in 1881. Since 1889 he has been in bad health, and he became blind. His death was not unexpected. He married Sarah Ellison, of Adams County, Ohio, in 1828.

His living children are John, President of the A. C., and I. The company of Ashland; William, Ex-Mayor of Cincinnati; Mary A. and Margaret, of Ashland, all of whom were present at his death bed except John, South in feeble health and could not stand the journey. The funeral will occur Tuesday afternoon. The interment will be at Ironton in the family lot.

Mr. Means was so well and widely known that the news of his death would be received with regret among iron masters all over the Union. The family constantly receives telegrams of sympathy.

History of Adams County by Stivers – THOMAS WILLIAMSON MEANS – iron manufacturer, son of John and Anne (Williamson) Means, was born November 3, 1803, in Spartansburg, South Carolina. He spent six years in a select school established by his father, which was chiefly for the education of his own children, and he acquired a fine English education and a respectable knowledge of the classics.

His father moved to Ohio in 1819 when he was sixteen. He labored upon his father’s farm and clerked in a store for several years in which his father was interested in West Union, and in 1826 he took a flatboat loaded with produce to New Orleans. In the same year, he became a storekeeper at Union Furnace, which his father and others were building four miles from Hanging Rock.

This was the first blast furnace built in Ohio in the Hanging Rock iron region, and he had the pleasure of first “firing” it. The old Steam, Hopewell, Pactolus, and Argillite were the only furnaces previously in that region and were in Kentucky. Since 1885, the old Union has not been in operation, but the lands belonging to it are yet, in part, owned by his heirs.

In 1837, he and David Sinton became the owners of Union Furnace and rebuilt it in 1844. In 1845, they built Ohio Furnace. In 1847, he became interested in and helped build Buena Vista Furnace in Kentucky. In 1852, he bought Bellefonte Furnace in Kentucky. In 1854, he became interested in and helped build Pine Grove Furnace in Kentucky, and the Hanging Rock coal works, and in the following year, with others, bought Amanda Furnace in Kentucky.

In 1845, he and David Sinton built a tram road to Ohio Furnace, one of the first roads of its kind built in Ohio, and now a railroad five miles in length runs from the river to Pine Grove furnace. Ohio was the country’s first charcoal furnace, making as high as ten tons a day, and was the first that averaged over fifteen tons. This furnace also produced iron with less expense to the ton than had been achieved in any other. In 1832, when the Union had been working up to six tons a day, the Pennsylvania furnaces were averaging but two tons.

He, in connection with the Culbertson’s, built the Princess, a stone-coal furnace ten miles from Ashland in Kentucky, and also, later, with Capt. John Kyle and E. B. Willard built another at Hanging Rock. In the first year of Union Furnace, three hundred tons of iron were produced; in the last year, 1855, it reached twenty-five hundred. Three hundred in 1837 was as large a yearly production as had been reached in the United States, and this rate was fully up to that of England. The largest furnaces now reach fifteen thousand tons a month in this country.

Under the superintendence of himself and David Sinton, the experiments for introducing the hot blast were first done. At their Union Furnace, they put up the second hot blast in the United States only a few years after its introduction in 1828. This was probably the greatest step forward that had yet been made in manufacturing iron. Always favoring the advance in improvements, many changes were made by him in the form of furnaces and in the modes of operating them.

Under his patronage, in 1860, at Ohio Furnace, the Davis hot blast was introduced, which greatly improved and modified the charcoal furnaces of the country. He was longer engaged and doubtless more extensively and directly concerned in the growth and prosperity of the iron business than any other man in the Ohio Valley. Besides his large interests in the various furnaces, he was very interested in eighteen thousand acres of iron ore, coal, farmland in Ohio, and nearly fifty thousand acres in Kentucky.

He was one of the originators of the Cincinnati and Big Sandy Packet Company and was its leading stockholder; was one of the incorporators of the Norton Ironworks of Ashland, Kentucky, and one of its largest stockholders; helped lay out the town of Ashland, was a large stockholder in the Ironton “Ohio Iron Railroad Company;” was one of the originators of the Second National Bank of Ironton, and its president at the organization in 1864, and was also a stockholder of the Ashland National Bank.

In 1865, he purchased a farm near Hanging Rock and resided there for several years.

He cast his first Presidential vote for John Quincy Adams and was identified with the Whig party while it lasted. At its dissolution, he became a Republican and, during the Civil War, was an ardent supporter of the National Government. In his religious views, he was a Presbyterian but not a church member. After the organization of the Congregational Church in Ironton, he attended that.

He was a man of fine personal appearance and correct business habits; of a strong constitution, able to sustain a long life of the incessant activity; with a high sense of social and business integrity, his great fortune was the legitimate result of uncommon business ability and judgment. He possessed a pleasing address, was agreeable in manners and was wholly void of ostentation.

He had a peculiarly retentive memory of historical and statistical facts. He could give names, dates of election, and length of terms of State and National officers – Presidents, Congress-legislation, and as to treaties with foreign countries; also could give in millions, tons, bushels, dollars, values of the imports and exports and production by the United States, and of many of the States, for instance, of cotton, corn, wheat, hay, iron, wines, etc.

He was fond of discussion and often in arguments about protection, etc., surprised hearers at his accurate knowledge of matters. He always had a good general knowledge of his business affairs and was good at planning but poor in detail. He was fearless of man or beast but careless as to his dress.

Mr. Means was married on December 4, 1828, to Sarah Ellison, daughter of John Ellison, Jr., of Buckeye Station, Adams County. She died in 1871 at the age of sixty-one in their home at Hanging Rock. Their children now living are John of Ashland, William, and Margaret. In December 1881, he bought a residence in Ashland, Kentucky, where he lived until his death on June 8, 1890. No man did more for the development of the Hanging Rock iron region than he, and in that respect, he was a great public benefactor.

I.R. July 25, 1861 – The unfortunate affair on Kanawha killed John J. W. Robbins of Union Landing in this county. He was a young man of less than 18, was raised by Thomas W. Means . . .

I.R. Thursday, June 12, 1890 – TWO IRON PIONEERS GONE – DEATH OF ROBERT SCOTT AND THOMAS W. MEANS – Thomas Williamson Means was born at Spartanburg, S.C., November 3, 1803. He was the son of Col. John Means, a revolutionary soldier of prominence in that region. Col. John Means moved to Ohio in 1879, and settled in Adams county. He moved his family to Ohio to escape the influence of slavery, a fact that the children seemed to appreciate all their lives. Col. Means entered the iron business, and thus his son, Thomas, became an icon manager.

The father died in 1837, and the son entered, that year, into the well-known firm of Sinton & Means. They rebuilt Union and built Ohio, and he was interested in Vinton, Beuna Vista, Belfonte, and other furnaces. In 1863, in company with others, he bought Pinegrove furnace and Newcastle coal works, when the famous firm of Means, Kyle & Co began.

Thomas W. Means was one of the originators of the Big Sandy Packet line, the Second National Bank, and other enterprises. Sinton & Means introduced the Davis hot blast in this region, placing the second one in the United States at Union furnace. In 1881, his wife died; in 1882, he moved from Hanging Rock to Ashland and has been quietly living there since then.

Mr. Means had clear ideas, great activity, and honest deeds. He was thoroughly a businessman in his younger days when he made his great wealth. He was intelligently aggressive and comprehended the course of affairs. He was a man of ample tastes and modest manners. He was agreeable and sociable and had a pleasant word on all occasions. He will always be kindly remembered.

His funeral took place at Ashland Tuesday, at 2 o’clock. Rev. J. H. Young, formerly of the Congregational church, Ironton, conducted the funeral services. His remarks were largely a personal tribute to the virtues of the deceased. It was an impressive and interesting address. The remains were taken to Woodland Cemetery, above Ironton, and interred in the Means lot. The active pallbearers were selected from the men of the Norton Iron Works. There were also honorary pallbearers: Commodore Honshell, Judge Ireland, Hiram Campbell, John Russell, Col. I. T. Moore, D. D. Geiger, S. Richards, and R. Leete.

The attendance at the funeral was large. There was evidence of deep sorrow on many faces, for Thomas W. Means was universally esteemed. In the last years of his life, driven from busy places by blindness and sickness, he was an example of patience and serenity.

Among those at the funeral were his son, Wm. This means; Mr. Sinton, his old partner, Mrs. Taft, Mr. Sinton’s daughter, and other Cincinnati people. There was a gathering of old iron men who had not seen each other for years to shed a tear upon the new grave of one of their departed companions.

Thus, in one day, two noted ironmen of this region are laid away in their final resting place, but the world, busy as it may be, will long and kindly remember them.

I.R. June 19, 1890 – When David Sinton met John Campbell at the funeral of T. W. Means, he didn’t recognize him and had to be told who he was.

I.R. August 7, 1890 – T. W. Means Will – In 1880, the late T. W. Means made a will. J. L. Anderson wrote it. When finalized, the two took it and went over to H. C. Burr & Co’s bank, where Mr. Means signed it, and Messrs. Anderson and Burr wrote their names as witnesses.

A few days ago, it was probated at Catlettsburg, and Mr. Burr and Mr. Anderson went to take part in the official act. The will named John Means, William Means, and E. B. Willard as executors. It devised and bequeathed Mr. Mean’s vast estate, among his five children or their representatives, share alike; in other words, John Means, Wm. Means, Mrs. Adams, Miss Maggie Means, and the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Culbertson, each one-fifth.

It was also determined that this estate disposition should not be disturbed by any gifts that Mr. Means might make to any of his children during their lifetime, but what remains of the estate at death should be equally distributed.

Upon probating the will, the executors named were not appointed by the Court. John Means did not accept the trust and Wm. Means and E. B. Willard, being non-residents, were excluded by law. The law provided further that those next of kin, if otherwise unobjectionable, should succeed to the executorship. So Thomas M. Adams and Cook Means, two grandsons of the deceased, and most careful and prudent young gentlemen were appointed executors.

We have not yet heard of an inventory of the estate, but it is generally thought to approach a million dollars, probably not reaching that amount.

Portsmouth Times (Ohio) July 24, 1880 – Yesterday, Thomas W. Means bought Cyrus Ellison his entire interest in the Iron Railroad, 10,000 or 100 shares, for which Mr. Means paid ninety cents on the share. – Ironton Register.

I.R. September 16, 1869 – Sale of Furnaces. – Last Thursday, the sale of the property belonging to the firm of Means, Kyle & Co., was disposed of at a private sale to Thos. W. Means, John Means, and John Kyle for $710,000. This property embraces the New Castle Coal Works, Ohio, Pinegrove furnaces, some steamboat property, and about 18,000 acres of land. The business will be continued, as before, by Messrs. Means & Kyle. We publish the dissolution and co-partnership notices in another column.

UNION FURNACE

The Vinton Record McArthur OH December 17, 1868

Last week, in speaking of this furnace, we said that it was built in 1825 and that Rev. Dan Young was one of the proprietors. We have since corrected our information. The furnace was built by John Sparks, James Rogers, Vol Faer, and John Means, father of T. W. Means, Esq., and went into blast in 1827. 

It started on a paid-up capital of $8,000 and made, for some time, two tons of iron per day. Its production was afterward increased to five and six tons, which in those days, was considered magnificent work. Mr. Henry Steece, now living here, was the first founder, and Mr. T. W. Means of Hanging Rock did the first fining. David Sinton, now one of the wealthiest men of Cincinnati, managed. – Ironton Register

I. R. October 8, 1885 – Beautiful Monument – The finest monument in Woodland Cemetery was placed over the grave of John W. Means last week. It is the work of the Mitchell Granite Works of Quincy, Mass., and Mr. Geo. H. Mitchel, the firm’s senior member, was here to attend to its erection. It was begun two years ago and just finished this Fall.

The material is Quincy or Crystal granite, a sort of grayish purple when polished or grayish white when only chiseled. There is a graduated base, a square pedestal, and a short shaft upon which the statue of Immortality stands, a robed image holding a wreath of immortelles in her hand. The statue is a magnificent piece of work. A deeply impressive look is given to the serious, thoughtful face; the drapery hangs in ample, graceful folds; the attitude is easy and imposing.

There is exquisite work too on the pedestal, which is highly polished and has columned corners. The bottom of the base is eight and ¼ feet square, and the monument’s height from the ground to the top of the statue is 23 feet. It is a splendid addition to the cemetery and marks the grave of a noble-hearted man.