To the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, remonstrating against the repeal of the charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company.
IR Thursday, April 27, 1854 – MEMORIAL DOCTOR C. BRIGGS
[Note: This has been paraphrased to understand the following article in today’s language-mjm]
Your memorialist, a stockholder and director in the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, being too ill, at the time, to examine with care the memorial to your Honorable Body signed by a great majority of the stockholders in the same company, and believing – owing to the haste with which said the memorial was necessarily prepared – that some facts have not been stated with sufficient clearness and others entirely overlooked, most respectfully requests the attention of each member of the Legislature to the following statement of facts:
Your memorialist drew the charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company; was instrumental in procuring its passage by the Legislature; took an active part in its organization, and since then to the present time, has been a director in said Company and was its Secretary from its organization till the Spring of 1851; and has, therefore, that knowledge and sustains that relation to other stockholders which will enable him to give a true and impartial history of its origin, policy, action, and results since its corporate existence.
To fully understand the company’s origin and the objectives it was designed to accomplish. It is necessary to appreciate to some extent the resources of Lawrence County, Ohio, and the adjoining counties in Iron and Coal and the condition of this mineral region previous to the organization of the said company.
It is the Iron region of South-eastern Ohio, contains rich deposits of Iron Ore and Coal, and embraces parts of the counties of Lawrence, Scioto, Jackson, Gallia, Vinton, Athens, and Hocking.[1] Its great value will be better appreciated by contrasting it with the most valuable Iron District of England – South Staffordshire, which is twenty-one miles long and seven miles broad. A little more than fifty years ago, it contained ten Furnaces making about thirteen thousand tons of Iron annually.
In 1846 it contained one hundred and forty-six Furnaces, making between 500,000 and 600,000 tons of Iron annually. This rapid increase in the production of Pig Iron caused a corresponding development of manufacturing, commercial and other interests.
Railroads and Canals were constructed, connecting the district with the sea coast and every part of Great Britain. The population increased from a few thousand to upwards of two hundred thousand, besides the immense increase in the manufacturing towns in the vicinity, viz.: Birmingham with a population of upwards of two hundred thousand, and Dudley and Wolverhampton, also large manufacturing towns in the vicinity depending mainly for their growth upon the Staffordshire Iron and Coal.
All this was accomplished in about fifty years and in a country district only twenty-one miles long and seven miles broad. The Coal and Iron used in producing these wonderful results were taken from a depth of between five and six hundred feet beneath the surface, and the ore from a seam only five or six inches in thickness!
Now the Iron region of South Eastern Ohio is far superior to that just described as to the extent, the character and abundance of the ores, and the facilities for working them. Including a small part of Kentucky, this region is more than seventy miles long and twelve miles broad, being more than seven times as large as that of Staffordshire, with the coal and ore cropping out at the surface, thus affording great facilities for mining over the whole district.
The following extract from a document carefully prepared by YOUR MEMORIALIST in 1838 may, with propriety, be quoted here:
“In Closing, the hasty sketch of Iron Ore and Coal deposits of this series of Strata” (in the counties of Lawrence, Scioto, and Jackson), “it may be proper to glance at the future importance of the manufacturing of Iron in this part of the State.
The prosperity of this branch of industry is always mainly dependent upon the abundance of the raw materials that must be used and the small amount of labor and expense they can obtain. Here, we have all the facilities necessary for success. The fuel, fluxes, and ores are so abundant and contiguous to each other and can be obtained with so little expense that the manufacture of iron, under judicious regulations, cannot fail to be eminently successful.
At a very low calculation of the amount of good iron ore in the region which has this season been explored, it is equal to a solid, unbroken stratum, sixty miles in length, six miles in width, and three feet in thickness.
From this estimate, which it is believed is much too low, it appears that the iron ores of this portion of the State are
not only sufficient to supply all demands for ages but to form an important article of commerce with other States.
There can be no doubt that the manufacture of iron will continue to increase for many years, and, except for agriculture, it may become the most important branch of industry to the citizens of the State. To be convinced of this, reference need only be made to the constantly increasing demand for iron, the facilities for its manufacture, and the amount annually imported into this country.
In reflection upon the prospective importance of the iron business to Ohio, a question naturally suggest itself as to the necessary supply of fuel; for if dependence be placed entirely upon charcoal for smelting operations, this branch of
industry must be comparatively limited.
And, as the forests in this ferriferous region will be sufficient to reduce only a small part of the ores, our attention, on a subject of so much importance, should not only be directed to the economy in the use of fuel and to the preservation of our forests, but to the means of obtaining a sufficient supply from some other source.
Perhaps no fears need be entertained on this head, as the introduction of the hot blast and the probability that some beds of bituminous coal will be soon brought into use for the smelting of iron ores renders it nearly certain that this branch of industry will never receive a check from an insufficient fuel supply.”
Notwithstanding the great mineral resources of this region, its development, until within the last few years, has been comparatively slow. It embraces a part of the State, the least desirable for agriculture. That which lies in Lawrence and Scioto counties in Ohio has a rugged and uneven surface, with steep hills and narrow valleys. North of this to the Hocking, the valleys are wider, the soil richer and the surface of the country is less broken.
Though doubtless undervalued for agricultural purposes, the best part of it has been widely known and spoken of in terms of ridicule as “the Huckleberry Knobs of Jackson.” Hence the population was sparse, and no towns sprang up in the interior or at its outlet on the Ohio river that attracted the attention of the laborer, the artisan, and the capitalist.
Those who desired superior advantages of society and education either removed to other towns or sent their children abroad to be educated. Thus, the region was, from time to time, drained of a part of its business talent and capital which was greatly needed for its future development.
The first Blast Furnace was erected about thirty years since. In 1849 when the Ohio Iron and Coal Company was organized, there were from 30 to 34 Furnaces making in the aggregate about 50,000 tons of iron annually, which, except for that consumed in the rolling mill and foundry at Hanging Rock, was sent to other towns to be converted into bar iron, castings, nails, &c.
A large part of it was sent out of the state, chiefly to Wheeling and Pittsburgh, which, after being manufactured, was re-shipped down the river to a market at a cost that would make a large item in the profits of the manufacturer. At the same time, it was believed it could be more cheaply manufactured in the region where it was produced.
This, then, was the condition of this iron district, thus briefly described previously to the organization of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company – a great part unfit for agriculture – a rugged and uneven surface – bad roads – a sparse population – without towns which could concentrate labor, skill, and capital – businessmen of talent and capital, seeking more favorable locations, for society and education – and its great mineral resources only partially developed, but capable of producing more iron annually than is now made in the United States.
It had been the opinion of your memorialist since his first acquaintance with this district in 1837 that its superior advantages for manufacturing Pig Iron and its conversion into the various forms required by civilized life were such as to enable it to compete with any part of the world. But, as shown before, there were great obstacles in the way.
The capital, skill, and labor were not here. – Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and other towns had made such great progress in manufacturing that most intelligent businessmen believed that with all our natural advantages, we could not compete with them. These manufacturing towns had the labor, skill, and capital – all the superior advantages of education and other benefits of a well-organized society – we were, comparatively, without them. The future in this regard seemed hopeless. Thus most believed. Your memorialist, however, believed that all these obstacles, great as they were, might be overcome by the following means:
1st. The construction of a Railroad from some suitable point on the Ohio River through this region to intersect with other roads in the interior of the State to open this great storehouse of Iron and Coal fully.
2nd. By selecting a suitable site for manufacturing operations, holding out liberal inducements to manufacturers and others, donating grounds &c., and bringing within reach of a manufacturing population the social, religious, and educational advantages of a well-organized society.
3rd. By determining the practicability of substituting the stone coal for charcoal in the reduction of the iron ores – which, if successful, would make the manufacture of Pig Iron permanent and so extensive that the demand would only limit the supply.
If these objects could be accomplished, it was evident to your memorialist that the progress of this region in manufactures and population, in the arts and sciences – in all the best interest of the community would be rapid beyond precedent – unparalleled in the history of the State; all the natural growth elements were here.
BUT TO DEVELOP THEM, ASSOCIATED CAPITAL, SKILL, AND LABOR WERE NECESSARY.
In the Autumn of 1848, circumstances not necessary here to mention seemed favorable for carrying out these views (which for a long time had been entertained by Mr. John Campbell and your memorialist and before they were personally known to each other); and, therefore, an association of iron manufacturers and others was formed, and the charter of the Ohio, Iron and Coal Company, obtained March 23, 1849.
This preliminary statement has been made so that the Legislature and the public may fully understand and appreciate the objectives for which the company was organized and the corporate powers necessary to accomplish those objectives.
Section 2nd of the Charter declares the objects of the Company to be:
1st. To develop more fully Lawrence County, Ohio, and the adjoining counties’ mineral resources, especially their iron and coal resources.
2nd. To convert and encourage the conversion of the raw materials into the appropriate manufactured articles and merchandise.
3rd. To determine by experiment the practicability of substituting the stone coal for charcoal in reducing the iron ores.
Section 3rd and 4th of the Charter gives the company the powers necessary to carry out these objects – powers not granted in the general law, relative to incorporation for manufacturing and other purposes passed February 9th, 1846, and therefore require a special act. These powers are:
1st. To hold and convey real estate in all respects the same as natural persons. The purposes for which this power is given are stated in the following language of the Charter. –‘TO ENCOURAGE THE ERECTION OF MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE VICINITY, and for other purposes connected with the company’s operations, said COMPANY MAY GIVE. LEASE, OR SELL AND CONVEY ANY PART OR PARTS OF THEIR PREMISES IN ALL RESPECTS THE SAME AS NATURAL PERSONS.”
2nd. The power to subscribe stock to any railroad in the vicinity to an amount not exceeding $100,000 to facilitate the transportation of the products of mines, &c.
These are the only points in which the Charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company has any POWER not granted by the general law mentioned above. But it differs materially from charters under that law in the fact that THE STOCKHOLDERS ARE INDIVIDUALLY LIABLE FOR ALL THE COMPANY’S DEBTS.
Your attention is here called to the fact that this Charter grants NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES – NO POWERS, which any private individual or association of individuals may not exercise under the laws of this State. The stockholders are held to the fullest extent personally responsible for all their acts and INDIVIDUALLY LIABLE FOR ALL THE COMPANY’S DEBTS. All the advantages, therefore, obtained from the Charter is that it enables them to act promptly
and efficiently in carrying out the purposes of their organization.
April 23, 1849, the Company was organized according to the laws of this State by making, acknowledging before a magistrate – and filing for the record the following certificate:
“An act having passed the Legislature of the State of Ohio, March 23, 1849, creating John Campbell, Joseph W. Dempsey, Henry Blake, Caleb Briggs, J. W. Means, John Ellison, James A. Richey, and others and their associated a body corporate under the name of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, we whose names are hereunto annexed, associated under said act of incorporation for the object mentioned therein, make the following certificate in conformity to an act of the Legislature of Ohio relative to incorporation for manufacturing and other purposes passed February 9, 1846, to wit:
1st. The objects of said Ohio Iron and Coal Company are to develop more fully the mineral resources of Lawrence and the adjoining counties – especially their resources in Iron and Coal – and to convert and encourage the conversion of the raw materials into the appropriate manufactured articles and merchandise, and to determine by actual experiment the practicability of substituting the stone coal for charcoal in the reduction of the Iron ores.
2nd. The company’s capital stock shall be fifty thousand dollars divided into one thousand shares, and the price of each share shall be fifty dollars.
3rd. There have been selected seven directors or trustees, and to them has been entrusted the business of said company until the time fixed by law for the annual meeting; said directors or trustees are John Campbell, John Peters, William D. Kelly, James W. Means, Caleb Briggs, John Ellison, and Washington Irwin.
4th. The business of the said company will be carried on in Lawrence county. Their principal office for business will be on the Ohio River in Upper township, near the mouth of Storms Creek, where said company proposes to lay out a town to be called Ironton, with the view of carrying out one of the objects of incorporation, namely, TO ENCOURAGE THE ERECTION OF MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE VICINITY FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE RAW MATERIALS INTO THE VARIOUS MANUFACTURED ARTICLES AND MERCHANDISE.
Hanging Rock April 23, 1849.
SIGNED:
- Caleb Briggs
- John Campbell
- Jos. W. Dempsey
- John Peters
- Washington Irwin
- William D. Kelly
- Jas. W. Means
- William Ellison
- H. S. Willard
- James O. Willard
- Wm. H. Kelly
- David T. Woodrow
- John Culbertson
- Smith Ashcraft
- John Ellison
- John E. Clark
- George Steece
- Hiram Campbell
- Henry Blake
It should here be observed that the construction of a railroad to penetrate this iron district being necessary, as before stated, to accomplish the objects of the company, your memorialist, with others in 1848-49, procured the Charter of the Iron Railroad Company, “with power to construct a railroad from the Ohio River in Lawrence county, Ohio to the south line of Jackson, and thence in a northerly direction to intersect the line of the Belpre and Cincinnati Railroad Company,” – thus passing more than fifty miles through the richest part of the Iron and Coal region of Southern Ohio.
The Iron Railroad Company and the Ohio Iron and Coal Company were both organized on the same day and by the same persons – all the stockholders one being the stockholders and the other. For each share taken in the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, two were taken in the Railroad Company.
Thus there was subscribed to the capital stock of the former $39,350; and to the capital stock of the latter $78,650, making in the aggregate $118,000 – all subscribed by citizens of that part of the county of Lawrence in the iron
district, or by those who owned property therein. This was all the stock that could be procured for the p_____________________________ companies were organized.
The Ohio Iron and coal Company soon after its organization purchased the greater part of the LaGrange Furnace and lands, with some bottom lands on the Ohio River, in all between four and five thousand acres, and at a cost between
thirty-three and thirty-four thousand dollars.
Evidently, the company did not have sufficient means to carry on the La Grange Furnace. It was, therefore, rented for a term of years. But it is now and has been, in the possession and use of the company, since last autumn -so far as necessary to prepare for the work of the present year.
At a meeting of the directors on May 3, 1849, it was “resolved that John Campbell, C. Briggs, and W. D. Kelly be authorized to lay out a town on the lands of the Company above the mouth of Storms Creek to encourage the erection of manufacturing establishments and other purposes connected with the operations of the Company – that said town shall be called Ironton, – that suitable grounds shall be appropriated in the laying off said town for a market, Court House and offices; and for the public buildings of said town, – that four suitable lots shall be given for churches, each to a different denomination of Christians, and lots for school houses for public schools, and that the President cause the plat and survey of said town to be prepared and recorded agreeably to the law in the records of the County of Lawrence.”
Under the above resolution, the town of Ironton was laid off, and the plat and survey thereof recorded. Lots were sold on the 20th day of June 1849.
The following considerations governed the Company in the disposal of this property:
1st. It was evident that the projected town must depend for growth, almost exclusively, upon introducing manufactures, for which it was laid out to encourage and facilitate. – Hence it was agreed to donate grounds for manufacturing purposes, lots for schoolhouses, churches, public buildings, &c.
2nd. It had been found from an experience of many years by the Iron Manufacturers in the vicinity that the sale and use of intoxicating liquors in the neighborhood of their establishments were, in every point of view, injurious to themselves and to those whom they employed.
Believing that the sale of intoxicating liquors would be a great evil, both to the manufacturer and laborer, and a great obstacle to a speedy and successful introduction of manufactures, all conveyances of real estate were made on condition that no intoxicating liquors should ever be sold thereon.
3rd. As the growth of many towns in the state had been greatly retarded by the cupidity of speculators, who held property without improving it, to the manifest injury of the public, purchases were, therefore, required in contracts for sale to improve within a reasonable time.
Under this wise and prudential policy in the disposal of the property of the Company, the growth, and prosperity of
manufactures at Ironton have hitherto been almost unparalleled in the country’s history. In less than five years, by the persevering and judiciously directed efforts of the Company, there have been attracted to this point a manufacturing population of between three and four thousand, enjoying all the advantages of good schools, churches, and other benefits of a well-organized community, and that for industry, morality, and intelligence challenges comparison with any manufacturing town in the country. These great results have been produced by that policy which has been represented to the Legislature as “hateful and odious” to the citizens of Ironton.
Your memorialist would further state that he is not a stockholder in the Iron Bank nor an owner in any Iron property on the line of the Iron Railroad and therefore sustains that relation to other stockholders as enables him to give an impartial statement of its operations:
That the Ohio Iron and Coal Company has hitherto endeavored to carry out the legitimate purposes of its organization – that, as far as has been in the power of the Company, it has aided and encouraged the introduction of manufactures,
And with the most successful results:
It has aided in the construction of the Iron Railroad, opened mines of Iron Ore and Coal, and engaged in mining and manufacture as far as its means permit. These facts are fully set forth and proved by the memorial of the stockholders, now before your Honorable Body, and the accompanying affidavits to which attention is here directed.
Now because of the preceding statement of facts and of the memorial now before your Honorable Body signed by a majority of stockholders of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, your memorialist would request a careful examination of the extraordinary memorial of Ralph Leete and James Steece made to the Legislature under the solemnity of an oath.
Under such circumstances, where the interests of the community and of individuals are deeply involved, it would be supposed that all statements would be made with perfect fairness and candor and with such care as to avoid even the possibility of error or the conveying of a false impression. Your memorialist would avoid harsh epithets and speak as fair as possible of this remarkable document in the gentlest terms:
But he would call attention to the following particulars in the said memorial as either untrue or as conveying false impression, as is fully proved by preceding statements and the affidavits of the following persons, viz.: Isaac Brown, George P. Rogers, Dan. J. Lewis, George W. Willard, Samuel Richards, and others, to wit:
1st. After laying out a large part of the bottom lands on the Ohio River into lots, “said Company opened a Land Office at Ironton and engaged in the sale of lots and the dealing in real estate.”
2nd. “That said corporation has confined its business operations to trading in and selling real estate.”
3rd. That said company “in 1853 purchased several tracts of land adjoining the said tract of 350 acres on the Ohio River.”
4th. The Iron Rail Road’s present extent “is six miles north of any lands owned by the Company.”
5th. “The Iron Ore mines of the Iron and Coal Company are incapable of being profitably worked.”
6th. “That Ohio Iron and Coal Company has not yet opened any mines ore engaged in the mining or manufacturing business.”
7th. That the impression is that John Ellison, Samuel W. Dempsey, John Culbertson, and R. B. Hamilton are stockholders in the Iron Bank of Ironton.
8th. That the funds of the Company have now accumulated to a large sum, to about the amount of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars:” and that “they are advised, they form a capital on which said Bank does business.”
Truly under the circumstances, the memorial of the said Leete and Steece is a most remarkable document!!
In conclusion, your memorialist would earnestly remonstrate against the repeal of the Charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company for the following reasons: – –
1st. That the grounds set forth for repeal in the __________________________ do not exist.
2nd. That such repeal would be injurious both to the stockholders and the community; that the means which the company has heretofore employed most successfully for the encouragement of manufacturers must cease; that large amounts of capital that would otherwise seek this place for investment in manufactures will be diverted to other points, – and especially to Ashland, in Kentucky – a town about three miles above this on the Ohio River, recently laid out by intelligent and enterprising capitalists WHO HAVE ADOPTED AND WILL CARRY OUT, THE SAME POLICY which has caused, hitherto, the almost unprecedented GROWTH OF IRONTON.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
April 19, 1854
C. BRIGGS
Note. A copy of Samuel Richard’s deposition is not at hand for publication. It shows, with other facts, that the average amount of cash in the Treasurer’s hands has not exceeded $1,610 since J. O. Willard has been Treasurer of the Company. That the largest accumulation of funds ever occurred was $9,484.97.
(AFFIDAVIT)
I, Dan J. Lewis, of Ironton, Ohio, do say that in the year 1849 I did open a stone coal mine and dug and mined from it several thousand bushels of stone coal, supplying stone coal to a large portion of the inhabitants of Ironton, from said bank which was on the land of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company near Ironton, That I also mined limestone on their land and burnt it with stone coal about the same time.
Also that there was dug for La Grange Furnace about the same time on the land of said Company a large quantity of iron ore near Ironton and sent about three miles on the Iron Railroad to La Grange Furnace.
Also that in the fore part of the year 1851 the Ohio Iron and Coal Company employed Lewis and Williams to drive in a coal mine 450 feet under the ground, six miles from Ironton on the lands of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company and on the line of the Iron Railroad.
That said mine was proved to be a superior one, averaging about four feet in thickness the whole 450 feet. That there is six or more mines of good workable coal opened by said company in the river hill from which there has been dug by myself and others for the Ohio Iron and Coal Company from their own mines more than (1,000,000) one million bushels stone coal between the spring of 1849 and January, 1854.
That the Ohio Iron and Coal Company opened another good mine of coal on their lands on the Iron Railroad about six miles from Ironton from the appearance of which mine it is about 5 feet thick, there has been a large amount put on to the Railroad.
Further that I have mined and sent to market hundreds of tons of fire clay from the lands of the said Ohio Iron and Coal Company. That I within the last four years dug more than 1000 tons of good iron ore on the lands of said Company which was transported about three miles on the Iron Railroad for Wm. D. Kelley & Brother.
Ironton, April 19, 1854
(Signed)
DAN J. LEWIS
(Sworn and subscribed before S. P. Calvin, Mayor of Ironton, April 19, 1854)
I, James Smythe do hereby certify that I have been a resident of Ironton for more than four years and that I have been during that time familiar with facts in the within statement sworn to by Dan J. Lewis and believe them to be substantially true as set forth by said Lewis; and I further say that I have distributed great quantities of said coal among the citizens of Ironton.
(Signed)
JAMES SMYTHE
(Sworn to and subscribed before S. P. Calvin, Mayor of Ironton, April 19, 1854.
(AFFIDAVIT)
We were employed by John Campbell, Pres., of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, about the 1st of Oct., 1853, to open a coal bank on the lands of said Company about six miles from the Ohio river, which bank or mine we run under the hill about one hundred feet – working by the day at it – since which time we have been digging coal in the said mine all the time and delivering it on the Iron Railroad by the bushel for the Ohio Iron and coal Company, with two or three hands in said mine with us at work. We have delivered several thousand bushels.
WILLIAM RICHARDS
X his mark
(Subscribed and sworn to before S. Walter, J.P.)
(AFFIDAVIT)
I, Isaac Brown, say that I commenced doing business as an agent of the Ohio Iron and Coal Co. at La Grange Furnace on Nov. 16, 1853, for manufacturing pig iron from the raw material; commenced work as follows:
I had possession of one of the warehouses on the 21st of Nov. to store groceries and provisions for the use of labor at the furnace; contracted for chopping the first wood on or about the 24th of Nov. in the year 1853; also commenced opening a stone coal mine on the 31st Jan., present year, for the use of the smith shop and other uses about the furnace – also commenced digging iron ore on the farm now owned by Joseph Sutton, about seven miles from La Grange furnace, which would be transported about three miles on the Iron Railroad, about the 1st Jan. of the present year; also commenced digging iron ore on the How to farm, now owned by the Ohio Iron and Coal Co., about the 1st March of the present year.
On the 1st March of the present year, I had counted and paid for two thousand two hundred and seven cords of wood, leaving a large amount in the different choppings not counted but partly paid for; I also got possession of the furnace and buildings as follows: one warehouse as above stated, and the storehouse on the sixteenth of January of the present year, also bought the smith and carpenter tools on or about the sixteenth of January but did not get possession until about the 1st Feb. I also had possession of the furnace, and all the buildings on or about the 15th March of the year 1854.
ISAAC BROWN
(Subscribed and sworn to before S. P. Calvin, Mayor of Ironton.)
(AFFIDAVIT)
I, George P. Rogers, state that I am not a stockholder in the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, Iron Railroad Company nor Iron Bank of Ironton, that I have been employed as manager or clerk the greater part of the time for twenty-five years. That I was clerk for Wm. D. Kelley and Brothers, who were lessees of La Grange Furnace from the 13th of February 1852 until the 15th of April 1854 at La Grange Furnace.
That on the Iron Railroad there has been transported two-thirds or more of the ore used at said furnace, partly from good mines owned by said Company on their own lands near Ironton, partly from their own lands twelve miles from Ironton, and near the terminus of the Iron Railroad, and partly from two to eight miles from said La Grange Furnace; that I believe that the ore mines of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company are capable of being worked profitably – (Parts of this affidavit are omitted in the printing as they are only corroborative of the other affidavits.)
(Signed) GEO. P. ROGERS
(Subscribed and sworn to before Jos. Wheeler, Judge of Probate.)
(AFFIDAVIT)
George W. Willard makes a solemn oath and says that he has had charge of the books of the Iron Bank of Ironton ever since it first went into operation and that the aggregate amount of paid-up stock owned by John Campbell, James O. Willard, John Peters, and Hiram Campbell has never exceeded the sum of $28,300, being much less than one half of the paid-up stock of said Bank; that John Culbertson, John Ellison, Samuel W. Dempsey, and Robert B. Hamilton do not now own and have never owned, one dollar of the stock of said Bank.
(Signed) G. W. WILLARD
(Sworn to and subscribed before me this 22nd day of April A. D., 1854, S. P. Calvin, Mayor of Ironton)
(AFFIDAVIT)
I, John Campbell, have been President of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company from the organization of said company till the present time; say that said company has not bought any lands on the Ohio River within the last three years, except about one and one-half acres for which they exchanged about one-half acre, in which trade they got $75, as the difference in value of the two pieces of land.
That he has not used any means to get up any memorials or remonstrances to the General Assembly of the State of Ohio for or against the repeal of the charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, except the one signed by a majority of the stockholders dated April 4, 1854.
That he has not used any inducement or threat to any citizens of Ironton to induce them to sign or prevent them from signing any such paper; and further he does not know of any threat or inducement being made by any member or stockholder of said company for that purpose, nor does he know of any threats or inducements being made for said purpose by any of his partners in other business, or by any other person.
April 19, 1854 JOHN CAMPBELL
(Subscribed and sworn to before S. P. Calvin, Mayor of Ironton)
A “RETRAXIT”
Last week Ralph Leete, Repealer, desired from us, in our paper, an “open and complete retraxit.” It was not then in our power to furnish him with one of our own, but here is another man’s “retraxit,” both “open and complete,” which is at his service and which we trust will answer his purpose fully as well as one of ours. Here it is:
MEMORIAL
TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF OHIO.
Your memorialist, a stockholder in the Ohio Iron and Coal Company, begs to leave most respectfully to represent to your Honorable body that in a statement made by him in writing, dated Jan’y 19, 1854, about the said Company, and which has been presented to you, he made several statements which he then believed to be true, owing to misrepresentations have been made to him, but which he has since ascertained to be erroneous; that he made several of the misrepresentations referred to by Ralph Leete professing to know the truth of things stated in the said instrument as facts, and thus induced your memorialist to make many of the statements therein contained.
With my present knowledge of the facts in the case, I am most decidedly opposed to a repeal of the charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company and most respectfully request a withdrawal of the statement mentioned above, as well as that of my signature to a certain petition before your Honorable Body for purposes therein mentioned.
W. H. KELLEY
Union Furnace Landing,
Lawrence Co., O., April 22, 1854
We will add a word. Gen. Kelley’s memorial to the Legislature for the repeal of the charter of the O.I. & C. Co. was very similar to that to which Ralph Leete, Repealer, attached his signature and oath, and the said Leete probably drew it up. It placed the General in a false position, which he exceedingly regretted when he came to learn the truth of the matter.
He has had the courage and magnanimity to admit that misrepresentations led him into the wrong and to withdraw the said memorial. For this last act of his, he will forfeit none of the goodwill of his personal friends, whatever others may think of it. Our friend, the General, will learn from his experience – never to trust, without the most scrutinizing examination to a Demagogue in matters about Demagogue’s trade.
“REPEAL.”
This – the Repeal of the Charter of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company – has been, for the past four weeks, the exciting and almost all-absorbing topic in Ironton. It is no longer such; at least, is no longer regarded as a serious matter.
At our last advices there had been no decisive action in the Legislature in reference to the matter, but it appeared probable that not more than ten out of thirty-five Senators could be rallied in favor of the repeal, and we have seen a private letter from Judge Johnston, in which he state his belief that the repeal could not pass the House even if it should pass the Senate.
Indeed it seems not altogether certain that any body at Columbus is now in favor of repeal, save perhaps, Ralph Leete, Repealer, and our Senator Anderson, Leete’s right-hand man in the contest, or Leete his-don’t care which way you have it.
V____________________selves all over with – not “glory,” but ridicule, except that the case of Ralph Leete, Repealer, is a little more serious than that of ridicule. We have heard of some folks being compelled to crawl out of a very small hole, in order to extricate themselves from difficulty, but Leete worse off, the poor fellow, has no hole at all at which to crawl out, except to “emigrate,” and even that would not relieve him from reflecting on the unseemly beauties of his deceased favorite –“Repeal.”
But we will not probe “proud flesh;” only the case of Ralph Leete, Repealer, reminds us very much of that of the Negro, in the old story, who, in his joy, rolled over and over in the mud on hearing, as he vainly supposed, the celebrated Whitefield preach – he has badly dirtied his coat for nothing.
[1] NOTE. This Iron Belt is continued in a North eastern direction from the Hocking Valley embracing parts of the counties of Perry, Muskingum, Licking, Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Stark and Wayne; thence gradually curving to the East embraced parts of the counties of Mahoning and Columbiana; continued thence it forms the Iron district north of Pittsburgh, there gradually serving, first to the South east, then to the South it finally assumes a South-westerly course, west of the Monongahela river, and extends in that direction from western Pennsylvania through western Virginia. This Iron and Coal Belt thus traced forms the margin or rim of the great Ohio Coal basin as it exists in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
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