Old Newspaper Stories

Valuable Property.

CHANCERY SALE OF REAL ESTATE AND OTHER PROPERTY.

David Dick and Robert W. McClure vs. Royina Ewing and others.

Pursuant to an interlocutory decree made in this cause at the October Term, 1857, of the Chancery Court at Decaturville, Decatur county, Tennessee, I will sell to the highest bidder, on the premises, at Brownsport Furnace in said Decatur county, on THURSDAY, the 10^th day of December next, Brownsport Furnace, Fixtures, and all the lands belonging to said Furnace, containing somewhere between eight and ten thousand acres. Most of the lands are well timbered, and an excellent and superior Ore bank, within from two hundred to four hundred yards of the furnace stack. A farm sufficient to make a support for the Furnace with fine meadows well set and in a fine state of cultivation.

The Furnace is about two and a half miles West of the Tennessee river, with a splendid shipping point, at which there are good improvements with a large store house, all belonging to said land. Said Furnace is about nine miles East of Decaturville.

TERMS OF SALE.--$2000 in cash, the residue of the purchase money on a credit of one, two, and three years, of equal amounts, bond and good security required and a lien retained until the purchase money is paid.

B.D. FUNDERBURK

Clerk and Master

N.B.--There will also be sold a number of fine Mules, Wagons, and Stock of every kind, and a full set of Tools, commonly used at a Furnace.

Reprinted from the: Nashville Republican Banner, 3 November 1857

MIDDLE TENNESSEE ORES

A Mineralogical Survey of Perry and Decatur Counties with the Pick and Shovel

To the American:

Perry and Decatur counties were once one county but the Tennessee River, which rolls between them caused a separation and that portion on the west side is called Decatur, on the east Perry county. These counties are not the least in point of wealth, if the world only knew it. There are immense deposits of iron ore in both counties, near the river, and old Brownsport furnace was, at one time, the largest and most successful furnace in the State, but miss-management caused a failure, consequently it has been out of blast and in Chancery for the last four years. There is no doubt but the Brownsport ores are superior to any found in the Middle Tennessee iron regions, except the ores at Cedar Creek furnace, opposite Brownsport, on the east side of the river. The Cedar Creek ore banks have exactly the same ore as at Brownsport, lying close along the limestone and even running under it at both places. I have been engaged in Perry county now for two months, and am not yet done showing up the valuable ore beds lying along the Tennessee River. The banks at Cedar Creek furnace are as fine as can be found; yet all the ore to be mined to advantage will have to be drifted, for, like the ore at Brownsport, it is very deep, but after we once found it we have a regular strata as well defined as a coal vein and it can be followed to the end. The top is composed of sandstone and clay and no ore is found until we reach the bottom of these, and then we are sure to find it. I can say without fear of contradiction, and can show that ore can be found on any of the hills in a regular vein or strata in the neighborhood of Brownsport or Cedar Creek. There is no surface indications. The ore is too deep to ever show itself on the surface, but beneath a massive bluff of sandstone twenty feet deep I can show here stratas of the best ore from six to ten feet. Out of about twenty openings in all I find ore in paying quantities. Yet I could continue forever, still showing up new places and new banks. But what is the use? We have more than is worked, or perhaps can ever be worked, so let it suffice that the ore banks at Cedar Creek and Brownsport are inexhaustible. Yet they are both on the bank of the old Tennessee, nature’s great highway. Still both of these old furnaces are going to ruin. All the houses and appurtenances of Brownsport are still in good repair, and with little expense could go to blowing as of old. No finer engine was ever built for a furnace than the one that belongs to Brownsport. Indeed, it is said that extensive improvement was what caused the failure of the former owners of this valuable property. Old Cedar Creek Furnace was in blast altogether about twenty years, and was owned by three different companies during that time. The last owner, Mr. Bradley, was making a success out of it, but he was cruelly murdered on the furnace grounds and everything went down. Now nothing stands as a witness of the life and industry of the place but the old double quarter stacks. It cannot rest much longer. There is too much ore; too much timber, and too close to Tennessee river to remain idle.

Another fine furnace site in Perry county is on Buffalo, twelve miles above Linden. It comprises about eleven thousand acres of land, all of which I have been over with the pick and the shovel, and on which I have shown thirty fine ore banks. There has never been any timber cut off these lands, and it is covered with large poplars, hickory, and white oak in the valleys, and the ridges with as fine tan oak as can be found. These lands belong to Col. J.H. Moore, of Centerville, with several gentlemen of Nashville as partners. Nearly all of this land was entered by a practical iron man more than thirty years ago, and my recent tests prove that he knew what he was about. Time will start all these old furnaces and build new ones. New uses are found for iron every day. There is no danger of too much being made. It will always sell, and in the wilds of Perry, on the Tennessee, it can be made as cheap as anywhere in the South. There is plenty of fine building stone in Perry county, and scattering deposits of lead, but not enough for manufacturing purposes. There are many other large ore banks along the river in Perry and Decatur counties, but they are not worked. Yet two dollars and seventy five cents to $3 is offered on the barge by an Ironton company for ores along the Tennessee. There is a fortune in itself at this rate. Any one can make 50 per cent on the money invested.

Yours truly,

HULI WHIRLEMGAS

Reprinted from the: Nashville Daily American 18 January 1883