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COLE FURNACES Sheffield, Colbert County No.1-Sept. 1888 No.2-Oct. 1889 No.3-April 1895 A PORTION of the land on which the three Cole furnaces were erected was granted by the United States in 1824 t~ Andrew Jackson and his brother James. In 1883 all the land now embraced by the city of Sheffield was acquired by the Sheffield Land, Iron & Coal Co., and in May of 1884 lots were put on sale and Sheffield was founded. In 1886 the Alabama and Tennessee Coal and Iron Co. was organized with a capital of $2,200,000 and a few months later on Feb. 28, 1887 its name was changed to the Sheffield & Birmingham Coal, Iron & Railway Co. A tract of 60 acres, located in Sheffield and adjacent to the Tennessee River was deeded to the latter company for the purpose of erecting blast furnaces. The first furnace was blown in September 1888 and a second stack went into blast a year later in October 1889. Both furnaces were 75' x 18' and rated at about 170 tons a day each. Due to the shortage of coke in Alabama, these furnaces used Stonega Coke from Virginia. Brown hematite was acquired locally from Franklin County. The affairs of the company became involved in litigation and in July 1890 the property was sold by a special master in U. S. Circuit Court. On November 4, 1891 a similar deed was made and the purchase price was stated as $350,000. The property was then deeded to the Alabama Iron and Railway Co. On Sept. 4, 1894 the property was deeded by that company to E. W. Cole and associates who, after June 27, 1895, operated the property under the name of the Sheffield Coal, Iron & Steel Co. This company completed the third stack which had been begun at the same time as the first two. This third furnace, the same size as the others, was blown in during April 1895. In 1899 the three Cole Furnaces were leased by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co., which operated them from 1899 to 1903, using Pratt and Jasper coke from the Tennessee Company mines. The Sheffield Coal and Iron Co. bought the property from the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company in 1903 and rebuilt all three furnaces . Once more the coke was obtained from Virginia and the brown hematite from Tennessee and the Russellville district. Due to the high cost of fuel transportation, the plant operated but irregularly. In 1908 only two furnaces were in blast; in 1910 only one -,o~~i 56 t~~o.- COLE FURNACES furnace operated and in the Fall of that year the last furnace was blown out. The Cole Furnaces remained idle from 1910 until the World War. On Aug. 20, 1917 the plant was acquired by the Sheffield Iron Corporation . James Gayley, a former partner of Andrew Carnegie, was the head of the new company. The plant was mortgaged at this time to the Bankers Trust Co. of New York to secure a loan of $1,100,000. There was so much litigation connec~ed with the transaction that operations were not commenced until some time in early 1918. The Porter Coal Mine in Jefferson County was l~ased and the coal was coked at the company's beehive ovens at Jasper. So much of the equipment had been disposed of that there was only blowing power enough to run one furnace. This furnace operated for the remainder of the war and was blown out in 1919. When national prohibition went into effect the Valentine Brewery of New Jersey dismantled their plant and Gayley bought the refrigerating equipment for the purpose of installing a dry-blast system at the furnace. The idea was abandoned, however, and the machinery left on the furnace yard. Another idea of the same nature was partially developed . One of the unused stoves was fitted with a series of baffleplates over which water, at a constant temperature of 68°, was to flow. The intent was to blow the air through this stove and reduce the moisture content prior to being heated. Before this could be tried the World War ended and operations ceased. Shortly after the war the Bankers Trust Co. foreclosed its mortgage on the property. On June 11, 1923 the entire property was sold to the Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. Two of the furnaces had been abandoned and dismantled between 1917 and 1920. The remaining stack became the Sloss Furnace...

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