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View taken in 1925 of Talladeqa Furnace in Talladeqa. TALLADEGA FURNACE Talladega, Talladega County Oct. 5, 1889 THE Talladega Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., was organized in 1888 by a group of English capitalists. Some mineral lands within a few miles of Talladega were purchased. On the outskirts of this town a furnace was built on the site where General Andrew Jackson, on November 9, 1813 defeated the Cherokee Indians in the last battle in Alabama to establish the supremacy of the white man. On Oct. 5, 1889 the furnace went into blast, using coke shipped in from Virginia. After 1899 coal was obtained from company owned lands in St. Clair county and coked at the furnace. Brown hematite ore was mined from the company lands within a few miles of Talladega. The Talladega furnace was 72' x 18' and averaged about 750 tons a week. The plant was never an economical unit for several reasons. Even before construction of the furnace was begun, the company's management had controversy with the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad concerning freight rates, as a result of which, the plant was located on the narrow gauge line of the Birmingham and Atlanta Railroad, _ .•.,g{ 134~- TALLADEGA FURNACE thus necessitating the rehandling of all materials both for construction and operation. The long fuel haul as well as the uncertainty of the ore supply also approved a severe handicap. After a run of little more than two years, the Talladega furnace was blown out due to these difficulties and the low selling price of pig iron. In 1892 the English company went into the hands of a receiver. In 1893 the Talladega Furnace Co. was organized and took over the property in 1894. The furnace was l;:>lown in the following year but operated for only a few months. In 1896 the plant was purchased by the Alabama Iron & Railway Co. which put 'the furnace into blast early in 1897. Once again the Talladega furnace proved too high cost an operation and after a run of less than a year was again blown out. In June 1899 the Northern Alabama Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. acquired the property under a foreclosure sale. This company rebuilt the furnace, increasing the height to 75', and constructed at the furnace a battery of 122 beehive coke ovens, and at Wattsville, the coal mine, another battery of 60 ovens. The rebuilt furnace went into blast in the middle of 1900 and continued in blast until October 1903 when the low price of pig iron forced a shut down. Once again the plant remained idle for a long period. During the World War, a company was formed to rebuild the plant. This group lacked the money to put the furnace into blast and the property was then taken over by a subsidiary of the Japanese Mitsui Co. A total of approximately $220,000 was spent by the Japanese to put the Talladega furnace into blast. About 2,000 tons were made here before the Armistice, 1,000 tons of which were on the high seas at the time. This iron was shipped through the Port of Pensacola. The Talladega furnace was blown out shortly after the Armistice and never was operated again. In 1930 the stack and all accessories were dismantled for scrap. The Talladega Furnace Properties, Inc. were the owners under Alexander Tison, Trustee. It is claimed that the first Bessemer (low phosphorus) pig iron produced in Alabama and shipped North was made at the Talladega furnace in 1890. ...

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