The Fond du Lac Furnace. [Volume: 3, Issue: 3, July, 1882, pp. 146]

146

UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION.

[VOL. 3,

The Fond du Lac Furnace.
We have received from Mr. George H. Francis the following information concerning the blast furnace at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin:
"The furnace at Fond du Lac was partly built during the year
1870, and the construction re-commenced during 1874, by Hon.
Charles J. L. Meyer, but owing to the unsettled condition of the
iron market after the panic, and the pressure and growth of other
business interests, the proprietor did not put it into blast, nor was
the furnace entirely ready without considerable work, which remained to be done when the revival of times could have justified
putting it in operation.
Meanwhile, Mr. Meyer had come into possession, by purchase,
of over fifty thousand acres of choice timber lands, mostly hard
wood, on the Menominee Range, about 30 miles west of Escanaba, Michigan, and contemplated removing the machinery from
his Fond du Lac furnace to this location, deeming it enough more
advantageous, on account of the close proximity of some of the
finest ore beds in the country, together with a most abundant and
practically inexhaustible timber supply for charcoal, to justify
the sacrifice and expense of moving. But a number of Fond
du Lac capitalists did not wish the furnace to go away from this
city. They, therefore, organized the "Fond du Lac Iron Company," purchased the furnace from Mr. Meyer, and are now actively engaged in preparing the same for blast.
This company has been encouraged by the different railroad
companies with liberal freight rate offers, and is locating a number of charcoal kilns on the line of the Wisconsin Central railway, where there are immense, and as yet almost unbroken forests of hard wood timber, expecting to go into blast sometime
before the close of the present year.
The stack is built of stone, and is 50 feet high, with a 10 feet
4-inch bosh. All the buildings are also constructed of stone, in
a most substantial manner, and the whole plant presents a very
fine appearance.
The active manager of the new company, and one of the principal stockholders, Mr. E. A. Carey, is an energetic and shrewd
business man, under whose charge the company will, no doubt,
achieve a financial success."