TENNESSEE. 



725 



David McKendree Key, whose term will ex- 

 pire March 3, 1881 ; and in the House by Wil- 

 liam McFarland (Dem.), Jacob M. Thornburgh 

 (Rep.), George G. Dibrell (Dem.), H. T. Eiddle 

 (Dem.), John M. Bright (Dem.), John F. House 

 (Dem.), Washington 0. Whithorne (Dem.), 

 John D. 0. Atkins (Dem.), William P. Cald- 

 well (Dem.), and H. C. Young (Dem.). 



The industrial resources of Tennessee are a 

 source of vast wealth to the State. The most 

 abundant and valuable minerals are coal, iron, 

 and copper. The State is crossed by the great 

 Alleghany coal-field, which extends from Penn- 

 sylvania to Alabama. In Tennessee it is nearly 

 coextensive with the Cumberland table-land, 

 and forms an irregular quadrilateral 71 miles 

 wide at the northern end, and 50 miles at 

 the southern. It covers about 5,100 square 

 miles. The amount of coal has been estimated 

 at 42,127,360,000 tons. The production of 

 the State in 1870, according to the Federal 

 census, was 3,335,450 bushels, valued at $330,- 

 498. In 1874 there were twelve mines in 

 operation, producing about 10,000,000 bushels 

 annually. Iron exists in four distinct belts 

 or areas. The eastern belt stretches across the 

 eastern part of the State, at the base of the 

 border range of mountains, extending into 

 Virginia on the northeast and Georgia on the 

 southeast. The most abundant ore in this belt 

 is the limonite, which occurs in Johnson, Se- 

 vier, Carter, and Blunt Counties. There are 

 also veins of magnetite and hematite ore, which 

 will yield from 60 to 70 per cent, of metallic 

 ores. There are five furnaces in this region, 

 capable of producing about 15,000 tons annual- 

 ly ; but owing to the lack of railroad facilities 

 the amount produced does not exceed 10,000 

 tons. Iron-ore containing oxide of manganese 

 is abundant in Greene County, from which 

 spiegeleisen is made. The dyestone belt skirts 

 the eastern base of the Cumberland table-land, 

 extending beyond the limits of the State on 

 the northeast and southeast. In Tennessee it 

 reaches from Chattanooga to Cumberland Gap, 

 about 150 miles ; it spreads out laterally from 

 10 to 20 miles into the valley of East Tennes- 

 see, and includes the Sequatchie and Elk Val- 

 leys. The chief ore of this belt is a stratified 

 red iron-rock, highly fossiliferous, occurring in 

 layers, and called at many points dyestone, 

 being sometimes used for dyeing. The ore is 

 a variety of hematite, and yields from 50 to 60 

 per cent, of iron. There are four furnaces in 

 this region. The Cumberland table-land belt 

 of iron-ore is coextensive with the coal-field. 

 The ore lies interstratified with shale, sand- 

 stone, and coal. It is called clay ironstone, and 

 is an argillaceous carbonate of iron. It is in- 

 ferior in quality, producing rarely more than 

 30 per cent., and usually not more than 20 per 

 cent, of iron, and has not been worked. The 

 western iron belt crosses the State north and 

 south, and lies mainly between the central 

 basin and the Tennessee Eiver, though extend- 

 ing in some counties a few miles west of the 



river. It is about 50 miles wide, and embraces 

 an area of about 5,400 square miles. But the 

 ore is found in available quantities only at cer- 

 tain points called " banks," some of which are 

 miles in extent, while others occupy only a few 

 acres. Some of these banks have been worked 

 for eighty years, with no signs of exhaustion. 

 The ore is a limonite or brown hematite, some 

 of it being inferior in quality ; in other places 

 the yield of iron is from 40 to 55 per cent. 

 There are eleven furnaces in this region, with- a 

 monthly capacity of about 4,230 tons. Ten- 

 nessee has decided advantages for making iron, 

 in the abundance, cheapness, and contiguity of 

 ore and of fuel ; the disadvantages are distance 

 from market and want of transportation facili- 

 ties. Valuable deposits of copper are found in 

 Polk County, in the southeast corner of the 

 State, covering an area of 40 square miles. The 

 ore is smelted by two extensive companies at 

 Ducktown, having twenty-five furnaces and em- 

 ploying about 900 hands. From 1865 to 1874 the 

 larger of these companies produced 8,476,872 

 pounds of ingot copper. Tennessee is rich in 

 marble, which is found in every part of the 

 State, the varieties including black, gray, mag- 

 nesian, fawn-colored, white, red, variegated, 

 conglomerate, and breccia. Many quarries are 

 worked. Limestone and other building-stone 

 abound in various parts of the State. Slate is 

 common, but little of it is valuable. Several 

 beds of millstone have been found, the most 

 noteworthy being in Claiborne County. Hy- 

 draulic rocks abound in many counties, es- 

 pecially in Hardin, Wayne, Perry, Decatur, 

 Warren, and Montgomery, and in Knox and 

 McMinn Counties in East Tennessee. Litho- 

 graphic stone of an excellent quality occurs in 

 McMinn County. Granite of various shades 

 of color, some of it rivaling the Scotch granite, 

 is found in Carter County; and unakite, a 

 greenish compact granite, in the TJnaka Moun- 

 tains, being peculiar to that locality. Depos- 

 its of potter's clay are found in East Tennes- 

 see, on the Knoxville & Ohio Railroad, and in 

 the vicinity of the Lower Tennessee River, in 

 the counties of Hickman, Henry, Perry, and 

 Wayne; also in Montgomery and Houston 

 Counties. Some of this clay has been worked 

 up into stone- ware. There are numerous pot- 

 teries, the largest being in Memphis, Nashville, 

 and Knoxville. Kaolin is found in Carter 

 County. Fire-clay is found in Stewart and 

 Houston Counties, and on the Cumberland 

 River. It also exists in the coal-measures im- 

 mediately underlying a seam of coal. Lead 

 occurs in various places in East and Middle 

 Tennessee. Mines have been worked in Wash- 

 ington, Monroe, and Bradley Counties ; one of 

 the most promising is the Caldwell mine on 

 Powell's River in Union County. This vein, 

 which fills a nearly vertical fissure, about twen- 

 ty inches wide, in nearly horizontal rocks, can 

 be traced about a mile. The two ores of zinc, 

 smithsonite and calamine, occur in considerable 

 deposits in various localities, especially in Clai- 



