62 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
44 To facilitate the shipment of Wisconsin iron ore now extensively used 
at Cleveland, Wyandotte and Chicago, the company has built upon their 
harbor frontage near the mouth of the Milwaukee river, an ore dock, or tim¬ 
ber structure one hundred and sixty-one feet long, twenty-eight feet wide 
and forty-three feet high, having twenty-six bins or 44 pockets,” as they are 
called, lined with heavy plate iron, each capable of holding one hundred 
tons of ore. At the bottom of each of these pockets is a spout or shoot» 
through which the ore is discharged into the hold of a vessel, controlled by 
simple machinery above. The ore is brought by rail from the beds owned 
by this company at Iron Ridge, in cars constructed expressly for this pur¬ 
pose, and is conveyed to the top of the docks by means of an inclined plane 
resting on eleven hundred feet of trestle work, and dumped directly into the 
pockets. A train of six cars, carrying ten tons each, is readily drawn up 
this incline by the company’s locomotive. The latter, a first-class engine, 
\ 
is constantly employed at this work and the transferring of material between 
the rolling mill and the docks, a distance of about half a mile. The com¬ 
pany also have a substantial pier extending from their works directly into 
the Bay, at which their supplies of coal and Lake Superior ore are princi¬ 
pally discharged, giving them very complete receiving and shipping fa¬ 
cilities. 
44 Mr. J. J. Hagerman, the energetic business manager and secretary of the 
company favors us with the following interesting particulars of operations 
during the past year : 
“ 4 W. J. Lakgson, Esq : 
“ * Milwaukee, March 16,1871. 
“ 1 Secretary Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce, 
44 4 Deak Sib: —In reply to your note of 8th would say, we have received 
during 1870. 
“ 4 26,728 tons soft coal from Cleveland and Erie, by vessels. 
444 17,060 tons iron ore from lake Superior, by vessels. 
44 4 10,816 tons anthracite coal from Buffalo, by vessels. 
44 4 11,355 tons of coke by rail from Pennsylvania. 
44 4 7,780 tons limestone from Racine. 
44 4 95,000 tons of iron ore were received over the St. Paul Railway, from 
Iron Ridge * Of this 28,000 tons were used here, and 67,700 tons shipped. 
44 4 In 1870 we made 16,248 tons railroad iron. Of this 4,875 tons was re¬ 
rolling, and balance new iron. 
44 • No. 1 Blast Furnace was put in blast, April 16,1870. From that time 
until December 31, (38 weeks) it made 12,830 tons of pig iron. All this 
was used here, excepting 3,763 tons shipped to Wyandotte. 
44 4 During the past year the works of this company have been very much 
extended, and we are now turning out 2,400 tons of rails per month. 
No. 2 Blast Furnace is nearly ready to 44 blow in,” and the two can easi¬ 
ly make 30,000 tons of pig iron per annum. During 1870 this company 
has paid out for labor at the mills and docks $413,673.15. If to this 
you add the money paid for railroad and vessel freights, foundry work, 
lumber, stone, brick, lime and other materials, you can form some idea of 
the money put in circulation by our manufacturing concern. The above 
figures do not include payments for labor at Iron Ridge amounting to 
about $12,000 per month. 
44 4 Yours, &c., 
44 4 JAS. J. HAGERMAN.’ ” 
