The mineral field has long been regarded as among the best in the South. The ore occurs in banks and pockets. At several places the banks have developed a thickness of 110 feet. The material associated with the ore is a red clay. It constitutes by weight one-third of the mass, leaving two-thirds ore. These ores are the brown hematite. The analysis is not variable, as in many sections of the country, rarely running below 45 or above 55 per cent metallic iron. The percentage of this ore runs higher and it is capable of being much more easily and cheaply handled than the deposits in the famous Birmingham district. One lump of brown hematite iron ore measuring sixty tons has been taken from the Wayne County ore field. The average analysis of this lump was 57 per cent metallic iron and less than 1 per cent phosphorus.
BEECH RIVER PHOSPHATE PROPERTY
Allen’s Creek, a town of 1,500 inhabitants, deserves special mention here because of the fact that the furnaces and iron mines of the Bon Air Coal & Iron Company are located there. This company operates two furnaces at Allen’s Creek, and mine both iron ore and limestone. The concern also manufactures a very high and superior grade of silicon iron, which is used all over the United States as a softener by foundries and machine shops, and for all purposes where a fluid iron is required. Extensive plants have been constructed for washing the ore and preparing it for the furnaces. Probably the largest deposits of brown ore to be found in the South are near Allen’s Creek and are the property of the Bon Air Company. At one point as much as 100,000 tons of the ore is known to have been taken from one acre of land. The management of the plant at Allen’s Creek is in the hands of Mr. G. W. Bragg, a very worthy and capable man, who appears to have the interest of the company at heart at all times. The capacity of the furnaces is 200 tons of pig iron per day.
The coal mines of the Bon Air Company are situated in Cumberland and White counties, where three collieries and two hundred coke ovens are in operation. This is where all the celebrated grades of Bon Air coal and coke are mined and made ready for market. The daily output is about 2,000 tons of coal and coke.
The Bon Air Coal & Iron Company is one of the largest companies in the South and its extensive business interests are managed by the following gentlemen: John P. Williams, president; J. M. Overton, vice president; W. C. Dibrell, treasurer, and C. Cooper, secretary. The main business office is in the Arcade Building, Nashville.
Here are inexhaustible deposits of the Florida white rock, the best phosphate known to commerce. A field of it is being developed in the adjoining county of Decatur, near Parson’s. It runs from 75 to 83 per cent B. P. L. It is far superior to the Mt. Pleasant phosphate, containing as it does but little deleterious substance. This land is controlled by the Beech River Phosphate Company. T. S. Hughes, Clifton, Tenn., is secretary, and Jno. A. Pitts, of Nashville, is president.
The lands of this company, consisting of 9,261 acres, are situated in Decatur county, Tennessee, just west of the Tennessee river, and from two to seven miles distant from that stream, and lie along both sides of Beech river, a tributary of the Tennessee, and the Perryville Branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway—(originally the Tennessee Midland).
The best rock as found analyzes as follows:
| Per cent | |
| Moisture | 50. |
| Mixed oxides, iron and aluminum | 1.38 |
| Bone phosphate | 84.89 |