Businessman
Greatly interested in the industrial potential of water power, Bell was drawn to Middle Tennessee, where there were sizable streams and an abundance of iron ores, particularly hematite, in some areas. In 1804 Bell purchased James Robertson's iron works at Cumberland Furnace for the then-large sum of $16,000, soon expanding them into one of the largest operations of the sort in the entire Southern United States. He also built other furnaces and mills, notably a hammer mill south of Charlotte on Jones Creek, where the water was diverted through a limestone dam built by slave labor.
By 1808 Bell was advertising in Nashville newspapers to buy wood at 50 cents per cord. Bell was greatly enriched by a government contract for cannonballs for use in the War of 1812; cannonballs made at his Cumberland Furnace works were those used by Andrew Jackson's forces in the Battle of New Orleans. Apparently at least some of this wealth was reinvested in what is generally considered to be his greatest project at the "Narrows of the Harpeth", which he called "Pattison Forge" after his mother's maiden name (a nearby historical marker misidentifies it as "Patterson Forge"). Here, Bell, again using slave labor, blasted a tunnel approximately 100 yards (91 m) long through a narrow limestone and sandstone ridge across a point where the Harpeth River made a seven-mile (11 km) horseshoe bend. The resulting power ran Bell's iron milling operations and was so successful that apparently some previous projects, such as the Jones Creek mill, were eventually abandoned. Bell eventually made the Narrows the site of the headquarters of all of his operations and built a home there. Apparently he suffered some financial reverses due to the Panic of 1819 and its aftermath; in 1824 he advertised the Narrows and other of his properties for sale in the Nashville Whig newspaper, but at least the Narrows property was not sold at this time, nor in his lifetime. Subsequent looting, flooding, and the effects of time have meant that the only remaining evidence of this large operation today is the tunnel, which still remains and is part of a state park, and some slag.
Read more about this topic: Montgomery Bell
Famous quotes containing the word businessman:
“If when a businessman speaks of minority employment, or air pollution, or poverty, he speaks in the language of a certified public accountant analyzing a corporate balance sheet, who is to know that he understands the human problems behind the statistical ones? If the businessman would stop talking like a computer printout or a page from the corporate annual report, other people would stop thinking he had a cash register for a heart. It is as simple as that—but that isn’t simple.”
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