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Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia: a Study of Industrial Survival, 1873-1892

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Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia: a Study of Industrial Survival, 1873-1892 TREDEGAR IRON WORKS, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: A STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL SURVIVAL, 1873-1892 by Lee Ann Cafferata A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History Committee: Director Department Chairperson Program Director Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Tredegar Iron Works, Richmond, Virginia: A Study of Industrial Survival, 1873-1892 A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Lee Ann Cafferata Master of Arts George Mason University, 2002 Director: Paula Petrik, Professor Department of History and Art History Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION To Professor Paula Petrik and in memory of Professor Robert Hawkes (1932- 2008) with deepest gratitude. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My children, Tandice, Taraneh, and Shayan. They encouraged supported, and jumped in with tough love. They did whatever was needed when it was needed. Dissertation advisor Paula Petrik with gratitude for her mentorship and because she is a consummate educator. Dr. Michael O’Malley and Dr. Tyler Cowan with appreciation for their time and effort as members of the dissertation committee. Librarians and archivists at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and at The Library of Virginia and The Valentine in Richmond, Virginia. They tracked secondary sources, searched stacks, offered suggestions, and pulled countless crumbling ledgers and archival boxes with professionalism and kindness. The importance of their diligence, helpfulness, and attention to detail cannot be over-rated. Cosmos Club Foundation, Washington, D.C, for a Cosmos Scholar Award. The Office of the Provost, George Mason University for a Dissertation Completion Grant. The dissertation would neither have started nor ended without this financial help. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................... VIII ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. IX I. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................1 TREDEGAR COMPANY RECORDS .......................................................................................................10 II. TREDEGAR IRONWORKS .....................................................................................................14 INHERITED PERCEPTIONS OF FAILURE ................................................................................................15 WATERPOWER AT THE IRON WORKS.................................................................................................20 TREDEGAR AND TECHNOLOGY: PERSISTENCE VERSUS INNOVATION.........................................................26 TREDEGAR AS A SOUTHERN INDUSTRY...............................................................................................39 III JOSEPH REID ANDERSON: BUSINESS SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY........................................46 IDEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS ...........................................................................................................48 STEWARDSHIP AND SOUTHERN HONOR.............................................................................................53 THE EARLY YEARS: PROLOGUE TO THE PANIC OF 1873 ........................................................................62 A FAMILY-RUN COMPANY ..............................................................................................................74 STEWARDSHIP, HONOR, AND THE PANIC OF 1873 ..............................................................................77 IV. THE PERSISTENCE OF IRON................................................................................................88 THE CONTINUITY OF IRON VERSUS THE INNOVATIONS OF STEEL .............................................................91 INNOVATION AND TRADITION: RAILS, CAR WHEELS, AND SPIKES ...........................................................98 Rail Manufacture at Tredegar ............................................................................................102 Chilled Car Wheels ..............................................................................................................111 Railroad Spikes....................................................................................................................126 V. THE PRACTICALITY OF WATERPOWER ..............................................................................137 THE JAMES RIVER AND KANAWHA CANAL ........................................................................................139 WATER AND STEAM: COMPETITIVE OR COMPATIBLE TECHNOLOGIES....................................................147 THE LANDSCAPE OF WATERPOWER.................................................................................................155 WATER IN PERPETUITY .................................................................................................................156 TURBINE TECHNOLOGY.................................................................................................................178 VI. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................189 SOUTHERN IRON .........................................................................................................................189 v TREDEGAR IRONWORKS AND WEST POINT FOUNDRY: A COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT PATHS ...................195 AFTER JOSEPH REID ANDERSON .....................................................................................................200 APPENDIX A: TREDEGAR NET PROFITS, SELECTED YEARS ......................................................214 APPENDIX B: TREDEGAR, 1877 .............................................................................................215 APPENDIX C: TREDEGAR SITE PHOTOGRAPH ........................................................................216 APPENDIX D: TREDEGAR PROPERTY MAP .............................................................................217 REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................219 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1. Tredegar Net Profits, Selected years, 1844-1860 ......................... 214 Table 2. Tredegar Net Profits, 1880-1889 .................................................... 214 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1. F.W. Beers. Illustrated Atlas of the City of Richmond, Va., Section Q. (Excerpt), 1877............................................................................................215 Figure 2: View looking southwest above James River and Kanawha Canal, circa 1865-1870. ..............................................................................................216 Figure 3: Composite map draw by R.D. Trimble, consulting engineer to Tredegar Company, 1933...............................................................................217 viii ABSTRACT TREDEGAR IRON WORKS, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: A STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL SURVIVAL, 1873-1892 Lee Ann Cafferata, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2016 Dissertation Director: Dr. Paula Petrik Tredegar Iron Works had been the fourth largest iron manufactory in the nation during the antebellum period, the principal supplier of armaments to the Confederacy during the Civil War, and a mainstay of southern economic recovery in the post-War era. With the onset of the Panic of 1873, however, Tredegar faced financial ruin when its railroad markets collapsed. Technological obsolescence threatened as the emergence of the steel industry slowly, but inexorably, eclipsed portions of the iron industry during the 1870s and 1880s. In order to remain in business during this crisis period, Tredegar followed a path of adaptive evolution rather than dramatic innovation. Instead of revamping product lines and initiating manufacturing processes that ix entailed radical technological shifts, the company shored its bottom line through continuing to manufacture traditional iron products with reliable markets and introducing incremental upgrades to plant machinery and manufacturing processes. A tightly-held, family-owned corporation, the values and priorities of its owners, proximity to natural resources, and the circumstances of the social and political framework in which the company functioned propelled these rational business decisions. This corporate persistence enabled the company to emerge from a period of receivership, manage indebtedness, and regain profitability. x I. INTRODUCTION The remnants of Tredegar Iron Works sprawl on the banks of the James River in Richmond, Virginia, at the terminus of what once was the city’s thriving nineteenth century industrial waterfront. An industrial archaeological site, its buildings, brick walls, waterwheels, empty canals and millraces evoke specters of the company’s 115 years of operation, of the people who worked there, and of the products they made. Today, the
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