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The Catherine Lead Co in Fredericktown approximately 1900.

The Catherine Lead Co. - A short description of the work that is now underway by this company.

In 1890, Mr. Frank Schulte owned a piece of land west of town which he bought at a sale. Mr. Schulte’s keen business foresight and knowledge of mineral land led him to believe that lead in paying quantities underlaid the land he owned and the same year, in conjunction with his brother, the late Judge Joseph Schulte, he began prospecting on the land with a diamond drill.

They sunk about thirty holes. The land then laid idle for a few years when Mr. Harry Cantwell associated himself with them. In 1899, Mr. Cantwell bought the interest of the Messrs. Schulte in the land, and the Catherine Lead company was incorporated with H. J. Cantwell president and J. H. Brickey vice-president.

The company then through Mr. C. T. McCormick bought the Hill farm, Hicks farm, Ward farm, Lacey farm, Thost farm, A.J. McFarland farm and the Griffin farm, all adjoining the original tract purchased from the Messrs. Schulte, thus giving the Catherine Lead company 1,700 acres of fine farming and mineral land.

August 7, 1899, active work was commenced by the Catherine Lead company on their land. The first work done was the building of a mammoth dam across the Little St. Francois and the building of a flume about 1,700 feet long to the mill where a water wheel with three turbines, developing 100 horsepower, has been constructed.

The mill, which is finished is 105 x 40 and 50 feet high, covered with galvanized iron. In the mill are two crushers of 150 tons capacity every 12 hours; two double roll crushers for handling the mineral after it leaves the two crushers in the top of the mill.

The overhead tramway conveys the mineral from the shaft and dumps it right in the tower of the mill. The water for the mill is supplied with a 12-inch suction, 10-inch discharge Worthington triple pump with a capacity of 1,000 gallons per minute.

The steam power for the mill is supplied by the latest improved Corliss engine of 140 horsepower. Every bit of machinery used by the Catherine people is of the most improved pattern.

The machine shop is 20 x 60 feet covered with galvanized iron. In it is all kinds of improved mining machinery consisting of a lathe for shafting and cutting threads, a smaller lathe 13 x 5, a pipe threading machine, a drill press for drilling holes in iron, band saw, mortising machine, emery wheels, planer, in fact everything needed in a first-class machine shop. The blacksmith shop, 20 x 40, which adjoins the machine shop, is a strictly modern affair.

The mill is built right on the side of a hill adjoining the St. Francois river and the foundation rests on solid rock.

The overhead tramway which conveys the mineral from the shafts to the mill, is completed and all ready for the buckets to be put on.

At the shaft, the company’s sawmill is erected, and this mill has sawed all the lumber that has been used in the erection of this mammoth plant. The company now has something over seven hundred cords of wood on hand. A 60-horsepower engine is in position at the shaft for running the dynamo and electric drills, of which there will be five; a 40-horsepower hoisting machine is also in position and the works will be lighted with electricity throughout.

The foundation for the boiler room is sunk in six feet of rock on concrete.

There is a little narrow-gauge railroad running from the sawmill out, which has a sign on it reading, “Hell Western & Crooked Railroad.”

Shaft No. 2 is now being sunk about one-quarter of a mile east of the old shaft, and on last Tuesday the men had got down to the rock.

The Catherine people have made very little blow about what they are doing, and no one can realize what they have done without going out there. Everything has been managed in such a way that the best results have been obtained and the plant, when completed will have no superior in Southeast Missouri.

That the company has a fine outlook will not be doubted by anyone who will go out and see the plant that is being erected to handle the mineral contained on the land owned by the Catherine Lead Company. There is no experiment about it now it is a fact and the Democrat News, together with every other citizen of Madison County, wishes Mr. Cantwell and his associates the very best of success and all the money they can possibly make out of it.

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The Catherine Lead Co in Fredericktown approximately 1900.

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