There are many published accounts of the early history of Granby which are inconsistent about details. Several of these accounts are reproduced below, transcribed as originally published, but here are a few hard facts about Granby history from original sources:
(1) In the fall of 1854, the Missouri Geological Survey visited the future location of Granby (Section 6-T25N-R30W) and found no cabins and only a single mine shaft. On November 25, 1854, G. W. Moseley wrote a detailed account of mining in Newton County to date and made no mention of Granby or any particular mining effort at the future location of Granby. In his 1863 account below, A. W. Bishop says the town was founded in the winter of 1855/1856. This is probably about right. The first postmaster was appointed in June, 1856.
(2) On June 11, 1857, Ferdinand Kennett and Peter E. Blow leased Section 6 from the Pacific Railroad. This was the beginning of the Blow & Kennett interest in Granby and references to earlier years are wrong. Documents at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis show that Henry T. Blow was a partner with his brother and Kennett in the mining enterprise from its beginning, but he was not named in the lease. A copy of the lease is recorded in the Newton County Deed Records at book D, page 339 and can also be found in the files of the Missouri Supreme Court at the Missouri State Archives (Kennett & Blow v. Plummer & Powers, 1858). The railroad later changed its name several times, but was called the Pacific Railroad at the time of the lease.
(3) Undocumented internet sources say that Ferdinand Kennett died May 19, 1861. I have not verified the date, but documents at the Missouri Historical Society show that the administrator of his estate sold his interest in the Granby mining properties to Henry T. Blow in May, 1864, for $10,000, so he was certainly dead by that date. Stories that he retired from the business or sold out in 1865 are wrong. Some accounts refer to Ferdinand Kennett as "F. B. Kennett." I am not sure, but believe this is a confusion with his son. Ferdinand's actual middle initial is unknown to me.
(4) The Granby Mining and Smelting Company was incorporated April 6, 1865, by Peter E. Blow, Henry T. Blow, Charles K. Dickson, James B. Eads and Barton Bates and took over the Blow interests in Granby. The Article of Incorporation are recorded in the Newton County Deed Records, book F, page 470.
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Lead is the great staple of the South-west. Some years ago, I reported this one of the best lead regions of the world. All the subsequent developments have proved the accuracy of that estimate of the mineral treasures of Jasper and Newton counties. Since that time many of the old localities have been more fully developed with great success; and various new mines have been explored with results, in some cases, still more satisfactory. The mines on Spring river, on Turkey creek, and in Spurgeon's prairie, still promise the most satisfactory returns; while at Granby, on the northern border of Oliver's prairie, the results have been truly wonderful. In the fall of 1854, there was not a cabin on the site where Granby now stands with several thousand inhabitants; and only one shaft had been sunk beneath the soil into the rich mineral veins, which are now penetrated by thousands. Mining at Granby has been most successful, as is evinced by the great number of miners and smelters and merchants, who have there congregated in so short a time, and so far away from the great thoroughfares of travel, and by their contentment and satisfaction with the results of their labors. . . . Granby Mines. -- So much has been written of these famous mines that it would seem useless to enter into any detailed description of them . . . . The statistics of one shaft will give an idea of the quantity of ore raised and the profits of mining at this place. Mr. Frazier's shaft, as I am informed, yields 100,000 pounds of galena per month. In one week alone, it yielded 50,000, which at $20 per thousand, would amount to $1,000; deduct $150 for expenses, and the profits of this shaft alone were $850 for that week; they averaged about $1400 per month. The miners, collected here from all parts of the world, seemed to be agreed that the Granby Mines are the best they have ever seen. This opinion of the miners, the vast quantity of lead raised in so short a time and in a locality so far from the means of cheap transportation, and the geological features of the country, all unite in proving these mines the most valuable in the world. I am indebted to Mr. Blow for the following statement of the operations of the company: "From the 1st February to 1st September [1858], 20,000 pigs, averaging 80 1/2 lbs., have been smelted at Blow & Kennett's furnace at Granby; the transportation of which-by wagons, railroads, and steamboats-to St. Louis, has amounted to nearly twenty thousand dollars. "Five steam engines and over two hundred men are employed by this firm in mining and smelting, while a much larger number are engaged in mining other shafts on the Granby section, all belonging to the Pacific Railroad, but under lease to Blow & Kennett. "The usual cost of lead per 100 lbs., from the furnace to St. Louis, is $1.25. The usual price of mineral is $16 free of rent, or $14 and rent." RESEARCH NOTE A table at pages 63-64 of this work lists the Newton County mines as Spurgeon's (many shafts), Ailsworth's, Loveley's, Ryan's (formerly Moseley's), Dorris & Cavender, Foster, Granby (several hundred shafts), Booth, Ryan & Co., Oliver's Prairie, Richardson & Brock, Davis & Cole, Richardson & Foster, Vickory & Johnson, Strickland, Baxter and Orchard's. A table at pages 65-66 lists the Newton County smelting furnaces as Blow & Kennett (steam, 6 eyes), Dale & Fitzgerald (steam, 3 eyes), W. E. Long (steam, 2 eyes), Johnson & Gregory (horse power, 1 eye), John Plummer (water power, 1 eye), Booth, Ryan & Co. (1 eye), C. Legendre & Co. (3 eyes) and Moseley (1 eye). |
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(St. Louis, 1863), page 19 The town arose in this wise: In 1855 one Robert Brock, from Wisconsin, purchased a track of land in Newton county, and supposing it to contain lead, immediately went to prospecting, not only on it but on lands adjoining. Unluckily for him, he discovered the coveted deposit not on his own possessions, but what proved to be land belonging to the Pacific Railroad Company. In ignorance of its ownership, he kept his secret, and at once applied for a patent. Finding that the railroad had one, he suddenly became large-hearted, and made his discovery public. This occured in the winter of 1855-6. The veins of the mine were unusually rich, the mineral containing a very large per centum of pure ore, and being easily and conveniently worked. The announcement was electric; and the lands belonging to a "soulless" corporation, the whole community yearned after the body. |
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Mining operations began comparatively late in the lead region of South-west Missouri. In 1850, the Prairie Diggings, one mile south of Granby, were opened, and in 1851, mining began in the Brock Hollow on the Granby section. Soon after, a great number of mostly shallow shafts were sunk in other parts of South-west Missouri, and in many instances met with good success. So the Nobleton, the Moseley and the Cedar Creek mines in Newton county; the Centre Creek, the Duff, the Mineral Point (Leadville), and the Orchard mines (Joplin), in Jasper county, and several others. The Galena obtained was smelted in simple log furnaces or on small Scotch hearths with one eye. The blast was produced by bellows driven by water power. The Lead was taken by wagons to Fort Smith, and then boated down the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, and was shipped to New Orleans, New York and Boston. The total amount of Galena raised from 1850 to 1854 was estimated by Prof. Swallow, in his Report of 1855, p. 161, at 1,721,679 pounds. The Granby Mines were the first which actually began to flourish. In 1856, Blow & Kennett obtained a lease on the Granby section from the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, which owns the land. They erected six Scotch hearths with blast produced by fans and steam power. Six other hearths were built and worked by other parties. Miners from all parts of the world flocked to Granby, and the town grew rapidly. The production rose to over 8,000,000 pounds per year. The principal work was done at the Brock Hollow, the Dutch, the Frazier, and at some parts of the Crabtree and Hardshaft Diggings. We will here mention a few remarkable examples of well-paying shafts worked at that time. Holman, Hersey, Gatzel and others obtained from two shafts 3,500,000 pounds of Galena in 18 months, which, estimated at $21 per 1,000 pounds, had a value of $73,500. Frazier's Shaft, at the present Frazier Diggings, yielded, in 1859, an average of 100,000 pounds per month. The beginning of the war in 1861 stopped the mining operations of the whole region until 1865. Henry T. Blow then obtained a lease of the Granby section and vigorously started and pushed the work. . . . |
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(1876, Reprint Newton County Historical Society 1996), pages 15-17 ...[T]he largest and richest mines of the county, and those which, before the discovery of lead at Joplin, eclipsed all the others in the State, are situated at and near Granby. The mines there are rich and famous and have proven a source of wealth not only to the county, but to the State. It is safe to say that more than five million dollars worth of lead has been produced from the mines of that locality. Nearly all the mining at Granby before the late war was done on Section 6, known as the Granby Section. That section is owned by the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, and could not be bought for a half million dollars. Lead was first discovered at Granby in 1850 by Madison Vickory, who is still a resident of that city. Having settled on section 6 in 1845, he noticed when traveling around his premises some peculiarities which he had never seen elsewhere. He noticed one spot in particular on which no grass grew. In 1849, he dug down two feet in this place, and found some rocks as he supposed them to be, that were heavier than ordinary rocks, but not knowing the value of what he had found, he prosecuted the work no further. These rocks he afterward learned were carbonate of lead, commonly called among miners, "dry bond". In 1860 [1850], he dug a little further in this same place and struck good float mineral, the blue galena. There was not a furnace near and Mr. Vickory abandoned mining. This land then belonged to the Government and was graduated so that it could have been bought for fifty cents per acre. The opportunity, however, was not improved, and by the act of Congress of June 10, 1852, it became a part of the railroad land grant. No mining of any consequence was done at Granby until 1853 or 1854, when Mr. Foster, an English miner, prospected some and got a considerable quantity of mineral. He is said to have been the first successful miner in that locality. A furnace of three Scotch eyes was soon afterwards built by Mr. Fitzgerald on Shoal River near where the Granby city depot now stands, and was successfully operated for several years. This was a stimulus to the miners and the mines gradually opened up and attracted men from all parts of the country. Two other small furnaces were soon after erected, one by Mrs. John Plummer and one by Mr. Long; and there was mineral enough to keep them all at work. Some of the lead smelted in those years was hauled in wagons to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and was then boated down the river to New Orleans to be shipped from thence to New York and Boston. Some was taken to Grand River, south of the mouth of Lost Creek, and taken thence to New Orleans on a flat boat, and some was hauled to Boonville, Missouri, and shipped by river to St. Louis. Thus mining went on until the spring of 1857. In that year, Messrs., Blow and Kennett, obtained from the Pacific Railroad Company a lease of the Granby Section and immediately erected large furnaces on the land. This firm was prepared to buy and smelt all the mineral that could be produced and the amount dug rapidly increased until in 1858 to 1861 inclusive from ten to twelve million pounds per year were dug up and sold to the smelters; and the population of Granby was numbered by the thousands. Mining continued very prosperous until 1861 when the Civil War scattered the inhabitants, some going north and others going south; the furnaces were stopped and nothing was done in mining again until 1865 except a few hundreds of thousand pounds that were dug up and smelted to furnish the Confederate forces with bullets. In 1865, the Granby Mining and Smelting Company was organized with Honorable Henry T. Blow as its President, and the interest of Messrs. Blow and Kennett were merged in that company. The furnaces were repaired and a new lease was obtained from the Railroad Company and mining was resumed with more miners and more success than before. The operations of this company guided by the strong and clear head of Mr. Blow, assisted by an efficient corps of subordinate officers, and aided by thousands of experienced and hard working miners, have been pushed forward with unbounded energy and enterprise, and have been crowned with almost unparalleled success. The diggings have extended some two miles south and about two and one-half miles east of the original discovery and larger and richer leads are being found than ever before. A vein of galena five feet thick the extent of which is yet unknown, has recently been discovered on the prairie south of Granby; and now prospects, and the putting in of new pumps and steam engines to help work them are almost the daily sensation in South Granby. By an act of the Legislature in 1875, Granby has obtained a city charter, and has now a population estimated by its citizens at more than five thousand in habitants. The furnaces generally are by far the largest and most complete of any in the State, and perhaps the largest in the world, and they usually have to run night and day to perform the work required of them. |
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(St. Louis, 1879), page 566 The Granby Mines, discovered in 1855, yielded, up to the commencement of the war, 35,414,014 lbs. of lead; and since that time to May 1873, 19,675,205 lbs., in addition to large amounts of which no account was kept. . . . Lead ore seems to have been obtained here from the earliest recollection, and furnished supplies to the Indians during their occupation. Formerly, smelted lead, merchandise and "spirits" were the principal return to the miner for his labor, as the distance from market and general condition of the country precluded enlarged capital and enterprise. Since the war, capital has developed the hidden wealth, and systematized labor and rendered it remunerative. This, with the additional railroad facilities, has brought the country prominently and rapidly before the public, as one of the wonderful mining districts of the world. Among the public-spirited men whose enterprise and energy most largely contributed to the development of the lead region, the late Peter E. Blow and his brother, the Hon. Henry T. Blow, stood foremost. Before the civil war, the former had established mining and smelting works in Newton County. These were destroyed by the contending forces which early in the struggle overran that portion of the State. But when the tread of armies had ceased, the works were re-constructed, and operations renewed with increased energy and large reinforcements of capital. |
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Mines. -- David Campbell, of Neosho, discovered the lead deposits at Joplin, in 1849, on the site of very early Spanish or Indian prospects. John Fitzgerald erected the first air furnace on the site of the Lone Elm Company's works, the same which was destroyed during the war. . . . The Granby stampede followed the Joplin discovery, and in 1853-55 the range there was converted into a great mining camp. Lead after lead followed. W. S. Mesplay, in a communication to the Newton County Tribune, September 20, 1868, drew the attention of miners to the value of black jack, which they then considered dump. . . . . . . . In 1853 William Foster, a Cornish man, who had been working in the Cedar Creek mines, twelve miles west of Granby, moved to the head of Shoal Creek to dig wells. On returning he halted at the Richardson claim, near Granby. Next morning he felt he was on mineral ground, and with Squatter Richardson's permission began prospecting. Within two feet of the surface he struck galena. Madison Vickery was the first to join him, then followed the Brooks Hollow discovery by the Brookses, who within a short time, took out 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 pounds of lead ore. In 1855 the Granby stampede took place. (In 1859 there were about 8,000 people in the township.) Johnson's, Plumber's, Livingston's and Long's furnaces were running at full blast, and the hills and vales were literally covered with prospectors. In 1857 Kennett, Blow & Co. came to Section 6. They leased the section from the railroad company, closed out the old furnaces, and called for $2 per 1,000 pounds royalty from the miners on the section. The miners raved over this strange exaction, but were powerless to overthrow the monopoly. Thus matters were in 1861, when Supt. B. K. Hershey went South to join the Confederates, and Henry T. Blow went North to join the Federals. . . . |
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The Granby Mining & Smelting Company dates its origin from 1853, when Peter E. Blow and F. B. Kennett formed a partnership for the purpose of engaging in lead-mining at Granby. In 1865 Mr. Kennett retired, and the Granby Company was organized, with Peter E. Blow, James B. Eads, Henry T. Blow, Charles K. Dickson and Barton Bates as stockholders. These men were among the noted business men of St. Louis in their day, and the reputation of at least one of them was national. [From a biographical entry on Elias S. Gatch, secretary of the Granby Mining and Smelting Company in St. Louis in the 1890s.] |
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In 1853 William Foster, a Cornish miner, found lead ore near the place, and within two years 3,000 people were on the ground, with numerous furnaces and acres of mines in operation. In 1857 Kennett, Blow & Co., of St. Louis, leased the lands and exacted royalty from the squatting miners. Mining was suspended during the war. In 1865 the Granby Mining and Smelting Company was organized, and operations were resumed on a larger scale. The smelting works of this company are among the largest in the mining district. . . . Granby was platted in 1866, incorporated in 1868 and granted a charter as a city of the fourth class in 1875, its area being defined as nearly three and one-half miles; the organic act forbade the taxing of mineral lands for city purposes unless divided into lots. The population in 1890 was 2,315. [From the entry on Granby.] |
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In 1850 Madison Vickory found lead ore at Granby, but gave it no attention. In 1853 William Foster, a Cornish miner, found mineral at the same place, and in 1854 there was a large influx of miners. In the latter year John Fitzgerald built the first steam blast furnace, locating it four miles south of Granby, and bought mineral for smelting. Meantime, in 1855, Henry T. Blow and F. B. Kennett leased a large tract of mineral railroad land and exacted tribute from the squatting miners. During these years the lead was wagoned to Grand River, in the Indian nation, whence it was floated on flatboats to New Orleans, or was hauled by wagon to Boonville, on the Missouri River, and thence boated to St. Louis. Mining operations were suspended by the legitimate owners of the property during the Civil War, but it is to be noted that lead was surreptitiously obtained from the neighborhood for the use of the Confederate Army. In 1865 F. B. Kennett sold his interest, and the Granby Mining & Smelting Company was incorporated by Henry T. Blow, Peter E. Blow, James B. Eads, Barton Bates and Charles K. Dickson, all of St. Louis. From that time this company has controlled all the mineral taken from the famous Section No. Six, in Newton County. It also erected the first adequate smelter, and obtained control of the Minersville (Oronogo) mining lands, then but eighty acres, and hauled the ore to Granby for smelting. . . . [From the entry on zinc and lead mining in Southwest Missouri.] |
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Capt. John Kingston, who first visited Granby in 1856, says that Wm. Foster first discovered lead at Granby in 1850. While passing through Granby on his way to St. Louis, Mr. Foster stopped at the home of Mr. Madison Vickery, who was digging a well on the hillside at the site of the present lime-house. Mr. Vickery had picked up an unusually heavy mineral and carried it to the house. He showed the specimen to Mr. Foster, who recognized it as galena. Instead of continuing his journey to St. Louis, Mr. Foster started at once to sink a shaft, the first in the area. No mining of any consequence was done at Granby until 1853, when Mr. Foster got out a considerable quantity of mineral. A furnace of three Scotch eyes was erected soon after by a Mr. Fitzgerald, on Shoal Creek, near where the St. Louis & San Francisco railway depot now stands. This furnace was operated successfully for several years, stimulating mining and attracting men from all parts of the country. Two other small furnaces were soon after erected, one by Mr. John Plummer and one by a Mr. Long. The lead smelted during these years was disposed of in various ways; it was hauled in wagons to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then boated down the river to New Orleans, to be shipped from thence to New York and Boston; some was taken to the Grand river, and from thence, on flat boats, to New Orleans, and some was hauled to Boonville and shipped by boat to St. Louis. In 1856, Blow and Kennett obtained from the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company a lease of the Granby section, and immediately erected large furnaces on the land. Following the erection of these furnaces, the output increased rapidly, until from I858-1861, inclusive, the output reached from ten to twelve million pounds per year. During the war of the Rebellion the mines are said to have been worked alternately by the Confederate and Federal soldiers. In 1865, the Granby Mining and Smelting Company was organized by Henry T. Blow, absorbing the interests of Blow & Kennett. The furnaces were repaired, a new lease was obtained, and mining resumed with increased vigor and more success than ever. |
Early History of Granby and Lead Mining in Newton County, Missouri
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