-Chapter V- GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Mineral Resources
Several mining activities have come and gone in Murray County and today only talc is mined. Barytes have been mined near Eton, gold was once mined in the mountains, and iron ore deposits have been mined in several locations, but, like the gold, commercial quantities have not been found. Limestone deposits within the county are extensive, but there is no record of commercial mining and scattered deposits of manganese are also found. Road building materials like chert, sandstones, and shales are also present. In the past, the Chatsworth Brick Plant mined shales, while tripoli was once mined near Spring Place.
Murray County is Georgia's sole producer of talc and the talc mills are the county's oldest manufacturing firms.
Talc, which is known to science as magnesium silicate, but which the Indians and old-time whites called soap-stone, is necessary to countless modem manufacturing processes. It has a part in agriculture, chemistry, metalworking, textiles, plastics, cosmetics, rubber, foundrying. steel, insecticides, art, leather, electrical equipment, linoleum, paint and lacquer, ceramics, paper, roofing, ink, medicine, dentistry, porcelain, ship building, welding, steel fabrication and construction.
Of these major talc-consuming industries, talc from Murray County is suitable for the paint, rubber, roofing and insecticides trade. In paint, talc serves as an extender and in some types of paints may be the principal pigment. The rubber industry utilizes talc as pillow because of the softness and insulating properties. Also, talc is used to coat rubber mote to prevent sticking. In the roofing industry coarsely ground talc mixed with petroleum by-products is used in the manufacture of asphalt roofing. It is also used for dusting the finished product to prevent the layers from sticking when rolled for shipment.
The first talc miners in Murray County were Indians who dug talc and carved big bowls in which to grind corn. They also used talc to make plates, beads, pipes, and tombstones. Early white settlers would sometimes use heated chunks of talc to warm beds. Talc was also good to stop the screeching of wooden wagon wheels on axles. Even though it is the softest of stones and can be scratched with a finger, talc is not affected by acid and was once widely used for laboratory tabletops.
The Geological Survey of Georgia Bulletin (No. 29) contained this 1914 account of the county's first commercial talc mining:
"The discovery and early history of the talc industry in Murray County are closely linked with the name of the late W.C. Tilton, who was interested in many things, including prospecting. About 1872, on one of his trips to Fort and Cohutta mountains, he discovered the presence of talc on lot 271, the lot now owned by the Georgia Talc Company. Failing in his efforts to buy the lot, although he is said to have offered $12,000 for it, he began mining talc on that lot in 1872 at the royalty of fifty cents per ton. Later, when the royalty was increased to $I.00 per ton, Captain Tilton began prospecting elsewhere and discovered talc on the Fort Mountain lot, Number 297, which he bought and began developing. Later, he discovered talc on other lots; these he acquired until he owned at his death nine lots containing the bulk of the talc deposits of the district as far as their extent is known today."
Although Captain Tilton's business was headquartered at Hopedale, the family home west of Spring Place, the talc mined between 1872 and 1891 was hauled to Dalton (16 miles from the mountain mines) and "shipped in the crude state to Cincinnati, Chicago, Hamilton, Ontario, and elsewhere. The mining in those early days was what might be called 'ground hogging,' or 'gophering'; it consisted in digging small pits and taking out whatever material could be reached without going far underground. The result was that only the surface material, stained yellow by weathering processes, was extracted. The yellow talc was used in those days for foundry facings, as it is today. The price of $1.00 per ton was paid for mining the talc and from $3.20 to $3.50 per ton was paid for hauling it to Dalton, the nearest railroad point at that time."
Other people also got involved in the talc business. A Dalton newspaper noted in August, 1881 that "S.E. Field and Judge Morris are delving for talc and will shortly market a quantity of this valuable ore."
During these early years the D.M. Steward Manufacturing Company in Cincinnati was the only place where talc could be cut into crayons. Soon this company moved to Chattanooga to be nearer their southern suppliers. However, since they were more interested in sales than in production, the Steward Company persuaded the Tiltons into building a "sawing plant" or "mill." Erected in 1891, the mill was probably located across the highway from the Vann House although one source said that it was near Hopedale. In operation until 1897, the year of Mr. Tilton's death, the mill was a great boost to the Murray County talc industry. A record book in the possession of the WhitfieId-Murray Historical Society lists some of the earliest talc industry employees.
After Mr. Tilton's death his widow became the owner of the mill. Her nephew, Marion H. Williams, became the manager until Mrs. Tilton's death. In 1903 Mr. Williams purchased all talc interests from other Tilton heirs and established the Cohutta Talc Company. He served as president while C.B. Willingham was vice-president and J.M. Sanders was secretary-treasurer (in 1904). By 1907 the Cohutta Talc Company was located in Chatsworth on the new Louisville and Nashville Railroad. It was eventually acquired by the owners of Dalton's Farrar Lumber Company.
Longtime talc mill secretary Juanita Elrod Swanson compiled this history of the Chatsworth talc industry in 1977:
As early as 1905, samples of talc were taken to Asheville, North Carolina, and brought to the attention of a talc producer of North Carolina, the late Judge J. Frazier Glenn. Judge Glenn knew that a great business could develop, and he erected a small sawing plant just south of Chatsworth at Red's Crossing. In 1907 Judge Glenn erected a grinding plant just south of Cohutta Talc Co. on the L&N Railroad and named this company Georgia Talc Company. Judge Glenn's uncle, Mr. E.R. (Renfoe) Glenn was the first general manager of Georgia Talc Company and the first mayor of Chatsworth, (Judge and E.R. Glenn were also passengers on the first train from Etowah, Tennessee, to Cartersville, Georgia.) In 1935, the late Wm. B. Hartsfield. Mayor of Atlanta, persuaded Mr. Conroy Pickering, a prominent bridge builder, and Mr. Lewis Huff into forming a new talc company. The name of this talc company is Southern Talc Company. While this company is the youngest of the talc companies, it is now the largest. When Mr. Hartsfield was elected mayor of Atlanta, he no longer had time to put in the talc business, and the Southern Talc Company was bought by M. Woodard Glenn Sr., son of Judge J. Frazier Glenn, in 1941. At this time, both sons of Judge Glenn are in the talc business in Murray County; M. Woodard Glenn Sr. in Cohutta Talc Company and Southern Talc Company; and Francis T. Glenn in Georgia Talc Company.
Members of many well known Murray County families have been connected with the three talc companies—some for four generations. Some of them are lawyers C.N. King and W.B. Robinson, bankers Will Latch and Robert E. Chambers, and T.W. Brooks. Other families are Springfield, Davis, Ensley, Defore, Swanson, Hufstetler, Hawkins, Long, and Bagley, Floyd Farrar (president), Trammell Starr, Jr. and Porter Hufstetler were involved with the Cohutta Talc Company while Carl Tanksley (personnel manager), Richard Hawkins (manager), Garvin Swanson. Thurman Davis. and Fred Long (plant superintendent), worked for the others.
Mining - Only two of the mines have tunnels. The Georgia Talc Shop Tunnel Mine is on a 30° grade and one must ride mine cars down about 1500 feet to mine the ore. Inside is not just one big space but many tunnels. The Judge Hole Mine is another mine that has a steep slope requiring mine cars down to work. Both of these mines are closed at present (1977), but water is being pumped continuously and mining can be resumed at any time.
One of our mines, the Earnest Mine, is operated at present. Trucks and loaders are driven back into the mountain about 2200 feet. Another mine being operated at present is the Rock Cliff Mine. Other mines in the past were: Latch Mine, Big Lindsey, Old Cohutta Mine, Old Fort Mine. Bramblett Mine, Barnett Mine, Spring Pit, Glenn Slope. Upper and Lower Hollow Pit, Grey Pit, Upper and Lower Gordon Pit, Southern Mine and Slate Quarry, New Georgia, Hard-rock, Shop Hole, Piedmont Mine, Pickering, Rock Creek, Chicken Creek, Fields, Russell Prospect, and Mill Creek.
In 1947 geologists from Atlanta spent more than a year in Murray County, and wrote the book Talc Deposits of Murray County, Ga. The geologists figured 300.000 tons had been mined beginning with 689 tons mined in 1898. In the past 30 years, (1945-1975) approximately 3 million tons were mined. Only a small percentage has been for sawing purposes for talc crayons. Some would be hard rock and the balance ground. The production of talc crayons was all important and most essential in every war effort in our country. Talc is the only material with which you can mark steel, and the mark will not burn off. The Navy ship builders were the biggest users of talc crayons in major war times.
Milling — The ore is brought to the mill from the mines by trucks, and then is fed by hand into crushers. After being crushed the ore is elevated to storage bins. The crushed ore then feeds by gravity from the storage bins to air separators, where the talc and air are separated, with the air returned through the mill and the talc dust going to storage bins for bagging. Once, the talc was shipped in wooden boxes made at the Chatsworth "Box Factory." Now the bagged material is placed in railroad cars for shipment all over the U.S.A. The mills are equipped to produce both fine dust and roofing granules at the same time. The ground material is used in rubber, foundries, textile Fillers, talcum powder for cosmetics, and insecticides. The roofing granules are shipped to all the major roofing companies—G.A.F., Celotex, Johns Manville, CertainTeed, etc.
One of the roofing grades is used as chinchilla bath. The animals need this type dust to counteract the oil in their fur. The good green talc ore is soft and easy to carve. Many American sculptors now use talc.
The three talc companies have a total of five huge grinding mills (1977). Whereas in 1945 a mill cost $25.000, they now cost well over $150,000. The talc companies had approximately 80 employees with an annual payroll of over $600,000 in 1977. They have several types of dust control, having spent more than $100,000 during the 1970's in an attempt to catch every dust particle possible. - End of Article
Two other facts regarding the talc industry are interesting. In 1929 Wade Moss, Jr. of Moss Chemical Company was a runner-up for the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He developed a process for purifying and whitening low-grade talc. Also from about 1959 until 1962 Murray County hosted a "Talc Bowl" on Thanksgiving Day involving youth football teams.
In early 1986 Woodey Glenn. Sr. announced the sale of Southern Talc, the only remaining company, to United Catalyst of Louisville, Kentucky. Don Kennedy became Chatsworth manager.
Murray County Heritage