Scrip - Alphabetically Vulcan
Vulcan Iron Works
Foundry man, Colonel Samuel B. Lowe, left the almost completed Vulcan Works near Chattanooga Creek as the Federal troops started shelling the city. He moved to Selma, AL to set up another mill. His bookkeeper, Richard Washington Corbin, also left town when they found an unexploded shell that came through the roof of his house, near the base of Cameron Hill, and landed in a feather bed. When Lowe returned after the war he found only charred ruins of the Vulcan Works near Chattanooga Creek. He traveled though the region to find parts and equipment to use in rebuilding the Vulcan Iron Works. They employed 200 men to manufacture car axles, and railroad cars. During the early months of the depression of 1873, a serious strike of iron workers took place. The stoppage affected iron mills in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky and in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee. The strike and the depression were the cause of the bankruptcy of the Vulcan Iron Works.
In 1875 Hazleton & Harrison took up the business. Wilson in Chattanooga Story reported that in 1877 Colonel S. B. Lowe had one of the first telephones connected from his office on West Eighth Street to the Vulcan Iron Works over a mile away. Lowe may not have had an ownership interest in the business at this time, however was an iron broker. During the summer of 1878 the Vulcan Works had to be shutdown because of Yellow Fever.
The 1878-79 Chattanooga City Business Directory lists F.I. Stone as General Manager of Vulcan Iron Works. The New York Times carried a front page article on May 28, 1880 on the bankruptcy of Vulcan Iron works. The article stated that "Vulcan Iron Works was the largest nail, bolt, spike and bar mill in the south and employed about 600 hands". The receiver was directed to continue running the plant and it became Powell Iron and Nail Company later in the year. In 1991, South Tredegar Iron Company took over the plant.
The 1881 Chattanooga City Directory lists F. I. Stone and Col. Lowe as owning Lowe’s Metallic Paint.
The Vulcan Iron Works scrip does not have a city or state on it so it has been attributed to Michigan and Ohio. Bowen took a company named Vulcan Mining Company with a F. Stone as President and assigned Vulcan Iron Works to Michigan.
[Bowen, Harold Early Michigan Scrip] 25 cent note page 155 and Lee continued this assignment to Michigan, [Dr. Wallace G. Michigan Obsolete Bank & Scrip Notes of the 19th Century / National Bank Notes] 5, 10 & 25 cent notes IMGC-27 page 522]
Wolka lists Vulcan Iron Works in his [Wolka Wendell A History of Nineteenth Century Ohio Obsolete Bank Notes and Scrip]. The Vulcan Iron Works name with the signature of F. I. Stone definitely ties the note to Chattanooga.
$0.05 Vulcan Iron Works, F. I Stone, Treas., no date, G-3450
Compliments of R. M. Smythe auction 275 lot 497
From Schingoethe / Sedman Collection
$0.10 Vulcan Iron Works, F. I Stone, Treas., no date, G-3455
Image Needed
$0.25 Vulcan Iron Works, F. I Stone, Treas., no date, G-3460
Compliments of Tom Carson
$0.25 Vulcan Iron Works, F. I Stone, Treas., no date, back, G-3460
Compliments of Tom Carson
$1 Vulcan Iron Works, unissued (F. I. Stone, Treas. issued signature), no date, G-3475
Compliments of R. M. Smythe auction 272 lot 3629
From Carson / Schingoethe / Sedman Collection
$1 Vulcan Iron Works, unissued, no date, back, G-3475
$2 Vulcan Iron Works, F. I Stone, Treas., no date, G-3480
From Chattanooga Times 3/12/1933 page 23. Scrip property of Aurthur Hamby
Color Image needed
Vulcan Works Store
$0.25 Vulcan Works Store, R. W. Corbin, Oct. 1, 1873, G-3515
Compliments of R. M. Smythe auction 272 lot 3629
From Carson / Schingoethe / Sedman Collection
$0.50 Vulcan Works Store, unissued (issued signed R. W. Corbin), 187_, G-3520
Compliments of R. M. Smythe auction 272 lot 3629
From Carson / Schingoethe / Sedman Collection
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$1 Vulcan Works Store, unissued (issued signed R. W. Corbin), 187_, G-3530
Compliments of Tom Carson
$2 Vulcan Works Store, R. W. Corbin, April 1, 1873, G-3535
Compliments of R. M. Smythe auction 272 lot 3629
From Carson / Schingoethe / Sedman Collection
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