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HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED WITH WYANDOTTE AND
VICINITY BY DR. E. P. CHRISTIAN
In 1853 the Eureka Iron Company was organized. Among the stockholders were E. B. Ward, U. Tracey Howe, S. M. Holmes, Philip Thurber, Benjamin Vernor, Harmon DeGraff, T. W. Lockwood, S. M. Kendric, and others. In 1854 the Biddle tract of land was purchased by the company. On the first visit of a party of these gentlemen to their purchase, says Mr. John S. VanAlstyne, who has been officially connected with the enterprise from its start, and who was then present, the exclamation was repeatedly made by Mr. Thurber: "How like an English park. " What may seem
Opposite ship yard.
I regret to have to state that the magnificent forest trees then still standing, which made the scene so like an English park, and an opprobrium to Major Biddle's farming In the eyes of his neighbors, have almost entirely disappeared, many killed by the acrid, creosote-laden smoke from the charcoal kilns which at one time stood on the northwest corner of the rolling mill grounds, where now stands the bank block and Eureka Co. 's office in the very heart of the city. Many
so trivial a circumstance to refer to is done not only as attesting to the beauties of the location as it appeared to members of the party at that time, but also as corroborating Mr. William Biddle's statement in regard to his father's clearings for farming purposes, as to the impression they made upon the more practical, if less aesthetic, farmers of the neighborhood. In 1855 the first blast furnace and merchant bar mill were erected with other necessary buildings, a large boarding house, etc. To these have been added by the company a second and larger blast furnace and various additions to the rolling mill for railroad iron, boiler plate and all other products of a well equipped mill.
Michigan
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