Ohio History
Stockyard |
Not far from the charging shed stood this huge storage structure, which held the ore, limestone, and coal for the furnace. In a year, Buckeye Furnace used 8,000 tons of iron ore, 400 tons of limestone, and 12,000 cords of wood (burned down to make charcoal to power the furnace).
Besides this big exploitation of natural resources, workers were also treated very poorly. What meager pay they received for the long, dangerous workdays was not even real money, but “scrip.” It could only be spent at the “company store,” owned by the iron master, which inflated prices for everything. Thus workers often owed the store for even their own food. Not a little unlike the Southern plantations of that time!
4 comments:
Sounds kind of like the coal miners.
I guess that's why labor unions formed.
Or maybe more like Walmart?? ;-p (Sorry, this probably isn't supposed to be a political blog. :)
Good thing the "Go Green" people weren't around then:)!
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