Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
WALLER'S FURNACE
WALLER'S FURNACE. Located near ROCKDALE, the furnace built by Richard Waller was located on the south branch of CATFISH CREEK above the ROCKDALE MILL. Built in 1836, the operation was the first blast furnace in Iowa and the second ever built in the United States for the smelting of LEAD.
To construct the furnace, Waller assembled a company of twelve. Richard Waller was the general agent, chief engineer and manager of the company since he was the only one with practical experience with a blast furnace. This came through work in England working with blast furnaces in the processing of iron and lead. Their first blast furnace was constructed in 1835 along the Little Platte River. It was so successful that the men built the one in Iowa the following year with others in Galena, Platteville and Mineral Point. The blast furnace resulted in more than one-third more lead being extracted than from cupola furnaces. The success of the blast furnace also caused the price of lead to rise for the first time above $9.00 per thousand pounds.
Around 1838 the original company was dissolved and the Waller Catfish Smelting Company was organized under the name of Waller & Company. This was composed of Richard and Robert Waller and Richard BONSON. This company proved extremely profitable. Between 1837 and 1860 the company was able to produce 90 pigs daily for an income over those year of $1,000,000. Between 1860 and 1876 the company $131,625. It was suggested in 1876 that this one smelter had handled one-half of all the lead produced by the Dubuque mines.
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Source:
"Rockdale Industries," Dubuque Herald, August 4, 1876, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18760804&printsec=frontpage&hl=en