Grand Rivers Company (Signed by Aretas Blood)

Product Details

Historical Context

In the 1890s, investors from Boston and Nashville, hoping to make a fortune in iron and coal in the small Kentucky town of Grand Rivers, established the Grand Rivers Company. They acquired thousand of acres of mineral and coal reserves, and built a town that bore their company's name.

Spearheading this development were Thomas W. Lawson and Aretas Blood, who established the Grand Rivers Company and a number of smaller feeder companies, including the Grand Rivers Furnaces; the Grand Rivers Brick and Tile Company; and the Grand Rivers Lumber and Manufacturing Company.

However, the Grand River development's dreams were much bolder than it's finances. The "scheme" was a comperehensive one - including running special trains from Boston to Grand Rivers and the sale of plots for the new investors and residents to live. The "marvelous deposits of coal and iron" - as touted by the company - led to the company raising over $2,000,000 through stock offerings. This money was used to build several furnaces, which remained idle and served solely as props to further the dream.

Everything collapsed in 1892 and stockholders lost all of their investment. Lawson bemoaned his own personal loss of over $800,000 in the scheme. When questioned about the amount, Lawson indicated that company books had been destroyed. However, a local lawyer by the name of Moorfield Storey unearthed the books, which showed the Lawrence actually only owned 400 shares of stock in the company, which were worth only about $8,000.

The company went into receivership and its assets were sold off.

Aretas Blood

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Aretas Blood was born in Weathersfield, Vermont, the son of Nathaniel Blood and Roxellana (Proctor) Blood. As a child he moved with his parents to Windsor, Vermont, where he attended the common schools. At the age of 17, as railroads began to be built in the United States, he was apprenticed as a blacksmith. After a few years learning the trade, he moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he was hired by the Locks and Canals Machine Shop. 1849 brought a new title to Blood at a different foundry, when he took the position of "job hand" at the Essex Machine Shop.

At the Essex Machine Shop Blood manufactured locomotive parts and he built up enough of a cash reserve that he was able to purchase a share of the Manchester Locomotive Works when it opened in 1853. Blood took over the shop superintendent position at Manchester in 1857 when the original superintendent, O. W. Bayley, left the company.

It was Blood's opinion that the locomotives that Manchester produced were too light for the future needs of the railroads. When he took over in 1857, he quickly instigated more substantial locomotive construction at the shop. Through succeeding years, Blood acquired greater principal in the company until he was the majority owner.

Under Blood's tenure, Manchester purchased the locomotive manufacturing business of Amoskeag Locomotive Works in 1859, and the fire engine manufacturing business from the same company in 1876. Blood died in 1897 in Manchester, New Hampshire, but Manchester Locomotive Works continued in his absence, building as many as 1,800 locomotives by 1901.

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