Ore Hill, NC

History

This is an unincorporated area in Chatham County. Ore Hill was the name of a town and the station on the CF main line, but that station was associated with a pre-Depression era spa about a mile away named Mount Vernon Springs. The old Ore Hill name was changed to Mount Vernon Springs and that name was listed in the A&Y employee time table (ETT). I have found its history from a Chatham County history page sponsored by the Chatham County Historical Association. The Historical Association published a book, Chatham County 1771–1971, that included the following excerpt from pages 199–200:

“The town of Ore Hill was located at the place now named Mount Vernon Springs, on the railroad and Old U. S. Highway 421 about 4½ miles south of Siler City.

The town took its name from the topographic feature beside which it was located. Iron ore from this locality was used to make munitions during the American Revolution. A small furnace was constructed at Ore Hill in 1776 by John Wilcox and William England. Ore from there was also transported to the Wilcox Iron Manufactory on Deep River during the Revolution. The mines were again active between 1861 and 1865 in the service of the Confederacy. At that time Sapona Iron Company operated a furnace at Ore Hill with a yield of around five tons of pig iron per day. The last period of mining was between 1893 and 1903.

There was a post office at Ore Hill by 1871, with A. R. Chapin as postmaster. The C. F. & Y. V. Railway built a depot and water tank there in 1884, the year service from Sanford to Greensboro was initiated. …

The Ore Hill Manufacturing Co. was organized April 17, 1900 to make and sell chairs. This company was dissolved July 16, 1906. Excelsior was also made at this plant. The town of Ore Hill was incorporated in 1907 and the act repealed in 1913. Population in 1910 was 94. The Ellis Brothers (M.I., V.E., and C.S.) operated a machine shop at Ore Hill. They invented the “Ellis Portable Corn Mill” and were manufacturing it there at a rate of two units per week in the year 1911.

The name of the post office and of the locality was changed to Mount Vernon Springs on May 15, 1926, much to the disapproval of some residents. Physical evidence of this was the mounting of the name board from Ore Hill railway station in the front yard of the residence of Mr. N. H. Heritage. There it remained for many years in plain view from the highway.”

The ICC valuation reports indicate that there is a depot and I have a photo. The station sign reads “Ore Hill” — it was later displayed by Mr. Heritage in protest of the town’s name change.

Unfortunately, I do not have dimensions and/or drawings of this station. The time tables state this station is a water stop and the valuation map indicates a 24′ water tank, which might be what I see to the left of the station in the background of this photo.

The 1916 ICC valuation supplies the dimensions the old photographs do not. It recorded Ore Hill’s depot as a standard Type 3 combination station, “same in all respects to other type 3 depots on this valuation section,” with a high platform all around and a chert passenger platform of about 500 square yards laid a full foot thick. Unlike most of its neighbors, the building stood on creosoted pile-butt posts rather than sawn timber — the heavier substructure also used at Bear Creek and Cumnock further south — and its tool house was one of the newer Type 14 pattern, like Liberty’s. A whitewashed stock chute stood at the station, and of the section’s two dwellings the first was by then “not occupied, used for feed storage.”

The 1934 A&Y ETT #14 shows that passenger trains #30 and #31 stopped at “Mt. Vernon Springs.” Train #30 stopped at 1:45 pm on the way to Sanford. Train #31 stopped at 2:37 pm on the way up to Mount Airy. In addition, train #62, an eastbound local freight, stopped once daily at 2:16 pm. The station photograph shows the station sign read “Ore Hill.” The name did not change in A&Y time tables through 1949 (although it was freight only, with westbound local train #63 at 9:32 am and eastbound local train #65 at 2:02 pm, stopping daily except Sunday and Monday). After the Southern took over in 1950, nothing changed except the train numbers (now #81 and #83).

Track Diagram

An image from the ICC valuation maps gives a fair idea of how the track and depot were laid out. There is a tool house, oil house, at least one section house, a chute (for livestock?), and the depot.

Industries

A Southern Railway Shippers Guide from 1916 does not have any record of an industry at Ore Hill using the A&Y for delivering and receiving products by rail; however, the ICC valuation map lists Ore Hill Mfg. Co. A Google Books search resulted in showing Volume 26 of the Bulletin of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture (1905) which documents that this company shipped “7,500 dozen double seat cane chairs.” According to the Chatham history web site above, 500 gallons of water daily was shipped from the Springs to customers by the railroad.

Odds and Ends

Thanks to Jim and Bev Williams for the reference to the Chatham County Historical Association with the history of Ore Hill and Mt. Vernon Springs. If you know anything more about this area or the businesses and industries that might have used the railroad for shipping or receiving products, please let me know.