Boiling down their ashes to black salts

In November 1843 a man named Miller began building an ashery a few rods west of one of the hotels in Fort Wayne. The editor of the Sentinel reported it that week. "This is a new branch of business," he wrote, and one that promised to be of incalculable advantage to the new settlers in the heavy timbered land around the town.

The name of the hotel is lost. What is left before the word "House" is one broken letter.

The rest of the paragraph survives well enough to read.

The ashes, the editor wrote, would more than half pay the expense of clearing the land. Three asheries were already at work. A considerable quantity of pot and pearl ashes had been shipped from the town that season. Preparations were being made for the manufacture of saleratus. And "several farmers have provided themselves with kettles for the purpose of boiling down their ashes to black salts."

"This business of making ashes," the editor wrote, "has opened a new field of wealth" to the settlers, "and will be the means of bringing much money into the country."

The buyers were already advertising. On 17 June 1843 Hamilton & Williams offered "the highest price for any quantity of Black Salts." By December a second store was buying them. In February 1844 a merchant named A. B. Miller told the public he had "commenced the manufacturing saleratus," and would take black salts and ashes on the most favorable terms. By May a firm called Smith & Co. was "manufacturing a superior article of Saleratus," and wanted "Ashes, Black Salts and Scorchings at all times."

Miller wanted more than anyone. In March 1845 his advertisement ran under a numeral set in large type: "100 Tons Black Salts and 15,000 Bushels of Ashes wanted for which the highest price will be paid by A. B. MILLER."

The Sentinel's weekly price list carried black salts between flour and beeswax. In November 1845 they fetched $1.50 to $2.00. In March 1847, a week when the roads were so muddy that little produce came in, $1.75 to $2.00. By November 1847 they stood at $2.75 to $3.00. The paper never printed the unit.

Not every family had a kettle. In October 1846 Miller offered "Eight Cents in trade for all good house ashes delivered at his Ashery." The next year he took the store and ashery at New Haven, and advertised for six good wood choppers.

Moses Drake, Jr., kept a store at No. 3, Jones's Block. In May 1850 he was selling saleratus at 4½ cents wholesale and 6¼ cents retail. In September 1851, signing himself Captain, he advertised "CASH paid for Wheat, Rye, Corn, and Black Salts."

The advertisements thin after that. In October 1854 F. H. Tyler asked for "any quantity of good Black Salts," to be delivered at his saleratus factory. It ran three weeks. It is the last call for black salts in any Sentinel that survives from 1841 to 1860.

By April 1855 a wholesale grocer was advertising "Pure Saleratus of the best Brands, in bbls. and hlf. barrels." In October 1857 Peter P. Bailey offered to let a grain warehouse, an ashery, a candle factory and a saleratus factory, all on the north side of the canal, separately or together. Nobody advertised for ashes.

The Sentinel had already said where one of the old asheries went. In April 1855 the editor reported that the gas company "have purchased Drake's old ashery at the north side of the Barr Street Bridge, and the adjoining lot, for the purpose of erecting their works. The old building is now being removed."

"By next winter," he wrote, "we shall have the gas introduced among us."