Lime Production and the Railroads
Rail cars awaiting loading at Marblehead spur, January 2011,
Railroads were the life blood of industrial expansion in the United States in the last half of the 19th and well into the 20th Century. The lime industry in Wisconsin and elsewhere was certainly no exception, relying on railroads to ship their products to far flung markets.
Access to railroads for lime product shipment to local and regional customers was critical to starting a business, and for remaining competitive. In this blog post we will examine how this played out at one of Wisconsin’s largest lime producing regions—the plants at Marblehead just south and east of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Kilns were producing lime in the Marblehead area by the mid 1860’s and possibly earlier. The first recorded lime operation was a single pot kiln operated by Joseph Foxen in the mid-1860’s. At this time, the Nast family immigrated from Mecklenburg Germany, stopping first in the Taychedah area, and then establishing a farm in what was to become Marblehead.
The Nast Brothers, August and William, assisted Joseph Foxen in the production in lime, and soon took over the operation of the single pot kiln. This was the first step in what was to become one of the major producers of lime and limestone products with the establishment of the Nast Brothers Lime and Stone company in 1872 and ultimately the Western Lime and Stone company in 1886.
The first lime kilns, like the pot kiln operated by Joseph Foxen, produced lime for use in the local area. At this time many towns and settlements had their own small operation, mostly with a single kiln meeting their needs. By the 1870’s, shaft kilns became more common, and produced a larger quantity of lime. The Nast Brothers, like others at this time, produced lime for mostly local use, though they did make shipments to customers as far away as Oshkosh.
Sometime after the completion of a railway line between Fond du Lac and Milwaukee in the 1850’s, lime products shipments by rail had begun. By the end of the 19th century, lime producers were constructing larger facilities, producing greater quantities of lime to serve a regional customers As these operations could supply a wider area with less expensive product most small community lime production became uneconomical and ceased business.
Rail shipments from Union Lime Plant 1901, High Cliff, Wisconsin
Getting access to and controlling access to the railroads gave companies a major economic advantage over other producers. In Marblehead a railspur from the nearby Chicago and Northwestern line served several producers, including the Nast Brothers operation and the Union Lime company.
When Herman Nast, the son of William Nast, decided to open his own plant (Eden Independent Lime) around 1909, it was necessary for him to petition the railroad to allow access to this railspur. The railroad commission conducted hearings on the matter, with the Union Lime and the Nast Brother’s operation objecting to granting access and connection to this spur. Their claim was that they owned the trackage, and therefore had a say in who could be given access.
After the hearings, the railroad commission determined that the Chicago Northwestern railroad actually paid for the construction of the spur, not the lime companies. The commission found in favor of Herman Nast and the Eden Independent Lime company, and access to the railroad was granted, and the short section of track laid. The railroad commission’s report can be read at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Opinions_and_Decisions_of_the_Railroad_C/lrpGAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=eden+independent+lime+and+stone&pg=PA233&printsec=frontcover
After all the legal wrangling, production of lime from the single shaft kiln built by Eden Independent was very short-lived. In fact only one of the two planned kilns was built, and it only produced a single carload of lime before operations ceased.
By 2003, the rail line from from West Bend north to Eden was abandoned and the rails pulled. In 2021, the Canadian National Railroad continues to operate the line from Fond du Lac to the Marblehead plant. Today, over one-half of all the production at the plant is shipped by rail, carrying on a tradition nearly a century and a half old.