Paulding County Pedigree: Black Salts
From the Progress of April 15, 1998. By Caroline Zimmerman.
One of the pioneer industries of Paulding Co. was the manufacture of black salts. Ashes were gathered into barrels in which holes had been drilled near the bottom. Water was poured into the ashes making a strong lye. This lye was boiled down until black crystals or “black salts” were formed.
Such an “ashery” was started on small scale on the creek bank at the east edge of Payne. In the early days of its history, it consisted of only a furnace and a large boiler and vat in a small shed, and a few ash hoppers. At this time only black salts were made. Originally operated by David Malott, it was sold to Michael Englehart, brother to the owner of the Paulding ashery. Improved machinery was installed for making potash from the lye.
(This ashery and its “Bandy” Englehart proprietor are also described from a different angle in this archive’s “Paulding County’s Past” entry, under “The Potassium Factory.”)
The lye was boiled down to a thick syrup when it was dipped into cooking pans. At this stage it had a red flame-like appearance. When cold, it was very hard and heavy and packed into barrels for shipment and was so heavy three men were required to load it on a wagon.
The potash was then sold as high as $28 a barrel. Potash being a vegetable alkali in an impure state, procured from the ashes of plants (tree vegetation).
It was lucrative for the local children to sell the ashes accumulated in the ash barrel or box at homes in the area, because everyone burned wood. Also, the “Ash Man” would make rounds to buy ashes from 3 cents to 8 cents a basket. Ashers were gathered from near and far, from saw mills, from burned log heaps, from factories, stores and even from some homes.
And “ashery” was a long, low and ramshackle building, which disappeared with the timber industry.
In a dozen short years, the heavily forested acres of Benton and Harrison Townships had been laid bare like a “plucked chicken,” leaving the blackened stumps like “pinfeathers of a barred rock rooster.”
The major sources of income for the early settlers were products produced from Paulding County timber. The manufacture of black salts was one product of days gone by.
The following poem was taken from the centennial souvenir booklet “The Progress of Paulding County 1839-1939”:
PAYNE
First they called it Flatrock city, But this did not remain For it was changed to Malottville. And then they called it Payne.
Her lands were rich and seeds would grow And soon the farmers came, And now the stock years of the town Have reached the point of fame.
It ever was a thriving town, A fitting place to be; That is the reason Payne has grown Says county history.
Do you have a PAULDING CO. PEDIGREE or even a tiny root? If so, please send your queries to PAULDING CO. PEDIGREE, c/o Caroline Zimmerman, 7292 Road 176, Antwerp, Ohio 45813-9503.
The first export cargo of the county was said to have been 25 raccoon skins, eight deer pelts, 10 pounds of dried ginseng and a pair of venison hams, loaded into a canoe by a squatter at some point in the northern part of Emerald Township, and shipped down the Maumee to Defiance. The cargo was valued at about $25 or $30, according to the 1892 Historical Atlas of Paulding County, Ohio.