Monadnock Moment No. 141

Era 6: Development of the Industrial United States -
           1870 to 1900

The Nelson Lead Mine

In 1888 a $1,000,000 stock company known as the Minnesota Plumbago Company was formed in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The purpose of this company was to mine black lead in the town of Nelson, New Hampshire. The chief officers of the company, residents of Minnesota, must have seen great potential in the small Nelson lead mine which they had purchased.

The mine, located near Nelson Center village, had been operated on a small scale for many years. Jacob Seabury, working with eight employees, had taken out 200 tons of black lead worth $5,000 in 1860. The mine had several different owners, including a New York mining company and a St. Louis mining company, before the Minnesota Plumbago Company took over in 1888.

Previous owners had hauled the plumbago to a nearby shed where men broke it into small pieces with sledgehammers. It was then placed in bags and barrels for shipment. The plumbago was either transported to mills in Hillsborough to be ground and shipped to Boston, or shipped in bags by rail from Keene. The mineral was used to make melting pots and lead pencils.

The newspaper headlines of 1888 proclaiming "Nelson Lead Mine Sold to Western Capitalists" must have been very encouraging to residents of the town. The new Minnesota Plumbago Company planned to hire 100 or more men as soon as spring arrived. There is no evidence that the Minnesota Company ever operated the mine, however, and Nelson's black lead mine was abandoned and never reopened.