THE MINES AND MINING RESOURCES OF OHIO.
By ANDREW ROY, Late State Inspector of
Mines.
Page 110
ANDREW ROY was born in Lanarkshire,
Scotland, in 1834. He attended school until he was eight years of age and then
went to work in the coal mines. When he was sixteen his
father and family moved to America and settled in the coal regions of Maryland.
Young remained with his parents a few years and then went west, working in the
mines of a number of Western States. In 1860, together with a friend, he was
digging coal in Arkansas. The booming of
the rebel cannon before Fort Sumter shook the woods of that half-savage State.
Roy saw the gathering clouds of civil war and did not hesitate a moment. He threw down his tools, hastened east and
joined a Pennsylvania company of volunteers. He under McClellan in the bloody
battles before Richmond, was shot through the body at
Gaines' Hill and was left as dead by the retreating Federals. The rebels, however, found him yet alive and
sent him back to Libby Prison. In a few months he was paroled, returned home,
had a surgical operation performed on his wound and recovered. He married Janet
Watson in 1864, and a few years later moved to Ohio. After
the dreadful Avondale disaster Mr.
Roy was sent by the miners to Columbus to urge upon the legislature the
necessity of mining laws for Ohio. Governor Hayes appointed him to serve with
two others on a commission to investigate the condition of' the ANDREW ROY,
mines and report the same to the legislature.
The result of the report was the passage of mining laws. Governor Allen
appointed Roy mine inspecting for four years, and Governor Foster did the same.
In 1884 Mr. Roy retired from the office, enjoying the respect of the miners of
the State. During the time he held the
inspector's office he gained a considerable reputation as a geologist. His
efforts on behalf of the miners were unceasing, and he has been called the
father of mining laws in Ohio. He is the
author of several books on coal-mining and frequently contributes articles to
the noted mining journals of the country.
At present (1888) he resides at Glen Roy, a mining
village in Jackson county, Ohio.
_____________________
THE Ohio coal-field is part of the great Appalachian
coal-belt which extends from Pennsylvania to Georgia and which runs through
portions of nine different; States, namely: Pennsylvania, Maryland, West
Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. The State
of Ohio contains about 12,000 square miles of coal-producing strata, the line
of outcrop extending through the counties of Trumbull, Geauga, Portage, Summit,
Medina, Wayne, Holmes, Coshocton, Licking, Perry, Hocking, Vinton, Jackson, and
Scioto. Outliers of coal strata are
found in several counties west and north of this line, but they contain little
coal of any value.
The coal measures of the State, as well as all the rocks of
the geological scale, dip to the east at an average rate of twenty feet to the
mile. Hence the eastern margin of the coal strata in the high land bordering
the Ohio river in the counties of Belmont, Monroe,
Washington and Meigs, attains a thickness of 1,400 to
1,600 feet.
These strata are separated into three divisions by our
geologists and are known as the "lower measures," the "barren
measures," and the "upper measures." The lower measures are
about 550 feet thick, the barren measures 450 to 600 feet thick, and the upper
measures about 600 feet thick.
In the lower measures there are twelve to fourteen
different beds of coal which,
Page 111
in
some portions of the coal-field, rise to minable
height, and also many thin veins of no immediate commercial value. Besides the
workable beds of coal there are numerous seams of iron ore, fire-clay,
limestone, building stone of great extent and value.
In the barren measures there are no seams of coal of minable height that are worked, and but one seam that may
be regarded as a workable vein.
The upper measures hold nine different beds which rise to three feet and upward, the thickest, most extensive,
and by far the most valuable of the series being the lower bed of the series
known as the Pittsburg vein.
In the lower measures the lowest coal, known as No. l in
Dr. Newberry's nomenclature, is extensively mined in the counties of Jackson,
Stark, Summit Mahoning and Trumbull. In
the two last-named counties this coal is now well nigh exhausted. It is known in market as the Briar-Hill coal,
and enjoys a wide reputation as one of the best dry-burning or furnace coals in
the United States.
The vein, as mined, ranges from two to five feet in
thickness, and is met in troughs or basins which are separated from each other
by extensive intervals of barren ground. Hence, while the greater portions of
the townships of Brookfield, Vienna, Liberty and Hubbard, in Trumbull county, and nearly all of the town ships of Mahoning
county, in the Mahoning valley, are underlaid with
coal bearing strata, not one acre m fifty holds the coal where it is due.
Similar conditions exist in Stark and other counties in the Tuscarawas valley
as well as in Jackson county.
The swamps or basins in which this coal reposes are long,
narrow and serpentine, and seem to have been formed by erosive agencies before
the coal flora grew. The rocks underlying the coal are spread out in level
sheets with the normal dip to the east, while the coal itself pitches and waves
sometimes at an angle of twenty-five degrees.
It grows gradually thinner as it rises out of the swamp until, on the
edge of the basin, it disappears as a feather-edge.
The other beds of the lower measures which are in most
active development are the Wellston coal of Jackson county
and the Nelsonville or great-vein coal of the Hocking valley.
The Wellston coal lies about 100 feet above the lower, or
coal No. 1, and is a seam of great purity and value. It is three to four feet
thick, a homogeneous mass, of an open burning character, and is used for
smelting iron in a raw state in the blast furnaces of Jackson county. The greater portion of the output of the mines,
however, is shipped west and north to the vast coalless
regions, and is used for
household purposes and for generating steam.
The Nelsonville or great-vein coal is more extensively
mined than any seam of the series. It is the thickest coal in the State, rising
at many places in the Hocking valley to ten feet or more, and in the great
majority of the mines of the Hocking region the coal is never less than five
and a half feet thick. The bed is met in
three divisions, known as the lower bench, the middle bench, and the upper
bench, these benches being separated by two bands of shale. The lower bench is
about twenty-two inches thick, the middle bench about two feet thick; and the
upper bench from two feet to six feet, according to the height of vein. Where
the seam rises to nine, ten and eleven feet, the unusual height is due to the
union of two seams, a rider of the main seam, two' to three feet thick, coming
down upon the main seam.
There are a dozen districts in the State in which coal is
extensively worked from some one or other of the lower beds of the State
series. These are the Mahoning valley region, the Tuscarawas valley region, the
Salineville region, the Coshocton region? the Dell
Roy or Sherrodsville region, the Cambridge region,
the Jackson region, the Ironton region, the Nelsonville or Hocking valley
region, the Steubenville region, the Zanesville region, and the Dennison
region.
Only one seam is extensively mined in the upper measures:
the Pittsburg seam, which is the coal worked at and around Bellaire and at and
near Pomeroy, both regions being on the Ohio river. On
Wheeling creek, a few miles east of Bellaire, as well as at several points
along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, the Pittsburg vein is also
quite extensively worked, but these districts may properly be included in the
Bellaire region. The coal is opened by
drifts, shafts, and slopes, according to the prevailing "conditions of a
district. Where
Page 112
the
vein is level free it is won by drift mining; but where it lies under cover at
all points it is reached by shafts or slopes.
Slopes are not suited to mine coal at depths exceeding 100 feet, and
shaft mining is the favorite method.
None of the shaft mines of the State exceed 300 feet of
perpendicular depth, and the majority of shaft mines are less than 125 feet
deep. An opinion prevails among mining geologists that the lower coals, which
are due on the Ohio river at Bellaire and Pomeroy 1,000 feet below the surface,
do not exist there, and such practical facts as we have on hand-the result of
boring for salt, oil, and gas seem to encourage that view. There are extensive
wastes or areas of barren ground in all the regions of the State, and it is
never safe to count with absolute certainty on the presence of a seam of coal
at any point of the coal-field until it has been found by prospecting on the
hillside or struck by the driller's chisel in boring. These barren areas are due to a number of
causes, such as water-spaces in the old coal-marsh, water-currents flowing over
the coal vegetation while the peat bogs of the carboniferous age were
undergoing decomposition, and mineralization, etc., etc. The seams are also
liable to thicken up and to dwarf down to a mere trace, when followed from one
county to another.
There are several varieties of coal in the Ohio coal-field,
such as open-burning, or furnace coal, cementing or coking coal, and cannel
coal. The first of these varieties is often used as it comes from the mine for
smelting iron; while the cementing variety has to be converted into coke before
it is fitted for the manufacture of iron, for it melts and runs together in
the act of combustion, forming a hollow fire, and hanging in the furnace.
Cannel coal is smooth and lard, and breaks with a conchoidal
fracture. This variety contains more gas than the ordinary free-burning and
coking kinds. It burns with a bright
flame, and the gas manufactured from it possesses high illuminating power. Cannel frequently changes to the ordinary
bituminous variety, and vice versa.
The development of the coal trade of the State has been
very remarkable. Some of the pioneer miners still survive. Mr. Henry Newberry,
father of Dr. John S. Newberry, the eminent geologist, was one of the pioneer
miners of Eastern Ohio, and made the first shipments to Cleveland in the year
1828, for the purpose of supplying the lake steamboats. A. few years ago the
writer, in publishing this fact in his annual report as State Inspector of
Mines, received the following letter from H. V. Bronson, of Peninsula, who took
the first boat-load to Cleveland:
"PENINSULA, Summit County, Ohio, April 8, 1878.
"ANDREW ROY, ESQ. :
Sir: Not long since I saw in the papers
that in your annual report as State Inspector of Mines you stated that the
first coal shi Hall's, to Cleveland was in the year 1828, and by the late Mr.
Henry Newberry, of Cuyahoga Falls, father of Prof. Newberry, of Cleveland. I
took that coal to Cleveland for Mr. Newberry, it being fifty years ago since it
was done. I was then in the seventeenth year of my age, and have resided in
this place ever since 1824. There were three of us buys on the boat. One of them was about a year my junior, and
now resides in one of the townships of Cuyahoga county,
and became a successful inventor and businessman. The other was then in his
twelfth year, and is now a lawyer, with a lucrative practice, in a beautiful
growing city in an adjoining State. On
the first of' January last 1 made a New Year's call on Prof. Newberry at his
home in Cleveland. A few years ago I presented Prof. Newberry with a lump of
the coal taken from one of the boat-loads of' that coal. As this whole
transaction is somewhat remarkable, I have taken the liberty to write you about
it, especially as we three boatmen are natives of Cuyahoga county.
" Very respectfully,
" H. V. Bronson."
The late President Garfield was a canal boatman from the
mines of Governor David Tod, of Briar Hill,
Youngstown, to Cleveland, when he was a boy of fifteen years of age; and an
accident which occurred to Garfield while on a canal-boat, by which he was
nearly drowned, determined in some degree he believed, by providential
interface. He resolved to become a
scholar, believing that God had destined him some great purpose in life.
The mines of Mahoning valley region were first opened by
Governor David Tod, in the years 1845, at Briar Hill,
and such was the superior quality of the coal that the coal of the Mahoning and
Shenango valley was ever after known.
Page 113
in
market as Briar Hill coal. At Mineral
Ridge, a few miles from Briar Hill, the coal-seam is split in two, the
intercalated material consisting of a seam of black band iron ore, from four to
fourteen inches in thickness. This ore
is mined in connection with the coal, and is used in the blast-furnaces of the
region with the hematite ores of the Lake Superior region, producing a very
superior grade of iron, known in market as American Scotch pig.
The seams of coal and iron ore of the Hocking valley region
were noted by the first white men who visited this country. A map of the
Western country now in the possession of Judge P. H. Ewing, of Lancaster,
Fairfield county, published in the year 1788, notes a
number of sections of coal and iron-ore beds.
The development of the great coal region of the Hocking
valley was due to the construction of the Hocking valley branch of the Ohio
canal. Among the pioneer mine operators of this region was the elder Thomas
Ewing, afterwards United States Senator from Ohio, and a member of President
Lincoln's cabinet. His mines were located at Chauncy,
at Nelsonville. The best market for coal
at that time was the old Neil House, in Columbus. Thomas Ewing, and his associates in
business, Samuel F. Vinton, Nicholas Biddle, and Elihu
Chauncy, also mined salt in the Hocking valley, the
first salt-well of the region being sunk in the year 1831 by Resolved Fuller,
the water yielding ten per cent. of salt.
The Ohio and Mississippi rivers are the greatest and
cheapest coal carriers in the world, and the vast coal-trade development of
these famous streams dates back fifty years. The cost of shipping coal from
Pittsburg to Louisville is only one and three-quarter cents per bushel, or
forty-three and three-quarter cents per ton, the distance being upward of 600
miles. From Louisville to New Orleans, a
distance of 1,400 miles, the freight on coal is two cents per bushel, or fifty
cents per ton, and this includes the return of the empty barges. The lowest
freights charged by railroads is one cent per mile.
In the year 1818 a merchant of Cincinnati made an estimate
for the benefit of Samuel Wyllis Pomeroy, who owned
the coal-lands on which the mines of Pomeroy are now opened, of the amount of
coal then used on the Ohio river between Pomeroy and
the falls of the Ohio.
“I am able," wrote the merchant to Mr. Pomeroy,” to
communicate the following information:
Cincinnati steam-mill consumes annually |
12,000 bushels |
″ iron-foundry ″ ″ |
20,000 ″ |
″ Manufacturing Co. ″ |
5,000 ″ |
″ Sugar Manufacturing Co. ″ |
2,000 ″ |
″ Steam Saw-mill Co. ″ |
5,000 ″ |
In Maysville, used or sold |
30,000 ″ |
″ Louisville, ″ ″ ″ |
30,000 ″ |
″ Dean steam-mill, 100 miles below Cincinnati |
12,000 ″ |
Total |
116,000 ″ |
One of the noted pioneer miners of the Ohio river is Jacob Heatherington of
Bellaire. Mr. Heatherington
is a practical miner of English birth who came to Belleaire
more than half a century ago. He purchased a mule which was named Jack, and
leased three acres of coal-land fronting the Ohio river. Jack did service as a mining mule for thirty
years, during which time Mr. Heatherington prospered
in business. When the faithful mule was no longer able to work his master
turned him out to pasture and with great solicitude watched over his declining
years. When poor Jack fell and was too
old and infirm to rise he was gently raised to his
feet by loving hands, and when death came at last the faithful animal was
buried with great ceremonies. Mr. Heatherington lives
in a fine mansion on the Ohio river, and upon the
keystone of the arch over the hall door has been carved the head of the
faithful mule.
While Governor David Tod was the
pioneer miner of the Mahoning valley, the great coal king of that region is
Chauncey Andrews. The lucrative nature of the coal business of the Mahoning
valley owing to the superior quality of the coal and its proximity to Lake Erie
attracted the attention of Mr. Andrews.
As the
Page 114
coal is at all points in this region below water level and is found in
basins or pots of limited area it has to be located by boring. Mr. Andrews was
unsuccessful for several years, spending many thousand dollars and bringing
himself to the verge of financial ruin. But he continued prospecting until
success rewarded his persevering efforts, and he is now one of the greatest
coal miners in the State, being owner besides of blast furnaces, rolling-mills
and railroads which he has built by his determined perseverance and business
successes. The extraordinary prosperity of Youngstown is due to Chauncey
Andrews more than to all other causes combined.
The space allotted to this article is too brief to include
a sketch of the development of the coal trade, and of the men who were the
pioneer miners of the State. Such a sketch, however, could not fail to be of
great interest to the people of Ohio, for coal is the power upon which the
future wealth and prosperity of the Ohio, will largely
depend.
The manner of mining is the same in every mining
district. Where the coal is level free
it is followed into the hill sides, and the workings are opened up by driving
galleries eight feet wide on the face slips of the coal, which run in a
northerly direction. At intervals of 150
to 200 yards branch galleries are opened of the same width as the main ones,
and the rooms or chambers from which the coal is chiefly mined are opened out
from the side or branch entries. The
rooms are driven forward eight to ten yards wide or eighty to one hundred
yards, pillars or columns of coal being left between the rooms for the support
of the superincumbent strata.
Where the coal is won by shaft mining the same system of
working out the coal obtains as where the seam is level free, but larger
columns of coal are left to keep in place the overlying rocks in deep shafts
than in shallow ones or in drifts or level free openings. Some seams of coal
are more tender than others and larger pillars are
required in consequence. Such seams of
soft coal are less able to resist the overlying pressure than those of a firm and
compact character. As a general rule mining operators aim to take out about 66
per cent. of coal in working forward, and after the workings have been advanced
to the boundary of the plant the pillar coal is attacked in the far end of the
excavation, and as much of the pillar coal mined as can be recovered. When an area of several acres has been all
worked away the roof falls to the floor, and while the rocks are breaking the
whole of the overlying strata appears to be giving way, but the miners continue
at their posts until the crash finally, occurs, when they retreat undismayed
under the protection of the unmined pillars. The
pillars bordering the last fall are next attacked and worked out until another
crash comes on, and this method is repeated until the workmen reach the bottom
of the shaft or the mouth of the drift.
If the seam of coal is five or six feet thick and the overlying strata
not more than 150 to 200 feet, great chasms are frequently made on the surface
of the earth directly over the places where the coal has been mined out. Houses and parts of villages are sometimes
involved in the subsidence.
A system of working coal prevails in some of the mining
regions of Illinois and Kansas, of working all the coal out as the miners
advance with the excavations. This plan is known as the long wall system, and
is only practiced in seams of four feet or less in thickness. Where bands of
shale or fire clay are met in the coal and have to be sorted out and thrown
aside in the mine, they are an advantage in long wall working, as they assist
in the construction of the pack walls, which require to be built where the
miners are at work. While long walk mining
has many warm advocates among practical miners in Ohio this system has never
obtained a permanent foothold in the State.
Several of our coal seams are well adapted to long wall working.
In excavating the coal a groove or undercut is made in the
bottom of the bed three to six feet in depth, along the width of the room. A hole is then bored in the coal with a drill
having a bit about two inches wide. A
charge of powder is inserted in the hole proportioned to the necessity of the
case, when the powder is tightly tamped and the blast set off. The miner
generally loads all the coal in the car as he breaks it down in his room, and
after it is raised to the surface it is formed into lump, nut and slack as it
passes over the screens into the railroad cars at the pit mouth, the lump coal
falling into one car, the nut coal into another
Page 115
and
the slack into still another, and thus assorted the various grades are
shipped to market.
The capacity or output of the mines of the State varies
greatly. Thick coals are capable of a greater daily output than thin seams, and
as a general rule drift mines possess greater advantages for loading coal
rapidly than shaft openings. In many of the mines of the great vein region of
the Hocking valley the capacity is equal to 1,200 to 1,500 tons per day. In
shaft mines 600 to 700 tons daily is regarded as a good output.
The first ton of coal in a shaft mine 100 feet in depth and
having a daily capacity of 600 tons frequently costs the mining adventurer
upwards of $20,000, and cases are on record where owing to the extraordinary
amount of water in sinking, $100,000 have been expended before coal was
reached. Drift mines, as they require no machinery for pumping water and
raising coal, cost less than half the amount required in shaft mining.
Water is, however, an expensive item in drift mines opened
on the dip of the coal, and underground hauling under such conditions is
unusually costly, particularly if horses or mules are used. Many mining
companies use machinery instead of horse-power, and this is always true
economy.
Two plans obtain where machinery is used, namely, by small
mine locomotives and by wire ropes operated by a stationary engine located
outside or at the bottom of the mine. Locomotives are objectionable owing to
the smoke they make, though under the management of a skilled mining engineer
who is master of the art of mine ventilation, the smoke from a mine locomotive
can he made quite harmless.
Three gases are met in coal mines which make ventilation a
paramount consideration. These gases are known among miners as fire damp, black
damp and white damp. Fire damp is the
light carburetted hydrogen of chemistry, and when
mixed with certain proportions of atmospheric air explodes with y, great force
and violence, producing the most dreadful consequences. Black damp is carbonic
acid, and white damp is carbonic oxide gas. They are formed by blasting, by the
breathing of men and animals, and they escape from the coal and its associate
strata. Fire damp is seldom met in
alarming quantities in drift or shallow shaft mines, and as our mines in Ohio
are all less than three hundred feet below the surface, few explosions of a
very destructive nature have yet occurred in the State. Black damp is the chief annoyance in Ohio
mines.
There is an excitement in coal mining as there is in every
branch of mining the useful and precious metals. Few men who go into the coal business ever
turn their backs upon it afterwards. And, indeed, there are few failures in
coal mining enterprises, while nearly every adventurer grows rich in time.
Until the year 1874 there was no attempt made to collect
the statistics of the coal production of the State. In that year the General
Assembly created the office of State Inspector of Mines, and the inspector
published in his annual reports from the best data obtainable a statement of
the aggregate annual output, beginning with the year 1872. For several years after the enactment of the
law creating the Department of Mines operators were unwilling to furnish the
mine inspector with a statement of the output, and as the law did not require
this to be done, the statistics were generally estimates based on the returns
made to the mine inspector by such companies as chose to report the product of
their mines. In 1884, however, the law was so amended as to require all the
mining firms in the State to report the product of coal, iron ore and
limestone, and the annual output of these minerals is now more accurate and
valuable than formerly.
Years |
Tons |
Years |
Tons |
1872………… |
5,315,294 |
1880……… |
7,000,000 |
1873………… |
4,550,028 |
1881……… |
8,225,000 |
1874………… |
3,268,585 |
1882……… |
9,450,000 |
1875………… |
4,864,259 |
1883……… |
8,229,429 |
1876………… |
3,500,000 |
1884……… |
7,650,062 |
1877………… |
5,250,000 |
1885……… |
7,816,179 |
1878………… |
5,500,000 |
1886............ |
8,434,211 |
1879………… |
6,000,000 |
1887……… |
10,301,708 |
Page 116
Counties |
Lump |
Nut |
Total 1886 |
Total 1887 |
Perry………… |
1,346,131 |
261,535 |
1,607,666 |
1,259,592 |
Athens………. |
766,411 |
132,635 |
899,046 |
832,129 |
Jackson……… |
717,516 |
139,224 |
856,740 |
791,608 |
Hocking……... |
637,224 |
104,347 |
741,571 |
656,441 |
Stark………… |
519,992 |
73,430 |
593,422 |
391,418 |
Belmont…….... |
462,252 |
111,527 |
573,779 |
744,446 |
Guernsey…....... |
349,503 |
84,297 |
433,800 |
297,267 |
Columbiana…... |
268,465 |
67,598 |
336,063 |
462,733 |
Mahoning…….. |
251,515 |
61,525 |
313,040 |
275,944 |
Jefferson……... |
242,051 |
33,615 |
275,666 |
271,329 |
Tuscarawas…... |
212,362 |
55,304 |
267,666 |
285,545 |
Medina………. |
223,747 |
28,664 |
252,411 |
152,721 |
Carroll……….. |
184,095 |
32,535 |
216,630 |
150,695 |
Meigs………... |
165,627 |
26,636 |
192,263 |
234,765 |
Trumbull…….. |
162,311 |
26,200 |
188,531 |
264,517 |
Lawrence……. |
139,173 |
27,760 |
166,933 |
145,916 |
Wayne.............. |
99,174 |
9,883 |
109,057 |
81,507 |
Muskingum…... |
85,011 |
11,590 |
96,601 |
86,846 |
Summit………. |
70,221 |
12,004 |
82,225 |
145,134 |
Portage………. |
61,273 |
9,066 |
70,339 |
77,071 |
Vinton………. |
49,392 |
10,621 |
60,013 |
77,127 |
Coshocton |
43,361 |
9,573 |
52,934 |
99,609 |
Gallia |
14,862 |
2,562 |
17,424 |
16,383 |
Holmes |
10,491 |
2,179 |
12,670 |
11,459 |
Harrison |
5,132 |
377 |
5,509 |
…….. |
Washington |
4,000 |
1,500 |
5,500 |
5,000 |
Morgan |
4,370 |
…… |
4,370 |
5,536 |
Noble |
3,342 |
…… |
3,342 |
…….. |
Scioto |
…… |
…… |
None repo’d |
2,440 |
|
|
|
|
|
Totals |
7,099,024 |
1,336,187 |
8,435,211 |
7,816,179 |
|
|
|
|
|
The following table gives a summary, in a condensed form of
the tonnage, time worked, employés and casualties in each county in 1887.*
TABLE OF TONNAGE, TIME
WORKED, NUMBER OF MEN, ETC., IN EACH COUNTY IN 1887.
Counties |
Tonnage |
Number of Mines |
Average weeks Worked |
Number of Miners |
Outside Employees |
Accidents |
Fatalities |
Athens |
1,083,543 |
44 |
35 |
2,080 |
318 |
2 |
6 |
Belmont |
721,767 |
54 |
43 |
1,092 |
241 |
6 |
3 |
Columbiana |
516,057 |
57 |
44 |
872 |
185 |
1 |
1 |
Coshocton |
124,791 |
20 |
47 |
219 |
33 |
1 |
.. |
Carroll |
293,328 |
27 |
44 |
533 |
87 |
5 |
.. |
Guernsey |
553,613 |
15 |
31 |
795 |
104 |
5 |
1 |
Gallia |
15,365 |
2 |
40 |
30 |
3 |
.. |
.. |
Holmes |
10,526 |
12 |
40 |
31 |
6 |
.. |
.. |
Harrison |
4,032 |
7 |
.. |
16 |
1 |
.. |
1 |
Hocking |
853,063 |
17 |
31 |
1,389 |
253 |
2 |
3 |
Jackson |
1,135,605 |
64 |
35 |
2,213 |
291 |
5 |
3 |
Jefferson |
293,875 |
20 |
40 |
495 |
94 |
3 |
.. |
PAGE 117 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lawrence |
143,559 |
22 |
42 |
306 |
52 |
1 |
2 |
Meigs |
185,205 |
15 |
8 |
495 |
118 |
.. |
1 |
Muskingum |
171,928 |
73 |
38 |
385 |
91 |
2 |
.. |
Mahoning |
272,349 |
31 |
42 |
642 |
98 |
3 |
1 |
Medina |
225,487 |
9 |
41 |
550 |
61 |
3 |
.. |
Morgan (estimate) |
4,100 |
.. |
.. |
10 |
2 |
.. |
.. |
Noble |
6,300 |
1 |
.. |
8 |
4 |
.. |
.. |
Perry |
1,870,841 |
70 |
34 |
3,008 |
633 |
7 |
5 |
Portage |
65,163 |
3 |
34 |
138 |
35 |
.. |
.. |
Summit |
95,815 |
11 |
38 |
156 |
28 |
3 |
.. |
Stark |
784,164 |
57 |
35 |
1,561 |
253 |
17 |
6 |
Tuscarawas |
506,466 |
47 |
37 |
852 |
149 |
3 |
2 |
Trumbull |
167,989 |
26 |
33 |
533 |
96 |
4 |
.. |
Vinton |
89,727 |
19 |
44 |
200 |
51 |
1 |
.. |
Wayne |
105,150 |
5 |
36 |
261 |
71 |
1 |
1 |
Washington |
1,880 |
1 |
|
7 |
2 |
.. |
.. |
Totals |
10,301,708 |
729 |
913 |
18,870 |
3,360 |
76 |
36 |
The beds of iron-ore associated with the coal-seams of the
Coal Measures are known by the general name of black-band ore, limestone ore,
block ore, kidney ore, etc. Black-band
is a dark gray, bituminous shale with reddish streaks
running through it. It is met in paying
quantities in only two horizons in the State; namely, that of the lower coal of
the series, as has been already stated, and over coal No. 7. In its best development in the mines of the
Mahoning valley it yields a ton of ore to a ton of coal, but one ton of ore to
three tons of coal will be the general average, and it is present in only a few
mines of the valley.
In the Tuscarawas valley, near Canal Dover and Port
Washington, the black band capping coal No. 7 met in basins of limited area.
In the centre of these basins the ore is sometimes met ten to twelve feet in
thickness, but it soon dwarfs to a few inches and disappears entirely. Black-band has been met on other horizons of
the lower Coal Measures, but never of such quality as to justify mining. The
limestone ores, as calcareous and argillaceous carbonates and hydro-peroxides
or linonites, are very abundant and have been mined
for fifty years in the Hanging Rock regions of Ohio and Kentucky. They were the base of the charcoal iron
industries of this famous iron region-an industry which, owing to the growing
scarcity of timber, is fast disappearing forever. The limestone ores derive
their name from being associated with a thick and extensive deposit of gray
limestone which is spread over a greater portion of the counties of Lawrence,
Scioto, Jackson and Vinton, in Ohio, and the counties of Greenup, Boyd and
Carter, in Kentucky. The iron made from
this ore has always held a front rank in market, the cold-blast iron being
particularly prized for the manufacture of ordnance, car wheels and other
castings requiring tough iron.
In the manufacture of charcoal iron the linonite
ore was preferred, and as this ore appeared as an outcrop it was mined by
stripping the overlying cover. The counties constituting the Hanging Rock iron
region on both sides of the Ohio river, along the
horizon of the gray limestone ore, have been worked over in every hill and the
ore stripped to a depth of eight to twelve feet, forming a line of many miles
of terrace work. Since the decline of
the charcoal iron industry the miners have penetrated boldly under cover and
worked away the ore as coal is mined underground. The linonites when
followed under cover change to carbonates, and become less valuable in
consequence. There are six to eight distinct ore horizons in the Hanging Rock
region, but none of these deposits bear com-
____________
* Mine Inspector’s report
Page 118
parison with the gray limestone ore both as regards quality of
mineral and thickness of vein.
The ores of value in the horizons of the Hanging Rock
region are known as the big red block, the sand block and the little red block.
These deposits lie lower in the geological scale than the limestone ore, and
are obtained by stripping. The big red block sometimes rises to eighteen inches
in thickness, but it is generally met in beds of six inches or less. The sand block ore is also less than six
inches thick, and is inferior to the big or little red blocks in quality,
containing less iron and more silica.
The little red block is not more than four inches thick on an average.
These ores are mined in connection with the limestone ore wherever they are
met in paying quality and quantity. They are too thin as a general rule to
follow under cover. Occasionally other seams are met and mined, and a deposit
known as the Boggs, which rises to three and four feet in thickness, but occurs
as a local deposit, is recovered by drift mining.
In most of the coal regions of the State iron ore is mined
to a greater or less extent, the deposits of the Hanging Rock region
reappearing as equivalent strata on the same geological horizons in every part
of the coal-field. The ores have local names, as the coals have local names.
Nowhere is exclusive reliance placed in the native ores of the State in the
manufacture of stone coal iron, the Lake Superior and Iron Mountain ores of the
specular and hematite varieties forming an important
mixture at every blast-furnace, while in several of the iron producing
districts foreign ores are used exclusively.
We have no hematite ore in the Coal Measures of Ohio, although our linonites, which are simply argillaceous carbonates oxydized by the action of the atmosphere, bear some
resemblance to hematite ore. Black band
and clay band ores are the main product of the Coal
Measures. The following is the output of ore for the year 1887, as copied from
the last annual report of the inspector of mining.
Counties |
|
Tons of Black Band |
|
Tons of Clay Band. |
Lawrence |
|
…………. |
|
147,479 |
Vinton |
|
…………. |
|
37,920 |
Jackson |
|
…………. |
|
36,362 |
Tuscarawas |
|
61,595 |
|
………. |
Perry |
|
…………. |
|
27,711 |
Mahoning |
|
21,630 |
|
……… |
Trumbull |
|
4,740 |
|
……… |
Columbiana |
|
………… |
|
7,800 |
Scioto |
|
………… |
|
14,784 |
Hocking |
|
………… |
|
9,118 |
Gallia |
|
………… |
|
8,326 |
Total Tons |
|
87,965 |
|
289,500 |