USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 30
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At that time the number of manufacturing establishments in Belleville was 260, employing capital to the extent of $2,573,648. The value of manufactured products was $3,766,988. In East St. Louis the number of manufacturing establishments of all kinds was 183, in which capital amounting to $10,466,412 was invested. The total value of manufactured products was estimated at $33,559,611. The total number of manufacturing establishments St. Clair County was 597; capital invested, $15,639,845; value of products, $41,965,632.
The census tables contain no classified state- ment of manufactures in any city or town in St. Clair County except East St. Louis. These enterprises in different lines were enumerated as follows: Blacksmithing and wheelwright- ing, nine; boots and shoes, custom work and repairing, fourteen; bread and other bakery products, nine; carpentering, twenty-five; car- riage and wagon-making, three; cars and gen- eral shop construction, and repairs by steam railroad companies, five; clothing, men's cus- tom-work and repairing, eleven; foundries and machine shops, three; lumber and planing mills, including sash, doors and blinds, three; millinery, custom-work, three; mineral and soda waters, three; painting, house, sign, etc., fifteen; paper hanging, three; paving and pav- ing materials, five; photography, three; plumb- ing and gas and steam-fitting, five; printing and publishing, newspapers and periodicals, five; roofing and roofing materials, three; saddlery and harness, three; tinsmithing, cop- per-smithing and sheet-iron working, seven;
tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, four; watch, clock and jewelry repairing, eight; all other industries, thirty-four.
The Adolphus Busch Glass Manufacturing Company was purchased from the city of Belle- ville' fifteen years ago by Mr. Busch, who is now the President of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. In this establishment are manufactured beer and soda bottles, and about 615 men are employed. The factory is run- ning for ten months of the year, and the ca- pacity is 25,000 gross per month.
A new mill, at a cost of $50,000, lias been erected at Freeburg by the Freeburg Milling Company during the past year, and put in op- eration in the latter part of 1906.
Some additional facts relating to manufac- turing industries will be found in connection with the history of towns and villages.
CHAPTER XXII.
COAL DEPOSITS, MINES AND QUARRIES.
ST. CLAIR COUNTY AS A COAL-MINING REGION- REYNOLDS' ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST DISCOVERY --- USES OF COAL, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MANUFAC- TURING ENTERPRISES-EXTENT AND QUALITY OF THE COAL MEASURES-PRINCIPAL MINING LOCALI- TIES-MINES AND MINE OPERATORS OF 1880 AND 1904 - OIL DISCOVERY - LIME AND BUILDING STONE-CEMENT-FIRE AND POTTER'S CLAYS.
St. Clair County has building stone and other stone in great variety, clays, coal and unde- veloped seams of iron. Her manufacturing in- dustries are increasing in importance and in the value of their productions. The hum of machinery and the thunder of railway trains proclaim that within her borders labor is king.
DISCOVERY OF COAL .- Governor Reynolds, in his sketch written in 1857, says coal was dis- covered in this county in the following man- ner: "A citizen of the American Bottom dis- covered smoke issuing from the ground for weeks together, which attracted his attention. He saw the coal in the bluff on fire, and sup- posed it had caught from the dry roots of a tree ignited by a prairie fire. The fire had communicated to the coal from the burning
805
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
wood. Soon after this, in 1826, the coal trade commenced."
THE OFFICES OF COAL .- Truly has it been said that coal is to the world of labor what the sun is to the natural world-the great source of light and heat, with their innumerable bene- fits. lc furnishes the power that evolves the spirit of steam from water, which, in turn, drives the wheels of industry. It weds the rough, uncouth ores of the mountains to the various arts devised by man's genius. Coal fixes the status of Belleville and East St. Louis as manufacturing centers. Above the coal beds is land unsurpassed for the production of wheat ready to be converted into flour by means of this fossilized sunshine of bygone ages. Hard by are Missouri's mountains of iron-her vast fields of lead and zinc-ready for the processes of the artisan.
COAL MEASURES .- Under three-fourths of the surface of St. Clair County, especially in the central and eastern parts, coal is found. Sev- eral seams have been developed, the thickest of which-that at Freeburg-measures eleven feet. That outcropping in the river bluff and along the western boundaries of the coal fields, in the southwestern part of the county, is near- ly as thick. The dip, though very moderate, is to the east; therefore, the coal lies deepest in the mines near the eastern boundary line of the county.
In the shaft at Summerfield, commencing im- mediately below the drift clays, are the fol- lowing strata:
Ft. In.
Bituminous shale (No. 3 coal ?).
3
Fire clay.
Gray shale and sandstone.
35
..
Sandstone and shales.
90
.
Coal No. 2?
4
Conglomerate with ferruginous peb- bles
4
Fire clay ..
1
Clay shale (soapstone)
10 to 12
Coal
Fire clay.
8
Gray shales
20
Limestone
4
6
Gray and variegated shales.
35
Limestone
8
Black and Gray shales.
25
..
Coal No. 1 C ?.
4
Opinions differ about classifying coal No. 1 C., because of the singular thickening of the shales between it and the limestone that ordinarily forms the roof of the coal, and the comparative thinness of the coal itself, which is hard and heavily impregnated with the sulphuret of iron,
in which it resembles coal No. 1 B. Some classify it as No. 1 B, considering No. 1 C to be occupied by the black shale immediately be- low the eight feet limestone.
Near Belleville we find the following strata:
Ft.
In.
Compact bluish gray limestone. 4 to 8
. .
Sandy shales
10 to 15 . .
Limestone and calcareous shales. 5 to 15 . .
Bituminous shale (local)
1
..
Coal, Belleville seam (No. 1 C).
5 to 7
Clay shale (local)
1
Nodular argillaceous limestone
4 to 8
Shales
5 to 10
Brown argillaceous limestone.
4
Bituminous shales. 3 to 5
Coal No. 1 B.
3
Clay shale, passing into sandy shale .. 20 to 30 Bituminous shale ... 2 to 3
Coal No. 1 A. 1
6
Fire clay ...
2 to
3
. .
Conglomerate sandstone (local). 5 to 8
These beds form a continual outcrop from their first appearance in the river bluffs, about a mile and a half below Centerville Station to the north line of the county.
The Belleville Coal Seam, No. 1 C, was the first one ever worked in the State, and was the principal one in 1880. Its natural outcrop along the bluffs so near St. Louis early made its value evident; so it was worked in open trenches and by tunneling into the seam along the face of the bluffs sometime before any one ever suspected how far to the east it extended. The limestone roof above it made its operation safe and economical. At intervals, pockets of slate are found between the limestone and the coal, thick and strong enough to make a roof without the limestone. This, however, occurs only here and there. The upper two layers of coal are not more than two feet thick; but they are of purer quality and bring a higher price than the coal below, which is charged with sulphuret of iron. Below this coal is usually found a nodular argillaceous limestone; but sometimes it lies between regular layers of limestone. The limestone above the coal is quite fossiliferous, and some fine specimens have been found in the mines at Caseyville, Belleville and Pittsburg. The shale above this limestone contains fossils, fish, teeth and the like. It is overlaid with another limestone which is quarried for building-stone. The lat- ter is brownish-gray, rather argillaceous, and more regularly bedded than the limestone im- mediately above the coal-seam.
About half a mile east of Freeburg, on Jack's
6
Hard limestone (fossiliferous). 5
806
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
Run, is a fine exposure of the strata above the Belleville quarry rock, showing strata in the following succession :
Ft.
In.
Shale and sandstone (the latter mica-
35
.
Gray shale ..
20
. .
Blue clay-shale with bands of iron ore.
15
. .
Coal
4
Clay shale .
3
·
Shaly-gray limestone.
1
6
Argillaceous strata ..
3
Hard gray limestone
(Belleville
Quarry rock)
10
Descending below this limestone we find:
Ft. In.
Ferruginous shale. 8
Bands of hard arenaceous limestone ..
1
..
Shale (irregular)
10
.
Hard gray limestone.
Bituminous shale (local) 1
.
Coal (Belleville) 7 to 11
About three miles southeast of Freeburg surface coal seven feet thick is presented, which, beyond its exposure is covered two feet deep with shale. Several miles to the south, this seam is worked by horizontal drifts on the hill-sides.
At the Alma shaft, the coal was found 170 feet below the surface with eleven feet of black shale and limestone above it. Above this are seventeen feet of shale and sandstone, then a limestone representing the Belleville quarry rock. The dip of the coal is toward the east, but does not exceed six feet to the mile.
Bituminous coal is by far the most import- ant mineral resource of the county. The seams already partly developed will doubtless supply the demand for many years. Below these seams other deposits will very probably be found to exist; hence we may only vaguely es- timate the enormous possibilities of this in- dustry.
ANALYSIS OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY COAL.1-In this connection the following figures will be found interesting and instructive:
BELLEVILLE MINES-VARIOUS OPENINGS.
Specific gravity. 1.293
Loss in coking.
45.0
Total weight of coke. .55.
100.00
ANALYSIS.
Moisture 5.5
Volatile matters. 39.5
Carbon in coke. 49.6
1By Henry Pratten, geologist and chemist.
Ash (gray) 5.4
100.00
Carbon in coal.
.54.6
CASEYVILLE MINES.
Specific gravity 1.304
Loss in coking 39.8
Total weight of coke. 60.2
100.00
ANALYSIS.
Moisture 6.0
Volatile matters. 33.8
Carbon in coke. 55.2
Ash (pale red) 5.0
100.00
Carbon in coal.
55.3
OPERATORS OF A QUARTER-CENTURY AGO .- In 1880 the following named operators were work- ing the mines here designated: Abby Coal Company, Abby No. 1, Abby No. 2; Bartlett Coal Company, Bartlett; Gartside Coal Com- pany, Alma No. 1, Alma No. 2; Gourood, New Pit, No. 3; Herring & Company, Bennett's; Morris & Company, Nichols; G. F. Savitz, Van Curtis, St. Clair, Union; G. F. Schmidt, Hum- boldt; Grantz & Company, Brown; C. Reinicke, two Reinicke mines; Philip Dish, I. & S .; Adam Ogden, Enterprise; Ed. Avery & Company, Birkner, Emmet, Dutch Hollow; E. W. Harris, Excelsior, Victor; Koehlbe Bros., Vulcan; D. Knechte, Knechte's; Pollack Coal Company, Pollack; D. Rentchler, Rentchler's; North Western Company, North Western; Green Mound Company, Green Mound; Maul & Ga- not, Maul's; James Beatty, Beatty, Beatty No. 2; Western Coal Company, Western; Henry Taylor, Great Western, Taylor; Hazard Wilson & Company, New Pit, Rose Hill; Yoch Bros., Johnston Yoch's; Schurman Brothers, Schur- mann; John Beard, Union, Briar Hill; Green- field Coal Company, Greenfield; A. Branden- berger, Brandenberger; Freeburg Coal Com- pany, Freeburg; Rout & Simpson, Coalshaft; Donk & Tijon, White Oak; Kennedy Coal Com- pany, Summit; William Skellett, Skellett; Donk Bros., New Drift; Daucer & Kethner, Wil- derman; Heinrich Bros., Heinrich's; Donk & Baker, Dudley; Gelwicks & Richards, West's; J. Brosius, Brosius; Bennett Coal Company, Bennett; Hartmann & Company, Hartman; John Kloess, Kloess.
OPERATORS OF TODAY .- St. Louis & O'Fallon Coal Company, No. 1, Belleville; Royal Coal
ceous)
807
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
Company, Royal, Belleville; Muren Coal & Ice Company, No. 1, Belleville; Walnut Hill Coal Company, Belleville; Kolb Coal Company, No. 1, Mascoutah; Superior Mining Company, No. 1, Belleville; Madison Coal Company, No. 7, Belleville; Joseph Taylor Coal Company, Tay- lor, O'Fallon; Glendale Coal & Mining Com- pany, No. 1, Belleville; Missouri & Illinois Coal Company, Rentschler, Belleville; Dutch Hollow Coal Company, Oakland, Belleville; Borders Coal Company, No. 1, Marissa; Kolb Coal Com- pany, Vinegar Hill, Mascoutah; Valley Coal & Mining Company, East St. Louis; Daniel Zil- dorph, Marissa, Marissa; Joseph Taylor, Men- tor, O'Fallon; Oak Hill Coal Company, Belle- ville; Eureka Coal Company, Eureka, Marissa; Dutch Hollow Coal Company, Randle, Free- burg; Summit Coal Company, Belleville; Tirre Coal & Mining Company, Lenzburg; Belleville & O'Fallon Coal Company, Belleville; Lebanon Coal & Mining Association, Lebanon; O'Fallon Coal Mining Company, Darrow, O'Fallon; Con- solidated Coal Company, Shawnee, Belleville; Johnson Coal Company, O. K., Marissa; George Hippard, No. 1, Belleville; Joseph Guest & Sons, Belleville; William Ratigan, Ruby, Casey- ville; Missouri & Illinois Coal Company, Wilder- man, Belleville; Consolidated Coal Company, Green Mountain, Belleville; Consolidated Coal Company, White Oak, Marissa; Consolidated Coal Company, No. 4, Belleville; Missouri & Illinois Coal Company, St. Clair, Belleville; Highland Coal Company, Belleville; Lake Su- perior Coal Company, Branch, Belleville; En- terprise Mining Company, Rentchler; George Hippard, Walnut Valley, Belleville; Dutch Hol- low Coal Company, Advance, Marissa; Glen- dale Coal & Mining Company, No. 2, Belle- ville; Skellett Coal Company, Belleville; Hum- boldt Coal Company, Belleville; Sunlight Coal Company, Freeburg; Consolidated Coal Com- pany, Richland, Belleville; Charles Hortmann, Belleville; Lenz Coal & Mining Company, Har- mony, Belleville; Donk Bros., Coal & Coke Company, Belleville; Pittsburg Mining Com- pany, Belleville; Consolidated Coal Company, Rose Hill, Belleville; Fred Murphy, Belleville: Millstadt Coal Company, Millstadt; Frank Sar- gent, Belleville; Joseph Taylor, St. Ellen, O'- Fallon, Dutch Hill Coal Company, New Athens; Lenz Coal Mining Company, Shiloh, Belleville; August Edel, Belleville; James Taylor, Belle- ville; Tower Grave Coal Company, Belleville; J. E. Young, French Village; James Beatty,
Mascoutah; Beatty Coal Company, Mascoutah; William Pistor, Millstadt; John Harst, Belle- ville; Georgetown Road Coal Company, Belle- ville; Dietrich Bros., Freeburg; John Marshall, Caseyville; Fred Irwin, Smithton; Benjamin Johnson, Belleville; George Schmidt, Mill- stadt.
FACTS AND FIGURES .- Among the collieries of St. Clair County are several classified among collieries of largest output in the State. More than 3,000 miners are employed in the county. In 1904 these mines delivered coal as follows to railroads for transportation: Illinois Cen- tral, 930,270 tons; Louisville & Nashville, 730,- 922 tons; Southern, 546,819 tons; East St. Louis & O'Fallon Electric, 324,694 tons; Balti- more & Ohio Southwestern, 301,487 tons; St. Louis & Belleville Electric, 231,226 tons; Mobile & Ohio, 12,000 tons. Fifty-five mines produced 3,357,696 tons, shipped 3,077,418 tons, supplied to locomotives at mines 60,271 tons, sold to the local trade 86,049 tons and consumed and wasted at the mines 133,958. The total ouput of all grades of coal was 3,418,469 tons.
RECENT HISTORY .- The St. Louis & O'Fallon Coal Company, Belleville, has sunk a new shaft two miles east of its No. 1 mine and four miles east of French Village. The Western Anthracite Coal Company has bought this prop- erty. This company owns its railroad, the St. Louis & O'Fallon, from its mines to East St. Louis. A new shaft has been sunk by the Prairie Coal Company, of Belleville, on the East St. Louis & Suburban Electric Railroad, four miles west of O'Fallon. The old Alma mine, formerly owned by the Consolidated Coal Com- pany, of St. Louis, on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad, near O'Fallon, has been sold to Yock Brothers, of Belleville, who will introduce electric motors for underground haul- age. The Borders Coal Company, of Marissa, has sunk a No. 2 shaft, on the Illinois Central Railroad, two miles northeast of that village. The Little Oak Coal Company has sunk a shaft on the Southern railway, six miles east of Belleville. The Millstadt Coal Company has worked out its mine at that place. The Donk Bros. Coal & Coke Company has abandoned its mine at Belleville.
The greater part of the coal seam was cut by a fault in the strata, the coal being com- pletely washed out by erosion. A clay roof, remaining, prevented further mining.
OIL DISCOVERY .- It is reported that a small
808
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
vein of oil was struck recently by employes of the Deep Well Water Company, while they were sinking a well on the Dintelmann farm, just south of Belleville. Half a barrel of the oil was taken as a sample and sent to St. Louis for analysis.
LIME AND SANDSTONE. - Besides the lime- stones so far noted in connection with tlie coal, there are higher ones which crop out in only two or three places in the county. The nearest is two miles north of Belleville; the next, at Rock Spring. This stone is unfit for building, as exposure to frost causes it to split into fragments.
Southwest of Belleville, near Centerville Sta- tion, is found a coarse-grained, thin-bedded, gray or brown limestone, belonging to the sub- carboniferous group and containing character- istic fossils. This probably represents the lower limestone division in Randolph County, 600 feet thick there, but only forty feet thick here. Below this limestone, is a much quar- ried sandstone, a liglit brown freestone, even textured, and soft enough to cut or saw into any desirable form, which hardens on expos- ure and makes an excellent building stone.
Beneath, and near to this sandstone, is the "St. Louis Sandstone," a regularly bedded, close-grained stone of lighter color. The up- per part of it is a pure carbonate of lime, used in the manufacture of quick lime. These strata dip northward at an angle of thirty degrees. Near the Monroe County line the brown mag- nesium and semi-volitic limestones that consti- tute the lower division of this group, are ex- posed. Its outcroppings are in the southwest- ern part of the county. At the old lime-kilns, four miles from Centerville Station, it forms a mural cliff sixty to seventy feet high, which continually increases in elevation up to the Falling Springs, where it rises to a height of 115 feet above the level of the Mississippi bottoms.
A study of the many fossils that have been found in this region would be most interest- ing.
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY .- A consideration of what has been learned about the outcroppings of the various strata in this county leads inevit- ably to the conclusion that it is a highly fa- vored region. The quarries of lime and sand- stone furnish materials useful in many ways.
LIMESTONE .- In the river bluffs, near Falling Springs, is quarried the St. Louis Limestone,
good for the manufacture of lime. These quar- ries were opened many years ago, but have been developed very slowly. They have the capacity for furnishing immense quantities of superior lime.
CEMENT .- Cement also has been found on the T. Miller place. The material is a bluish- · gray earthy limestone, and it is quarried by drifting into the bed horizontally along the line of outcrop.
STRUCTURAL STONE .- Much building-stone is found in the county, especially in the Center- ville neighborhood. From the William Lark quarries, in T. 1 N., R. 9 W., was obtained the material for Grace Church, in St. Louis, and other durable and ornamental structures. Its coarser layers furnish desirable material for grind-stones. Near here, over-laying this build- ing stone, is a limestone well adapted for flag- ging, for heavy abutments of bridges, cellar walls, pillars, walls of buildings and other massive masonry. It is susceptible of high polish. The pillars of the Belleville court- house were made from material taken from these quarries.
FIRE AND POTTER'S CLAYS .- Fire and potter's clays are abundant in St. Clair County; and the supply promises to equal the demand for it. Clays suitable for manufacturing common stoneware have been developed and wrought into various patterns. They are found along with coal, and taken from the same shafts with little extra trouble.
CHAPTER XXIII.
LAND GRANTS - GOVERNMENT SURVEYS.
LAND SYSTEM OF EARLY FRENCH SETTLERS - VILLAGE COMMUNITIES-FRENCH COMMONS SYS- TEM-NO LAND GRANTS MADE UNDER ENGLISH DOMINION-AMERICAN LAND GRANTS-MILITARY AND OTHER GRANTS BY VIRGINIA AND BY ACTS OF CONGRESS-GRANTS TO SETTLERS BY TERRI- TORIAL GOVERNORS - MILITIA AND HEAD-RIGHT GRANTS UNDER ACT OF CONGRESS OF 1791-LAND TITLE LITIGATION-GOVERNMENT LAND SURVEYS.
The first settlement at Cahokia was made by French Canadian missionaries perhaps as early as 1680, though some writers state with as-
Charles Bloedde
=
809
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
surance, that it could not have been before 1700.1 The Catholic church, about 1722, was granted by Louis XIV. of France, a tract of land near four French leagues square, located about the mouth of the Little Cahokia. The church granted to each bona fide settler a house lot in the village, a barn lot and an arpent of land in the common fields. The land not thus taken up constituted "the commons"-that is, a tract in which the villagers had a common right to the forest, the pasturage, the chase and the fisheries within its limits-in other words, the right to its use belonged to the people in common.
Individual grants were also made. Under the French system the lands were granted without any pecuniary consideration, those who wanted it satisfied the authorities that the lands were wanted for actual settlement, or for a purpose likely to be advantageous to the community. The first grant. of land of which there is any record was made to Charles Danie, May 10, 1722. The French grants at Kaskaskia extended from river to river; at other places
in the Bottom, usually from the river to the . French settlement on the Wabash to Bartholo- Bluff. Grants of land were made for almost all the American Bottom, from the upper limits of the common field of St. Phillip's to the lower line of the Kaskaskia common field, a distance of about thirty miles. These grants were very narrow. Of course all arrangements for living were made with the idea of common protection. Not only were the houses built close together, but their fields were so arranged that a man at work in any one of them could be within hailing distance of several other men. In case of sudden attack, he could immediately summon help. mew Tardiveau, Judge of the Common Pleas Court at Cahokia, to act as their agent before Congress for the purpose of demanding and ob- taining for them the confirmation of their ancient rights and further grants. In 1788, Congress directed that a donation be given to each of the families then living at Cahokia and certain other settlements. These were known as "head right" claims. Governor St. Clair, in 1790, issued a proclamation directing the in- habitants to exhibit their titles and claims to lands that they held, in order that their title to ownership might be confirmed. When a title was proven an order for resurvey at the claim- ant's expense was issued. This expense the French claimants were too poor to pay. A memorial bearing the signature of P. Gibault,
No LAND GRANTS UNDER ENGLISH DOMINION. -In a broad sense, there were no land grants under the English regime. But the British commandants exercised the privilege of making grants of land subject to the approval of the king; but, for the most part, these grants did not interfere with the French laws. However, in order to further their plans, the British officers at times destroyed some records of old French grants at Kaskaskia. Colonel Wilkins granted to Philadelphians 30,000 acres between Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher, much of which was already covered by French grants previously made. Later, this grant was as-
signed by Gen. John Edgar, and Edgar deeded a moiety of it to Governor St. Clair's son, Mur- ray. Eventually the Governor patented the whole tract to these two, and the grant was confirmed by the United States. When Virginia ceded Illinois, it was agreed that the French and Canadian inhabitants and settlers, pro- fessing fealty to Virginia, should have their titles confirmed to them. Great dissatisfaction was felt under English rule, and many settlers gave up their homes and emigrated west of the Mississippi.
LAND GRANTS BY AMERICANS .- The United States Government, by an act of Congress, ap- proved October 20, 1783, confirmed the old French grants made to individuals, and in- structed the Governor of the Territory to ex- amine alleged titles to such grants, whence arose the class of titles known as "Governor's" confirmations." The laws of Virginia granted so-called improvement rights of 400 acres each to actual settlers. October 7, 1787, the power of attorney was given by the people of the
priest at Kaskaskia, and eighty-seven others, was presented to the Governor, praying him to petition Congress for relief in the matter. In 1791 Congress provided that 400 acres of land should be granted to every head of family who had made improvements in Illinois previous to 1788. This was done incidentally in connection with action looking to the furtnerance of set- tlements at Vincennes and in the Illinois Country.
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