USA > Illinois > Jo Daviess County > The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States > Part 103
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
Five or six miles north of the New California diggings, the celebrated Marsden lead may be found.
This range is celebrated not only for the amount, but for the variety and beauty of its mineral deposits. Large cubes and diamond-shaped masses of lead ore have been found here, perfectly coated with a beautiful covering of iron pyrites. Galena, black-jack, spar, and iron pyrites, are found in wonderful combinations, furnishing the finest cabinet specimens found any where in the lead region.
The Marsden lead, the New California diggings, the Ambruster & Co. lode, recently discovered, and most of the mineral found along the western limits of the lead field in this county, have certain resemblances, both in the character of the lead ore and its associated minerals, not observed in the mines in the eastern part of the county.
The next important group of ranges to be noticed, is within and im- inediately around the City of Galena.
These ranges and diggings are situated within a circle of about three miles in diameter, of which the City of Galena would be the centre. They are principally on the west half of section 21, the northwest quarter of section 16, the west half of section 9, the northwest quarter of section 28, east fractional section 8-all in township 28, range 1 east, 4th P. M .; and on the east half of section 12, the east half of section 23, the south half of section 13, the north half of section 26, and the east part of section 27- all in township 28, range 1 west, 4th P. M.
The Vinegar Hill,diggings are about five miles north and a little east of Galena.
These are located principally on the fractional sections 14, 15 and 16, on fractional sections 20 and 29, on sections 21, 22 and 23-all in town- ship 29, range 1 east, 4th P. M .; and on the east part of sections 24 and 25, township 29. range 1 west, 4th P. M. On the west part of the last section named, on the northeast corner of section 35, and on the north half of sec- tion 23, in the township and range last aforesaid, there are also groups of diggings not enumerated in the foregoing ranges. The Vinegar Hill mines are among the heaviest in the lead region, if we consider the amount of mineral they have furnished, but they are not now worked to a very great extent.
About three miles east and a little south of Vinegar Hill Diggings, the Council Hill ranges are located. The heaviest ones are situated on the north half of section 25, and the south half of section 24, township 29, range 1 east. They are known as the North Diggings, and cover a tract of about forty-seven acres, on which are over one hundred veins running north- east and southwest. The principal, medium, and smaller shafts, number nearly one thousand. The South Diggings, on the south of the Hill, are of
831
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
small importance. The east half of section 36, township 29, range 1 east, and the west half of section 31, and the south half of section 30, township 29, range 2 east, have upon them diggings, the most important of which is the Rocky Point and Bolt's Lots.
Price .- The following table shows the price of mineral per thousand pounds, for the last sixteen years, as delivered by the miner to the purchaser, at the mouth of the shaft. The ore was always paid for in gold, until the greenback era drove gold out of circulation:
1853
$37
1861
$28
1854.
38
1862
40
1855
32
1863
55
1856
35
1864
75
1857
34
1865
65
1858
29
1866
60
1859
30
1867
60
1860
32
1868
55
Modes of Occurrence .- The crevices, veins and caverns in which the lead ore is found, are all, perhaps, cracks of shrinkage, into which the lead subsequently became deposited. The most common and widely dissemi- nated form in which lead ore occurs, is known among miners as "float mineral." In many places the beds of red ferruginous and orchery clay have scattered through them galena in considerable quantities. It is gen- erally found in small, irregularly-shaped pieces; sometimes in small grains, and sometimes in good sized crystals and chunks. Although widespread in its occurrence, no heavy bodies of mineral are found as float mineral. This form of mineral deposit results from the decomposition of the overlying Galena limestone, and in many cases it has settled down almost in the exact spot where the rock containing it once existed.
The mineral in the rocks occurs in what is known as "gash veins," and takes the forms of cog, dice, chunk, sheet, float, or fibrous mineral, as modi- fied by circumstances. The predominant forms of deposit are the vertical crevices, and their modifications into the flat sheet and flat sheet openings. 'A crevice is a perpendicular or nearly perpendicular opening in the rocks, of varying width and depth. When filled with galena, the deposit is called " sheet mineral." The sheet varies in thickness, from a mere seam tlie thickness of a knife blade, up to three inches or more in thickness. The vertical crevices have a certain well-marked parallelism to each other, and. an approximate north and south and east and west direction. The east and west are, by far, the most fully developed, and contain, by far, the largest deposits of mineral. These crevices are known by the various names of "leads," " lodes," "cracks," "veins," "ranges," and "diggings." 'l'he predominant form of mining in this county is that of the working of the vertical crevices. These are, by far, the most productive, and are char- acteristic of the upper and middle of the Galena limestone. The modifi- cations of the vertical crevice are the crevice opening, pocket opening, chimney opening, and cave opening. They are all produced by the same canses. The crevice opening is an expansion of the crevice to the width of several feet in some instances; the cavity is often filled with red ocher and ferruginous clays, intermixed with loose stones and heavy masses of galena. The pocket openings are a succession of irregularly-shaped small openings in the crevices; the chimney opening is a rather large expansion of the crevice, extending upwards to a point resembling a chimney; and the cave opening is a large crevice opening, widening out into cave-like proportions,
832
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
floored often with stratified clays. In these openings the galena is found lying over the bottom, mixed with the materials with which they are filled, crystallized in blocks or cubes over the walls, and hanging pendant from the roof. Some of the masses of mineral weigh thousands of pounds, and it is said one mass was found in the mines of Captain Harris weighing half a million of pounds, and worth thirty-five thousand dollars.
These various openings are caused by the decay or disintegration of the rock on the sides of the crevices, owing to chemical agencies working round the mineral deposits. If the dirt remains where it was formed, the mineral and nodular masses of the rock will be found imbedded in it; sometimes the dirt has been removed and the lead alone remains. Some- times these openings extend to the surface clays; sometimes they are cov- ered by a cap rock. They often extend into the flint strata, characteristic of the middle and lower portions of the Galena limestone. There are often several crevices, or sets of these various openings, one over the other; often three, sometimes as many as five; but one opening or set of openings is usually larger than the others, and contains the heaviest bodies of mineral.
The flat sheets or flat sheet openings are similar to the vertical, both as to themselves and their modifications, except that they lie flat in the rocks, parallel to their stratification, instead of standing upright. The saddle- shaped openings and pitching openings are but the transition openings from the vertical to the flat. These flat openings are characteristic of the lower parts of the Galena limestone and of the underlying blue and buff limestone, and are not found extensively developed in Jo Daviess County. The " green " or "calico " rock, below the flint beds; the " brown rock " and the "glass rock" are characteristic of the lower Galena limestone, their beds of passage into the blue, and the blue itself. In these occur the pipe clay openings; and in the buff limestone the " lower pipe clay opening " is found. These are flat openings, filled with shaly limestone and a peculiar clay, from which they take their name. These lower flat openings are also peculiar in having inore of the associate mineral deposits, such as tiff, blende, the ores of zinc, etc., than the upper vertical openings.
In this connection, I do not intend to say much as to the origin of the lead ore in the Northwest, nor to speak of the various theories as to the origin and deposition of mineral peposits in general. The question as to the origin of our lead is unsettled, perhaps. J. D. Whitney, the best living authority on the Galena lead basin, believes the galena and its associate minerals were deposited in the aqueous or humid way in the crevices of the rocks, and that the veins were filled from above downwards. This theory supposes that the metals were held in solution in the waters of the primal ocean, in the form of sulphates, and were deposited in crystalline forms in the shape of the sulphurets. The decomposition of organic vegetable or animal matter throws off a sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which, acting upon solutions containing sulphates, is supposed to cause a reduction and precip- itation of the metals in the form of sulphurets. The decay of sea plants and the abundance of organic life in the Trenton Period are thought to have been sufficient to produce the great precipitation of lead ore found in these rocks. The writer argues his theory with ability, and it may now be con- sidered as the one generally received. I hazard the suggestion, however, that electrical action may have had much to do with the precipitation, crys- tallization and arrangement of these minerals.
833
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
Early and Recent Mining Processes .- The primitive mining processes in the Galena lead basin were of a very simple character. Two men selected the spot where they wished to try their fortunes. They were generally guided by certain signs in making the selection, such as depressions in the ground, unusual luxuriance in the growth of vegetation, color of the clay, or ravines supposed to indicate crevices in the rocks below. A shaft was sunk through the clay, and cribbed by building up timber, until the rock was struck. A rude windlass, bucket and rope, a few shovels, picks, and pieces of tallow candle constituted all the tools needed, to which was sometimes added a few blasting tools. If a crevice was struck, it was followed down, and drifts were driven from it in varions directions. The man at the top laboriously hoisted with his windlass the material necessary to be removed. The digging was abandoned when worked down to the water, or a pump is put on, driven by horse power. The mineral is brought to the bottom of the shaft or rude car, running on wooden rails. Instead of sinking a shaft, an inclined plane or drift is run into the hill, in case the outcrops of the rock show lead crevices. If a heavy body of mineral is found at any con- siderable depth, a whim is put on. This is a large wooden wheel or' barrel, revolving at some height above the ground, propelled by horse power, and containing coils of a strong rope, to which are attached rude cars or tubs, so arranged, in many instances, that one goes down as the other comes up. With the whim and the horse-power pump, a range can be worked consid- erably below the water level.
The first attempts at smelting were also quite rude. The Indian squaws melted the ore by roasting it in a rude stone furnace, in, which they were able to melt out but a small portion of the lead. The log furnace succeeded this when the white men began to work in the mines. A " reverberatory furnace," in which the ore was melted in an oven, where the blaze passed over and through the charge, was next tried, and was a great improvement in smelting processes.
But they have all been superseded of late years by the Scotch Hearth or Blast Furnace, now universally used throughout the lead region. The following detailed description of the Scotch Hearth is taken from an article in Harper's Magazine, and is understood to be the production of a lady of Galena, whose name I do not know:
"The hearth consists of a box of cast iron, two feet square, one foot high, open at top, with the sides and bottom two inches thick. To the top of the front edge is affixed a sloping shelf or hearth called the work stone, used for spreading the materials of the 'charge ' upon, as occasionally be- comes necessary during smelting, and also for the excess of molten lead to flow down. For the latter purpose a groove one half an inch deep and an inch wide, runs diagonally across the work stone. A ledge, one inch in thickness and height, surrounds the work stone on all sides except that towards the sole of the furnace. The hearth slopes from behind forward, and immediately below the front edge of it is placed the receptable or ' melting pot.' An inch from the bottom, in the posterior side of the box, is a hole two inches in diameter, through which the current or ' blast ' of air is blown from the bellows.
The furnace is built under an immense chimney thirty to thirty-five feet high, and ten feet wide at its base. Behind the base of the chimney is the bellows, which is propelled by a water-wheel, the tuyere, or point of the bellows, entering at the hole in the back of the box. The fuel, which con-
834
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
sists of light wood, coke, and charcoal, is thrown in against the tuyere and kindled, and the ore is placed npon the fuel to the top of the box. The blast of air in the rear keeps the fire burning, as the reservoir or box is filled with molten lead, the excess flows down the grooved hearth into the ' melting pot,' under which a gentle fire is kept, and the lead is ladled from it into the molds as is convenient. Before adding a new 'charge' the blast is turned off, the ' charge' already in is turned forward upon the work stone, more fuel is cast in, and the ' charge,' is thrown back with the addition of fresh ore upon the wood. The combustion of the sulphur in the ore pro- duces a large amount of heat required for smelting. The furnace is thus kept in operation sixteen hours out of the twenty-four.
The ore is of different degrees of purity, but the purest galena does not yield on an average over sixty-eight per cent of lead from the first process of sinelting. The gray slag is very valuable, though the lead procured from it is harder than that of the first smelting. There is left about 75,000 of gray slag from eaclı 1,000,000 pounds of ore. The slag furnace is erected under the same roof with the Scotch Hearth, and has a chimney of its own a few feet from that of the hearth, and the ' blast ' is secured from the same water power by an additional blast pipe driven by the same wheel. It con- sists of a much larger reservoir, built of limestone, cemented and lined with clay, with a cast iron door in front, heavily barred with iron. It will burn out so as to require repairs in about three months. Open at the top, the slag and fuel are thrown in promiscuously. Under the iron door is an
escape for the lead and 'black slag.' In front of this escape and below it is the 'slag pot.' It is an oblong iron basin about a foot in depth, with one third of its length partitioned off to receive the lead, which sinks as it escapes, while the slag, being lighter, flows in a flame-colored stream forward, and falls into a reservoir that is partly filled with water, which cools the slag as it is plunged therein. As the reservoir fills, a workman shovels the scoriæ into a hand-barrow and wheels it off. The scoriæ is black slag, and worthless, the lead having now been entirely extracted. The smelter now and then throws a shovel full of gray slag into the furnace, which casts up beautiful parti-colored flames, while the strong sulphurous odor, the red-hot stream of slag, with the vapor arising from the tub wherein the hissing slag is plunged, the sooty smelters, and the hot air of the furnace room, suggest a thought of the infernal regions. Outside, the wealth of 'pigs,' not in the least porcine, gives one a sort of covetous desire that, if indulged in, we are taught, leads directly to said regions. The Scotcli Hearth requires less fuel than any other furnace. It 'blows out' in from six to twelve hours, while the Drummond Furnace was kept in operation night and day."
After examining the process of smelting, I concluded the above de- scription could hardly be improved on, and hence give it a place in this report.
LEAD AND LEAD MINING.
The immense deposits of lead ore, or " mineral," as it is called, in the mining region, have long been known and have extensively worked for nearly sixty years, and are far from being exhausted yet. The old leads known to the early settlers were " worked out " and abandoned, long ago, but the hills of Jo Daviess County undoubtedly contain enormous deposits
835
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
yet undiscovered. The ore is principally of the species termned "galena," or sulphuret of lead. This mineral is usually found in crevices or leads, running either north and south, or east and west. Sometimes, but not often, the mineral lies close to the surface, as was the case in the famous " Buck Lead," and the "Marsden Mine," but generally the prospector must dig or sink a shaft from six to thirty feet if the lead is on level ground. At the "New California Diggings" about nine miles south of Galena, the ininers " drift" into the bluff horizontally. Experienced miners say that in the Spring when the grass first begins to start, they can determine the location of "crevices " from the fact that the grass starts more luxuriantly over them, but they can not tell whether mineral exists below until they "prove " them by digging.
Lead ore, in the form of galena, is usually found crystallized. The primary form is the cube, sometimes truncated but never in any other than that form, or its modifications, and the cubes broken, break into sınaller cubes. The carbonate of lead occurs occasionally, mingled with the sulphu- ret, but in irregular lumps or masses, never crystallized. It is nearly or quite as rich and smelts easily. Mineral is taken from the " wash-dirt" in which it is embedded, in masses from one or two, to hundreds of pounds weight. In the crystalline form these "junks " look like masses of cubic crystal partially fused together and suddenly cooled. These cubes are of all sizes, from minute specks to several inches square, and weighing from a single grain to 80 or 100 pounds. Native or pure lead has never been found except in a single locality, in Vinegar Hill Township, but pure sul- phur occasionally occurs. " Washı-dirt" is a yellowish, clayey substance in which the mineral is embedded, and is full of small pieces of mineral. It is washed to separate these from the sulphurous earth, and generally the product of the "wash-dirt " will pay expenses of mining. Zinc ore, or " blende " occurs in this region in immense quantities. It is called " black jack " by the miners and in former timnes was considered worthless, being used for the streets and roads. " Black-jack " appears generally to under- lie lead deposits. This was the case in the Marsden Mine, now extensively worked for zinc. At the New California Diggings, there are apparently inexhaustable deposits of blende under the mineral.
Sulphuret of iron, or pyrites occurs in great abundance in connection with both lead and zinc. The crystals of mineral are often covered with a coating of crystallized pyrites, as if the mass liad been dipped in a liquid solution and suffered to remain until coated. Capt. D. S. Harris, in his extensive and valuable cabinet has some exceedingly rare and beautiful specimens of pyrites that look as if they might be small branches and twigs changed, in the mysterious and wonderful alchemy of nature, into this beau- tiful but useless mineral. These are of various sizes, from the size of a large knitting needle to an inch in diameter. In this cabinet are also some most beautiful specimens of crystallized galena taken from the Marsden mine and other localities.
In some localities, particularly in the "New California diggings" in Rice Township, there is overlying the heavy deposits of mineral a stratum of very fine white clay. The miners call it "pipe clay." It is plastic when first taken out, but hardens when exposed to the atmosphere.
The lead ore of Northwestern Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin is very rich, yielding under modern appliances 90 per cent pure lead, and the combustion of the sulphur it contains is made to aid the smelting process.
836
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
But in the ruder log and ash furnaces of early times, the yield averaged probably from 60 to 70 per cent.
Prior to the arrival of the white miners in 1821-'2, mining in this region was done exclusively by the Indians, although traces of early oper- ations by Dubuque's men were discovered. The natives, however, only skimmed the surface. The work was done by the old men and squaws, the braves considering it beneath their dignity to "raise " mineral. It occurred, therefore, that all the richi leads discovered and worked at least until 1824, were these Indian diggings struck anew and effectually worked by the whites. Wherever the miners could find a place where the Indians had worked, they were almost certain of valuable " discoveries."
· The windlass and bucket and other methods employed by the miners were unknown to the Indians who operated before them. They sunk no shafts, and did they not understand the use of gunpowder. When the min- eral was near the surface, as in the " Buck lead," and they could raise it easily, they did so. Some times they "drifted " into the sides of the bluffs for some distance, and when they reached the "cap-rock," which overlies mineral, surrounds or encloses it, they kindled fires on it, and when the rock was thoroughly heated, they threw water upon it. This was the Indian method of blasting. Their tools were buck-horns, with which they removed the rock partially crumbled by the action of fire and water. Early settlers have found these horns in old Indian " drifts." In later years they used lioes, shovels and crow-bars, obtained from traders to whom they sold lead.
After the old Indian leads were exhausted, new and enormous deposits were found by the enterprise and energy of the miners, and the amount of mineral "raised " in this region is simply fabulous. Sometimes it was necessary to sink shafts through twenty or thirty feet of rock before arriving at the openings or " leads" containing the mineral, but when "struck " it was found in large quantities. At the Sanders' lead, a mile and a quarter from Galena, it is said that three men dug and raised 56,000 pounds of mineral in one day, valued at $21 per thousand at that time. This lead was an east and west opening, in a cave, long since "worked out," but one to one and one half millions pounds of mineral were taken from it.
The following extract is from the Spirit of the Press, edited by H. H. Houghton, Esq., of October 9, 1871:
Valuable mines of lead ore are being wrought within the city, and within the com- pass of six miles the number that has been discovered is very large. They are all com- paratively shallow diggings. Some of them have been worked out, as is generally supposed, and others are still yielding large returns for labor.
The proportion of land that has been " prospected " on, is insignificant compared with what lias never been molested by a miner. The reader will find below the names by which a number of these lodes are designated. They are written from memory, and are very far from comprising a full list, nor can we form an estimate of the quantity of mineral they have yielded.
Harris Leads, Tomlin & Burrichter, Tomlin, Buck, Doe, Kringle, Gaffner, Hog Range, Graves, Comstock & Rosemeyer, Wallou & Quick, Sanders & Co., Muldore. Bolton, Stephen Marsden, Allenrath, Eagan, Frysinger, Crumbacker, Evans & Adams, A.C. Davis, Armbruster & Co., Ottawa Diggings, Drum, Rare & Co., Benninger & Co., P. Smith & Co., Hostetter & Co., Duer & Co., Allendorf & Co., Tom Evans, Brittan & Wilkins. Cady Range, Robert's Range. Wm. Richards, Wilcox & Co., J. E. Comstock.
The above are within a short distance of the City of Galena, and a great many more not enumerated.
VINEGAR HILL DIGGINGS.
These mines are located some three or four miles northeast of Galena. The follow- ing are some of the ranges or mines that have been discovered there, to-wit:
Bailey, Gear, Meighan, H. Mann, Indian, Feehan, Blood, Campbell & Reppy, Fur- long & Fechan, Talbott, Kennedy, Rogers, Hogan, Trover, Liddle, Sidener, Smelt, Foley,
837
HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.