USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 24
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The closer examination of the iron ores was dis- appointing, for the most part appearing too impure to be worked with profit. The principal deposits were found on Brouillet's creek in Vermilion; on the Wabash, and on Coal creek in Fountain; on Sugar and Raccoon creeks in Parke; on Eel and White riv- ers in Clay and Owen; on Pine creek in Warren; and on Anderson in Perry. Besides these there were valuable iron ores near Richmond, and bog iron in Greene, Randolph, Hamilton, Wabash, Allen, Elk- hart, Laporte, Pulaski, Huntington, Miami, Tippe- canoe, Carroll, St. Joseph and Fulton. None of these was such as to warrant him in inviting capitalists to move to the state.
The stone seemed to offer better inducements to quarrymen. On the Muscatituck, around Vernon, were excellent beds of limestone. In Perry and Har- rison counties were good sandstone. There was scarcely a county in the state but had good stone for lime and cement.14
14 The reports of David D. Owen were published in the Documentary Journal of 1837, and reprinted in the Documentary Journal of 1838. There is no pagination in either volume. The
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The law of 1836 was to expire at the end of two years unless re-enacted. The pinching times of 1837 took all the enthusiasm out of the Assembly and nothing further was done in this line by the state for a generation.
At a meeting of the state board of agriculture, January 6, 1854, Governor Wright gave notice that he would propose to the board that it procure the services of a good geologist to make a survey of the state. In accordance with the authorization of the board, Dr. R. T. Brown was employed at a salary of $500 to make a partial examination of the state, reporting especially on iron ores, coal, timber, water power, etc.
With these general directions Mr. Brown con- tinued the work begun by David Dale Owen. It was hoped the report would aid the farmers with some definite ideas as to the character of the soil and also by a report on mineral resources induce capital to come to the state. Some of Mr. Brown's conclusions will enable the reader to judge of his work. From east to west he divided the tilted strata into three broad divisions. The first or Lower Silurian ex- tended west about as far as the western edge of Wayne and the middle of Ripley. This was charac- terized as the Blue Shell, or Cincinnati limestone. The second stratum he called the Cliff Rock, or Niag- ara limestone, or Upper Silurian, bounded roughly by a line from the Falls by way of Columbus and Indianapolis to Monticello in White county. The fourth was a sandstone stratum of Devonian origin. The fifth was the Carboniferous group and included the coal areas with a narrow strip along the eastern border of the coal field. All these strata are over-
second report was published in House Journal, 1838, p. 135. The first report was republished in the Documentary Journal of 1853.
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whelmed about the National road by the glacial drift which the old geologists called a diluvium. The chief practical value, as the geologist thought, of this divi- sion of the state, was to determine the kinds of soil which prevailed in each section.
The Silurian or first stratum, he reported, con- tained no mineral and it was useless to seek for it. Some quarries had been opened at Marble Hill, twelve miles below Madison, which were commer- cially worth while.
The Cliff rock of the second stratum had been quarried along the Wabash from Huntington to La- fayette, the bed of the river for one hundred miles resting on this layer of limestone. The locks of the Wabash and Erie canal and many of the buildings along its course in the canal towns were constructed of this stone. The principal quarries on the upper Wabash were at Georgetown, which furnished much of the building stone for Lafayette; at Logansport, where was obtained the stones for Logansport build- ings; Stearns Fisher's quarry four miles below Wa- bash ; and several lesser local quarries on the Missis- sinewa and Salamonie. This stone soon crumbled under the stress of the weather. White river between Anderson and Muncie and Fall creek at Pendleton have exposed this rock also but it has not been used to any extent. In the southern part of the state the stone is of a better quality and has stood the tests of the weathering successfully. The quarries at Ver- non, Sand Creek near Greensburg, and Flat Rock near St. Omar, were worked in the early thirties. Near Greensburg is a variety that was widely used in the early days for tombstones and small monuments. The old courthouse at Louisville, at that time a very fine structure, was built of the Magnesian variety of Cliff rock. It enjoyed a reputation in the fifties and sixties similar to that of Bedford stone at present.
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At Sand Creek, Clifty and Flat Rock was obtained the finest article of flag stones to be had in the west.
The lime and cement made from this rock found an eager market from Louisville to New Orleans. Louisville lime, made at Utica, Indiana, the best known, was a standard with builders. On both sides of the Wabash from above Huntington to the foot of the rapids at Lafayette one can yet see the remains of the scores of lime pits active in the forties and fifties. Thousands of barrels of this lime were shipped, in white oak barrels made from the timber growing near, to the southern market each year. The usual mode of transportation was by flatboats.
Between the Cliff rock and the Mountain lime- stone was a narrow stratum of sandstone which the geologist of 1853 called "Chemung." It is a belt about twenty miles wide lying just at the east edge of the Knobs and forming the base of this ridge. Some few attempts had been made to quarry this stone but with the building of the Salem railroad the "White River" limestone took its place. The New Albany Branch bank was built of this sandstone.
In the stratum which was called the Mountain limestone traversed south of Greencastle almost ex- actly by the present Monon railroad, quarries were already opened at Harristown, White river (Drift- wood), Mount Tabor and at several points in Putnam county. Mr. Ewing, who was filling a contract at White river for building the custom house at Louis- ville, was working what was called the coarse grained or light gray stone. This was the Bedford stone, the only reference in this report which differentiates it from the Mitchell stone.15 The Mount Tabor quar-
15 Transactions of the Indiana Agricultural Society, 1853, p. 312. "Blocks, squared and ready for delivery, were lying at the quarry, some of which were three feet on the surface and 14 feet long. The present face of the quarry, besides several thinner
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ries (near Gosport) were said to furnish good stone and capable of a very fine white polish. He predicted a great future for their quarries as soon as railroads east and west were constructed.
In the coal field only one stratum of stone at- tracted the geologist's attention. This was the New red sandstone, as he termed it, in Perry county. There the Cannelton cotton mill company had erect- ed a factory building five stories high, 287 feet long, 65 feet wide with towers 106 feet high entirely of this material.16 This same sandstone is found on Sugar creek near the feeder dam of the canal in Parke county, near Montezuma and also at Williamsport. This he thought would soon be transported in larger quantities on the canal.17
Hidden away in the Mansfield sandstone cropping out in the northwest corner of Orange county are some beds of first-class whetstone. This stone was discovered by Joel Charles, the first settler of French Lick, about 1810. Hunters and settlers came on long journeys to secure stones. A quarry was
strata, exposes one stratum of eight feet in thickness without a seam, or the slightest fault. By means of wedges blocks may be split; its softness when fresh from the quarry, its beautiful whiteness when dry, its durability and great strength render it all that could be desired as a stone for building purposes."
16 Transactions of Indiana Agricultural Society, 1853, p. 322. "Exposure to the atmosphere has hardened the surface of the blocks, and I think that time will make but little impression on that surface. Many private residences in and about Cannelton have been built of the same material lately, and it is found to be cheaper than brick or even wood, when the stone is procured near the site of the building. This fact, once known, will enable the towns of the southwestern portion of the state to change their style of building to a great advantage, both in appearance and real value."
17 Mr. Brown's report is in Transactions of Indiana Agricul- tural Society, 1853, pp. 299-332. There are considerable data con- cerning the coal mines.
P
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opened as early as 1825, the rough stones being trans- ported down to the village of Hindostan where they were cut into proper sizes and shipped to New Or- leans. The name of the little village of Hindostan has clung ever since to these whetstones. The quar- ries are still operated.18
Beyond this one "reconnaissance," Dr. Brown does not seem to have done any work. The Assem- bly of 1859 appropriated $5,000 to be used by the state board of agriculture in making a complete geo- logical survey of all parts of the state. The board had a special meeting at New Albany, May 4, 1859, in order that the work might proceed at once. The position was offered to Dr. David Dale Owen, who accepted. Dr. Owen, who was busy at the time finish- ing some similar work for Kentucky and Arkansas, turned the preliminary part of the work over to his brother, Prof. Richard Owen. Before finishing the Arkansas reports David Dale Owen died at his home at New Harmony, November 13, 1860.19 Richard Owen succeeded his brother and continued the work. Professor Owen had the assistance of Dr. Robert Peter, professor of chemistry, Lexington, Kentucky, in soil analysis; of Professor Leo Lesquereux, of Columbus, Ohio, a fossil botanist, in surveying the coal fields, and of Prof. Joseph Lesley, a topographi- cal engineer.
The plan of the work was to make a hurried trip to each county during the fall of 1859 to secure sam- ples of soil, ores and rocks from each, to be analyzed
18 Indiana Geological Report, 1895, p. 338.
19 The Owen brothers were distinguished scholars, educated at Hofweyl, Switzerland, the universities of Glasgow and London. Evansville and Its Men, 318. See, also, Agricultural Reports, 1859, p. lxxxv, for a ietter from Richard Owen, offering David Dale Owen's magnificent geological collection and laboratory to the state as the basis of an agricultural college.
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in their laboratory at New Harmony during the win- ter. During the same time Professor Lesley made a topographical survey of the cannel coal field of Perry county and constructed a table of altitudes for the state. This report was published in 1862 and for many years was the only text books on Indiana geol- ogy available.20
The first chapter is devoted to a popular explan- ation of geology, as far as it pertains to Indiana. This had been preceded by a number of articles in the Indiana Farmer by Professor Owen, discussing the general application of the principles of his subject to agriculture. The second chapter of the Report, by far the larger part of it, is devoted to a special de- scription of the physical resources of each county. The counties are arranged for this in geological groups, the Lower Silurian, Upper Silurian, Devon- ian, Sub-Carboniferous Sandstone, Sub-Carbonifer- ous Limestone, Coal Measures, and Drift or Quater- nary, the geological formation of the county, the re- sulting soil, quarries and ores, timber and vegeta- tion, mineral springs and waters, and finally what might be expected from each in the way of crops, drainage, soil and healthfulness. Chapter three is the general physical geography of the state, in itself, in detail, and in relation to the surrounding valley.
Professor Lesquereux spent five weeks studying the coal veins and his report forms a kind of miner's handbook for Indiana. He analyzed the various seams of coal, indicating the peculiar formation and lay of each vein as well as its value for manufactur- ing purposes. Professor Peters analyzed samples of soils from thirty-three counties. Many farmers, es-
20 Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of Indiana, 1859- 1860. David Dale Owen and Richard Owen. Very similar to this is Lesley's Manual of Coal and Its Topography, published about this time.
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pecially in the southeastern quarter of the state, were experiencing a gradual failing of their soils.21
This survey was stopped short by the exigencies of war. No work was done after 1860 till 1869 al- though the state board of agriculture petitioned the Assembly of 1860 for further funds to prosecute the work.22 The matter was referred to occasionally by the governors but other more pressing matters inter- vened. In his annual message of 1869 Governor Con- rad Baker asked that a permanent office be establish- ed and our present department of geology resulted.23
The newly created office was placed under the gen- eral supervision of the board of agriculture, although the governor was to appoint the geologist for a term of two years. His business was to promote agricul- ture, mining, arts and manufacture. The museum was turned over to his charge as a place where the
21 The following quotation from the Report, page 244, indicates the purpose in the minds of the leading farmers: "Such a process as this by which the land would be constantly kept up to the height of fertility and wouid annually yield abundant crops without any diminution of its richness, would be the perfec- tion of agriculture. Such a system is perfectly practicable in an agricultural community where the chemical nature of soils, of manures, and of vegetable and animal products have been studied and understood. The path of improvement In modern agriculture, therefore, lies in this direction; and it is the duty of our enter- prising farmers to prepare themselves to pursue it, by the scientific study of their profession; and that of states and communities liberaliy to aid progress in this pathway."
22 Agricultural Reports, 1859, p. xiiii.
23 House Journal, 1869, p. 62. By act of March 5, 1869, the governor had been directed to provide a room in the capitol to keep specimens of soils, ores, fossils, maps, etc., gathered by the state board of agriculture. This work had scarcely begun when the room was taken for military purposes. In January, 1868, the supreme court vacated its room, and this was fitted up by order of the governor as a geological museum. Such was the beginning of our present tiny state museum.
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results of his work might be kept for inspection.24 By an act of April 14, 1881, the department of geol- ogy and natural history was created. The geologist was to be appointed by the governor for a term of four years. An annual appropriation of $5,000 was made to carry on the work, the duties remaining about the same as before.
§ 159 IRON MINES AND FOUNDRIES
It will have been noticed that Governor Baker re- ferred to the promising iron industry in Indiana. It hardly seems possible that so late as 1870 Indiana had visions of rivaling Pennsylvania and West Vir- ginia in the iron industry. The hope was not justi- fied at that time but from 1830 to 1875 Indiana fur- naces produced a large part of the pig iron used in its home manufactories.
Most famous of Indiana furnaces was the St. Joseph iron works laid out by A. M. Hurd in 1833 and chartered in 1835.25 A dam was built across the St. Joseph river in 1835 and a bridge in 1837. The name of the town was changed to Mishawaka in 1839, although the St. Joseph iron works continued as a separate corporation. It got its ore from the bog mine south of town. This ore gave out in 1856 and the furnace blew out.28
At Logansport R. S. J. Green & Co. established.a furnace at the canal lock four miles above town in 1856, hauling bog iron ore from White county. They used an old Catalan forge and almost half the metal was lost. The output was 100 tons per month, but the cost of hauling was so much that it ran only about
24 Laws of Indiana, 1869, ch. XXIII.
25 Laws of Indiana, Local, 1834, ch. XX.
26 Brief accounts of these old companies are given in the county histories of St. Joseph. Index.
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a year and a half. A few miles north of Rochester on the Michigan road James Moore established a fur- nace and it ran for some years after 1840. Charcoal was burned in the neighboring woods and used for fuel. It employed seventy-five men when in full blast. The output was all used in the neighboring counties.27
At Lima, in Lagrange county, about 1850 a forge was operated, the ore coming from Pigeon river a short distance west. The Lake Shore railroad, when it was built, enabled the settlers to get the bar iron cheaper and the forge was abandoned after a few years.
Much more recent were the Vigo iron company, 1869, the Wabash iron company, 1873, and the Phoe- nix foundry, 1865, all of Terre Haute. These fur- naces were supplied only in small part from local ores, the larger part coming from Missouri.28 The first-named continued till 1895, being the last of the pioneer furnaces to go out of blast. On Brouillet's creek, six miles west of Clinton, an iron furnace was set up perhaps as early as 1840. It was known up. and down the river for many miles. David Dale Owen in his survey of 1838 called Brouillet's creek the finest prospect for iron he had seen in Indiana, but he made no mention of the Indiana furnace there.2º It had evidently not yet been established. When Lesquereux visited the locality in 1860 it was in full blast under the management of E. B. Sparks & Co. It had a capacity of ten tons per day.30
27 Histories of Cass County. Index.
28 History of Vigo County, 1880, p. 144.
29 House Journal, 1838, p. 218.
80 Geological Reconnaissance of Indiana, 1862, p. 169: "The well-known Indiana Furnace is in this county, and has been in operation 23 years. It is owned by Messrs. E. B. Sparks & Co., who empioy 75 hands, using the hot biast, and obtaining heat
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
David D. Owen reported also that the Sugar Creek foundry in Parke county, six miles below the "Narrows," was using great quantities of coal. He referred to the foundry a number of times as if it were a landmark in the vicinity.31 Neither Lesque- reux, 1860, nor Cox, 1869, who examined the district, gave any details of this furnace.
Clay county gave greatest promise of a large min- ing and manufacturing industrial center. The Brazil furnace "blowed in" in 1867, backed by Indianapolis and Brazil men. It soon fell into the hands of Gar- lick and Collins under whom it became a valuable mill. Its cost complete was about $250,000, it used seventy tons of coal per day, forty-five tons of ore, sixteen tons of limestone, yielded twenty-eight tons of fair grade "pig" or foundry iron, and employed regularly 150 men.
The Lafayette blast furnace, owned by the Lafay- ette iron company, began work, May 20, 1869, on a branch of Otter creek, one and one-half miles south of Brazil. It was very similar to the Brazil furnace, though smaller, yielding about eighteen tons of iron per day.
The Western iron company had two furnaces lo- cated at Knightsville; one was fired first in 1867, the other in 1869. They were run by the same engine.
from the gases given off by the combustion of metal and the charcoal. They pay $1.50 per ton for ore delivered. It is found abundantly, of several varieties, In all the hills around, as well as close by their furnace, over a five-foot vein of coal. By mixing several ores, previously roasted to expel the sulphur, they often avoid the necessity of fluxing with limestone, although when necessary it can be obtained near there. They can run ten tons of metal per day, using twenty-five tons of ore and drawing twice in twenty-four hours; they ship the Iron on the Terre Haute railroad, at Sandford, seven miles distant. Frequently they manu- facture also their own firebrick."
31 House Journal, 1838, p. 217.
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Together they turned out about forty-five tons of pig iron per day. The Planet furnace company, owned by the Indianapolis rolling mills, which went into blast in November, 1867, was situated near Harmony on a spur of the Terre Haute and Indianapolis rail- road. It furnished about fifteen tons of pig iron daily to the Indianapolis mills. These furnaces used Missouri and Lake Superior ore, largely, in combina- tion with local ores. Brazil Block coal was used exclusively for smelting. These have all blown out long ago.
Greene county was represented in this early era by one furnace, the Richland, located two or three miles southeast of Bloomfield. It was built by An- drew Downey in 1841. The furnace stack was forty- five feet high, charcoal was used for fuel, local ores were used entirely and ten tons of iron produced daily. Originally intended merely to supply local trade, it was found profitable at one time to haul the iron to Mitchell and ship it to Louisville over the New Albany and Salem railroad. This furnace was operated till 1858, about eighteen years.
Nearby in the edge of Monroe county was the "Old Virginia" or "Cincinnati" furnace, opened about 1840 by a man from Virginia named Randall Ross. It used ore hauled in by the farmers of the neighborhood and charcoal made nearby for fuel. The furnace was on Indian creek near the west line of the county. All the output was used locally, the larger part by the Seward forges at Bloomington.
In Martin county a furnace was established in 1870 at Ironton, less than a mile east of Shoals. This, the Nelson furnace company operated successfully three or four years, employing two or three hundred
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men, until an incompetent superintendent wrecked the mill.52
§ 160 COAL
June 23, 1765, George Croghan made the follow- ing entry in his Journal: "On the south side of the Ouabache runs a big bank in which are several fine coal mines." Croghan was at Quiatanon at the time, about three or four miles below the present city of Lafayette.33 The early government surveys in their field-notes made frequent references to outcropping veins of coal. One of the earliest commercial coal mining ventures in the state was by a company of New Englanders of whom Seth Hunt, Samuel J. Gardner and James T. Hobart were the active mem- bers. This company, which was chartered by the state, December 23, 1837, to mine stone coal at Coal Haven, Perry county, purchased about a township of land on the Ohio river where Cannelton now is. There the company and its successors mined coal, principally for the use of passing steamers, for over half a century.34
David Thomas, who traveled up the Wabash in 1816, found a coal mine at the settlement on Tur- man's creek. The coal had been taken from the bed of the creek at low water and was evidently used by the local blacksmith.85 Such mining was not uncom-
32 A good resume of the iron industry, by Charles W. Shannon, Is found' in Indiana Geological Report, 1907.
33 Early Western Travels, I, 145. The location of the coal beds in the state has been noticed in connection with the work of the Owens and the early geological surveys.
34 De la Hunt, Perry County, 86.
35 "In this neighborhood we passed a coal mine, which had recently been opened, though the work had been but partially performed. The stratum is lald bare to the depth of four or five feet. As the excavation is made in the channel of a small brook, the torrent, by removing the loose earth doubtless led to this discovery. All the strata of this fossil that we have seen in the
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mon in Knox and Sullivan counties in the early days. In the thirties flatboat-loads of coal were shipped from Wabash ports to New Orleans where it com- peted successfully with Pittsburgh coals.
Coal mining on an extensive scale is contempor- aneous and inseparable from the railways. There have been no commercial mines worth mentioning without railroad connections. In 1854 the Evans- ville and Terre Haute railroad cross Sullivan county. That year Hanchett and Kelly opened a coal mine at Farmersburg. The mine was three miles from the track and a wooden railroad was built to connect the mine and the main road. The development in Sulli- van county was gradual but steady until in 1906 when, with 37 mines, it led all the counties of the state.
The Sherwood mine, where the city of Linton now is, was worked as early as 1840. The Thorpe, Pewee, Griffin, and, much later, the Island City mines were opened, but it was as late as 1893, especially with the building of the Indiana Southern railroad direct to Chicago, that the Linton coal field opened up.
In Daviess county coal mining began on a com- mercial scale with the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 1857. In fact workmen on that road at a deep cut near Washington disclosed the fact that the town stood over a valuable coal bed. Several mines were opened between 1858 and 1860. This coal soon displaced the cordwood on the loco- motives of the railroad. At Cannelburg, a short time
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