USA > Kentucky > Daviess County > History of Daviess County, Kentucky, together with sketches of its cities, villages, and townships, educational religious, civil military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, biographies of representative citizens, and an outline history of Kentucky > Part 24
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This soil, which contains so large a proportion of silicious mat- ter, and but a moderate quantity of organic substances, potash and phosphoric acid, has been known to support a very luxuriant growth of tobacco, probably because so much of its nutritious in- gredients were in the soluble condition, as is proved by the large relative proportion of solid extract given by it on digestion in the water containing carbonic acid. This circumstance, how- ever, while it increases its present fertility, hastens the process of exhaustion, under the drain of large herbaceous crops carried off the ground, without any return being made to it in the form of ma- nures. The rapidity with which the tobacco plant robs the soil of its richness is explained by the fact that about one fourth of the weight of the dried plant is composed of the mineral matters es- sential to vegetable growth, especially potash, lime, magnesia, soda, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, etc.
OOAL.
There are probably not less than 10,000 acres of coal in the hill strata of Daviess County, and the strata vary in thickness from a few inches to five feet, yielding coal of nearly all qualities.
Bon Harbor .- Coal mines were opened here as early as 1825, the veins about five feet in thickness. There is no place where No. 11 coal is so easily identified by palæontological observations. The
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coal, about five feet thick, has an occasional clay parting, or is sep- arated by a thin layer of sulphuret of iron and charcoal. It is topped by the black, shabby shales, with great abundance of shells and some remains of fishes; and above it has a soft, calcareous. rock, also full of beantifully preserved shells, all species character- istic of this coal. Near Curdsville, opposite this place, on Green River, in Henderson County, No. 11 coal has been worked, and is. here called Cook's upper coal. The coal, four feet thick, has a clay parting; its black shales are full of shells, as at Bon Harbor, and it is covered by two beds of limestone, separated by a bed of coal, dirt and fire clay, six inches thick. The inferior bed of lime- stone is full of shells, but the superior one is black, and without remains of fossils.
The coal from Wolf Hill, about ten miles !southeast of Owens- boro, as analyzed by the State chemist about twenty-seven years ago, proved to be unfavorable to the production of rich gas or much oily matter. The sulphur in its composition is compara- tively small. This coal has a remarkably pure appearance, is deep black and glossy, with some fibrous coal between the layers; but there is no appearance of pyrites and other impurities, except some incrustation of lime sulphate in the joints. Heated over a spirit lamp, it swells up a little, but does not agglutinate. Specific grav- ity 1.275. Only two per cent of it is ashes.
"Triplett's" coal, four miles southeast of Owensboro, is glossy, pitch black, pretty firm, and seemingly pretty free from pyrites; a little sulphate of lime in the joints; not much fibrous coal be- tween the layers. Over the spirit lamp it softens, swells up and agglutinates; burns with a smoky flame, and leaves a bright, cellu- lar coke. It is probably a good coking coal. The vein is twenty- four inches in thickness.
The proximate analysis of this coal yields 64 per cent. of moist- ure, 36 of volatile combustible matters, 51} carbon in the coke, and 6 of purple-gray ashes. The ashes is } silica, & alumina and oxide of iron, and the rest lime, magnesia, etc. The ultimate analysis (specimen dried at 212º) yields carbon 71 per cent., hy- drogen 5, sulphur 2, oxygen, nitrogen and loss 15, and ashes 7.
Cannel coal exists on the " Mason " lands, or Spice Ridge, above the beds seen on Puppy Creek, and is probably the equiva- Jent of a shale bed, into which openings have been made on the farm of Mrs. Bell, near the Yelvington and Owensboro road. At. Spice Ridge the opening presents the following section :
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HEIGHT
THICKNESS.
Ft. In.
In.
Slaty cannel coal ..
1
10
4
Blackish gray argillaceous shales
1
6
7
Firm blocks of cannel coal.
11
6
Clay shale.
5
5
Water line in pit.
0
0
Under the water the coal is said to be thicker than above it. By sounding the pit appears to have been sunk two feet ten inches below the water lime now in it; the soundings show fire or under clay at the bottom.
The physical appearance of the upper four inches is very like the coal of the Breckenridge mine. Near the spring at Mrs. Bell's farm a pit has been sunk eighteen feet deep, which consists of fourteen feet of surface clay, two feet of shale and two feet of under clay, similar to the under clay of coal. On a more elevated part of the same point a pit has been sunk into the same bed, through fifteen feet of surface clay and five feet of soft sandstone, there reaching water.
From the shales raised from below the water lime, fragments of fish were obtained, broken and scattered in the shales; no coal was seen, nor the appearance of coal. The coal has thinned out and disappeared. The distance between the Spice ridge and Mrs. Bell's is about two miles in a northwesterly direction, and nearly parallel with the course of the Ohio River.
From the Hawesville mines to the locality of Mrs. Bell's there appears to be a general thinning of all the beds composing the Hawesville section. On Puppy Creek the first sandstone over the Hawes coal has diminished in thickness from eighty-five to thirty- three feet. It would be interesting to sciences to determine this precisely. If established it would bring the Hawes coal that much nearer the surface than it has been supposed to be, and thus make the knowledge of the position of that coal of the greatest practi- cal value to the people of Daviess County.
On the old Moses Inglehart farin, about two miles a little north of east from Livermore, a coal-stain makes its appearance in the hillside near the dwelling. When first visited it was supposed to be the outcropping of a bed of some importance, but subsequent examinations have not verified the conjecture. A carbonate iron ore, however, which lies about four feet below the coal-stain, has a very fair appearance and may prove to be of value. This can only be proved by a more extended digging than has yet been
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done, to determine its area, and by chemical analysis to test its purity. The bed ranges from six to nine inchies in thickness. It is especially desirable, in order to judge of the value of this ore, to become fully acquainted with its horizontal extent and physical changes, as in some places it seems to pass into a ferruginous lime- stone, which is of no value as an iron ore. Immediately under the iron ore, and sometimes merging into it at the top, a bed of lime- stone about nine inches thick occurs. It weathers with a yellowish surface marked with white splotches. The surface is also marked by drab lumps which are spread over it. The rock seems to be really bare of organic remains; a few small fragments of crinoid columns and some other small fossils were found.
On Timor Howard's farm, near John Jones's place, which is about four miles northeastwardly from Riley's Station, a deposit of black slate occurs, moderately rich in bitnminous elements and cannel coal-like in structure. This deposit is known in the neigh- borhood as cannel coal; but it approaches more nearly to cannel slate in its physical characters. The section as exposed in 1875, contained four feet of block bituminous slate that somewhat re- sembled cannel slate, one foot of layer containing iron, two feet of cannel slate and fourteen inches of feriferous layer.
On John Jones's land, near his dwelling, a limestone holding considerable bitumen (in cavities) is exposed. In appearance the limestone resembles some of the carboniferons beds, but its identity could not be proved. The presence of bitumen in the rock has caused some to have faith in the existence of a profitable quantity of petroleum on the farm. There does not seem to be in fact, however, any evidence to justify such a belief. There were some unsuccessful borings made for salt on the place several years ago. Sandy shale was penetrated to some depth (which was not very con- siderable), but, so far as can be gathered, the boring was without result of any kind.
A few feet above the limestone a coal dirt is exposed on the hillside, and is overlaid by ocherous sandy shale. This coal has been worked near Mr. Jones's and is reported to measure three feet in thickness when well opened. On Mr. T. B. Bratcher's place, near Mr. Jones's, about two and a half miles east of Tichnor's Station, limestone is again found which may be equivalent to that seen at Mr. Jones's, although topographically nearly 130 feet above it. As is the case with the limestone seen at Mr. Jones's, fossils are quite rare in the rock, and only a few crinoid columns
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were found. At about fifteen feet above the limestone at Mr. Bratcher's spring, an inch or two of coal has been found. Frag- ments of pebbly sandstone are strewn over the slope of the hill. The outerop of limestone on Mr. Bratcher's place is about two miles west from the the Barrett's Creek salt wells, in Ohio County, at which point the Rough Creek uplift is plainly visible, the Chester beds being brought to the surface there and tilted at high angles.
About one mile eastwardly from Tichnor's Station a coal bed has been opened by William Atherton. The bed is nearly three and a half feet thick, but so far as proven in 1875 was not of excellent quality. From the positions of the poorer portions of the bed, however, it is presumable that when followed further under the hill, beyond the reach of atmospheric agencies, the coal may gain considerably in quality. A few outcrops were seen in other local- ities between Livermore and Riley's Station, a distance of six miles by the railroad, but very little could be determined concerning them. From Riley's Station to Lewis's Station there are ew out- crops, but the surface is less flat than toward Livermore.
Within a mile of Lewis's Station the cuts begin to show sandstone and shale. In the cuts just south of the twelfth mile-post (number- ing from Owensboro) a total thickness of twenty-five feet of sand- stone is exposed. This overlies a coal which has opened near the road, on land belonging either to Mr. Field or Mr. Vanarsdal. The bed is reported to be three feet thick. It is covered by bituminons. slate, which appears to be sufficiently dense to form a good roof for mining under. The position of the coal is about ten feet below the railroad at the twelfth mile-post. The ground immediately at the present place of opening is not suitable for mining on a large scale, because of the short depth of the coal below the surface. "Strip- ping " seems to be the only convenient means by which the coal may be reached. At the hills, however, where the overlying sand- stone is present, it is possible for the coal to be worked with more profit. An outcropping of the western extension of the bed is found on George N. Mckay's land, about west of the twelfth mile- post. Mr. Mckay did a little digging in the coal, in a small branch. He estimated the thickness of the bed at three feet ten inches to four feet four inches. The quality and general character of the coal has not been proved, no opening being in a suitable condition for sampling the bed or for studying it sufficiently. From Lewis's Station to Crow's Station, a distance of three miles, a few low hills. are seen, but the outcrops are few.
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HISTORY OF DAVIESS COUNTY.
At Hickman's, just south of the ninth mile-post from Owensboro, the cuts expose about twenty feet of sandstone. Below the sand- stone, with shale (?) between, a thin coal is exposed, not exceeding sixteen inches in thickness. It is covered by twenty-one inches of bituminous slate. A number of springs issue from beneath this coal bed, and have a considerable local reputation, the place serv- ing in a modest way as a watering place for the people of Owens- boro. The waters are chiefly chalybeate. Two or three of them contain alum, however, one of them being rather remarkable for the amount of this material it contains. In one of the springs a small amount of copper was found; but the amount is so small that it will not seriously affect the influence of the waters. The " Sulphur," "Brick," and " Yellow " springs are chaly beate -- that is, they yield traces of iron. The chalybeate spring near Lewis's Station, and also Dr. Hickman's residence has considerably more iron.
From Crow's Station to Owensboro flats are the prevailing features, the " Black " and " Panther Creek " flats filling the larger part of the distance.
In the vicinity of Owensboro several coal mines have been opened, all of which are probably in coal D. Two miles and a half below town, at the site of the old Coal Haven factory, eighteen inches of coal is exposed in the bank of the Ohio River. A section at this place exhibited five feet or more of thin-bedded sandstone, ten feet of sandy, thinly laminated shale, next, an earthy, pyritous, some- what lumpy and calcareous band of about two inches, which abounds in erinoidal columns, and several other interesting fossils, thien three feet of dark shale, passing below into a dense, black slate, and lastly about twenty inches of coal. In the hills back from the river coal D has been worked. Barrett's new bank, near the old Bon Harbor mines, exhibits a stratum of coal fifty-two to fifty-eight inches in thickness, and is covered by dense, hard slate. The posi- tion of the coal is about 120 feet above the one exposed at the river, though it may be somewhat less. The upper fourteen inches of the bed is said to be the best. The same bed is worked at Mr. S. M. Dean's mine, which is about one mile and a half below Owensboro. At this bank the coal measures four feet four inches in thickness. At the "Dutch " mine, about one mile and a half above Owensboro, the coal worked varies from three and a half to three feet two inches in thickness. At the "Montgomery" mine, near the one men- tioned above, the same coal is worked, and measures three feet two
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inches in thickness. The percentage of sulphur is comparatively low in this bed. It is probable that the coal worked here is an ex- tension of the bed worked below Owensboro; but the wide differ- ences to be observed between the analysis of the samples collected at the mines below the town and of those collected here would seein to indicate a possibility of their being distinct beds. A coal scam twenty inches thick is reported to have been found ninety feet below the one wrought at these mines.
In the eastern part of the county, the Hawes' main coal is about 300 feet below the Lewisport coal, or 260 fcet below the surface at the foot of the Lewisport coal mine hill. The extent of the hills between Blackford and Yellow erecks forbids the idea that a very extended field of the bed known as the Lewisport coal, especially as the limestone in the upper part of the section is generally cnt in the valleys, leaving quite narrow ridges, containing this bed be- tween them. In fact, the main Hawesville coal is brought above the drainage about two miles northwest of Knottsville, where it was in 1855 worked by Mr. Weisel.
The same coal bed can be seen in outcrop at several places, near Mr. Weisel's, on Pup Creek. This bed is also opened on the north- west side of the ridge half a mile above J. V. Wathen's. The coal dips rapidly to the northwest from this last opening, bringing the coal down to the branch bottom in a short distance. The sand- stone covering the main Hawes' coal is much thinner here than at the Hawes' mine, or, that another limestone has been intercalated. Abont sixty feet above the coal, on both sides of the ridge, a lime- stone occurs having the general characters of the lower limestone of the section referred to above, especially in the character of the fossils contained in it.
Commencing at the bed of the branch, and counting upward, the strata at Weisel's coal mines in 1855 were found to be as follows : Under clay, two feet ; coal, the top part containing thin layers of shale, four feet, four inches ; bituminous shale, containing lingulæ, five feet, eight inches ; sandstone, soft, of a grayish white color, five feet ; soft, yellow sandstone, thirteen feet ; sandstone, weathering into holes, ten feet ; covered space, thirty feet ; limestone, four feet; covered space, forty feet ; sandstone, fifteen feet ; covered space, twenty-six feet, top of the hill.
We are indebted to T. H. Osborne, Local Geologist of this county, for most of the notes following in reference to out-croppings of coal, etc., in the eastern part of the county. 17
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The coal on the waters of Blackford to within a mile of Knotts- ville is thres to four feet, four inches. On Ireland Head, three, miles from Knottsville, the coal crops out four feet thick with a covering of fifty feet of sandstone and shale. One mile east, on the land of Richard Long, the brown coal occurs, and, like the bitu- minous, is four feet, four inches, in thickness. It shows a woody or slaty structure and is fossiliferous. A half mile from this place, on E. Jarboe's land, on a northwest hill near Pup Creek, there is an out-crop of coal fifty inches thick, underneath sandstone. A mile due east, on Widow Bowles's land, on the Knottsville and Hawesville road, and a mile from Knottsville, there are three feet of c al, under forty feet of sandstone. On Charles Clement's land, a mile from the last place, the coal vein is thirty-three inches in thickness. This land is on the Owensboro and Cloverport road one mile above Knottsville.
Due east of the last, on George Aull's land, which is on the Whitesville and Knottsville road, the coal has a three-foot vein. A half mile further, on Charles Higdon's land, the coal is fifty- two inches thick. A mile southwest, on Mr. Carico's place, it is thirty inches. Three miles southeast, on 'Squire Anderson's land, between Whitesville and Knottsville, the coal is also thirty inches. This coal lies in pocket. From this point on to Knottsville there seems to be a general thinning of this coal seam.
A shaft at George Mullin's flouring mill in Whitesville is sunk, forty feet deep, through twenty-nine inches of coal.
On William Clark's farm, in Upper Town Precinct, is found No. 2 peacock coal, thirty inches thick. From A. Clark, Jr.'s to John McFarland's, northeast of Owensboro, outcroppings are seen among the hills.
The strata about Hill's bridge, on the McFarland's Mill road, are in the tidal-wave formation, with upheavals and outcroppings of coal on North Panther Creek. On Barney May's farm, near Panther Creek and about four miles from Owensboro, Mr. Osborne in the latter part of November, 1882, discovered peacock coal thirty inches thick. Indeed, coal can be found in hundreds of places throughont Daviess County, and among them Mr . Osborne has found outcroppings, stains, etc., on the lands of Albert Clark, near the Litchfield road, four miles from Owensboro; on Jackson Sublette's horse lot, one and a half miles further; on Frank Yew- ell's place, near Zion Church; on the lands of H. B. Pardon; on the Hartford road, three miles from Owensboro; on Mr. Ratt's,
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three and a half iniles from Owensboro; on R. F. Wilkerson's, same vicinity; on the lands of Thos. H. Higdon, W. J. Clark, etc., etc.
Among the Shaw Hills, on the Blackford, and abont a mile and a half above its month, are three strata of coal,-the highest 315 feet above low-water mark in the Ohio River, and is covered with hard sandstone and limestone. The outcrop on Blackford near the Knottsville and Hawesville bridge is of the sandstone forma- tion. From the St. Lawrence, church a mile and a half above Knottsville, to Martin Watlien's, is a coal vein varying from twenty-two to thirty-six inches.
The coal from the Montgomery mine, a mile and a half above Owensboro (coal D), is of a pure, pitch black, has but little fibrous coal in it, but has some thin scales of pyrites in the seam. That of the Dutch mine is similar. The latter is a " splint " coal, as is also that of Bon Harbor. That of Dunean's bank, near Knotts- ville, splits easily into thin laminæ; has considerable fibrous coal and some granular pyrites and pyritic bright scales.
LIMESTONE AND SANDSTONE.
There is good building stone in nearly all parts of Daviess County. In the Shaw Hills, previously referred to, there is a limestone as good as the Louisville variety. From James Lafoe's to the Han- cock County line the sandstone is fine for building purposes. Quarries are worked here. This stone is nnderlaid with a blue va- riety good for grindstones and scythe-stones. On John Jones's and Mr. Bratcher's places, about two and a half miles east of Tichenor's Station, limestone exists of good building qualities. Fossils are quite rare in these strata. That on Bratcher's place is topograph- ically 130 feet higher than that of Mr. Jones's. Fifteen feet above the limestone at Bratcher's Spring, an inch or two of coal has been found. Fragments of pebbly sandstone are strewn over the slope of the hill. The outerop of limestone on Mr. Bratcher's place is about two miles from Barrett's Creek salt wells, in Ohio County, at which point the Rough Creek uplift is plainly visible. The Chester beds are here brought to the surface and tilted at right angles.
The four-feet coal in the bed of Blackford Creek lies in the sub- carboniferons limestone, as well as the "anvil rock, " or " shot- pouch sandstone." From the Shaw Hills to James Estes', on the Yelvington road, five miles from the latter place, the same sub- carboniferous limestone prevails, as well as the Averill sandstone.
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HISTORY OF DAVIESS COUNTY.
A few ontcrops of coal are found along the railroad in the south- ern portion of the county. Within a mile of Lewis's Station the cuts begin to show sandstone and shale. In the cuts just sonth of the twelfth mile-post, numbering from Owensboro, a total thickness of twenty-five feet of sandstone is exposed. This overlies a coal which has been opened near the road, on land belonging either to Mr. Field or Mr. Van Arsdal. The bed is reported to be three feet thick. It is covered by bituminous slate, which appears to be suf- ficently dense to form a good roof for mining under. The position of the coal is about ten feet below the railroad at the twelfth mile- post. At Dr. Hickman's, just south of the ninth mile-post, the cuts expose about twenty feet of sandstone.
OTHER MINERALS.
On Alex. Hill's farm, on the southwest side of Panther Creek, shale and ocher are exhibited eight to ten feet thick in the bank. Yel- low ocher and red (keel) of very fine quality are found in this and other places.
Iron ore is found in this county, but not in workable quantities.
Lead exists in a stratum three eighths of au inch thick, in a stone quarry between James Lafoe's and the Hancock County line. "Floating lead " is also found in small quantities. On the Blackford, about two and a half miles above its month, lead is sup- posed to exist, from which the early settlers used to mold bullets. The precise spot is not now clearly identified, but there is a tradition that Indians used to obtain lead at this point, and were engaged in mining it in 1793, when they espied Captain Wm. Hardin in the ear vicinity and captured him.
Clay .- There is clay on the farm of Rev. A. Hopkins, near Crow's Station, which is somewhat sandy, of a light-gray color, with ferruginous infiltrations in the fissures, and some old obscure vegetable impressions. It contains about fifty per cent of fine clear sand. It burns quite hard, turning to a handsom light- salmon color, and hence may be quite valnable for terra cotta work, or bricks, or tiles. The air-dried clay lost one and a half per cent. of moisture at 212º Fahrenheit, and as much more of combined water at red heat. It would probably shrink less in the fire than most clays, but would not answer for a fire-clay.
Of blue potters' clay a bed or vein ten to fourteen feet thick, and ten to fifteen feet below the top of the bank, extends from three miles above to two miles below Owensboro; and a short distance
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HISTORY OF DAVIESS COUNTY.
south of thecity is a bed of white clay. A fine English fire-clay was discovered by T. H. Osborne near Whitesville, about three fourths of a mile from Boston
Rock crystal, of gravity 2.5, and mica, gravity 3, are found in this county-the latter on the edge of the western coal field, in the St. Louis group.
Salt water of excellent quality can be obtained by boring 500 to 700 feet deep.
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