USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 34
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It will thus be seen that three important inter-urban lines centre in the city of Sten- henville, and two more are in prospect. Five miles above the city on the West Vir- ginia shoe opposite Brown's Island there is in course of construction an extensive tin
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plant to be completed during the present year. Adjacent to it is springing up a new town called Weirton, and the Tri-State Traction Company is contemplating run- ning a line to that point and perhaps be- yond which will open up a beautiful stretch of country. Surveys have been made and options obtained for another line directly across the country extending from Stenben- ville through Wintersville, Richmond, East Springfield, Carrollton ete. to Canton, O. where it will connect with the general elec- tric systems of the state. This will go through a virgin territory where wagon roads have furnished the only ontlet, al- though it is rich agriculturally and other- wise.
TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE.
While not a method of transportation in the ordinary sense of the word the tele- graph and telephone are so closely con- uected with commercial interests as to make reference to them appropriate at this pluce. The first telegraph office in the county was opened in 1847, in the second story of the old Union Savings Institution building on South Third street Stenben- ville, owned by H. G. Garrett where is now located the Union Deposit Bank. It ante- dated the railroad by five years and wus known as the O'Reilly line with J. K. Moor- head, president ; J. D. Reed, secretary, and Jackson Hunt, superintendent of repairs, and the line stretched across the country from Pittsburgh. Messrs. Anson Stager, Fred Beisel and Mr. Bush opened the office, and the first message announced the de- purture from Pittsburgh, of Heury Clay on the steamer "Monongahela," for his Kon- tueky home. A Inrge crowd awaited the arrival of the boat ut the wharf, and White's band stationed itself on the roof of the wharf-boat, and was discoursing patriotic airs when the roof gave way let- ting the players down to the deck, for- tunately withont serious injury. The line consisting of three-ply wires was extended from Steubenville to Wheeling, Zanesville.
Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville and in- termediate points. Alexander Cures and Joseph Keith were the first messenger boys. The latter with David Moody was the first operator, learning to read by sound which was a great art in those days when the machine printed a series of dots and dashes representing the letters of the alphabet on a paper ribbon moving through the rolls. It is well to remember that tele- graphing was in regular use here within three years from the time that the first experimental line was opened between Washington and Baltimore. In 1852, the line between Steubenville and Wheeling was destroyed by flood, and Mr. Moody opened an office in the old Edgington house at Holliday's Cove, and the stemmers "Diurnal" and "Winchester " carried mes- sages to Wheeling. The wire was carried over the river above the present Pan Han- dle railroad bridge by means of a mast on the Virginia side and a large oak tree on the hillside on the Ohio side, very much us is now the upper ferry trolley. The short lines were shortly merged into the Western Union Company which, with the exception of the railroad telegraph, controlled all the Isiness in this section until March 29, 1892, when the Postal Telegraph Company obtained an entry into Steubenville, und now there is the double system to nearly all points. The Western Union has 858,38 miles of wires in the county, and the Postal 254.50. Andrew Carnegie took some of his curly lessons in telegraphing while u mes- senger in the Steubenville office, and in memory of that event give the funds wherewith to creet the Carnegie library building.
The telephone arrived in 1881, being what was known as the Bell system. It was at first entirely local in its character, taking in the nearer suburban villages, with M. R. Wolf as manager. Gradually how- ever its operations were extended until one can now talk to almost every part of the country. H. Sapp is the present manger.
A rival institution was inaugurated in
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April, 1896, being a local organization un- Creek Townships; Bergholz, 94 miles in der the name of the Phoenix Telephone Company.
The officers and directors were G. A. Maxwell, president; R. J. Morrison, vice- president ; J. A. McCullongh, treasurer ; G. G. Gaston, secretary; J. W. Forney, J. E. McGorwan, E. E. Erskine, J. S. Collins, superintendent.'
It had no long distance connections, but made a specialty of taking in the rural dis- triets which was a great convenience to the farming community, and it soon had more subscribers than its competitor. About two years ago it sold out to the National Company which practically rebuilt the line and made it one of the best in the country. It has also pursued the policy of affiliating with both the various local and long dis- tance lines so that its system is most com- plete in every respect. It is the first com- pany to lay underground wires in the city, an example worthy of imitation. At pres- ent there are fifteen telephone companies in Jefferson County, the Bell and the Na- tional taking the lead. The former hus 1611.54 miles of wire divided as follows: Steubenville City and Township, including Mingo, 940.4; Toronto, 176; Saline Town- ship, 34; Knox, 90; Islund Creek, 72; Wells, 81.5; Warren, 114; Mt. Pleasant, 6; Smithi- field. 76; Cross Creek, 22. National in Stenbenville, 1682.04; Mingo, 40; Cross ('rock Township, 64; totul, 1786.04.
The other companies are as follows: Adeun with 580 miles in Adena village and Smithfield, Mt. Pleasant, Warren, Wells and Steubenville Townships; East Spring- field with 80 miles in Sulem and Island
Springfield, Brush Creek and Ross Town- ships; Columbiana, 24 miles in Saline; Knoxville, 45 miles in Knox and Island Creek; United States, 72 miles in Island Creek, Knox, Saline and Steubenville Townships; Islund Creek, 11 miles; An- napolis, 5.5 miles in Salem and Wayne; Unionport, 14; Bloomingdale, 12 in Cross Creek and Wayne; James Wherry, 6 miles in Wayne, Salem, Island Creek and Cross Creek : Reed's Mills, 20 miles in Wayne and Cross Creek; Mt. Pleasunt, 144.6 miles in Mt. Pleasant, Warren, and Smithfield Townships; making a grand total 4,505 miles. The time seems to be rapidly ap- proaching when the phone will be con- sidered as necessary on the farm as the barn.
Four express companies operate from Steubenville and other points, the Adams, Wells Fargo, American and Pacific.
While these pages are being printed it is announced that a Pennsylvanin charter has been secured for the Pittsburgh, Steubenville und Wheeling Railway Com- puny, an electric Jine to be built from Pitts- burgh to Steubenville, there to connect with existing systems. At Dover, Del., yesterday articles of incorporation were upplied for for the Cincinnati & Pittsburgh Electric Railway Company of Huntington, W. Va., with a capital stock of $1,000,000. It is thought the two concerns are con- neeted and that a network of electric rail- ways in the Ohio valley is projected in an- ticipation of a great increase in popula- tion and business resulting from the pro- posed improvement of the Ohio river.
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CHAPTER XVI
NATURAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT
Immense Coal Fields and Their Product-Third County in the State-First in Fire Clay-Petroleum and Natural Gas-Other Minerals.
It would be as difficult to tell when, where In those days the idea that within a cen- and by whom the first coal was dug in tury there would be fears of a timber fam- ine, would have been laughed at. In the chapter on geology of the county the dif- ferent coal veins have been located and described, so that we can now proceed to their development for domestic and indns- trial purposes. Jefferson County as it would to note who felled the first tree, and just about as im- portant. It has already been noticed that there was a shipment of coal from Pitts- burgh as early as 1803, and the deep gorges ent by the creeks and runs as well as hy the river itself exposed veins of coal which That the value of coal as a fuel was early appreciated is evident, for Bezaleel Wells operated a drift mine in 1810-11, and John Permar, James Odbert and others carried on the business in 1815-16. One Feltz Smith is said to have grubbed coal out of the hill at Rockville before these dates, and if so he may be honored as the pioneer in this direction. From this time the number of banks rapidly increased, and by 1845 river shipments became active, coal being shipped as far as New Orleans in drifting flats, which became the immense tows of later days, As previously stated, the prin- cipal outerop in the vicinity of Steubenville was the No. 8, or Pittsburgh, vein, which has played an important part during the last few years in the industrial develop- ment of the southern part of the county. While the output of these banks was con- siderable in the aggregate, the time was approaching when larger and more sys- tematie efforts were needed, and prepara- tions were started to reach the lower veins, could easily be utilized if desired. From cutting away the coal at the outerop to running a gallery into the hillside was a natural and easy proceeding, and had there been any demand for the fuel it could have been easily supplied. But the country was still largely covered with forests which had to be cleared away before the land could be cultivated, and while felling trees was quite as laborious as digging coal yet they had to be felled anyway, and once down the best way to dispose of the fallen giant was to cut it up into cordwood. So wood was the general fuel for domestic purposes, all the earlier locomotives were wood burners. Coal was preferred on the steamboats as less dangerous, but even there the long trains of sparks from the chimneys indi- cated the use of the more combustible ma- terial. It was not until there had been an appreciable growth of manufacturing that coal, by reason of its superior quality for prodneing strong and steady heat conld be said to be a general commercial prodnet, which could only be done by means of
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shafts. There was a record that in 1829 Adam Wise, while drilling for water on the western side of the city, had perforated a vein of coal eleven feet thick. So in 1856 a corporation was formed by James Wal- lace and others, under the name of the Steu- benville Coal & Mining Company, in order that there might be secured a constant snp- ply for manufacturing and domestic pur- poses in Steubenville, not subject to inter- ruption from bad roads and other causes. Previous to sinking a shaft a well was drilled at the rear of the Ashland woolen factory, on Liberty Street, and a vein reported eight feet thick. So a shaft was begun, and, after many interruptions due to inexperience, the vein was reached and found to be only three feet nine inchies thick. This was the vein afterwards known as No. 6, sometimes claimed to be No. 7. The managers were disgusted and out of funds and the shaft lay idle until February, 1858, when Louden Borland, HI. K. Reyn- olds and Mr. Manful leased the mine for five years. The work still languished when Manful sold out to William Averick, an ex- perienced English miner, when operations were resumed, this time with success. In 1865 the original company bought back the lease, which had been extended ten years, and installed James H. Blinn as manager and William Smurthwaite mine boss. They had 600 acres of coal land, and their do- mestic market, with shipments by rail and water, gave them a business of over 7,000 bushels per day, and the 100 coke ovens turned out 3,500 bushels of coke. In 1871 an additional shaft was sunk at Stony Hol- low, about a mile north of the old shaft, reaching the coal at a depth of 187 feet, the old one being 221 feet 4 inches, the vein being higher at that point and the surface lower. This shaft is still in operation, and although the advent of natural gas has in- terfered considerably with the domestic market, yet seventy-five men are steadily employed, and the latest improvements have been made in the way of ventilating fans, electrical machinery, etc. The officers
are Geo. W. MeCook, president and man- ager; F. C. Chambers, secretary ; Charles Peterson, bookkeeper, and William Smurth- waite, superintendent. William Smurth- waite, Sr., who has held this position for over forty years, has turned over the act- ive management of the mine to his son, who has learned the business thoroughly under his father's supervision.
Joining this field on the south is that of the La Belle Iron Works, originally the Jef- ferson Iron Works, covering some 1,500 aeres on both sides of the river. This con- cern for a number of years depended ou a hill hank for its fuel, but in 1863 suuk a shaft and at a depth of 175 feet reached a vein averaging three feet nine inches. The demand for coal existed at its doors, and its prodnet reached 5,000 bushels per day, and its 110 coke ovens turned out 2,500 bushels of their product per diem. When the Jefferson Works became involved in financial difficulties the mine was closed down and remained so for several years, but under the present La Belle manage- ment has been reopened, a current of water from the river which threatened its de- struction controlled, and is once more in full operation with workings extending across the river into West Virginia.
Directly south of this was the shaft of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Coal Company, sunk in 1861-2 to a depth of 210 feet. It had twenty-eight coke ovens, and prodneed 600,000 bushels of coal annually, most of which was shipped to Cleveland and other points. Just below this was the shaft of the Swift Iron Works, of Newport. Ky., originally known as the Borland shaft. It was opened in 1862 to a depth of 240 feet. and shipped 800,000 bushels yearly by water and rail, and had its quota of coke ovens. Both these workings were absorbed by the Jefferson Iron Works, now the La Belle, and years ago ceased as independent enterprises.
About 1869 the Mingo Iron Works sunk a shaft and built coke ovens on the hill west of their plant, which they worked for
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a few years, but the vein began to be too thin for profit, and it was abandoned. The site is now covered with dwellings.
At the lower end of Brilliant, seven miles below Steubenville, the Lagrange Coal Company sunk a shaft to No. 6 vein, a depth of 261 feet, where the coal was five fect three inches thick, with two slate part- ings. It afterwards became the property of the Spaulding Iron Works.
Three miles below Brilliant a shaft 225 feet deep was sunk at Rush Run, where the coal was found nine feet thick in spots, but running down to two feet with slate part- ings, making an average of seven or eight feet. The shaft did a good business, but the upper works being destroyed by fire were not rebuilt, as the company's acreage was too nearly worked out to justify it. A belief prevailed that the coal worked here was the same as the great vein of the Hock- ing Valley, but this has not been verified.
At the upper end of the city was the shaft of the Steubenville Furnace & Iron Company, ninety-six feet in depth, bring- ing up 2,000 bushels per day, supplying a series of coke ovens and the local market. Half a mile above was the shaft of the Jef- ferson Coal & Iron Company (Bustard). seventy-six feet deep, with the usnal coke ovens, whose principal customer was the C. & P. Railroad. Half a mile above this is the Alikanna shaft, and farther up the Cable. None of these shafts is now in oper- ation, principally on account of having ex- hansted its particular field.
Concerning this vein the Geological Sur- vey reports it as "the most interesting and important of all our coal seams. It attains greater thickness, occupies a wider area, and in different outerops and phases sup- plies a larger amount of fuel than any other." Subsequent developments in the lower part of the county would seem to modify this last statement. In the same volume from which the above is taken are thirteen analyses of coal taken from the No. 6 vein in different parts of the state, which give the following instructive figures :
gravity.
Moisture.
Volatile
Fixed
carbon.
sh.
1.Isbon
1.200 3.45
35.56
56.36
4.63
1.21
Nalineville
1.260 1.40
34.60
59.55
4.45
2.11
Linton
1.273 2.00
30.17
20.29
64.30
4.
2.26
I'brichsville
1.244 3.20
34.20
58.
65.90
1.841
3.40
Keith's
1.339 4.
36.20
54.70
5.10
5.36
N. Ntraltsville.
1.269 6.00
:10 25
5%,19
4.66
Nelsunville
... 1 249 5.95
32.38
57.12
4.55
It will be noted that the Steubenville coal shows a larger percentage of fixed carbon than that from any other point, while the sulphur and ash, those detrimental quali- ties, are practically eliminated. An analy- sis of the S. F. & I., or Gravel shaft coke, gave the following :
Water and hydrogen.
Fixed carbon.
90.63
Sulphur
.27
Anh
8.38
Total
100,00
..
....
0.43
2.63
l'arbon
1.3M0 1.40
Milliersburg
1.309 5.10
39.
31.70
4.20 4.60
1.54
Rteub. Shaft ...
1.305 1.40
30.90
Waynesburg
1.273 3.30
33.30
Rurk Run. . . ..
1.293 3 47
combustilde
Specific
hur
"'amp Run.
1.570 1.529
57.9214
2.12;
2.69
..
As the famons Connellsville coke usually has one per cent of sulphur and 10 to 14 per cent of ash, it is seen that the Steuben- ville coke makes a decidedly superior show- ing in this respect, and other things being egnal should have held its own in the mar- ket against any and all competition. This it did for many years, but changes in the construction of blast furnaces made a change in this respect. The Connellsville roke was harder than the Steubenville and better calculated to hold up the weight of ore and limestone piled on top of it in the furnaces. While the furnaces were small and the charges comparatively light, this made little difference, as the Steubenville coke was equal to the demands upon it. But as furnaces became enormously larger and the weight of the charges correspondingly greater, the hardness of the coke became an important factor in which the Steuben- ville coke, being made from softer coal, could not compete. Fortunately most of the coal immediately about the city was
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mined before this condition of affairs arose. The busy days of the Steubenville mines may be roughly given from 1865 to 1880, although the aggregate output of the county was very small, compared with that of later years. The following from the state mine inspector's report for 1876 will give a fair idea of the conditions prevailing here during that period :
" I have in forumer reports alluded to the superior ven- tilation prevailing in this region, surpassing any other district in the state. I have never received a single complaint of bad air, but all the miners have united iu bearing willing testimony to the salubrious condition of the mines. Entries and rooms alike are well and thor- oughly aired, and the moving columns of wind strong and vigorous. There are no strikes in this region; there is no fault-finding with the bosses. The Market Street mine, one of the oldest of the series of shaft openings, has been worked continuously since the pit was sunk. The Stony Hollow pit is sunk at the advance workings on the north side of the old pit und the two shafts form oue colliery, the entries being ten feet wide, the roomis eighteen feet wide, the pillars twenty four feet thick by seventy five feet long. If gas appears in the heads of the rooms before the seventy five foot pillar is won, an air crossing is cut, so that there is not always regularity us to the length of the pillars. There are five stations in the mine, three on the north side and two on the south side. In these stations, owing to the thinness of the seam, the hauling moles cannot enter the rooms, and the cars, which hold twelve bushels cach, are pushed out to the hauling roads by "putters. " three patters being usually employed in a station of fourteen er fifteen rooms. The stations where the mules haul are loented as near the center room ny practicahle, being generally from three to four pillars behind the working fures. These centers are moved forward as the work. ings advance. By this arrangement the putting mais are made shorter, and have equal men on each side of the mule road. Some years ago a panel or square of work was laid on the long wall system, all the coal being rut away as the workings advanced forward, after the usual practice in long wall mining. but the result was deemed unsatisfactory, and the practice was abandoned. There is an abundant ventilation prevailing in every division of the mine, the amount of air in circulation reaching 50,000 cubic feet per minute. The air is split at the bottom of the shaft, one split going north and the other south, The south split is ngain split into two parts, a short distance from the bottom of the shaft, one-half going cast. Six hundred feet ahead the eastern split is again divided, the northern division ventilating the last nrm on the north side of the pit; thence it passes to the Stony Hollow pit, traversing a series of rooms there, and returns to the upeast. The south part of the east split travels south, ventiluting a series of rooms, then uniting with the part it split from, airx the workings on the southwest. then moves north to the pillar workings, passing . which it returns to the uprast at the old pit furnace."
The report for 1877 adds :
"The plan of laying out the workings, which pre- vails at all the Steubenville mines, is modeled after the
practice followed in the collieries in the north of Eng. land. The pillars left in the English mines are larger and stronger than those in Steubenville, because the pits ure so much deeper in the old country, some of them reaching 800 to 2,500 feet of perpendicular depth. In Steubenville the rooms are eighteen feet wide, the walls und cross ents twelve feet wide, the pillars twenty-four feet in thickness and seventy-two feet in length. The walls und rooms eross each other like latitude and longitude lines, the walls being driven on the butts and the roomy on the face of the conl. The main entries are ten feet wide. The miners get seventy five cents per yard, besides the tonnage price for driving entry, but nothing is allowed for wall driving. The mine cars hold twelve and one-half to fifteen bushels, and are pashed out from the room faces to the stations on the hauling ronds by putters or pushers. In Borland's shaft, Shetland ponies are used instead of patters. These ponies are only three feet two inches to three fret six inches high. This mine has a percentage of these bardy and useful animals underground. In the galleries und hauling roads a foot or more of the fire- clay floor is taken up to make height for the hauling innles. These roads are made five feet two inches high above the rail, and the track is laid with T iron. The coal bewers dig and load the coal, the depnties laying the track and setting props in the rooms. Every digger works by candle light, instead of the ordinary miner's lamp The candks are made very small, there being twenty to the pound; they are fastened to the pillar side with a piece of soft clay. Three to three nud a half of these camiles are cousumed per day by ench miner, The candles give less light than the miner' lamp, but they make no smoke, and miners who are in the habit of using them prefer them to the lamp. The deputies and drivers nse lamps. In mining toal powder is used to knock it down, each digger firing three shots per day on an average, two in the top and one in the bottom coal. The workmen fire at all hours of the day; bat a few onnees of powder suffices for n shot, and not more than three pounds of powder per man per week is needed for blasting purposes. . No blasting is done in the solid coal; a shot is undercut to the depth of four feet, if the miner is a skillful workman. The mine munles are kept duy and night under ground; the stables are hewn out of the solid coul pillars at the bottom of the pit, and are dry, well aired und comfortable. The mules are fed at four o'clock in the morning by the fire viewers. Work commencing at six o'clock, an honr is allowed for dinner, and work ceases at five in the evening. The miners ure paid every two weeks in cash, and there are no store orders forced on them, as is done In many other districts of the state. The miners live in town, and a large number of them own the houses and lots in which they live, nad have, in many cases, other property. Fully one-half of them take daily newspapers, though it must be confessed that here, as well as everywhere else in the Union, not a few spend their hard earnings in the saloons and soul- debasing pleasures."
During the period under consideration the No. 8 or Pittsburgh vein, as well as others, continued to be worked industri- ously, adding considerably to the output. Beginning with the old Groff or Diamond mine at the mouth of Yellow Creek, where
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