The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 23

Author: Warner, Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

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An important use of the limestone of both the strata which have been men- tioned, is for furnace flux, a purpose which it serves well, where the purer varieties are used. Both limestones are prone to run into chert, and in some places consist largely of flinty matter. These are, of course, unfit to be used

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for either lime or flux, but they serve an excellent purpose for road-making, supplying, indeed, the very best material for macadamizing.

In certain localities, both limestones contain so much earthy matter as to be unfit for burning into quicklime. This is especially true of the Putnam Hill limestone. Where this phase is assumed, and the quantity of silica and alumina is not too great, a hydraulic limestone or cement rock is found. No specimens of either limestone were found in Tuscarawas County, which seem to promise to produce a cement of first quality, but not the hundredth or thousandth part of the outcrop of the strata have been examined, and since the limestones are very variable, there may be many deposits of the requisite character, which are as yet unknown.

The surface of each of these limestones almost always carries some iron ore, generally in flattened concretions or nodules, sometimes forming contin- uous sheets of plate or block ore. It is not known that either of these ore beds is of sufficient richness anywhere in Tuscarawas County to pay for drift- ing, but in many places on the slopes of the hills one or the other may be profitably stripped. It is possible, also, that in some localities the bedded ore may be of sufficient thickness to warrant systematic mining.

The fire-clay, which underlies Coal No. 3, in many localities is thick and of excellent quality, and forms the basis of a great industry in pottery, fire- brick, etc., but in this county little is known of the character of this bed of clay, since it is almost universally below drainage, and has been but rarely ex - posed to view.

Coal No. 5 .- From fifty to eighty feet above the Putnam Hill limestone is found in most parts of Tuscarawas County a coal seam, which is of very con- siderable importance. It is extensively worked in the northern part of the county, especially at Mineral Point and at the tunnel of the Tuscarawas Branch Railroad. Its maximum thickness here is four feet, though generally it is somewhat thinner. The quality of the coal is usually good; it is hard and bright, partially open burning, contains a moderate quantity of sulphur, and about 5 per cent of ash, kindles readily, and holds fire to a somewhat remarkable degree. Some varieties of this coal make an excellent coke, hard, bright and silvery, containing 10 per cent of ash and a little over 1 per cent of sulphur. More generally, however, the quantity of sulphur is greater, and to make a first-class coke the coal should be washed.

Coal No. 5 is the seam worked many years near Bolivar; it is there from three to three and a half feet in thickness. About Zoar it is found on both sides of the Tuscarawas, showing very much, as at Bolivar, in the mines belonging to the Zoar Community, west of the river, worked for some years by Mr. Medill. This seam at one point was folded upon itself and thickened to thirteen feet. At Mineral Point it shows a similar disturbance in the mines of Mr. C. E. Holden. This peculiar phenomenon was occasioned by the forcing out of a belt of coal from its natural position over another part of the same seam. The force by which this displacement was produced seems to have acted laterally, and affected the coal in a belt about one hundred feet

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W.B. GRAY

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wide. In driving one of the entries in the mines at Mineral Point, a " horse- back " was encountered, formed by the descent of the roof shale, which had evidently been forced downward, and was very much broken up. After cut- ting through this the coal was regained, but here refolded on itself. In some places, a layer of shale was interposed between the two strata of coal; in others they were in immediate contact. - After passing beyond the disturbed belt, the coal seam resumed its normal position and thickness.

On the south side of Huff's Run, at Mineral Point, Coal No. 5 has a thick- ness of about four feet, and appears better than in any other locality where it has been opened in the county. Here it underlies a broad table-land, and seems capable of supplying a very large amount of excellent coal.

At the old Fairfield Furnace, three miles below Mineral Point, this coal is found to be two feet in thickness; at Dover, it has a thickness of about three feet. From this point it runs through the hills on the west side of the Tus- carawas all the way to and below Port Washington; it is gonerally thinner, however, in this direction, rarely exceeding three feet in thickness. . It is opened at the furnaces below Port Washington, and here shows a thickness of two and one-half feet-a moderately good coal. On the river bank, near Bur- ton's ore-shoot, it was formerly worked, and is said to have been four feet thick.

At Lock 17, Coal No. 5 is two feet in thickness, about twenty feet below Coal No. 6 and seventy feet above the Putnam Hill limestone. At Trenton, it is thirty feet below Coal No. 6, and has been worked for many years. At Uhrichsville, it is found in the valley of the Stillwater from twenty-five to thirty feet below Coal No. 6; it is here and at Dennison, according to the bor- ings, ninety feet above the limestone.

On the east side of the Tuscarawas Valley, below New Philadelphia, Coal No. 5 seems to be thin, and is scarcely worked at all. The same is true of all the region lying between the valley of the Tuscarawas and that of the Conot- ten, and it is doubtful whether this coal has much value south of Zoar Station and west of the Conotten.

Beneath Coal No. 5 is the most valuable bed of fire-clay in the series. It is always of good quality, but exhibits considerable diversity of character. In some localities, it is quite plastic, while in others it is " non- plastic" or " flint " clay, is free from injurious ingredients, and has been found to form a very superior material for the manufacture of fire-brick. This hard clay may be recognized by its having somewhat the appearance of flint, and instead of softening down into a paste, like most fire-clays, it breaks into small, angular fragments. In this respect it resembles the clay from which the famous Mt. Savage fire-brick is made, and it seems to be of equally good quality. When used for the manufacture of brick, it is coarsely ground, and the fragments are then mixed with from one-sixth to one-tenth of plastic clay, by which they are made to adhere and hold the forin of the mold. Large fire-brick factories are in operation at Dover and Mineral Point, and a considerable quantity of the " flint " clay is shipped for manufacture in other counties.

Coal No. 5 is usually over-lain by a black or gray shale, which contains a

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notable quantity of iron, and this horizon has furnished the greater part of the kidney ore that has been used in Tuscarawas County. It is doubtful whether the quantity is sufficient to pay for the expense of drifting, but in the valleys and on the slopes of the hills it has been largely and profitably mined by stripping.

Coal No. 5 a .- About Mineral Point, a thin seam of impure cannel is found, eighteen to twenty feet above Coal No. 5. It is of no economic valne, and is apparently a local seam, though it may be identical with some of the coal seams in the sonthern part of the State.

Coal No. 6 .- At a variable distance-twenty to fifty feet-above Coal No. 5, lies one of the most important and widespread coals in the Ohio coal basin. This is the "Big Vein" of Columbiana County, the Osnaburg of Stark, the Steubenville and Rush Run coals of the Ohio Valley, and the main seam of Holmes and Coshocton Counties. It is also identical with the "Great Vein " of Perry County, there assuming its most important development. In T'us- carawas County, this coal seam is more extensively mined than any other, though in the northern townships it is less thick and valuable than in some of the neighboring counties.

At the tunnel on the Tuscarawas Branch Railroad, it is the "upper tunnel seam," here having a thickness of from three and a half to four feet; the coal is soft and of rather inferior quality. At Mineral Point, it has been opened in numerous places but never worked, being less valuable than the underlying seam, No. 5. On the south side of Huff's Run, it is three and a half feet thick and of medium quality. On the old furnace property, it is four feet thick, and quite good. At the Goshen salt well, it lies one hundred and fifty- five feet above the well-head, is four feet six inches in thickness, with a slaty parting near the middle-a characteristic which marks it over a very large area. Its quality is also typical of the seam-black, rather soft, highly bituminous and cementing.

In the valley of the Conotten, it crops out at a great number of localities. At New Cumberland, it is five feet in thickness, the upper bench remarkably bright and handsome.

Near New Philadelphia, it is mined extensively, is of fair quality, and varies in thickness from three and a half to nearly five feet. South of this, it. is opened at numerous places in the valley of the Tuscarawas and that of the Stillwater, showing local variation in thickness and quality, but usually recog- nizable by its position, its thickness, its slate or sulphur parting, and by its black and pitchy appearance.

At Dennison, the principal mine of Coal No. 6 is twenty-six feet above the railroad track. The bed is three feet ten inches thick, free from slate, but with a small seam of pyrites eighteen inches above the bottom. The dip of the bed is toward the northeast, and about three-fourths of a mile dis- tant in this direction is Morris' mine, an opening in the same bed. In this vicinity, the coal is carried by its easterly dip beneath the surface, and going eastward nothing more is seen of it before reaching Steubenville, where the valley of the Ohio is cut nearly to its level, and it is reached by shafts.

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Between Dennison and New Philadelphia it is opened at intervals in the hills along the east side of the Stillwater. In the district lying between the New Philadelphia road and Rockford, it crops out along the hill road from Eastport, and still more conspicuously in the valley of Pike Run. Here the coal is from four and a half to five feet thick, but sometimes contains two small seams of pyrites. At Hannatown, it is just above the surface of the valley, and beyond this locality are other mines.

South of Newcomerstown, No. 6 is the only coal bed of importance met with to the county line. It is first seen at the Red Schoolhouse, just south of the river, at 135 feet above the railroad, and is only two and a half feet thick. At the Borth settlement in Oxford Township and along the valley of Bird's Run, there are numerous openings on this seam, which ranges from three and a half to three feet ten inches in thickness. In the valley of the Stillwater, south of Uhrichsville, as the strata dips toward the southeast, No. 6 soon passes beneath the surface and disappears. At Newport, it lies just above the water level, and was worked many years ago, but contained so much sulphur as to be almost valueless as a fuel, and copperas was made from the numerous py - rites found in it. Going still further south, it is last heard of at Freeport, where it was struck in a boring forty feet below the bottom lands of the Still- water.

At Lock 17, it lies 100 feet above the railroad. and is the only bed worked here. It is from three and a half to four feet thick. At a bluff on the canal, about a mile east of the town, a fine section of the geological strata is exposed, extending from forty feet above Coal No. 6 down to twelve feet below the Put. nam Hill limestone. The Zoar limestone is said to be found in the river bed, and to have a thin stratum of cannel under it.

At Trenton and Newcastle, No. 6 has been worked for many years, and the product sent by canal to Cleveland. It has there established the reputation of being a "strong " coal, well adapted to the generating of steam, but con- taining too much sulphur to be used in the manufacture of iron. In this re- gion, it varies from four to five feet in thickness. At Port Washington, it lies about 100 feet above the canal, is from five to seven feet thick, very bright, black and handsome, but contains a great deal of sulphur. In the valley of Stone Creek it is thin and poor. On Oldtown Creek, however, it appears bet- ter, attaining a thickness of from four to five feet, and furnishing coal of good quality. In the northwestern part of the county it is opened in various places, and in the valley of Sugar Creek, about Dundee, is unusually good ..

From these facts, it is apparent that Goal No 6 represents a vast amount of mineral fuel in Tuscarawas County. As a general rule, the coal it furnishes is rather soft, contains considerable sulphur and is highly cementing in char- acter. It is evident, therefore, that some method of treatment must be adopted to convert this into a first-class fuel for manufacturing purposes. The im- portance of this problem cannot well be over-estimated. If by any cheap proc- ess of preparation, this coal may be made to supply a pure fuel, it will be a source of great wealth to the county. It will no doubt supply many of the

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purposes of a mineral fuel in its natural state-for household use and for the generation of steam-but for the manufacture of iron it will be necessary to eliminate a considerable portion of the sulphur it contains before the best re- sulta will be attained in its use. It forms a strong, adhesive coke, and one that has high heating power and is capable of bearing a heavy burden; yet, if not purified, the sulphur it contains will, perhaps, preclude its use. Hence such methods of coal-washing should be adopted as are found to be effica- cious in the treatment of similar coals. It is probable that by adopting methods now in use elsewhere, a good coke can be formed from No. 6 coal, and that this, when so treated, will furnish a fuel which will not only serve for the manufacture of all the iron ore found within this county, but will in- vite and bring to the source of this fuel the iron ores of Lake Superior.

Mahoning Sandstone .- Above Coal No. 6 in Tuscarawas County is found a mass of strata about 100 feet in thickness, which usually contains little that has economic value. Immediately over the coal is a stratum of black or gray shale of variable thickness, and above this generally, though not always, a massive sandstone, known as the Mahoning sandstone. It varies in thickness from nothing to 100 feet, is usually coarse, and very frequently is in part a fine conglomerate, in which the pebbles range in size from that of a grain of wheat to a bean.

The sandstone is well shown in the hill above the tunnel on the Tuscara- was Branch Railroad, and on both sides of the valley of the Tuscarawas from Zoar to Dover.

In places, this sandstone comes down to and even cuts out Coal No. 6. In the hills south of Huff's Run, below Mineral Point, it rests upon the coal, and, as is usual in such cases, this is thinned and deteriorated by it. Below Zoar Station, for some distance along the river, Coal No. 6 seems to be en- tirely cut away by the sandstone, but about the Goshen salt well it comes in again in full force, and the sandstone thins out and almost disappears. Pass- ing southward along the valley of the Tuscarawas, the Mahoning sandstone is visible at intervals to the Coshocton line, but in many places it is replaced by shale. The changes which occur at this horizon are well shown on the two sides of the Stillwater Valley at Uhrichsville. In the hill south of Dennison, which rises to the height of 350 feet, no heavy bed of sandstone is seen, al- most the entire mass being composed of shale, while on the west side of the valley, over and south of the mine of Mr. Andreas, the sandstone is well de- veloped, in places reaching a thickness of seventy-five feet.

Coal No. 6 a .- In most places where the Mahoning sandstone is not very thick, traces of a coal seam may often be found, about fifty feet above Coal No. 6. In the northern and central portions of the county, this is not well shown, but in the southern townships it is thicker and more constant, in places form- ing a workable and valuable coal, designated No. 6 a. In the hill above Den- nison it is seen in the road, overlain by a brecciated limestone, which is un- like anything found lower in the series. The coal is here too thin to be of much value. Further south, at Wallace's, near Newport, it is two and a half

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feet thick. In this vicinity it lies from twenty to thirty feet below Coal No. 7, this interval being filled by the brecciated limestone, argillacious shales and the fire-clay of No. 7.

Coal No. 7 and its Iron Ores .- This coal is quite a constant feature in the sections exposed in Tuscarawas County, but throughout the northern and cen- tral townships it has little economic value. On entering the county from the north, it is first seen in the tops of the hills about Zoar Station, and thence south ward is continuous in all the highlands to the Guernsey County line. It is locally known as the black-band coal, from the fact that the important black band deposits of the county rest directly upon it.

On the old furnace tract at Zoar Station, Coal No. 7 is from three to three and a half feet in thickness, soft, sulphurous and poor. In the highlands be- tween the Conotten and the Tuscarawas, it is shown in all the black-band ore mines, and is usually taken out with the ore. It is here from one to two feet in thickness, and generally quite sulphurous. In the highlands west of the Tuscarawas, in the townships of Salem, Bucks, Auburn and Sugar Creek, quite a large territory lies above the horizon of Coal No. 7, and it is opened at numerous localities, in connection with the important deposits of blackband ore found there. Throughout this region, the coal is thin and poor. On the south side of the Tuscarawas, it improves greatly in thickness and quality, as it does in the east between Dennison and Leesburg. It has, however, nowhere in Tuscarawas County the value that it has in Guernsey, where it is the "Cam- bridge coal," the most important of all the coal seams found there.

It is seen in the hills above Dennison, apparently, about three feet in thick- ness. By barometer it lies just 100 feet above No. 6, or 150 feet above the railroad at Uhrichsville. Further up the Stillwater, eight miles above Uhrichs- ville, it is seen on the farm of Mr. Wallace. About twenty feet below it, here is coal No. 6 a, two or three feet thick, part cannel; and sixty feet below this, ten to twelve feet above the creek, is the No. 6, formerly worked for boiling brine and making copperas. About a mile south from this point, Mr. William Houck has opened Coal No. 7, where it appears better than at any other place examined in the county. It is four feet ten inches thick, very clean, bright and black, and apparently free from impurities. Higher up in the valley of the Stillwater, beyond the Harrison County line, this coal is extensively worked.

In going northeast from Dennison toward Leesburg, the rapid easterly dip of the rocks brings Coal No. 7 under good cover before crossing the county line. It is here of unusual thickness, ranging from four to six feet, but is generally divided by one or two partings, and is not of first quality.

From these facts it will be seen that this bed, though widely distributed through the county, is only of local importance, and that its chief interest is derived from the iron ore, with which it is so generally associated. In the southeast part of the county, a thin coal is found above No. 7, but it is nowhere of workable thickness.

As will be seen by reference to a general description of the carboniferous

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system, above Coal No. 7 is a mass of shales and sandstones, with a few thin seams of coal, which constitute what has been called the Barren Measures. Above these lie, first, the Pittsburgh coal with its associated heavy limestones, and then the other members of another and higher group of coals, but these are without the range of Tuscarawas County.

A striking feature in the barren measures is formed by beds of red or mottled shales. No such strata are ever found below Coal No. 7; so that, wherever these red shales are seen, it may be inferred that all the workable coals are below and none above them.

There is also found in many localities above No. 7 a more or less massive sandstone, which is prone to run into conglomerate, though the pebbles it con- tains are rarely larger than beans. This sandstone, called the Stillwater sand- stone, in some places so much resembles the Mahoning sandstone below, that the two have been confounded, and the coal seams, Nos. 6 and 7, which hold the same relative position to these two sandstone beds, have been mistaken one for the other. It is, however, generally not difficult to distinguish the two groups, for Coal No. 7 in Tuscarawas County, nearly always thin, has almost invariably an important deposit of iron over it, either black-band, "mount- ain " or kidney ore, and at no great distance above it the red shales may usually be found. An excellent exhibition of No. 7 and its strata may be seen in the divide between New Philadelphia and New Cumberland. On opposite sides of this divide, the valleys cut down to the Putnam Hill limestone, so that, going from either, the starting point is the same. The best section is obtained from the New Philadelphia side. Here the limestone lies just in the bottom of the valley, above which are Coal Nos. 5 and 6 in their normal places, the first thin, the latter from three to five feet thick, and good. About 100 feet above this, Coal No. 7 may be seen in the road, apparently not more than two feet in thickness; over this the kidney ore, and, in places, the mount- ain and black-band ores. forms of this iron deposit which frequently alternate.

Above this iron horizon lies a bed of red, yellow and mottled shale, of which the colors are bright and striking-a formation characteristic of this level. Over the shale is the Stillwater sandstone, here comparatively thin, but in part a well-marked conglomerate. Above this a heavy mass of olive shales, the typical barreu measure material, reaches 100 feet higher to the top of Mt. Tabor.

Black-band and Iron Ore .- This variety of ore is simply a black, bitumin- ous shale impregnated with iron. The degree of impregnation varies greatly; most black shales contain some iron, but generally too little to have any value as ores. In black-band ore, the quantity of metallic iron varies from twenty. five to forty per cent ..

To an uneducated eye, this material has very little the appearance of an iron ore. It is highly charged with carbonaceous matter, and its specific gravity is usually not so high as to arrest attention. To a practical hand, the greater weight of the iron-bearing shales will serve for their detection, but where the quantity of iron contained cannot be conveniently measured, a suffi-

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cient test will be afforded by burning a heap of the shale in the open air or elsewhere, when, if it contains iron enough to be valuable, this will "loop" or agglutinate, and form scoriaceous masses of great density.

When subject to the action of the weather, the black-band ore decomposes, ' like any other shale, and its carbonaceous matter being removed by oxidation, it falls into a mass of thin brown or rusty flakes, which, though looking no more like iron ore than the unchanged material, should be recognized by the explorer, for this is the only form of the ore which will be exposed to his examination in natural outcrops.

The geological position of the black-band of Tuscarawas County is, as stated heretofore, immediately above Coal No. 7, and at the base of the barren measures. This is a strongly marked iron horizon, although the iron ore found here varies considerably in character.

It would seem that this ferruginous deposit was made by the drainage from a surrounding land area into a circumscribed basin of comparatively shallow water. In some parts of this basin, carbonaceous mud accumulated, heavily charged with iron, which subsequently formed the black-band ; in others, clay without vegetable matter, but generally containing considerable iron, and this, as is usual in such cases, subsequently segregated to form nodules of kidney ore. In the deeper portions of this basin, where the water was clearer, a limestone was deposited, and this also, in some localities, contained iron enough to become a valuable calcareous ore, now known as mountain ore. These three kinds of ore were precipitated almost simultaneously, and they are frequently found to alternate one with another, so that along a somewhat extended outcrop the ore worked will be in one place black-band, in another mountain ore, and in a third shell ore; and also on one side of a hill, Coal No. 7 may be overlain by a sheet of black-band even eight or ten feet in thickness, while on the other side of the same hill no black-band occurs, but instead some other form of ore or even barren material. Wherever black-band and iron ore are found together, as they frequently are, the former is always beneath the latter, and must have been deposited first. Generally, in such cases, the mountain ore is found to thicken in one direction-the black-band in the other-showing that the calcareous deposit extended from a lower level -a deeper portion of the basin-up over the carbonaceous mud, which had previously partly filled it. Coal No. 7 is known to have accumulated in a marsh, precisely as peat now forms, by a growth of vegetation in the open air ; that is, it was practically a land surface. That this peat bed was subsequently covered with shale and limestone proves that it was depressed and covered, first with shallow water, in which carbonaceous mud and clay were first deposited, the former deriving its organic matter from the disintegrated peat. As the subsidence progressed, the water in the basin became clear enough to permit the formation of limestone, which was naturally purest and thickest in the deeper places, and thinned away to an edge on the muddy shallows.

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The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 23

Author: Warner, Beers & Co. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Warner, Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017