Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 3

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526

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Mercer and Venango Counties. Two prominent ridges coming in from the west meet the great divide near Middletown. The most northern of these is that which lies near Muddy Creek and Slippery Rock, and runs nearly due east from the Law- rence County line through Worth, Brady and Clay townships. The more southern of these ridges is that which separates the waters of Muddy Creek and Connoquenes- sing. It passes close to Portersville and Prospect and runs nearly northeast through Center and Concord Townships to its junction with the great divide. The height of these dividing ridges reaches about 1,500 feet above tide water, and they are approximately 600 feet above the Al- legheny River at Parker.

The center of the drainage system of the northern part of the county is at Mid- dletown. In its immediate vicinity are the headwaters of Slippery Rock Creek, Mud- dy Creek, Bear Creek, Buffalo Creek, and Kearns' branch of the Connoquenessing. The northern part of the county is princi- pally drained by Muddy Creek and Slip- pery Rock Creek on the west and Bear Creek on the east and their tributary streams. The southern half of the county is drained by the Connoquenessing Creek, which is formed by the confluence of sev- eral branches near Butler borough and flows in a general direction a little south of west through Butler, Penn, Forward, and Jackson Townships to the Beaver County line. While the general direction of the stream is almost in a straight line, it makes many bold sweeps to the north and south, and with one or two exceptions, all of its branches enter it from the south. The branches on the south are Thorn Creek, Glade Run, Breakneck Creek and Brush Creek, along the western limits of the county. The tributaries on the north are Yellow Creek and Little Connoquenes- sing, the latter flowing in from the north- east a little above Harmony, after running a general parallel course for many miles.

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

In the southeastern section of the county the small streams flow into Buffalo Creek on the east and Bull Creek on the south, and thence drained into the Allegheny River. Probably nine-tenths of the drain- age of the county, however, is westward into the Beaver River.

THE SOIL-VALLEY AND HIGH LAND.

There is comparatively little valley land in the county. A broad and beautiful val- ley has been carved out by the Connoque- nessing in the vicinity of Harmony and Zelienople, and the soil is there derived from the lower coal measures and is very rich and strong. This region is the garden spot of the county, and is probably one of the richest agricultural sections in the state. Well defined terraces exist here that do not appear elsewhere in the county to the knowledge of the geologist. They occur at twenty, sixty, and one hundred and ten feet above the stream, but can only be traced for a short distance along the valley.

Some fine bottom lands appear along the valley of the Slippery Rock from Anan- dale westward, and in the valley of Muddy Creek from Clay Township west to the Lawrence County line. Outside of the val- leys mentioned and a small amount of bottom land along the tributaries of these streams the arable soils of the county are derived from what the geologists call the barren measure rocks. The streams cut down into the lower coal measures, but leave the hillsides so rugged that cultiva- tion is rarely attempted. The farming lands lie back from the streams on the highlands composed of the barren meas- ures, and from this it results that a large portion of the county has a light soil and requires constant fertilization.

Prof. I. C. White, author of the geolog- ical report on this district including south- ern Butler County, says upon this subject, that the farmers have very little in their favor with which to begin, and hence the

use of fertilizers is necessary to secure a paying crop. The lower barren measure, from which nearly all of the soils of the district are derived, contain very little limestone, and hence the small amount of calcareous matter originally in the soil has nearly all been used up by the annual ex- traction of the crops, so that the land is literally famishing for lime. The northern section of the county is better situated in this particular than the southern. Along the Slippery Rock Creek in Slippery Rock, Worth, Brady, Cherry, Mercer and Ma- rion Townships, much of the land is very much improved by the presence of lime- stone which outcrops in this section, and has been used in the past thirty years to a large extent for agricultural purposes. Prof. Chance, in the second geological sur- vey, divides the soil of the northern section of the county into four classes: First, the soil of the bottom lands, found on Muddy Creek and Slippery Rock and their branches ; second, the highlands of the bar- ren measures, varying from a very thin, loose soil to a hard tough clay, much of it good farming land adapted to grazing, but needing a liberal application of lime; third, the highland of southern Brady, Clay, Con- cord, and Fairview Townships, formed by the outcrop of the Mahoning and Free- port sandstone; and fourth, the soil formed from the disintegration of the shales and sandstone of the lower produc- tive coal measures, varying much in qual- ity as the coal measure rocks vary in lithological character.

ELEVATIONS ABOVE TIDE WATER.

The surface of the county is broken by hills and valleys, the latter forming in the courses of its numerous streams. The ele- vations are decided, being higher in the northern than in the southern district of the county. At Butler Junction near the southeast corner of the county the eleva- tion is 768.7 feet, and at Emlenton Station in the Allegheny Valley, near the northeast

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

corner of the county, the elevation is 905.1 feet above ocean level. Within the county the following levels have been ascertained, the measurements being track levels at the 'various railroad stations: Southeast of Butler are Buffalo, 766.4; Harbison, 801.66; Monroe, 840; Sarvers, 1,026.8; Cabot, 1,200.9; Marwood, 1,224.2; Dilks, 1,307; Great Belt, 1,260; Herman, 1,300.6; Brinker Station, 1,301.6; Sunset, 1,317.1; Butler, at the West Penn Depot, 1,008 feet ; corner of Butler County National Bank on Main Street, 1,077 feet.

Northeast of Butler are Chicora, 1,195 to 1,210 feet; St. Joe, 1,400; Carbon Cen- ter, 1,170; Greece City, 1,286; Modoc, 1,277; Argyle, 1,161; Petrolia, 1,175; Cen- tral Point, 1,184; Karns City, 1,204; Stone House, 1,089; Harts' Well on the Say farm in Parker Township, 1,407; Bruin, 1,104; High Point near Lawrenceburg, 1,096; Fairview, 1,247; High Point near Middle- town, 1,420; Columbia Hill in Allegheny Township, 1,471; Hill near the southwest corner of Donegal Township, 1,430.

North of Butler Borough the level at Unionville in Center Township is 1,330 feet; at West Sunbury, 1,400; North Wash- ington, 1,500; Eau Claire, 1,520; Annan- dale, 1,490; Venango Summit, near Eau Claire, 1,554; high point near Annisville, 1,530; and Murrinsville, 1,440.

West and northwest of Butler the level at Prospect is 1,330 feet; at Portersville, 1,360; at West Liberty, 1,190; at Slippery Rock Borough, 1,300; at the northwest cor- ner of Mercer Township, 1,450; at the cen- ter of Slippery Rock Township, 1,300; at the middle of the west line of Brady Town- ship, 1,470; at the angle of the west line of Worth Township, 1,350; at the center of Muddy Creek, 1,375; and at Harris- ville Borough, 1,340.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the highest point in the county is a knob near the village of Eau Claire in Venango Township, which is 1,554 feet above ocean level, and the lowest point is at Buffalo on

the Butler branch railroad in the south- eastern corner of the county.

Lake Erie is 573 feet above ocean level; Kittanning at the curb outside of the Cen- tral House, 809.94; the Tarentum Depot on the West Penn Railroad, 778 feet; and Allegheny City on Sycamore Street, 741.40. From these levels the relation of Butler County to Lake Erie and lower Allegheny Valley levels may be known. If speculation may be indulged in with any show of reason, and if the theory advanced by geologists is correct, it may be said that the Allegheny and the Beaver Rivers once flowed from 500 to 800 feet above their present levels, and that the Connoquenes- sing, Slippery Rock, Muddy Creek, and other local creeks from 800 to 1,200 feet. In the lowering of the river and creek bot- toms to depths far below their present bed, mighty agencies were at work. Instead of being mere conveyancers of clays, they were hewers of rock, leaving great ravines in the high plateaus, and preparing a way for the ice mountains which rolled over this section, pulverizing the massive sand- stones and grinding the hard lime rock into bowlders. The terraces and canons tell very plainly how this system of valley making was carried out, while the drill brings to light the method of filling up, which raised the river and creek bottoms to their present levels.

THOMAS COLLINS' SALT WELL.

In the search for oil in Butler County the earth has been bored in some places to a depth of over 4,000 feet, as in the test well on the Smith farm in Winfield Township. In very many places the drill has penetrated to a depth of 1,500 to 2,000 feet, showing the geological structure and the coal formations in the various town- ships. Among the earliest operations of this kind was a salt well driven by Thomas Collins in 1811-12, to a depth of seventy feet, on the James Kearns farm in Butler Township. This well was near the road

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

leading from Butler to Chicora on what was known as the "Salt Lick." An out- crop of coal in the same locality made the location desirable for the manufacturing of salt, and accordingly this industry was carried on for a number of years. Petro- leum was known to the pioneer settlers by the Indian name of Seneca oil, and was highly valued for its reputed medical vir- tues. A small flow of oil was obtained in this old salt well, which was sufficient to give its flavor to the brine and even to the salt produced. The pioneers did not real- ize the value of their discovery and the salt well was finally abandoned on account of the oily flavor it gave to the manufac- tured salt.

WEBSTER WILSON'S WELL.

In 1824 Webster Wilson of New Brigh- ton drilled a salt well in Lancaster Town- ship about 2,600 feet above the confluence of Yellow Creek and Connoquenessing. This well was drilled to a depth of 339 feet, and for a long time salt was manu- factured by the panning system. Some idea of the slow progress made in drilling a hundred years ago may be had from the record made at this well. Water-power was used to drill and a year's time was taken in drilling to the depth of 339 feet. The drillers seldom got more than two or three feet in a day, and often only a few inches. Wilson's record of the well shows coal at a depth of fifty-three feet, fire clay at fifty-nine feet, hard sandstone at sixty- nine, Clarion coal at 150 feet, Piedmont sandstone at about 210 feet, five feet of coal at 255 feet, and underlying the coal three feet of fire clay. Nothing below the fire clay was found except shale till the bottom of the well was reached. The ab- sence of ferriferous limestone in this well may be accounted for by its being cut out by a hard bluish-white sandstone which occupied its place. In drilling the old salt well at Harmony a vein of good coal was found forty-five feet below what is known

as the Darlington or Upper Kittanning coal location.

JOHN NEGLEY'S WELL.

A salt well was drilled at Butler about 1832 by John Negley, who invested about $8,000 in the enterprise. The site of this old well was a point on the south bank of the Connoquenessing Creek about two hun- dred feet west of the Main Street bridge, near the old mill dam. Salt water was found at a depth of 800 feet, and a salt factory was established on the pan system, which was continued for many years. Coal for fuel was taken from the bank on the hill above from the same veins that are now operated by John M. Muntz. Foot power was used in drilling the salt well, and eighty ten-foot hickory rods took the place of a rope or cable. The hole was only two and one-half inches in diameter. The enterprise was abandoned after a few years, on account of the brine being insuffi- cient. Had the well been drilled 300 feet deeper, as subsequent borings have shown, an inexhaustible supply of salt water would have been found. The drillers were engaged for three years in drilling the hole to the depth of 800 feet, and during that time met with many discouragements, on several occasions having their tools stuck.

In 1857 the Orr salt well in Buffalo Township was drilled, but the flow of brine was small, and in 1858 it was sunk one hundred feet deeper, when a vein of water equal to twenty gallons per minute was struck.

ECCENTRICITIES OF THE OIL FIELDS.

The eccentricities of the Butler oil fields have proved that geologists know com- paratively nothing of the origin of this oil or of the gas reservoirs with which it is associated. For almost forty years the geologists and the operator have been pre- dicting the exhaustion of oil and gas in Butler County, notwithstanding the con- tradiction of their predictions by the dis-

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

coveries of new deposits. Oil and gas are inseparable companions, and where one exists so does the other. Like coal depos- its, they give out in time, and as new mines must be opened to supply the de- mand for coal, so new wells must be drilled to supply that for oil and gas. Wonderful exhibitions of the vagaries of the two fluids have been witnessed ever since the beginning of production in the Butler County fields. The pioneer wells in the Parker Township fields were drilled to the Third or Venango County sand. Out- side of the Martinsburg region several sands have been discovered, such as the Fourth sand at Karns City, the Bradford, the Gordon, the Snee, and the Hundred- Foot and within the last ten years, the Speechley sand has been developed in Con- cord and Washington Townships. In more recent years wells have been discovered in the Berea sand in Muddy Creek Township. Early in May, 1886, the Fisher Oil Com- pany drilled a well on the Reott farm near Herman Station to a depth of 2,650 feet with the object of tapping the Gordon sand that is found in Washington County. At a depth of 2,400 feet the Bradford sand . was struck, or 140 feet below the Fourth sand. At 2,641 feet the shell of what would correspond with the Gordon sand was struck, but neither oil nor gas were obtained. The well on the Criswell farm was drilled to a depth of 3,500 feet, and the well on the Smith farm in Winfield Township to 4,000 feet, without other re- sults than to further display the freak- ishness of the oil-bearing sands in Butler County. In the Bald Ridge field the Third and Fourth sands come together, and equally as strange phenomena are observed in other sections of the county.

COAL FIELDS OF THE COUNTY.

HISTORY, CANNEL COAL BEDS, FREAKS-EARLY OPERATIONS, OPERATIONS IN 1908.

A brief history of the coal fields and deposits of Butler County may be of in-

terest, on account of their freakishness, and because of the extent of the operations being carried on at the present time. There are five distinct veins of coal known to the geologists in Butler County. They are the Upper Freeport, the Lower Free- port, called the Freeport group; the Upper Kittanning and the Lower Kittanning, called the Kittanning group; and the Clar- ion coal, the latter being found below the ferriferous limestone. The first two groups are found above the ferriferous limestone. These groups are known as the lower productive coals and are found in every township in the southern half of the county, and with a few exceptions in all of the townships in the northern half of the county, the outcrop showing along the hillsides of all of the streams.

In addition to the above groups, there are small areas covered by the Bakers- town, the Galitzin, and the Brush Creek coals, belonging to the upper series, the Eichenhauer freak series and the Sharon coal in the western part of the county, and what is known as the Slope vein in the northern tier of townships. The geologi- cal survey of 1837 located the Upper Free- port coal at Freeport and the Kittanning coal at Kittanning on the Allegheny River. The second survey in 1876 located the Lower Freeport and it was discovered that beneath the Upper Kittanning vein there was a second vein which had the appear- ance of cannel coal. The Kittanning group extends across the county, varying from two to five feet in thickness, and rises out of the bed of the Connoquenessing Creek seven miles above Harmony. The lower vein is forty feet below the creek at Har- mony, and does not appear at the surface until Beaver County is reached. After the Kittanning group reaches Beaver County it becomes a cannel known as the Darling- ton coal, and it there reaches its great thickness of from ten to twelve feet.

The Freeport group outcrops along the streams in the southern half of the county,

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

and in a few places in the northern half, and is the coal that has been most mined for domestic consumption by the farmers and by the private operators in the early history of the county.

The Clarion coal is seen on Rough Run and does not again appear in the southern half of the county until the western limits are reached, and there it is very thin. In the northern half this bed of coal is found in Marion and Washington Townships, and is of a workable thickness.

The Brookville coal appears on Rough Run in Winfield Township, but does not reach workable dimensions, and in the northern half of the county it is mined in Venango Township.

The Bakerstown coal has its origin from the town of that name in Allegheny Coun- ty, and is developed along the head of Glade Run and Breakneck Creek, in south- ern Butler County.

The Brush Creek coal belongs to the upper coal series, and is seen along the hills of Brush Creek in Cranberry Town- ship, and in one or two other places in the county. It is 527 feet below the Pittsburg coal and seventy-five feet above the Upper Freeport. This coal occupies the place of the Galitzin coal of Cambria and Somerset Counties, and the name is applied in sev- eral localities in Butler County.

One of the freak beds of coal is found on the Semiconon branch of the Little Conno- quenessing Creek, and is from two to five feet thick. It is a rich bituminous coal much prized as a fuel, and occurs fifty feet above the Upper Freeport and twenty-five feet below the Galitzin or Brush Creek. This vein is called the Brush Creek coal in the geological reports of the state, but the author of the reports has doubts whether it is the same.

The Eichenhauer coal in Lancaster Township belongs to none of the groups mentioned, and is purely a local coal. It is a new feature to the geologists, intro- duced between the Lower Freeport and the

Darlington or Kittanning group, and is found on the Eichenhauer farm and a few farms surrounding it. Seven feet of work- able coal was found on the Eichenhauer farm, which was mined until the coal dip- ped below the water level of the creek, and the operations were then abandoned. The same vein was also mined at the mouth of Crab Run. In the latter township a bed of this coal has been mined for many years on the Coulter-McCandless farm.

The Brookville coal is found in Marion Township 120 feet below the cannel coal beds, and the Clarion coal is found in workable thickness in Washington Town- ship. A thin outcrop of the Upper Free- port appears on a high knob in Venango Township, and in this locality the Brook- ville coal appears to take the place of the Lower Kittanning. Venango Township also presents a freak in the form of a de- posit of limestone ore forty feet above the Brookville coal.

Brush Creek coal is encountered in Donegal Township near Chicora, and the Upper Freeport vein also appears in this locality.

In Mercer Township in the northwest section of the county the Harrisville vein appears, and has been mined extensively for over thirty years. What is known as the Burnett coal appears in Mercer, Mar- ion, Venango, Cherry, Allegheny, Parker, and Washington Townships, and forty-five feet below the Burnett vein is the Slope vein which is a series of coal which has no classification and appears to be un- known to the geologists.

The Kittanning group which is visible throughout the entire northern half of the county, reaches an abnormal thickness in Washington and Cherry Townships, and in the eastern section of the county. Near Kaylor City in Armstrong County a de- posit of this coal has been found which is eleven feet thick, but its area is small. Throughout Butler County the coal varies from three to six feet.

U. P. CHURCH, FAIRVIEW

WHITE OAK SPRINGS U. P. CHURCH, CONNO- QUENESSING TOWNSHIP

MONASTERY AT HERMAN STATION

ST. JOHN'S REFORMED CHURCH ON EBER- HART FARM, BUTLER TOWNSHIP

HARMONY U. P. CHURCH

OLD GRAVEYARD AT HARMONY

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

A duplicate of the Darlington coal is found at the mouth of Breakneck Creek, in Jackson Township, and has been mined extensively in recent years. The Welsh oil well record in Jefferson Township locates ten feet of Darlington coal in that district, but this record is not believed to be cor- rect. At the point where the well was drilled the Darlington coal was found 146 feet below the level of Thorn Creek, and as the vein has never been worked in that lo- cality, its exact thickness is not known.

CANNEL COAL.

The cannel coal beds of Butler County belong to the Kittanning group, which be- comes the Darlington cannel coal in Beaver County. The deposits are irregu- lar in the southern part of the county, be- ing found at the Kearns farm in Butler Township, at the Weaver farm in Forward Township, in Jackson Township, and above the Eichenhauer coal in Lancaster Township. In Forward Township a small bed is found above the Freeport coal, which is out of the regular place for the cannel. In all of these localities the cannel beds are thin and the coal impure and of little merchantable value.

The cannel coal reaches its greatest thickness and commercial value in the northern section of the county where the beds vary from three to eight feet in Washington, Venango, Marion, Cherry and Center Townships.

EARLY OPERATIONS.

Coal mining was carried on at an early date in the county. The drilling of the salt well on the Kearns farm in Butler Town- ship in 1811-12, was the means of opening a coal bank at the same place .. The Har- mony Society operated mines at the mouth of Yellow Creek as early as 1815, to sup- ply fuel for the colony and to operate the salt manufacturing plant. In 1832 a mine was operated south of the creek in the

present limits of Butler Borough. Coal was mined and coked at Winfield furnace in the fifties, and similar operations were carried on on Bear Creek and Slippery Rock as far back as the thirties.

The Muntz Mines of Butler are probably the oldest operations in the county. As early as the thirties coal was mined at an opening near the creek bank west of the Main Street bridge, and it is said by the older residents of the town that coal was mined here as early as 1810 and 1812. This mine was first operated by John Negley, who was a pioneer of Butler, and came into the possession of John G. Muntz in 1854. John M. Muntz, the present pro- prietor, took charge of the mine in 1872, and is the present operator. Other mines in the vicinity of Butler were the Lavery, Schaffner and Bredin, which supplied fuel for the town for many years.

In the fifties coal was mined on the Daniel Heck and Eli Eagal farms near Unionville in Center Township, which proved to be of value for coking pur- poses. Coke was manufactured at these mines and hauled to Prospect for use at the foundries which were in operation at that place. About the same time the prod- uct of the mine on Walker's Run in Buf- falo Township was being hauled to Natrona to the salt works and shipped from Free- port to Pittsburg by boat. The Cable mines in Connoquenessing Township on the Little Connoquenessing Creek were operated extensively for many years and supplied fuel to Harmony and Zelienople, as well as the surrounding farmers. Many other small mining operations were carried on in the county, and at one time the mines were so numerous and the competition so sharp that the farmers could buy their winter supply of fuel at the banks for two cents per bushel.

The advent of natural gas as a fuel drove the private coal banks out of busi- ness, although there are yet many in oper- ation throughout the county.

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

LARGE OPERATIONS.

The mining of coal on a large scale in the county had its inception with the com- ing of the railroads. As early as 1855 Hugh McKee and Thomas White of Butler explored the cannel coal beds in Washing- ton and Venango Townships, and leased a large tract of land for the purpose of developing the territory. They had asso- ciated with them F. G. May of New York City. At that time there were no facilities for marketing the coal and railroads within the limits of the county had not been thought of.

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Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 3

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1526

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526