USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Bridgeport > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > West Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 5
USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
In discussing the economic geology of Fayette County, Prof. J. J. Stevenson says: "The iron ores of Fayette County have played a great part in the history of iron manufacturing in America, and among the men who must be recognized as contributing both to the honor and the prosperity of the county one of the highest places must be assigned to Fidelio Hughes Oliphant ; while still a lad he practically revolutionized the process of refining iron at Fair- chance furnace, he was first of Americans to manufacture iron with coke as
41
Horizons of Iron Ore in Fayette County
the fuel; at the same furnace he used the first hot blast; at the same furnace he first of all recognized the advantage of utilizing the furnace gases, and his was the plan of placing the engine house on the top of the stack-a cumbrous plan indeed, but sufficiently economical in the days of small furnaces. Fifty years ago the Oliphant iron was without superior in the county."
HORIZONS OF IRON ORE IN FAYETTE COUNTY.
There are two important horizons of iron ore in Fayette County.
1. The coal ore, a persistent carbonate ore.
2. The mountain ore, an irregular but heavy yielding ore.
The coal or upper group underlies the Pittsburg coal bed, and is confined to the Connellsville basin, the northern part of Spring Hill Township and the Monongahela river north to Cat's Run. It has four beds, the Blue Lump, the Big Bottom, the Red Flag, and the Yellow Flag, whose combined thick- ness averages two feet within a vertical distance of twelve feet. A late estimate places the amount of coal ore yet unmined in the eastern part of the basin at one hundred and eighty millions of tons. The coal ores contain from thirty to thirty-three per cent. of iron, and from 13 to 20 per cent. of phosphorus. The Blue Lump was the ore first discovered and worked west of the Allegheny mountains.
The mountain (umbral) ore or lower group, is at the base of the column of the coal-bearing series, and lies in the underlying shales of the great con- glomerate. It underlies a large area on each side of Chestnut Ridge. It has four beds, the Little Honeycomb, the Big Honeycomb, the Kidney and the Big Bottom, which are irregular in thickness, and have many gaps, but yet average 2 feet 6 inches, and yield enormous amounts of ore. The mountain ores contain from thirty-two to thirty-nine per cent. of iron, from .03 to .025 of phosphorus, and .OS to .04 of sulphur. A mixture of Blue Lump and mountain ores by F. H. Oliphant produced the famous Fairchance neutral iron of extraordinary strength which proved by test at Washington to be twice as strong as the standard.
Iron ore, limestone and coking coal can all be found in the same hill along the western base of Chestnut Ridge, while but two miles away is a compact fre clay of excellent quality for oven bricks and furnace linings. The closeness of these ores, limestones and clay give great advantages to iron manufacturers in the Connellsville basin.
LIMESTONE.
"Limestone is abundant, though there are narrow strips running longi- tudinally through the country where no limestone is exposed. Thin beds only exist in the valley between Chestnut and Laurel Ridges, but an ample supply for all purposes can be obtained from the great mountain limestone which is exposed in deep hollows in the sides of both ridges. The great lime- stone is exposed also in the hollows along the western side of the Chestnut
42
Fire Clay-Oil and Gas Fields
Ridge, and it has been quarried at many localities, especially in the northern part of the county. Some of these beds yield lime as white as the celebrated Louisville brand. Good lime is found nearly everywhere within the Connells- ville basin, in the hills covering the Pittsburg coal bed. This rock is in great part clean enough to be used as a flux in the iron furnaces, but contains more or less oxide of iron, and therefore the lime is not pure white. The limestone exposed along the river and lying above the Pittsburg bed is thick, and some of it is very pure. It is quarried at more than one locality for shipment to Pitts- burg, where it is used in the manufacture of glass and iron.
FIRE CLAY.
"Fire clays are abundant in different parts of the county. An excellent plastic clay occurs at Greensboro and New Geneva, on the Monongahela river. It is employed largely in the manufacture of pottery, which has a high reputation, and can be found almost everywhere in the southeastern states. Good brick clay is abundant everywhere in the subsoil. An excellent non-plastic clay exists along the east slope of Chestnut Ridge, and lies not far above the great conglomerate. It is manufactured into brick at Lemont, Mount Braddock, Dunbar, and on the Youghiogheny River above Connells- ville, The bricks are decidedly good, and but little, if at all, inferior to the bricks made at Mount Savage. Another non-plastic clay occurs in Henry Clay and Stewart Townships, and is the same with the celebrated Bolivar fire clay of Westmoreland County. No attempts have been made to utilize this clay here, but in chemical composition it approached closely to the Mount Savage clay."
A good quality of fire clay is found along Chestnut Ridge and is now being shipped to some extent. Some of the thicker sandstone beds when crushed and washed give a fine plate glass sand, and the Pt. Marion and Uniontown glass works are using home sands.
OIL FIELDS.
Petroleum was found as early as 1845 at Brownsville, in a well which was being drilled for salt water. Gas came in at 786 feet and the oil was reached at the Dunkard Creek horizon.
Prof. J. J. Stevenson states that the oil-bearing rocks of Fayette County are above water level in the deep creek cuts in Chestnut Ridge, and are 2,000 feet below the surface at Upper Middletown, and 2,500 feet at Brownsville.
German Township seems to be the heart of Fayette County's main oil field, and a full account of its wells may be found in the German Township chapter of Nelson's work.
GAS FIELDS.
The gas in Fayette County seems to accompany the oil, and the greatest productive gas fields surround Masontown and McClellandtown, and are fully described in the history of German Township which is so wonderfully rich with oil, gas and coal.
43
Fayette County Klondike
COAL FIELDS.
In the family of the carbons- diamond, graphite, coal, lignite and peat- the coal or "black diamond," is the most useful member. American coals are classified as anthracite and bituminous, and the latter consists of carbon, volatile matter, water and ash, its value depending largely upon the relative percentages of these elements in its physical structure. Bituminous coal is divided into classes, steaming and gas coals. Fayette County lies in the Appalachian or second of the seven great bituminous coal fields of the United States, whose yearly output is 159,000,000 tons of coal prepared for con- sumption by a force of 250,000 men, and valued at $115,000,000.
Fayette County really has three great coal fields or regions, the Upper Freeport bed and lower coal measure of the Ligonier Valley, the Connellsville and kindred beds of the Pittsburg bed in the Blairsville valley, and the harder coals of the Pittsburg bed in the Libston Valley, while someone has classed them as the mountain, the valley and the river coals. The Ligonier Valley coals have never been mined only for home consumption, but large bodies of coal on Indian Creek have been optioned.
BITUMINOUS COAL FIELDS.
The bituminous coal region of Pennsylvania is divided into ten mining districts, and the territory of Fayette County is included in the second, fifth and ninth of these districts.
FAYETTE COUNTY KLONDIKE.
Klondike is a name applied to the coal fields of German and Menallen. and parts of Georges, Nichols and South Union Townships up the Mononga- hela river from the Three Towns, from a fancied resemblance of their sudden coal and coke development in 1899 to the rapid development of the Alaskan gold fields of the Klondike district. Latent forces not yet developed, un- known conditions and rapid and continual changes will make the writing of its history difficult for some time to come. It seems to be largely a western development of an eastern field, a Chicago invasion of Carnegie's Pittsburg fuel field and the utilizing of a coal for furnace coke that was formerly pro- nounced very inferior for that purpose. The Klondike east of Brush Ridge contains a considerable area of the Connellsville coking coal.
COKE DEVELOPMENT IN FAYETTE COUNTY.
Four great companies are developing the Klondike and now own over 12,000 acres of coking coal. W. J. Rainey's heirs, the National Steel Company, and the Continental Coke Company, are working the eastern Klondike, while the Federal Steel Company, through the Eureka Fuel Company, and the American Steel and Wire Company, through the American
44
The Pioneer Coke Company
Company, are operating west of Brush Ridge or in the western Klondike. while a number of smaller companies are erecting works on small coal tracts throughout the Klondike.
THE PIONEER COKE COMPANY.
The pioneer company in the western Klondike is the Federal Steel Company, whose main factor is the Illinois Steel Company and which acts through the Eureka Fuel Company, which was chartered Sept. 14, 1899, with a capital of $1,000,000, and whose officers are Charles H. Foote, president; T. J. Hyman, vice president; C. P. Parker, secretary and treasurer, and John P. Brennen, general manager. On August 3, 1899, they had bought 2,000 acres- the Dupuy and Hillman tracts-in Nicholson, German and Menallen Town- ships, for over $1,000,000, and afterwards added 4,000 acres more to these tracts. It is said that these companies selected these coal lands because the coal could be worked from the slope and without sinking shafts. Leckrone, on the farm of James Leckrone's heirs, and Footdale, named for the president of the company, are to be two of the four towns to be built with light and water system, and at which will be located the four great mining plants to be worked by electricity and compressed air. Each town will have five hundred houses and four hundred ovens, except Leckrone, where 1,000 ovens are to be erected. All the works on this nine-mile tract are to be supplied from a great 4,000,000 gallon reservoir, now being completed near McClelland- town, on the divide 1,000 feet high, by the Huron Water Company, organized Sept. 14, 1899, with a capital of $50,000, and having the same officers as the Eureka Fuel Company. A large pumping station has been completed at the mouth of Brown's Run, and double engines will pump the water for four miles through great mains into the reservoir from which pipes will carry it to the different works. The Eureka Fuel Company, by the Masontown and New Salem Railway, will connect with the Pennsylvania and B. & O. Railways, and thus gain an outlet for their product. The huge water plant will cost over $200,000, and the works over $2,000,000.
AMERICAN STEEL AND WIRE COMPANY.
Next in the Western Klondike was the American Steel and Wire Company, acting through the American Coke Company. They located on Middle Run and back of McClellandtown, buying in October, 1899, nearly half a million dollars' worth of land, to which body they have added largely since, until they now have over 3,000 acres of coal. They have three great plants of over 400 ovens each, which are being built at the three new towns of Gates, Edenborn and Lambert, named for officers of the company. Gates is at the mouth of Middle Run, Edenborn south of it and Lambert some three miles up the stream. Shafts some 300 feet deep are being sunk to the coal and all modern methods of mining will be introduced by this great company.
View of Modern Coke Plant
-
46
The Coke Industry
THE BESSEMER COMPANY.
The Bessemer Company are building the Griffin coke works on Catt's Run, Reeder & Fitzgerald are erecting the Shamrock works east of New Salem, Kiester is building a coke plant at the head of Whippoorwill Valley in the north of Menallen, and numerous small companies have secured considerable coal tracts on which to erect coke works.
THE NATIONAL STEEL COMPANY.
In the Eastern Klondike the National Steel Company was the pioneer of the whole bottom. Acting through the Continental Coke Company on May 8, 1900, it bought from J. V. Thompson and others 717 acres of coal lands in Uniontown suburbs and South Union and Georges Townships at $1,000 per acre, and also took up a previous purchase of 1,250 acres in Georges and German at $800 per acre. The company are erecting three great plants and three villages between Uniontown and Walnut Hill, which are now known as Continental No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.
THE W. J. RAINEY COMPANY.
The W. J. Rainey Company in August, 1899, purchased from the S. W. Connellsville Coke Company the Revere coal tract of 1,132 acres in Georges, German and Menallen Townships, for $1,075,000, and are constructing a four- mile branch railroad, a mile west of Uniontown, from the Coal Lick Run Rail- road to their Revere works, now in course of erection, with several hundred ovens. The company is also building a mining town, in the Eastern Klondike. Robert Snead was given a contract to put eight miles of wire fencing along the Coal Lick Run road and its branches.
THE COKE INDUSTRY.
Uncertainty marks the accounts of the few experimental coke ovens erected in Fayette County between 1830 and 1841 in which latter year the firms of Province McCormick, James Campbell and John Taylor, from sug- gestions of an Englishman; built two beehive ovens and made several hundred bushels of coke which they boated to Cincinnati, where they could not sell it, and bartered it off at almost a total loss. Two years later came Mordecai Cochran and his two nephews, Sample and James Cochran, and they were successful pioneers of coke manufacture in the Connellsville region, and the ultimate coke development of every coking coal region of the United States. They rented McCormick's two ovens and made twenty-four hour coke, which they introduced into the Cincinnati market, but had to wait for railroad transportation before building works upon an extensive scale.
47
Tabulated Coke Statistics
THE CIVIL WAR RETARDED THE COKE INDUSTRY.
The Civil War also held back coke manufacture in the Connellsville region, which did not commence actively until 1871. By 1876 there were 3,000 ovens in operation, three years later they numbered 4,000 and in 1882 had increased to 8, 400 while in 1899 19,689 ovens had an output of over 10,000,000 tons of coke, which sold for over $20,000,000. Add to this the product of the thousands of ovens being erected in the Klondike and the possible works of the Ligonier Valley, and the twentieth century coke industry of Fayette County may reach in annual product value-the hundred-million-dollar mark. Vecch said: "Coal, if not king, is becoming one of the princes of the land, and its seat of empire was the Monongahela Valley. " Ellis added: "But if coal is mighty like Philip of Macedon, its offspring, coke, is like the mightier Alexander, and the seat of its empire is the Connellsville coal basin;" while now comes gas, the greatest offspring of coal, like the mightier Casar, who ruled alike Philip of Macedon's home kingdom and Alexander's foreign realms, and the seat of its empire bids fair to be Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
TABULATED STATISTICS.
The following tabulated statement shows the total number of ovens in the Connellsville region at the close of each ycar, the annual output, average price and gross revenue of the district from 1880 up to and including 1899:
Year.
Total Ovens.
Tons Shipped.
Av. Price.
Gross Revenue.
1880
7,211
2,205,946
$1.70
$3,948,643
1881
8,208
2,639,002
1.63
4,301,573
1882.
9,283
3,043,394
1.47
4,473,889
1883.
10,176
3,552,402
1.14
4,049,738
1884
10,543
3,192,105
1.13
3,607,078
1885.
10,471
3,096,012
1.22
3,777,134
1886
10,952
4,180,521
1.36
5,701,086
1887
11,923
4,146,989
1.79
7,437,663
1888.
13,975
4,955,553
1.19
5,884,081
1889
14,458
5,930,428
1.34
7,974,663
1890
16,020
6,464,156
1.94
12,537,370
1891
17,204
4,760,665
1.87
8,903,454
1892
17,256
6,329,452
1.83
11,598,407
1893
17,513
4,805,623
1.49
7,141,031
1894
17,834
5,454,451
1.00
5,454,451
1895.
17,947
8,244,438
1.23
10,140,658,
1896
18,351
5,411,602
1.90
10,282,043
1897
18,628
6,915,052
1.65
11,409,835
1898.
18,643
8,460,112
1.55
13,113,179
1899
19,689
10,129,764
2.00
20,259,528
18
Coal One of the Great Forces of the Future
MANY COKE OVENS BUILT SINCE 1899.
But, it should be remembered that vast areas of coal have been opened up since 1899, particularly along the Monongahela river above Brownsville, and that thousands of coke ovens have been built since then and are now in full operation, and the number is being augmented almost every day. Some idea of this, new development can be had by a trip over the Monongahela Railroad, while the Connellsville central railroad now building from Brownsville to Connellsville, promises to add many more mines and doubtless many more coke ovens.
COAL ONE OF THE GREAT FORCES OF THE FUTURE.
Coal has passed into the twentieth century with electricity and natural gas as one of the great forces of the future. Divested in oven or retort of its ashes, smoke, soot and dust, and with its noxious gases scrubbed and purified, it has become a fuel gas of high grade to be delivered from central plants to home and shop and mill and factory for every purpose of heat and power.
COKE AND IRON INDUSTRIES CLOSELY ALLIED
It is interesting to note how closely the coke industry follows the iron markets. Contracts for coke are not made for long periods, and a sudden rush in the pig iron market always has its immediate effect upon the Con- nellsville coke region. In fact, sometimes the orders sent out to the different plants for the week have to be changed or modified to meet hurried orders that come in from large furnace districts. On this account shipments vary much from month to month, as will be noticed from the various table, show- ing the shipments in cars by months during 1899 and the average number of cars shipped each working day in the month.
LOCATION AND EXTENT OF THE CONNELLSVILLE COKE REGION.
The Connellsville coke region is contained within a long narrow strip of the best farming lands in Fayette and Westmoreland Counties, stretching from Connellsville, which is in the center of the basin, a distance of twenty-one miles in either direction, north and south. The northern boundary is at Latrobe, Westmoreland County, and the southern boundary is not so well defined, but is about ten miles south of Fairchance, although undeveloped to that southern limit. Beyond Latrobe, on the north, the coal becomes hard and the percentage of sulphur, which is an objectionable quality in coke, becomes too high. The district is about forty-three miles long and ranges from one to five miles in width. It contains a total area of 87,776 acres, about 27,000 acres of which have been mined and 683 acres reserved for buildings and other purposes, leaving a total area of 60,000 acres of solid coal yet to be mined. It is calculated that the region is being undermined at the
49
Extent of Connellsville Region
present time at the rate of 1,200 acres a year, so that provided the present rate were kept up continually, the life of the region might yet be placed at fifty years. In the region there are 95 plants, at which are located collectively 20,992 coke ovens. These plants are usually large, but vary on the whole from 20 ovens at Home to 905 at Standard. There are now about 90 mines, some of which are slopes, some drifts and some shafts. The shafts indicate the depth to which the coal is covered in the region, and it is an interesting fact that while Adelaid and Leisenring No. 3 plant are within five miles of each other, both being in the heart of the basin near Connellsville, these two show the extreme depths of shafts in the region, Adelaid shaft being only 81 feet deep, while Leisenring No. 3 shaft is 542 feet deep.
Fayette County's Part in Wars
DUNMORE'S WAR WITH THE INDIANS-THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR-THE INFAMOUS WHISKY INSURRECTION-THE WAR OF 1812-15 AND THE MEXICAN WAR-THE WAR OF THE REBELLION-THE FAMOUS RINGGOLD CAVALRY-EIGHTH REGIMENT "MEMORIAL"-"WILL SOON ANSWER 'TAPS' "-LIST OF DECEASED SOLDIERS-"GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN"-SPANISH AND FILIPINO WARS.
In the Indian hostilities of 1774, known as " Dunmore's War, " the territory now Fayette County saw little, if anything, of actual fighting and bloodshed; vet, in the universal terror and consternation caused by the Indian inroads and butcheries along the Monongahela, it came near being as completely depopulated as it had been twenty years before by the panic which succeeded the French victory over Washington.
The Dunmore War was the result of several collisions which took place in the spring of 1774, on the Ohio river above the mouth of the Little Kanawha, between Indians and parties of white men, most of whom were adventurers, who had rendezvoused there preparatory to passing down the river for the purpose of making settlements in the then new country of Kentucky.
Immediately afterwards occurred the murder of Logan's people at Baker's Bottom and the killing of the Indians at Capatina Creek. The so-called speech of Logan fastened the odium of killing his people in cold blood, on Capt. Michael Cresap, of Redstone Old Fort. That the charge was false and wholly unjust is now known by all people well informed on the subject. Cresap did, however, engage in the killing of other Indians, being no doubt incited thereto by the deceitful tenor of Dr. Connelly's letters, which were evidently written for the express purpose of inflaming the minds of the frontiersmen by false information, and so bringing about a general Indian war.
The settlers along the frontier, well knowing that the Indians would surely make war, in revenge for the killing of their people at Capatina and Yellow Creek, immediately sought safety, either in the shelter of the "settlers' forts," or by abandoning their settlements and flying eastward across the mountains. In the meantime (upon the retirement of George Rogers Clarke from Wheeling to Redstone) an express was sent to Williamsburg, Va., to inform the governor of the events which had occurred upon the frontier, and the necessity of immediate preparation for an Indian war. Upon this, Lord Dunmore sent messengers to the settlers who had already gone forward to Kentucky to return at once for their safety, and he then without delay took measures to carry the war into the Indian country. One force was gathered at Wheeling and marched to the Muskingum country, where the commander, Col. McDonald, surprised the Indians and punished them suffi- ciently to induce them to sue for peace, though it was believed that their
51
Dunmore's War With the Indians
request was but a treacherous one, designed only to gain time for the collection of a large body of warriors to renew the hostilities.
But the main forces mustered by Dunmore for the invasion of the Indian country were a detachment to move down the Ohio from Pittsburg, under the governor in person, and another body of troops under General Andrew Lewis, which was rendezvoused at Camp Union, now Lewisburg, Green- brier County, Va. These two columns were to meet for co-operation at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River. Under this general plan Governor Dunmore moved from Williamsburg to Winchester and to Fort Cumberland, thence over the Braddock road to the Youghiogheny, and across the territory to the present county of Fayette on his way to Fort Pitt, which in the mean- time had been named by his partisans, in his honor, Fort Dunmore. From there he proceeded with his forces down the Ohio river, Maj. William Crawford of Stewart's Crossing of the Youghiogheny, being one of his principal officers.
The force under General Andrew Lewis, eleven hundred strong, proceeded from Camp Union to the head waters of the Kanawha, and thence down the valley of the river to the appointed rendezvous at its mouth, which was reached on the 6th of October, 1774. General Lewis, being disappointed in his expectations of finding Lord Dunmore already there, sent messengers up the Ohio to meet his Lordship and inform him of the arrival of the column at the mouth of the Kanawha. On the 9th of October a dispatch was received from Dunmore saying that he (Dunmore) was at the mouth of the Hocking. and that he would proceed thence directly to the Shawanese towns on the Scioto, instead of coming down the Ohio and that he should march to meet him (Dunmore) before the Indians towns.
But on the following day (October 10th), before General Lewis had com- menced his movement across the Ohio, he was attacked by a heavy body of Shawanese warriors under chief Cornstalk. The fight (known as the bat- tle of Point Pleasant) raged nearly all day, and resulted in the complete rout of the Indians, who sustained a very heavy (though not definitely ascertained) loss, and retreated in disorder across the Ohio. The loss of the Virginians under Lewis was seventy-five killed and one hundred and forty wounded. Dunmore and Lewis advanced from their respective points into Ohio to "Camp Charlotte," on Sippo Creek. There they met Corn- stalk and the other Shawanese chiefs, with whom a treaty of peace was made; but as some of the Indians were defiant and disinclined for peace, Maj. William Crawford was sent against one of their villages, called Seekunk, or Salt Lick Town. His force consisted of two hundred and forty men, with which he destroyed the village, killed six Indians and took fourteen pris- oners.
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