USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 23
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
FURGESON'S VALLEY MINES.
Keever's ore bank is situated in a ravine cut through the ore ridge, near Robert Means' house, about two miles south-west of Yeager- town. The anticlinical ridge formed by the ore sondstone, makes its first appearance here, and rises as we proceed south-west. A gangway was driven on the north-east dip of the sand vein ore bed, but on account of the small amount of breast obtained, the work was abandoned. The ore bed, including the impure shaly ore at the bottom, is sixteen inches thick ; it is hard fosil ore except at the outerop. It is not rich in iron, some of the specimens taken from the bed being fossiliferous limestone. Joseph Snyder's ore bank is in a ravine, four and a half miles south west of Yeagertown. The opening is made on the sand vein ore bed at the water level, where it dips sixty-five degrees to the south-east. It was made in 1845, and a small quantity of the ore was sent to Lewistown. No work has been done since that time. The ore bed was eighteen inches thick, and the ore pronounced good. The outerop of the bed indi- cates a good seam of medium soft ore. It continues south-west, along the flank of the ridge, where from twenty-five to forty yards of breast can be obtained. The Upper Clinton fossil ore shales are yellow, and correspond in thickness to those at Logan's Gap. The north dip of the ridge contain shales of the same color and charac- ter.
JOHN CUPPLE'S ORE BANK.
Is about six miles south-west from Yeagertown in a ravine through the ore ridge. The opening was made by John Cupple. It is not worked at present. It is on the south-east dip of the sand vein ore bed. The Danville ore beds have not been proven.
The MeKee ore bank is in a ravine through the Furgeson valley ore ridge, seven miles south-west of Yeagertown. The McKee section shows the fossil ore beds, ore, sandstone, &c., lying above water level in the ore ridge. Openings or shaftings have been made on both dips of each anticlinical. They are all on the sand vein ore beds, as no out-crops of the Danville ore beds, or the Danville ore bed rocks are visible. It is fair however to pre- sume that the Danville ore beds do not exist, their presence having been proved by the Graham ore bank corresponding with beds in Logan's gap.
Analysis of ores taken from the gangway of the north dip of the south antielinical of McKee's ore bank. The ore is a delicate
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
pink fossil, somewhat argillaeeous and slaty in structure. Bed twelve to fourteen inches thick, the upper eight to ten inches, being of much better quality than the lower portions. Iron, 34,400; sulphur, 0.28 ; phosphorus, 124; residue, 35,480.
John Shehan's ore bank is in a ravine one-half mile west of the McKee ore bank. The ridge synelinal has sunk so that the ore bed may be opened in it at water level in the ravine.
The MeCord and Rothrock ore banks are about eight-and-a-half miles south-west of Yeagertown, in the first ravine west of John Shehan's ore bank. The two antielinals appear still sinking towards the south-west. The ravine cuts through the south dip of the nortlı anticlinal, and both dips of the south anticlinal, but leaves the north dip of the northern fluxure clear; openings have been made on the west side of the ravine by John McCord, and ore mined from the north dip of eighty degrees. In order to gain height of breast, a tunnel about fifty feet long was driven under the sand vein ore bed in the direction of the creek, two hundred and fifty yards of gangway have been driven and a fourteen inch bed of ore, the gangway being five feet high, four and a-half wide at the base on a railroad gauge of twenty-two inehes. The cars contain about fourteen hundred pounds of ore. The ore is soft, medium fossil of good quality, and streaks of shale occur in the bed. The John Kinser ore bank is in a ravine one-half a mile south-west of the McCord ore bank, the sand vein ore bed has been opened on the north dip. sixty-five degrees, of the sonth anticlinical producing soft fossil ore
The Danville ore beds have not been opened thongh the altered fossil ore is scattered on the surface over the Lower Clinton shales is evidence of their existence.
The John Allen ore bank is one-fourth of a mile west from Michael Ault's house, in a deep ravine. A long breast could be obtained from this level, as is the ease in all the ravines, from Michael Alut's house west to the terminous of the ridge. The ore sand stone crops out about forty feet above the ravine, and on the south slope of the ridge.
MINES IN THE RIDGES BETWEEN FURGESON'S VALLEY AND LEWIS- TOWN.
The Moore Ore Bank is on the south dip of the Marcellus ore beds, in the Squaw Hollow, three miles north-west from Lewistown. It was opened by the Logan Iron and Steel Company in 1871, by whom it has since been worked. The ore is brown hematite, the
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carbonate not having been reached at the present depth of the mine, eighty-two feet.
The following is an analysis of a specimen of this ore: Iron. 44.700; sulphur, .008 ; phosphorus, .165 ; residue, 19 950. The ore bed has proved to be very good. It contains from three to six feet of ore, and at one point is said to be sixteen feet thick. At the present end of the east gangway the bed is but two feet thiek. Squaw Hollow, south dip, one mile northwest of Lewistown. The Marcellus ore bed has been here opened and proved to be a bed of workable size, containing a good quality of ore. Fifty feet be- low the outerop of the bed there was a carbonate ore imbedded in clay. An analysis of the ore and also of the surrounding clay is here given. Carbonate Iron Ore: Protoxide of iron, 48.857; ses- quioxide of iron, .825 ; bisulphide of iron, .262; alumina, 2.240; protoxide of manganese, 1.625; lime, 4.536 ; magnesia, 569 ; phos- phorie acid, 1,314; sulphuric acid, .133; carbonie acid, 32,650 ; water, .368 ; organic matter, .360; residue, 6.410 ; iron, 38,700; sul- phur, .192 ; phosphorus, .574. Analysis of clays: Silica, 76.100; alumina, 10.040 ; protoxide of iron, 3.493 ; bisulphide of iron, .043 ; lime, .683; magnesia, 1.419; sulphurie acid, .151; alkali, 2.460; water, 5,390 ; organic, .110.
The Mineheart Ore Bank, four miles southwest from Lewistown. was opened about twenty years ago by John Mineheart, and is now owned by the Glamorgan Iron Company. Several thousand tons of ore from this bank have been used for making iron.
Glamorgan Iron Company .- This company has two furnaces sit- uated in Lewistown. No. 1 was built in 1853, by Etting, Graff & Co., and put in blast the autumn of the same year. It occupies the site of a charcoal furnace which was built by Duncan & Long about 1843. Average yield, about one hundred tons per week.
Chestnut Ridge, southwest of Lewistown .- This antielinal ridge runs 100 to 125 feet high, and lies between Lewistown limestone ridge and the Blue Ridge. It commences about five and one-half miles southwest of Lewistown, and continues along the north bank of the Juniata river to a point three miles east of MeVeytown. West of this, to its termination near Me Veytown, it runs along the south side of the river. There are two gaps in this ridge ; the most eastern one, through which Stroud's Run passes, is six miles west of Lewistown. At this gap the south dip of the ore sandstone is eroded, but the north dip is exposed. The second gap is nine miles west of Lewistown and three miles east of McVeytown. Through
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
this gap the Juniata river passes. On the east side of this gap the ore sandstone is exposed on both the north and south dips. On the west side of the gap the river has cut diagonally across the ridge, eroding the north dip for the distance of about half a mile. Be- tween Stroud's Run Gap and the Juniata river gap, a distance of about three miles, the sand vein ore bed has been mined at the out- crop. The mining of this ore has been done by stripping the out- crop, and at some few points by means of gangways. The ore on the south dip was of a very superior quality. The bed has not been as extensively worked on the north as on the south dip. The Dan- ville beds have been opened, but no ore mined. The upper bed is sixteen inches thick at Three Locks. Two beds are exposed at the Juniata gap on the north dip.
THE WAKEFIELD AND CAVENAUGH ORE BANK.
Is located near Three Locks. This property was purchased, and the sand vein ore bank opened by Etting, Graff & Co., in 1853, and mining was continued until 1873. During that time, forty-five thousand tons of ore was mined, and the greater part of it used in the Lewistown furnaces. The sand vein bed was fifteen inches thick, and contains an excellent quality of ore. At a bend of the gangways, twenty-five to forty feet feet below the top of the ridge, the ore beds dip twenty-five degrees, but below the gangways, it changes again to a low dip. On the Couch farm, three-eigths of a mile west of Strand's Run Gap, the sand vein bed was opened in 1850, by Etting Graff & Co., and eleven thousand tons mined and taken to the Lewistown furnaces. The outerop of the ore bed was stripped the entire length of the property, one mile.
The property of the heirs of Casper Dull, joins the Couch farm on the west, and thirty thousand tons of ore have been mined from the sand vein on this property. Most of it was mined by Etting, Graff & Co. The length of the outerop was one . and one-half miles.
BLUE RIDGE NORTH FLANK.
The Blue Ridge is anticlinal ridge formed by the Medina white sandstone, and extends from a point four miles north of Mifflin, to near Newton Hamilton, a distance of twenty-five miles ; the Juniata River flowing along its northern base the whole distance. At its eastern end, the Upper Clinton shales arch over the anticlinal. The flexure rises in, proceeding south-west, and in three and one-
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
half miles at the point where the Juniata River breaks through the anticlinal, the Medina white sandstone is exposed, forming a com- plete arel.
West of the Juniata Gap, the ore sandstone has been eroded and only the Lower Clinton shales occur upon the north flank of the ridge. Where the Juniata River washes against the Medina sandstone, at the east end of the Long Narrows, these too have been carried off by erosion.
Bixler's Gap is one and one-half miles south of Lewistown.
The "Birdeye " fossil ore has been opened in this gap by means of a short gangway. The bed proved about seven inches thick, and contained an inferior quality of ore, At Granville Gap, one and one-half miles west from Bixler's Gap, the Juniata River encroaches upon the base of the Blue Ridge. Erosion has carried away the south dip of the ore sandstone at the west end of the east Shade Mountain, but has left the north dip of the Blue Ridge undis- turbed. There has been very little prospecting for ore in this part the range. One mile west of Granville Gap, is an old shaft which was sunk on the sand vein bed, and abandoned. West of this to Doughtrough Hollow, the Juniata River washes against the ore sandstone. There are but few points along this range where suffi- cient breast for the working of the ore bed is obtained.
Minehart Gap is south of Granville Station, and four miles from Lewistown. The ore, sandstone, at this gap, dips thirty degrees north, and is sixteen feet thiek.
The argillaceous sand rock under the ore sandstone and above the Danville ore bed rock, is twenty-eight feet thick. The Dan- ville ore-beds rock above the upper ore-bed, is four feet thick, making the whole thickness from the top of the ore sandstone to the Upper Danville ore bed, fifty feet.
Between Minehart Gap and Jenkin's Gap are a number of notches in the crest of the Blue Ridge, but no corresponding ravines break- ing through the outerops of the ores andstone.
Jenkin's Gap is two miles south-east of McVeytown. The measures dip steeply north, and the ore sandstone and the accom- panying ore beds ontcrop high up the terrace of the mountain.
On the property of George Hoffman, a short distance east of Jenkin's Gap, a shaft has been sunk on the Danville ore beds. A considerable quantity of altered fossil ore was taken from the shaft, which indicates the ore bed is of workable size.
Carlisle Gapis one-halfmile west of Jenkin's Gap, and one and a-half
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
south-east of Me Veytown. There are no openings in the neighbor- hood of this gap. At Holt's Gap, one mile west from Carlisle Gap and three miles west from MeVeytown, there are no openings or shaftings, but some indications of ore exists as further east. On the property of Elisha Graham, a short distance west of J. Miller's, and east of Shank's Gap, a number of shafts have been sunk on the Danville ore beds. The sand vein beds is not proven.
From a shaft sunk to a depth of ten feet, on one of the Danville beds, there has been a good hematite ore taken out. The bed is two feet thick. The ore sandstone is massive, and fifteen feet thick.
On the property of Charles Bratton, near Shank's Gap, south of Manayunk Station, the Danville ore beds have been opened at a water level in a ravine. This opening was made many years ago, and re-opened lately. About fifty tons have been shipped from it.
Between Graham's and Shank's Gap, ore is scattered upon the terrace surface at the outerop. Near Galloway's Gap, three and one- half miles south-east of Newton Hamilton, on the property of George Wharton, the sand vein bed is ten inches thick, and contains soft ore. There is another exposure near "Ochre Mill," and at Bell's Mills, where the Juniata river first breaks through the ore sandstone, and the sand vein was opened by Oliver Etnier, in 1870, and aban- doned in 1871. About one hundred tons had been shipped.
MCVEYTOWN TO MOUNT UNION.
Jack's Mountain, South Flank. The MeVeytown section shows the relation of rocks between McVeytown and Jack's Mountain. McCoy's ore bank is the most southern one on this section. Mc- Coy's ore bank, and Dull & Bradley's sand mine are both located in this flexure. Ross' ore bank is the same flexure as the Squaw Hol- low, spoken of in connection with the Lewistown section.
In the MeVeytown Gap, near Ross' ore bank, is the site of the old Brookline furnace. This furnace was abandoned years ago, on account of the great expense of hauling all the ore "used across the mountain from Kishacoquillas Valley. Dull & Bradley's ore bank is north of McVeytown.
The MeClay ore bank is on the east side of the gap, north of Me Veytown. The bed is two feet thick, opens near the outerop, and produces a brown hematite ore. Dull & Bradley's sand mine is in the gap, north of McVeytown. See description in another part of this work.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
KANSAS VALLEY.
From the head of Furgeson's Valley to Long Hollow. This valley is about three miles long, and very narrow. Situated between Or- iskany Ridge and Jack's Mountain. The ridge, south of the valley, is very irregular. The surface of the valley and ridge is strewn with loose rocks so that little land is available for farming purposes. West of the gap the ridge becomes more distinct, and before reach- ing Long Hollow the flexure rises, and at the end of the valley all the measures above the water line have been swept away by crasnre. North of Kansas Valley, the terrace of Jack's mountain is quite regular. The beds of fossil ore which crop out on the terrace can be traced in many places by the ore sandstone. This is, however, often covered by debris from the mountain. The outcrops of the sand vein bed shows upon the terrace.
At James Rhodes' the outerop is good, and gives evidence of a fair condition of ore bed. Where these pockets have been opened, they have been, as far as present observation goes, accompanied by one of the divisions of iron sandstone, carrying with it a white, silicious clay on the top of the sandstones, and under the ore. This is the case at the old Bell Furnace, at the mouth of Licking Creek, Negro Valley, and also at Martin's ore bank, north-west of Oriskany, in Hill Valley.
LONG HOLLOW, FROM KANSAS VALLEY TO MOUNT UNION.
Long Hollow is a name applied to a narrow valley at the southern base of Jack's Mountain, extending from the western terminus of Kansas Valley to the Juniata River, at Mt. Union.
Long Hollow has a variety of soils, which have been derived from the formations included between the Lewistown limestone and the Medina white sandstone. From four miles north-east of Mt. Union to the Juniata River, the Lower Clinton shales have been eroded, forming a cone, and leaving the ore sandstone standing in a ridge at the base of the mountain. The ontcrop of the sand vein ore bed in the terrace of the mountain north of Long Hollow, gives evidence of good ore. At Phillips' Shades, three miles east of the Juniata River, a shaft has been sunk, and proved the bed to be eighteen inches thick, and good quality.
Long Hollow section extends from Jack's Mountain, opposite the head of Long Hollow, to the Beaver Dam School House, three- quarters of a mile east of Atchinson's Mills. At Mount Union the
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Oriskany sandstone is ninety-five feet thiek ; a deereaseof sixty-five- feet in eight miles. The middle of the section is the same flexure as Dull & Bradley's ore bank, near MeVeytown. This flexure gradually dies away in passing westward. Rhodes' ore bank oeeu- pies a ridge near Levi Rhodes', in the east end of Long Hollow.
Matilda Furnace was located ou the east side of the Juniata River, opposite Mount Union. It was built in 1837, by F. Cateral, James Caldwell and John Fenn. Power was supplied to a small overshaft wheel, fifty feet in diameter, by a small mountain stream.
After many failures to make a sneeessful run with this power, a small steam engine of about twelve horse power was introduced; but this, also, was found to be insufficient.
In the year 1851 and 1852, Messrs. Peter and John Haldeman, who then became the owners of the furnace, and ereeted a thirty- five horse power engine, and used a hot blast. The furnace then stood idle from 1853 to 1864, when Messrs. Grube and Pipher, Rober and Garber, of Laneaster county, ehanged it to an anthra- eite furnace.
In 1873, B. B. Thomas became the proprietor of the property. The Matilda Furnace property ineludes about three thousand aeres of mountain and terrace land.
Ore from the sand vein has been extensively used at this furnace since its erection. There are over one hundred yards breasts in this bed, and it has been opened by several "lifts." In the upper levels, gangways several thousand feet long have been driven.
JACK'S MOUNTAIN ANTICLINAL.
The anticlinal which forms Jaek's Mountain from the Juniata river to its southward extremity is a prolongation of the uplift of the Kishacoquillas valley. The flexure originates probably in the southwest part of Armagh township, Mifflin county, between Beat- ie's Knob and Jack Mountain, northeast of Reedville, It ranges almost absolutely straight through the eentre of Kishacoquillas Valley for more than twelve miles, to the foot of Stone Mountain, where, taking an abrupt bend to the southward, it follows the lease of this ridge to the head of the cove, where the valley ends; thenee maintaining a new and nearly straight course, it pursues the erest of Jaek's mountain, across the Juniata, terminating south of that ridge in the great Aughwick Valley. There would seem to be a double antielinal in Jaek's Mountain. No examinations have been made of the mountain structure either to the north or south of
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Jack's narrows, and it is not easy to say what may be the extent of the duplicate flexure. The horizontal distance between the section line and the outerop of fossil iron ore, measured along the axis of the anticlinal, is 8,400 feet ; the difference in the elevation between the points is 700 feet. The geological position of the bottom of the white Medina sandstone on the section over the centre of the antielinal is assumed to be 500 feet above the present surface of ero- sion. There is a vertical thickness of rock between the fossil iron ore bed and the bottom of the white Medina sandstone of about (1,100) one thousand one hundred feet; so that the actual axil of subsidence of the anticlinal between the section line and the out- crop of the fossil iron ore point quite extended. The water lime- stone along the Jaek's mountain range, from Lewistown to Three Springs, increases from 470 feet to 580 feet, the thinning being in- versely to that of the upper formations.
The author questions whether the rocks which have been consid- ered the representatives of the Schoharie and Candi-Galli in the Lewistown formation and valley do not properly belong to the Oris- kany or Coniferous epochs. It seems questionable if the grits of the lower part of the upper Heidelberg formation in New York to have a well defined representation in Middle Pennsylvania. A com- parison of the formations from the bottom of the water limestone down to the top of the Trenton limestone will show also that they thin rapidly to the southwest.
In various parts of Pennsylvania there have been found the im- prints of vegetable formation and fish, found in the rocks. The coal, of course, is all vegetable formation, but Mifflin county hav- ing little or no coal, and not having full information as to the first- named imprints, we omit all and refer the reader to the very full and complete details given of the coal measures of Pennsylvania in the Geological Surveys of the State. The Rocks are an import- ant study.
"Nature the dear old nurse Took the child upon her knee, Saying here is a story book, The father wrote for thee. Come wander with me she said, Into regions yet untrod, And read what is still unread, In these manuscripts of God."
Over these hills and mountains and valleys are the leaves of natures story book unfolded for us to read. They are not written
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
by the hand of a reporter or amanuensis, but by the hand of God himself, and come to us from his own hand to be read and studied by us. They are here unfolded, inviting us to study geology, botany, chemistry, and the work of creation, and the succession of the periods of creation from chaos to its present complete condi- tion. Let me not however be understood as intimating that all of God is to be read in the structure of this little world of ours, neither in the universe of material worlds, or of heavens, nor of heaven of heavens can contain Him who is infinite. It must have been conparative ly speakingan exceedingly small ray from his interior and ineffable effulgence that sufficed to give birth to move and regulate the material structure of our earth, however sublime and inconceivable to the human intellect it may be. Now all the FACTS in nature, in science and physiology, all FACTS are timbers in the great temple of nature. If we can find a method of classifi- cation by which these facts as timbers may be without any warping or forcing brought into the form of one grand system, then we may be assured that this method is the true one, and that the structure erected is the structure of TRUTH. Eternal duration is the age of matter and of its author. Eternal space is their em- pire. All God's providences are embodied in this natural laws, the unchanging laws of nature are the unchanging thoughts of God
Who does not see that Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Eavoisier, Laplace, have changed the foundation of human thought in modify- ing totally the idea of the universe and its laws ; in substituting for the infantile imaginings of non-scientific ages the notion of an eternal order, in which caprice and particular will have no thought ? Have they diminished the universe, as some think? For my part, I think the contrary. The skies as we see them are far superior to that solid vault spangled with shining dots and upborne some leagues above us by the pillars which contented the simpler ages. I do not much regret that little spirits that were wont to guide the planets in their orbits; gravitation does the work much better, at times, I have a sad remembrance of the nine angelic choirs wheeling round the orbs of the seveu planets, and of the crystal sea that lies at the feet of the Eternal, I console myself with the thought that the infinite into which we look is really infinite, and a thousand times more sublime to the eyes of true con- templation than all the azure circles of Angelico and Fiesole. M. Thiersra rarely allowed a fine night to pass without gazing
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upon that boundless sea. "It is my mass," he said. How far do the chemist's profound views upon the atom surpass the vague notion of matter on which the scholastic philosophy was fed !
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
MANUFACTURES, RAILROADS AND CANALS.
SAND MINES AND MINERALS.
Railroads of Mifflin County.
THE problem of transportation has taxed the ingenuity of man from the earliest recorded history to the present time. Water afforded the earliest means of transportation and wind power carried the wealth of the Orient to the centres of industry in Western Asia and Europe. Long caravans of the dromedary and pack-horse wended their way over arid sands, loaded with silks and linens, gems and spices, which composed the trade and commerce of the Oriental world. During these early periods roads were almost unknown, the tracks for trade being those of Nature alone. Expe- rience demonstrated at an early day that heavy bodies were easiest moved on a smooth surface. The Appian Way of the Romans was paved with stone blocks fitting closely together, and it was so well done that portions of it are still in place after a lapse of nineteen hundred years. The discoveries made by the Spaniards and Por- tuguese in the fifteenth century and the consequent impetus given to ocean traffic demonstrated the necessity of cheap and easy means of transportation, and the canal was adopted by Western Europe, as it had been by the Chinese and Egyptians centuries previous. On the early settlement of Pennsylvania and the first instigation of canals, it was urged that " the time will come when canals will pass through every vale, wind round every hill, and the whole country in one bond of social intercourse."
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