History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 15

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1454

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121

COAL MINES AND MINING.

the level of the sea. West of Long run, in the same township, on the Potter county line, is a smaller deposit.

The Blossburg coal basin is about thirty miles long, with an average width of three miles. It contains about 30,000 acres of workable coal, the total possible pro- duction being variously estimated, the lowest estimate placing it at 75,000,000 tons, and the highest estimate at twice that amount, being an average for the entire coal- bearing area of the basin of 5,000 tons to the acre. Within this basin lie the mines of the Fall Brook Coal Company at Fall Brook and Antrim; the Morris Run Coal Company, at Morris Run, and of the Blossburg Coal Company at Arnot and Lan- drus, and, also, the mines of a number of independent operators in and around Blossburg. The history of the organization of each of these companies is given in the chapters devoted to the places named. Mention is also made in the proper places of those operating independent mines.

THE DISCOVERY OF COAL AT BLOSSBURG.

Coal was first discovered in Tioga county within the limits of what is now the borough of Blosssburg. It is claimed the discoverers were Robert and Benjamin Patterson, two noted Indian scouts, who were employed by Captain Williamson in 1792, to guide a party of 500 German and English immigrants from Williamsport, over the mountains, through what is now Tioga county, to the "Genesee Country," in southern New York. To enable these immigrants to reach their destination, it was necessary to cut a road through the wilderness. To this work the inen addressed themselves, while the women and children remained in camp. When the road was opened as far as Tioga river, a site for a camp was selected within what is now the borough of Blossburg. This was called "Peter's Camp," from the name of the man who did the baking for the party. It was while sojourning here that the Pattersons discovered coal in the mountains, which it is claimed, was used by the immigrants and pronounced "good." This may he, but the abundance of wood-an inexhausti- ble supply being afforded by the clearing of the roadway-precludes the idea that the immigrants devoted themselves to the difficult work of digging coal for fuel. If they used it at all, it was merely to sample it, but even this limited use might enable them to judge of its quality and justify them in pronouncing it "good."

PIONEER MINES AND MINING.

To the pioneer, David Clemons, belongs the credit of being the first person to mine coal in Tioga county for shipment, and to his humble efforts in this direction is to be attributed the beginning of the wide-spread name and fame of the celebra- ted Blossburg coal. ('lemons came in 1806 and settled in the Tioga valley, near the southern boundary line of Covington township. Like all early pioneers, he was a hunter, and it is presumed that while wandering over the mountains and through the ravines, he discovered the outcropping coal on the land of Aaron Bloss, and made a satisfactory arrangement with him for developing it. He opened a drift-known for many years as the "Clemons Opening"-on Bear creek, a small stream, flowing in a southwest direction, down a narrow ravine, and emptying into the Tioga river, just below the business center of Blossburg. The vein is the fifth from the surface, and averages three feet in thickness, the coal being of an excellent bituminous quality.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.

That Aaron Bloss was aware of the presence of mineral on his land soon after settling at Peter's Camp, is evidenced by the fact that under date of October 24, 1807, he entered into an agreement to convey 400 acres to Jeremiah Rees, of Harrisburg, on the event of his being able to perfect title to the same, for the sum of $1,300, which agreement contained a proviso, "that the said ore bank shall be included in the said survey when made." The ore referred to is presumed to mean iron ore, there being a large deposit of it, as well as of coal, on the land. This agreement seems never to have been perfected by the transfer of the land in question, for which Aaron Bloss obtained warrant No. 608, November 12, 1807, and a deed of patent April 26, 1808, thus becoming the lawful and undisputed owner of it.

It is to be regretted that the exact date of the opening of the first drift by David Clemons cannot be ascertained. It was probably not far from 1815. Blossburg at that time had not even begun to take on the form of a village. It could furnish him no market, nor could he hope to dispose of even an occasional load in either Coving- ton or Tioga, then mere hamlets. The nearest trading point on the south was Williamsport, the road to which led over the mountains. Travel over it was attended with such difficulties, that the settlers as far south as Blossburg preferred to go down the river valley to Painted Post, New York. It was to this latter place that David Clemons hauled the first load of coal. A practical test showed it to be es- pecially adapted for smithing purposes, and he soon found a ready market for the limited quantity he was able to mine and transport overland by wagon.

Soon after Clemons opened his drift, Aaron Bloss uncovered a lower vein-the sixth from the surface-known as the "Bloss" vein. This is the one that has been worked at Blossburg, Morris Run, Fall Brook and Arnot, since the opening of the mines at those places and the shipment of the coal to market began. The coal is all known as Blossburg coal. Aaron Bloss does not, however, appear to have mined for shipment, but rather with a view to ascertaining the extent and character of the deposit, for the purpose of bringing it to the notice of parties possessing the means to properly develop it.

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT DEVELOPMENT.

The fact that the mountain near the headwaters of the Tioga river contained a large deposit of semi-bituminous coal of an excellent quality, as well as an abund- ance of iron ore, soon became widely known, and men of means and enterprise were led to investigate their extent and character. The first of these was Judge John H. Knapp, of Elmira, New York. A personal investigation satisfied him that the coal deposit was an extensive one, and that there existed in connection with it a valuable deposit of iron ore. So close were the two veins to each other that they could be mined together. The combination of these two valuable minerals invited the in- vestment of capital to their development, and held forth the promise of an adequate reward for the labor and money thus expended.

Judge Knapp relying on the promises of others to supply him with the capital required, invested his own moderate means in coal lands, and in enterprises, calcu- lated, if successful, to make Peter's Camp, as it was then called, a mining and manu- facturing center.

The record in the register and recorder's office at Wellsboro, show that, on

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COAL MINES AND MINING.

January 15, 1827, Aaron Bloss and Ruah, his wife, deeded to John H. Knapp, for a consideration of $8,000, a tract of 218 acres of land. There is also an acknowledg- ment of the payment of the full amount of the consideration. This land, for the most part, lay south of the Blossburg bridge, and east of the river, embracing within its boundaries "Barney Hill" and Coal run. On this land Judge Knapp erected a saw-mill and opened a store, and soon after began the introduction of iron works on · the site of the present foundry of T. J. Mooers.

THE TIOGA NAVIGATION COMPANY.

In order to secure the successful and profitable mining of coal and smelting of iron, it became necessary to devise means of transporting the product of the mines and the furnace to market. Judge Knapp and those interested with him accordingly took steps to form a body corporate. By an act of the legislature, ap- proved February 20, 1826, the chartering of the Tioga Navigation Company was authorized. This act contained the following proviso:

The company ahall make a navigable canal or slack-water navigation, or navigable canal and slack-water navigation at such other place as they may think proper, for the passage up and down the Tioga from the State line of New York, at or near Lawrence- ville, to the coal beds at or near Peter's Camp, and by Crooked to Pine creek, for every kind of ark, raft or boat, capable of navigating the same, with such dams and other works as necessary; and make a road or towpath, and to use the water on or near the intended route of such canal, supplying the same with water.

This work was to be begun within six, and completed within nine years. Repeated extensions of time were granted by supplementary acts. February 7, 1828, the company was authorized to make a railroad instead of a canal, the latter idea being finally abandoned, notwithstanding the preparation of elaborate plans for carrying it into execution. Neatly drawn maps, showing the line of the proposed canal, are now in the possession of Hon. Jerome B. Niles, of Wellsboro.

In 1835 the company received a right of way for a railroad through the land of a number of owners in Tioga, Richmond and Covington townships, but did nothing further apparently until 1839, when additional rights of way were secured, and the work of constructing the proposed line of railroad begun in earnest. July 4, 1840, this road known, as the Corning and Blossburg railroad, was completed to Coving- ton, and in the following September to Blossburg.

FIRST GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

The discovery of coal at Blossburg had the effect of stimulating the people of southern New York to undertake to find a like deposit within the bounds of that State. On March 11, 1830, Professor Eaton, author of "Eaton's Manual of Geology," read a paper entitled "Observations on the Coal Formations of the State of New York," in connection with the great "Coal Beds of Pennsylvania," before the Albany Institute. It was published in the transactions of the institute and "was accom- panied with a demonstrative lecture, given at the request of several members of the New York legislature, while the bill for boring for coal was pending." In this address Professor Eaton entered into a general description of the coal formations of the United States, saying that those at Blossburg had been carefully examined by

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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.

himself and Professor Van Rensselaer. His statement that the Blossburg coal formation extended into New York State, and that the slate rock which embraced the coal was to be found along "Seneca and Cayuga lakes and down those lakes to their outlets, and to Lake Erie," was soon challenged and proven to be erroneous.

The first systematic attempt, however, to ascertain the thickness and character of the coal and iron ore beds about Blossburg, was made in 1832 by Richard C. Tay- lor, who was employed by Samuel W. Morris and others for that purpose, as well as to survey a route for a railroad from the New York State line up the Tioga river valley to Blossburg. Mr. Taylor's report, published in 1833, contains eight de .. tailed vertical geological sections, of East creek, Bear creek, Coal run, Morris run, Boon creek, Johnson creek, Tioga valley and Fellows' creek. Considering the fact that his investigations, owing to extremely limited facilities for carrying them on, were confined to surface indications, the results compare favorably with later and more elaborate efforts. The vertical section of Bear creek, or Bear run, as it is now called, discloses the existence of nine coal veins. The thickness of the first, second, third and fourth was not proven. The fifth and sixth veins are described as fol- lows: "Fifth coal vein, called Clemons' coal, of excellent bituminous quality, worked about thirty yards under the hill, 321 feet above the Tioga; 281.05 feet above Bloss- burg." "Sixth coal vein, called Bloss' vein, now worked 269.80 feet above Bloss- burg." The seventh, eighth and ninth veins were not proved. Above the Bloss vein several courses of good argillaceous iron ore in balls were found. The ore below the Bloss vein was sandy and weak. A number of veins of good fire clay were also disclosed. There is a general resemblance between this and the other sections, which may be found in detail in Volume G of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, published in 1878.

Mr. Taylor notes the fact that "the chief supply of coal for the neighboring country has heretofore been taken from the fifth vein"-the Clemons vein. He adds that "a lower vein of good quality has been recently opened." This is the celebrated Bloss vein. At this time Judge John H. Knapp was operating a coal mine on Coal run, about 280 feet above the level of the Blossburg bridge. This, the fifth vein, was from three feet seven inches to three feet eleven inches thick. In a note Mr. Taylor says: "A considerable quantity of coal for the supply of the neighborhood has been taken from the colliery worked" in this vein. He also adds that "about 350 tons of iron ore have been collected from the bed No. 27, and is in readiness for smelting, * "as soon as the furnace is completed."

Mr. Taylor summarized the results of his investigations in tables, which formed a part of his report. They give the specific gravity, weight per cubic yard, thick- ness of vein, and the gross contents or weight per acre of each vein of coal, and also a summary of the specific gravity and weight per cubic foot of iron ore, with an estimate of the weight of one foot thick per acre of the different veins.

THE ARBON COAL COMPANY.

While Richard C. Taylor was busy investigating the character and extent of the coal and iron deposits in and around Blossburg, Judge Knapp was endeavoring to push forward his enterprises. He was visited by a committee of New York gen- tlemen seeking information to be used to induce the New York legislature to pass-

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a bill for the construction of the Chemung canal. Their report had much to do with the final passage of the bill. By reason, however, of failure to receive prom- ised financial aid, and because of feeble health, Judge Knapp sold his lands and turned over the work he had begun to Samuel Weeks, and removed to Fort Madi- son, Iowa. What he did accomplish, however, was of such importance, that others soon became earnestly interested in carrying forward the work of developing the Blossburg coal and iron deposits. The lands and other properties acquired by Samuel Weeks were first transferred to Ellis Lewis, and by him, on August 13, 1834, to Dr. Lewis Saynisch, who, in behalf of himself and others, soon acquired a number of other tracts of land in and around Blossburg, and became a leading spirit in the development that followed.

Under authority of an act of the legislature, approved April 13, 1838, Dr. Lewis Saynisch, Dr. Joseph P. Morris, William Frederick Seidel, Dr. Franklin R. Smith, James H. Gulick, James R. Wilson, Bowen Whiting and others organized the Arbon Coal Company, of which James R. Wilson was chosen president and James H. Gulick selling agent. The capital authorized by law was limited to $150,000, and the amount of land to be held in the name of the corporation to 2,000 acres. On May 30, 1838, another company made up of the same persons was organized and called the Arbon Land Company, its object being to promote the early building of the proposed railroad from Lawrenceville to Blo-sburg.

The Arbon Coal Company, having perfected its organization, entered upon the work of preparing to mine and ship coal so soon as the railroad should be com- pleted to Blossburg. A force of miners were placed at work in the old Clemons drift on Bear run, and an incline tram-way built from the drift opening down the mountain side to the railroad track. A store was opened, the furnace started up, and new life in'used into the village, which began to grow rapidly, with the usual activity in real estate and rapid rise in real estate values.

The mines at Blossburg were operated by the Arbon Coal Company until 1845, when their control passed into the hands of John Ward & Company, to whom the property is assessed from 1846 to 1858. They appear to have leased it until about 1852 to William M. Mallory & Company, and after that, until 1859, to John Magee, when upon the opening of the mines at Fall Brook, mining for ship- ment ceased at Blossburg. During the last sixteen years the mines at Blossburg were operated for shipment, they were in charge of John James, a native of Pontypool, Wales, and a practical miner. The production from the opening of the mines until the suspension of mining for shipment was as follows: "Arbon Coal Company. 49,633 tons; William M. Mallory & Company, 405.116 tons, and Duncan S. Magee, representing his father. John Magee, 28,966 tons, making a total of 533,745 tons of coal mined at Blossburg between 1840 and 1859.

The history of the organization of the Morris Run Coal Mining Company, the Fall Brook Coal Company, the Blossburg Coal Company, and of the Gaines Coal and Coke Company, as well as of the opening of the mines at Morris Run, Fall Brook, Arnot, Antrim, Landrus and Gaines, will be found in the township and borough chapters dealing with those places, where mention is also made of the con- struction of the various railroads connected with the mines.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.

SIR CHARLES LYELL'S VISIT.

The coal mines at Blossburg were visited in 1841, by Sir Charles Lyell, the emi- nent English geologist. The distinguished visitor was the guest of Dr. Lewis Saynisch, then the president of the Arbon Coal Company, and appears to have been deeply impressed with what he saw. After his return to England he published the following account of his visit to the mines:

It was the first time I had seen true coal in America, and I was very much struck with its surprising analogy in mineral and fossil character to that of Europe; the same white grits or sandstones as are used for building near Edinburg or Newcastle; similar black slates, often bituminous, with leaves of fern spread out as in an herbarium, the species being for the most part identical with the British fossil plants; seams of good bituminous coal, some a few inches thick, others several feet thick; beds and nodules of clay, ironstone, and the whole series resting on a coarse grit and conglomerate, con- taining quartz pebbles very like our millstone grit, and often called by the American as well as English miners, "farewell rock," because when they had reached it in their borings they take leave of all valuable fuel. Beneath this grit are those red and gray sandstones corresponding in mineral character, fossils and positions, with our old red. I was desirous of ascertaining whether a generalization recently made by Mr. Logan in South Wales could hold in this country. Each of the Welsh seams of coal-more than ninety in number-have been found to rest on a sandy clay or firestone, in which a peculiar species of plant called Stigmaria abounds to the exclusion of all others. I saw the Stigmaria at Blossburg in abundance, in heaps of rubbish extracted from a horizon- tal seam. Dr. Saynisch, the president of the mine, kindly lighted up the gallery that I might inspect the works, and we saw the black shales in the roof adorned with beau- tiful fern leaves, while the floor consisted of an under clay in which the stems of Stigmaria, with their leaves and rootlets attached, were running in all directions. The agreement of these phenomena with those of the Welsh coal measures, 3,000 miles dis- tant, surprised me, and led me to conclusions respecting the origin of coal from plants not drifted, but growing on the spot, to which I shall refer hereafter.

COAL SEAMS DESCRIBED.

James Macfarlane, A. M., of Towanda, Pennsylvania, says in his "Coal Regions of America," published in 1865:

The general geological section in the Blossburg region consists of 333 feet of strata, including five workable seams of coal, four of which have been worked at various times in the district. The lowest, or Coal A, known among the miners as the Bear Creek vein, is from three to three and a half feet thick, and was worked as well as the Bloss seam, at the old Blossburg mines by William M. Mallory previous to 1858. It produced a good steam coal, but it frequently thinned out. The most important seam, which is worked at all the mines, is B, which is called the Bloss vein, which is from thirteen to twenty-nine feet above A. From this seam most of the coal of the region is produced. It is sometimes interlaid with a thin seam of slate, and when this occurs an allowance is made to the miner of a certain sum for each inch of slate, added to his usual price per ton for mining. This system is a very just one, on account of the additional lahor. At other localities in the same mines this slate disappears, and the seam presents a clean bed of pure coal from four and a half to five and a half feet in thickness.

The next seam which is worked to a limited extent, is twenty to thirty feet higher, and sometimes less, and will be called Coal B, but on account of the heavy bed of fine clay, on which it rests, it is commonly called the Fire Clay vein. It is a variable seam, from one and a half to three and a half, and sometimes five feet thick, when impurities occur in the middle. It appears to be a rider or satellite of seam B. It produces good

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COAL MINES AND MINING.

coal, and when it appears in its best form it is a valuable seam. It is being mined only in a portion of the field.

Coal C occurs from seventeen to eighteen feet higher, and produces a species of cannel coal. In western Pennsylvania this seam is the great deposit of cannel coal. wherever that variety is found, but cannel coal is always liable to become degraded into bituminous shale, and that is its character at Blossburg. This seam is always stig- matized in this region as the Dirty vein or the Slate vein. It is regarded as worthless and has never been mined.

Next in the ascending order, at an elevation of from seven to twenty feet above the last, is a small seam, only useful as a geological landmark-Coal C, or the Monkey vein, as the miners call it, on account of its small size, it being only from one and a half to three and a half feet thick. It has never been opened for mining purposes.

Coal D is called at Blossburg the Seymour vein, in honor of ex-Governor Seymour, who was the land owner where it was first wrought. It is from three to four and a half feet in thickness, always free from slate, and produces a bright, beautiful-looking coal of a columnar structure, and an excellent blacksmith coal. It is worked in a portion of the region. Its elevation above the last-named seam, is from thirty to sixty-seven feet, but like all the other intervals of rock, this is sometimes much less. Its elevation above the Bloss vein is fron 114 to 162 feet.

About fifty feet above the last is Coal E, commonly called the Rock vein, on account of the heavy, coarse rocks over it, which is sometimes conglomoritic. This seam is from two and a half to three feet thick, and in a few localities is of a better size, but it has never been worked. Fifty-six feet of rock have been measured over this seum, but without coal, and it is not improbable that the foregoing series embrace the whole of the lower coal measures of Pennsylvania.

CHARACTER AND USES OF BLOSSBURO COAL.

Blossburg coal early acquired a wide-spread fame as a smithing coal, and blacksmiths were quick to recognize its value, especially in the finer classes of work. As the facilities for transportation increased, its use extended. It found its way to the mining camps of California, Colorado, Utah and Nevada, being trans- ported from the termini of the railroads in sacks on the backs of pack mules. A single gunny-sack full has been known to cost as high as $25. It also found its way into the lumber camps of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, where it was highly prized for use in delicate work. Wherever it was tested a report was re- turned praising its excellence and adding to its fame. The result was that, year by year, increasing demand made an increased output of the mines necessary, and stimulated the organization of new mining companies, until the annual output rose above 750,000 tons, and in 1873-the year of maximum production-reached a to- tal of 991,057 tons. An examination of the published statistics shows that the total production of coal for shipment since 1840, when the Corning and Blossburg railroad was completed, is not far from 25,000,000 tons, being about one-third, ac- cording to the lowest estimate, of all the workable coal in the Blossburg coal basin.

The recent opening of mines in the extensive coal beds of Clearfield county- where the coal is more easily and cheaply mined-has had the effect to greatly re- duce the annual output of the mines of Tioga county. The consequence is that there has been a marked falling off in the number of men employed by the different companies.

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HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.

THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE.

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History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Part 15

Author: Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown Number of Pages: 1454

Author:
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Harrisburg : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1454