USA > Texas > Henderson County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 24
USA > Texas > Freestone County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 24
USA > Texas > Leon County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 24
USA > Texas > Anderson County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 24
USA > Texas > Limestone County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 24
USA > Texas > Navarro County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 24
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The region covered by this field presents a series of rounded, oval-shaped and long, narrow, steep-sided hills or ridges, having a general uniform elevation of from 140 to 160 feet (bar.) above the bottoms of the creeks in the neighborhood.
The sides of the ravines cut by the creeks show a complicated series of benches, al- ternating in number according to the rela- tive position of the hills and streams. Round mountain, so called from its shape -an isolated flat-topped hill on the north- western corner of the A. K. Jones head- right-shows only one bench close up to the summit of the hill; and Pilot hill or Buffalo ridge, on the Alfred Benge head- right, shows no less than four within the distance from Caddo bayou to the summit. The intermediate hills, such as Pine hill or Cooper mountain, on the W. H. Watts headright, show four benches, while the hill on the Luke Gauntt headright, behind Mr. James Gauntt's house, shows only two.
The streams flowing through the ravines all have V-shaped bottoms common to water-cut channels.
The deposits within the region and con- stituting the ridges are comparatively uni- form in their positions, the ore deposit being found at a level of 140 feet, and where the elevation of the ridge does not exceed this height the ore covers the surface in the form of a flat cap, broken into large bowlders, frequently measuring from six to ten feet in lengtli and four to six feet in
width, and having a thickness equal to the whole depth of the ore deposit. Such points of the ridges as reach the higher elevations of 160 feet are covered with a light gray and yellow-colored sand.
The benches found along the sides of these ridges are altogether due to the ac- tion of the streams flowing at their bases and to atmospheric agencies.
The beds underlying the iron-ore de- posits are of a yellowish-colored sand, with a sandy clay lying close to the base.
These yellow sands are easily eroded, and by their destruction the iron ore de- posit is left unsupported. Blocks of ore are thus detached, fall or slide down the hillside, to accumulate and form a bench at a level lower than where they originated. These ore deposits when in place are cov- ered with a thin deposit of ferruginous sandstone, and the blocks found covering the second and lower benches, besides being tilted and sloping downward, are frequently completely overturned, showing the ferru- ginous sandstone beneath the ore.
The iron ores found throughout the dif- ferent ore fields of the county are all of the laminated variety of Dr. Penrose's classifi- cation, and belong to that division of the laminated ores known as buff crumbly ore. These ores have all a uniform appearance and thickness, and are overlaid throughout the whole of the region by a soft, brown ferruginous sandstone. This sandstone thickens toward the northeast, and is found in greater quantities in the ore fields around Battle Creek than in the region around Fincastle and Boon mountain, in the southern field.
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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.
The analyses of these ores show them to carry phosphorus in greater or less quan- tities, extending from a mere trace to 0.44 per cent, and sulphur exists only in exceed- ingly small quantities, all of the analyses made showing only traces of this material.
The local details of the most prominent portions of the southern fields give a thick- ness of ore about three feet.
At Round mountain, on the Allen K. Jones headright, the hill has an elevation of 140 feet above the level of the creek, and is covered on the summit by large blocks of ferruginous sandstone and buff crumbly iron ore. Some of the blocks measure six feet in length by four feet in width, and are from two to four feet in thickness. The ferruginous sandstone found liere in association with the ore does not exceed three or four inches in thickness. A narrow, deep, steep-sided ravine divides Round mountain from Boon mountain. Boon mountain has the same structure as Round mountain, and belongs to the same range of hills. Close to J. M. Gauntt's house, on the Luke Gauntt headright, another hill rises to an elevation of 150 feet above the bottom lands. This hill is a long, narrow, flat- topped ridge, running in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction. The bench around the hill at an elevation of 140 feet is covered with broken fragments of buff crumbly ore and ferruginous sandstone, and the side of the hill is covered with a broken debris of the same character of ma- terial. The ore on this hill does not ex- ceed three feet, and the associated sandstone two or three inches. The highest portion of this ridge is covered by a deposit of
grayish-colored sand about ten feet in thickness. A well twenty-two feet deep at Mr. Gauntt's house, close to the base of this hill, passed through a red and black clay into lignite.
Another isolated oval-shaped hill, known locally as Pine hill or Cooper mountain, is situated on the south side of the W. H. Watte headright. This hill has an areal extent of about 300 yards in length and 100 yards in width, and an elevation of 110 feet. The summit of the hill is cov- ered with a deposit of buff crumbly ore and ferruginous sandstones, measuring from three to six feet in length, and widths vary- ing from two to five feet. The deposits of ore on this hill does not exceed two and one-half to three feet in thickness. The otherwise precipitous sides of this hill are divided into four benches or steppes. These benches are covered with large blocks of ore which have apparently slipped or fallen down from the summit of the hill. Many of them have been completely turned over in their descent, and now lie in posi- tions showing the sandstone which usually covers this class of ore lying underneath the block.
On the W. J. L. Scott headright the hill forms a broad, level plateau, the highest portion of which, near the Myrtle Head schoolhouse, is covered with a deposit of gray sand about twelve to fifteen feet in thickness. In ascending the hill on the west side, a broad bench is passed over before reaching the schoolhouse. This bench also appears on the road leading sontlieasterly toward the village of Fin- castle. The bench on both sides of the hill is covered with blocks of broken buff
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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,
crumbly ore, showing a thickness of a little over two feet. The uniform quality and elevation of these blocks of ore show them to be the broken outcroppings of a similar deposit of iron which passes through the plateau and underneath the gray sandy deposit crowning its highest points.
A series of small hills occurs on the Juan Jose Martinez headright around Fin- castle post office. These hills are all rounded in form and rise to sharp peaks. All of them contain iron ore of the same quality and thickness as the other hills already described.
Beginning a little to the sonth of Fin- castle, on the E. Cazanova headright, and extending southwesterly through the south- western portion of that survey and cover- ing the whole of the A. H. Caldwell headright and part of the D. M. Dickerson and Alfred Benge headrights, the ore is contained in two almost parallel ridges. Near D. M. Dickerson's house the ridges unite and form one high ridge, terminating in Pilot hill or Buffalo ridge on the south side of the Alfred Benge headright, near the Anderson county line. Pilot hill has an elevation of over 180 feet above Caddo bayou, and is covered with a deposit of over thirty feet of gray sand, which also covers the higher portions of these ridges. The ore deposits in these ridges appear in their relative positions of about 140 feet above the creeks which flow at the western and eastern bases.
The ore of this region is all of the buff crumbly variety, and is overlaid with a thin deposit of ferruginous sandstone. Some large blocks surmount the ridges and lie scattered along their sides, but the
greater portion of ore deposits in this re- gion exist in the form of broken pieces of small sizes and coarse ferruginous gravel. From its general broken condition it is difficult to estimate the thickness of the ore deposits in this region, but it is proba- ble that about three feet of good workable ore will be found throughout the greater portion of the ridges. On Pilot hill the ore when seen in place has this thickness.
While the quantity of ore found in the region forming this field may not show a thickness of more than three feet, and a great extent of the area may not exceed two and one-half feet, the sides of the hills all show a large quantity of debris from which vast quantities of workable ore may be readily and cheaply obtained. The enormous erosion which this region has undergone has been the means of removing the soft underlying yellow-colored sands and allowed the ore blocks and fragments to fall down along the sides of the hills and ridges, until now these accumulated blocks form deposits of ore many feet in thickness, and which will require years of steady mining to remove before the ore beds now in place will require to be touched. It may be estimated that within this ore field each square mile of ore deposits carries in the neighborhood of seven million tons of ore.
The central or Brownsboro ore field con- sists of a number of flat-topped ridges, extending in a generally north and south direction, and covers an area of nearly two square miles. This field appears to be a continuation of the southern field, although it is separated from that region by the ex- tensive bottom lands of Kickapoo creek.
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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.
The ore found in this area has the same general characteristics. It belongs to tlie same crumbly class of ore, has the same thickness of between two and four feet, and lies at about the same general elevation of about 140 feet above the creeks.
The northern ore field, lying on the Juan M. Martinez headright along the banks of Battle creek, comprises an area of nearly two square iniles. This ore field consists of two flat-topped ridges, lying on both sides of the creek, and having an elevation above it of 150 feet (bar.). The upper portion of the hills is covered with a heavy deposit of grayish-yellow sand, under which the ore deposits appear as outcropping and broken fragments, many of which have fallen farther down the steep sides of the hills, and in numerous places have been the protecting covering of the small benches along the eastern and southern sides of the hills. The ores of this field are similar to those found at Brownsboro and in the southern portion of the county in the neighborhood of Fincastle.
On the south side of the J. M. Martinez survey there is a small ridge of ferruginous sandstone and concretionary ore in small fragments. In passing northwesterly this ridge increases in altitude until it reaches its maximum altitude of 150 feet (bar.) above Battle creek.
Near Mr. Chapman's house, and on Mr. D. Cade's farm on the same headright, the ore is of the buff crumbly variety, covered with the usual ferruginous sandstone.
The ore bed in this field appears to have a general or uniform thickness of two and one-half or three feet. Large quantities of broken fragments of ore are found as debris
lying along the bases of the ridges. This debris is mixed to a considerable extent with the ferruginous sandstones overlying the ore.
These sandstones appear to increase in thickness in passing front the southwest to the northeast of the county.
The uniformity of the elevation of these ridges, together with their similarity of structure and general thickness to the ore deposits on the west side of Smith county, as well as those of the adjoining portion of Anderson county, lead to the inference that during the period in which the sand de- posits from which these ore beds were afterward derived were being laid down, the surface of this part of the sea bottom had a uniform level, sloping gently toward the southeast with a very uniform degree of dip, not much greater, if any, than the fall of the present streamn beds, and that the broad bottom lands of the Kickapoo, Flat and Caddo creeks, as well as the low lying, partially swampy lands along the Neches river, have all been formed by the action of these streams within compara- tively modern times.
No faults, breaks, or dislocation of the strata are observable throughout the whole of this region, and all the beds maintain their uniformity of elevation; and the gen- eral southerly dip shows these deposits to be comparatively free from the minor un- dulations observable in many other places in east Texas.
The enormous amount of erosive work performed by these streams may be esti- mated by the fact that Flat creek, a com- paratively small stream, has cut through the ore-bearing ridges to a depth of 150
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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,
feet and formed a series of bottom lands nearly six miles in width, while the nearest ore deposit to the Neches river on the Hen- derson county side is that on Battle creek, and is three miles distant.
The similarity and relative positions on either side of Battle creek show that this creek has divided the northern ore field into two divisions by cutting for itself a channel near the center of the field nearly three-quarters of a mile in width, over a mile long, and 140 feet in depth.
The only building stones found in the county are the soft, friable, yellow and brown indurated glauconitic sands found everywhere throughout east Texas. De- posits of this sandstone occur a few miles north of the town of Athens, and also on the south side of the J. M. Martinez head- right, half a mile north of Chandler Sta- tion. At this latter place the sandstone is a yellow, soft, easily cut stone, lying in strata from eight inches to two feet in thickness, the whole section presenting a face of about ten feet.
Extensive deposits of clays of widely different characters occur throughout the western and central portions of Henderson county. Some of these deposits are at present being utilized for the manufacture of ordinary building bricks, ornamental and paving bricks, while the finer · qualities of the clay deposits in the neighborhood of Athens are being utilized for the manufac. ture of fire bricks, earthenware, and drain and sewer pipes.
The most extensively developed deposits of clay within Henderson county are found in the immediate vicinity of the town of
Athens. In this region alone five deposits of clay of varying characteristics occur, all of which have been worked at one time or another in a more or less desultory manner.
Bed No. 1 occurs on the T. Murchison farm, on the west side of the James B. Attwood headright, about one and a half iniles north and a little east of the town. This clay bank lies on the north side of a sinall stream, and has a thickness of two feet where open, but apparently thickens toward the southeast.
This clay is thinly laminated and of a very pale lead color, drying almost to a white, and contains small crystals of what the potters call " tiff," or gypsum, in its lower division. A section of the bank at Mr. M. K. Miller's pit gives the following: 1. Ferrnginous gravel and yellow sand, 2 to 10 feet. 2. Pale lead-colored lami- nated clay, 2 feet. 3. Lignitic sand or black sandy clay.
From the dip of the beds in the region this clay appears to be the highest in the list of clay deposits in this neighborhood.
Half a mile further west, and on the same headright, Bed No. 2 occurs. This de- posit dips slightly toward the east, and has the same light-blue or pale lead color, and is six feet thick. It was worked some years ago for the manufacture of earthen- ware, but with the exception of a few trial loads obtained by M. K. Miller, it is not now in use. A section of the pit gives the following: 1. Ferruginous sand and gravel, 5 feet. 2. Pale lead-colored clay, 6 feet. 3. Lignitic matter.
From its elevation and its relation to the underlying black lignitic clay or sand,
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AND LEON COUNTIES.
LIMESTONE, FREESTONE
this deposit appears to be a western exten- sion and outcropping of the deposit found in the Miller pit.
Bed No. 3 occurs in a brook on the Bishop farm, on the Boly C. Walters headright, about a mile north of Athens. This clay is a pale brown and blue color, and underlies a pavement of large ferrugi- nous bowlders and has a thickness of over six feet. A section of the opening gives the following: 1. Yellow sandy clay and sand, 2 feet. 2. Bowlder bed, 6 to 10 inches. 3. Brownish-blue clay, 6 feet.
This deposit appears to underlie the M. K. Miller deposit and overlie the deposits found close to the town of Athens. This clay has never been used for manufactur- ing purposes.
Bed No. 4 occurs about a quarter of a mile west of the town. This is the most extensively developed deposit of clay known in Henderson county. Outcroppings of this deposit are found in numerous places throughout the Thomas Palmer and B. A. Clark headrights, and underlies the whole of the town of Athens. The western edge of the bed so far as yet known is seen out- cropping in two small cuttings on the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway, about a mile west of Athens. The bed has a slight dip to the east, or a little south of east, and a tendency to thicken in its easternly course. At the pit opened by the Texas Fire Brick and Tile Company's works this bed has a thickness of two feet in the west- ern end of the pit, but rapidly thickens to eleven feet. and at Henry Morrison's pit on the Clark headright, one mile east of the town, it has a thickness of twelve feet.
The clay is light, almost white in color, and overlies a fine white, even-grained si- liceous sand.
The areal extent of this bed or deposit is not known, but the numerous openings which have been made indicate its having a workable area of nearly two miles in length and over a inile in width. An open- ing made in this deposit on Mr. B. Wof- ford's land, about three-quarters of a mile southeast of Athens, is reported as showing the clay to be thirty feet thick and to con- tain numerous leaf impressions in the lower divisions of the beds.
A deposit of a bright red-colored clay occurs on the top of a hill on the south side of the J. B. Attwood headright. This deposit is four feet thick and is covered with a thin ferruginous gravelly soil, and lies upon a red-colored sand.
A deposit of dark-blue lignitie clay oc- curs underneath a deposit of lignite on the southwest side of the C. M. Walters head- right. This deposit is four feet, and pos- sibly more, in thickness.
The clays of the county may be divided into three divisions, viz .: 1st. Clays suit- able for building materials, such as com- mou building bricks, ornamental or front pressed bricks, and terra-cotta ware. 2d. Refractory clays, or clays suitable for the manufacture of furnace and cupola linings, fire bricks, fire backs for grates, etc. 3d. Pottery clays, or those suitable for the manufacture of ordinary earthenware.
SETTLEMENT.
It was over this forest-covered iron re- gion that for long years the Indians ranged as hunters; but as it was a hunting
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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,
ground more than a home, this feature of early history will be considered more at length in the sketches of the settlement of Navarro, Anderson and Limestone connties, which should be read in connection with this chapter, in order to get a more com- plete view of the situation, especially that of Anderson county, in which Fort Hous- ton was located as the base of white oper- ations in the upper Trinity and Neches country, as far as expeditions were con- cerned. As far as official relations were concerned, Nacogdoches was the base of operations, for this region was in that de- partmental land district.
It is most unfortunate that old settlers have not taken more pains to have records of their early life, and so, with their deatlı, leaving most of it forever lost to us. It should be the privilege of every county paper to encourage old citizens to preserve these reminiscences in their columns. Fortunately one paper has, in one instance at least, done this, and left us a few side lights on settlements as early as 1845. But before giving this let some of the first indications of interest in this 960 acres of mineral forest lands be noticed.
As has been noticed more fully in the sketch of Anderson connty, thie empres- arios or colony contractors through whom early Texas was settled were the means of settling the region east of the Trinity as well as most other parts of Texas. These grants were made to three different per- sons and covered territory that was as un- certain in bounds as are the " spheres of infinence " of the various European gov- ernments now operating in Africa, and some of them were as futile in results as
many colonial companies in Africa are now. These three persons were Joseph Veh- lein, whose grant was made in the south- west of east Texas on December 21, 1826, on condition that he introduce 300 fami- lies, and one on November 17, 1828, for 100 families; the second, in the (then) northwest of east Texas, to David G. Bur- nett, on December 22, 1826, for 300 fami- lies; and the last on March 12, 1829, cov- ering the east part, for 500 families, to Lorenzo de Zavala. For various reasons these did not prosper as they should have done, and in 1835 all three were com- bined under a corporation of Boston, known as the Galveston Bay Land and Colonization Company. This company began operations by issuing a little well bound duodecimo book with colored maps showing the three tracts of the company, and entitled The Texas Gnide. A copy of this is now in the Texas Historical Li- brary at Austin. From an examination of these maps it will be seen that Hender- son's territory was claimed under the David G. Burnett tract. During the lat- ter half of that year, under the new com- pany of 1835, a number of grants were made which are the original titles to a large part of Henderson's land. John Ferguson received his grant as early as January 3, 1835; W. J. I. Scott secured his as early as the 8th of July; but most of them were made out in September, Octo- ber and November of that year. There were J. M. Acosta on the 14th of Septem- ber, I. W. Burton on the 10th. In Octo- ber ,were W. Ferguson on the 10th, Mat. Goliher on the 28th, Thomas Chaffin on the 27th, Simon Boon on the 7th, R.
.
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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.
Hunter on the 10th, and J. Huntingdon on the 7th. The November grants were John Humble on the 20th, and T. Mahan on the 25th, while M. T. Equi and Mi- guel Cortinez were supplied the same year. It is not probable that any of these settled on their land at that time, and some never did. Whenever any project of those days comes to a mysterious and inexplicable end along in December, 1835, it may be taken for granted that it went up in the smoke of the revolution of 1836, and that, too, with plenty of good com- pany. The land title remained, however.
As a fuller idea of that crash is found in the sketches of the three larger counties considered in this volume, and as infor- mation on that period in this territory seems not obtainable, it must suffice to say that the crash drew the whites down into southeast Texas to the denser settlements and let loose the Indians in hostile array in all directions for nearly a decade, when the whites made a slow re-advance in the conquest of the wilderness, by means of fort settlements slowly pushed forward, until the treaties of the '40s and '50 re- moved all danger.
The earliest information obtained, as remarked above, is that given of 1845 by Mr. James A. Mitcham to an Athens ed- itor a few years since. " When he came here in 1845," it proceeds, " he settled in the southwest corner of the county on Wildcat creek. At that time there were only about a half dozen settlers in the county. It was evident that men had been here years before, from the appearance of four or five pits which were dug in the ground to the depth of about ten feet.
These pits were about twelve feet in cir- cumference and walled from bottom to top with rock, which had the appearance of having been severely burned. Near these pits were some post-oak stumps, the trees of which had been cut many years before. Not far from these stumps the ground looked as if it had been dug up. There were a number of post-oak trees that had been dug up close by, which looked to be thirty or forty years old. Tradition says "-and here it may be in- terrupted to say that this tradition is spread so as to cover almost every old county in Texas,-" that a long time ago some Mexicans, who lived in Nacogdoches, made up a company to go northwest from Nacogdoches to hunt for silver mines. It is said that they went 75 or 100 miles and found a very rich mine. They worked it until they had melted out as much as four mules could carry. They were afraid of an attack from the Comanches and carried their silver off some distance from the mine and buried it about four feet west of a post-oak tree, which was about eighteen inches in diameter. The next day the Indians came down upon them and killed all of the party but one by the name of Sanchez. He went back home and told what had been seen and done and how his party had been killed, and made up a com- pany to go back and get the silver; but a day or two before the party were ready to start Sanchez sickened and died, and no one knew where the silver was. At that time there were no roads and the streams were not named, and they had nothing to guide them to the coveted treasure. But the appearance of these pits, which were
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