USA > Texas > Bastrop County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 22
USA > Texas > Travis County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 22
USA > Texas > Burleson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 22
USA > Texas > Lee County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 22
USA > Texas > Williamson County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 22
USA > Texas > Milam County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties. Pt.1 > Part 22
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Of the other materials needed in the manu- facture of pottery, we have deposits of feld- spar well suited for glazing; gypsum for the manufacture of plaster of paris for molds; clays suitable for the saggers, and cheap fuel in abundanee.
BUILDING MATERIALS.
The variety and widespread oceurrence of the roeks of Texas suitable for construction
is so great that it will be impracticable to allude to them in any other than ' general terms. They will therefore be grouped under general headings.
Granites occur in widely separated por tions of the State. The first locality is what has been termed in the reports the central mineral region, the second is in the extreme west, or trans-Pecos Texas. The granites of the first or central region are of different colors. The best known is the red granite, such as was nsed in the construction of the capitol building. The color is red to dark reddish-gray, varying from fine to rather eoarse grain in structure, and susceptible of high polish. The outerop of the granite, which ean be quarried to any desired dimen- sions, covers an area of over 100 square miles.
There is a quarry now in operation on the portion from which the granite was taken for the building of the eapitol, on aceount of which it was originally opened, the material used having been donated by the owners, Colonel Norton, Dr. Westfall and George W. Laey.
Besides this particular granite there are many others in this region which will prove as useful. In the northern part of Gillespie county there is a brownish granite of very grain which takes a beautiful polish; and in addition there are found in various portions of the region granites varying in color from light to dark gray, which are well adapted for building purposes, and in some instances will prove of decided value for ornamental and monumental purposes.
The granites of trans-Pecos Texas, like those of the central mineral region, are well suited both for building and ornamental pur- poses. The western granites, however, lack the variety of color which is found in those
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of the central region, being for the most part a lighter or darker gray, the feldspar being very light-colored in all of them. They are adjacent to railway transportation, however, as the Southern Pacific Railway passes very near their outcrop in the Quitman mountains and directly by them in the Franklin mount- ains, near El Paso, and will sooner or later come into market.
Porphyries .- Among the most beautiful and indestructible of our building stones we must place the porphyries. Their hardness, however, and the difficulty of quarrying and dressing them, often prevent their taking the place in actual use that their good qualities would otherwise secure for them; but where the elements of durability and beauty are songht their worth must be properly recog- nized.
Porphyries of almost every shade and color abond in trans-Pecos Texas. There are in the State museumin specimens taken from the outcrops in the Quitman Mountains alone, which are readily divisible into twenty or more shades. These vary through light grays, yellows, reds, purples and greens to black, and their polished surfaces are espe- cially rich. The quantity and accessibility to railroad transportation must prove suffi- cient indneement for their development.
Marbles .- The deposits of the marbles, like those of the granites, are found both in the central mineral region and in trans- Pecos- Texas. In addition to these deposits there occur in numerous places limestones more or less altered from various canses which are locally called marbles, aud are sometimes both beautiful and useful when properly dressed. Among such deposits may be noticed what is known as the Austin marble, a stratum of the Cretaceous which has been altered until its fossils have been changed to
calcite. The body of the stone is, when pol- ished, of a light yellow color, and the trac- ings of the contained shells in pure calcite, which gives a very pretty effect, although their fragile character detracts greatly from the usefulness of the stone. Other deposits of similar semi-marbles of various colors are found among the Carboniferous limestones of the northern portion of the State. The marbles and semi-marbles of the central mineral region are the altered limestones of the Silurian and older beds, some of which are of fine texture and capable of receiving
an excellent polish. The marbles of the Silurian beds found in San Saba, Burnet, Gillespie and other counties, which are known as " Burnet marbles," are both of solid color and variegated. They are found in beautiful pink, white, buff, blue and gray shades, and although not true marbles, are well adapted for many nses.
The marbles belonging to what are called the Texan beds, a formation older than the Silurian, are, however, real marbles. They are found near Packsaddle mountain, En- chanted Peak, and in the Comanche ereek region of Mason county. They are often snowy white in color, of even grain, and among thie deposits are found strata of me- dium thickness. They are not, however, as extensive as the deposits of the semi-marbles.
In trans-Pecos Texas marbles belonging, as is supposed, to the same geologic age, exist in great abundance, and for beauty in color can not be surpassed.
From the Carrizos to the Quitman mount- ains onterops occur in the vicinity of the railroad of marbles which are certain at no distant day to become the basis for great commercial industry. They are found banded or striped and clouded, as well as pure white. They are fine-grained, and can be quarried
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in stone of almost any dimensions. Some of them when polished will rival the Aragon- ite or Mexican ou yx in delicacy of coloring.
The limestones of Texas which are suited for building purposes are abundant and widespread in their occurrence. The Cre- taceous formation which covers fully one- fourth of the entire area of the State abonnds in limestone well adapted for structural por- poses. In addition to this we have the lime- stones of the Carboniferous, Permian and Silurian systems, so that the total area is largely increased.
The limestones of the Cretaceous occur both in its upper and lower divisions. In the Austin chalk there are beds which for- nishi excellent stone which is quarried for nse in many places, but a large portion of it is too chalky and not firm enough for gen- eral use. The best limestone of this forma- tion is that contained in the Fredericksburg and Washita divisions of the Lower Cre- taceous. These limestones are of color vary- ing from white to yellow, very rarely darker, and are often somewhat soft when first quar- ried, becoming harder on exposure.
Among the materials of the Clear Fork division of the Permian formation are some even-bedded limestones of square fracture, fine, even grain and good color, that will prove valuable as building material. These were observed in the northwestern part of Shackelford county, and will also be found north and south of that locality along the onterop of these beds. Seymour and Bal- linger show buildings constructed of these linestones.
Sundstones and Quartzites .- The sand- stones are fully as widely distributed as the limestones, being found in nearly all dis- tricts in greater or less quantity. In the Fayette sands are found beds of indurated
sands of light color which have been used in varions localities along their line of outerop for building purposes. Rock bas been quar- ried from these deposits for many localities, principally at Rockland, Tyler county; Quarry Station, on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad; Rock Quarry, on the Houston & Texas Central Railway, in Wash- ington county, and in various parts of Fay- ette, Lavaca and other counties to the south- West.
In the timber-belt beds the altered (and even the unaltered) greensand marls are sometimes so indurated as to be used for building purposes. In addition to this inany of the hill-cappings of sandstone, which at times replace the iron ore, are valui- able building stones.
In the Cretaceous area north of the Colo- rado river there are no sandstones of any partienlar valne so far as our examinations have extended.
The area of the central coal field abounds in excellent sandstone for building purposes, some of which has been extensively quarried and used in the construction of buildings from Dallas west to Cisco. It is of good color, quarries well, and presents a handsome appearance in the wall. It is so generally found in this district that it is impossible to name the localities.
In the Permian there are some sandstones which will be of wide application in the buildings of the State. East of Pecos City, at Quito, on the Texas & Pacific Railway, a company has recently opened a quarry in a compact, well jointed red sandstone which is probably of Permian age. It is of a beau - tiful red color, niform in texture and color, easily worked yet durable, and in every way adapted to the best uses in building. The company in boring a well at the place
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
have passed through more than 100 feet of this red sandstone, thus proving its uulim- ited quantity. It will compare favorably in every way with the sandstones formerly im- ported into the State for the fronts and trimmings of buildings.
Beyond the Carrizo and Diabolo mountains there is a fine-grained red sandstone which is destined to be one of the finest building stones of the State. It is a little darker in color than the Quito stone, finer-grained, firmer, of even texture, and will lend itself to almost any character of decoration.
In this trans-Pecos region there are many other sandstones and quartzites which will in time come into use for structural purposes.
Slate .- The two areas in which the older rocks are found both give promise of fur- nishing slate suitable for roofing. In the central mineral district several locallties have been examined which on the surface give in- dication of furnishing good roofing slate, and in the vicinity of the Carrizo mountains, El Paso county, similar indications are found.
It will of course require some actnal work in opening the quarry sufficiently to ascer- tain the condition of the material below the surface to fully decide the value of the de- posits, but the indications are very favorable and warrant such an attempt at development.
Thus it is readily apparent that in build- ing stone there is no lack of variety, as well as an ample supply of all that can be made useful.
Clays suitable for brickmaking, terra cotta and drain tile are found in all the different formations occurring in the State. All are not of equal value, and indeed the brick made from some few are quite inferior, but the majority produce good, serviceable brick. The colors of the brick vary from yellow or cream color, such as are made at Austin,
through various shades of browns and rede, according to the character of the clay. In eastern Texas, as well as in the carboniferous area, the brick are usually mottled from the amount of iron in the clays. Selected clays, however, in these localities produce brick of excellent color. The importance of this in- dustry will be seen by the following state- ment of the aggregate of brick production for the year 1889, which was received from the operators of the brick kilus in answer to inquiries; namely, 95,000,000.
Many of the clays of the Tertiary ex- amined during the past year are well suited to the manufacture of terra cotta and drain tile. These are found in the region covered by the timber-belt beds, as well as among the Fayette clays. Those of the other areas have not yet been examined fully enough to determine their availability for these pur- poses, but it is probable that many carbon- iferons clays will prove well adapted for them.
Lithographic stone is found in several places in Texas, but it is too much fractured for use.
Lime .-- As is well known, the lime made from the rocks of that horizon of the Cretace- ous formation known as the Caprina liine- stones (which is the most persistent bed of all the formation) is unsurpassed for quality. The fame of the Austin lime is well estab- lished. Other beds of the cretaceous will answer well in lime-making, although some of them contain too much clayey matter, or are otherwise unfitted for this use. Lime is also made from the limestone of the other deposits, but none of these have been so snc- cessfully operated as those above mentioned. The reports received for 1889 gave a total production of 190,000 barrels.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Cement Materials .- Cements are of two kinds,-natural, or hydraulie, and artificial, or Portland.
Natural, or hydranlic, cement is made from certain clayey limestones, which, when burned and ground, have the property of setting or becoming hard under water. Portland cem- ents are of similar character, but are made by artificially mixing the limestone and clays in the proper proportion.
Materials for both characters of cement exist in abundance within the State. The limestones of certain beds of the ('retaceous are elayey enongli to make cement when properly calcined and ground, and the same properties are claimed for some of those found in the Tertiary, but onr tests have so far failed to bear ont the claim. Some of the limestones belonging to the Clear Fork beds of the Permian might answer if the pereent- age of magnesia was not too great.
The materials for Portland cement are, however, more abundant, and the product of so much better quality as to render the natural cement a matter of comparatively sinall importance. The Austin chalk is rather widespread in its distribution and adjacent to clays of almost any required grade.
The entire practicability of the manufac- ture of Portland cement has been shown by the two factories which have undertaken it, one at San Antonio, the other at Austin. The former supplied much of the cement used in the crection of the present capitol building, and it was of very excellent quality.
Master of Paris is produced from gyp- sum by driving out the percentage of water which is chemically combined with it. Its manufacture on any desired scale is entirely practicable in the Permian region of Texas, where many beds of gypsum of great purity occur.
Sand for mortar, plaster, etc., is found in many places. The Cretaeeons is perhaps the area in which it is searcest, and it can be brought in from either side. The locations will be more fully discussed in the deserip- tions of counties.
METALS AND ORES.
Iron .- Probably the most important of our ore deposits are those of iron, which in various forms are found in many parts of the State.
Beginning at the Louisiana line with a breadth of nearly 150 miles, stretching south- west in a gradually narrowing belt and proba- bly fading ont in Caldwell county or just be- yond, there is found a series of hills of greater or less elevation which are capped with ferrnginated material, varying from a sandstone with a small amount of oxide of iron in the matrix, to limonite ores of high grade. Of this division only a few of the eonnties of east Texas have been fully ex- amined, but enough has been done to show the probability that the greater amount of workable ores of this belt lie east of the 96th meridian, although there may be localities west of that line at which ores of value ocenr. These ores are associated entirely with roeks of the Tertiary and later periods.
In the Cretaceous no iron ores of any con- sequence are known except in the extreme west, where deposits of ochre seem to ocenr in connection with strata belonging to the Fredericksburg division of the Lower Cretace- ous series.
There are only a few ores of any valne found in the carboniferous area, and those of the Permian are not of much importance. The central mineral region, however, con- tains, in connection with its deposits of older
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
rocks, large deposits of very valuable ores, including magnetite, red hematite, and vari- ons hydrated ores. Finally, in trans-Pecos Texas iron ores of the hematite and magnetic types are found in. veins of considerable thickness.
Thus it will be seen that the distribution of the ores is general, extending entirely across the State from east to west.
The ores of east Texas all belong to the class of limonites, or brown hematites. They have been divided according to their physical structure, due to the manner of their forma- tion, into four general classes .- laminated ores, geode or nodular ores, conglomerate ores, and carbonate ores.
The laminated ores are brown to black in color and vary in structure from a massive to a highly laminated variety in which the laminæ vary from one-sixteenth to one-quarter of an inch in thickness, frequently separated by hollow spaces, and sometimes containing thin seams of gray elay. The average thick- ness of the ore bed is from one to three feet, although it may exceed this in places. This class of ores is most extensively developed south of the Sabine river. The ore bed is generally underlaid by a stratnın of green- sand marl from ten to thirty feet in thick- ness, and overlaid by from one to sixty feet of sands and sandstones.
The nodular, or geode ores, which are best developed north of the Sabine river, usually occur as nodules or geodes, or as sandy- clay strata. This ore generally occurs in nodules or geodes. or as honey-combed, botryoidal, stalaetitie and mammillary masses. It is rusty brown, yellow, dull red, or even black color, and has a glossy, dull, or earthy lustre. The most characteristic feature of the ore is the nodular or geode form in which it occurs. Some of the beds are made up of
these masses, either loose in a sandy-clay matrix or solidified in a bed by a ferruginous cement. The ore lies horizontally at or near the tops of the hills, in the same manner as the brown laminated ores to the south of the Sabine river. The beds vary in thickness from less than one foot to over ten feet, the thicker ones being often interbedded with thin seams of sand. The ore-bearing beds are immediately overlaid by sandy or sandy- clayey strata.
Conglomerate ores consist of a conglomer- ate of brown ferruginous pebbles one-quarter to two inches in diameter and cemented in a sandy matrix. Sometimes a few siliceons pebbles are also found. The beds vary from one to twenty feet thick, and are generally local deposits along the banks and bluffs and sometimes in the beds of almost all the creeks and streams in the iron-ore region just de- scribed. Sometimes they cap the lower hills. They are generally of low grade, but could be concentrated by crushing and washing out the sandy matrix. They usually contain more or less ferruginous sandstone in lenticular deposits, and are much cross-bedded.
The investigations of the survey in east Texas show an aggregate iron-bearing area of a thousand square miles. This is not all a solid bed of commercial ore, but the area within which commercial ores are known to exist. If even one-fourth be taken as pro- ductive iron land, and the bed be estimated at two feet in thickness, both very safe esti- mates, we have a total output of 1,500,000,000 tons of iron ore. The quality of the ores varies from that adapted to the manufacture of steel, or " Bessemer ores, " to that of low grade.
The ochres of the Cretaceous are found in Uvalde and Val Verde counties, and proba- bly elsewhere. From analyses they appear to
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
be of very high grade, but no examination has yet been made of them by the survey.
A great quantity of hematite ironstone is reported to occur in the beds adjacent to the Waldrip-Cisco division, which, if it equal the sample analyzed, is a very valuable ore.
The iron ores of the central mineral region are of three classes, magnetites, hematites, and hydrons ores, each of which has its own placeand mode of occurrence. The magnetites lie in the northwest trend in the Archisean rocks, which for practical purposes may be confined between northwest-southeast lines drawn through Lone Grove town upon the east and through Enchanted Rock npon the west. This blocks ont a district twenty miles wide, and extending perhaps thirty uniles in the direction of the strike. Within this field, however, varions structural features have pre- vented, in many places, the ontcropping of the iron-bearing system, so that probably two-thirds of the area is not in condition to yield ore without removing thick deposits of later origin. Assuming that one-third of the territory, in scattered patches, will show the Fernandan beds at surface or at depths that may be considered workable from an economi- cal standpoint, it must be understood that only a small fraction of the thickness of these strata is iron ore. Keeping in mind also the folded condition of the rocks, it is evident that the chances for mining will be depend- ent largely upon the character of the ero- sion, it being premised that the iron bed, if i snel{ it be, is not very near the top of the system to which it belongs.
The general section of this system of rocks shows that the magnetite, sometimes asso- ciated with hematite, occurs in a bed nsnally about fifty feet thick at a definite horizon in it. The investigations of the survey show that
there are several belts within which valuable deposits are known or may be discovered.
The most eastern of these is the Babyhead belt, and the ontcrops follow a line bearing sontheastward, west of Babyhead postoffice and Lone Grove, and coming out southward very near the Wolf crossing of the Colorado river. Probably the best exposure of this belt is the Babyhead mountains, and its north- ern boundary does not cross the Llano county line. To the southeast good results may be expected as far as Miller's creek.
A second belt west of this occupies the area between Packsaddle and Riley mount- ains, and stretches northwestward by Llano town toward Valley Spring. Ores of value have been fonnd in many places in this belt, the surface indications of the underlying beds of magnetite being hematite or limonite.
The third, or the Iron mountain belt, is that on which the greatest amount of work has been expended, and in two places in it large and valuable masses of magnetic iron have been exposed. The bed is most persist- ent, and can be traced for miles. At Iron mountain a shaft has been sunk down the side of the iron outcrop to the depth of fifty feet, and a eross-ent of twenty-two feet ent in the lead. The quantity of magnetite and hematite exposed here is very great. About three miles south of Llano City considerable prospecting has been done by drilling with a diamond drill, and also opened by a shaft, disclosing iron almost identical with the Iron mountain product.
The most western of these belts lies be- tween the Riley mountains and Enchanted Rock in the south, possibly having also a greater width to the northwest. While it is covered in places by later rocks, the indica- tions are good for the discovery of important masses of iron ore in it.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
In quality the magnetites are higli-grade Bessemer ores, being low in siliea, phosphorus and sulphur, and very high in metallic iron.
The hematite ores seem to be chiefly de- rived from alteration of the magnetites. They usually erop out along portions of the north- ern border of the magnetite area, and are chiefly segregations in sandstone, and al- though none of the exposures have yet been worked, valnable deposits will be found fol- lowing the trend of the magnetite beds. These segregations are to be found chiefly in the red sandstone of the Cambrian system. They will be of valne as Bessemer ores.
The hydrated iron ores embrace many different varieties. These appear alinost ex- clnsively in veins, for the most part in the older rocks. While they are not abundant enough to sustain any industry by themselves, they may become valuable in addition to the. other iron ores.
Taking the iron ore deposits of the State as a whole, and considering their wide dis- tribntion, their excellent quality, their rela- tion to fuel supply and other necessaries for smelting and manufacturing them, no doubt can remain of the magnitude which the iron industry is bound to assume in this State, and that Texas is destined to become one of the great iron and steel producing centers of the world.
The copper ores of Texas are of two char- acters. Those of the central mineral region and trans-Pecos Texas occur in veins, while the ores of the Permian are found as impreg- nations and segregations in the clays.
The copper ore of the Permian division was first described by Captain R. B. Marcy in his report on the exploration of Red river in 1852, when he found specimens of it in Cache creek. In 1864, Colonel J. B. Barry sent a party with Indian guides to Archer
county and secured a considerable amount of ore, which was shipped to Austin and part of it smelted and used for the mannfacture of perenssion eaps for the Confederacy, mider the superintendence of Dr. W. De Ryee. After the war several attempts were made to develop these deposits, but lack of transport- ation facilities and the fact that the high- grade ore bodies were in pockets and irregu- larly distributed prevented the success of the undertaking. Still later General Mclellan and a strong company made an effort to utilize the deposits of Hardeman and adjoin- ing eonnties, but it seems that the true nature of the deposits were not fully appreciated, and the result was the same as those of earlier date.
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