USA > Texas > Tarrant County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Tarrant and Parker counties; containing a concise history of the state, with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named counties, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 21
USA > Texas > Parker County > History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Tarrant and Parker counties; containing a concise history of the state, with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named counties, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families > Part 21
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Lignites prepared in this way are fully equal to ordinary bitmminous coal as fuel for all purposes, and possess, in addition, several important advantages. They are more com- pact, and are in the regular form of blocks which can be stored in four-fifths the amount of space occupied by the same weight of coa'. They are much cleaner to handle, and the waste in handling, which in the case of bitu- minous coal is often as much as twenty per cent., is very little. Owing to its physical structure it burns with great regularity and without clinkers, making it a very desirable steam fuel. For these reasons it is often preferred to bituminous coal.
Coke of excellent quality is made from lignites in ovens properly constructed for the purpose. These ovens are of various designs suited to different characters of liguite, but all accomplish similar results, and the coke thus produced is used for all purposes for which other cokes are adapted.
Illuminating gas of very superior quality is manufactured from lignites, and is in use in many German manufactories.
Lignite also forms the base of many other important industries. Up to the time of the discovery of the oil fields of America and the great deposits of mineral wax, or ozocerite, the lignite was the principal source of supply of paraffine and illuminating oils, and even
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. now, although comparatively few factories are run solely for their production, as was formerly so largely the case, the amount manufactured as by-products is very large. These substances are the results of distilling the lignites in the same manner in which gas is produced from bituminous coal, and the product consists of gas, water, tar, ammonia, coke and ash. The tar contains paraffine and mineral oils, as well as being the basis for the aniline dyes for the production of which great quantities are used.
Powdered coke from lignites is used in the manufacture of gunpowder, of blacking and for filters, and is substituted in many places for the more costly boneblack.
Finally, lignite is used very successfully in the place of boneblack in clarifying sugar. In this, as in all uses of lignite, reference must be had to the particular kind of lignite to be employed.
Just as bituminons coals vary, and that from one locality proves more suitable for certain purposes than that of another seam at no great distance, so the lignites differ and the characteristics of each must be studied in order to ascertain for which of these many uses it is best adapted.
With such evidence as this before ns- the results of fifty years of experiments and trial ending in successful operation in all these various uses of lignites-there can remain no shadow of doubt of the adaptability of the great lignite fields of Texas, and other parts of America as well, to meet the wants of the people for cheap fuel.
The ease and cheapness of mining, the small cost of preparation, and its value when prepared, will enable it to compete with wood in the best wooded portions of the State, with coal in close proximity to the coal mine, and
it will prove of inestimable value in those localities in which it is the only fuel.
Bituminous Coal .- The work of the sur- vey during the past two years has resulted in fully determining the limits of the central coal fields, in ascertaining the number, thick- ness and dips of the workable seams of coal, and in approximately mapping their lines of outcrop.
The coal measures consist of beds of lime- stones, sandstones, shales and clays, having an aggregate thickness of some 6,000 feet. The dip of these beds is very gentle, averag- ing less than forty feet to the mile in one seam and about sixty-five in another, and is toward the northwest or west. Very little disturbance has been noted in it beyond a few slight folds and small faults. These two facts -- slightdip and undisturbed condition- are of great importance in the mining of the coal. Two seams of workable coal have been found. None of the other seven seams ob- served are of sufficient thickness to be of economic value.
The central coal field is divided by a strip of Cretaceous south of the line of the Texas & Pacific Railway. The two divisions thus formed have been named after the principal rivers which cross them -- the Brazos coal field, or Northern, and the Colorado coal field, or Southern. In the Brazos coal field both of the workable seams of coal are found.
Coal seam "No 1" first appears at the surface in Wise county, some eight miles southwest of Decatur. It outcrops in a southwestern direction nearly to the south- west corner of the county, when it turns more sharply west and appears in the south- eastern portion of Jack county. It crosses into Palo Pinto county near its northeastern corner and its outerops appear in a south- southwest direction entirely across this county
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and down into Erath, until it disappears be- neath the Cretaceons hills and is found no more. On this seam are located several mines and prospects, among which may be mentioned those of the Wise County Ceal Company, Mineral Wells Coal Company, Lake Mine, Carson and Lewis, Gordon, Johnson, Palo Pinto, and Adair. The out- put from these mines is gradually increasing.
Coal seam "No. 7" is first observed out- cropping near Bowie, in Montague county. From this point it bends southwestward, passing north of Jacksboro, between Graham and Belknap, when it turns south, running just west of Eliasville, by Crystal Falls and Breckenridge, to and below Cisco, when it, too, passes under the Cretaceous ridge. South of this ridge we find it again on Pecan bayou, in Coleman county, and from here the out- erops extend in a sontherly direction, near Santa Anna mountain, to Waldrip in Mc- Culloch county.
On this seam we have the Stephens mine, in Montague county, and various prospects in Jack county. Considerable work has been done in Young and Stephens counties, and coal of fair quality mined, but lack of rail- way facilities prevents anything like system- atic mining. The seam becomes thinner and much poorer toward Cisco, graduating into a material little better than a bituminous shale. Probably the largest amount of work ever put on a coal seam in Texas was expended in this county, but the whole thing was given up at last as impracticable.
On the southern portion of this seam, or that within the Colorado coal field, there have been numerous prospecting shafts sunk, but no coal of any consequence has been mined except for local consumption. The principal ones are located north of Santa Anna, on Bull creek, Home creek, and at and near Waldrip.
The thickness of these two seams is about equal, each averaging abont thirty inches of clean coal. They are similar also in having at most places a parting of clay, or " slate," of a few inches in thickness. While the ont- crops of the two seams are parallel to each other in a general way, they vary from twenty- five to forty miles apart.
In the northern portion the seains are separated by some 1,200 feet vertical thick- ness of limestones, clays and shales. This thickness, however, increases rapidly toward the south.
As has been stated, the dip is gentle; that of seam No. 1 will not average over sixty- five feet, and that of No. 7 is less than forty feet. The average increase of elevation of the surface of the country toward the west is only a few feet per mile (not exceeding ten), and in consequence the extension of these beds can be found anywhere within eight to ten miles west of their outcrops at less than 600 feet in depth.
The linear extent of the outerops of these two seams is fully 250 miles. They are probably workable for at least ten miles west of their line of outerops, giving us an area ot 2,500 square miles of coal lands. Even if only two-fifths of this area prove to be fully adapted to coal mining, we have 1,000 square miles, each of which contains nearly 3,000,- 000 tons of coal. The roof of these coal seams is sandstone, limestone, or a hard clay, which makes a good roof. The mines are generally dry.
The quality of the coal varies considerably. In some few places it is high in sulphur, in others very little is found. It also varies greatly in the amounts of ash and moisture contained in it, as well as in its fuel constitu. ents, but careful selection will result in a fuel that will give perfectly satisfactory results.
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Of its value as a steam coal there can be no doubt, for it has been fully tested for rail- road and other uses, and is taken as fast as it can be mined, leaving practically none to be sold for ordinary purposes.
The quality of coke produced gives every promise that, with proper care in selecting material and attention to burning, it will pro- duce a coke fully adapted for the best metal- lurgical uses.
In addition to this central coal field there are others on the western borders of the State. A boring made at Eagle Pass, four miles from the outerop on which the Hartz mine is situated, reached the Nueces coal at 531 feet. This coal cokes in the crucible, and there is no doubt but that an excellent coke can be made from it, if ovens of snit- able construction are used. This seam is the thickest in the State, averaging nearly five feet, and umst prove of very great economic value.
A second coal field is that containing the deposits in Presidio county between the Capote mountain and the Rio Grande. The specimens of this coal which have been for- nished for analysis show it to be very high in sulphur, but no detailed examination of it has yet been made.
Bitumen or Asphaltum .- This valuable material exists in Texas under several con- ditions. Its most frequent occurrence is probably in tar springs. These are found in many places in the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations, and occasionally among those that are older. It is in these cases the seep- age from the beds which contain it. So far few, if any, of these beds have been exam- ined to ascertain their extent or quality, for there has been little or no demand for the material. Among these may also be in- cluded the Sour lakes of llardin and Liberty
countios, at which both bitumen and gas occur in large quantities. In o her places it is found as deposits of greater or less extent, impregnating the accompanying sande, sand- stone and limestone. These have not been given much more attention than the springs, but some of the localities have been exam- ined and specimens of the material analyzed.
The tar springs are of frequent occurrence in certain beds of the timber belt series, which stretch across the State in a belt ap. proximately parallel to the Gulf coast and from 100 to 150 miles inland, and are at places connected more or less with de posits of oil. They are also found along the belt of country underlaid by the Fish bels, or Eagle Ford shales, of tlie Cretaceous, as may be seen in the vicinity of Fiskville and other localities in Travis county, and still others southwest of the Colorado. Similar springs are found in Burnet and other counties in the older rocks.
The deposits which have been examined most fully are those of Anderson county east of Palestine, where there is an asphalt bear- ing sand. This appears to be due to the oxidation of the residuum of oil left in the sand. Ilere they are of unknown and some- what uncertain extent, as they are apt to run into an oil bearing sand. This is possibly the case with many of the deposits of east Texas.
In Uvalde county there are several out. crops of bitumen impregnating both sand- stone and limestone. The sandstone oyster bed is underlaid by eight feet of black asphaltum sandstone, from which in warm weather the asphaltum exudes and forms small pools. This is on the Nueces river fourteen miles southwest of Uvalde. The stratum here de- scribed is continnons. The stratigraphical position is somo, thirty feet below the San
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Tomas coal vein (that which is worked above Laredo), and Mr. Owen states that the sand- stone occurs at nearly every locality where its stratigraphical position was exposed. The connection of this asphaltic material and the coal seam mentioned over an area exceeding 1,000 square miles opens one of the most profitable fields of fel industry in Texas.
Analyses of these asphaltnm sands give an average of 14 per cent. asphaltmin. Beds of similar sands are known in Jack, Montague, Martin and other counties. Analyses gave the following percentages of bitumen: Mon- tagne county, 8.90 to 10.20; Martin county, 10.72. The asphaltie limestone found in Uvalde comty, specimens of which are in the Stato musemm, is richer in asphaltum than any of the sandstones, the average of three analyses giving 20.35 per cent. of bitu- men. This gives it the same composition as the best grade of asphaltic limestone gotten in the Val-de-Travers, Switzerland, of which the famous asphalt streets of Paris are made. It is a natural mixture of asphaltum and limestone in the best proportion for good road making.
Oil is often an accompanying material when the tar springs and deposits of bitumen are found in the timber belt and Eagle Ford beds. Thus, in the counties of Sabine, Shel- by, Nacogdoches, San Angustine, Ander- son, Grimes, Travis, Bexar and others, oil in sinall quantity has been found. Most often, it is true, the quantity has been too small to be of much economic importance, but in Nacogdoches county one of the fields has had considerable development and the results are satisfactory. Besides these deposits there are others in the Carboniferons region, where small quantities of oil are secured in wells and springs which appear to have a larger quan- tity of the higher oils connected with them.
The only places at which oil is at present prodneed are Nacogdoches and San Antonio.
In the vicinity of Chireno, Nacogdoches county, a number of oil wells have been bored, many of which became producers. A pipe line was run connecting the wells with the railroad at Nacogdoches, and shipments of oil have been made from time to time. This locality produces only a lubricating oil, but it has the property (through absence of paraffine) of withstanding very severe cold, and is therefore of high market value for railroad use where such oils are needed.
Mr. George Dulnig, when boring on his place for water, at a depth of 300 feet struck petroleum, and subsequently, in another boring at some distance from the first, came upon it at 270 feet. The flow is only about twenty gallons a day, but is continnous and regular. The oil is a superior article for lubricating purposes.
Gus, another economic product accom- : panying these beds of bitumen and oil, has long been known in Shelby, Sabine and adjoining connties, and it was found in well- boring in Washington county and elsewhere many years ago. Within the last few years fresh borings have been made in the vicinity of Greenvine, in Washington county, and the flow of gas found to be of considerable amount. It has been found near San An- tonio at depths of from 400 to 800 feet, and also at Gordon and other places in the Carboniferous area. No attempt has yet been made to bring it into use, or even to fully test the character or extent of the fields thus far determined.
FERTILIZERS.
Under this heading might be included everything that can be applied to a soil for its amelioration or the increase of its fertility.
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This would, therefore, in its widest applica- tion, embrace even the addition of sands to clay soils of such sticky character as our famous black waxy. The deposits, however, which will be mentioned here are apatite, bat gnano, gypsum, glauconite (or greensand marl), chalk marl, limes and clays.
Apatite, which is a phosphate of lime, has as yet been found only in very small quanti- ties in Texas. Its value as a fertilizer is due to its contents of phosphoric acid, and if it can be discovered in any quantity will be of very considerable value in connection with the greensand and other marls in sandy lands low in that essential element. Phos- phate of lime is also the chief constituent of bone, and any deposits of this character will also prove of value. As yet known, no de- posits rich in phosphatic material have been found in Texas.
But guano, as a fertilizer, occupies a place secona to nothing, except it be the Peruvian guano. Its great value as a fertilizer is due to its salts of ammonia, potash and phos- phorus. It is found in caves in Williamson, Burnet, Lampasas, Llano, Gillespie, Blanco, Bexar and other counties of Texas in great quantities. It varies greatly in quality. Many of the caves are so situated that water has access to the beds, and parts of the valuable salts of ammonia are dissolved and carried off. In others, fires have by some means got started and immense bodies of the guano burned. Many analyses have been made from different caves, and large quan- tities of it have been shipped, but the pres- ent lack of railroad facilities in the vicinity of the deposits has prevented their successful working.
Analyses of guano from Burnet and Gil- lespie counties gave a value of over $50 per ton.
Gypsum, as a top dressing for many crops, is of great use, and when ground for this purpose is known as land plaster. Ground gypsum is also an excellent deodorizer.
Texas is abundantly supplied with this material. Not only does it occur in immense deposits in the Permian beds west of the the Abilene- Witchita country, but all through the timber belt beds it is found along the streams and scattered through the clays as crystals of clear selenite, often miscalled "mica " or " isinglass." It is of all degrees of purity, from the pure selenite to an im- pure gypseons clay. So far it has been little used for this purpose in Texas.
Greensand marl is a mixture of sand and clay with greensand, and often contains quantities of shells. Greensand, or glancon- ite, as it is often called, is a mineral of green color composed of silica (sand) in chemical combination with iron and potash, and usu- ally contains more or less phosphoric acid, and the shells furnish lime. Where it occurs in its original and unaltered condition it is is of a more or less pronounced green color, due to the color of the greensand in it. Where it has been subjected to chemical action the greensand is gradually decom. posed and the iron unites and forme hydrous oxide of iron, or iron rust. This alteration gives rise to a great variety of color in the different beds of the material. When it is fully altered in this way it forms the red or yellow sandstone so much used in east Texas.
Numerous analyses have been made of these marls, both in their original and altered conditions. They contain, in all the samples tested at least, lime, potash and phosphoric acid, just the elements that are required to fertilize the sandy soils and to renew and increase the fertility of those that have been worn out. These elements occur
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in the marl in variable amounts, and less in the altered than in the unaltered material. In nearly every instance, however, the amounts were sufficient to be of great agri- cultural value to every field within hauling distance of such a deposit. It often hap- pens, too, that these beds of marl lie in closest proximity to the very soils on which they are most needed, and all the farmer has to do to secure the desired results is to apply it as a fertilizer.
If any proof is wanted of the adaptability of these marls, and of their great value on just this character of soil, it is shown in New Jersey, where exactly similar conditions ex- ist. In that State there were large areas of pine-land soils which were, like ours, of little agricultural value, because of the small amounts of potash, phosphoric acid and lime contained in them. There were, however, large deposits of greensand marl adjacent to them, and its use has been of the highest benefit. This is fully attested both by the agricultural and the geological reports of the State. It gives lasting fertility to the soils. No field that has once been marled is now poor. One instance was found where poor and sandy land was marled more than thirty years ago and has ever since been tilled without manure, and not well managed, which is still in good condition. Fruit trees and vines make a remarkable growth and produce fruit of high flavor when liberally dressed with this marl. Although the green- sand marls of east Texas are not as rich as those of New Jersey, they are nevertheless rich enough to be of the same use to our lands. Nearly 200,000 tons of greensand marls are used yearly in New Jersey.
The first requisite to the best results is that the marl should be powdered as finely as possible before spreading it on the land.
The greensand decomposes and is dissolved very slowly, and the finer it is powdered the more rapid will be its action. It should also be spread evenly and uniformly over the ground. It is ordinarily wet when first dug, but after a certain amount of drying it can be easily pulverized, or it can be dried more rapidly and rendered more friable by the mixture of a small amount of quicklime with it. It could also be improved by composting it with barnyard manure or guano. Owing to the difficulty with which the greensand is dissolved, the effects are not always so ap- parent the first year, but it is a lasting ferti- lizer, as is shown by the quotations given above.
The amount required will of course vary with the composition of the soil and the quality of the greensand. From three to ten wagon loads per acre would, perhaps, be the usual amount required, although some soil. might need even more.
Calcareous Marls .- Lime is already use.l to a large extent in agriculture, and will be used more largely still, Its uses are to lighten clay soils and to make sandy soils more firm, while sour soils or swamp lands are sweetened by its application. In addi- tion to this the chemical action brought abont by its presence in the decomposition and rendering soluble of other constituents of the soil is very great, so that its action is both chemical and physical. Its use is per- haps most beneficial when composted with organic manures or the greensand inarls.
When the calcareous marls are soft enough to be easily powdered they may be applied as they are, and in this condition the action of the lime is much more gradual and of longer continuance. When they exist as harder rocks they will have to be burned before ap- plying them.
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Among the rocks of the Cretaceous series are many deposits which are especially adapted for use in this way. Localities are numerous, in the divisions known as the Austin chalk and the Washita limestone which will afford a soft material well suited for the purpose.
It often happens that in the greensand beds themselves there are large deposits of fossil shells still in their original form a; carbonate of lime. Where these occor the marl is of great value, as it contains that which will render it most valuable on such sandy lands as need it.
Clays .- Some of the clays of east Texas will prove of value as fertilizers on account of the large amount of potash they contain -- as high as five and six per cent. in certain cases. While it is true that much of the potash is in chemical combination with silica, and therefore soluble only with difficulty, if composted with quicklime this substance will be rendered more soluble and prepared for plant food.
FICTILE MATERIALS.
Texas has not yet begun to take that place among the manufacturers of pottery and glassware which the character, quality and extent of the materials found within her bor. 'ders render possible. For pottery-making there exist clays adapted to every grade, from common jug ware and tiling through yellow, Rockingham, C. C., white granite or iron- stone china, to china or porcelain of tle finest quality. Glass sands are also found of a high degree of purity, and many other materials of use or necessity in the mann- facture of these various grades of goods are found here.
While the subject of clays has not yet re- ceived the attention that it is proposed to
give it, numerous specimens have been secured and' analyzed, with the result of proving the facts as stated above.
Among the clays of the division known as coast clays are some that will answer for the coarser stoneware, such as jugs, flower pots, drain tile, etc., and others which from their refractory character are well adapted for the manufacture of charcoal furnaces, and possi- bly of sewer pipe.
The coast region contains beds of light colored clays, many of which are pure white. These beds of clay not only underlie and overlie the middle beds of Fayette sands, but are also found interbedded with that series. The excellent qualities of these clays were first stated by Dr. W. P. Riddell, of the first geological survey of Texas under Dr. Shumard. His specimens were obtained from the Yegua, in Washington county, and in the vicinity of Hempstead. Since that time many analyses have been made of clays of various portions of these beds, and while some of them are too high in alkalies or fusible constitu- ents, others are well suited to the manufac- ture of all grades of earthen ware below that of porcelain, or French china as it is called. Clays of this character have been seenred in. various localities from Angelina to and below Fayette county. There are beds in the Fay- ette sands that will be of value in glass- making. Some of the beds are composed of clear angular quartz grains withont tinge of iron, having only an occasional grain of rounded red or black quartz.
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