Area History: History of Schuylkill County, Pa: W. W. Munsell, 1881 History of Schuylkill County, PA: Chapters I - IV Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by R. Steffey. Typing and editing by Jo Garzelloni and Carole Carr. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, PA with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. New York: W. W. Munsell & Co., 36 Vesey Street, 1881 Press of George Macnamara, 36 Vesey Street, N.Y. ____________________________________________________________ IMPORTANT TO NOTE: THERE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE A PAGE 26 TO THIS BOOK. TABLE OF CONTENTS SKIPS FROM PAGE 25 TO PAGE 27 AND THERE WAS NO PAGE 26. ___________________________________________________________ page 27 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ CHAPTER I. ______ ANCIENT INHABITANTS-BERKS COUNTY. ________ The Indians that inhabited eastern Pennsylvania at the time of its settlement by the whites were the Lenni Lenapes, or Lenapes as they termed themselves. They were called by the whites Dela- wares, after the name given to the river which forms the eastern boundary of the State. Of their traditions concerning their origin and migrations hither from the west, it is not necessary here to speak. When found here by the first settlers they were under the domination of the Mingoes or Iroquois, the warlike Six Nations, whose remarkable confederation had enabled them to conquer and reduce to subjection the tribes inhabiting a large extent of territory. They had, to use their form of expression, made women of the Lenapes. The latter were not permitted to engage in war, they could not sell their lands without the con- sent of their conquerors, nor could they even occupy them except by permission of their masters. The almost fanatical admiration of Heckewelder for the Le- napes led him to credit the statement that they were not con- quered, but that their submission was voluntary, or rather the result of intrigue on the part of the Six Nations. Other histo- rians insist that the subjugation of the Lenapes was the result of conquest and was complete. When the Six Nations were called on in 1742 to remove the Delawares from lands that had been purchased, the chief, Canassatiago, in his celebrated speech at Philadelphia, said: "We conquered you, we made women of you; you know you are women; we charge you to remove instantly; we don't give you liberty to think about it." The noted Delaware chief Teedyuscung many years afterward said: "I was styled by my uncles the Six Nations. A woman in former years and had no hatchet in my hand, but a pestle or hominy pounder." At the commencement of the French war, about 1755, the Iro- quois brought to the Delaware a war belt and a piece of tobacco, and said to them: "Remember that the English have unjustly de- prived you of much of your land, which they took from you by force. Your cause is just; therefore smoke of this tobacco and arise; join with us and our fathers, the French, and take your revenge. You are women it is true, but we will shorten your petticoats, and though you may appear by your dress to be women, yet by your conduct and language you will convince your enemies that you are determined not tamely to suffer the wrongs and injuries inflicted on you. The Revolutionary was put an end to the power of the Iro- quois, and terminated the relation of master and vassal which had subsisted between them and the Delawares. Probably this region was never the permanent habitat of any Indian tribes. The Delaware on the east and the Susquehanna on the west afforded greater attractions for the savages. They were plentifully stocked with fish, and their broad bosoms were thor- oughfares over which parties in their canoes could easily move from place to place. Their valleys also gave facilities for the rude agriculture of these, that the narrow valleys of the Schuyl- kill and its tributaries, in which flourished a thick undergrowth of laurel, did not afford. Thought the region was visited by str- aggling parties of hunters, because of the abundance of game with which the mountain forests were filled, no evidences are left here of any permanent settlements or even camping places. Traditions says that there was an ancient Indian village on or near Sculp Hill, in the vicinity of Orwigsburg, but no trace of its former existence now remains. The plough rarely turns up a trinket, and seldom is an arrow point or spear head found on the mountain side. Schuylkill county was included in what was originally Ches- ter, then Lancaster, then Berks, from which it was mostly taken. Chester was established in 1682; Lancaster in 1729, and Berks in 1752, from parts of Philadelphia county on the east of the Schuy- lkill river, and of Chester and Lancaster on the west side of the same. In 1772 a portion of its extreme northern part was annexed to Northumberland county. ____________end page 27______________ page 28 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY _______________________________________________________________ The first settlements in what is now Berks county were made during the first decade of the eighteenth century, by some Eng- lish Quakers, French Huguenots and German Palatines, who settled at Wahlink or Oley. About 1715 a few Swedes settled at Amity. In 1723 about fifty families of Palatines from Schoharie, in New York, settled on Indian lands at the head of Tulpehocken creek; followed soon afterward by fifty other families from the same region, and in 1729 by another considerable accession, among whom was the historic Conrad Weiser. Although Berks county was mainly settled by Germans, other nationalities were represented in it. Swiss immigrants settled in Berne; Welsh in Brecknock, Carnarvon and Cumri; English and Welsh Quakers in Maiden Creek and Robeson; Dutch (from whom the Potts descended) in Pike, and a colony in Hereford township known as Schwenkfelders, from Casper von Schwenkfeld, a Silesian, who founded the sect, of whom about three hundred families still remain. From 1744 till 1778, when the Indians were finally driven from the region, and especially between 1744 and 1764, the inhab- itants of Berks suffered much from the incursions of marauding bands of these savages, who came oftenest from the direction of the Blue mountain. To protect themselves against these the inhabitants constructed forts along the Blue mountain at a dis- tance of fifteen or twenty miles from each other, so that rangers from one could easily reach the other by a march of a day. One of these, which is known as Fort Franklin, was erected in 1756 on Lizard creek, an affluent of the Lehigh. Fort Lebanon, otherwise called Fort Bohundy or Fort William, was built in 1754 on a branch of the Schuylkill. Both these were north from the Blue mountain chain, in what is now Schuylkill county. A stockade called Fort Snyders was on the present line between Berks and Schuylkill counties, west from Schuylkill river; another, named Sichtes or Sixes fort, was south of the Blue mountain, in the western part of Berks; and still another, Fort Henry, south from the mountain chain, on an affluent of Swatara creek, in Lebanon county. Traces of some of these forts are still discernible. The antecedents of the immigrants and their descendants in Berks county were such as to incline them with great unanimity to the aside of the colonists in the Revolutionary struggle. The Quakers, of course, because of their religious scruples, main- tained an apparent neutrality, and doubtless here as elsewhere the royalty of many tories was concealed under broad brimmed hats and shad bellied coats. It is said that Berks, at the end of the year 1776, numbered about four thousand effective men. The historian Sherman Day says: "The desolating track of the Revolutionary war did not reach Berks county, although many of her sons were engaged in the struggle. Since that event the history of the county possesses interests. Farms have been cleared and improved large stone houses and larger stone barns have been built; sons and daughters have been reared and in their turn have reared others; the annual crops have been gathered; roads and turnpikes and canals and railroads and abridges have been constructed; banks have been established and have failed, and manufactories have been put in operation; churches and school houses have been erected(but not enough of either), and the country has immensely increased in wealth and population." ____________ CHAPTER II ____________ FIRST SETTLEMENTS AND PIONEER LIFE IN SCHUYLKILL COUNTY ________ BY R.A.WILDER _________ The outward movement of the frontier wave line of civiliza- tion is always attended by traditions of a phenomenal nature from which it is nearly impossible to deduce anything like historical facts. There is a remarkable likeness in the impelling causes of these movements in all ages, and among the people of all nations, but the individualism that exists among early settlers in any particular locality, the absence of family records, and the along period of time that elapses before the constituted authorities reach them, prevent the collation of reliable data, and leave the means of tracing persons and events in the mists of uncertainty. The proneness of posterity to make heroes of ancestors who have shouldered the knapsack, the ax, and deadly rifle, and gone alone into the depths of the forests to hew out and guard a home for themselves and their progeny is common to every rank of life. The story of individual prowess is transmitted from parents to children by the winter fireside, when storms howl around the lonely cottage, and the winds sweep down from the hills with mournful cadence, as the sorrowful tale of afire and carnage, involving the death of the innocents as well as those of maturer age by the tomahawk and scalping knife, comes down from the hills of time. Every green spot by sheltering hill and bubbling spring and sunny stream, where the ruin of the first settler's hut is shown, becomes in these winter tales a "dark and bloody aground." Unfortunately for the pioneers in this country, in their westward progress they have paid the penalty for their encroachments upon aboriginal claims, in constant warfare with the savage tribes, all the way from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific slopes. Many a one who entered the forest to secure his future home was seen no more, but the curling hair, which was the pride of a mother or some dearer relation, was made a trophy to orna- ment the lodge of some dusky warrior. Where the grass wears a darker green, and the wild flowers bloom ____________end page 28______________ page 29 PIONEERING IN SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ in greater luxuriance, is the spot where he sleeps unknown; but his memory is kept alive by all who ever heard his name, in the traditions that are the unwritten history of every town and county. No portion of any State or Territory has been exempt from these hardships and privations, these terrible experiences. But there has been a compensation for it all in the growth of individual courage, of greater power of endurance, and of a restless enterprise that has impelled successive generations to move onward and onward, wave after wave, bearing everything down that obstructed their progress. It cannot be determined with certainty when the first resi- dents crossed the Kittatinny and established themselves in the valley of the Little Schuylkill and of the main streams above the gap. Whether the advance was made by the settlers on the Tulpe- hocken or from Allemingle is equally uncertain. The purchase of the lands on the Tulpehocken by Thomas Penn in 1732, and those north of the Kittatinny from the Susquehanna to the Delaware in 1749, gave them the right to the soil, which they had not before possessed; and it is probable that many adventurous spirits took advantage of this additional security against marauding Indians to become permanent settlers along the streams north of the Blue mountain. The want of roads and the absence of all means of transportation by wagons would prevent them from going far from settlements, and there is no very authentic evidence that any one had penetrated the wilds as far as the head waters of the Schuyl- kill, for the purpose of settling there, till after the close of the French and Indian war. Indeed, up to that time only a few families occupied the land along the streams and in the valleys just above the Kittatinny, and they had made but little progress in clearing the lands for agricultural purposes. The pioneer usually has scant means at his disposal; his effort is more for a living than accumulation; consequently he clears at first only enough to plant such seeds as will give to him and the family he hopes to rear the most substantial support. Corn, potatoes, turnips, and a few things to fill the little patch he calls a garden, constitute the crops that fill the measure of his harvest hopes. When he first arrives at the place where he intends to build his future home, he looks about for a sunny exposure, and a cool, unfailing spring which his practiced eye is not long in discovering among the ferns that grow rank and green among the old forest trees in the little ravine that its waters have eroded from the sloping land. Here at first he erects a cabin to shelter himself from storms, that are always sudden and severe in the primal forests, and protect his little stores from predatory animals that scent them from their dens in the hills or their lairs in the dense undergrowth of the swamps. The cabin is formed by placing a pole in the forks of upright saplings of suitable height from the surface, either of natural growth or planted in the ground a few feet apart. Other saplings are cut and leaned against this ridge-pole, at a slope which gives a breadth of base sufficient for a small room, in which he is to sleep, cook, and keep his supplies. The openings between the poles are closed with clay, bark, or anything that will keep out at least a portion of the searching rain and cold. His bed is at the end, which has been closed by driving stakes into the ground and binding them to the slopes with withes made of young hickory, and consists of sticks laid together on supports a few inches from the ground, upon which are laid the aromatic hemlock boughs, and the skins of such animals as his trusty rifle has enabled him to take for food and other uses. Having secured a place of shelter, he next attacks the sturdy oaks, tall pines, and other trees thatdensely cover the land. The heavy blows of his keen ax are heard afar in the still morning air, and at high noon, and when the sun is low, and the dews fall and the stars come out. He does not go to his toil at the sound of a bell or horn, nor does he take note of the passing hours. He works till hunger prompt him to stop and eat, or thirst leads him to the head of the little stream that runs by his cabin door. Here, as he stoops to drink from the little pool he has made, he sees his dishevelled and uncropped beard, and wonders how soon he may venture to bring to that lonely place the one who is to be the partner of his life, and whose nimble fingers will trim this roughness away and bring out the lineaments of beauty that were admired in many a social circle beyond the mountains or in the fatherland across the sea. But he does not linger long to dream; his sturdy blows are again heard, and soon a tall pine sways to and fro, and falls with a crash that echoes far through the forest, and the beasts tremble, and the Indian hunter stops in his trail to listen and take note of the intruder. If the tree is too large for his time and strength to fell to fell, he "girdles" it, by cutting off the supply of sap, and its foliage droops, and it dies where it stands, and no shadow falls upon his crop to blight it. The timber suitable for the log house he intends to build is carefully laid aside, and what can be made into shingles is split and shaven, taken to the nearest stream, rafted with his logs to the distant town and exchanged for needed supplies. The reminder is gathered together for burning, and thus his first field is cleared and made ready for the seed. He prepares the surface as best he can, and plants his grain and vegetables with an abiding faith that Providence will bless his fields and give him a plentiful harvest. As the weeks and month go by his prospects improve, and with the help of others, who have been attracted to the locality by the equality of his shingles, he erects the log house that has, from the first, held prominence in all his day dreams. It is a rude structure, made by cutting the logs into equal lengths and forming a notch near the end in each one, so that when one is laid upon the other they will be interlocked and held in place. Spaces are left for doors and windows by using shorter logs, sawed square at the ends and having no notches; these are con- fined to their proper places by fastings to the window frames. As a general thing in constructing a log house provision is made for many contemplated improvements that are not consummated; _____________end page 29._______________ page 30 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY ______________________________________________________________ windows which were to have had sash and glass are closed with a shutter only. The cracks between the logs were at some future time to be covered with weather boards, but the clay remains till the logs decay and the whole falls into ruin, to be pointed out with honest pride by the descendants of the pioneer, dwelling in the capacious farm house on the broader slope of ground, covered with orchards of pear, apple, and cherry trees, intermingled with peaches and plums. On one side are the Swiss barns, already nearly filled with the surplus stores from former harvests, while the broad fields surrounding the whole are covered with grass and grain nearly ripe, and ready for the modern implements that have supplanted the scythe and sickle, the straw bands, hand rake, and fork, and other old time tools of the early settlers, as the stately mansion overshadows the ruins of the log cabin. The furniture of the pioneer was as rude as his dwelling; luxurious beds and sofas were not dreamed of in that day of small beginnings. If he had a chair or table from the cabinet maker in town it was reserved for state occasions. A block sawed from a log of suitable length and set on end made a seat; if more room was required for the increasing numbers in the family, counted by little flaxen heads, holes were made with a large augur in the end of a plank from the distant saw-mill, or more probably by splitting a log, smoothing the flat side and inserting four around sticks for legs, and this would seat a row of children. One or two broader pieces would make a table which the frugal meal would taste as sweet and be as thankfully received as though it had more luxurious appointments. In most cases all these provisions were made before the wife and children, if any, were removed to the new home. Not unfrequently all the comforts of the rude homestead were supplied before the pioneer was united to the one who had filled his dreams, and the double life was com- menced. The journey to the forest home could have none of the incidents and surroundings of a higher civilization, but the all powerful sentiment of love was as strong in the bosoms of these humble beginners of life's long journey as in the highest of the land. So they entered the humble home and took up the work before them, and toiled till the end came, and they were laid to rest in a sunny spot on their own land, where the lilacs bloomed, and the sassafras waved its fragrant leaves with a low murmur above their dreamless sleep. The natural effect of the construction of the earliest wagon roads, including the "old Sunbury road," was to draw a more adventurous population into the region through which they ran, and we find that during the next ten years the population had increased considerably in the valleys contiguous to the main Schuylkill valley. In the latter, improvements of a more perma- nent character had been made, such as the erection of saw-mills and grist-mills for the accommodation of those who were raising grain for breadstuffs more extensively then had been attempted by the first settlers in the valleys. Lumbering attracted the atten- tion of many persons entering the region and quite a traffic was carried on by means of the river, when the rains fell in suffi- cient quantity to produce a rise in the stream that would float a raft or flat boat over the shallow palaces. The melting of the winter snows, which fell in greater quantities than now, was sure to make a spring flood that took out the lumber made through the winter. Supplies were brought back from the city by means of flat boats and canoes, propelled by poles, and at times towed by horses, moving in the water along the shore and crossing from side to side to obtain the best channel. It is not probable that this return traffic amounted to much at that early time, but it gave the settlers such supplies as were absolutely necessary to their existence in the forest, and sometimes a few of what were, by them, deemed luxuries, but which are mow common to the poorest families, so greatly have the improved means of transportation sided the distribution of every article of commerce to the remot- est corners of the country, and placed them within the reach of all. At that period of time, salted meats, rum, sugar, salt, a supply of coarse cloths, and powder and lead, were the most essential commodities of frontier life. These supplies were very limited in the sparse settlements, and even the small colonial forts established by the proprietary governments along the Kitta- tinny, for the protection of the inhabitants against marauding Indians, had barely enough at one time to keep the few soldiers a week. Speckled trout were abundant in every mountain stream, and large fish were always to be had, in their season, in the rivers and creeks. Bears, wolves, panthers, and deer inhabited the forests; and quail and ruffled grouse, with occasional flocks of wild turkeys, could be found in every locality. From these sources fresh supplies were obtained to make up any deficiency in permanent stores. Every household had its garden of early vege- tables, and the broader fields yielded abundance of corn for roasting, and for bread or cakes; and later on turnips and cab- bages were added to the homely meal; while in due season that great tickler of German palate, "sauerkraut," came steaming hot, with ribs of pork, upon the rude table. Among the rural popula- tion of the present time the mode of living has not materially changed. Coffee has been added to the variety upon the farmer's table, and some other articles of luxury adorn it on state occa- sions, but trout, venison, and wild turkey are seen no more. The early church edifices were as plain as the rude dwellings of the people. It was customary for some real estate owner to donate a piece of ground for church and burial purposes. The conveyance was made to trustees, who had charge of the building, when erected, as well as the lot. In many instances a farm would be given for the support of the society. The prevailing sect was Lutheran, although the "Reformed" denomination grew to have considerable strength, and often they were found united with the Lutherans in the possession of such donated property. As there were no villages at that early period the churches were erected in the country. Sometimes trees were left to shade and ornament the place, but too frequently everything was ________________end page 30.________________ page 31 REFINING INFLUENCES AMONG THE PIONEERS. ______________________________________________________________ cleared away except the stumps and stones that remained where nature had planted them. They served as rustic seats where young and old could sit and warm themselves in the rays of the vernal sun, or on the declining days of autumn, when the early frost chilled the balmy air. The weather, the harvest, and new pur- chases and clearings were discussed by the elders, while the young of both sexes engaged in all the tender interchanges in- spired by the season and occasion. Little gatherings for the evenings of the week were planned, and probably some which exer- cised an important influence over all the after years, filling them with tender memories and affections that go down into and beyond the grave. There were not many fierce polemical differ- ences to disturb the pleasant relations of the double sect wor- shipers, because they were too poor to pull down old churches and build new ones-a common element of discord now-and the minister had too far to ride from charge to charge, and came too frequent- ly in contact with the people of the mixed congregations, not to know the sentiments of all. He therefore abstained from all allusions to the subject of change, and taught them contentment with their lot, and the impressive lesson that their earnest supplications to their Father in Heaven were heard as soon be- neath the bare rafters of their humble place of worship as were the deep toned chants and anthems swelling up through the gilded dome of St. Peter's. Often the place of worship became the seat of the only learn- ing given the children of the early settlers. The catechism and Bible were the only text books in such communities as could not afford others, or the expense of employing some one having a little learning to teach those who had none. More than a century elapsed after the first settlement of this county before the public school system of the Commonwealth was adopted by all the townships. The German element was slow to see the advantage of education in the common pursuits of life. A few citizens, more enlightened than others, would join in the expense of a teacher for a few weeks in the year, and send their children to school in a private room donated for the time for that purpose. But often the character of the teacher was not beyond reproach, and the instruction given was of a corresponding quality. Of late years great interest has been manifested in common school education by every class of citizens, in the townships as well as in the larger boroughs, and it will not be long before Schuylkill coun- ty will take rank with the first in the Commonwealth in the grade of instruction in public schools; and it is not improbable that greater advances will be made in everything pertaining to the methods of teaching. More than a century and a quarter has passed away since the permanent settlement of this country, by Germans coming direct from the fatherland, or after a residence south of the Kittatinny. The incursions of savages during the French and Indian wars and through the period of the Revolution rendered their residence un- certain and dangerous, and at times threatened the annihilation of the little colony. Even as late as the fall of 1780, John Negman and his three children were murdered by savages near the site of Pottsville, and the event startled the rest of the settlers into a regular stampede out of the region. But the German phlegm and stubbornness outlasted the stealthy movement of the Indians; and, the inciting causes of the predatory warfare having died out with the close of the Revolution, the inhabitants resumed their possessions everywhere, and carried on their limited agriculture and traffic in peace and security. The general record of these people is good, and they im- pressed upon their descendants those sterling, qualities that make the good citizen and patriot solders. Many of the settlers were soldiers of the Revolution, and not a few of those who have recently passed away were in the war of 1812. Their descendants have greatly distinguished themselves in the deadly struggle to rendered permanent the civil and religious institutions founded by their fathers among these ever-lasting hills. Nowhere in the whole breadth of this wide domain was there a more impulsive answer to the demand for troops to guard the capital and exposed points than here; and nowhere else was the drain so constant for the prolonged internecine war. The sturdy children of the early settlers did honor to their ancestry upon every battle field, and those who fell, and who sleep in the national cemeteries, in the home lot, or in unknown graves will long be remembered with gratitude by a people whose liberties, through them and under Providence, were made permanent. The influences of nature are all-powerful in forming the character and destinies of mankind. Where the mountains are covered with ever-green foliage, and the crisp air is laden with the health-giving odors of forest pines; where deep gorges widen into broad valleys as they slope away in gentle undulations from the rugged steeps, and mountain torrents grow to sunny streams meandering through meadows, groves, and pastoral towns; where the cooling breeze sports with the most beautiful forms of nature, and earth yields her fruits and hidden treasures only in exchange for hardest toil, man is inspired by the loftiest sentiments of liberty. There he rears to freedom her grandest white-domed temples, and is ever willing to die in sight of her glittering spires, which point upward to where center his highest hopes and aspirations. It is not probable that men will soon be called upon again to bear the burdens and sacrifices of the past. Peace, as taught by Him who was the highest type of humanity, was along buried in the selfishness, brutality, and superstition of the dark ages of the world, but it arose from the grave of those centuries, white-winged and beautiful, to shed its benign influ- ences upon the hearts and pursuits of men. Its shrines are in all mountain homes, and there they will remain forever, guarded and cherished by those born and reared in the light of liberty they cast abroad upon the world. __________________end page 31.____________________ page 32 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. _________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER III _____________ TOPOGRAPHY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY ___________ BY R.A. WILDER _________ Nowhere else in Pennsylvania are the surface features so peculiar and full of interest as those presented by the topogra- phy of Schuylkill county. Beginning at the Kittatinny or Blue mountain, the crest of which bounds it on the southeast, it consists of a succession of hills and valleys and mountain chains, nearly parallel with each other, and ranging northeast and southwest throughout its whole extent. These hills and val- leys are generally a group of grand telluric waves, forming synclinal and anticlinal axes of the strata, and they appear to have been caused by the immense upheaving forces commencing at the ancient coast line of the ocean, and pressing forward toward the northwest with such tremendous power as to throw most of the then horizontal strata into a vertical position for a great distance inland, till they began to weaken in strength, and finally ceased to act, and left, with their expiring throes, the great convolutions which enfold the wealth of an empire. These ranges of hills and mountains have local names to dis- tinguish them from each, and though they may vary to some extent in different parts of the country, it is easy to trace any one of them. Following the course of the Schuylkill river from where it breaks through the gorge of the Blue mountain, and of its tribu- taries to their sources in the plateau of the Abroad mountain, and the still smaller streams which run into them through the valleys formed by the parallel hills, at nearly right angles to the general courses of the principal ones, which flow through the dark ravines of the mountains, we find the causes which have operated to change the uniformity of the great convolutions into diversified scenery of surpassing beauty and grandeur. The whole county is eroded to an unusual extent, and the work of denudation has not been confined to the streams; frost and vapors, charged more or less with sulphuric acid, have disintegrated the rocky strata where the rains of centuries have washed them bare of their earthy coverings, and the sand and gravel thus formed, together with the earth washings, have been precipitated into the valleys, elevating them and depressing the mountains and hills to an extent which cannot be estimated, because vast quantities have been moved onward by the floods and finally found a resting place in the new coast line of the ocean. Between the Blue mountain and the Second mountain there are no elevations of importance; Summer hill, below Schuylkill Haven. is a clearly defined range extending for several miles. Lime ridge, crossing at Schuylkill Haven, is easily traced through the county from west to east, but does not attain any considerable elevation at any place. Second mountain is the first of the principal mountains of the county, and rises from five to seven hundred feet above the bed of the streams that break through it or from twelve to thirteen hun- dred feet above mean tide at Philadelphia. This mountain has in many places two crests, caused by the eroding effects of springs near the summit upon the loose red shale which has been washed down into the streams flowing through the gap. This characteris- tic has suggested the local name of "Gobel Berk," or Fork moun- tain. The next considerable elevation is the Sharp mountain, which rises about six hundred feet above the bed of the streams break- ing through it. It is rendered more interesting than any other of the ranges of mountains, by being the southern boundary of the anthracite coal field; though the coal seams found in it are thin and broken, owing doubtless to the tremendous pressure that turn- ed the underlying strata to the north of the vertical line, or caused the carbonaceous material to slip back into the basin be- low while the terrible convulsion was in active operation. It is a clearly defined wall or dike extending across the county from west to east, and presents no break in the uniformity of its crest except where the Swatara, the west branch of the Schuyl- kill, the Schuylkill and Little Schuylkill have gradually deep- ened and widened some primal fissures to the superficial base of the wall; but this occurred long after the denudation of the mountains had covered the carbonaceous strata so deeply as to prevent any wastage of coal from this cause, except the portions of veins stretching across the present gorges. From the Sharp mountain to Mine hill, which is the next regu- lar range of elevation, there are no ridges of importance, except the one known as Red mountain, extending from the west branch of the Schuylkill to the western line of the county. There are undulations of the strata which have, to a considerable extent, shaped the surface and added to the beauty of the topography in rounding the angles of elevation and softening the contour of the interwinding valleys. Mine hill is the great anticlinal axis of the Schuylkill coal field. It has been forces upward through the whole superincumbent strata, and shows in many denuded places the great conglomerate floor of the carbonaceous structure. At the gap north of Minersville a grand arch of conglomerate extending from the southern to the northern base of the mountain is pre- sented to the observer. The Swatara, Middle creek, Little Swata- ra, Muddy Branch, West Branch, Mill creek, and some smaller streams to the east, which have their sources in the narrow valleys between the Mine hill and Broad mountain, break through this solid wall of hardest rock at as many different points, and fall in picturesque cascades, and over boulders that have rolled ages ago from the crest, in a manner to make them very attractive to visitors, and the scene of many a summer picnic. But the great practical utility of these deep gorges is the advantage they present for _______________end page 32.________________ page 33 MOUNTAINS AND STREAMS OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ passing the rocky barrier, without tunnels, with railroads to transport the products of the northern mines. Broad mountain is an elevated plateau about sixteen to eight- een hundred feet above tide, and contains an area of seventy to eighty square miles in Schuylkill county. It is the great water- shed of the region for the Susquehanna, the Schuylkill, and the Lehigh rivers. The Mammoth and some smaller veins of coal under- lie its southern slopes, but with the exception of a few small narrow basins, not very reliable on the summit, it contains no other coal or mineral of any kind. It is the source of numerous small streams which will become very valuable in the course of time for supplying the wants of a rapidly growing population, in a district where so much of this essential element is poisoned by impregnations of the mines. For a long time this mountain pre- sented an impassable barrier to the products of the middle coal field, but finally it was crossed by railways, with a system of inclined planes, which have proved very economical and efficient. Fifty years ago this mountain was covered with a dense growth of heavy timber, consisting of yellow pine, hemlock, and oak; but this has long since been transferred to the support of the rude galleries of the coal measures, and used in the erection of stru- ctures for colliery purposes. It is not probable that it will ever cover with a second growth, for the soil is not fertile, and the forest fires sweep over it, as over all the other mountain ranges in the spring, with relentless fury. The north slope of this plateau is much steeper than the southern, and this face is deeply indented by small rapidly eroding streams which flow toward the Susquehanna, and break it into numerous spurs. At the eastern end of the county the waters from this mountain drain into the Little Schuylkill, and the tributaries of the Leigh. Its characteristics are not there as clearly defined as at the middle portion just described, and which is made more interesting by the passage of the railway systems that develop the middle coal field. The Mahanoy mountain is next in order of succession, and bec- omes interesting as the southern wall of the middle coal field. It is lower than the Broad mountain, and in general features be- rs a striking resemblance to Sharp mountain, which is the south- ern wall of the Pottsville basin. It has but two gorges in the county, both near Ashland, where the Mahoney creek and Big run have broken through and eroded it to its bases. Leaving the line of Schuylkill county it sweeps off to the west and unites with Big mountain in Northumberland county, which forms the northern edge of the sharp pointed, canoe-shaped basin of the middle coal field. The strata of Mahoney mountain are nearly vertical, and, as it contains the great vein of the coal measures, this position has made it difficult to work, and a vast amount of waste has resulted; but the quantity of coal taken out above water level has been greater than from any other mountain range, and below water level its yield is still very great. Between this and the Locust mountain, several ridges have been thrown up, bearing the local names of Locust ridge, Bear ridge, etc., but they do not extend very far, and may be regarded as spurs, formed out of the higher range by erosion. They have no other distinction than as favorable sites for collieries. The Locust mountain extends from Northumberland county into the northern portion of Schuylkill, where it soon acquires the local name of North Mahanoy, and forms the northern boundary of its coal. Many valuable collieries are located upon its southern slopes, near Shenandoah city, from the royalties of which the Girard Trust derives a large income annually. The lands of all this section of the county are only valuable for the coal they contain. No other mineral deposits have ever been found, and they have long since been stripped of their timber which, thirty years ago, was exceedingly heavy and valuable. The washings from the mountain slopes were mostly carried away by the swollen floods, and left no fertilizing properties in the soil for the agricultu- rist. The same is true of all the southern coals fields. From the Second mountain north there are not a dozen farms worth cultivat- ing as an investment, and the great wonder is that any man could ever be induced to enter the region for such a purpose; and it is more than probable that the few who have made agriculture a busi- ness were attracted here first by other considerations. Between the Second and Blue mountains, and beyond the bounds of the coal formation, in the extreme western and northern angles of the cou- nty, the valleys are wider, and the streams which flow through them less turbulent, and there the farmer has some hope of reward for his labor; but if all he has expended were charged against the land, and it were credited with it has produced, the average balances to profit and loss would be on the debtor side. The streams of this county are numerous, and some of them, like the Schuylkill, the Little Schuylkill, the Swatara and Mahanoy, have wide beds of sufficient depth to carry large bodies of water; but while the rainfall is equal to or greater than that in many parts of the State, the sources are near, and at great elevations, and the accumulations from rainfalls and melting snows are suddenly precipitated into the beds of the streams and carried away in floods, and the fall is nearly as sudden as the rise. Under such conditions no water power can be utilized for extensive manufacturing, and none has been attempted. Saw-mill- sand grist-mills, and here and there a powder-mill, and a small manufactory of woolen goods, are the only industries utilizing the vast bodies of water flowing from the water sheds of this county. Some portion of the surplus waters has been s--red up by the erection of the Tumbling run and Silver creek reservoirs, to supply the Schuylkill canal with sufficient water to keep the coal tonnage afloat during the dry season which usually prevails every year, from the causes here stated; and also in the smaller ones built to secure the necessary quantity for the towns and the great numbers of steam engines employed in mining, preparing and transporting anthracite coal. In geological structure this county belongs to the Upper Silurian and Devonian systems, and above these is the ______________end page 33.______________ page 34 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ Carbonaceous formation, which makes it one of the richest areas in the world. The eroding action of the streams bursting from the mountain asides, while carrying away a vast amount of the rich deposits, opened to the eye of the casual observer the seams of coal, and afforded the most economical means of getting it out and transporting it to market. Through all the earlier years of mining operations, the explorer was governed in his choice of location entirely by topographical considerations. The indent- tion of themountain slopes, caused by the melting snows and frequent rains of the early spring, when the ground is rendered porous by upheaving frosts, and easily cut away, showed him where to begin his "drift" upon a vein of coal with a certainty of development by the least expenditure of capital. From what has been said here it will be seen that the topog- raphy of Schuylkill county has resulted mainly from its geologi- cal structure. The mountains and valleys are not eroded from some vast plateau through the lapse of the immeasurable time, like the topographical irregularities of the great western slopes, but were suddenly moved forward and upward from the depths of the ocean by the tremendous forces of the earth's internal fires; and when these were expended, and the folding- strata had settled into a state of comparative rest, the outline of the elevations and depressions appeared much as at present. The process of rounding their sharper angles, and clothing them with wild, impenetrable forests and the beautiful flora that made the early summer rosy and charming, was the work of after ages. Standing upon the rocky edges of almost any one of the deep gorges, the observer has grand and sublime scenery in his immedi- ate presence; and before him, looking east and west, there are long stretches of beautiful landscape, diversified by low hills studded with trees whose green foliage stirred by the passing breeze shimmers in the summer light; by quiet homesteads and cultivated fields waving before the eyes of the husbandman the glad promise of reward for fruitful labor, and here and there by the glimmer of meandering streams. _________________ CHAPTER IV. _________________ GEOLOGY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY __________ By P.W. Sheafer, Geologist and Mining Engineer, Pottsville, Pa. ________ Schuylkill County lies east and south of the center of the state, and in the eastern belt of the Appalachian system of mountains. Its irregular boundaries enclosed an area of about 767 square miles, an area as uneven and varied as can be found in Pennsylvania. The topography of this region is marked by several mountain chains, rising from six hundred to eleven hundred feet above the valleys, or to a height of one thousand to seventeen hundred feet above tide, broken in their continuity by gaps completely inter- secting them at irregular intervals. Between these ranges are lower elevations, or hills, more or less nearly parallel with them, and these, united to each other by cross ridges, give to the surface an extremely broken and rugged appearance. The most southern of these ranges is the Kittatinny or Blue mountain, which, forming the entire southern boundary of the county, runs in a northeasterly direction, broken only at the Port Clinton gap, where the Schuylkill river has worn its way through the massive rocky strata. An undulating valley, varying in width, separates this range from the double crested chain of Second mountain. Still further north, across a narrow red shale valley, is the third range, Sharp mountain. These two ranges, everywhere within the county limits, run parallel to the Blue mountain; but beyond the eastern boundary, along the Lehigh, and beyond the western, along the Susquehanna, they turn back, or double sharply on their courses, receiving other names, and again pursue a northeasterly direc- tion. Broad and Locust mountain are the continuations of Sharp moun- tain, in its sweep around the southern coal field, and Mahanoy mountain is but an extension of Broad, as it zig-zags around the middle coal field. North of these last ranges the mountains are more broken and show less distinctly the general course. A re- markable feature of these ranges is the uniformity of level of their crests. The gaps in these mountains form prominent and important feat- ures in the general landscape; narrow, steepsided and rocky, with but room enough for streams and roads at their bottoms, they either cut through the entire thickness of mountain wall, or penetrate so far into the rocky mass as to afford a practical grade to the summits of the highest elevations. As before mentioned, there is but one break in the Blue moun- tain with in the county limits, through which flow the waters of the Schuylkill. This is the only practicable pass for the immense traffic of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and the Scuyl- kill Navigation Company's Canal. But proceeding northward we find these natural gates to increase in number, there being no less than five in Second mountain, and eight in Sharp mountain, along the south edge of the southern coal field on this county. The drainage of the county is into the Schuylkill, Susquehanna and Lehigh rivers. The first named stream, through its main and west branches, and the Little Schuylkill, drain the great middle area of the county, including the greater portion of the southern basin; the Swatara, Wiconisco, Mahantongo and Mahanoy creeks, tributaries of the main branch, and the Catawissa, an affluent of the north branch of the Susquehanna, the western and northern parts; and the Lehigh, by means of Nesquehoning, Mahoning and Lizard creeks, a _______________end page34.________________ page 35 GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. ______________________________________________________________ small area along the eastern edge of the county. The streams which flow in a northerly or southerly direction, thus cutting across the strike of the formation, expose to view the rock strata, and afford the geologist excellent opportunities for studying their character and measuring their thicknesses. The valley of the Schuylkill from Port Clifton to Pottsville is lined by rock exposure, and in this distance of sixteen miles nine great formations are crossed. The geological structure of the county can be best indicated by describing, in a general way, a cross section drawn through Pottsville, from the Blue mountain, on the south, to the Cutawis- sa valley, on the north. Beginning at the south, we find a shal- low basin bounded by the north dipping rocks of Blue mountain, and on the north by a prominent anticlinal axis, passing through Orwigsburg and Schuylkill Haven, which gradually dies out, both to the east and west. Between Schuylkill Haven and Pottsville we encounter only the north dips of this axis, standing vertically, and in Sharp and Second mountains, overturned slightly, so as to show a south dip. Then we cross the broad basin of the southern coal afield, with its many subordinate flexures, which is separated from a more shallow trough by the great anticlinal of Board mountain. North of this basin is a broad and undulating elevation, traversed by several parallel minor axes. Sections through other parts of the county would show local variations from this general structure, but there would remain the prominent features of three parallel basins, separated by two more or less elevated anticlinals. The geological formations of Schuylkill county are confined to the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous ages of the Paleozoic system, and embrace from No. IV to No. XIII inclusive, of the following table, which shows the subdivisions of this system in Pennsylvania: ________________________________________________________________ Penn. Rogers Lesley. Numb's (Pa. Geol.) ________________________________________________________________ XIII (Coal Measures Carbonif- XII Seral (Pottsville Conglomerate erous XI Umbral Mauch Chunk Red Shale X Vespertine Pocono Sandstone IX Ponent Catskill Red Sandstone (Chemung Vergent (Portage (Genesee Devonian VIII Cadent Hamilton (Hamilton (Marcellus P't Merid'n Upper Helderberg VII Meridian Oriskany VI PreMerid'n Lower Helderberg (Lewistown Limestone.) Upper Scalent (Water-lime Ceme't beds Silurian (Onondaga Marls V Surgent Clinton IV Levant (Medina Sandstone (Oneida Conglomerate III Matinal (Hudson River Lower (Trenton Silurian II Auroral (Calciferous I Primal Potsdam ________________________________________________________________ The surface geology can be best described by beginning at the southern limit of the county and going north, thus following a geographical line which, at the same time, shows the formations in their regular order, from the older to the more recent, and culminating with the Carboniferious, the most important of this region. No. IV.(Levant of Rogers; Medina and Oneida of New York.)-This formation, in the central portion of Pennsylvania, is divided into three distinct parts in order of deposition-the Oneida Conglomerates, red and gray Medina sandstone. In this district, however, the middle or red is wanting. The Blue or Kittantinny mountain, whose crest is the southern boundary of this county, is formed by the outcrop of the massive strata of the Medina Sand- stone and Oneida Conglomerate. The area of the outcrop of these rocks is a limited one, being confined to these mountains; and the formation here dips beneath the surface, not to appear again within the county limits. Professor Rogers, in his geology of Pennsylvania, records no measurements of these rocks within the county; but at the Lehigh Water Gap fives the following thickness and description: "Oneida Conglomerate. Alternations of coarse quartzose con- glomerate and fine-grain white and gray sandstones-four hundred feet." "Medina White Sandstone. A thick succession of alternating white sandstones and olive shales, the upper sandstones being mottled red and white, and containing characteristic marine vegetation-seven hundred and sixty feet." These thicknesses and descriptions apply equally well to this county. No minerals or ores of any value occur in this formation, while the fossils are confined to impressions of large articulated marine plants. No. V.(Surgent, Rogers; Clinton, New York.) This formation consists of alternating deposits of red and olive shales and slates, separated by red sandstones, forming a characteristic red group of rocks of about fifteen hundred feet in thickness in this district. The lower belt of sandstones is called the "Ore Sand- stones," on account of the beds of fossil iron ore it carries in the central part of the State. No such deposit of ore has been found within this county. Fucoids are common in some portions, while marine animal fossils characterize other parts. This group flanks the Blue mountain on the north, forming the foot hills of this range throughout its northeastern and southwestern course in the county. At the western end its north dip is steep so that it covers in width but a small area. To the eastward it gradually widens, changing from a monoclinal north dip to a succession of rolls, a mile in width. At Port Clinton it follows the flexures of the Blue Mountain and widens out in a series of sharp rolls, beautifully exposed on the east bank of the Schuylkill river as far north as McKeansburg and Orwigsburg. The most northern flexure of this series carries a narrow band of this formation as far west as Schuylkill Haven, beyond which point the decline of the axis forces it beneath the surface. The western limit of these rolls lies to the east of Pine creek, which enters the Schuylkill at Auburn. East of McKeansburg the belt of this formation again becomes narrow, and _______________end page 35._________________ page 36 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY ________________________________________________________________ follows the course of Blue mountain to the county line. No.VI.(Scalent and Pre-Meridian, Rogers; Onondaga and Lower Helderberg, New York.)-This consists of two distinct groups, the lower composed of variegated marls and water lime cement beds, and the upper of a group of shaly and cherty limestones. The formation varies in thickness, at some points reaching twelve hundred feet, and at other places seems to be absent. The whole group is fossiliferous. The position of this formation in Schuyl- kill county is indicated on the geological map of the first survey of Pennsylvania, as a narrow belt overlying No. V, running parallel to the Blue mountain, as far east as Port Clinton, where its outcrop, influenced by the series of flexures which cross the Little Schuylkill river, runs northward, in a broken line, for some five miles. Here the Orwigsburg anticlinal carries the outcrops of both its north and south dips westward through Schuylkill Haven, until they join and disappear beneath the sur- face at Friedensburg. East of Orwigsburg, its north outcrop follows the line of the Blue mountain, defining the area of the red rocks of No. V, on the south side of Lizard Creek valley. The only member of the group which the first State survey recognizes and describes in this county is the Scalent, or cement limestone. It has been quarried at McKeansburg, Orwigsburg, where it is twenty feet thick, and at Schuylkill Haven. No.VII.(Meridian, Rogers; Oriskany, New York.)-The Oriskany is described as a "coarse, yellowish, calcareous sandstone, graduating near its upper limit into a fine-grained quartzose conglomerate, and becoming in its lower beds a coarse arenaceous limestone, characterized by Atrypa elongata, Spirifer arenosus, and other remarkable brachiopodus shells." In the central portion of the State, near McVeytown and Hunt- ingdon, it contains deposits of glass sand, and also, at places, an iron ore bed. In Virginia, the top of this formation is marked by the well defined and valuable "Bluff" iron ores. The Oriskany is variable in thickness, and in many places seems to be wanting. The max- imum thickness, on the Juniata, is one hundred and fifty feet. Although No.VII has been recognized in Lehigh county, it has never been discovered or identified in Schuylkill county. Its place in the series is immediately over the limestone group of No. VI. This sandstone was much sought after, at one time, on the Lehigh, as it was well adapted to use in hearths of iron fur- naces. No.VIII.(Post-Meridian, Cadent, Vergent, Rogers; Upper Held- erberg, Hamilton, Portage, Chemung, New York.)-This formation, as shown in the foregoing table, includes several well defined groups of rocks, and consequently is very thick, reaching six thousand feet or more. The lowest member of the Post-Meridian group in New York is composed of the Cauda Galli and Schoharie Grits, but is not recognized in Pennsylvania. The upper Helder- berg limestone is a blue, fossiliferous and, at times, sparry limestone, including cherty bands. In the center of the State this reaches sixty feet in thickness, but it has not been found in this county, or along the Blue mountain west of the Delaware. The Cadent, or Hamilton group, consists of an upper and lower highly bituminous black slate deposit, separated by a mass of bluish, brownish and olive argillaceous shales, sometimes becom- ing an argillaceous sandstone, and has a thickness in the valley north of the Blue mountain of over one thousand feet. The Vergent flags, or Portage group, are composed of thin layers of fine grained gray sandstones, while the Vergent shales or Chemung group, consists of gray, blue, and olive shales and sandstones. These two groups abound in marine vegetation. The Vergent rocks on the Lehigh measure seventeen hundred and fifty feet. The black slates of No. VIII are, as before mentioned, highly bitumi- nous and bear impressions of Carboniferous plants, and often times include beds of slate, resembling those of the true coal measures, thus leading many to make useless search for coal. The upper, or Chemung rocks of this formation, are those which en- close the famous Bradford oil sand of northwestern Pennsylvania, from which the greater part of the American petroleum is now obtained. There is, however, no evidence that the oil is coexten- sive with the formation; and, besides, the present belief is that the oil is only found where the rocks have been but little dis- turbed from their original horizontal position. In this county the formation is much flexured and broken, and therefore would not warrant one in drilling for petroleum. Some strata of these rocks furnish flags of excellent quality for building purposes. This formation in Schuylkill county is confined to the great valley lying between the Blue and Second mountains, and to a small area along the north branch of the Mahantongo creek, in the extreme northwestern corner of the county. The narrow valley between the above mountain ranges at the western county line widens rapidly to the eastward, increasing to four miles at Pine Grove, and five miles at Friedensburg. Here the Orwigsburg anti- clinal, rising to the eastward, brings the rocks of No. VI to the surface, and divides the Chemung valley into two parts, the more southern of which, carrying a small area of Ponent rocks in the center, ends in the hills west of the Little Schuylkill. The narrow northern valley of Chemung continues east of Schuylkill Haven, and beyond McKeansburg, where the several axes of the Tamaqua mountain spread it over the valleys of Mahoning and Lizard creeks. This area, forty miles in length, with a width varying from two to six miles of hills and valleys, underlaid by the shales and sandstones of Nos. V, VI, VIII, and IX, is the farming region of the county, embracing the townships of Pine Grove, Wayne, North and South Manheim, East and West Brunswick, and the southern portions of Blythe, Schuylkill and Rahn. It contains no minerals of commercial value. The steep north dip of the northern out-crop of these rocks carries them far beneath the surface, only to appear again, as before mentioned, in the Mahantongo valley. ________________end page 36._________________ page 37 GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. ______________________________________________________________ No. IX. (Ponent, Rogers; Catskill, New York.)-This group of red shales and massive red and gray sandstones marks the end of the Devonian age, and is the second red formation of Pennsylva- nia. On account of its being covered by the hard sandstone of No. X, it usually forms a part of a mountain ridge, often making one of the crests. In this section of the State, it is at least five thousand feet thick. It contains no valuable ores, and but few organic remains. The Catskills, in this county, is first found in the center of the synclinal between the Blue mountain and the Orwigsburg axis, where it covers a narrow belt, extending from the old canal tunnel, south of Landingville, west along the Swat- ara hills, to within five miles of Pine Grove. With the excep- tion of the small area on the north flank of Mahantongo creek, the remainder of the area covered by the Catskill is confined to the flanks, mainly the southern, of Second and Mahoning moun- tains. Beginning at the west county line, we can follow it eastward along the southern crest and side of Second mountain, to the Lit- tle Schuylkill and beyond to the head waters of Lizard creek; thence around a series of sharp folds to where it again takes its easterly course, forming the north wall of the Mahoning valley. No. X. (Vespertine, Rogers; Pocono Gray Sandstone, Lesley.)- This formation begins the Carboniferous age, being the first to show any defined coal beds, or to contain workable coals. Rogers describes it as composed of "white, gray and yellow sandstones, alternating with coarse silicious conglomerates, and dark blue and olive colored slates. It frequently contains beds of black carboniferous slate, with one or more thin seams of coal." Plant remains are its only fossils. In Virginia it includes several workable beds of anthracite coal. But in Pennsylvania no coal beds of value have been found. The Pocono rocks, as well as the Ponent, are well exposed in the gaps of the Schuylkill, in Second mountain, standing vertically, or with their north dip over- turned. The Pocono here, is eighteen hundred thick, and increa- ses westward, beyond the Susquehanna. The geographical extent of the Pocono is the same as that of the Catskill, already de- scribed, since it forms with it the Second and Mahantongo moun- tains. Flanked on the one side by the red rocks of No. IX, and in the other by the red shales of No.XI, it surrounds the coal basin with a picture turesque red and white wall. No. XI. (Umbral, Rogers; Mauch Chunk Red Shale, Lesley.)-This, the third red formation of Pennsylvania, consists of red shales, and sandstone, often containing beds of olive and green shale, and in some portions of the State a limestone belt. In this county it is composed mainly of red argillaceous sandstones and shales, and has a thickness of three thousand feet. It often shows, the presence of carbonate of lime, and thin streaks of poor limestone, but contains no division which can be compared with the mountain limestone of the South. The area of this formation in Schuylkill county is large, as it borders the outcrop of the conglomerate of No. XII. Beginning at the western end of the county, it forms a continuous valley to the east, known under the local names of Indian run and Tumbling run, between Sharp and Second mountains, forming the foothills of the latter, and outcropping high up on the south flank of the former. At Mauch Chunk it swings around the end of the southern coal field and again enters this county, forming Locust valley. Near Lebanon county, west of Gold Mine Gap, it follows the conglomer- ate, surrounding the prongs of the coal basin, and appears again in the county at the head waters of Wiconisco creek, and still further north, in the valleys of Long Pine creek and Deep creek, south of Mahantongo mountain. Sweeping still northward, it forms the valley of the Little Mahanoy creek. North of the Mahanoy mountain, it shows in the valleys of the Catawissa and its tribu- taries. Small patches of it also are brought to the surface in Broad Mountain, by rolls in the conglomerate. The fossils of this formation are mainly of marine plants, though some footprints of marine animals have been found. Mr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, has described, in an elaborate mem- oir, the footprints of a Sawropees Primaerus found at Amount Carbon. No. XII. (Seral Conglomerate, Rogers; Pottsville Conglomer- ate, Lesley; Millstone Grit, England.)--This formation, immedi- ately succeeding the red shales of No. XI, is very important, as it forms the base of the coal measures of Pennsylvania and con- tains the lowest workable beds. Its thickness of hard conglomer- ates and sandstones, underlying the soft and friable coal slates and shales, has formed the barrier which protected our wonderful deposit of anthracite coal from erosion. It is so easily recog- nized that it furnishes a basis for intelligent search for coal. It is composed, as before indicated, of massive gray quartzose conglomerates, interstratified by bands of brown sandstones, and a few thin streaks of coal slates, which, in some localities, develop into well defined and profitable coal beds. The character and thickness of this formation vary somewhat in this county from east to west along Sharp mountain. At Tamaqua it is eight hun- dred feet thick, and the massive beds of coarse silicious con- glomerates, containing pebbles from the size of an egg, or larg- er, down to that of a pea, predominate over the beds of coarse and fine sandstone. At this point it contains two or three imper- fect coal beds. At Pottsville it reaches the maximum thickness of ten hundred and thirty feet here the massive conglomerates are thinner and near the top of the mass, while the sandstones, esp- ecially the argillaceous layers, have thickened. Several thin beds of coal slates and at least on bed of impure coal are em- braced within its limits. At Lorberry Gap it is reduced to a thickness of six hundred and seventy-five feet, and consists of five or six ribs of coarse conglomerates, separated by beds of coarse sandstone, and three or four seams of poor coal. On the western portion of the county in Stony mountain, and western extension of Broad mountain, the poor coal beds develop _______________end page 37._________________ page 38 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ into the celebrated Lykens valley red ash coals, so extensively worked at the Wiconisco, Williamstown, Bookside, Kalmia, and Lincoln collieries. In the Mahanoy valley, at Ashland, this formation is exceedingly conglomeritic, the pebbles being large and siliceous. It measures, from the lowest coal to the red shale, six hundred feet, or, including a bed of egg conglomerate overlying this coal, eight hundred feet. At Trevorton, at the west end of the Shamokin basin, it consists of a series of con- glomerates and sandstones, with four bands of slate and shale, each of the latter bearing a valuable coal bed. The above de- scriptions, taken from Roger's report, give the reader a general idea of the construction of this silicious mass. As this forma- tion is bed rock of the coal fields, the tracings of its outcrop will define the coal basins of this county. From the Lehigh almost to the Susquehanna, a distance of fifty miles, this conglomerate mass, standing vertical in Sharp moun- tain forms the southern boundary of the Pottsville or southern coal field. Descending to a depth of at least three thousand feet at Pottsville, it rises, after making a series of subordinate rolls, and appears again in the beautiful anticlinal flexure of Mine Hill, only to disappear again beneath the Heckscherville and New Castle basin. Coming to the surface it makes the wide con- glomerate area known as Broad mountain, and further east the narrow ridge of Locust mountain. West of Tremont, the steep, dipping rocks of Sharp mountain, after making a narrow synclinal, appear in Stony mountain, and then follow round the fish tail of the western end of the coal field, till it merges into the con- glomerate outcrop of Broad mountain, forming Short and North mountains. Farther north this conglomerate includes in its deep fold the Second basin, bounding it on the north by Mahanoy moun- tain, and beyond the Catawissa creek forms the Green and Spring mountains. No. XIII. (Coal. Measures.)-This is the most important forma- tion of this county, as well as of Pennsylvania. The conglomerate, as already described, serves as the floor upon which the three thousand feet or more of coal bearing strata have been deposited, is the protecting mass which has preserved to us our black dia- monds, and in some places may be considered really a part of the coal measures. The rocks enclosing the beds and coal slates consist of gray and bluish siliceous and argillaceous sandstones, shales and slates, with some massive conglomerates. The shales often contain nodules of silicious iron ores, and the slates at times enclose bands of carbonate ore, resembling the famous "Blackband," of Scotland. The slates accompanying the coal beds contain numberless impressions of ferns, Stigmaria, Sigillaria and Lepidodendron, and are the records of the ancient life in the Carboniferous age. Professor Leo Lesquereaux's memoirs, in the collection of the Pottsville Scientific Society, a list of all the known species of the coal flora of the coal fields. Evidences of animal life are rare, only a few mollusc shells having been found. The coal beds are not always compact masses of pure carbon, but are composed of layers of coal separated into benches by bands of slate or bony coal. The beds are usually underlaid by a tough, sandy slate or fire clay, which was the ancient soil upon which the plants and forests grew. Owing to the many flexures and squeezings in the soft rocks of these formations, it is difficult to arrive at an exact meas- ure of their thickness. In the Southern basin, which is the deepest, it is estimated at least three thousand feet and in- cludes perhaps thirty coal beds, of which fifteen are workable and over three feet thick. The series can be separated into three divisions, by the color of ash of the coals: a lower or white ash group, middle or gray ash and an upper or red ash. Including the beds in the conglomerate, we have a still lower group of red ash coals. The accompanying section gives the order and succession of these workable beds, from highest to lowest, together with their average thickness and color of ash: Sandrock bed, red ash, ........................ 3 feet. Interval. Gate " " ........................ 7 " Interval. Little Tracy bed," ........................ 3 " Interval. Big Tracy " " ........................ 6 " Interval. Diamond " " ........................ 6 " Interval. Little Orchard" " .........................3 " Interval. Orchard " " ........................ 6 " Interval. Primrose " grey ash, ........................ 10 " Interval. Holmes " white ash,........................ 5 " Interval. Seven-Foot " " ........................ 7 " Interval. Mammoth " " ........................ 25 " Interval. Skidmore " " ....................... 6 " Interval. Buck Mountain bed," ....................... 9 " Interval. Lykens Valley, upper bed, red ash,............ 8 " Interval. Lykens Valley, lower" " ...................... 3 " Conglomerate. Total coal,..................... 107 feet The two intra-conglomerate beds, known as the Lykens Valley coal, are very free burning and much valued for domestic and other uses. The next bed ________________end page 38._________________ page 39 THE SCHYLKILL COAL BEDS. _______________________________________________________________ above, a white ash, known as the Buck mountain, is a very hard and rough coal, and has been developed and worked extensively throughout the county. The Skidmore lies next above this. These two have proved of greatest value for smelting purposes, being less liable to break or fly into pieces like other anthracites, when subjected to the heat of the furnace. Next above is the famous Mammoth bed, often a single layer forty feet in thickness, or at times separated by rock into two or three splits, the most important of which is the upper one, called the "Seven-Foot." Directly above the Mammoth, and sometimes embraced in it, is the so-called Seven-Foot bed, often ten feet of excellent white ash coal of the purest quality. The Holmes bed occurs about one hundred feet above the Mam- moth, and is from four to six feet of hard, compact, shortgrained white ash, suitable for furnace purposes. One hundred yards above the Mammoth there is the celebrated Primrose coal. It is a nine feet bed of grey ash coal, being the transition from the red to the white ash. In irregular distances above these beds occur, in their regular order, the several red ash coals, known in the locality of Pottsville as the two Orchards, Diamond, Big and Little Tracys, Gate and Sandrock beds, ranging from three to six feet in thickness of good red ash coal. These were the first developed coals and first introduced into market from this coun- ty. The workings were abandoned when exhausted above water level, when the larger and more productive lower coals were found. The coal area of the county is confined to the Southern and Middle coal fields, and a few isolated patches on the Broad, Green and Spring mountains, covering some two hundred and ten square miles. The greater part, or about two-thirds of this area, lies in the southern field, which, alike an ill-shaped shark, with its nose resting on the Lehigh, at Mauch Chunk, extends southwestward as a great valley, bounded by Sharp mountain on the south and Locust and Broad mountains on the north, gradually increasing in width, until, west of Tremont, it subsides into two prongs, the northern one reaching westward to Wiconisco, in Dauphin county, and the southern one to within six miles of the Susquehanna, at the town of Dauphin. Its length in the county is about forty miles, its width from to five miles and the to total area in this county one hundred and forty-three square miles. The portion of the Second or Middle coal field within Schuyl- kill county extends eastward from Ashland, bounded by Broad and Mahanoy mountains for twenty miles, and embraces an area of sixty-three square miles. The depth of this coal field is much less than that of the first, and consequently the upper or red ash coals are confined to the centers of the deep basins. Between the two basins, and separating them, lies the elevated conglomerate-covered Broad mountain, which carries in some of its synclinal rolls small areas of coal measures. The principal one of these small basins is that of New Boston, six miles in length and less than one-half mile in width. The coals are those of the lowest group, including the Mammoth, Skidmore and Buck mountain beds. The small isolated basins in the northern part of the county, about the headwaters of Catawissa creek, are part of the Lehigh system of basins and are included in the middle coal field. They are shallow and hold only the lower coals. The formations of that part of the county south of Sharp moun- tain, although including in other portions of the Estate valuable deposits of iron ore, seem here to be of little or no economical value, aside from that of furnishing a soil fitted for agricultu- ral purposes. It is to the coal bearing strata, covering so much of the northern part, we must ascribe our economic importance and our position as one of the most populous and wealthy counties of our State. The southern coal afield, as has been already mentioned, cont- ains the greater part of the coal area of the county, and also includes the greatest number of coal beds, and consequently the greatest aggregate thickness of coal. The southern wall of this field in this county is broken by four gaps, through which flow the Little Schuylkill, the main and west branch of the Schuylkill and the Swatara, which receive not only the surface drainage but also that of the mines. The railways run through these narrow passes, and follow the streams and their tributaries to the very openings of the mines. The details of structure, embracing the description of the many subordinate anticlinals and synclinals, the variations in the several coal beds, the thickening and thinning of the rock intervals, cannot be discussed in a paper of this length, and for these the reader is referred to Professors Rogers and Lesley's reports on this basin. The main points of the struc- ture, however, can be indicated. Sharp mountain forms the southern boundary of this coal afield, extending from the west end of the county to beyond Middleport, in almost a straight line, its rocks having in this distance a vertical or over- turned north dip. Beyond this point, however, the mountain swings to the north in three distinct flexures, and then contin- ues to Tamaqua, and beyond, as a steep, vertical monoclonal ridge. The coal measures flank the mountain, conforming to the dip of the conglomerate; then, making a deep and sharp basin, roll away to the north in distinct flexures, lessening in depth, crop out on the south side of Mine Hill, and next appear in the narrow north Mine Hill basin. The basin, as a whole, may be regarded as one deep syncli- nal, enclosed by the converging dips of Sharp mountain of the south, and Broad on the north, with an undulating bottom form- ing parallel subordinate basins. The vertical, or, at times, overturned dips of the coal measures on the north side of Sharp mountain, make a deep and narrow synclinal whose south dip is formed by an axis, which runs from the bend in the moun- tain, east of Middleport, west to where it splits the basin into two prongs beyond Tremont. The State survey recognized between this and the axis of Mine hill at least seven distinct anticlinal axes, running in a generally _______________end page 39.___________________ page 40 HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY. ______________________________________________________________ parallel direction, most of them marked by a line of narrow hills. These axes, it will be noticed, do not consist of straight, but of a series of broken lines, having the same general direction. Mine hill is an arm of Broad mountain, which separates from the main ridge west of Forestville, and extends as far eastward as Patterson, in the Schuylkill valley, a distance of sixteen miles, where it dies away. The basin of North Mine hill, is bounded by this ridge on the main southern field, only merging into it at its eastern extremity. The main basins, as well as the subordinate ones, are not equally deep at all points of their synclinals, but exhibit the canoe-shaped structure, the bottoms rising gradually towards the eastern and western extremities. The deposit of the coal meas- ures is very thick in the region about Pottsville, but westward the thickness decreases, so that at the western end of the field, the upper red ash coals have disappeared, and the lower coals alone occupy the comparatively shallow troughs. The same feature is noticed to the eastward. Thus at the deep shafts of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co., near Pottsville, the Mammoth bed lies at a depth of nearly two thousand feet below the surface, or some thirteen hundred and fifty feet below tide, awhile west, at Tremont, it is not over one thousand feet, and east, at Mauch Chunck, it is much less. On account of this depth, the early working in this county were confined to the thin upper or red ash veins, which crop out in the gaps and hill sides, easily worked above water level. Then the Mammoth and other lower veins were attacked in the northern part of the field, where the gradual rising of the measures towards Broad mountain brought them near enough to the surface to be worked with profit. Later, the opening up of the Second basin, with its more accessible veins, transferred the greater part of the mining industry north of Broad mountain. Although the southern basin covers a much greater area, yet it contains but fifty-three collieries. But the day is not far distant when this field will be the busy one. After the more shallow basins are exhausted, the millions of tons of Mammoth and other coals, held in reserve in its deep folds, will be brought to the surface, and forwarded to market. Anthracite is now a necessity and here is its great- est store house. The Second or Middle coal field, as already described, lies in this county between Broad and Mahanoy mountains, enclosed by them on the north, south and east, thus completely surrounded by a massive rocky barrier, only broken by the gap at Ashland, through which gateway flows Mahanoy creek to the Susquehanna. This stream rises in the extreme eastern end of the basin, flows westerly through Mahanoy valley, and with its branches drains all of this basin within the county limits. Shenandoah creek, its main tributary, rises on the Mahanoy mountain, flows southeaster- ly and joins it at Girardville. These streams, penetrating the field in all directions, furnish the outlets for the railways connecting the mines with the markets. Bear ridge, rising five hundred feet above the streams, runs parallel to the trend of the basin, separating Mahanoy and Shenandoah valleys, forming a prominent feature in the topography. The structure of this region is very complicated, and there remain many problems of interest for the geologists to solve. The portion of the field, in general, consists of three separate parallel basins: the Mahanoy basin, a deep, sharp synclinal, bounded by Bear ridge and Broad mountain; a broad, middle trough, and finally the most northern or the Shenandoah basin. The Mahanoy basin is remarkably uniform, its north and south dips being very nearly equal, and runs without a break or turn to beyond Girardville, where, the Bear ridge axis dying away, it merges into the Ashland basin. Between this basin and the middle one the rocks seem to have been crushed together in a narrow, overturned flexure, occupying the north flank of Bear ridge. The Middle or Ellangowen basin narrows at Turkey run, and then, to the west, becomes the William Penn basin. The Shenandoah basin is comparatively shallow, with a gentle south dip and steep north one, which, at times, is folded back, so that it appears as a south dip. Several miles west of Shenan- doah the rise of this basin brings its bottom to the surface and it ends there; but still further west it appears again. West of Girardville some of the minor axes become more promi- nent and change the details of structure. In this coal field the lower or white ash beds are especially well developed and are the ones principally worked. The great Mammoth bed is often a solid stratum forty feet in thickness, and at times appears in two or three splits, separated by fifth feet or more of rock. The Buck Mountain, Skidmore, Seven-Foot, Holmes and Primrose are all worked, and more extensively as the Mammoth is exhausted. This region, now full of thriving towns and collieries, with their ponderous machinery for bringing the coal to the surface and preparing it for market, thirty years ago was covered with forests of pine and hemlock. The position of this field relative to the outlets of the southern one, its mountain barrier, pierced by so few natural outlets, were some of the obstacles to its early development. Stephen Girard, in 1830, commenced his railroad of planes and levels into this basin, under the direction of Moncure Robinson, but abandoned it in 1836, after a shipment of but 13,347 tons. In 1854 the Mine Hill Railroad was continued across Broad Moun- tain to Ashland; and in 1856 Messrs. Patterson, Bast and Conner shipped the first coal, 178 tons, from this region. The building of this road was the result of the great labor of Schuylkill county's prominent citizen Burd Patterson, whose energy also urged to completion the East Mahanoy railroad and tunnel, and also the Broad Mountain Railroad, under George B. Rogerts, its chief engineer. Now the many branches of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and Lehigh Valley roads on the east tap all parts of this district. _____________end page 40._______________ page 41 THE SCHUYLKILL COAL BELTS. _______________________________________________________________ The development of the mines of Mahanoy and Shenandoah valleys, in the few years of its history, has been wonderful, and its pro- duction of coal has increased at a very rapid rate. A table accompanying Chapter IV shows the entire production of the Schuylkill and other districts, from their beginning to January, 1881. The areas of the anthracite coal fields, confined to a few counties of our State, are so well defined that we need be in no doubt as to their extent; and this limited area admonishes us that we should carefully husband our inheritance, and not waste it. The fact is well established, that for every ton shipped to market, two are wasted. The loss in the operations of mining, the pillars left to support the roofs of the mines, the loss in preparation, each contributes to this great aggregate. How to prevent these losses, by use of improved machinery, and by more through methods of working the mines, should be the study of our mining superintendents and engineers. Several suggestions, with a view to a partial remedy, present themselves. First.-The owning of the land by the operators would make them careful to mine all the coals. As tenants for a limited term of years, their object is merely to take out that coal, and in such a manner as will cost them little, and bring them much. Second.-If the lands are to be leased, the term should be long enough to enable them to mine all the coal beds covered by the lease. Third.-The lease should contain clauses subjecting the meth- ods of mining, ventilation and drainage to the supervision of the owner's mining engineers; limiting the lengths of "breast," to seventy yards, or less; forbidding the use of monkey rolls, or the rebreaking of coal; providing for the dumping in separate heaps of the coal dirt and the slate and rock. Fourth.- We need larger collieries, and fewer of them, with perfected machinery, for hoisting, pumping and breaking. Fifth.-More capital is required to open the mines for exten- sive and exhaustive working, by driving the gangways to the ext- reme ends of the territory, and then mining towards the outlet, so as to obviate the necessity of retracing our steps and robbing the pillars. In Schuylkill county we are specialists. We are dependent upon one substance: coal is king. There is no gold, silver, lead, copper or other valuable metals. Though we have good iron ores, they are so disseminated as not to furnish us one workable bed. Yet we largely help Pennsylvania to furnish nearly half the iron manufactured in the United States. We have a large farming area well cultivated by our industrious and frugal German farmers. Our convenient location to the great markets of the Atlantic seaboard, our canals and abundant railroad facilities, our great commodity, always give a promise and an attitude among the great counties of our grand old commonwealth, which we are ever proud to realize. End Chapter IV