Guernsey County, Ohio - Chapter 17: Mini's Ami Mix Inc, 1911

Chapter 17: Mini's Ami Mix Inc

Every county has its special resources of wealth lavished on or within the earth from which the children of men may subsist, if perchance they take advantage of such hidden treasures. The Creator has provided the raw material, and mankind must needs dig and delve and bring such deposits to the surface and appropriate them to their use and comfort. Here in Guernsey county, while the soil is not of that rich, productive character found in other sections of the country, it has stored beneath the surface rich coal fields and rich deposits of clay of various grades, from which brick, tile and pottery are successfully manufactured.

Coming to the matter of coal - bituminous or soft coal, as it is usually known - this chapter will speak especially, and incidentally of clays, gas and salt found here in commercial paying quantities.

The subject of mines and mining and of geology is to the ordinary reader a dry topic and is of most interest and value to the technical student of such sciences. From the earliest date it was known by pioneers that this count}' contained coal. Just what its value might be none of the first settlers knew or even conjectured. Wood was plentiful then and the matter of heating the cabins, business places, schools and churches was of but little consequence to the hardy pioneers who first set stakes in this goodly count)' away back in the hist years of the nineteenth century.

Coal mining in this county was not developed to any great extent until in the seventies and early eighties, after railroads had penetrated this territory and given an outlet for the coal product.

At other places in this work some of the early coal mines have been referred to, hence need not be repeated here. The only object of this chapter is to make a lasting record of the coal mining industry at this, the close of the first decade of the twentieth century, t fiat other men in later decades may have a report of it. The facts herein have been largely extracted from the chief mine inspector's report.

Ohio had in 1908 (last official report) 50,276 men employed in the coal mines of the state. Of this number 112 were killed. Seventeen per cent of the coal mined was by the pick process and eighty-two by the machine process. The total tonnage mined in Ohio was 26,287,000. There are thirty counties in Ohio in which coal is mined commercially.

Guernsey county produced 1,985,248 tons of lump coal; 303,586 in nut coal; 637,614 tons of pea and slack coal, making a total of 2,926,448 tons. The rank among the other twenty-nine counties was fourth. Of this total tonnage, 41,673 tons was of the pick process of mining, while 2,884,775 tons were of the machine mine process. In the one hundred and twenty-nine pick mines there were one hundred and forty-one days worked and the amount of 30,304 tons produced in the county, or an average of one and six-tenths tons per day. The average cut of coal for each machine, per day, was thirty-seven tons. The total number of kegs of powder employed in the mines in 1908 was 18,904. The number of tons produced by each man employed about the mines of Guernsey county was, for that year, 595.

There were three new mines opened up in 1908 in this county, three suspended and one abandoned. There are twenty-nine "large mines" in this county and twenty-three "small ones," making a total of fifty-two mines being operated today. Of these, twenty-three are drift mines ; thirteen, slope mines, and fifteen, shaft mines, making the total fifty-one. In these mines are used various ventilating methods. In twenty-five there are used fans, in twenty, "natural."

Of accidents in Guernsey county in 1908, there were eighty-three; sixteen fatal accidents ; forty-eight serious accidents and nineteen minor accidents.

Guernsey county is within the fifth Ohio coal district, which is composed of Guernsey, Coshocton, Tuscarawas and parts of Belmont and Noble counties. W. H. Turner was inspector for this district and resided at Cambridge in 1908. He made one hundred and twenty-two visits to mines within this county that year.

All mines in this county are working the No. Seven seam, which runs from five to seven feet in thickness, except Indian Camp, Union No. 1 and Morris, which are working No. Six seam, varying from two feet four inches to three and a half feet.

Description 01 The Large Mines

Eureka mine, operated by the Cambridge Coal and Mining Company, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, is a slope, two hundred and twenty-five feet long, located on the Pennsylvania railroad, near Byesville. Eighteen miners arc employed. About seventy-five thousand dollars were expended before any results were had in this mine.

Ideal mine is a shaft seventy-five feet deep, located near Byesville, and is wned and operated by the Cambridge Collieries Company, Cleveland. Fan ventilation and electric mining machinery are used.

Walhonding No. i, owned by the Cambridge Collieries Company, is a shaft mine one hundred and twenty-five feet deep, near Pleasant City. Ninety-four miners and thirty day hands are kept at work.

Walhonding Xo. 2. owned by the Cambridge Collieries Company. is a shaft one hundred and sixty-one feet deep, located a mile and a half from Buffalo, on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio (eastern branch), and here modern improvements obtain.

The Hartford, operated by the above company, with W. H. Davis, of Byesville, as managed, is a shaft mine eighty-five feet deep, on the Baltimore & ( )hio railroad. It has fan ventilation and electric machinery for mining. Here one hundred and eighty men are employed and fifty-seven day men.

Trail Run No. 1, also the property of the above collieries company, is a shaft mine seventy-five feet deep, situated near Trail run, on the Pennsylvania road. Fan ventilation and electric machines are installed. One hundred and nine miners are employed and fifty-nine day men. Trail Run No. 2, operated by the same coal company, is a shaft mine one hundred and twelve feet deep, uses fans and has electric appliances. Two hundred miners find work in this extensive mine.

The Detroit mine, owned by the Cambridge Collieries Company, is a shaft one hundred and eighty-five feet in depth, near Ava. Fan ventilation and electric machines are used in operating the mines. One hundred and seventy-five miners are worked at this mine and seventyfive day hands.

Midway mine is located near Byesville, on the Pennsylvania road. Fifty-one men are used in mining coal here. Fan ventilators and electric machines are employed here.

Imperial mine is located at Derwent, this county, on the Pennsylvania road; is a shaft mine one hundred and ten feet deep. It is operated by the Imperial Coal Company. Fan ventilation and electric mining machines obtain.

Ohio Xo. I, a drift mine near Cambridge, on the Pennsylvania railroad, is owned by the O'Gara Coal Company. Chicago. Thirtytwo miners are worked here and fourteen day hands. This was called Nicholson No. i.

Red Oak mine, located near Byesville, operated by J. R. McBurney, Cambridge, has a furnace ventilation, compressed air mining and pumping appliances. Twenty men find work here and five day hands.

Murray Hill slope mine, near Klondyke on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, is operated by the Akron Coal Company. Forty miners and sixteen day men are employed.

Klondyke slope mine is situated near Klondyke, Ohio, and is a hundred and fifty foot slope mine, employing ninety miners and thirtyone clay men. Several accidents have occurred here.

King's mine, operated by the Morris Coal Company, of Cleveland, is a shaft mine one hundred feet deep, near Lore City, employing two hundred miners and eighty day men.

Cleveland mine No. I is a shaft almost two hundred feet deep, located near Senecaville and is operated by the Morris Coal Company. One hundred and thirty-five miners are employed and forty-eight day men.

West Branch mine is located near Byesville, operated by the Clinton Coal and Mining Company; is a sixty-five foot slope mine on a switch of the Pennsylvania railroad. Coal was discovered here in 1903.

Buckeye mine, located near Byesville, is operated by the National Coal Company. It is a hundred and fifteen foot slope. One hundred and eighteen men are employed as miners and thirty-five day men.

on a switch leading from the Baltimore & Ohio road, near Blue Bell. It is owned and operated by the National Coal Company of Akron. Thirty-three miners and eighteen day men are employed.

White Ash mine is located near Byesville and is operated by the Puritan Coal Company, Cambridge. Fan ventilation and electric mining machines are employed. Here twenty-four miners and eight day men are employed.

The Puritan mine, owned by the Puritan Coal Company, Cambridge, is a shaft one hundred and six feet deep, situated near Derwent, on the Pennsylvania railroad. It has fan ventilation and employs one hundred and twenty-seven miners and forty-two day men.

The Forsythe mine, located near Mineral Siding, is a slope of one hundred and ten feet in depth. Here one hundred and seventy-six miners find employment and fifty-eight day men. It is owned by the Forsythe Coal Company, Cambridge.

Leatherwood No. 2 mine is operated by the Leatherwood Consolidated Coal Company, of Toledo. Fifty-three miners are employed and tw enty-one day men.

Guernsey Brick mine, situated near Byesville. is operated by the Guernsey7 Clay Company. Furance ventilation, picking and mule hauling are the mining methods employed here. Nine men are employed as miners and two day hands.

Besides the larger coal mines in Guernsey' count}' may be named the Eollowing: The Morris, Burn's, Wild Cat, Keenan, Carter. Hollingsworth, B. L. Galloway, Webster No. 1, Webster No. 2. Montgomery, Saver, Hall, McCormick, Spencer, Bates, Lingo and Briar Hill.

Salt Manufactory

We mentioned several months since that Elza Scott, of this vicinity, who owns very extensive coal mines on the Central Ohio railroad, east of this place, and who for a number of years past has been exten- sively engaged in shipping coal, was engaged in boring for salt. Mr. Scott succeeded in striking a very strong vein of salt water at a depth of nearly one thousand feet, and his works are now in successful operation. He now runs one furnace, and makes daily from twenty-five to thirty barrels of salt, of very superior quality. It is estimated that the well affords sufficient water to make from fifty to seventy-five barrels of salt a day. Although Mr. Scott has already expended about fifteen thousand dollars in the erection of his works, he intends soon to start another furnace and run the well to its full capacity. We are glad to learn that Mr. Scott's enterprise is being well-rewarded pecuniarily. His net daily income from his salt manufactory alone is fifty dollars, and will be about one hundred dollars per day after the erection of another furnace. - Times, February 7, 1865.

Natural Gas

Within about three miles of Cambridge, in a direct line, on the premises of David Sarchet, Sr., is an inexhaustible salt well, from which constantly flows a stream of salt water several inches in diameter, and with it a large and constant supply of natural gas, which can be ignited at any time by merely holding a lighted match near the flowing stream. We have the authority of a scientific gentleman from the east, who visited this well during the oil excitement here, for saying that there is an abundance of gas flowing from this well to light up a place much larger than Cambridge, and that it could easily be conducted here for that purpose at no very great cost; and he expressed great surprise that steps had never been taken to utilize so valuable a production of nature. The subject is one which should sufficiently claim the attention of the city fathers as to cause them to make such investigation of the matter as to ascertain the feasibility of the plan, and what the cost would be, and. if not too great, measures should be be instituted to light our fast .growing little city with it. This subject is brought to our mind by noticing an item stating that Erie, Pennsylvania, has been lighted up with natural gas, that flows from a well sunk near that place. Information in regard to the matter could doubtless be obtained by writing to the Erie Gas Company, Erie, Pennsylvania. The subject, we think, is at least worthy of a little investigation by our city authorities. - Times, November 3, 1870.

Old Sarchet House, Bu

First house erected in Cambridge, in which was the first store, in which the first church was organized, and in which the first funeral sermon was preached. Location, northeast corner of Seventh St. and Wheeling Ave.