Eastland County, Texas - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 12 of those read), 1904

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 12 of those read)

Conspicuous in the early history of the church appear the names of L. M. Miarshall, J. T. Winfield, H. W. Joyce, Maxwell brothers and Uticle George and Mila* Wood. Services were held in the piiblic school building and in the Methodist Church until 1893, when a house which is well situated in the northern part of town, was built. A comfortable manse is situated on the adjoining lots.

ticient management of Prof. G. C. Barnes. The contributions for the different enterprises for the year 1903 exceeded all amounts for previous years together. No public collections are taken.

The present pastoi- is Eev. Z. T. Blanton. Perfect harmony prevails and it is hoped that this body may occupy its place as a persistent factor in the spiritual aplifiting of Eising Star and the surrounding country.

Sajbanno Cumberland Presbyterian CHURCit. - This church was organized about 1886 by the Eev. T). A Knox. For several years the congregation worshipped in the school house, holding its revival meetings under a brush arbor. In the summer of 1896 a house was built, and since then a tent has been provided for revivals, are held annually.

Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian Church. - This congregation was organized in 1898 with ten men> bers as the result of a revival meeting conducted by the -Eev. W. E. Green.

As a church organization would not be allowed to occupy the school house, Messrs. S. A. Fleming ( Cumberland), Sam Webb (Baptist) and ,W. T. Boyd (Methodist) met and decided to build a union house for these denominations. This was done. Several revivals have been held, these denominations always co-operating.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church now has about forty members. Mlessrs. B. L. Marshall, Louis Marshall, G. B. Kelley, S. A. Flemings and John D. Walker are the present elders, with Eev. C. C. Bullock as pastor.

The Banger Cxjmbeeland^ PEESBYTEEfAN Chueoi-i Rev. J. A. Williams, pastor, is in a thriving condition, with a fine Sunday School and an active Woman's Foreign ilissionary Society. The organization has its own church building.

The Disciples of Christ have several organizations and church buildings in the County. Eev. Mc- Kuight is the pastor of the Cisco congregation. R. C. Maddox is pastor of the congregation at Rising Star.

School Directory Op The Couisty Ixdependeft School Distetcts

Gorman - Superintendent. A. C. Ferguson; A. H. King, Alex Allen, Mrs. Tranquil McDaniel. Miss Claire Eush; Art, Miss Bailey. Trustees : J. Q. Eppler, President; T. L. Gates, Secretary and Treasurer; W. S. Wood, J. A. Jones, W. L. Terry. W. P. Burleson, E. F. Nelson.

Official Diebctoey

The geology of Eastland County is very simple, as the strata belong to only two of the great geological series, the carboniferous and cretaceous. The cretaceous i"! found only along the southern border of the County. This formation forms no very great nor conspicuous area in the County, and consists principally of "sand roughs." The areas were once covered by be,ds of limestone, which has long since been eroded and the sands are the remnants of a once continuous bed that covered the whole country to the foot of the mountains west of the Pecos River. The beds belong to the Trinity saiid formation, and forms a part of the catchment area that supplies with water the great artesian water belt lying to the southeastward. This area was originally covered with a dense growth of dwarf oaks. The surface is generally level, very few of the hills being prominent. The term rolling i? very applicable to this phase of topography. A friable sand of variable thickness deposited upon a hard floor of Paleozoic rocks, and subjected to the action of the prevailing atmospheric agencies, has given this character of topography.

The remainder of the County belongs to the carboniferous period. In describing the carboniferous in Texas I divided the strata into these divisions :

The Cisco division is the highest and most recent of the divisions. One traveling westward along the Texas and Pacific Eailroad goes off the cretaceous on to the Millsap division of the carboniferous about two miles east of Millsap. He would go off to the carboniferous about half way between Baird and Putnam. The Bend Division does not occur at the surface anvwhere in this part of the State, but has been found in deep wells at Thurber and Fort Worth.

It is unnecessary to give a description of any of the divisions except that of the Canyon and Cisco. The Canyon division occurs in the eastreji part of the County, and was so named from the prominence with which some of the strata are seen at Canyon, in the western part of Palo Pinto County, along the line of the Tejcas and Pacific Raihvaj'. This division is composed very largely of massive limestone, and may be easily recognized by this fact, the limestone in the other divisions being much thinner bedded.

The beds of the Cisco division are well exposed in the vicinity of Cisco, and the. division was so named for this reason. The strata are mostly composed of conglomerates, sandstones, clays and shales. This division txtends from northeast to southwest through the enlire county. It is distinguished by its stratigraphic position below, it being found always in the heavy beds of the Canyon division.

The strata of the cretaceous dip tf) the .southeast, while the strata of the carboniferous dip to the northwest, in an exactly opposite direction. The dip of the carboniferous is at the rate of about sixty feet to the mile. This fact will preclude the notion that flowing artesian water can be found at Cisco or vicinity, the recurving area being lower than any point to the westward, and water will not rise higher than its source.

There are nine coal seams in the carboniferous formation in Texas. Wlien I made ray rf^port on the coal fields of Texas, the first section of the coal measures ever published in Texas, I numbered these beds from one to nine inclusive. Only two of these seams are thick enough to be of any commercial value. These are numbers two and seven. Number two is found at Thurber, Eock Creek and Bridgeport. JSTumbej seven is found in Eastland, Young, Jack and Mbntague Counties. Some attempts have been made to develop the coal in the vicinity of Cisco, in Eastland County, but without any very great success. The outcrops of this seam in the northern portion of this County are numerous. The seam is twenty inches thick, with a band of slate above it, followed by a seam of coal four inchch tliick. The band of slate is from four to ten inches thick between the coal seams. At another place where I examined this seam are nine inches of coal and twenty inches of bituminous shale. This shale will burn when put on the fire, but loses none of its bulk in burning, and is absolutely worthless as a fuel. The difficulty in working this seam of coal in this vicinity is the fact of the thinness of the seam^ and the furtlier fact that if both seams are mined the stratum of bituminous shale will have to be taken out of the mine, for it is so highly impregnated with sulphuret of iron that when the material is exposed to the atm&sphere and it slacks, the sulphuric acid escaping will set the whole mass on fire.

There are no other minerals in this County of any economical value. Gold and silver have been reported at several places, but the amount has always been so small that it would not pay to develop. Iron occurs at many places in several fornis, but it is always of too smiall a percentage of metallic iron to be of any commercial value.