Ohio History Journal

THE KNOWLEDGE OF COAL AND IRON IN

OHIO BEFORE 1835.

 

 

 

BY PAUL WAKELEE STODDARD*

 

 

Today Ohio is one of the great coal-producing cen-

ters of the world, a position which it has maintained

for close on to a century.  The real starting-point of the

development of the mineral resources of the state was

the First Geological Survey, which took place in the third

decade of the nineteenth century, and which has been

considered in a previous article. But what knowledge

of the vast deposits of coal, and the lesser deposits of

iron, did the early settlers of Ohio possess?  When did

these resources first become known? What use was

made of them? These are a few of the questions to

which an answer is sought here.

Turning first to modern accounts of Ohio's coal and

iron, and to those written by authors at the time of the

Geological Survey, one finds that, although there may

be a difference with regard to dates, there is unanimity

when it comes to quantity. All are agreed that the Ohio

coal fields are among the foremost in the world. One

of the standard geologies,¹ published in 1839, for ex-

ample, stated that

* B. A., Yale University, 1924. Graduate School, Yale University,

December 15, 1927. Mr. Stoddard is also the author of the "Story of the

First Geological Survey of Ohio, 1835-1842." See Ohio Archaeological and

Historical Society Publications, v. XXXVII, No. 1, January, 1928, pp.

107-135.

1 Bakewell, Robert, An Introduction to Geology, ed. J. Silliman, 451.

(219)

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the valley of the Mississippi contains the largest coal field, or

rather collection of coal field, in the known world. * * * Iron

ore abounds generally.

Another writer, S. P. Hildreth, reported in 1835 that

 

coal occurs in an inexhaustible quantity, and is in general of an

excellent quality.²

In standard works of reference, too, there appear assur-

ances of the large amount of coal, with somewhat con-

flicting references as to dates. The International Ency-

clopedia reports, in dealing with coal, that

 

The deposits, among which were those of Ohio, were discovered

about 1701 and mining was begun by 1750. But extended coal

mining in America did not begin until about 18203

while the Encyclopedia Brittanica gives more definite

amounts:

 

Whereas coal was discovered as early as 1770 mining was begun

not later than 1828; * * * the first accurate output was re-

corded in 1872; namely, 5,315,294 short tons. Iron, which is in

the east and southeast sections of the State, began to be mined in

the early nineteenth century, but this production was reduced from

254,294 long tons, in 1889, to 26,585 long tons in 1904, all of

which was carbonate.⁴

To reconcile these dates, the records left by early set-

tlers, the gazetteers, and the early geographies, are

greatly reinforced by the accounts of travelers who

journeyed to Ohio in the early years.

The history of Ohio before the Revolution was not

 

 

² American Journal of Science and Arts, October, 1835.

3 International Encyclopaedia, V, 500.

4 Encyclopedia Brittanica, XX, 26.

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Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835      221

of great consequence. Beginning with the journeys of

Hennepin and La Salle, the white settlers first came in

numbers about 1730, when the first English traders from

Pennsylvania and Virginia visited the southern part of

the territory. In 1749, the first Ohio Company was

formed, and a year later, Christopher Gist wended his

way down the Ohio to the Scioto. Other travelers

visited the region occasionally, but little official notice of

Ohio was taken until, in 1774, Parliament passed the

Quebec Act, by which the territory was annexed to

Quebec. After the War, of course, it became a part of

the new United States so rapidly spreading westward.

Coal was first mentioned in connection with the

journey of Father Hennepin, in 1679, who reported it

appearing on the surface, apparently in some quantity.

So also La Salle, but their investigations were not con-

fined primarily to the Ohio country; rather to that now

known as Illinois. In fact it was not until the time of

Christopher Gist (1751) that any definite report was

made. Writing in his Journal for Wednesday, March

27, 1751,⁵ he reported:

 

Our horses and selves were so tired that we were obliged to

stay this Day to rest, for we were unable to travel. On all

branches of the Cuttaway River was Plenty of Stone Coal, some

of which I brought in to the Ohio Company.

The next day, Thursday, March 28, 1751, his dis-

coveries continued:

Set out S. E. 15 m., crossing creeks of the little Cuttaway River,

the land being still full of coal and blank slate.

On the next Tuesday, April 1, he wrote:

5 Johnston, J. Stoddard, Journal of Christopher Gist, 154-155.

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We went down another Creek to a lick where blocks of coal about

8 by to inches square lay upon the surface of the ground.

But Gist, it is to be noted, did not mention iron.

Iron first gained a notice in the travelers' accounts in

1770, in a letter of an unnamed English engineer and

explorer, addressed to the Earl of Hillsborough, when

the latter was Secretary of State for North America.⁶

Lead and iron ore are plenty in the hills. * * * Hemp, tim-

ber, and iron will be plenty.

But in these chance references, coal always predomi-

nated.

These few scattered notes complete the records of

pre-Revolutionary knowledge of the mineral resources

of the State. Only on one occasion during the actual

progress of the war was there any mention whatever

of coal or iron. In 1777, a Captain Hutchins published,

in London, a map on which coal was marked at various

places along the Ohio River,⁷ a map which had the dis-

tinction of being the first, of Ohio at least, on which

coal was mentioned at all. Before passing on to the

later accounts, however, one statement which may be

of little value, since it cannot be verified, should be

listed. In a book published in London, in 1797,⁸ Gilbert

Imlay, a captain in the American Army during the war,

and a commissioner for laying out lands in the back

settlements, said that

a coal mine, opposite Lamenchicola mouth, took fire in 1748, and

kept burning about a twelvemonth, where great quantities are still

left.

6 Quoted, Phillips, P. L., The Cutler Map of Ohio, 1787, 34.

7 Nicolls, W. J., Story of American Coals, 59.

8 Imlay, Gilbert, A Topographical Description of the Western Territory

of North America, 117.

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Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835      223

Apparently this information came either from Indians

or from traders, as 1748 was a year before the forma-

tion of the first Ohio Company. If true, however, the

term "coal mine" probably referred only to a surface

deposit.

In the years following, many additional stories of

the great amount of mineral material began to attract

attention. That keen European observer, M. St. John

De Crevecoeur, "consul for France for the Middle

States in America," in 1782 wrote in his Letters of an

American Farmer:

 

All the travelers and hunters have spoken to me with admiration

of the excellent fountains, salt pits and coal mines (particularly

that of Lamenchicola), of the free stone, etc., that they find

everywhere.⁹

Five years later, in 1787, was published at Salem, Mas-

sachusetts, what today is an exceedingly rare map of

Ohio. The person who surveyed the territory, drew the

map, and wrote the description, was Manasseh Cutler

of Killingly, Connecticut, a clergyman, doctor, and

scientist, who graduated from Yale in 1765, and was

later elected to the American Academy. The map, (as

reproduced by P. L. Phillips), had one township in the

southeast portion, on the Hockhocking River, which was

marked "Coals." There was no reference to iron. In

the notes accompanying the map, he remarked that:

 

coal mines and salt springs are frequent in the neighborhood of

this stream (the Hockhocking), as they are in every part of the

western territory.¹⁰

9 de Crevecoeur, St. John, Letters of an American Farmer, III, 394.

10 Phillips, P. L., The Cutler Map of Ohio, 1787, 28.

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Then, in 1788, efforts were made by Joel Barlow, one

of "The Hartford Wits," and others, to induce French

settlers to come to America. To accomplish this aim,

several kinds of circulars and pamphlets were sent out,

containing much that was false or at least of a ques-

tionable nature. In a booklet called Ohio in 1788, the

land was pictured in so roseate a hue that many French

settlers were attracted to America and founded Galli-

polis in 1790. In this tract, reference was made11 to the

fact that

 

hemp, iron, and ship timber are abundant and of good quality

here,

but no mention was made of coal. Although this may

very likely be false evidence, other reports were being

brought in at the same time. Colonel John May, for ex-

ample, kept a diary, entitled Two Journeys to the Ohio

Country in 1788-1789, in which, on Thursday, May 8,

1788, he described his wanderings throughout the coun-

try:

 

I took a ramble this afternoon, up a solitary high mountain (the

west-end of Coal Hill).

The name was at least suggestive.

Ten years later, in 1797, in London, was published

Imlay's book, to which reference has already been made.

In many places, he described the mineral wealth of the

state, but a few examples will suffice:

 

On the east side of the mountains, next to the European set-

tlements, there are some, but very few, and those thin, beds of

coal.

11 Cutler, Manasseh, Ohio in 1788, 49.

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Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835         225

Muskingum, though so wide extended in its branches, spreads

all in most excellent land, abounding in good springs and conveni-

ences, particularly adapted for settlement remote from marine

communication, as coal, clay, and freestone. * * * The

Hockhocking * * * has coals about fifteen miles up, and

some knowls of freestone.

I have already mentioned the coal mines in the upper part of

the Ohio country; besides which there are great quantities of coal

upon the upper banches of the Mississippi .......... It is cer-

tain that the great body of it, which the Ohio country alone con-

tains, is equal to answer all the purposes for which it may be

wanted, throughout this extensive empire.

We have various other minerals, such as iron (which is the

most useful), copper, lead, sulphur, nitre, etc. Iron ore is found

in great plenty upon the northern branches of Licking Creek, and

likewise upon the waters of Green River.l²

Apparently, though the knowledge of the deposits of

iron and coal was rather widespread, there was but little

attempt to turn them to practical account, even to the

extent of burning the coal. Such, at least, was the state-

ment of one historian of recent years.

Although the early settlers were fully aware of these deposits of

coal, they, from force of circumstances, did not for some years

give much attention to them. The clearing of the land furnished

an abundance of fuel, and hence they did not need the coal. But

as the forests disappeared, its importance was realized more, and

its extent more fully developed. Wherever coal is found, iron is

associated with it.¹³

The year 1810 seems to have been the approximate date

of the beginning of commercial mining. Said that pro-

lific historian of Ohio, Charles Whittlesey, in his His-

tory of the Coal and Iron Business:

Clendening, Montgomery, and Mackay, of Youngstown, built the

first furnace in Ohio, at the mouth of Yellow Creek, at the Ma-

honing, in 1808 within ten years of the settlement of that region.14

12 Imlay, 87, 117, 135, 136.

13 Hill, N. N., Jr., History of Licking County, 179.

14 Whittlesey, C., History of the Coal and Iron Business, 5.

Vol. XXXVIII--15

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226       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Randall and Ryan, in their History of Ohio, also

mention this same furnace, and say further:

 

Coal was also mined for the first time in 1810 in Summit County.

Thus two of the greatest factors in the growth and importance

of the State were contemporaneous in their development.¹⁵

One of the most interesting accounts of this region

in this period was that of Mills Day, whose diary in two

small volumes, entitled Travels in Virginia and Ohio in

1810, is in manuscript in the Yale University Library.

The second volume contained an unusually complete and

graphic description of Ohio, with one reference to the

minerals:

 

Iron ore and coal ore are found in any requisite quantity

near the town [Zanesville]. A furnace and forge are already

erected on Licking Creek near the mouth. Coal is so easily ob-

tained that the inhabitants of the town use it altogether for fuel,

notwithstanding the supply of timber in the neighborhood.¹⁶

It is at this period that separate books concerning the

geography of Ohio began to appear. Two such books,

one by Manasseh Cutler, which came out in 1812, and

the other by Kilbourn, which appeared in 1821, con-

tained many minute references to the mineral resources

of the State. None brought out new information, but

simply verified the knowledge hitherto disclosed. The

books, however, do prove that development was starting.

The statements in Cutler were as follows:

 

The hills on this river [Muskingum] abound with coal, and

much of it of an excellent quality. It is said a vein of coal has

been found crossing the bed of the river, remarkable for its purity.

The pieces of the coal have the appearance of varnish, somewhat

 

15 Randall, E. O. and Ryan, D. J., History of Ohio, III, 168.

16 Day, Mills, Travels in Virginia and Ohio in 1810, 17 (not numbered).

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Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835           227

 

resembling Japan, and when laid on the fire, a kind of fusion is

produced which continues till it is consumed by evaporation,

without disagreeable smell, and deposits any cinder or ashes. Coal

has been sold in Marietta for about three cents a bushel, and

is much preferred by the inhabitants for fuel, when wood can

be purchased at one dollar per cord.

At Zanesville, near the furnace, is the appearance of a large

quantity of iron-ore, supposed to be of a superior quality. Coal

abounds in this vicinity and can be procured nearly as cheap as

at Marietta.

There are also round lumps * * *  which appear to con-

tain sulphur, lead, and copper.

The slate undoubtedly abounds in a very great variety of the

most useful ores, but it has been very little explored.17

Kilbourn's Ohio Gazetteer took up each county sep-

arately:

 

Coal is obtained in great quantities in the eastern parts. Iron-

ore is likewise discovered and wrought pretty extensively in sev-

eral places, particularly at the falls of the Licking River, 4 miles

westerly from Zanesville; at Granville; and at Brush Creek in

Adams County.

There are two or three furnaces and forges erected on Brush

Creek, in this county, which manufacture large quantities of iron

for the use of the surrounding country.

Athens County: Stone coal, clay and freestone are found in

abundance.

Columbiana County: The land contains inexhaustible beds of

iron-ore and stone coal of the easiest access.

Licking County: Extensive beds of iron ore have been dis-

covered in this county, and several furnaces are already erected--

for manufacturing this ore into bar iron, castings, etc.

Monroe County: Several mines have been found of stone

coal, iron ore, etc.

Muskingum County: In numerous places adjacent to the bed

of the Muskingum River, are extensive and almost inexhaustible

beds of stone coal, which the people in and about Zanesville use

for the principal part of their fuel.

Zanesville: Coal and iron are likewise found in this section of

the state, in large quantities.¹⁸

17 Cutler, M., Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, 22, 29,

32, 33, 37, 48.

18 Kilbourn, James, Ohio Gazetteer, 19, 27, 29, 57, 103, 118, 122, 179, 180.

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228       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

In 1818-1819, there appeared, too, a more general

work, entitled New States and Territories, in which were

ten or twelve mentions made of this same development.

Two will suffice to be quoted here.

 

In this county [Scioto] is an abundance of iron-ore on Isaac's

Creek, on which is a furnace.

A company called the Zanesville Canal and Manufacturing

Company is opening a canal and intends to manufacture iron.l⁹

With these geographies and gazetteers, the coal and

iron resources were mentioned for the last time until

1835, when movements throughout the State began in

favor of an official Geological Survey to determine ex-

actly the amount of material in the ground. The survey

itself, as well as the political influences which brought it

about, form another story. But, in conclusion, there

might well be added a general statement as to the knowl-

edge which the people of Ohio possessed, as it was set

down by Caleb Atwater in his History of the State of

Ohio, published in 1838:

 

Iron ores are found in quantities sufficient for every useful

purpose, forever, in almost every county of our state, from the

Summit between the waters of the Ohio and Lake Erie, to the

Ohio River itself.  In Tuscarawas County, the canal passes

through the iron ore, where it lies in inexhaustible beds, within

sight of the canal and very near it. This ore remelts easily, and

yields a soft malleable iron, suitable for castings and bars. * * *

Its value and quantity are rapidly increasing, and will increase

for centuries to come, because the quantity of ore is inexhaustible.

And concerning coal:

Coal occurs in nearly every county east of the Scioto River in

our Hilly region, but it is most abundant in Scioto County. * * *

On the whole, we may safely conclude, that we have coal enough,

19 Miller, Andrew, New States and Territories, 33, 40.

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Coal and Iron in Ohio Before 1835     229

 

and more than enough to last forever, for all the uses to which

we shall put it in all ages to come, to support human beings so

long as man shall dwell on this earth.²⁰

With such a sweeping statement as this, Atwater

summed up all the knowledge thus far discovered con-

cerning the resources of Ohio. It is safe to say that by

1835, the evidences of coal were so manifest everywhere

that development, once begun, would sweep forward at

a rapid rate. These manifestations of coal have, of

course, been amply supported by the greater discoveries

of later years. Concerning iron, however, the situation

is somewhat puzzling. Wherever coal is mentioned in

these early accounts, there is likely to be a mention of

iron as well, and in almost as enthusiastic terms. Yet

today the geological map of Ohio shows the quantity of

iron to be relatively small. The conclusion is inevitable

that the early settlers were misled by the huge amounts

of coal, usually found in the immediate vicinity of the

iron, and that what quantity of the latter mineral was

present was not of sufficient value to be of great com-

mercial importance. That, however, is a matter which

does not come directly within the scope of this report.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The very nature of this article presupposes the use

of a large number of books, most of them on only one

occasion. In addition to the two encyclopedias, from

which quotations were made early in the essay, and one

article by S. P. Hildreth, which appeared in the Ameri-

can Journal of Science and Art (New Haven, October,

1835), the books utilized, arranged in alphabetical order,

were as follows:

 

20 Atwater, Caleb, History of the State of Ohio, 19, 23.

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230       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

1. Atwater, Caleb, History of the State of Ohio, Cincinnati,

1838.

2. Bakewell, Robert, An Introduction to Geology, New Haven,

1839.

3. de Crevecoeur, M. St. John, Letters of an American Farmer,

London, 1782.

4. Cutler, Manasseh, Ohio in 1788, Columbus, 1888.

5. Cutler, Manasseh, A Topographical Description of the State

of Ohio, Boston, 1812.

6. Day, Mills, Travels in Virginia and Ohio (Manuscript in

Yale University Library), 1810.

7. Gist, Christopher, Journals (Edited by J. S. Johnston),

Louisville, 1898.

8. Hill, N. N., Jr., History of Licking County, Newark, Ohio,

1881.

9. Imlay, Gilbert, Topographical Description of the West Ter-

ritory of North America, London, 1797.

10. Kilbourn, James, Ohio Gazetteer, Columbus, 1821.

11. May, John, Two Journeys to the Ohio Country, Cincinnati,

1873.

12. Miller, Andrew, New    States and Territories, (No place

given), 1818.

13. Nicolls, W. J., The Story of American Coals, Philadelphia,

1904.

14. Phillips, P. L., The Cutler Map of Ohio, 1787, Washington,

1918.

15. Randall, E. 0., and Ryan, D. J., History of Ohio, New York,

1912.

16. Whittlesey, Charles, History of the Coal and Iron Business.

Cincinnati, 1872.

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