WVX. OU)JjL/v- WEST VIRGINIA .. : *t. i I' ^ & i A HAND-BOOK ON THE COALS AND COKES OF THE GREAT KANAWHA, NEW RIVER, FLAT TOP, AND ADJACENT COAL DISTRICTS IN WEST VIRGINIA BY WILLIAM SEYMOUR EDWARDS CINCINNATI KOBEKT CLARKE & CO 1892 COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY WILLIAM SEYMOUR EDWARDS. PREFACE. This pamphlet is, by necessity, largely a compilation a com- pilation of facts gathered together with considerable pains, either by my own personal examination and observation, or the investi- gation of others who have given especial attention to such matters. The intention and aim in bringing together the information here collected is to put in compact and handy form what precise knowl- edge we now have of the coal beds and their coals and the coal trade of that great section of country drained by the waters of the Great Kanawha River, and outlying regions contiguous to it, in West Virginia. I wish here, also, to express my obligation to the many gen- tlemen who have kindly aided me in gathering this information, and especially would I mention among them Mr. Addison M. Scott, U. S. Resident Engineer, Great Kauawha River Improvements; Prof. I. C. White, of Morgantown ; Mr. J. H. Bramwell, M. & C. E.; Mr. Stuart M. Buck, M. & C. E.; Mr. Jed. Hotchkiss, M. E.; Mr. M. A. Miller, M. & C. E.; Mr. A. M. Campbell, E. M.; Mr. Jo. L. Beury, Mr. John Cooper, Mr. W. L. Nuttall, Mr. H. J. Tucker, M. & C. E.; Mr. O. A. Veasy, M. & C. E.; Mr. R. O. Baillie, M. & C. E.; Mr. L A. Welch, C. E.; Mr. C. E. F, Burn- ley, M. & C. E.; as well as to Messrs. A. S. McCreath and E. V. D'Invilliers for data heretofore published by them regarding an- alyses of Virginia and Southern coals and cokes. If any one who may need and desire such information as is here collected shall find this pamphlet of service my end will have been gained. WILLIAM SEYMOUR EDWARDS. Charleston-Kanawha, W. Va., May 1, 1892. (iii) 819482 I. CONTENTS. GEOLOGICAL, STRATIGRAPHICAL, CHEMICAL, AND PHYS- ICAL VIEW. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. General Review of the Coal Measures of West Virginia. ... 7 II. Giving Vertical Cross-Sections of Coal Fields from actual Measurements 19 III. Giving Vertical Cross-Sections of various Coal Seams where opened and worked 46 IV. Giving Tables of Chemical Analyses of Coals, and in com- parison with Coals of other States, America and Europe. 63 V. Tables showing Gas Producing Efficiency of Great Kanawha Coals. 69 VI. Tables showing Steam Producing Efficiency of West Virginia Coals, as demonstrated by U. S. Government Tests, and in comparison with other Coals 73 VII. Tables of Chemical Analyses of Cokes, and in comparison with Cokes of other States, America and Europe 76 VIII. Tables of Physical Analyses and Tests of West Virginia Cokes, and in comparison with other States, America and Europe 79 APPENDIX TO PART I. . 81 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. PART I. GEOLOGICAL, STRATIGRAPHICAL, CHEMICAL, AND PHYSICAL VIEWS. CHAPTER I. A Brief Review of the Coal Measures of Southern West Virginia. SECTION I. The State of West Virginia, occupying the middle and widest portion of the Appalachian coal field, is the greatest coal bearing state of the Union, possessing an estimated coal area of sixteen thousand square miles, as against twelve thousand square miles in Pennsylvania and nine thousand square miles in Kentucky. Of the fifty-four counties in the state, probably not more than three, and possibly four of them, the counties of Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan, in the north-eastern panhandle, and Monroe, in the south- ern tier, are wholly without coal. Within the borders of the commonwealth may be viewed in dis- tinct geological series every formation of the carboniferous epoch, with the divers rocks and coal beds that mark each formative period. The rocks and interlying coal beds throughout this common- wealth, and especially the southern portion of it, of which this pamphlet more particularly treats, have almost universally remained in the horizontal planes of their original formation, the great uplift (7) 8 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. of the Alleghany mountains, upon the south-eastern border, having done little more than slightly tilt them toward the depression or trough of the Ohio Valley, without in any way faulting, squeezing, crushing, or changing the physical and chemical structure of the coals ; while the many gorges, canons, and valleys that now break and segregate the former plateau into a thousand hills and ridges and mountains have been scarped and cut out by the erosion of the elements during subsequent ages, leaving the coal beds and their rocks, in the containing hills, or deeper levels below the surface of the waters, in undisturbed repose. As yet, the great abundance of coal in hill-side and mountain, above the water level of adjacent streams, has prevented practical consideration of what coal beds may lie at the deeper levels, and it is only from the information gained through the many oil wells drilled and now drilling in West Virginia, that we have accurate information of the extensive deposits of coal that lie deep under the surface, and are now, and for many years to come, safely locked up in trust for the peoples of this republic yet unborn. It is the purpose of this pamphlet to treat chiefly of the coals and coal measures exposed in that portion of the commonwealth drained by the great Kauawha river and tributary waters, and of the regions south of it. And in reviewing the coal measures and coals of this portion of the state, (perhaps the larger portion) it will be observed that there are here exposed above the levels of the creeks and rivers, in due geological sequence, very nearly all the coal bearing rocks and coal beds of the carboniferous time. SECTION II. THE NO. XII MEASURES, COKING AND STEAM COALS. Throughout that south-eastern tier of counties bordering the great limestone belt which parallels the upheaval of the Alleghany mount- ains, may be observed for a distance of some one hundred miles and more, the coarse sandstone rocks and interstratified seams of rich, soft, bituminous coal, marking the uplift of the Pottsville COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 9 Conglomerate or Lower* Coal Measures (the No. XII of Messrs. Rogers Brothers). We find these rich coke yielding coals just edging into the south-western border of the county of Randolph, thence extending south-westward above the water horizon in a more or less regular belt from sixteen to thirty miles in width, through portions of the counties of Webster, Pocahontas, Green- brier, Nicholas, Fayette, Raleigh, Summers, Wyoming, Mercer, and McDowell, and into the counties of Tazewell and Buchanan in Virginia. The rocks of these measures at their north-eastern exposure show a thickness of little more than seven hundred feet in the counties of Randolph and Webster, but thicken as they trend south-westward until along the canon of New river, in the county of Fayette, they develop a thickness of some 1,300 feet, and continue in about the same thickness through the counties of Raleigh, Mercer, Wyoming, and McDowell, to their southern limit in the state. These lowest of the coal bearing measures apparently preserve a generally uni- form dip north-westward from their eastern exposure. They are caught high up along the spine of the Black mountains in Randolph and Pocahontas counties, where the coal seams show along the upper benches of the mountain range on the head waters of the Gauley, Williams, Cranberry, Cherry, and Meadow rivers ; then onward through the Big Sewell mountains of Greenbrier and Fayette counties, and still on south-westward to their culmination in the great Flat Top mountain range of Mercer and McDowell counties, and its outlying spurs, even to their western border, where the coal dips beneath the water levels, a short distance above the junction of Tug Fork and Elk Horn rivers, in McDowell county, of Rock Castle creek of Guyandotte river, in Wyoming county, of *The term " Lower " Coal Measures is used throughout this pamphlet to denote what has been called "Pottsville Conglomerate," Series No. XII, by the Pennsylvania and Ohio geologists. To use the term " Lower " for what are in fact the " Middle " Measures, is but to prolong the life of a now recognized error in nomenclature. 10 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. Meadow river and Gauley river, in Fayette county, and the mouth of Laurel creek or Bear run, in Webster county. The seams of coal contained in these Lower Measures apparently increase in number and thickness toward the south-western portion of the field, and undoubtedly reach their culmination in Mercer and Tazewell counties, where now worked along the line of the Norfolk and Western railroad. The seams of coal in this, 'the south-western, section of the coal field are generally reckoned to be some ten in number, of varying thickness, the chief of these, and in which most of the mining in that field is now done, being the great "Pocahontas" or " Number 3" seam, showing from ten to twelve feet in thickness at Pocahontas mines, and six to eight feet along the valley of Elk- horn river. Further north-eastward, where the measures are cleft by the New river canon, the coal strata have lessened to three workable seams running from four to six feet in thickness, and all are worked at various collieries along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Hallway. The coal beds here are locally known as the Sewell or Nuttallburg, the Fire Creek and Quinnimont (which, though gen- erally regarded as distinct beds, are yet thought to probably be the upper and lower benches of a single bed), and the Meadow Creek seams, in descending series, and, according to the better opinion, although there is yet some question as to perfect identification, cor- respond with the seams as worked in the Flat Top Field, as follows : NEW RIVER. FLAT TOP. No. 3, Sewell No. 10 seam, on Crane Creek. No. 2, Fire Creek.. ) t Nos. 6 and 7 seams, on Crane Creek. No. 2, Qumnemont j No. 1, Meadow Creek { No " 3 ' p cahontas. (. Nos. 3 and 4, on Crane Creek. Trending still further north-eastward, and into the yet undevel- oped counties of Nicholas, Greenbrier, Webster, Pocahontas, and Randolph, our information of the exact extent of these coal meas- ures and their coals is as yet somewhat imperfect, but, so far as the COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 11 seams have been opened and examined, the number of workable seams appears to lessen as they proceed north-eastward, there being generally prevalent along the basins of the Upper Elk and Gauley rivers what is probably the lowest bed of New river, showing, in the county of Webster, a thickness of four to five and a half feet of clean coal, without partings, and of a quality as excellent as the coals of New river and Flat Top. Throughout this entire coal field the seams of coal run with quite uniform thickness, the thickening or thinning of the seams, their appearance or disappearance, being very gradual. Whether in the south-western section, the Flat Top field, or the middle section of the New river field, or the great basin of the Gauley and Upper Elk rivers, the quality of the coals, as taken from the workable seams and tested by careful analyses and actual work, is remarkably uniform, there being practically no difference in the excellence of these coals, wherever mined. As will be hereafter observed from the tables of analyses of both coals and cokes produced from these measures, the coals are distin- guishable for their high per cent of fixed carbon, their low per cent of ash and almost perfect freedom from sulphur and traces of phosphorus, yielding, consequently, a coal unsurpassed for its steam producing power, and giving a coke whose analysis and physical structure and market rating show it to be unexcelled even by the product of the ovens of Connellsville, and which, as shown by the following tables, is practically closing out from competition the product of the coals of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama mines wherever given opportunity, while in the north and west it is stead- ily crowding upon the firmly established cokes of Pennsylvania. Although this great area of coal is so uniform a deposit wherever appearing above water level, it is yet a notable fact that there is apparently a complete thinning out of the coals as their beds de- scend toward the bottom of the great Ohio Valley depression, where the beds, as shown by the records of the many oil wells drilled through the rocks, have dwindled to mere traces of coally matter. 12 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. SECTION III. THE NO. XIII MEASURES, SPLINT AND BITUMINOUS COALS. Immediately north-west of and bordering the conglomerate rocks and their soft coals of the Lower or No. XII measures, stretches the great exposure of the Middle or No. XIII measures, being the same group of coal measures to which belong the famous coal beds now extensively mined and worked in Clearfield, Cambria, and Jefferson counties, Pennsylvania. This is the most extensive coal formation of West Virginia. In the more north-eastern sections of central West Virginia these middle measures are com- paratively limited in extent, rarely exceeding 200 or 300 feet in thickness and rarely containing more than two workable coal seams, the Lower Kittanning, known as the "Austin coking coal," and the Upper Freeport, known as the " Newburg shaft coal," along the Baltimore and Ohio Kail way; and known as the " Davis" and "Thomas" seams, where worked along the line of the West Vir- ginia Central, in Tucker county, etc. As these measures pass south-westward, they develop enormously and finally reach the great thickness of 1,000 to 1,200 feet in the Great Kanawha Val- ley, where they contain some six beds in workable thickness, being nearly all the characteristic coal seams of these measures. The exposure of these measures above the water level may be observed as a great belt lying generally parallel and superimposed upon the "No. XII" measures, that geologically lie beneath and physically to the south-eastward of them, widening from the coun- ties of Braxton and Clay and Nicholas, and extending across the counties of Kanawha, parts of Fayette, of Boone, parts of Wyo- ming, of Logan, parts of Lincoln, of Wayne and of Cabell, and passing beyond the Big Sandy river and stretching on into the State of Kentucky, affording to that commonwealth its greatest coal bearing area. The belt may be some forty to sixty miles COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 13 in its greatest width, and attains a thickness of 1,000 to 1,200 feet. The coals of these No. XIII measures are the more extensively mined along the basin of the Great Kanawha river, in the counties of Kanawha and Fayette, and afford a variety of coal suitable for diverse uses not elsewhere yielded in any one field. The chief coal seams of these measures, as noted locally, and as named in the older fields of Pennsylvania, are now determined to be as follows : PENNSYLVANIA NAME. LOCAL KANAWHA NAME. Upper Freeport Crown Hill or Belmont. Lower Freeport Coalburgh. Upper Kittanning Winifrede and Kanawha Mining. Middle Kittanning Cedar Grove. Lower Kittanning Peerless and Coal Valley, and Campbell's Creek. Clarion Eagle Seam. The coals of these measures, like those of the lower conglomerate measures before described, lie in horizontal beds dipping slightly to the north-west (having a general inclination of about forty feet to the mile), and pass under water level in the neighborhood of Charleston, the lowest of them being caught high in air in the sum- mits of the mountains of Fayette and Nicholas, and other counties, some fifty miles to the south-east. Although of greater extent, the beds of these coals are not of as uniform a thickness as those of the No. XII measures, seeming to be rather in greater or lesser pockets, or basins, thickening toward the centers and thinning out or running to slates toward the outer edges. And a somewhat elaborate prospecting of a newly-to-be- developed area is, therefore, desirable in these seams, in order to mine the coal at its thickest and purest part. As the coals of the different beds of these measures have quite a uniform character wherever opened and mined, although varying in quality much more than do the coals of the No. XII measures, and as they have been more extensively explored and worked at the 14 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. many collieries along the Great Kanawha Valley than elsewhere, an examination of them in the Great Kanawha field will give, per- haps, the more perfect understanding of them. The lowest coal bed of the series found in workable thickness is thought, by Prof. I. C. White, to correspond with the "Clarion" seam of the Pennsylvania geologists, and is worked at the mines of Wm. Wyant, the St. Clair Coal and Coke Company, and the Dia- mond Mines, all in Fayette county. The coals here taken out are shipped for steam purposes, and are also made into a superior coke whose excellence will be observed by a comparison of its anal- ysis with others in the appended tables. This seam passes beneath the water level at Cannelton and is not elsewhere developed. The next higher seam in the series is the Lower Kittanning (of the Pennsylvania geologists), and is very extensively mined throughout the valley. It affords a fine gas producing coal, while, where coked at the Great Kanawha Colliery Company's works, at Mount Carbon Mines, at Mount Carbon Company's works, at Powellton Mines, at Crescent and East Bank Mines, it makes a remarkably clean coke, little, if any, softer than the coke produced from New river or Flat Top fields. From this seam, also, where mined at Mt. Carbon, Powellton, Diamond, St. Clair, Edgewater, Crescent, Coal Valley, Peerless, and Acme mines, is taken a coal extrordinarily rich in gas, the upper bench of the seam being the great gas coal producing bed of the Great Kanawha field ; while, where mined upon Campbell's creek, the seam, from its lower bed, yields superior domestic grate coal of somewhat harder quality. The next workable seam in the ascending series, known as the Middle Kittanning seam of Pennsylvania, and locally known as the " Cedar Grove" seam, is extensively distributed throughout the basin, but as yet is only worked, to any great extent, at Cedar Grove and Peabody mines in the neighborhood of the mouth of Kelley's creek. This coal is good as a gas producer, ranking next to the coals from the Lower Kittauning seam, and is also used ex- COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 15 tensively as a steam coal, while its coking qualities have as yet never been conclusively tested. Leaving the softer coals of these three lower beds, the three succeeding coal beds of the middle measures may be generally characterized as yielding chiefly fine splint coals of great hardness and which slake but little upon exposure to the weather. The lower of these is the seam taken to be the Upper Kittanning, of Pennsylvania, and locally known as the "Winifrede" and "Kanawha Mining" seam, named from the two most extensive mines in it. It is a coal of great richness and purity, and is sold chiefly as a domestic and as a steam coal. The seams next higher in the series, the Lower and Upper Freeport seams of Pennsylvania, and locally known as the "Coal- burgh," and "Crown Hill" or "Belmont" seams, are the great splint coal beds of this field, the coals being characterized by hardness and closeness of texture, small per cent of ash, re- markable purity from sulphur, and low per cent of water. The coals slake very little in the weather, and bringing the highest price in the markets, are yet the most expensive to mine on ac- count of their hardness. In the Freeport seams, also, is found, in widely separated pock- ets, occasional deposits of cannel coal of superior quality. A de- posit of this cannel coal was mined and shipped for many years from the Upper Freeport seam at Cannelton. Another is in the Lower Freeport seam, on Paint creek; and it is the view of Prof. I. C. White that the beds of canuel coal lying in Boone county, and at one time mined at the works of the Peytona Cannel Coal Company, are also in the Freeport seam. 16 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. SECTION IV. THE NO. XIV MEASURES SPLINT COALS. Above the beds of the Middle Coal Measures, lie the coals and rocks of the Upper Barren Measures (No. XIV of Messrs. Rogers Brothers). Although, in Pennsylvania, these rocks are characterized by containing a few feeble traces of coal, if any at all, yet, as in Ohio, so in this section of West Virginia, the great Mahoning sand stones of these measures lie in immediate neighborhood to coal beds of considerable magnitude. And, although in the Kanawha region, they are as yet only worked in one or two localities, it is probable that they will eventually rank among the most pro- lific and valuable coal beds of the district. As here found they are thought to coincide with the "Brush Creek" seams of Ohio, but have been given the locally distinguishing name of the " Mahoning Beds," for better identification. The most extensive exposure of these Mahoning coal beds, as yet opened, lies upon the great divide between the waters of the Great Kanawha and Elk rivers, where the seam is apparently severed into four distinct layers of a clean splint coal, and with a considerable underlying layer of cannel coal in the upper divi- sion. These beds, also, as reported to be opened upon Little Coal river (see profile of W. C. Reynolds) and, in Logan county (by Logan M. Bullitt), display there also great thickness while lying at high altitude above the level of the streams below. The same beds are also caught high up on the summits of the mountains immediately south of the Great Kanawha river, but are chiefly valuable, commercially, where outcropping at lower and more accessible levels toward the waters of Elk river. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 17 SECTION V. THE NO. XV MEASURES. Still above the coals of the No. XIV Measures, in the geologi- cal horizon, and westward of the lower beds of coal, lie the Upper Coal Measures (No. XV of Messrs. Rogers Brothers). These, forming as they do, the great coal producing beds of the Mo- nongahela Basin, lessen, in area of exposure above water level and in exposure and extent of workable coal seam, as they ex- tend south westward. The coal beds, having been largely eroded with the rocks they lie among, appear as intermittent and sepa- rate patches. One of these probably is caught among the hills along the north- ern bend of Elk river, in Clay county, is found in scattered fragments along the northern portion of Kanawha county, and attains workable thickness in Putman county, where worked at the Raymond City, Plymouth and Energetic mines; thence, caught in the upper hill tops of Cabell and Wayne counties, is found in occasional limited areas, as a few miles back of Hun- tington, and among the lower reaches of the Guyandotte river, while, rising in altitude somewhat, as it trends south-westward, it disappears, passing into Kentucky high above the tops of the river hills. The coals of southern West Virginia, whether those exposed at the various mines along the length of the Great Kanawha river, which for a distance of almost one hundred miles, traverses the coal measures and almost at right angles with their strike, or of the New river or Flat Top Coal fields, are especially noteworthy for their purity, their comparative freedom from sulphur and very low per cent of ash. Whether we consider the gas coals of the lower seams of the Middle Measures, or the splint coals of the upper seams of these or the still overlying Barren Measures and Upper Measures, or whether we take the steam and coking coals of 2 18 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. the Lower (Conglomerate) Measures, we find these conditions of excellence generally prevailing. It is largely the purity of the coals of this section of the Common- wealth that has attracted to them the world-wide attention they are now receiving, and that enables them to be worked with profit, and to gain and maintain a position of continually greater and greater command in the trade of the markets into which they pene- trate. These facts are strikingly illustrated by a study of the compara- tive tables of analyses and tests and market price quotations here- inafter appended. The seams lie in horizontal beds with a more or less dip north- westward, and are worked with horizontal drifts, and inclined planes or slopes of greater or less length, depending upon the altitude of the seam above the level of the water or rail trans- portation. The general direction of dip of the field being between N. 22 and 37 W., and at an average inclination of about forty feet to the mile. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 19 CHAPTER II. TABLES OF VERTICAL CROSS-SECTIONS, SHOWING The interlying Coal and Rocks of the Upper (No.' XV), Barren (No. XIV), Middle (No. XIII), and Lower (No. XII) (or Potts- wile Conglomerate of Pennsylvania) Measures, and the several Coal Seams in their vertical order and relative position to one another. SECTION I. Table showing generalized section Kanawha and New River Coal Fields. I. C. WHITE. f Coal, rather shaly . ... ft. 10 in. ] Coal, soft sulphurous, ft. 8 in. 1 Waynesburg coal.. < Shale fi f t. fiin 3ft. 75ft. 5ft. 130ft. 35ft !zj p M I '! Cannelton. a p 96 Sandstone Coal Middle 3 Coals and slates, 523 Cannelton. valueless. Black flint 8 515 ledge. 26 Sandstone and shales. , 28 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 5. ON KELLY'S CREEK, KANAWHA COUNTY. Continued. HEIGHT. >k B H M * h Jz; ft s i 1" PS J 55 5 |j w s g e 3 e o 5 1 *3 Coal. Upper Freeport. Crown Hill, Belmont. 8 9 480 60 Sandstone Coal. Lower Freeport. Coalburgh. 6-7 420 i 30 Sandstone. i Kanawha li B , Coal. Upper Kittanning. mining seam, Winifrede. 2 11 390 6 260 Sands, slaty clay. 260 a e Coal. Middle Kittanning. Cedar Grove. 3 2 130 M Tunnel Coal. Lower Kittanning. seam Lower Blacks- burgh. 3C Clays, slates, rocks. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 29 (6.) MOUNTAIN BETWEEN POND AND SPRUCE FORKS, LITTLE COAL RIVER, BOONE COUNTY, BY W. C. REYNOLDS, C. & M. E. 2 o H M 4 & fc E W PH LOCAL NAME. HEIGHT. J 4 ^3 OD ^ I INCHES. Mountain between Pond and West Forks of Little Coal River. No. XIV Measures. Top of mountain above level Coal River, 1,350 feet. 300 13 2 7 190 7 150 6 Sand stone and concealed. Coal. Maboning seam. Bed No. 2. Fire clay. Sand stone and concealed. Coal. Mahoning seam. Bed No. 1. Upper Cannelton. Streak of boney coal near the top. Coal. With one slate parting. Sand stone and concealed. Coal. Middle Cannelton. Containing 10 to 12 inches cannel coal and without partings. 8 5 30 9 110 2 50 Clays and slates. Coal. Upper Freeport. Belmont or Crown Hill. 9 7 No. XIII Meas- ures. Clays, slates and concealed. Sand stone and concealed. Sand stone and concealed. Coal. Lower Freeport. Coalburgh. 124 inch coal. 18 inch fire clay. 60 inch coal. 5 inch fire clay. 10 inch coal. 4 inch fire clay. 5 inch coal. {Lower Freeport series, holding 4 small coal seams from 10 to 18 inches thick. Coal. Upper Kittan- ning. Winifrede and Kan'a Mining. 30 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. (6.) MOUNTAIN BETWEEN POND AND SPRUCE FORES, LITTLE COAL RIVER, BOONE COUNTY Continued. j j o H M 8 ft. clay slates. 2 ft. coal. J to Sand stones and concealed. A coking coal. Sand stones. Sand stones and concealed. Coal. Lower bed of L. Kit- tanning OB the Clarion seam. A coking coal. Water Level, Pond Fork, Little Coal River. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 31 (7) APPROXIMATE AVERAGE SECTION AT WEST FORK OF TWELVE POLE RIVER, WAYNE COUNTY, BY ANDREW ROY, M. E. & fe i W H r. J 1 o PROBABLE TE NAME. PROBABLE KA NAWHA NAM H s X B j I 1 ^ INCHES. MATERIAL. ALTITUDE. REMARKS Concealed Top of Coal Top coal 2 G 514 monntain. 60 00 Concealed No. XIV 4-1 00 Kidney iron and bastard Measures. Coal. Jackson's ? 6 limestone. Concealed. 410 branch. 146 00 Concealed. Coal. Upper Freeport. Crown Hill. Upper Fer- guson or Kirk. 6 30 to 00 00 Hard splint coal, (some- times cannel Concealed. 258 No. XIII Measures. Coal. Lower Freeport Coalburgh. Lower Ferguson 40 9 00 6 218 SO 00 Concealed. Coal Upper Winifrede Dawson ^ 6 168 Kittanning. mining. 40 00 Coal Middle Cedar Upper 5 6 123^ Kittanning. Grove. Dunlow. SO on Concealed. Coal Lower Coal Lower 3 6 90 Kittanning. Valley. Dunlow. 60 00 Concealed. Coal Probably lower bed of . 30 ro L. Kittann'g or Clarion. Concealed. Level of W. Fork of Twelve Pole River. 32 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. SECTION III. NO. XII MEASURES THE NEW RIVER COAL FIELD. The "New River" Coal District, lying immediately south-east of the Great Kanawha District, is characterized by the presence of probably three workable seams. These are distinguished, as already referred to, as the Meadow Creek, "Quinnimont " or "Fire Creek," and "Nuttallburgh" or Sewell Seams, named from the chief workings in each during the early development of the field. The following tables of vertical cross-sections are by Prof. I. C. White and S. Fisher Morris, C. & M. E. , and give with approxi- mate accuracy the average stratification of the field. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 33 MOUNTAIN NEAR NUTTALLBURGH, FAYETTE COUNTY, BY I. C. WHITE. J < o LOCAL NAME. HEIGHT. J < 1 -< X a tf H M a h INCHES. 110 60 75 25 2 1 75 50 3 75 155 10 120 3 130 4 10 6 6 5 Sandstone. Shales. Top of mountain, 1,400 above bed of New River. Massive, pebbly, Homewood. Coal. Coal of " Mercer," Pa., group. Sandy shales and sandstone. Sandstone. Black slate. Shales and sand- stone. Coal. Coal of "Mercer," Pa., group. Coal. Coal. Nuttall or sewell. Coal of "Mercer," Pa., group. Shales, sandstone, and shales. Shales and slates. Sandstone massive. Slates, dark. Concealed and shales. Coal. Coal. Fire Creek. Shales and sand- stone. Slate. Quinnimont. 34 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. MOUNTAIN NEAR NUTTALLBURQH, FAYETTE COUNTY, BY I. C. WHITE.- Continued. J 4 o a LOCAL NAME. HEIGHT. i_3 4 M ! A M fc INCHES. Coal. 2 40 1 10 30 125 60 140 4 5 Shales and sand- stone. Coal of slaty quantity. Shales. Coal. Shales. Concealed. Sandstone massive. Consealed and sandstone. Sandstone massive. Concealed and sandstone. To top of No. XI shales. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 35 2. MOUNTAIN AT FIRE CREEK, FAYETTE COUNTY, BY S. FISHER MORRIS, C. & M. E. X o V LOCAL NAME/ HEIGHT. J 4 S H H < i 4 i H M B N P* INCHES. Coal. Coal. 3 4 3 6 6 Concealed. Top of mountain, 1,560 feet above level of New river. 1,465 feet above New river, not worked. 1,260 feet above New river, not worked. 1,050 feet above New river. Soft. Concealed. Concealed. Hard white sand- stone and con- glomerate. Sandstone and shale. Hard sandstone. Soft shales and slate. Sandstone and shale. Sandstone. Sandstone and shale. Sandstone. Sandstone and shale. Hard conglomerate sandstone. Shale. Coal. Sewell. Coal. Coal. Fire Creek. Quinnimont. 3 2 760 feet above New river. 660 feet above New river. The " Meadow Creek " bed as operated on Meadow Creek by John Beurv, seems to lie about 180 feet below the true Quinnimont seam. C. & O. Ry. level. Water level, New river. 36 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 3. MOUNTAIN OF QUINNIMONT, FAYETTE COUNTY, S. FISHER MORRIS, C. & M. E. i o LOCAL NAME. HEIGHT. J 4 S H M CD W < S W tf B fc INCHES. 5 Hard sandstone and conglomerate. Sandstone and shales. Hard sandstone. Slate and shales. Top of mountain 1,400 feet above New river. Coal. 2 1,200 feet above New river, not worked. Coal. Quinnimont. 4 1,100 feet above level of New river. Sandstone and shale. Hard sandstone. Shales. Sandstone and shales. Sandstone. Olive shales, red shales. Sandstone and conglomerate. Sandstone and shale. Shale. Red shale. Coal. 2 Outcrop. Coal. Thin seam. C. & O. Ry. level. Level of New river. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 37 SECTION IV. NO. XII MEASURES THE FLAT TOP MOUNTAIN COAL FIELD. The most complete examination of the Great Flat Top mountain coal field of Mercer, McDowell, and Tazewell counties appears to determine the presence of some thirteen distinct beds of the soft, rich coking coals, characteristic of the No. XII measures, wherever appearing in West Virginia. Of the beds of coal, three possibly four may be viewed as workable, the others being generally too thin to warrant development. The exploitation of the coal field was due very largely to Mr. Jed. Hotchkiss, and his comprehensive examination of the geological stratigraphy of that region has left but little for subsequent research to do. The coal seams, as exam- ined by him, ranged from about 1^ feet to 12 feet in thickness, and the aggregate average thickness of all the beds was determined at about 47 feet. Six of the beds, were measured to be over 3 feet in thickness at the outcrop, and five of them ranged from 5 feet 2 inches to 9 feet in thickness. Coal seams No. 1 to No. 5 were de- termined to be in all the field south-west of Simmons creek, and all the seams, except Nos. 11, 12, and 13, in eroded localities, are found throughout the field north-east of Simmons creek. The great No. 3 seam has proved to be the working seam of the field, whether at Pocahontas mines, or upon other Bluestone waters, or on Elk Horn, over the dividing watershed. And it is from this seam that has come the great coal output of the Flat Top field. But little development has been made in any other of the coal beds. The following tables are given from Hotchkiss, showing I, the average thickness of coal beds, with numbering of seam ; and, II, the vertical section of the mountain at the mouth of Crane creek, on Bluestone river, showing coal beds apnearing and their thickness and altitudes above the water level. 38 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE No. I. No. AVERAGE THICKNESS. Feet. Inches. 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 One bed . . . 2 2 1 5 2 6 6 6 2 3 One bed One bed One bed One bed . . Outcrop of be One bed Bed 5 ft. 2 in. Bed 1 ft. 6 in. Bed 4 ft. 6 in. Bed 4 ft. 9 in. Bed 2 ft. 6 in., One bed >d and 6 ft. average. 4 ft. 2 in. ; and 4 ft. 6 in. average 5 ft. ; and 6 ft. 6 in. average 9 ft. 7 in. ; 9 ft. 9 in. ; and 12 ft. average, and 3 ft. 2 in. average 5 5 2 5 9 2 1 6 7 4 4 9 10 6 TABLE No. II. No. Feet. Inches. Summit 1,090 feet. ALTITUDE ABOVE LEVEL OP BLUR STONE KIVEB IN FEET. 13 12 11 2 2 1 6 6 6 900 800 620 10 9 5 2 2 3 520 400 8 7 6 ""5 6 '"e" Coal ..'...'.'.'..'.'..'.'.'.'.. ".'.'.'. ".'.'.'.. .'.'. Coal Level of Blue Stone river at mouth of Crane creek. 365 305 275 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 39 Vertical Cross-sections. 1. ON CRANE CREEK, MERCER COUNTY, BY I. C. WHITE. ni -< o o LOCAL NAME. HEIGHT. MATERIAL. tn a 4 i P3 ALTITUDE. i to INCHES. 400 (Esti- mated) 100 35 20 60 95 7 110 5 1 100 10 3 6 150 13 80 2 20 2 Sandstone and shales. Shales and sandstone. Sandstone and shales. Gray sand- stone. Shales and concealed. Massive sand- stone and shales. Shales, sand- stone, and concealed. Shales. Here eroded from top of No. Xll. 1402 Coal. Stone broken with slate bands. 8 6 6 Coal. Good quality of coal. Shales and concealed. Sandstone. Shale. Concealed. Shales, sand- stone, and concealed. Coal. Coal. Coal. * Coal 3 ft. Slate 2 ft. Coal and slate 1ft. With shales, sandstone, and 2 thin coals. Coal 2 ft. 6 in. Shale 5 ft. in. Coal 6 ft. in. Pocahontas, or " No. Ill " bed. "No. II" bed. Sandstone and shales. 40 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. ON CRANE CREEK, MERCER COUNTY, BY I. C. WHITE. Continued. i o LOCAL NAME. HEIGHT. MATERIAL. i ^ H N M ALTITUDE. M to INCHES. Coal. "No. I "bed. 28 85 20 50 40 10 2 Shales. Gray sand- stone. Dark shales. Concealed. Sandstone and concealed. Gray massive sandstone. Shales. Green, limy, fossiliferous, top of lower carboniffer- ous. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 41 2. ON LAUREL CREEK, POCAHONTAS MINES, TAZEWELL COUNTY, VA., BY A. S. McCREATH (LATHROP). H g -fl HEI GHT. J HJ X) o fc J ! | p INCHES. 1 M o S w M Top of ridge 431 feet 40 Concealed level. Coal. Seam No. 7. 2 measures. 20 Concealed Coal. Seam No. 6. 1 6 80 Concealed Coal. Seam No. 5. 4 91 6 Concealed Bone and dirt 2 ft. in. Coal and dirt 2 ft. Gin. Coal Sepm No 4 2 measures. 90 Concealed 6 measures. Sandy Coal. Seam No. 3 or Pocahontas. 11 6 3 fire clay. Fire clay. Coal 10 ft. in. Slate ft. 3 in. Coal 1 ft. in. 61 o Shales and Coal. Seam No. 2. 4 12 6 sand stone. Concealed to Coal 1 ft. in. Shale 2 ft. in. Coal 1 ft. in. water level. Water level. Below this level all measurements 15 4 Gray taken from bore hole record. Coal Seam No 1 1 o sand rock. 2 Shales 27 o Sand stone 3 o Slate 35 4 Gray g g sand rock. Sand stone with 27 2 coal streaks. Sand stone 4 and shale. Gray g 5 sand stone. Gray g 10 and shale. Fire clay 7 10 and shale. Blue slate 15 1 Sand stone and shale. 42 COAI.S AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 2. ON LAUREL CREEK, POCAHONTAS MINES, TAZEWELL COUNTY, VA. Continued. HJ 1 w M 3 fc * 4 o 3 HEIGHT. * *l 1 s rf M 1 | H INCHES. 17 27 26 26 1 23 102 3 3 2 2 1 2 7 1 3 4 10 7 7 4 6 6 Gray sand stone. Dark slate. Blue sand stone. Blue sand stone, very hard. Slate. Gray sand stone. Dark shale, lighter colored below. Gray sand stone. Red shale and gray sand stone. Gray sand stone. Gray shale. Gray sand stone. Gray shale. Red shale. Bottom of bore hole, total section 841 feet 11 inches. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 43 3. NORTH SIDE GUAYANDOTTE RIVER, 4 MILES ABOVE PINEVILLE, WYOMING COUNTY, BY M. A. MILLER, C. & M. E. fc . ^fc NEW RIVER NAME. FLAT TOP NAME. HEIGHT OF SEAM. < M REMARKS. ALTITUDE ABOVE TIDE WATER. Top of 2055 105 Sandstone mountain. 6 Coal. Fire Creek 8 ' top coal. 2 slate. 28 coal. 21 ' slate Bottom of 950 seam. 40 8 coal. Fire clay bot- tom. Sandstones. bed. 140 Slates. 5 Coal Fire Creek 16 " top coal. 48 " slate 1630 seam. 65 28 " coal. Sandstone 55 Slates 4 Coal Quinnimont Pocahontas 24 " coal 1510 seam. bench. 140 Sandstone * 3 Coal. Quinnimont seam. Pocahontas seam, lower bench. 54 " coal. Lying above the water. Water level. 1370 44 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. As will be observed from an examination of the foregoing tables showing the stratigraphical relation of the rocks and coal seams of the Coal Measures to one another, the seams of coal lie imbedded between layers of sandstones and slates, and extend in more or less level-lying deposits throughout the formations of which they form a part. The different beds of coal appear to be generally characterized by a certain similarity in physical structure, while the thickness of coal in any one seam or bed, and the thickening and thinning of over and inter-lying sands and slates, or other impurities, if any, are subject to more or less local variation. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 45 CHAPTER III. TABLES OF VERTICAL CROSS-SECTIONS OF COAL SEAMS v Of Great Kanawha, New river, Elk and Gauley, and Flat Top Dis- tricts, Nos. XV, XIV, XIII and XII Measures. The following tables of the vertical cross sections of the seams of the Nos. XV, XIV, XIII and XII Measures, as now worked in the Great Kanawha, New River, and Flat Top Mountain Districts, give a fair record of the condition of the coal beds. The sections have been taken with great care by myself, or by well- known authority, and show the general character of the seams and the local variations. The sections of the three seams of the New River District show the quite general uniformity of the coal beds in that field. The sections of the coal bed characteristic of the No. XII Measures, as appearing on the upper Elk and Gauley river basins, have also been taken with care, and appear to indicate the presence of a valuable coking coal district quite equal to the New River field. The examinations, of which these sec- tions are a fair average, have been quite extensive and es- tablish the general character and presence of the bed over a large territory. 46 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. The sections of the principal seams of the FJat Top Moun- tain district give, probably, a fair view of the main "No. Ill" bed of that field, with its separation into two separate seams as it passes out of the somewhat limited basin where it attains its maximum. SECTION 1. Section of Pittsburgh /Seam, No. XV Measures. RAYMOND CITY MINES, PUTMAN COUNTY. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, soft slate ... 2 " 5 7 'o* 8 3 Top coal worthless (full of small bands of slate) Bottom coal olefti Total height of seam . . .... A. M. Campbell, C. & M. E. PLYMOUTH MINES AND ENERGETIC MINES, PUTMAN COUNTY. HEIGHT, FEET. Roof slate Bottom coal 6 ft to 7 ft. Floor clay Altitude above river Plymouth. 90 ft Energetic. 120ft Altitude above sea 520 ft. 0. A. Veazey, C. & M. E. SECTION 2. Sections of Mahoning and Upper Cannelton Seams, No. XIV Measures. 1. MAHONING SEAM AT NORTH COALBURG MINES, KANAWHA COUNTY. HEIGHT. FEET- INCHES. Roof slate . ... Fire clay 3 2t 2 o3 4% to 5 2 to 4 Coal . . ... Slate Coal Slate . . Coal Total height of seam . . 16 2 to 18 6 Total height of workable coal, average, 5 to 6 feet. Geo. Connell, Esq. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 47 2. MAHONING SEAMS ON KELLEY'S CREEK, J. D. LEWIS' HEIRS' LANDS, KANAWHA COUNTY. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Bed 4. < Be to 4 ft. 10> in. R. O. Baillie, C. & M. E. ON PAINT CREEK, PAINT CREEK COLLIERY LA.NDS. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate. Coal, hard splint 4 Floor, slate Total height of seam 4 C. H. Frazer, Esq. AT BELMONT MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, friable slate.. Coal.hard splint Slate Coal, hard splint __3 3 Total height of seam 4 3% Seam varies in height from 3 ft. 3 in. to 4 ft. 10 in. R. O. Baillie, C. & M. E. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 49 ON KELLEY'S CREEK, J. D. LEWIS' HEIRS LANDS. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof slate ... ... 2 1 2 1 11^ 2>i 1 0* 11* 3 5 Coal block splint hard Coal'(bony) ' Coal block, splint . Coal (bony) Coal block splint ... . -> Coal softer bituminous Slate . Coal block splint Coal shelly splint Floor slate - . . Total height of seam 8 11 AT CANNELTON MINES, CANNEL BED. FEET. INCHES. Roof sandstone Black flint o 10 Slate hard o 10 2 10 Coal cannel . . . 3 o Floor, hard slate Total height of (coal in) seam 5 10 HEIGHT. Henry Davis, Esq. 2. OP LOWER FREEPORT (COALBURGH) SEAM, AT COALBURGH MINES. HEIGHT. FT. IN . FT. IN. Roof slate to Coal, hard splint 2 1 1 6 4 6 to to to to to 3 8 1 10 6 6 6 Slate (" nigo'erhead ") Shale Coal, soft bituminous Total height of seam Showing variations in structure in its typical locality 5 4 to . I. C. White, Esq. ON PAINT CREEK, PAINT CREEK COLLIERY LANDS. FEET. INCHES. First opening on Jones' Branch Roof, slate Coal hard splint 6 2 Coal hard splint 2 2 Slate 1 4 1 5 Floor, slate Total height of seam 11 1 HEIGHT. 50 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. ON PAINT CREEK, PAINT CREEK COLLIERY LANDS. Continued. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Second opening on Left Hand Branch. Roof slate 3 5 ' 1 4 2 3 6 3 Slate (niggerhead) Slate Coal soft bituminous . . Floor, slate Total height of seam 10 6 C. H. Frazer, Esq. ON CABIN CREEK, SEYMOUR LAND Co.'s LANDS. FERT. INCHES. Coal hard splint . . 1 10 8V Coal hard splint 5 11% Slate 6 Coal soft bituminous 1 6 Floor, slate Total height of seam - 10 6*4 HEIGHT. ON DAVIS CREEK, BLACK BAND AND IRON AND COAL Co.'s LAND. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. '2 6 6 to .. to 3 to 1 to to .. 6 7 10 Slate white J. W. Kirby, Esq. ON KELLEY'S CREEK, ON J. D. LEWIS' HEIRS LAND. Roof, sandstone . . . Coal, bony Coal, block splint . Slate (niggerhead) Coal, block splint. Floor, slate Total height of seam HEIGH?. FEET. INCHES.- COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. ON PAINT CREEK, WACOMAH MINE, CANNEL BED. 51 HEIGHT IN FEET. Roof sandstone. Coal (soft splint, rather bituminous). 2 to 6 feet Coal cannel 3 to 4 feet Floor, fire clay Total height of seam. 5 to ]0 feet 3. OF UPPER KITTANNINQ (WINIFREDE OR KANAWHA MINING) SEAM, AT WINIFREDE MINES. i HEIGHT. Coal, gray splint Coal, soft Coal, gray splint Coal, soft Coal, gray splint. Coal, soft Slate Coal, soft Total height of seam FEET. INCHES. 5 5 3 3 1 2 1 3 5 1 8 5 10 I. C. White, U. S. Geolog. Rep. AT KANAWHA MINES (CONSOLIDATED M. Co.) HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. ROOf 3 3 1 4 3 to . to 3 to to 1 to .. to 5 6 6 6 6~ Coal block splint Slate or black rock Coal soft gas Floor, slate Total height of seam (Showing variations in height.) Altitude of sea above level Kanawha river, 440 feet. O. A. Veazey, C. & M. E. AT CHESAPEAKE MINING Co.'s MINE. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. Roof, slate ... .... ...... Coal, block splint Slate or black rock '4 1 3 to .. to 5 to to 2 5 Total height of seam 5 3 7 5 (Showing variations.) O. A. Veazey, C. & M. E. 52 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. ON PAINT CREEK, PAINT CREEK COLLIERY'S LAND. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. Roof, slate Coal, soft bituminous, 3 6 to 4 Slate, or black sand rock 2 Coal Slate 1 Coal, bituminous 1 Slate Coal 2 Slate 3 Coal.. 1 6 Floor, slate Total height of seam 8 6 to Total height workable coal, 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. ON KELLEY'S CREEK J. D. LEWIS' HEIRS LAND. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, soft bituminous 9 Coal, bony 2 Coal, soft bituminous Slate Coal, soft bituminous . . Slate Coal 8 y* Floor, slate Total height of seam 10 4. Of Middle Kittanning (Cedar Grove} Seam. AT CEDAR GROVE MINES. HEIGHT FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal Fire clay 1 6 Floor, slate Total height ot coal in seam _ 3 5 J. G. W. Tompkins, Esq AT PEABODY MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, sandstone Slate 4 to 6 Coal 3 Total height of coal in seam 3 George Connell, Esq. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 53 ON PAINT CREEK, ON WACOMAH MINING Co.'s LANDS AT PEACH ORCHARD OPENING. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, soft bituminous 8 Slate : 1 Coal, splint 5 Coal, cannel 7 Total height of seam * 4 C. H. Frazer, Esq. CEDAR GROVE SEAM, ON HANSFORD'S LANDS. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate . . Coal, clean 2 6 Coal and fine slate 7 Total height of seam 3 1 R. O. Baillie, C. & M. E. 5. Of Lower Kittanning ( Coal Valley) Seam. COAL VALLEY SEAM AT ANSTED, GAULEY MOUNTAIN COAL Co. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal 20 Slate 9 Coal 22 Slate 6 Coal 3 6 Slate '. 5 Coal... 2 4 Floor Total height of seam 11 10 R. O. Baillie, C. & M. E. AT POWELLTON MINES (MT. CARBON Co., LIMITED), IN BROWNSTOWN BED. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. Roof. Top coal . 3 to 6 Coal, gas, and coking 2 6 Middle slate 1 to 2 3 Coal, coking (very fine) 2 to 2 Total height of seam 4 4 to 7 6 A. M. Campbell, C. & E. M. 54 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. AT GREAT KANAWHA COLLIERY Co. MINES. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. Roof, slate. Coal 3 Slate 6 to 1 4 Coal, gas , 1 4 Slate 3 to Slate, mggerhead 1 to 2 Coal, gas 3 / Total height of seam 8 2 to 9 4 Symington MacDonald, Esq. AT EUREKA MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal j 16 Slate IK Coal, gas 5 Slate 3 Coal, gas 3 o Total height of seam 5 1% M. T. Davis, Esq. AT ST. CLAIR MINES. HEIGHT. ^ , ^ . I FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal 'i '5 Slate 1 Coal, gas 2 11 Total height of seam 4 5 M. T. Davis, Esq. UPPER OR " PEERLESS " BED. AT PEERLESS MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Draw slate 5 Coal, soft bituminous 2 Total height ot seam 2 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 55 AT KEYSTONE MINES, ON CABIN CREEK. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, gas 4 4 Slate 1 Coal, gas Total height of seam 5 2 R. O. Baillie, C. & M. E. ON PAINT CREEK COLLIERY'S LAND, AT ASH BRANCH. HEIGHT. FEET. IIICHES. Roof, slate . Draw slate 4 Coal, gas 1 Slate floor.. Total height of seam 3 5 C. H. Frazer, Esq. AT CEDAR GROVE TUNNEL MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof Coal..' 2 4 Slate, niggerhead Coal Slate, floor. Total height of seam 3 10 J. G. W. Tompkins, Esq. LOWER, OR " CAMPBELL'S CREEK BED." AT CAMPBELL'S CREEK C. Co.'s MINES. HKIOHT. IN. FT. IN. Top coal (in some piacesdivided with thin bands of slate) Slate.. Bottom coal, gas Total height of seam 3 10 to 5 3 to 2 1 6 to 2 A. M. Campbell, E. M. NOTE. When the coal is large the slate is small; so 9'-8" is never gotten. The old working averaged 6'-0"; new working 4'-6". 56 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 6. Of Clarion (Eagle) Seam. EAGLE MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate i Coal . i 2 2' 3 3 3 10 Shale Coal Shale Coal Total height of seam.. 4 9 I. C. White, Esq. ST. CLAIR MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate. Coal " Y" 2 .. .. 1 1 *X 10 Slate Coal . .... Slate Coal . Total height of seam 4 7 M. T. Davis, Esq. SECTION IV. Vertical Cross- Sections of New River District Coal Seams, No. XII Measures. NUTTALL OR SEWELL (No. 3 SEAM), AT NUTTALLBURGH MlNES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof *.. Draw slate g Blue slate and sand rock k 2 Coal 2 10 to 5 ft Floor slate . . . Total height of coal in seam 2ft. 10 in. to 5 ft. W. L. Nuttall, Esq. AT ECHO MINES. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. '2 4 4 to . to to 4 6 6 Fireclay Floor h ard bluestone Total height of coal in seam, showing variations... . 4 2 to 4 6 \% of coal from bottom up hard, % of coal at top hard. Altitude above New River, 850 feet. Altitude above sea level, 1,850 feet Jo. L. Beury, Esq. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 57 FIRE CREEK (No. 2) SEAM, AT FIRE CREEK MINES. (1) HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal 3 to 5 ft. ' .. to 5 ft. Total height of coal in seam 3 Stuart M. Buck, C. & M. E. (2) HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. Roof, sandstone "5 3 2 to .. to 6 to 5 to 2 '6 6 Slate Coal Floor hard bluestone Total height of coal in seam, showing variations . . 3 to 5 Top of bed hard coal, bottom softest. Altitude above New river, 630 feet. Altitude above sea level, 1,630. Jo. L. Beury, Esq. QUINNIMONT (No. 1) SEAM, AT QUINNIMONT MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof.. Coal 1 2 1 3 2 Slate Coal Slate Coal ... Total height of seam 4 5 I. C. White, U. S. Geo. Rep. AT ECHO MINES. HEIGHT. FT. IN. FT. IN. Roof, sandstone Slate 6 3 2 6 to .. to to 10 Coal Floor fire clay . . Total height of coal in seam, showing variations . 3 to 10 of coal bed from bottom up hard, > on top soft. Altitude above New river, 550 feet, and 1,550 above the sea level. Jo. L. Beury, Esq. 58 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. SECTION V. Vertical Cross- Sections of Upper Elk River and Gauley River District .(Webster Co.) Coal Seams, No. XII Measures. 1. On Elk River. Fire Creek (probably) Seam. AT ELK RIVER AND BERGOO, ON CHAS. PRATT'S LAND. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, coking bituminous} Coal \ Coal, bony 4 Total height of seam 5 Slate 2 Coal, coking, bituminous Floor, slate Altitude above Elk river, 800 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. AT ELK RIVER AND DEEP RUN, ON ADAM COGER'S LAND. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate. A Coal, coking, bituminous 5 4 Floor, slate Total height of seam 5 4 Altitude above Elk river, 825 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. 2. On Gauley River. GAULEY RIVER AND HUGHES RUN, ON CHAS. PRATT'S LAND. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, coking, bituminous/ 9 Coal, soft... 1 ' Total height of seam 4 2 Altitude above Gauley river, 310 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 59 AT GAULEY RIVER AND MILL RUN, ON CHAS. PRATT'S LAND. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, coking, bituminous ") Coal V 4 Coal J Total height of seam 4 Altitude above Gauley river, 300 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. AT SOUTH SIDE GAULEY RIVER, ON J. N. CAMDEN'S LANDS. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate Coal, coking, bituminous 4 3 Floor, slate Total height of seam 4 3 Altitude above Gauley river, 300 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. AT SOUTH SIDE GAULEY RIVER, ON J. N. CAMDEN'S LANDS. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate -.. Coal, coking, bituminous.') Coal [ 4 5 Coal j Total height of seam 4 5 Altitude above Gauley river, 280 feet. C. H. Frazer, Esq. SECTION VI. Vertical Cross- Sections of Flat Top Mountain District Coal Seams, No. XII Measures. No. V SEAM, OPENING ON CRANE CREEK. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof . Coal 2 Shales 2 Coal 2 Shales 6 Coal Total height of seam .... 7 I 2 I. C. White, U. S. Geo. Rep. 60 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. No. IV SEAM, OPENING ON CRANE CREEK. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof. Coal 3 Shale 2 Coal and slate . . Total height of seam 6 I. C. White, U. S. Geo. Rep. No. Ill SEAM, "POCAHONTAS" BED. AT POCAHONTAS MINES. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, sandstone. } Slate 6 Coal.. 1 Sulphur band 1 seam worked) 9 noorof mines, j^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;.;;;;;;;;;;;:;;;;;;;.; Floor, fire clay Total height of seam 11 10 C. E. F. Burnley, C. & M. E. AT POCAHONTAS MINES, COAL BRANCH OPENING. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate, and sandstone Coal, bony 8 Coal, with irregular thin slate streaks ... 4 Slate Coal 6 Slate Coal 1 Floor, slate Total thickness bed 12 7 Total thickness to be mined 11 A. S. McCreath, C. & M. E. (after Lathrop). AT MAYBEURY MINES, ON ELK HORN RIVER. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, slate. Coal 1 Sulphur band 2 Coal 2 Bone coal Coal 2 6 Bone coal 2 Coal Floor, slate Total height of seam. Stuart M. Buck, C. & M. E. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 61 ON CRANE CREEK. HEIGHT. FEET. INCHES. ROOf - 2 5 6 6 Coal Shale . Coal Total height of seam 13 6 I. C. White, U. S. Geo. Rep. ON NORTH SIDE GUYANDOTTE RIVER, FOUR MILES ABOVE PINEVILLE, WYOMING COUNTY. Hi SIGHT. FEET. INCHES. Roof, Coal sandstone '4 '4 Total height of seam .... 4 4 M. A. Miller, 0. & M. E. 62 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER IV. TABLES EXHIBITING CHEMICAL ANALYSES Of Great Kanawha, New River, Upper Elk and Gauley, and Flat Top Coals, Nos. XV, .XIV, XIII, and XII Measures, and in comparison with other Bituminous Coals. The following tables demoDstrate the general chemical excellence of the coals of West Virginia as mined in the Great Kanawha, New river, and Flat Top districts. In percentage of fixed carbon, low percentage of ash, and almost total freedom from sulphur, the splint coals of the Freeport and Upper Kittanning seams, as worked in the Great Kanawha field, are unexcelled either by the famous coals of the Briar Hill or Erie mines, which they much resemble in physical hardness, or by the coals of the Pittsburgh and Youghiogheny districts in Pennsylvania. In percentage of volatile matter and gas-producing power, the coals of the Paint creek gas bed in the Lower Freeport seam and the gas coals of the Upper or Peerless Bed of the Lower Kittanning are of the highest order. In high percentage .of fixed carbon and minimum of ash and freedom from sulphur, the coals of the New river and Flat Top fields yield superiority to neither the coals of the Conuellsville nor Cumberland districts. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 63 TABLE I. Beds of Coal worked and Analyses of Coals. Nos. XV AND XIV MEASURES, KANAWHA FIELD. s| WATER. FIXED CAR- BON. VOLATILE MATTER. SULPHUR. t AUTHORITY. REMA-RKS. Raymond Splint, hard. 03 City mines. E 3 d s 1 O) Energetic. Splint hard o CQ * ^s _, +2 Queen City. Splint, hard. O OJ p- p. p Plymouth. Splint, hard. d bO North Coal- Splint, hard. "S burgh. c/: d : p o Cannelton Splint, rather ^ *_ No. 5 seam. hard. p S ^ o c i_, c o 0) o. Eureka. Splint, rather 1 ? hard. | 64 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE II. Beds of Coal worked, and Analyses of Coal. No. XIII MEASURES, GREAT KANAWHA FIELD, AND COMPARISON WITH ANALYSES OF OTHER STANDARD COALS. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. REMARKS. fc fe H X 5 fa t-3 H M O S3 S <% . p* >' Wj O fc . *L- o P Si ri f3 ' g| o fc < < H H Es M flu i 9 2 K gco BOD fe < H 3% 1 w | * 5 fc 3 Pi. fc ^ > CO -< < o o ~ <- c Crown Hill mines. 214 62 61 33 26 18 1 81 Dewey, Vance & Co. 4 feet. Splint hard. V 1| Belmont ? mines. Coalburgh rti ^ A3 o mines. ft Cu Q upper seam. p Coalburgh mines, lower seam. 365 62 00 33 50 35 1 50 D. G. M. Levette. 4 to 5 ft. Splint hard. O Paint Creek Colliery. 63 74 30 13 6 13 R. O. Doremus. 10 to 13 ft. " gl & Paint Creek colliery, lease No. 7. 1 54 1 84 57 07 60 77 39 36 36 26 2 03 1 13 P. B. Wilson. 9 feet. Gas. E. L. Top. 1 O Acme mines, C. Creek. 1 930 1 665 57 900 53 225 37 09 41 36 62 080 3 08 3 75 Howard, U. S. Geo. Sur. Basin. Bottom. Basin. ' Shaler. 5 feet. Black Band mines. 2 24 57 48 38 58 1 70 R. M. Byrnes. 3 to 314 ft. Splint hard. S3 Winifrede mines. 136 58 73 36 33 036 272 Winifrede Coal Co. 4 to 5 ft. Splint. Kanawha brj ^ Mining Co.'s C 33 C mine. 'a 33 Consolidated Bitum- o3 ^ f Mining Co.'s 4 to 5 ft. inous, Jj c*2 mine. hard. 3 Union mines. 4 to 5 ft. " O p. c. S Chesapeake Coal Co.'s 6 to 7 ft. <. p 2 mines. * Peele Coal Co's mines. 1 75 57 78 3534 5 13 Arthur R. Otter. 4 to 5 ft. " Cedar 59 144 38 35 2 506 Hy. Grove mine. 6067 36 83 2 50 Froeling. be Cedar Kelleys .2 Grove Pure 61 27 36 83 1 80 Creek Coal a M > Coal Co. Co. 1 Peabody is O mines. M fe Lower o3 Blacks- ^ ^ burgh. 2 O East Bank g lower seam. Car kin mines. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 65 TABLE II. Continued. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. REMARKS. h O o M O H g J a o g S kg p* ^j M g fc o w E " JS fc . ^ . - S 58 . M # H o \l # p tt < 5 w o H * S M V E gfc 00 W 02 03 < 5* -J H oS ^ p >o PH "3 fe JJ cc ^ a Average C. &O. Kanawha 1 25 56 26 37 36 1 28 3 85 Coal gas coals. Agency. >ell's Creek Gauley Mt.C. Co.'s mines. Powellton mines. Great 1 40 094 ("062 64 00 61 75 58 43 32 60 34 91 38 48 232 164 56 2 00 2 40 1 91 W. N. Page. Hy. Froeang. Hy. Froeling. 7 feet. 5 feet. Steam coking coals. Q. Kanawha Colliery Co. 114 1 20 59 89 61 967 34 61 33 91 81 648 4 36 2 355 A. S. McCreath. Hy. 5 feet. 11 M I Froeling. .2 Faulkner's B S mines. 1 Crescent mines. 5910 36 72 1 27 2 91 J. W. Mallett. 5 feet. " S (S Eureka i, ^ mines. S 0) Carver Bros. ,, ? ^ mines. Coal V) Keystone mine, Cabin Cr'k. 1 34 56 42 38 09 1 68 4 15 S. P. Sharpless. 4 feet. Bitumin- ous, soft fine gas coals. g Peerless mines. 1 442 55 416 39 822 784 2536 A. S. McCreath. 30 in. " j; Black F. P. "OJ Peerless 90 58 62 38 05 775 243 Dewey, 30 in. " ^ mines. U. S. Gov't. fi Campbell Creek. 1 51 61 07 35 64 37 1 21 River Side Iron Co. 6 feet. Bitumin- ous, hard. Pioneer ( mines. 1 . Eagle mines. 235 70 47 2290 1 78 2 50 Wm. Wyant. 5 feet. Bitumin- ous, coking. o ,2 St. Clair Coking. S | mines. Black Diamond Coking. mines. d p] Average Pittsburgh, Pa. 1 30 61 45 31 45 86 5 80 Penn. Ry. Co. Splint. M a West Moreland. 1 430 55 891 36 145 439 5 595 A. S. McCreath. Block, splint, hard. | Briar Hill, Ohio. 3 60 62 66 3258 85 1 16 Wormly O Indiana, (Staabs). 1 86 5823 37 11 2 80 Dela Fontaine. " g Average S Hocking Valley, 6 95 51 30 36 15 668 5 56 C. & H. V. C. & I. Co. Ohio. C QO to A"\ 36 48 1 09 5 13 Edw. Orton. Av. 10 min(?s. VO 59 00 36 80 4 20 Mushet. Clyde, Splint, England. En- glish. Worsboro, Yorkshire, 60 32 38 18 1 50 Mushet. England. 66 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. ANALYSIS OP COAL OF " UPPER FERGUSON SEAM," TWELVE POLE DISTRICT. * x H p H \ tf o H s| >J^ ? a: H < O ^ X & & fc ^ CO 3 45 51 35 38 70 1 92 6 50 Hy. Froeling. GOALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 67 TABLE III. Beds of Coal Worked and Analyses of Coals. No. XTI MEASURES, NEW RIVER AND FLAT TOP FIELDS, AND COMPARI- SON WITH ANALYSES OF OTHER STANDARD COALS. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. g W K o Cfi S Q H kj l h fe H W 35 M 1 <;. N ISTBIC O eg N H a H N II a ' BH H 05 o H & K O * ^ F * > CO 2 2 - All steam Id Nuttallburgh mines. 1 35 34 70 67 69 00 25 35 29 59 57 78 2 10 1 07 Prof. Eggleston. C. E. Wright. and coking coals. g II McKell's lands, New river. 52 75 80 21 83 37 1 85 Hy. Froeling. 3 O cc 61 75 02 22 34 56 1 47 Prof. Rickette. j2 o> o Fire creek mines. 0735 75499 22 425 536 805 A.S. McCreath. > y> 040 72 25 22 40 508 4 95 Hy. Froeling. I Quinnimont mines. 76 79 29 18 65 23 1 11 Prof. Eggleston. 6 a New River C. & Coke Co. 668 70 657 26 642 498 1 535 A. S. McCreath. 1 1 McKell's lands. 97 74 45 21 48 316 3 10 Hy. Froeling. a 'S Pratt's lands. 3 o 1 Elk Basin, Webster Co. 95 68 20 29 40 556 1 45 Hy. Froeling. (outcrop). oj 4* i East Fork, 1 1 Flipping creek, No. 6 seam. 568 77335 19 337 800 1 960 A. S. McCreath. o. C ^ si West Fork, ' * 03 S Q Flipping creek, No. 5 seam, 7 360 76 077 18 936 0793 3 405 A.S. McCreath. outcrop. 68 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE III. Continued. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. ; H 55 55' CO S o" .. ^ >> I STRICT. AME OF M 3 r ATER. [XED CA OLATILE MATTEI [JLPHUR, i o a H fc fc & fc > 02 3 * < Average 10 samples, Flat 694 74 066 18 832 761 5 647 A. S. McCreath. Top coal. i Average 8 sam- ples, No. 3 bed. 698 73 406 18 756 752 6 388 A. S. McCreath. 2 [3 eo d Nelson opening. 7 50 75 833 19 584 531 3 302 A. S. McCreath. o. h East mine. 684 73 021 19 964 656 5 675 A. S. McCreath. *j ,hontas ( West Fork, Flipping creek. 516 74 272 17 639 0998 6 575 A. S. McCreath. Crane creek. 600 76 833 18 020 662 3 925 A. S. McCreath. b Pinnacle creek outcrop, aver- 1 366 74 625 17 434 575 5 950 A. S. McCreath. _ age. "5 at Connellsville. 1 26 59 61 30 10 78 8 23 Vol. G, II Pa. Geol. Reps. 1 1 338 70 073 22 122 652 5 815 a Clearfield. 1 666 67 538 22 299 1 422 7 575 A. S. McCreath. 1 054 70 199 22 081 726 5 940 942 73 154 18 403 806 6 695 ' G a Cumberland. 974 72 261 19 876 769 6 120 A. S. McCreath. I Broad Top. 594 71 334 17 551 976 9 545 A. S. McCreath. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 69 CHAPTER V. EXHIBITING TABLE SHOWING COMPARATIVE GAS YIELDING POWER Of Great Kanawha Coals, No. 'XIII Measures, and in comparison with other Coals. It will be observed that the coal of the Lower Freeport (Coal- burgh) seam, as developed at the Acme mines, on Cabin creek, there changes its character from a hard splint, with low gas yield- ing power, and becomes a coal softer in quality and more highly charged with bitumen and of high gas yielding capacity, giving 6.35 cubic feet of gas to one pound of coal. This same change in the general character of the coal in this seam is also observed upon Paint creek, where, upon the Nos. 5 and 7 Leases of the Paint creek Colliery, a bed of cannel coal appears underlying the thinned bed of splint coal, and then itself thins out and is replaced by a coal very rich in bitumen, the whole seam apparently being affected by this change, and becoming a coal high in percentage of volatile matter 39.36 per cent and gas yield. And it is not improbable that in this seam, under further development, will yet be opened up one of the chief gas coal beds of the Great Kanawha field. The Middle Kittanning (Cedar Grove) seam is also credited with value as a gas producer, yielding by analysis 38.35 per cent vola- tile matter. It is from the Lower Kittanning (Coal Valley and Peerless) seam, however, that the chief gas coal product of the Great Kanawha field has long been taken. And the coals, as mined at Great Kanawha colliery, Powellton, Crescent, Coal Valley, etc., have long ranked in market with the first grades of the Pennsyl- 70 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. vaiiia and Maryland mines, one pound of coal from the seam at Powellton yielding 5.18 cubic feet of gas of 19.00 candle power. The portion of this seam known as the Upper or "Peerless" bench, where now mined at Peerless and Black Peerless, Beane, and Keystone mines, has won especial attention for its remarkable record as a gas producer; the coals showing by analysis 38.00, 38.09, and 39.82 per cent volatile matter, and by test 5.79, 5.14, and 4.91 cubic feet of gas of 18.36 and 17.00 candle power per pound of coal. This Upper or " Peerless" bed of the Lower Kittanning seam, separated from the lower bed of the seam by widely dividing sand- stones and shales, has been extensively opened and traced along both Cabin and Paint creek valleys, and, lying at low altitude in the mountains, there constitutes a very great area of coal accessible to profitable working. In comparison with either the coals of English New Castle, or Nova Scotia, the yield of gas per pound of coal is favorable to the West Virginia coal, while the yield of 6.35 cubic feet of gas per pound of coal of the Acme mines is only exceeded by the cannela or the product of Boghead, Scotland. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 71 TABLE EXHIBITING COMPARATIVE CANDLE POWER AND GAS YIELDING POWER KANAWHA COALS. tfi W ''& ri g , H k g P* tt 55 M o 3 YIELD OF CUBIC FEET OF GAS : LB. OF COAL. |g III w fe Q . O W > w Q 11 r Upper Free- port. Cannelton. 5 00 64 54 Manhattan G. L. Co., N. Y. Freeport. Peytona, Boone county. 6 60 6 01 42 79 45 60 " Lower Free- port. Acme mines on Cabin creek, Kauawha. 6 35 17 09 419 10 Cincinnati, O., Gas Works. Lower Free- port. Acme mines on Cabin creek, Kanawha. 6 25 19 00 Consolidated Gas Works, New York, City. Upper Kit- tanning. Winifrede mines. 4 62 14 10 65 14 Winifrede Coal Co., tests (a domestic, not a "gas coal.") 03 Middle Kit- Cedar Grove mines, Kana- "3 tanning. wha county. I Lower Kit- tanning. Keystone mines, Cabin creek, Kana- wha. 4 91 18 36 Laclede Gas Co., St. Louis, Mo. Lower Kit- tanning. Peerless mines. 5 79 5 14 14 75 17 00 61 00 Cincinnati Gas Works. Richmond, Va., Gas Works. Powellton mines, Arm- strong creek, Fayette county. 5 18 19 00 One ton coal yields light equivalent to 7557 Ibs. sper- maceti. A. S. McCreath. Lower Kit- tanning. Gauley Mt. C. Co. mines, Fayette county. 5 00 17 00 Manhattan Gas Co., New York City. I Lower Kit- tanning and Clarion seams. Kanawha gas coals. 4 75 4 80 18 00 Average yield Kanawha gas coals, Chesapeake & Ohio coal agency. 72 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE. Continued. g CQ K H 02 S S CM 1 K Pf5 < Sg ^ < w J *o" ^ g ^ 00 < 5 [H PQ H O H O W C5 S o w M 8 i |0 ihh . HC I-H ^ nJ ^00 < P P-* j o u ^ r Westmoreland. 5 32 16 62 Prof. Chandler. Pennsyl- i vania. ) I Penn. Gas Co. 4 92 Prof. Cresson. Ohio. Sterling. 5 26 18 81 Prof. Chandler. England. Newcastle. 5 02 10 11 Fyfe. Scotland. Boghead. 7 71 Fyfe. r Lingan. 4 76 12 92 Prof. Chandler. Nova Scotia. { 1 I Block House, Cape Breton. 5 10 17 32 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 73 CHAPTER VI. EXHIBITING TABLES SHOWING STEAM PRO- DUCING POWER Of coals of Nos. XIII and XII Measures, as demonstrated by United States Government tests. The following tables of individual and comparative tests of the steam producing power of the coals of the Upper Freeport (Crown Hill) seams of the XIII Measures, from the Great Kanawha Dis- trict, and of the coals of the No. XII Measures, as taken from the New River District, are of especial interest, since the trials made of these coals, and coals from many different fields, were under like conditions, and by presumably impartial judges. Observation of Table I shows that under like conditions both the Kanawha and the New river coals yielded the maximum results. Observation of Table II shows the coals of the No. XII Meas- ures, as taken from the New river field, to have yielded a superior result to any other in capacity of water evaporation. TABLE I. The following table is an accurate statement of tests of average New river coal, No. XII Measures, and of coal from the Great Kanawha field, No. XIII Measures, taken from the Upper Free- port, or Crown Hill seam, at Crown Hill mines, compared with the Frostburgh and average anthracite coals from North-east Penn- sylvania. The tests were made by the United States Navy Department, Bureau of Steam Engineering, under supervision of B. F. Isher- wood, Theo. Zeller, Henry L. Snyder, chief engineers, as reported by William H. Shack, Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering, 1878, page 27. 74 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE SHOWING COMPARATIVE STEAM PRODUCING POWER OF NEW RIVER, KANAWHA, (UPPER FREEPORT SEAM), AND FROSTBURG ANTHRACITE AND COALS, AS BY REPORT OF BUREAU STEAM ENGINEERING U. S. NAVY. DESIGNATION OP THE EXPERI- MENT. 3 ? KIND OP COAL. 3 ' RATE OF COMBUSTION. 0000 OO Ol 11 POUNDS OF THE CRUDE COAL. POUNDS OF THE GASIFIABLE FOR- | TION OF THE COAL. %o* PER POUND OF CRUDE COAL. PEP POUND OF THE GASIFIABLE POR- TION OF THE COAL. 5 flda*a2 N511 PER CUBIC FOOT OF THE CRUDE COAL. S 2 W f TI POUNDS OF STEAM PRODUCED PER HOUR. 888 888 PERCENTUM OF THE COAL IN REFUSE OF ASH, CLINKER, AND SOOT. Sfe SSg WEIGHT OF THE COAL IN POUNDS PER CUBIC FOOT. OO O 00 00 GO CUBIC FEET OF SPACE REQUIRED TO STORE UNE TON OF COAL. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 75 TABLE II. SHOWING THE COMPARATIVE EXCELLENCE OF BITUMINOUS COALS AS STEAM PRODUCERS. Taken from Report of Board of Officers appointed by United States Navy Department, June 19, 1884, "to investigate and re- port comparative merits of anthracite and bituminous coals for or- dinary naval uses," the board being composed of the following gen- tlemen : S. B. Luce, Commodore, U. S. N.; D. B. Harmony, Cap- tain, U. S. K; Chas. H. Baker, Chief Engineer, U. 8. N.; Fred. G. McKeon, Chief Engineer, U. S. N.; C. F. Goodrich, Lieuten- ant Commander, U. S. N. Reported January 5, 1885. MARKET DESIGNATION OF COAL. KIND OF COAL. PERCKNTAGE OF COMBUSTIBLE IN COAL. PERCENTAGE WATKR EVAPORATED PER POUND OF COAL. New river Frostburg . . . Bituminous Semi-bituminous 936000 s? 7000 10 2023 9 9357 Cumberland Broad Top . . . ...... Pittsburgh ; Semi-bituminous Semi-bituminous Bituminous S6 6700 S6 1200 91 7470 10 0200 9 9940 8 2044 Lacawanna Anthracite. 91 0723 Newcastle, England Bituminous 94 3205 8 6558 Average 37 samples, Welsh coals. . . Bituminous and semi-bi- tuminous 9 0500 Average 17 samples, English coals, Newcastle Bituminous 9 1683 76 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER VII. TABLES SHOWING CHEMICAL ANALYSES AND PHYSICAL TESTS OF COKES Of Great Kanawha, No. XIII Measures, New river and Flat Top, No. XII Measures, and in comparison with cokes of Pennsyl- vania, etc., Alabama, Tennessee, and Europe. Observation of Table I, showing comparative chemical analyses of cokes, is striking in the uniformly higher percentages of fixed carbon contained by the cokes of the West Virginia fields, as com- pared with the celebrated cokes of the Connellsville region and average Pennsylvania product, also in their uniformly lower per- centages of ash and sulphur. These cokes show in strong contrast with the leading cokes of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, excelling them in higher per- centage of fixed carbon, freedom from water, and greatly lower average percentages of ash and sulphur and freedom from phos- phorus. Compared with the cokes of English Bromney and Belgian Mons Basin, the best cokes of Europe, they average higher in percent- ages of fixed carbon, and run about with them in percentages of ash. Observation of Table II shows these cokes to rank with the Con- nellsville and other superior cokes in percentages of coke cells and hardness. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 77 TABLE I. Showing Chemical Analyses of Cokes. GREAT KANAWHA AND NEW RIVER AND FLAT TOP MOUNTAIN FIELDS, Nos. XIII AND XII MEASURES, AND COMPARED WITH ANALYSES OF OTHER STANDARD COKES. CO a 13 M O g H M o Q M X .-! M 35 S M g < K < x s ^ E % M i 1" O s H X CO o z B ~ PH 1 Cedar Grove seam. 95 02 4 40 58 M. A. Scoville. I Powellton mines, 1 10 93 25 1 50 5 15 Hy. Froeling. 8 (L. Kittanning seam.; 0446 93015 1 130 5 409 A. S. McCreath. E Great Ka. Col- X 6 fe liery Co. (Lower Kittanning.) 95 862 3 623 515 A. S. McCreath. g Crescent mines ft Lower Kittan- 90 31 1 77 7 92 594 J. W. Mallett. g ning. a M Eagle and St. PR 44 Clair mines 90 48 9 00 500 Porter'and Going. oj (Clarion seam). 5 East Bank mines (Lower 89 95 9 13 378 H. V. C. & I. Co. Kittanning). 1, Nuttall- L or No. 3 sam. Nuttallburgh mines and seam or Sewell mines and seam. 82 92 220 91 96 93 000 2 20 7 530 5 02 6 760 910 453 270 0015 C. E. Dwight. Henger & Wick- ham. C. E. Dwight. ObC^ Echo mines. 290 97 710 14 1 860 569 J. B. Britton. O) s H Caperton mines. 230 94 620 0240 4910 549 J. B. Britton. M M ||| Fire creek 92 180 6 680 0618 J. B. Britton. d mines and seam. o'ios 91 940 0492 6 925 538 A. S. McCreath. o 128 88 940 2800 6980 520 0028 Heager & Wick- ham. 03 1 Stone Cliff mine. 060 89 660 2 680 6 600 0662 017 Heager & Wick- ham. S is S, Qninnimont mines and seam. 93 850 5 850 0300 J. B. Britton. < Echo mines. 1 410 92 730 710 5 150 0581 020 Heager & Wick- ham. || g' Meadow creek $ mines. O 78 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE L Continued. LOCALITIES. . S a < 23 MOISTURK. FIXED CARBON. VOLATILE MATTER. 33 9 < HULPHUK. PHOSPHORUS IN ASH. >*' H 1 p < Flat Top Mt. No. XII Measures. Pocahontas or No. 3 seam. Pocahontas mines. Stephenson and Mohler No. 3 seam. 182 196 0663 92 248 92585 92 816 719 494 1 059 6 286 6 048 4 913 565 677 548 McCreath and d'Invilliers. Pennsyl- vania Dis- tricts, Con- nellsville. Bradford. Caperton. 89 576 89 150 9 113 9 650 0821 1 200 A. S. McCreath. B. Crowther. Irwins. Penn. Gas Co. 88 240 9 414 962 Carnegie B. & Co. Alleghany Mountain. Bennington B. 87 580 11 360 1 060 A. S. McCreath. Bl oss- burgh. Arrot Sey- mour seam. 84 760 13 345 998 ' Alleghany river. Lower Freeport seam. 85 777 11 463 2 107 .. Beaver county. Holmes and Bro. 84 727 12 630 1 994 " Alabama. Pratt Coal Bed. P. R. & R. Co. mines. 192 88875 758 8 993 1 182 McCreath and d'Invilliers. Warrior Coal Field. Sloss Furnace. Woodward mines. 130 180 86 478 89 164 1 130 640 11 203 9 346 1 049 670 Coal burgh mines. 128 84 678 0685 12 630 1 899 '< Georgia. Dade mines. 542 75 911 1 091 21 756 0670 Soddy mines. 0172 86823 1 098 15 780 2 127 Tennessee. Etna mines. 0856 85 450 1 100 11 083 1451 < Daisy mines. 0218 70 830 1 055 16 756 2 132 " European. England, Durham. Bromney. 91 580 6 86 L. L. Bell. Belgium. Mons basin. 91 300 6 20 M. DeMaisilly. Germany. Westphalia. 85060 400 Dr. F. Mueck. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 79 TABLE II. Showing Physical and Chemical Properties of Cokes. GREAT KANAWHA, No. XIII MEASURES, NEW RIVER AND FLAT TOP, No. XII MEASURES, IN COMPARISON WITH PENNSYLVANIA, MARY- LAND, ILLINOIS AND ALABAMA COKES (ARRANGED AFTER HOTCH- KISS). a o_ So' > ?" If id Q. ' Clearfleld Pa. CO '} Connells- ville, Pa. I? 5^ 0or ftsi ^P' a " 3 * West Va. Coke. LOCALITY. 8 CO g to OT ilk o' o> to 5? o K H GRAMMES IN ONE CUBIC tj s 00 g ^2 S o % S g to m 15 1 B S to S ^ 3 INCH. fe s S s 05 8 Jk. i(k CO itt g CO S 8 S kfe a P3 < POUNDS IN CUBIC FOOT. 85 S 2 g Ilk s 3 il o, s to ss 3 00 g 3 H S S 3 S Oi S ^1 2 a s *k to IN OO I O m M PERCENTAGE. 8 g g g O If, I & CO sg 3 s g S g 8 OS q gj 5 1 i to s co S 1 g g g Nl S COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH PER CUBIC INCH, % ULTIMATE STR. S 2^ S s >^ s i 1 H'T OF FrR'CE, CH. SUP'D WITH- OUT CRUSHING. M M M K H- Hi M s 5 M ORDER IN CKL- LULAR SPACE. co g C-0 s ec g co CO g CO to co 8 co S HARDNESS. g 1 g i CO to 1 M S 8 SPECIFIC QUAN- TITY. S 3 g g s g g 3 o g o & g 00 FIXED CARBON. O > 2 : g Oi MOISTURE. CO g J CO IO S3* ft'SK *- o Chemical analysis. Prof. J. B. Britton. AUTHORITY. APPENDIX TO PART I. 81 APPENDIX TO PART I. NOTE 1. The "LOWER KITTANNING SEAM." In the treatment of this coal bed or seam, we have discussed the bed as being composed of two divisions or benches, distinguishing the one as the Lower or Campbell's creek, and the other as the Upper or Peerless. There ap- pears to be, however, some doubt as to this distinction, and it may be the more accurate position that the bed, as appearing in the Great Kanawha valley is subdivided into three divisions, all uniting at Camp- bell's creek, but separating as they extend southward. We here quote from Prof. I. C. White, U. S. Geological Report: " On the Great Kanawha river, above Charleston, this is one of the principal coal beds, and has long been known there as the ' Campbell's creek' seam. At this locality, on Campbell's creek, the coal is four to six feet thick with only two parting slates, but in passing southward up the Kanawha, new partings come in, and the old ones thicken" up until the bed, with its included rock partings, swells out to a thickness of nearly fifty feet, and two of the members are mined independently, the upper one being known as the Peerless bed, and the lower one as the Blacks- burgh. The upper member never exceeds three feet, and is usually about 20 feet above the Blacksburgh member, which is often four to five feet thick, and is the ' Coal Valley ' gas seam. On the ' Mount Carbon (L't'd) ' property, 25 miles south from Campbell's creek, the 20 feet of shales, which usually separate the Peerless and Blacksburgh members of the Lower Kittanning. thin away to a few inches, locally, and both are taken out of the same drift. This is also the condition of affairs at the famous Ansted mines on top of Gauley mountain. At the head of Cabin creek, the Peerless and upper half of the Blacksburgh member come completely together, forming a bed of excellent gas coal 5 feet thick." (Mined at " Keystone " mine, Stevens Coal Co.) NOTE 2. THE BROWNSTOWN SEAM. Between the Clarion and Lower Kittanning seams, occurs, occasionally, in the Great Kanawha district, a stray seam which has been locally named the " Brownstown " bed. This Beam shows a thin dirty layer of coal, 2 feet thick at or near Browns- town, 10 miles south of Charleston, and is nowhere found of workable 6 82 APPENDIX TO PART I. thickness or value, except it be that the working in the " Powell " seam, on the property of the Mount Carbon Company (L't'd), should prove to be that seam, where a fine bed of clean coking coal, 5 feet thick, apparently lying above the Clarion or Eagle bed, is now worked. NOTE 3. The vertical cross section of the Campbell's creek seam, given on page 55, is correct for average of bed and variations in whole district, but at Campbell's creek mine the slate portion has almost or entirely disappeared. II. CONTENTS. HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL VIEW. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. The Great Kanawha District 85 II. The Coal River District 96 III. The Twelvepole or Kenova and Guyandotte or Logan Court- house Districts 99 IV. The New River District 106 V. The Upper Elk and Gauley River Districts 110 VI. The Flat Top Mountain District 112 VII. General Cost of Production of Coals Mined and Cokes Man- ufactured, with Comparative Tables Showing Prices Paid for Mining Coals in West Virginia Compared with Penn- sylvania and Ohio 115 VIII. Treating of Facilities and Cost of Transportation of Coals from Mines to Markets, Water and Rail 126 IX. Treating of Market Prices, with Tables Showing Market Rates over Series of Years 142 X. General Summary 146 XI. Appended Tables and Statistics 148 (83) PART II. HISTORICAL AND INDUSTRIAL VIEW. CHAPTER I. The Great Kanawha Coal District. 1. HISTORICAL SKETCH. 2. TABLES SHOWING INCREASE IN OUTPUT AND IN COMPARI- SON WITH PITTSBURGH AND OTHER DISTRICTS. 3. TABLE SHOWING MINES AND SEAMS WORKED, ETC. SECTION I. HISTORICAL SKETCH. Although coal was dug and taken from the lower beds of the Lower Kittanning (Campbell's creek) along its outcrop in the river hills near the Kauawha Salines, for many years previous to 1840, yet its use was largely experimental and intermittent, the fuel being applied to the running of salt furnaces and boiling of brine whenever the supply of wood ran short. Here and there an occasional opening into the lowest seams had been made to supply the local blacksmiths with coal, but gen- erally wood was used in the cabins. It was not until about the year 1849, and thereafter, that the systematic exploration of the mountains and hills of the Great Kanawha valley was undertaken with a view of determining its value as a coal producing field. Cannel coal had then recently been found along the hills of Coal river by William M. Peyton, of Roanoke, and below Smither's creek, on the Kanawha, by Col. Aaron Stockton, and it was with a view of determining whether or not this valuable fuel might not be found in the mountains south of the Great Kanawha river that (85) 86 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. Mr. William H. Edwards, owner of the WiJson survey of 85,600 acres, embracing most of the coal lands immediately south of the river, instituted, in the years following 1849, elaborate investiga- tions in search of coal. In 1850, the big bed of the Lower Freeport seam was dis- covered on Paint creek. This seam was subsequently traced down the creek and along the river hills to where the village of Coalburgh and the famous mines in that seam are now located. In the year 1854, the beds of cannel coal upon Paint creek were discovered by the late Mr. Alvah Hansford. About the year 1857, mines were opened upon Paint creek, and refineries established for roasting the cannel coal -and extracting oil and paraffine. A few years earlier similar works were erected at Cannelton, and a good deal of cannel coal was taken from the Stockton cannel bed in the Upper Freeport seam, and an abortive attempt was made at Forest Hill to manufacture oil from a bituminous shale. The discovery of petroleum and the out-break of the civil war brought these opera- tions to a final close. About the year 1853, also, mines were es- tablished upon Field's creek, in the Upper Kittanning seam, where are now the Winifrede collieries, and coal was taken by rail to the Kanawha river and shipped thence to Cincinnati and the lower Ohio in flat boats, when the waters were sufficiently high to permit it. The wild condition of the river, however, and frequent losses of .entire boat loads of coal brought this enterprise to an early ter- mination. With the close of the civil war, coal mining operations were again begun, and mines were established at Campbell's creek, at Coalburgh, and some short-lived attempts were made to take coal from the Freeport seams along Lower Elk river. Mines were also opened in the Pittsburgh seam in Putman county, near the mouth of the Pocatalico river at Raymond City. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 87 SECTION II. TABLES SHOWING INCREASE IN OUTPUT AND i& COMPARISON WITH PITTSBURGH AND OTHER DISTRICTS. The development of the Great Kanawha field since the inaugu- ration of the deep water improvement of the river by the United States government, and the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, has been notable. At the time of commencement of these locks and dams, and, also, of the completion of this railroad, there were but two collieries working and shipping coal above Charleston, each shipping by \vater the Kanawha and Ohio Coal Company, at Coalburgh mines, and the Campbell's Creek Coal Co., at Campbell's creek mines, and one mine below Charleston the Raymond City Coal Company, at Raymond City, in Putman county. With the inauguration of the great system of free locks and dams, and the completion of the railroad, the coals of this field began to go forth into markets both east and west in increasing tonnage, and have, at the present time, close of 1891, reached the output as stated in the following tables. These tables demon- strate the vigorous growth of the district ; the increasingly im- portant position its coals are assuming in markets; and, especially, the gradual and steady ouster of the Pittsburgh coals from markets they once held in complete control, by the coals from the Great Kanawha district. 88 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. g 3 5 I * 'CO '-O T ^O X CTi 3- OJ C^ O CO i COrt*T lT t l ^ VJ t"- T ' 1r " -OOOf ( or-^fCit^^cxoc-iciC^ K o- rr 71 - ? -- ^i t- T- -i 'MCCOC'lyS'MrfltCOOCOi oi'co'io'co rCcoc^toosoocMOOs r* o i^. i^ ^x*o T Too SC T 00 1^ CO tO r-l t^ l^ 1-- 30 uC X -M CS Ci-H ,3 M CM CO * l^ I- l^ I- CTi O C-l M TO tC O O t-H ^ ic * eo_e i '^ tc -) -^ i^ 5; n r-i co o oi- i- >3 o ^cci^So^^J^x^teoitiJccSJoto f, if S 5 S S o' ? S S S S i ?8 5 2S S ~ h -T ri *i o c^ rn ic S os o_oi to .c 10 ^r -<*< O3 *" ^" >c" eo" *' T)" -c ic vi ^t co~ ^4 i-T "3 3 5 So 3 o So ^ S w it \~ n x -2 3 H rf o" co to o so o co" re o* -^" i--' o o gf of 2' COALS AND COKES IX WEST VIRGINIA. 89 TABLE II. SHOWING TOTAL COMPARISONS OF TOTAL BITUMINOUS COAL RECEIPTS IN CINCINNATI MARKET, SEVENTEEN YEARS, IN PERCENTAGE. KANAWHA COAL RECEIVED IN CINCINNATI. OF PITTSBURGH COAL RECEIVED OF ALL BITUMIN- OUS COAL. OTHER THAN PITTSBUKGH RE- CEIVED. OF ENTIRE COAL RECEIVED. 1874-75 1890-91 17 years. Equaled. Equaled. Gain. 18 per cent. 44 per cent. 26 per cent. 76 per cent. 216 per cent. 140 per cent. 12 per cent. 26 per cent. 14 per cent. 1. Showing that in 1874-75, Kauawha coal receipts in Cin- cinnati were about one-fifth of Pittsburgh coal receipts, and that in 1890-91, Kanawha coal receipts had increased to be almost one- half of Pittsburgh coal receipts. 2. Showing that in 1874-75, Kanawha coal receipts were about one-fourth less than all bituminous coal receipts other than Pittsburgh, and in 1890-91, Kanawha coal receipts were over two times as much. 3. Showing that while in 1874-75, Kanawha coal receipts equaled about one-eighth of all bituminous coal received in Cin- cinnati markets, in 1890-91, seventeen years, Kanawha coal re- ceipts had grown to be over one-fourth of all, and this in an in- creasing market. 4. Showing that in 17 years, Kanawha coals had gained on Pittsburgh coals 26 per cent.; gained on all other bituminous coals 140 per cent, and on an increasing market 14 per cent. 5. Showing a greater and greater dependence of Cincinnati markets upon Kanawha coals, and a correspondingly steady ouster of Pittsburgh and all other coals. 90 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE III. SHOWING THE DECREASED RATIO OF PITTSBURGH COAL RECEIPTS IN COMPARISON WITH INCREASING RATIO OP MARKET IN COURSE IN SEV- ENTEEN YEARS. H a, a I *i| o ^ o < * W K H ta **g H g K fa W w ej 5^5 K H ~ K &^ & oa III gS-llzg Cu Q-, CH 1874-75 Equaled 68 1890-91 Equaled 59 9 per cent. Gain, Kanawha Coal, 17 years Market increase, 17 years 330 per cent. 104 per cent. Showing for Pittsburgh coals a decreasing' ratio of 9 per cent, in a market that increased 104 per cent., as against an increase of 330 per cent, for Kanawha coals in the same market, and a conse- quent displacement of Pittsburgh by Kanawha coals. TABLE IV. SHOWING COMPARATIVE RATIOS OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN SEVEN- TEEN YEARS OF COAL RECEIPTS EROM KANAWHA, PITTSBURGH AND OTHER COAL DISTRICTS. DISTRICTS. *; H H OH Kanawha Coal Receipts Gain. 330 Pittsburgh Coal Receipts Gain. 74 All other kind of Coal Receipts Gain. 50 Entire Cincinnati Market Coal Receipts Gain. 104 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 91 1. Showing Kanawha coal receipts have more than quadrupled, while Pittsburgh receipts have gained but three-fourths ; other bituminous coals have gained but one-half, while the market itself has doubled. 2. Showing Kanawha coals to be the only coals holding their own and increasing in their receipts, and in a ratio twice as rapid as general increase of the market. 92 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE V. SHOWING THE SHIPMENTS OF COAL FROM THE GREAT KANAWHA VALLEY, BELOW KANAWHA FALLS, BOTH BY RIVER AND RAILROAD, FOR THE SEVERAL YEARS NAMED, TAKEN FROM THE LAST ANNUAL REPORT ON THE GREAT KANAWHA RIVER IMPROVEMENT, MADE TO COL. WM. P. CRAIGHILL, THE OFFICER IN CHARGE OF THE U. S. GOVERNMENT IM- PROVEMENT, GREAT KANAWHA RIVER, AND PUBLISHED IN THE REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS FOR 1890. YEAR OF TWELVE MONTHS ENDING SHIPMENTS BY RIVER. SHIPMENTS BY RAILROAD. TOTAL BUSHELS. June 30 1881 9,628,696 6 631 660 16 260 356 June 1 1883 15,370,458 13 290 255 28 660 713 " 1884 1 8 421 084 12 059 172 30 480 256 " 1885 17 812 323 12 972 217 30 784 540 1886 17 861,613 13 953 745 31 815 358 " 1887 23 233,374 19 160 896 42 394 270 " 1888 20,100,625 20 962 686 41 063 311 " 1889 26,921,788 22,031,121 48,952,909 " 1890 24 161 554 27 433 425 51 594 979 " 1891 25 761 346 28 668 025 54 429 371 " 1892 26 787,788 30,844 100 57 631 888 The comparatively slight falling off in the river shipment be- tween 1889 and 1890 was mainly, if not altogether, due to a differ- ence in the market at Cincinnati, Louisville, etc., in the two years. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 93 TABLE VI. SHOWING ANNUAL TONNAGE COAL AND COKE TAKEN BY RAIL FROM KANAWHA (AND NEW RIVER) DISTRICT OVER PERIOD OP NINE YEARS BY CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO RAILWAY. YEAR. 1883 1884 1885 1886 -...I.. , 1887 1888. 1889 1890 1891 (to July 31st, 7 months) TONNAGE. 1,004,099 tons (2,000 pounds). 966,910 1,296,793 1,420,108 1,663,381 " " 1,823,514 " " 1,886,256 " " 2,341,002 1,637,336 Showing a total increase in output in nine years of 2,282,763 tons, or 227 per cent. SECTION III. TABLE SHOWING MINES, COAL SEAMS WORKED, ETC. The collieries now working, and the coal seams worked, in the Great Kanawha district are set forth in the following table, to- gether with the estimated present monthly or daily capacity of out- put and kind of coal mined, or coke ovens in blast or building: 94 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. MI xndxno HOJ AXI ovjvo Aiiva aovH3AY ^ KI IYOO w a C W3 * J +JOj+^cS aj (-3 85 rH"'-< + '-* IBSSLIUI fr 9- Sp Hard MI WY3S CO CO CO TII 1C CO ^ 3AOHO HYQ30 HO OMIM -KVXXIX XMVAAV HO NOIHV13 ,, KAVOXSMAYOHff ,, 'A ( 1VA 'IVOQ ao H3AVOT QMV a r iauii\[ fe < -Kvas 3 HO OMIM Honnaivoo HO ^^IH MAVOHO HO -o bo J4J4 o o : bo : id F* o NOX -13MMVO H3JJQ OMIMOHYK QMOKAVH HO Hoanasxxij S OS 0) J- slIS COALS AND COKKS OF WEST VIRGINIA. 95 o> oi o5 a; T3 O d O O O O O 'C O^OiO OO'CO^OOOO T3 O O * 3 ? T PROBABLE PENN. NAME. PROBABLE KANAWHA NAME. LOCAL NAME. -J ' r Q Coal Dale M. & M. Co. Upper Freeport. Crown Hill. Upper Ferguson. 200 Splint coal. Hope Splint Coal Co. Upper Freeport. Crown Hill. Upper Ferguson. Splint coal. Ferguson Splint eoal Coal Co. Dunlow Coal Co. Middle Kittanning. Cedar Grove. Middle Kittanning. Cannel coal. GOALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 103 SECTION II. GUYANDOTTE OR LOGAN COURT-HOUSE COAL DISTRICT. "In Logan county, west of the Guyandotte river and south of the Twelve Pole divide, there are beds of excellent coal, attaining in some places, it is said, a thickness of twelve feet. Within this region there are two series of productive coal measures, both lying within the rocks of No. XIII, and separated at Logan Court-house by about 700 feet of strata. The characteristic seam of the upper series has been called the Floyd seam, and of the lower series the Island creek seam. There is an opening near the mouth of Pigeon creek, 365 feet above the bed of Tug river, which shows the following section : Roof yellow sandstone 4" coal and slate. 6" streaky coal. 18" gas coal. V slate. 6" coal. 3" clay. 12" coal. 2" uiggerhead. 22" splint coal. 18" slate. 24" gas coal. The floor of this seam has not been exposed. A general sam- ple of the coal at this opening gives the following analysis (Booth, Garrett, and Blair): Water, 2.757; volatile matter, 35.850; fixed carbon, 20.432; ash, 10.961; sulphur, 0.524. Following the Floyd searn up Pigeon creek, the next ob- servable outcrop is at the Road Gap, opposite the mouth of Trace creek. The coal here is stated to be ten feet, the roof being of compact gray sandstone. 104 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. The Floyd searh outcrops all through the district, notably on Little Laurel at Walnut Gap ; on Main Laurel not far from the former opening ; near head of Main Laurel five miles from Walnut Gap, and again on Marrowbone creek. The Floyd seam will probably be found in all the high ranges as far east as Oceana, in Wyoming county. About 110 feet below the Floyd seam on Little Laurel is the " Meachem " seam, which is reported variously as from twelve, fourteen, and sixteen feet thick. It has not been developed sufficiently to determine its purity, but enough is exposed to show that it is of considerable size, and at the outcrop on Marrowbone creek, below Walnut Gap, it shows seven feet of coal. This seam has not as yet been observed else- where in that region. At Sang branch, at an elevation of 110 feet above the bed at Island creek, the Island creek seam outcrops ; again it is seen one mile north and the next time about two miles further down Island creek, and at this point it gives the following section : Roof shales 24" coal. 24" cannel. 12" coal. 15" slate. 30" coal. Floor sandstone. It will be observed that the Island creek seam here contains twenty-four inches of cannel, not seen in the seam at any other point, excepting at the opening one- half mile below. It is not likely, however, that the cannel in the Island creek seam is contained throughout sufficient area to modify the character or value of its coal in general. Although the Island creek seam rises rapidly toward the north, between Mill creek and Coal branch, it dips at the same time toward the north-west, and is carried under water level at the mouth of Copperas mine fork. East of the Guyandotte river, near COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 105 Oceana, it is called the Campbell's creek bed, and is described as equivalent to the Lower Kittanning. It is 4 said to attain there a thickness of ten feet. At and west of Pigeon creek the Island creek seam attains workable dimensions again, and again it outcrops on Mate creek. On Lick creek it outcrops, showing a thickness of about seven feet of coal. On Sycamore creek, one mile above its mouth, this seam has been opened and shows a total thickness of eight feet, in- cluding twenty inches of slate. " 106 COALS AND COKES LN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER IV. Past and Present Development of the New River Coal District. The development of the New river coal district began with the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1873, and was inaugurated by Mr. Jo. L. Beury, who, in September of that year, shipped the first car loads of coal from mines in the '* Quiuui- mont" bed, at Quinnimont. Following Mr. Beury's energetic efforts were the operations of Mr. John Nuttall, at Nuttallburgh, and then were opened the mines of the Long Dale Iron Co., at Sewell, both of these latter operations being in the upper (No. 3) or " Sewell" bed. The opening of these mines was followed by the steady and constant development of the entire district. The immediate de- mand for these coals of the No. XII Measures continually exceed- ing the capacity of the developing mines to supply. The high percentage of fixed carbon in these coals and their purity (freedom from ash and sulphur and phosphorus), also early attracted the attention of the coke producers, and the erection of ovens speedily followed the inauguration of mining. The New river field has heretofore been considered to contain some three main working seams of coal. These seams have gen- erally been designated as the Sewell or Nuttall or No. 3 seam, be- ing the highest bed, and then what were supposed to be two distinct beds, the Fire creek and Quinnimont, respectively, lying below the Sewell. But the more recent and careful examination of the field would appear to lead to the view that the so-called "Fire creek" bed is probably only a thickened portion of the Quinnimont bed, where that bed locally thickens and, possibly, parts into two benches in the immediate vicinity of Fire creek, for above that single point the apparent doubling of the seam disappears, and a single workable bed traverses the remainder of the field, coniinu- GOALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 107 ing with a very uniform height of coal. From an altitude above New river of about 550 feet at Echo mines, two miles above Fire creek, the seam rises to the altitude of 2,200 feet in the mountain tops slightly beyond the most southward workings at Quiunimont, and, like the Sewell seam above it in geological horizon, finally outcrops and disappears above the highest levels of the mountain summits. The dip of the rocks and coals of the New river district is ap- proximately that of the Kanawha Middle Measures, about 40 to 50 feet to the mile, the direction varying from N. 22 W. to N. 37 W., and the course of the New river, cutting directly through them, exposes the coal beds, generally, at right angles to their strike. In the northern section of the field the operated mines are all in the upper or Sewell seam ; as the river is ascended southward, the Fire creek or Quinnimont bed appears and is the working seam of the field, while, upon Meadow creek, at the extreme southern margin of the district, are now being opened extensive mines in the third or lowest workable bed of the field, a bed that apparently lies 180 to 200 feet below the Quinnimont bed. These very recent developments in the more southern portion of the field (by Mr. Jo. L. Betiry and associates on Meadow creek), would now apparently demonstrate that the true third bed of the New river field lies con- siderably below the Quiunimont or Fire creek bed. If these conclusions as to the oneness of the Quinnimont and Fire creek beds and the existence of a third and distinct seam 200 feet or more below this bed be correct, the correlation of the seams of the New river and Flat Top fields would present fewer diffi- culties than heretofore, and Meadow creek bed would apparently quite properly correspond with the main or No. 3 bed of the Flat Top field. A distance of some 20 to 25 miles practically exhausts the working coal district upon New river, which is opened by the Chesa- peake and Ohio Railway main line, and further expansion of the field can only be had by means, of lateral workings and branch 108 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. railway lines diverging into and along the great axis of the coal field in its north-easterly and south-westerly extensions : (a general direction, probably, of N. 45 to 50 E., and S. 45 to 50 W.) The future development of the New river district may then be looked for by the opening of the counties of Fayette and Raleigh to the south-west, and the counties of Fayette and Green brier to the north-east, upon the headwaters of Piney, Little Wolf and Paint creeks, in Raleigh county, and the streams flowing from the divide to New and Meadow rivers in Fayette and Greenbrier counties. We give a tabulated statement, showing the number of mines and coke ovens now worked and in fire in the New river district, with the seams of coal each colliery is working, on the following page. COALS AND COALS IN WEST VIRGINIA. 109 TABLE SHOWING COLLIERIES AND COKE OVENS WORKING IN THE NEW RIVER DISTRICT AND THE COAL SEAM MINED. M a b. OH as *s *g j^> i s NUMBER OP COKE OVENS IN BLAST. NAME OF COAL BED OR SEAM IN WHICH MINING OPERATION is CONDUCTED. MEADOW CREEK, LOWER OR No. 1 BED. QUINNIMONT OR FIRE CREEK, MIDDLE OR No. 2 BED. SEWELL OR NUTT- ALL, UPPER OR No. 3 BED. Alaska Coal and Coke Co Beechwood Coal and Coke Co. 11. Beechwood mine.. Welsh 20 26 Working. Working. \2. Keystone mine Beury Coal and Coke Co Working. Working. Stone Cliff mine.. Beury, Wm. Cooper & Co 11. Beury mine ?2. Caperton mine Wm. A. Burke & Co., Elmo Central Coal and Coke Co Dimmock Coal and Coke Co 60 "50 ' Working. Working.' Working. Working.' Working.' Working. Working. Working. Working. Fayette Coal and Coke Co Fire Creek Coal and Coke Co.. Gaymont Coal and Coke Co. . . Longdale Coal and Coke Co... . Meadow Creek mine New River Coal and Coke Co NuttallCoal and Coke Co 1. Keeney's creek mine 12 98 36 250 " 150 Working! Working. Working. Working. 2. Nuttallburgh mine Penna Coal and Iron Co 90 Working." Working. Working. Working. Quinnimont mine Royal Coal and Coke Co Rush Run Coal and Coke Co. . Sterling Coal and Coke Co. . . . Sunnyside Coal and Coke Co. . Taylor, Stephen, of Hawksnest. Thurmond Coal and Coke Co.. Total ' 16 ' 10 Working. Working. Working. 818 1 11 12 110 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER V. Present and Prospective Development of the Upper Elk River and Gauley River Districts. That portion of the Upper Elk river basin lying east and above the mouth of Laurel creek, may be roughly designated as being generally underlaid with one or more seams of the coking coals of the No. XII Measures. The column of rocks of this geological horizon has here thinned out to a total height of scarcely more than 700 feet, and the two or three regular seams of the New river district are ap- parently, so far as the yet limited explorations and developments show, represented by not more than two seams of the soft coking coals, one of which will average from 4 to 5 feet in thickness, generally running at about 52 inches, and one, at a lower altitude of probably not more than 2 feet in average thickness. These seams, however, cover a very extensive area of country, and finally disappear in the southwestern borders of Randolph county. The greater part of southern Webster county, probably, contains these coals, and they have been extensively opened upon the dividing mountains between the Elk and Gauley rivers, from 3 to 10 miles above Addison, the county seat. The coals as here exposed present a clean solid bed without partings, rarely falling below 4 feet in thickness and rising to 5J feet. The upper two-thirds of the coal bed consists of an extremely hard coal, underlaid by a band of coal much softer and more friable. This will render the seam an economical one to work, and enable the hard portion of the seam to be taken out in large blocks. In analysis, the coal is almost identical with the coals of the New river beds, and equally free from impurity and high in per- centage of fixed carbon. The seam, where opened, lies at about 800 feet above Elk river, but not more than 300 feet above that of COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. Ill the Gauley river, which here flows at an altitude some 500 feet higher than the Elk stream at one point but four or five miles dis- tant. This Upper Elk basin is the most easterly of any of the coking coal districts of the No. XII Measures, and must eventually become a formidable rival to the now developed districts further to the south-west, having an actual advantage over them of being some 100 to 150 miles nearer the seaboard. The region of the Gauley river basin, like that of the Upper Elk, is as yet quite undeveloped. The greater portion of the basin, which is broad and bowl like, is underlaid with the coals of the No. XII Measures, and here and there the lower seams of the No. XIII Measures are caught in the higher levels of its moun- tains. These coking coals of the No. XII Measures have been but little investigated as yet, but the examinations, so far as made, show that throughout the now inaccessible valleys of Meadow river, Cherry, Cranberry, Williams, and Upper Gauley river, the New river beds appear to extend with a rather uniform thickness of four to five feet, sometimes rising to six feet and perhaps to pocket beds of yet greater thickness. This great and probably most important coal district of the No. XII Measures, is as yet impenetrated by any line of transport- ation, although already the thoughts of railroad projectors have been turned toward it. The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad (under the wing of the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co.), is already just crossing the Elk and entering the Gauley valley, and will be running to Gauley river by June 1892. The Toledo and Ohio Central (Kanawha and Michigan), the Chesapeake and Ohio and Pennsylvania systems will be forced to also enter the field at no distant date, unless they are to permit the richest coal fields of the state to pass to the control of interests alien to their own. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER VI. Past and Present Development of the Flat Top Mountain Coal District. The development of this district has been and is very rapid. The first shipments of coal were made in 1883 upon the completion of the East river branch of the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and the opening of the first mines in the field at Pocahontas, Tazewell county, Virginia, where the great No. 3 seam probably reaches its maximum thickness. The opening and successful development of these mines was quickly followed by that of other mines working the same coal bed, and with the extension of the railroad to the upper Blue Stone river, and then through the divide to the waters of the Elk Horn river, still further development of the field has occurred. The district is worked upon one general system, a uniform rate prevailing to digger and carrier, and a common agent taking away all coal delivered into cars at the several collieries at agreed district prices. The wonderful development of this important coal district has been very largely due to the efficiency of the management of the Norfolk and Western R. R. Co., and the unity of action by all coal operators in dealing through one common agent not connected with but independent of the railroad management in the sale of their coals and the opening of new markets for increasing output. At the present time there are 19 collieries mining and shipping coal from the district, with an average daily capacity of 11,745 tons of coal and 1,564 tons of coke (2,240 pounds to ton). The following Table I shows the yearly shipment of coal and coke from the Flat Top field from the commencement of operations in 1883 to the end of the year 1891, a series of nine consecutive years: COALS AMD COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 113 TABLE I. YEAR. TONS OF COAL OF 2,240 POUNDS. TONS OF COKE OF 2,240 POUNDS. 1883. 60,828.0 19,805.0 1884. 175,252 2 52,530.0 1885. 519,357.7 44,945.0 1886. 766,035.7 54,440.8 1887. 1,026,142.6 136,450 5 1888. 1,376,568.6 180,214.4 1889. 1,611,223.7 280,007 1890. 1,808,942.6 387,076.8 1891. 2,268,541.0 353,383.5 Showing an increase in coal output in nine years of 2,207,713 tons or 3,646.20 per cent; and in coke output of 333,578.5 tons or 1,684.31 per cent. The following Table II. gives the number of collieries now working in the field, their names, and daily capacity, and number of coke ovens in blast and building at each : 8 114 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE II. H* H od 5 o P Ofc z si is z z 05 o u ^ !> 1 gel $ o a o g o g %% M M o^ O fcO p O 55 ^ ^1 ^ <^ ^ ^ S5 tn u 5 Ufc a fe wS (A s 1 g si pW * s, a Q * pq S. W. Va. Improvement Co. . . Mill Creek C. & C. Co Pocahontas. Cooper. 2,750 780 430 145 444 150 206 None. Ceswell Creek C. & C. Co. . Freemans. 1,000 75 146 None. Boothe Bown C. & C. Co Freemans. 780 54 91 None. Buckev C. & C. Co Freemans. 700 50 100 None. Collieries of Goodw'ill C. &C. Co Goodwill. 380 30 50 None. Flat Top Coal Louisville C. & C. Co Goodwill. 400 40 75 None. Land Asso- Elkhorn C. & C. Co Maybeury. 400 65 100 None. ciation. Shamokin C & C Co Maybeurv. 400 65 100 None. Norfolk C. &C. Co Maybeury. 430 85 172 None. Lick Branch Colliery Coal Dale C. & C. Co Maybeury. Coal Dale. 380 460 80 45 120 53 None. 50 Algoma C. & C. Co Algoma. 60 00 00 100 Just started. LKSSEES OF CROZER LAND Co. Turkey Gap C. & C. Co Ennis. 450 85 150 50 Crozer C. & C. Co Elkhorn. 1,000 130 250 None. Huston C. & C. Co Elkhorn. 400 65 100 None. Powhatan C. & C. Co Powhatan. 425 70 125 None. Lynchburg C. & C. Co Uplands C. & C. Co Kyle. Elkhorn. 350 200 50 100 18 None. 74 Just starting. NEW COLLIERIES JUST STARTING AND WILL BE IN OPERATION DURING THIS YEAR (1892). Delta Colliery Maybeury 100 Angle Colliery Gilliam Colliery Maybeury. Algoma. 100 100 Flat Top Coal Land Asso- Keystone Colliery Greenbrier Colliery McDowell Colliery Rolf Colliery.. Tide Water Colliery Belcher. Bramwell. McDowell. Bramwell. Helena 100 100 200 100 100 ciation. To build. To build. To build. Building. C. A. ANDREWS LAND Co. Empire C. & C. Co Bottom Creek Coal Co Land Graff. Helena. 100 100 Building. Building. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. U5 CHAPTER VII. Treating of the General Cost of Production of Coals mined and Cokes manufactured in the several Districts over a series of years, together with comparative 'fables showing Price paid for mining Coal in the several Districts, and compared with similar prices paid in Pennsylvania and Ohio. SECTION I. SHOWING PREVAILING PRICES PAID MINERS FOR COAL DUG, AND COMPARED WITH PREVAILING PRICES PAID IN PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO BITUMINOUS AND SPLINT (OR SEMI-BITUMINOUS) COAL DISTRICTS. Observation of Table I (pages 114,115) shows in striking con- trast the superior economy with which similar coals are mined in the Great Kanawha over the Pennsylvania coal districts. Daring the past ten years, the price paid the miner in the Kanawha dis- trict has uniformly averaged from 7 to 14 cents per ton less ( to -J a cent per bushel less) than in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania dis- tricts. For the years 1890 and 1891, the prevailing rate in the Kanawha district has been 77 cents per ton (2j cent per bushel) as against 84 and 98 cents per ton (3 and 3J cents per bushel) paid in the First Pennsylvania district (Youghiogheny and Monongahela) for both railroad and river coals (or 70 and 84 cents per ton in the Fourth Monongahela pool collieries, averaging J cent per busheL 116 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. TABLE I. SHOWING PRICES PAID IN CENTS TO COAL MINERS FOR COAL MINED OVER TOP COAL DISTRICTS, AND IN PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO SEMI-BITU- STATE. H 4 H fc Q Si P *ri K ?: 5* fc 1 i 1 i 1 1 West Virginia, Great Kanawha District. Pittsburgh, (Putnam Co.) Raymond City Mines, Marmet Co. 84 84 70 70 70 70 70 strike. 56 56 56 56 Upper Freeport. Crown Hill. 91 91 91 91 77 77 70 70 70 70 70 70 Lower Freeport. Coalburgh. 84 84 84 84 84 84 84 70 70 70 70 70 Upper Kittanning. Kanawha Mines. 84 56 84 56 84 56 70 56 70 56 70 56 Middle Kittanning. Cedar Grove. 91 91 91 91 70 70 70 70 70 70 Lower Kittanning. | 1 "3 N Ansted, Gauley Mt. C. Co. 40 40 Great Kanawha Colliery Co. Powellton, Mt. Carbon Co., L'd. 40 40 40 40 40 40 Campbell's Creek. 84 84 70 70 70 70 70 70 56 56 56 56 Mi B S Keystone, Stevens Coal Co. Clarion. Eagle, Wyant C. & C. Co. 49 49 49 49 49 49 o3 a 1 Pittsburgh. R. R. Mines, average. 67 68 76^ River Mines, average. 105,91 91 77,70 70 70 70,77 Fourth Pool, Monon. 77 63 70 56 77 63 e IS Upper Freeport. Hocking county. Middle Kittanuing. Perry and Starke counties. No. XII Measures. Mahoning county, "Briar Hill Block," Pittsburgh. Athens and Belmont counties. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 117 TABLE I. Continued. A SERIES OP YEARS IN GREAT KANAWHA, NEW RIVER AND FLAT MINOUS COAL DISTRICTS. (PER LONG TON, '2,240 LBS.) 1 1 1 ; SEASON OR MONTH. SCREEN OK RUN OP MINE. 4 4 o fe a 55 56 56 56 56 56 56 56 56 June. November. IK inch. Hard splint. 70 70 70 70 70 77 77 June. November. 1% inch. Hard splint. 70 70 70 70 70 77 77 77 June. November. 1*4 inch. Hard splint. 70 56 70 56 70 56 77 56 Year. Year. IX to 1885, then 1% in. Hard, semi-bituminous. Soft bituminous. 70 70 70 77 77 77 77 77 June. November. 1 inch. Steam coal, not hard. 25 25 25 25 June. November. Run of mine. Bituminous gas coal, soft. 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 Summer. Winter. Run of mine. Bituminous gas and coking. 50 50 50 50 50 50 40 40 June. November. Run of mine. Bituminous gas and coking, soft. 35 November Run of mine. Bituminous gas, soft. 56,63 56,63 56, 63 56,63 56, 63 70 70 70 June. November. \% inch. Semi-bituminous, hard. 49 49 49 49 Average. Run of mine. Bituminous steam and coking, soft. 76> 73 79 79 Average. Semi-Bituminous. 84 63,70 84,98 98 Average. Semi-bituminous. 84 70 84 70 84 70 98 84 Average. Semi-bituminous. Semi-bituminous. average. 65, 70 average. 62^ 75 75 Summer. Winter. 1% inch. Semi-bituminous. average. 70 to 80. average. 62^, 67^ to 80 80 80 Summer. Winter. 1*4 inch. Semi-bituminous. average. 92 average. 85 72 72 Summer. Winter. 1% inch. Black splint or semi- bituminous. 67^ 62 67 Summer. Winter. 1% inch. Semi-bituminous. 118 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. In comparison with the similar coals of Ohio, the average price paid to miner does not show so great variance. The average price per ton paid in the Mahoning county col- lieries, where the celebrated "Briar Hill" block splint coals are mined in shaft workings, has been 72 cents per ton for 1890, while the average price paid during that year in Kanawha was 73J cents per ton. The prices paid in the Hocking Valley district, for the year 1890, averaged about 75 cents per ton during the whole year for a coal greatly inferior to the Kanawha splints in purity and market rating. While the coals mined from the Pittsburgh seam, in Athens county, averaged about 65 cents per ton throughout the year 1890, having a slight advantage over the harder splint coals of the upper Kanawha district, and being about 11 cents per ton higher than the similar coals mined in the Pittsburgh seam where worked on lower Kanawha in Putnam county. Taking the general average of price paid the miner, which is the first and largest item in cost of production, it is observed that the producer in the Pittsburgh district, shipping either by rail or by water, is at the distinct disadvantage of 7 cents to 14 cents per ton (J to \ cent per bushel) in comparison with the producer in the Kanawha district. While taken in comparison with the producer in the several Ohio districts, the price there paid the miner runs about with, or slightly in favor of, the Kanawha producer. In brief, so far as the first factor, cost of production, goes, the producer of hard splint, semi-bituminous, coal in the Great Kanawha district mines his coals cheaper than do his competitors in either Pennsylvania or Ohio, while the mine laborer is fully compensated by the lower rents and cost of living in West Vir- ginia as compared with the Pennsylvania and Ohio coal regions. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 119 Observation of Table II of prices paid per ton for the mining of the softer gas and steam coals of either the Kauawha, New river, or Flat Top Mountain districts reveals a yet greater re- duction of first cost in favor of the West Virginia producer. The price paid the miner in the Meigs and Belmont county districts, Ohio, average 40 and 50 cents per ton during the year 1890, and during year 1891-2, 25 to 31J cents per long ton in the Conuellsville district of Pennsylvania, while the price paid the miner in the Kauawha district was 49 cents per ton at Eagle mines, 50 cents at Powellton mines (40 cents for 1891), and 25 cents at Ansted mines, with 50 cents in the New river district for both years, and 35, 31 and 25 cents in the Flat Top districts. The coal bought in the West Virginia mines was "run of mine," and it is presumed that such was also the coal in Connellsville and in Ohio. None of these West Virginia coals exceed the Ohio coals in miners' price ; and the average price paid for their mining is dis- tinctly less, while the price paid the miner in the Flat Top district is just about the same as the price paid in the Conuellsville dis- trict, Pennsylvania. 120 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. a fi? PQ H . gg 3 6| M H 3 S g II s Si z s s PH K 3 c I v d s 1 a .S e5 2 j 3 a a a w &. 1 1 ! o d i a s H p 1 & be a M L O jj 11 a ovembe Average or a yeai |l Average or year. || 1 Pi 03 z *1 > 03 S 3 0) S s g 3 1 |f 'So c ' O o *" c S s g S o _g 5 a 1 1 o g IQ M S a .2 1 g g 6 3 ^ H i g g S S 1 s ^ - i g g H : i 1 * 3 : i -3 P. U S o ' 1 8 g * " 3 0) c^ g g g s a 1-1 2 o SB g g Q) ^ " 'S J-j a i g "S 0) 6 g i> 5 a o c 1 d o o 1 III i z; A Sf "S o c c o |I ts S m S3 S S & -81 uiSaiA 183M. uo "BIU'BAIXSUUOJ V COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 121 SECTION II. COST OF HANDLING FROM MINERS TO DELIVERY IN CARS AND BARGES. In the examination of this second factor in the cost of the pro- duction of coal, it is impossible to lay down any exact rule or make any definite estimate. The sum will vary both with locality and still more with ability for close management. It is the estimate in the lower Kanawha field, where very short inclined planes or none at all are required to convey the coal from mines to car or barge, that the cost does not exceed 20 cents per ton (2,240 pounds), while with the mines at greater altitude, requiring inclined planes of greater length, the cost may considerably increase, until, where mines have been long worked and considerable underground or exterior haul is required, the cost will be yet greater, rising to* even 40, 50, or 60 cents per ton. And where cost of handling thus rises to much exceed say ^ to f the price paid the miner, the profit in producing coal is likely to be so close that mines can not be profitably operated. Therefore in ascertaining the general cost of operation of any mine and works, no fixed standard can be laid down. The first two factors, price paid to miner or digger and, per- haps, the cost of handling from miner to car or barge, may be re- duced to almost a known sum, but the general cost of operation, outside these items, is a variable quantity, and will depend upon the location of the mines, magnitude of the operation, and closeness of management. But taking into consideration the prices paid to miner, as ex- hibited in Section I, and cdst of handling this coal from him to delivery in car or barge, it would appear that in the first factor the operator in the Great Kanawha, New river, and Flat Top Moun- tain districts in West Virginia has a decided advantage over the operator in either Pennsylvania or Ohio; in respect to the second factor, cost of handling, the West Virginia operator is probably at no advantage over his competitor in other districts ; although in re- gard to the general cost of operation, the West Virginia producer, 122 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. owing to cheapness of living, abundance of timber for use in and about mines, etc., is at an advantage over his competitors in either Pennsylvania or Ohio. SECTION III. MANUFACTURE OF COKE. The three districts now manufacturing coke in southern West Virginia are (1) the Upper Kanawha, (2) the New river, and (8) the Flat Top. (1) In the Upper Kanawha district the coke is manufactured from the coals of the Clarion (Wyant), and possibly, the " Browns- town " seam, and the Lower Kittaoning (Coal) valley seam. Some 450 ovens are there now in blast. The oven universally used being the bee-hive oven of about five tons coal capacity. The coals here only run to about 60 and 62 per cent fixed car- bon, and are harder than the coals of New river or Flat Top, and very free from sulphur and ash. At the collieries of this district making the most successful coke, pulverizing machines have been established, with the result that a dense, hard coke is produced, especially fitted for foundry purposes where strong cellular structure and fierce heat are required. (2) In the New river district the coke is manufactured some- what cheaper than in the Upper Kanawha, and the charge to the oven yields a slightly larger return in manufactured coke, the New river coal averaging from 68 to 72 per cent of fixed carbon. This coal is also very pure and quite free from slate partings and sulphur. Hence a homogeneous coke of great purity and cellu- lar strength is produced. In the New river district no crushing machinery is used, but the coal is put into the ovens as screened slack or as run of the mine. In this district are now some 820 ovens in blast. The superiority of these New river cokes, as compared with the coke of the Upper Kanawha, is as yet a controverted question ; a cheaper coke is produced on New river, but it weighs somewhat less to the cubic foot. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 123 (3) In the Flat Top district the coke product would seem, as yet, to be inferior to the product of either the Upper Kanawha or New river ovens. This inferiority has sometimes been ascribed to there being a greater or less proportion of slate leaves and particles among the Flat Top coals, and to a troublesome sulphur band that traverses the upper portion of the seams generally worked, and which may sometimes become intermixed with the coals going into the ovens. This latter obstacle to first-class coke making is not so serious, however, but that it may be obviated. Whether, or not, the alleged presence of more or less slate is the actual cause of a coke being here produced that is not of so high a standard as that produced in the other districts, it is yet unquestionably true that a very much superior product will be drawn from the Flat Top ovens so soon as like care shall be taken in preparing the coals for the charges, either by washing or pulverizing. The low price of coal mining of this district, and extensive scale on which coke is manu- factured, enables it to produce its coke at a very low cost, probably less than in either Upper Kanawha or New river. From a series of carefully made tests of the comparative weight of coke manufactured in the three districts, the following interesting results have been obtained : Upon a maximum basis of 100 for Flat Top coke, the coke taken having been carefully se. lected from every battery of ovens in each district, Upper Kanawha coke weighs ten per cent more to the cubic foot, and New river coke six per cent more to the cubic foot ; the closeness of cellular structure being proportioned to the weight. The present superior coke make of many of the ovens of the Upper Kanawha district, is largely due to the now general use of pulverizing machinery to prepare the coal for charging, and to the great care used in filling, leveling and drawing the ovens. And similar care in the other districts should result in like satisfactory results. The cost of mining coal has already been discussed in the fore- going sections of this chapter. The following estimates of the cost 124 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. of making coke (exclusive of the cost of royalties, if any, and of mining and handling the coal) have been prepared by Mr. A. M. Campbell, M. E., from a series of working tests extending over a period of several years, and are believed to be approximately cor- rect as representing outside maximum cost of manufacturing. Cost of manufacturing coke, Kanawha district, per ton (2,240 Ibs) (coal not crushed before charging) : Coke foreman $0.0145 Charging ovens : 0.0200 Drawing ovens . 1800 Loading coke on railroad cars 0. 1300 Management and office expenses 0.0500 Cleaning yards 0.0100 Leveling charges and daubing ovens 0.0248 Watchman 0.0070 Machinist labor 0.0100 Lumber 0.0150 All other expenses, tools, deterioration of plant, taxes, etc 0.0600 Total , 0.5213 To this may be added cost of crushing coal, per ton 0.0250 Giving a total of 0.5463 Cost of coal, taxed on payment to miner of 40 cents per ton, run of mine 1 .0833 Cost of manufacturing, as above 0.5463 Total cost of coal and manufacturing into coke, per ton 1 .6296 Or for uncrushed coal 1 .6046 For the New river district, it is estimated that burning to higher percentage of fixed carbon will cost from 5 to 7. cents less than in the Kanawha region. Some companies charge their ovens with slack coal, after sell- ing the lump from various sized screens, and charge this slack to the ovens at a very much less price than given above, but when run of mine coal is used, or when miners are paid by run of mine, the above figures are a close approximation. If the rate paid for COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 125 milling be less than 40 cents per ton, the above table must be cor- rected accordingly. Some companies, in both Kanawha and New river, are making coke for very much less than the above figures, which will represent the outside limit of cost. The percentage of coke yielded per ton of coal used, will vary considerably, but the general practical rule seems to obtain that a charge of five tons of coal should yield not less than three tons coke (72 hours fires). While it may be also generally estimated that about four per cent of the fixed carbon of the coal analysis will be consumed in firing ; or a ton of coal whose analysis shows 70 per cent of fixed carbon will yield 66 per cent of coke. However, there must be considerable variation from the above rule, according to management and other variable factors at each coke plant. 126 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER VIII. Treating of General Facilities and Cost of Transportation of Coals from Mines to Markets. 1. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PROJECTS LEADING TO PRESENT IM PROVEMENT OF GREAT KANAWHA RlVER. 2. FACILITIES FOR, AND COST OF TRANSPORTATION BY WATER. 3. FACILITIES FOR, AND COST OF TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL. SECTION I. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PROJECTS LEADING TO PRESENT IMPROVEMENT OF THE GREAT KANAWHA RIVER. In the early history of Virginia, the advantages of a continu- ous water line connecting the deep harbors of tide-water and the inland waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, attracted the at- tention of her greatest statesmen. But a few years after the cessation of hostilities with Great Britian, August 21, 1785, the James River Company was formed for the purpose of promoting the construction of such a water-way, with George Washington, as president, which position he continued to hold until October 5, 1795. In one of his letters, written during his incumbency, lie says: "It can, I think, be demonstrated that the products of the western territory, as low down the Ohio as the Great Kanawha, and I believe to the falls (e. g., now Louisville), and between the parts above to the lakes, may be brought to the highest shipping port on the James river at a less expense and with more ease, in- cluding the return, and in a much shorter time, than it can be carried to New Orleans." The three routes then under consideration from the west to the seaboard, were the way across Ohio and New York by the Erie Canal, from Cincinnati 1,123 miles; by way of the Pennsylvania. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 127 State Canal, from Cincinnati 992 miles ; and by way of the pro- posed Kanawha and James River Canal through Virginia, from Cincinnati, 784 miles. For many years the agitation of this project became an import- ant factor in Virginia state politics, and southern statesmen at Washington lent it their countenance as a national undertaking. However, the superior business alertness of the people of the State of New York in constructing the Erie Canal, entirely without national aid, and the subsequent similar achievement in Pennsyl- vania, connecting the Ohio with the sea, brought the more southern enterprise to a seeming permanent standstill, although the final completion of the great enterprise was never wholly abandoned by the people of Virginia. In 1860-61, the project was again* mooted. A company of French capitalist came forward and proposed to build the great work. In March of that year, the legislature of Virginia, with the consent of the stockholders, transferred all the rights and franchises of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company, successors of the old James River Company, to the French syndicate, who termed themselves "Bellot Minieres, Freres et Cie," on condition "that they should complete the water line improvement from tide-water at Richmond to the Ohio river, so as to give at all seasons of the year not less than six feet of navigable water for the entire length of the line." The civil war prevented the French from beginning the construction of the work, but in 1864-5, they again sought to take up the enterprise. The Emperor, Napoleon III, became in- terested in the project, and he directed the French ambassador at Washington, the Marquis de Monthalon, to give it all the support he could compatible with his official position. Negoti- ations with the now two States of Virginia and at Washington, were thus carried along several years. Meanwhile, General Grant entered the White House, and gave the project of this water-way the earnest support of his name. He knew the country to be traversed, and desired the construction of the canal as a national 128 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. enterprise. He brought the matter to the attention of congress in a special message, and at his instance a committee of senators and representatives was appointed, with Senator Roscoe Conkling, of New York, as chairman, who visited the proposed route, and ad- vised the immediate improvement of the Great Kanawha river as an initial step. And thus it is, that this river is now almost com- pletely locked and dammed for its entire length, thereby opening to the markets of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, a limitless and continuous supply of cheap coal for at least ten months of the year, and securing these great centers of population, for all time, against coal famines and consequent industrial distress. In the following pages is given a more succinct discussion of the transportation facilities now afforded the coal shipper by the im- proved water-way. SECTION 2. FACILITIES FOR AND COST OF TRANSPORTATION BY WATER. The Great Kanawha river, flowing into the Ohio at Point Pleasant, 263 miles below Pittsburgh, opens to the shippers of coal by water, the entire inland water-way of the continent for all Ohio and Mississippi ports, affording over 16,000 miles of inland water navigation. With the completion of the system of locks and dams, now being constructed in the Great Kanawha river by the United States government, deep water navigation will be assured adequate to en- able the loaded coal boats and barges to be taken away from the mines throughout every month in the year. The coal barges as soon as loaded may be dropped down to Point Pleasant harbor, on the Ohio, and the fleets there lie ready to take advantage of every tide in that stream. According to the records of the United States engineering de- partment, this will enable coal to be shipped thence about 330 days out of the 365 ; and gives the Kanawha shippers a great advantage over the shippers of the Pittsburgh and Monongahela districts, COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 129 who have the greater distance of 263 miles to travel, and rarely have coal boat tides more than 190 to 200 days per annum. (Ac- cording to the observations of the U. S. engineers.) This elaborate system of well constructed locks and dams was begun in 1873, the actual construction of the first dam in 1875, and it is now well toward completion. Seven locks and dams are either finished or under construction, but three more are required to se- cure the final accomplishment of this great enterprise, and recent action by Congress provides some $2,000,000, for the immediate completion of the system. The greater nearness of the Great Kanawha district to the markets of the west, will not only enable it to ship its coals more directly and speedily than coals can be shipped from the upper Ohio, but gives it the almost equally great advantage of the more speedy return of the empty barge when its burden of coal is dis- charged. Thus, a loaded barge can make from four and one- half to five round trips per year from the Great Kanawha district, while a similar barge can rarely make more than one to one and one-half round trips per year from the Pittsburgh and Monongahela districts to the same markets (Cincinnati). And the same money invested in the barge from the Great Kanawha district will thus earn more than three fold what it will earn from investment in the Pittsburgh barge ; consequently the same tonnage of coal can be carried from the Great Kanawha region at a less charge per ton than from the pools of the Pittsburgh regions. The locks of the Great Kauawha improvement are free and no tolls are levied, while the Monongahela districts are hampered with the exactions of onerous toll charges from a private corporation, which levies tribute of 2J to 7^ cents per ton on every ton of coal issuing forth from the pools behind their dams. The wise forethought of the congress of the United States in securing to the people of the lower Ohio and Mississippi valleys, a near and comparatively constantly open source of coal supply, has already shown its effects upon western industry in the prevention 130 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. of coal famines, and with the final completion of the improvements in the Great Kanawha river, now speedily assured, uniform and moderate prices for coal will be secured throughout the year to the consumers of Cincinnati, Louisville, Cairo, St. Louis, Memphis, and even New Orleans, as well as to the vast sections of outlying territory dependent upon these markets as centers of distribution. The following table shows the number and location of the locks and dams in the Great Kanawha river as built and as located by the United States Government. 3 X 4 Q 1^ LOCATION. h ^ s Q 6 < z No. 2. 1 mile below Cannelton and 84 %_ miles from mouth of river. Fixed. Finished in 1887. No. 3. 1 mile below Paint Creek and 79% mi.es from mouth of river. " 1882. No. 4. 1^ miles below Coalburgh and 73 miles from mouth of river. Movable. 1880. No. 5. 9 miles above Charleston and 67% miles from mouth of river. " 1880. No. 6. 4% miles below Charleston and 54 miles from mouth of river. " 1886. No. 7. 1% mile below St. Albans and 44 miles from mouth of river. Now building. No. 8. 2> miles below Raymond City and 35% miles from mouth of river. " .. No. 9. 3% miles above Buffalo and 25% miles from mouth of river. " Not begun yet. No. 10. 2% miles below Buffalo and 18 % miles from mouth of river. " " No. 11. Foot Three Mile Bar and 1% miles from mouth of river. " " " " COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 131 Upon this subject of the slack water improvement of the Great Kanawha river, we quote from a valuable report by Mr. Addisou M. Scott, U. S. engineer in charge : "The works are planned to make an available depth of 6J feet, or full shipping water for coal, at all seasons. The chambers of the locks below Charleston are 342 feet long between quoins and 55 feet wide (those above Charleston are 300 feet by 50), sufficient to admit four large sized coal barges. MOVABLE DAMS. The first * movable* dams in America in connection with slack water improvement were built on the Great Kanawha, Nos. 4 and 5, as stated above, being completed and put in operation in 1880. The usefulness and adaptability of movable dams are thoroughly established, and all on the river below No. 3, as shown by the table, are to be of this type. Movable dams are kept up during low stages and down in high water. Their advantages over the ordinary fixed dams for a commerce and river like the Great Kanawha are decided, furnish- ing the benefits of the usual slack water without its most serious inconveniences and drawbacks. With fixed dams, every thing must pass through the locks. With them, navigation is entirely suspended, too, when the river is near or above the top of the lock walls. The difference between the fixed and movable dams in the scour and wash of the banks about the works, is also greatly in favor of the modern type. With movable dams, the locks are used only when the water in the river is so low as to make them necessary. At all other times the dams are down flat, practically on the river bottom, out of the way, affording unobstructed, open navigation. This is a great advantage to all classes of commerce, and is particularly so with coal, transported as it is (and empty barges returned) in * fleets' of large barges. More barges can, of course, be taken by a tow boat and much better time made in * open river,' where there is 132 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. water enough for such navigation, than when the stage or discharge of the river compels the use of the locks. The gauge record of the Great Kanawha, kept at the U. S. engineer office at Charleston, for the last 16 years, shows there is on an average 196 days in the year when there is 5 feet or more of water for * open navigation ' from Charleston down ; the average for 16 years shows 142 days of 6 feet or more.* From this it ap- pears that coal can be shipped by open river on about six months of the year, during which time the movable dams will be down. The rest of the time, or, in other words, when the river falls below a coal boat stage, the dams will be kept up, and make an available slack water depth of 6 feet. CHEAP TRANSPORTATION. The manner pursued in shipping coal on the Great Kanawha and Ohio rivers is generally understood and need not be particularly described. It makes remarkably cheap transportation, probably without exception, particularly when length of routes are compared, the lowest inland freight rates in the world. The coal barges themselves, considering their capacity and service are cheap carriers; they cost from $800 to $1,200 and last about ten years. The barges are generally 130 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 7J deep. A barge carries from 10,000 to 14,000 bushels, or from 400 to 560 tons; 480 tons, or 12,000 bushels per barge, is a fair average, equal, it will be remembered, to a train of 24 cars of 20 tons each. A small tow of 4 barges, easily handled by a small tug or tow boat, and passed through the locks when the dams are up at one lockage, will have nearly or quite 50,000 bushels, or 2,000 tons, enough to fill 100 freight cars of 20 tons each. In open navigation, a tow boat handles from 4 to 14 loaded barges in the Kanawha, depending on the stage of the river and the size of the tow boat. In the Ohio river, or from Point Pleasant * See table and foot note on pages 135 and 136. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 133 down, the Great Kanawha tow boats take from 14 to 34 barges. A fleet of 30 barges has about 375,000 bushels, or 15,000 tons; this amount of coal loaded into 20 ton cars would make 30 trains of 25 cars each, or a continuous line of cars nearly 5^ miles long. RATES OF TOWING COAL. The general rate at present from the Charleston pool to Cin- cinnati is one cent per bushel or 25 cents per ton. Operators who hire barges pay half a cent a bushel barge rent, making the cost to Cincinnati, to operators who hire both barges and towing, 1 cents per bushel, or 37 cents per ton. This includes the return of the empty barge to the mine. This rate to Cincinnati (distance from Charleston 263 miles) is ly 4 ^ mills (or about one-seventh of a cent) per ton per mile. For longer distances, or to points on the Ohio and Mississippi below Cincinnati!, the rates per mile are much less. The usual rates from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Kentucky river, Louisville, and points between, amount to about 10^ cents per ton, making the cost from the Charleston pool to Louisville, in- cluding towing and rent and return of barges, 48 cen|s per ton. The distance from Charleston to Louisville being 394 miles, makes the rate 1 T V^ mills per ton per mile. The above rates, it will be noticed, are both for comparatively short distances. A considerable quantity of the Great Kanawha coal is towed to different points on the lower Mississippi, as far down as New Orleans. [The greater part of the coal for the Mississippi market is carried in larger and cheaper built craft than the ordinary barge, designated 'boats.' They are usually about 170 by 27 feet and from 7 to 8 feet draught, and carry from 20,000 to 25,000 bushels, or from 800 to 1,000 tons. These ' boats ' are generally owned by the party that does the towing, and they are usually sold in these lower markets with the coal in them. Many of them are never brought back.] The rate for these long distances is exceedingly low. Take it to New Orleans, for instance ; the cost to the Kanawha operator 134 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. anywhere below Lock 3, who hires both barge and towing, is 5 cents per bushel, or $1.25 per ton. The distance from Charleston to New Orleans, 1,776 miles, makes the rate y 7 ^ mill, or about one- fourteenth of a cent per ton per mile.* The rates to the three principal cities, Cincinnati, Louisville, and New Orleans given above, are the regular rates that have pre- vailed on the river now for at least three years ; they may, in fact, fairly be called the highest rates, as they are never exceeded and there is really a good deal of towing done at considerably lower figures. As the river is improved and the business increases, the tendency is all the time to lower the rates. One of the largest com- panies on the river has been getting its coal towed to Cincinnati and Louisville by regular contract for the past two years at rates at least 20 per cent below those named above. The rates given apply as stated to operators who hire both barges and towing. To operators who own their own barges or tow boats, or both, as some of the large concerns on the river do, the cost of transportation is, of course, materially less than the rates. All of the rates given, it will be remembered, too, include 54 miles of the present unreliable and expensive navigation (as com- * The next lowest inland rates are undoubtedly those of the great lakes of the North-west, where enormous quantities of heavy freight, such as iron ore, lumber, grain, and, coal, are carried, mainly by a sys- tem of towing in large barges. The average rate on the lakes in 1888, determined from records kept at the St. Mary's Falls Lock, under direc- tion of Gen. O. M. Poe, Corps of Engineers, was 1$ mills per ton per mile. The average length of route was 806.9 miles. In 1887, the rate was 2 T 3 ff mills per ton per mile for an average route of 811.4 miles. (See Report of Chief of Engineers for 1889, page 2220, etc.) The average railroad rate last year on freight from Chicago to New York (distance 913 miles) was close to $4.50 per ton, or 5 mills per ton* per mile ; the lowest rate on grain was about $4.00 per ton, or 4 T 3 ^ mills per ton per mile. The rate on all the freight carried by the railroads in the United States in 1889, according to the Inter-State Commerce Commission, averaged 9 T 2 o 2 o mills per ton per mile. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 135 pared with the slack water improvement now under construction) on the Great Kanawha. BENEFITS TO RESULT FROM THE COMPLETED IMPROVEMENT. Under this head and in connection with the general subject, the following from an official report by the resident engineer to Col. Craighill, published in the Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1887, page 1921 et seq., is of interest. The benefits to result from the completion of the locks and dams to the mouth of the river, not alone to the Kanawha valley, but to the entire region of the lower Ohio and Mississippi, in the interests of cheap coal, are obvious and important. A brief pre- sentation of two leading facts will make this plain. 1. It will increase materially nearly doubling the time when coal can be shipped. The following is compiled from daily gauge records kept at Charleston and Point Pleasant (the mouth of the Great Kanawha) under your direction. It shows the number of days in each year there were 6 feet or more of water for navigation from Charleston down, and the same from Point Pleasant down; the Charleston gauge reading the available water for navigation in the Kanawha below; that at Point Pleasant the available water in the Ohio below : YEAR. No. OF DAYS CHARLES- TON GAUGE READ 6 FEET OR MORE. No. OF DAYS POINT PLEASANT GAUGE READ 6 FEET OR MORE. 1879 1880 164 94 235 207 1881 126 215 1882 184 271 1883 138 294 1885 .. . . 164 231 1886 82 287 Averages for 7 years 136 days. 248^ days. 136 COALS AND COALS IN WEST VIRGINIA. This shows that there are on the average considerably over 100 more days during the year when coal can be shipped down the Ohio from Point Pleasant, by open navigation, than from the Great Kanawha. It also shows the shipping season to be much more uniform on this part of the Ohio than on the Kanawha.* After the slack-water improvement is completed, the great part of the coal mined for river shipment during low stages (i. e. y when the movable dams are up) will be locked down to the mouth about as fast as the barges are loaded (with smaller tow-boats too, and less expense than now), and held there ready to go down the Ohio as the water in that stream admits. The slack water will be of great advantage, too, in affording reliable navigation for the return of empty barges. There is much trouble about this in low stages of the Kanawha, and it is a frequent cause of suspension at the mines. In short, the continuation of the locks and dams to the mouth of the river will not only nearly or quite double tfie time for shipping coal, but will, in effect, put the Great Kanawha coal fields about 300 miles nearer to the markets of the Lower Ohio and Mississippi valleys" * The records since 1886 shows as follows: YEAR. No. OF DAYS CHARLES- TON GAUGE READ 6 FEET OR MORK. No. OF DAYS POINT PLEASANT GAUGE REA D 6 FEET OR MORE. 1887 140 207 1888 96 199 1889 170 309 1890 . . 189 307 Averages for 11 years 140 days. 251 days. February, 1891. COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 137 SECTION 3. TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL. (a) From the Great Kanawha District. (6) from the New River District. (c) From the Upper Elk and Gauky Districts. (d) From the Flat Top, and Guayandotte, and Twelve Pole Die. t tricts. (a) From the Great Kanawha District. The Great Kauawha district is opened and traversed by two railway lines the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway system, and the Kanawha and Michigan Railroad in connection with the Toledo and Ohio Central Railway system, of which it forms a part. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway gives the collieries of the district rail connection with eastern markets and tide-water trans- portation, with rates, however, varying from 5 to 3 mills per ton per mile, which practically compels all eastward moving coals to be sold through the co-ordinate organization the Chesapeake and Ohio Coal Agency. For westward moving coals, the competition of the free navi- gation of the improved Great Kanawha river secures greater free- dom of action to all shippers of coal to western markets, and rates which permit all rail shipments of coals and cokes direct from mines to individual consumers. The prevailing west bound coal rates over the railroad have been nominally about 4^ mills per ton per mile, but, in fact, the district has frequently enjoyed a rate much within these limits. The distances by rail to Cincinnati and Chicago are, respect- ively, 211 and 516 miles, and the nominal standard rates of $1.00, to the former, and $2.25 per ton, to the latter market, have fre- quently been reduced to .75 and $2.00 to meet the necessities of the trade. While the railroad company has guaranteed to the dis- trict, at all times, as low a rate to the Chicago market as shall pre- vail from the Pittsburgh district to the same. 138 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. The Kanawha and Michigan Railroad Company, now operated as part of the Toledo and Ohio Central system from -Maiden, six miles above Charleston, to its connection with that road at Corning, Ohio, a distance of about 130 miles, gives another outlet from the Kanawha valley to the great lakes, and another connection by rail to Cincinnati and Chicago. This road carries considerable coal from the mines in the Pittsburgh seam of the No. XV Measures, in Putnam county, and when the extension to Gauley river, now under construction, is completed, will open a valuable and promis- ing field in the Nos. XIV and XIII Measures of the Upper Kanawha, which now lies undeveloped or wholly depends upon water transportation. The local and through rates upon this road are usually the same as those offered by the Chesapeake and Ohio for similar coals. (6) From the New River District. The New river district is altogether dependent upon the trans- portation facilities of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company for the carriage of its coals and cokes to markets. The rates given the individual shippers for eastward moving tonnage have generally not exceeded 3 mills per ton per mile, while a large proportion of the product is sold at the mines to the Chesapeake and Ohio Agency. For westward moving tonnage a rate has generally been offered permitting these coals, and especially the cokes, to meet, success- fully, the competition of the Pennsylvania and other fields. Taking into consideration the rapid expansion of the coal and coke production along the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- way, and the continually greater demand in both eastern and west- ern markets for the coals and cokes mined and made along its route, it is but fair to say that the railroad management have exercised great enterprise in the effort to furnish trackage and equipment adequate to give every facility for the increasing tonnage offered. But, at the same time, their efforts have fallen considerably short COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 139 of the needs of the districts, and the failure to keep pace with this expansion, has largely crippled a development that would have otherwise occurred. We here insert a i TABLE SHOWING COST TRANSPORTATION PER TON PER MILE. DISTRICT. BY WATER. BY RAIL. Kanawha. 3 to 5 mills Eastward. New River. ' 3 to 4 mills Westward. Kanawha. New River. \% mills. 3% mills. 3 to 5 mills which illustrates the great advantage to shipper of the now im- proved water transportation. The water carriage being about 2J times as cheap as rail transportation, and this low rate, also, serving to hold railroad charges to a minimum. (c) From ike Upper Elk and Gauley Districts. The West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad, a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, is now building to the Gauley river in Webster county, and traverses the valley of Elk river, in Brax- ton county, thus opening to commerce and future development the mineral wealth of coking coals in these districts. The Charleston, Clendenin and Sutton Railroad is also as- cending Elk river from Charleston, and if it be extended to the coking coal beds of the Upper Elk valley, will afford another outlet westward for these coals. The Gauley river branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway is now under construction from the main line up the Gauley river, and should this road be pushed to the coking coal district of the Upper Gauley, a second outlet toward the west will be given this region. 140 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. The West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad now reaches Beverly, in Tygart's river valley, in Randolph county, and has approached from the east to within 30 miles of the coking coal beds of Webster and Randolph counties, and it is possible that this system, connecting as it does with the Pennsylvania lines, may yet afford an open way for the transportation of these coals eastward to the seaboard. As yet, however, the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Railroad (branch of the B. & O. R. R.) is the only railway actually entering these coal districts. (d) From tlie Flat Top, and Guayandotte, and Twelve Pole Districts. Transportation in the Flat Top mountain district is wholly by rail, and the dependence of that region wholly upon the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company. The first railroad track into this then unbroken wilderness was laid in 1882, and the marvelous expansion and development of the coal mining and coke producing trade of the district, within the short period of nine years, is the best evidence of the liberal and vigorous policy exercised by the management of that road. The better to enable the shippers of the region to meet the opposing competition of longer established trade, a common agency has been established for the selling of the coals, and this agency has taken the product of the mines, arranging with the railroad company for the furnishing of the necessary cars and daily distribution, pro rata, of empties among the mines upon a strictly impartial basis. Hence, the question of rates to the seaboard has not been one of general concern -to the producer, but of private contract between the railroad company and the selling agency, and has always been so adjusted that the entire output of coal and coke from the rapidly expanding collieries has been promptly and efficiently handled. For the western trade, the Flat Top coals have had, as yet, no direct outlet, but with the completion of the Norfolk and Western Railroad to the Ohio, at Kenova, prubably during the year 1892, it COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 141 is likely that the strong and liberal system which has been inaugu- rated and conducted so successfully with regard to the eastern trade, will also be employed in meeting competition and opening markets in the west. 142 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER IX. Treating of Market Prices, with comparative Tables showing Market Ratings over a series of years, and in compari- son with other competing Coals of Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., showing at the same time the Current Huling Prices of Great Kanawha, New River, and other Bituminous Coals in the Cincinnati and Chicago markets over a series of consecutive years. These tables are interesting, inasmuch as they demonstrate the high prices obtained for these West Virginia coals in competi- tion, in open market, with the well known and longer established coals of the Pennsylvania and Ohio coal districts. TABLE I. AVERAGE PRICE GREAT KANAWHA COAL, AFLOAT, CINCINNATI, O. DATE OP YEAR. AVERAGE PRICE FOR 13 YEARS. PRICE PER BUSHEL. PRICE PER LONG TON, 2240 LBS. PER BUSHEL. PER LONG TON, 2,240 LBS. Cents. Mills. * Cents. Cents. Mills. S Cents. 1890-91 7 8.1 2 19 1889-90 y 04 1 '"97 1888-89 6 7.7 1 90 1887-88 9 75 2 73 1886-87 7 26 2 03 1886-86 6 2 4 1 75 1884-85 7 4.3 .2 08 1883-84 7 5.4 2 11 1882-83 7 9 6 2 21 1881-82 9 0.8 2 54 1880-81 9 6.7 2 70 1879-80 8 6.6 2 42 1878-79 7 1.0 2 00 1877-78 7 1.0 1 99 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 143 TABLE II. AVERAGE PRICE GREAT KANAWHA COAL, DELIVERED, CINCINNATI, O. DATK OF YEAR. AVERAGE PRICE FOR 13 YEARS. PRICE PER BUSHEL. PEICE PER LONG TON. PER BUSHEL. PER LONG Ton, 2,240 LBS. Cents. Mills. $ Cents. Cents. Mills. $ Cents. 1890-91 11 7.6 3 29 1889-90 10 76 3 01 1888-89 10 70 2 99 1887-88 13 2.7 3 72 1886-87 10 8.6 3 04 1885-86 9 6 5 2 70 1884-85 10 73 3 00 1883-84 11 6.5 3 26 1882-83 12 25 3 43 1881-82 14 47 4 05 1880-81 14 8.7 4 16 1879-80 12 55 3 51 , 1878-79 10 7.0 3 00 1877-78 10 4.5 2 93 Showing a steady average rise in prices of Kanawha coal (excepting last two years), thus indicating their stronger and stronger position in the market year by year. 144 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA TABLE III. AVERAGE PRICES PER TON GREAT KANAWHA AND OTHER COALS IN CHI- CAGO MARKET OVER A SERIES OF YEARS FROM N. Y. COAL TRADE JOURNAL REPORTS. LOCALITY OP PRO- DUCTION. 1887, Nov. 2. 1888, Nov. 7. 1889, Nov. 5. 1890, Nov. 5. 1891, Nov. 4. AVER- AGE. REMARKS. $ cts ? cts $ cts $ cts 1 cts 1 cts Kanawha District. Black Band Mine 4 50 4 25 4 00 4 25 Winifrede 3 50 3 50 3 50 3 60 3 75 3 57 Splint coals. Raymond 4 00 3 75 3 50 3 60 3 71 Plymouth 3 65 3 50 3 60 3 58 Belmont 3 50 3 50 Pittsburgh 3 60 3 35 3 20 3 40 3 40 3 38 Splint and Youghiogheny 3 60 3 45 3 30 3 40 3 45 3 45 bitumin- ous coals. Hocking Valley 3 40 3 25 3 10 3 30 3 10 3 23 Shawnee 3 30 3 25 3 10 3 30 3 10 3 21 Baltimore and Ohio. . 3 30 3 25 3 10 3 21 Sandy creek. 3 30 3 25 3 10 3 30 3 10 3 21 Jackson Hill, Ohio 3 45 3 30 3 35 3 45 3 35 3 38 Erie 4 50 4 25 4 25 4 25 4 25 4 30 Briar Hill 4 50 4 15 4 25 4 25 4 25 4 25 , Kanawha cannel 4 75 4 50 4 50 4 50 4 56 Buckeye cannel. ..... 6 00 5 00 5 00 5 25 5 31 Cannel coal. Brush creek cannel. . . 4 75 4 00 4 25 4 25 4 44 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 145 TABLE IV. AVERAGE PRICE PER TON KANAWHA, NEW RIVER, FLAT TOP COKES, CHICAGO, N. Y. COAL TRADE JOURNAL REPORTS. LOCALITY OF PRO- DUCTION. 1887, Nov. 2. 1888, Nov. 7. 1889. Nov. 5. 1890, Nov. 5. 1891, Nov. 4. AVER- AGE. . $ cts $ cts $ cts $ cts $ cts $ cts New River Flat Top, Pocahontas mine 4 5 25 75 5 75 5 00 W. Va. Connellsville 5 60 5 25 5 55 3 90 5 4 95 Wolston 4 40 4 25 4 55 5 20 5 4 68 Penna. Blossburgh 5 80 10 146 COALS AND COKES OP WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER X. General Summ'ary, etc. [Summary of facts portrayed in the foregoing pages concerning the chemical and physical qualities of the coals of West Virginia their cost of production, transportation and market ratings. As shown by the foregoing tables of analyses of coals and cokes (Part J)]. 1. The coals of West Virginia, herein reviewed, average, higher in percentage of fixed carbon, and lower in ash and sulphur and trace of phosphorus, than any of the coals of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, or other known coal fields in the United States. They are, in fact, remark- able for their general purity. 2. The cokes produced by these coals are equally pure, being unexcelled in their high percentage of fixed carbon, and low per- centage of ash, sulphur and trace of phosphorus. They conse- quently make the hottest fires and leave the least residuum of ash. In physical structure they rate with the highest product of Connells- ville, but are, because of their very purity, a trifle softer and more inclined to breeze. 3. The seams of coals lying in horizontal beds are worked by drifts and with economy in ventilation and drainage. 4. The coals are dug cheaper on an average than are similar coals in Pennsylvania and Ohio. 5. The coals, with equal care and management, can be handled as cheaply as those of other districts. 6. In matter of water transportation, the coals of the Great Kanawha district have an advantage over the coals of the Pitts- burgh and Monongahela districts of free lockage and a saving of 2J to Ty 6 ^ cents per ton lockage dues, and of 209 miles in distance, and have about 300 days floatable water against 130 to 140 days in the Pittsburgh district. COALS AND COKES OF WEST VIRGINIA. 147 In matter of rail transportation, whether the coal fields of West Virginia are to be opened and developed as have been those of Pennsylvania and Ohio, must depend upon the facilities offered, and liberal management, on the part of the great trunk lines now traversing and opening up the state. 7. In market rating where coals go in unhampered and upon their merits, as of late into the Chicago market and north-west West Virginia coals are ranking highest and bringing higher prices per ton than any others. And wherever free competition prevails, whether in the markets of Cincinnati and Chicago, or in New Orleans and even Birming- ham, in Alabama, there may be found these West Virginia coals or cokes steadily winning the markets against those already and longer established. 148 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. CHAPTER XI. Appended Tables and Statistics. 4: 1.1 ^ 5*1 III g|*l8| ( &6|fl*sB >l Sjpifi'SSaa* ;3*g |S SdM4ioJ^|<*e^^l| w .6^^S ^ w o; in b. . j. .iS 5'.. .2 .b.. .OtaJtaJ^^taJ. . . .,5 -^-^^ : aj ;^ : : : : : : , s : "Sec fl ' : : .2 a w . : ; ; i : : ?c j 2w> . Oe*f_i ' ; ;rn ^ ; . . . . :WCP >ci ' SS.S i |^| : J : ' os^.^ ::.:* ; : ;s ;l C -C ' ' : S3 II ,W -> ' ? fl C/ i : : -So-3 : : *s : ilSiP? 'rf-8 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 149 H X H fe Q O Z ,, W Toudy Collins . Oviatt Weyse Coal Dale M. & M. Co Dunlow Coal Co Ferguson Coal Co Hope Splint Coal C, o 2 So . .. ' l|i^.^ili!!!lsiiiil :S : >: 150 COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. NAM O ERINTEND p 1 2 2 2s o u, -_ u< ;j- En f* fn :_ :n g s ; g * g Jones oal and Coke Co al and Coke Co Jones will & Co. Jonos oal and Coke Co & Co.. n Coal & Coke Co Freem Coal D Buckey Freema Robt. G Freema Louisvil John Co Booth SSI'S! S^-^rj-c cj.2 o a J " ; : . .::'.'.'.'. :'.:'.: ^ : : ; . ::. c ..::.': i i : i : : :S : : : ': : : : : :-g: : . : *- \ ' \ [ ; i : COALS AND COKES IN WEST VIRGINIA. 151 COMPARATIVE STATISTICS Concerning the Coal and Coke Production of the Entire State from 1880 to 1891 inclusive. STATISTICS OF WEST VIRGINIA COAL PRODUCTION, 1880-1891. YEARS. Inside Miners. Outside Laborers. 2 i o..o e ;2 3l IS 3 . Percentage of Increase. Average Annual Increase. 1880. . 1881 2,553 3,063 1,173 1 407 1,253,579 1 610 700 28 48 OJ - m 05 1882 1883 3,573 4,438 1,641 1,956 2,158.000 2 805 556 33.90 30 00 8- IS dSo 1884 4,627 1,724 2,901,642 340 gc2 1885 1886 5,486 6 081 1,806 1 181 3,008,091 3 213 093 3.60 6 80 I! 1887 1888 1889 1890 7,023 7,269 7,764 9,173 1,582 1,705 1,882 2,324 4,407,875 4,799,611 4,826,047 5,359 000 37.18 8.89 0.55 11 04 0> 60 ?S|* SJ:S 1891 10,434 2,589 7,281,430 35.87