Limestone is found in veins from five to seven feet thick, and a five-foot vein of fine iron ore underlies the whole district. An excellent quality of coal is found in veins, seven, eleven, and thirteen feet thick, and there is no gravel beds in the district. Valuable white sand exists in some parts, and a fine quality of potters clay supplies the Shinnston Pottery with a material for manufacture. A branch of Booths creek heads in the southwestern part of the district, flows north- ward, and empties into the main creek where Taylor, Harrison, and Marion Counties join. Sugar Camp run heads in the eastern part of the district, and flows west into Booths creek.
Coons run heads in the southwest, flows northeast, and empties into West Fork River.
Homers Run and Shinns Run are other small streams in the district. Among the first cabins erected was that of Captain John Thomas , on the farm now owned by Samuel Kester , on Booths creek, in 1777. The story of the terrible massacre of Capt. A few years after it was built he attached a saw mill. The date of the first school taught is uncertain, but in 1813 Rev. Asa Shinn taught in a small log cabin located at Shinnston.