Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1872-02-01
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IRON ORE AND r1RE-cLAYs.

have referred only incidentally to
the iron ores and fire-clays of the coun-
ty, because have not yet seen an ana
Isis of one of these minerals, but. it is
evident that great abundance and var
iety of our native ores can be obtained
from all parts of the county, suf-
ficient, for very long time, to mingle
with and temper the richer ores of the
lakes, if they should be brought TO the
county to be smelted. The fire-clays
are apparently of excellent quality they
would suffice for the manufacture of all
the friedrich and coarse pottery Of the
continent for ages.
The pottery business is, in some parts
of the State, very important branch
of industry, even where the clay and
fuel are wagoned some miles to the pot
teries, and when the ware is also taken
in wagons to the railroads for shipment.
Holmes county will afford many places
where the fire-clay and the fuel can be
taken out together in quantities practic-
ally inexhaustible, and in close prox-
unity to railroads either built or pro-
jected. Such facilities for the manu-
facture of pottery and friedrich cannot
long be overlooked.
Almost every county in the State has
its local traditions of lead mines that
were formerly worked by the Indians,
and the testimony is often as positive as
secoifd hand testimony can be, pointing
to definite location from which the
Indian hunters obtained their supply of
this metal. Such location is definite
ly pointed ont in Mechanic township
and old markings upon the forest trees
are claimed to be signs made by the In
dians, to indicate the precise location of
the deposits. The Indians were no archi-
tects, and erected nothing deserving the
name of buildings, either for residen-
ces or storehouses, and it is probable
that all these traditions have their ORR
gin in the fact that they were compell-
to secure the safe keeping of all their
surplus supplies by burying them in the
earth. Such deposits Of lead, visited
only by stealth and by few, would
readily give rise to the traditions lead
mining.
This tradition is only referred to for
the purpose Of saying that, in all our
explorations of Holmes Co., no indica-
tions of valuable lead deposits were met
with. Nearly all parts of the county
have been examined by Prof. Newberry
as well as myself, and l think we are
fully justified i'm saying that there are
no valuable deposits of lead in any of
the rocks exposed in Holmes Co.
DIP OF THE COAL MEASURES.
From the little heretofore published
upon the Geology of Ohio had gather
ed the opinion that there was general
and somewhat uniform dip in the strata
of the Coal Measures toward the south
east, so that the Goals of the northeast
ern margin of the coal field would lie
far below the surface on the opposite
side of the coal basin. The work of the
past season indicates very clearly that
this opinion is erroneous, at least SO far
is it applies to the northwest part of
the coal field, ,and that there is, i'm places
certainly a system of fiexures in the
coal strata, having close connection
with the present typography of the
country and the general direction of the
water courses. Many hundreds of bar
ometrical observations, taken during the
summer, indicate that, commencing in
the western part of Holmes Co., the dip
of the strata is eastern toward the val
ley of the Killbuck; that east of this, to
the irregular divide between the waters
of the killbuck and the Tuscarawas, the
dip is in the opposite direction, j. e., to
ward the west. Passing the divide, the
dip again is rapid toward the east till
the bed of the Tuscarawas is reached
beyond which the strata again rise.
Whether this system of flexures or
waves in the Coal Measures continues
over their whole area, my own observa-
tions are not sufficient to determine ;but
careful examination ofthe big Vein,'
ut the Diamond Coal Company's mine,
near the Ohio river, at Linton, satifies
me that this coal is on the same geolog-
ical horizon as the Saunders or Shepler
coal of Holmes county, and if so, none
of the coal seams of the State can be at
any very geat depth below the valleys