Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-07-03
EER END SLATE QUARRIES.
(rRns 10 sBss D0Ss AND ~ DoIxe
Af PAACH BOrroM.
1oene - saass Qaarriss ON Either SIDE Of ths
uusqsshesns- Ths village Of Bangor
o. ths rork County ssore--rhs
Ola mig Qasrv.

Il
Ola mig Quarry
Special Correspondence OF the IsrELLioxSoKR.
PpACH BoTron, July 2-It is pleasant
"a Inusructive halliday one may spend L
er.no- ~ peach Bottom slate quarries,
Hoornine I'll about the manufacture Of slate, |
ffuw ~ drilling Of the blast holes In the |
fuDns b ne completion OF the slate ready for
ehlp0ent And can insure any one wish
NJ - spend such halliday a polite and
o61Iging welcome from the intelligent Welsh
gentlemen operating the queries
What In known as the Peach Bottom slate
nnge makes its appearance in Hartford
county, Nd, about one and one-bslf miles
from Mason and Dixon's line, runs across
corner Of York county, Pa, in northeast
erly direction, crosses the Susquehanna at
Peach Bottom, and disappears about two
miles from the river, one-half mile east OF
Fairfield, near Miller's old tannery, Lancss-
ter county, the two extremes being about ten
miles apart The range is not one continuous
vein between these points, tor the slate is
found more in deposits, or pockets, and at
very unequal distarces from the surface at
different places. The range or ridge in
York and Harford counties lies at much
higher elevation than the surrounding coun-
try, and the visitor, while passing from one
quarry TO another, may feast his eyes by
looking away OF to the east for miles, where
the perfect farms crown the bills and nestle
in the valleys of Lancaster county In the
distance car be seen the villages of Chestnut
Level, Centreville, Penn Hill and Fairfield,
Lancaster county, and far to the southeast,
Rock Springs, Cecil county, Md. Then
nearer, the steep, green hills on either side
tell where the Susquehanna winds between.
think it modern Pisgab, aud I-weli not
exactly Moses. Bringing your eyes back
from Lancasters land of promise, to the
north you see some of York county's best
farms, and on the south some fine ones of
Maryland.
A WELSH VILLAGE.
To follow the chain of qusrries you pass
through the clean pretty village of West
Bangor, where the droves of children, some
clean and 80 me not so clean, enjoy life, re-
joicing and Borrowing in Welsh Down
over the hill from Bangor, in the valley,
rests and sleeps Delta borough. The trains
from Baltimore and York waken her little
as they go in and out, but she never gets
quite done sleeping. over these two rail.
roads most of the products of the quarrIes
are shipped all over the country-west be.
yond the Mississippi, North to the lakes,
and South below the Ohio and down as far
as North Carolina The shipping before the
building OF these roads was done by canal
from Peach Bottom. Both roads being mar
row gauges, makes the shipping less expedi-
tious and more expensive than ii would be
over standard gauges, necessitating reload
ing at York and Baltimore.
Fortunes have been lost and fortunes made
in these slate quarres, and the quarrymen
tell us that good slate quarries are as hard to
find as good gold mines. There are about as
many quarries abandoned as there are
worked, and "the ridge" is covered with
untitled graves of buried labor and capital
A great many of the failures however, are
attributable to the want of capital at the COM
mRnd OF the prospectors, they generally be-
ing men Of small means, who often reach
water or almost reach slate at the time they
reach the end OF their money, and go back To
the old quarries as laborers- If their capital
holds out till hoisting and pumping machin.
cry can be bought and used to advantage,
success is more assured although Chas.
Bonsel spent hundred thousand dollars al
Peach Bottom, Lancaster county, in the
" Old Brown quarry in four or five years
But he was quarryiug under a mountain
and tried to roof 1t all in and slate it, and
moved too wide swarth generally. That
was about a dozen years ago, and we have
had no states, literally speaking, made il
Lancaster county since.
NEED OF MORE CAPITAL.
Certainly these quarries could be worke,
at much less cost and consequently at /
larger and more certain profit, and the bust
ness OF them kept better under the control o
the owners, if more capital could be com
manded With the present limited amour,
OF that necessary element, quarryman goes
straight down to slate quickly as he can,
only removing what surface is between and
comes between him and the slate. The con.
sequences are that he has, after infinite
pains, little hole in the ground with some
slate at the bottom, at which he works and
picks, and drills, and blasts away as long as
he get ont. at infinite
Then some unlucky Friday, down into
the hole, in which there may or may not b,
a. lot OF workmeD, fathers of above mentioned
children, from the top tumbles three or ioul
hundred thousand tons, more or less, of dir
and stones and stuff that requires month.
aud money to remove from the precious lit
tie bottom OF slate. While il the working
capital was larger or had the strength of con.
centration and cooperation, and large area
OF the top taken of-and of course il is
cheaper to take top oil at the top than it is to
Draw II up ffom the bottom down hundred
and nifty feet or so-and cave-ins and slides
thereby avoided, in addition of then being
able To work at the rock from the most ad
vantageous points, by having it SO much
more exposed and free, it can readily be
seen that product costing much less would
DE the result But 1T is not my business to
tell Welshmen how to make slate, but rather
TO tell how they do it
THE OLD BIG QUARRY.
The Oldest quarry of any size or that has
grown 10 any importance, and the one now
IN operation nearest the river is what il
known as the "Old Big quarry" or the
"Parker quarry" 1t was opened in lsO5 by
an Englishman named Carman, and was ON
land at that time owned by the McCandIess,
estate, from whom Carman leased "uuarry
leave for period of ninety-nine wears, re.
newable forever" Carman worked the
quarry about four years. after which il was
Idle till 1880, when his lease and privileges
were bought by Peter Williamson, and the
quarry operated by him for "A number of
years. He was succeeded by WIN. Davis
VINO gave away TO Roland Parry in lsI7
Alter Parry came Isaac Parker d CO. who
worked II till about 1872, from which time IL
was idle till 1879, when it was leased from
the present owners by X. l.. Jones a Co
VINO nave been very successful. All the
quarrles now worked in York county are ON
this McCandiess property, bought IN 1855 by
Ihomas >. WILLIAMSON, father. IN law of w nj
McSparran, who now, with other heirs owns
It As Miss Jones IL Co. have the oldest
quarry on the ridge, they have the business
prestige OF a claim TO having established the
reputation OF the celebrated Peach bottom
slate, and being ableat all times to sustain it,
specimen OF slate from this quarry was
sent by Roland Parry to the great London
exhibition in 1851 where were shown slate
from all the then known quarriss in the
wofid, and was awarded the premium over
All Others on account of durability and elias.
ucity and uniformity and unchangeableness