The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-08-15
VIRGINIA GOLD FIELDS.
Gold Mining Property in louisa County
From Which Thousands of Dollars in
Gold Have Been Taken-R. Kent,
Tou;co Ua

From Which Thousands of Dollars in
Gold Have Been Taken-R. NJ. Kent,
Louisa, Va, Present Owner.
The mine referred to in this article is
situated about six miles from Mineral,
on the. Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, and
thirteen miles from Louisa Courthouse
and about one mile from the Sulphur
Mines, terminus of branch of said road.
This mine as far as developed is excu.
sively gold mine and in the immediate
section of the famous "Arminius,n "Sui-
phur'and "Tender..Flat" pyrites mines,
which are being worked so profitably
| for pyrites.
| This mine was partially worked and
| developed more than sixty years ago and
large quantities of gold have been gotten
| from it 1t has, however, never been
worked.under any improved conditions Of
machinery or with any requisite amount
| of capital.
AT times before the late civil war it
| was worked by the Owners, simply dig
ging up the earth and washing with sim
pie homemade hand washers, with slave
labor, in this crude way getting out 1t
great deal of gold, which WAS to them n
very profitable business. These owners
(three in number) died and for a long
time nothing was done, as it was then
owned by the minor children. In the
year 1887, Prof. b. Silliman, Jr., A. NJ,
of Massachusetts, visited and examined
the mines of this region and made the
following report on this county Nouisa):
''The gold being generally disseminated
in the quartz of this gold region it is OBJ
vious that it must have been laid by i II
its stony bed at the same time the quartz
and the slaty rock in which it is contain
ed were deposited. This fact increases
the probability that the gold will not be
exhausted. $1,000 value of gold was
found il the finders mine .in Louisa il
the course of one week. jenkins, now
r. NJ. kent's tract, one hundred and
nine acres, adjoining on the northeast,
So, 600 to $4,000 per annum. The famous
Walton mine is three miles southwest"
Other mines are spoken of in this
county by Prof. Silliman.
Edward S. Mansfield, Il resident of this
section, makes the following statement:
when quite young man, say about the
year 1888 to 1S41, l superintendent the
working of the MEG ehee or Jenkins gold
mine Gas it was then called), then owned
by my father and 9th ,rs. We. worked our
slaves and for surface gold only, with no
reference to n vein. We had only the
most simple machinery, .made.at home,
merely hand washers. We generally
WoIhtu SIN HOuTS, ODbalnlnS rarely less
than five dollars per day and sometimes
striking rich deposit out of which we
would get several hundred dollars,
always making n fine average each day.
In our explorations we sank small shaft
CT about twenty feet deep near the creek
and we struck what is supposed to he
the vein and IL very rich deposit of gold.
aud took out in two days between two
and three thousand dollars. Having no
engine nor pump we could not keep the
water out and had to abandon it. IL is
now filled with water to within few
feet of the surface. Soon after this the
owners all died, leaving children and
grandchildren, who cou'd not carry on the
mining. AND for long time nothing was
done with this property. Recently the
present owner (R. M. Kent has made
several shafts Give in alb on the vein and
has found the same quartz ut all of them,
some carrying very much gold and others
but little. From one shaft four or five
pounds OF quartz were recently sent to
Professor Potter, of St. Louis, Mo-, for
assay. He reports that to be worth 1896
per ton. 1t may be proper to say that
while the foregoing is mainly about the
McGehee (now KENT mine there are other
mines in Louisa county which are known
to he of great value.
This district may not be MS rich As the
Klondyke district, hut the finds in the
past years as we'll as of recent date show
beyond question that this county abounds
IN the yellow metal. Besides the fine
gold some very nice nuggets have been
recently found, some weighing as much
rs forty four grains. We all look with