The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-15
PLYMOUTH PEOPLE
 DREAM COPPER Possibility That They May Be Inhabiting Mining
 Camps. SEE GREAT WEALTH. An Old Belief But It Still Has Its Fascina-
 ton.
SEE GREAT WEALTH.

Terryville, July 1.-The stories that have appeared in print of fine veins of copper having been found in the hill through which the contractors are l drilling the great tunnel on the High land Division near Pequabuck, meet with little credence from the old time residents of the town. Prospects of mineral wealth have dazzled the eyes of many a man in times past, but tho town of Plymouth seems never to have been destined to attain unto the glory of mining camp.
 How often the phantom of hidden riches has played over the local hills few know, but 1t darts out again ever and anon even as it dld when the white man first set eyes upon the wilderness. It was early in 1857 that the white settlers of Pennington penetrated westward to the Naugatuck valley and discovered what they thought to be a mine of black lead. From Pennington, then the only settlement in the state away from navigable waters, the white man selected the territory part of which is now called Plymouth from out of the wilderness as the most desir- able locality because of it's mines. They bought from Wee Kepaquamp and Quarinus and Mataueage a "tract of land called Matetacoke, that is to say, the hill from whence John Standly and John Andrews brought the black lead and all the land within eight miles of that hill on every side to dig and to carry away what they will and to build on it for ye use of them that labor there" and to make their title dpubly sure they secured from Petthusco and Toxcornuck quitclaim to the above tract, including all timber, woods, brooks, rivers, mines and minerals thel con. The old mine is supposed to be north of Plymouth Center little north of the town line, and there is a
 brook which bears the name of Lead Mine brook. The dream of wealth was doomed to destruction, and it was fully sixteen years later before a settlement was made within the new territory at
 Waterbury
 But the ghost of the mines would not down. Barnabas Ford, whose house
 was the center about which the old So-
 ciety of Northbury was founded, con- veyed by will certain lands, including
 ''the whole of my part of the lot laid out for ye sake of mine" This spot was what is now southern Thomaston
 and it is here that the phantom made a long struggle for existence. It lodged heart or-stohn sutiiff who lived near the Spruces, and the most that is
 kncwn of him is that he was afflicted
 with a mining passion which became a monomania and that he worked foG years at mining just below the Spruces, the hole where he entered still remain
 ing.
 With twelve children it became neces- sary for him to sell off his land but in
 every deed given in his later years ap- pears the reservation except all mines contained therein" Silver was the aim
 of his labors but he was willing to mine
 for anything The tenacity of his en-
 thusiasm appears in the reservation in
 one deed of "a lot known as the Dimon
 mine" No other deserves as does he
 the title of the towns most loyal min-
 CT, for he spent most of his life at tho work and he of all dared to strive for the sparkling gem that is most precious,
 With his death in 1746 the phantom slept.
 Its next appearance was violent about 1850. It seized many within its grasp and it assumed a copper hue An exca-
 vation for copper was made near the pump at Plymouth Center. Another was made near the cemetery there Other holes were dug and good speci- mems were found in many places A regular business sprang up of leasing Hand and projecting. The spirit spread to the eastern part of the town and it is at this time that we hear of metal 1. in the section where the tunnel is be- ing built. An Englishman named Red- lpath has engaged in various mining 2 scheme. One was the working of a vein near Greystone, a hamlet in the souths . eastern section of the town where part of the Highland Division construction
 work Is now going on. The vein was one containing corundum, or, as 1t il most commonly called, emery.
 A mine of copper was started about the middle of the last century not fai | from where the entrance to the tunnel : is. between that and the Devils Back. bone. John Abbot, one of the early
 Irish residents came to Terryville at that time from Pennsylvania, where he Q had been a miner. In more recent years n a hole was dug at Tolles Station noi l far from where the western terminal e of the tunnel will be. The farmer who s sold the land to the prospector was the : only one who profited by the find In t bullet times, lead was the prize In re- cent years copper. It is suggested fol
 the sake of variety as well as for mod e Iern appearances sake that the next dis covery of metal within the town De | that of radium.
 . MRS. COLLINS INJURED.