Under the stimulating effect of a brilliant sun, a humid atmosphere charged with carbonic acid, myriads of ages before man appeared, vast forests gorgeous in their beauty and dense in their foliage, sprung up in widely extended swamps, flourished for a while, decayed and made thick mats of slimy organic matter. Earthquakes with tumultuous throes upheaved mountains and produced depressions. These depression were swept over by the huge waves of stormy ocean, depositing their burdens of sand gravel and clayey mater upon the vegetable mass. Oscillations afterward elevated this sand and clay-covered deposit, and vegetable life appeared to be at some remote period again submerged. These processes continued through ages, the deposits of early matter weighing down and shutting out from the influence of the atmosphere, and the light of day the remains of plant life, in which condition they were transmuted into coal. Such is the theory of Geologists in regard to the formation of bituminous coal, and doubtless a true one. Anthracite coal is bituminous coal cooked under pressure and subterranean heat.
By far the most important coal field in America is the Appalachian, extending in a northeast and southwest direction, a distance of 875 miles, through the western part of Pennsylvania, the eastern part of Ohio, the western corner of Maryland nearly all of West Virginia, and the eastern part of Kentucky. It crosses Tennessee and ends near Tuscaloosa in Alabama. It covers an area of 80,000 square mile, 60,000 being available. This is about ten times the productive acres of the coal mines of Great Britain. This great coal field has an average width of about 180 miles. It is in the form of a long trough or canoe, the strata dipping from their eastern or south eastern escarpments towards the northwest, while from their escarpments in the northwest they dip towards the southeast, meeting upon a common axis between the two escarpments. The western and eastern margins of this basin though nearly parallel about midway of its length, gradually approach each other as they extend toward the north and thus bending round the former in Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio, at length actually calesce and form the head or northern termination of the trough. The Ohio river runs west of the center or axis of this trough.
When these coal measures were formed they were in unbroken strata, and the surface of the land above them a level plain, but from cracks or fissures formed in the crust of the earth, or some other cause, the waters have scooped out the valleys, cutting the strata of rocks and coal, leaving the veins cropping our in many places from the hill sides above the present level of the streams. The coal veins on the hillsides upon the opposite shores of the Ohio were once united but have been cut through by the abrasion of the waters which have washed out the valley in which the Ohio river now flows between the hills.
While other states have, at great expense, commissioned scientific men to make geological surveys to ascertain the localities of their mineral wealth, and point out the way to its development, which has contributed so largely to their advancement in material prosperity, Virginia has paid but little attention to the subject, leaving the development of its wealth entirely to private enterprise, therefore our knowledge of the mineral resources of the state, their localities or availability, is limited t such generalities as men engaged in purely scientific pursuits have given us, together with such detached facts as have from time to time been gathered by individuals who have occasionally undertaken some private enterprise.
From this general outline, given the coal measures, it will be seen that the entire area of BROOKE COUNTY is underlaid with coal. Except the meagre knowledge of th drift veins, which have been exposed by the waters cutting through them as they washed out the valleys between the hills, the most we know we have learned from the enterprising state of Ohio, which, by its elaborate geological survey, has accurately delineated the coal formations on her side of the river. We learn from the enterprise of that state that most of West Virginia lies within the great Appalachian coal field, and the strata of BROOKE county being a part and parcel of this same field is identified with the county of Jefferson across the river in Ohio.
The coal mostly worked is a drift vein, that cuts the upper portion of the hills back of WELLSBURG. It is four to give feet in thickness and of a fair quality. It has been mined almost exclusively for local, or domestic purposes. There is in this section another drift below this, but the vein is not remunerative and therefore nor worked. No shafts have been sunken on the Virginia side of the river, though one has been contemplated in Wellsburg and parties have gone over to Ohio and obtained the necessary information as to its practicability. They there learned they can reach a vein at a depth of two hundred and fifty feet. They learned this shaft vein was four and a half feet thick, of excellent quality, free from sulphur, and the best in the county for smelting iron ore.
A company has been incorporated in Wellsburg for sinking a shaft at that place.
These strata all dip about seventeen feet to the mile southeast. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remember, as you have read this story this was written in 1879. Today we have several mines in Brooke County. There were many small "Mom and Pop" mines. There are photos here shared by the Gilchrist family - their father Clifton Gilchrist owned a mine in the North end of Wellsburg - where now Route 2 runs, near Pleasant Avenue.
If you have mine photos or stories, please do share them with us! We can copy and return your photos in a few days. If your want, you can send them on-line to our E Mail address. BCG….