tration of Captain John Tyler, to revive it. The results of this revival were strife, litigation, and bad feeling throughout the mining region, while Government incurred expenditures largely exceeding the receipts. The subject of the sale of the mining lands then began to be agitated with much spirit. President Polk, in his Message of December 2, 1845, called the attention of Congress to the subject, and showed that the system of leasing lead mines had been "not only unprofitable to Government, but unsatisfactory to citizens who had gone upon the lands, and must, if continued, lay the foundations of much future difficulty between Gov ernment and the lessees." He quoted the official | Illinois by the way of Fort Clarke, now Perecord to show that the amount of mineral rents oria. in the Galena mines received by Government for the years 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, and 1845 was $6354 74; while the expenses of the system for the same period were $26,111 11, the income being less than one-fourth the expenses. He recommended the repeal of the system and the sale of the lands. On the 11th of July, 1846, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to sell the reserved mineral lands in the States of Illinois and Arkansas, and the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa, and in the following year the lands in the Galena Mines were brought into market and sold. The largest discovery of lead ore made in the earlier times was about one mile above Galena. It was made by the Indians in 1819, and obtained the name of the "Buck Lead," by which appellation it has ever since been known. Up to the time of Johnson's advent among the mines, mining was prosecuted in the most primitive manner, and mostly by squaws, who labored with much industry and perseverance. Colonel Johnson brought with him a large number of workmen, and all the necessary mining tools. He ascended the Mississippi in keel-boats, and pushed up "La Rivière de Fève" to the French and Indian settlement where Galena now stands, where he encamped, and near which he commenced mining operations. His success still further directed public attention to the mines, and people from all quarters flocked to this new El Dorado. People from Missouri Territory, from Kentucky and Tennessee, went up the Mississippi, while many followed an Indian trail from Southern In 1829 the greatest immigration took place. In 1827 the name Galena had been applied to the settlement on Fever River. From that time the whole country around Galena was covered by people "prospecting" and digging for lead ore. In the spring thousands ascended the river to Galena, and engaged in mining during the summer. In the autumn they made their exodus, because there were in the country no provisions for winter supplies. From the fact that the adventurers went up and down the river at the same time that the shoals of sucker fish came and went, it came to pass that the nickname "Suckers" was given to these people. The sobriquet afterward came to be applied to all inhabitants of Illinois, and still clings to them. Governor Reynolds, in his History of Illinois, says: "General Henry, at a crisis in the battle with Black Hawk, near the Wisconsin River, addressed his troops as 'brave Suckers,' which excited them to the ne plus ultra of their energies." From the discoveries about Galena the miners pushed out in pursuit of the rich ore in every direction, and valuable lodes were constantly struck. Among the earliest discoveries outside of Galena were those at "Gratiot's Grove," near where the flourishing village of Shullsburg now is. The mines there are inexhaustible; probably the richest in the lead region. They were first developed by two Creole Frenchmen, brothers, from St. Louis: John P. B. and Henry Gratiot. At one time nine log furnaces were running at that point. Discoveries were soon T after made at New Diggings, Hamilton Settle- ' politics, and mingled a good deal in political ment, Mineral Point, Dodgeville, and many life, and more than once represented his counother points. The largest amounts of ore are ty in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. now raised at Shullsburg and New Diggings, His mother visited her son and spent the winWisconsin, and at Marsden's Diggings, a com- ter of 1838-9 in Galena, the guest of one of its paratively new discovery, six miles below Ga- most hospitable citizens. lena on the Mississippi River. The following diagram, taken from the plot of "The Elevator Mine," owned by Edward Weatherby, Esq., of Shullsburg, and Captain Edward H. Beebe, of Galena, will give some idea of the extent and diversity of the veins. We are enabled to give only a small section; but as this is from actual survey, and the courses and distances are all correct, it exhibits more perfectly than words can do the erratic manner in which the ore is distributed in the Galena Limestone. Captain Beebe is well known as one of the most practical of miners, and a learned and accomplished geologist. The mines at Hamilton Settlement were first worked by William S. Hamilton, a son of the distinguished statesman Alexander Hamilton. Colonel Hamilton removed early to Illinois, and was a member of the Illinois Legislature in 1825-6. He emigrated to the lead mines, the then Michigan Territory, in 1828, and was an officer in the Black Hawk war in 1832. He resided in Iowa County, Wisconsin, from that time until 1849, when he went to California, and died there in 1851. He was a gentleman of much natural ability, but of eccentric habits. He never married, and, though naturally of a social and genial disposition, shunned all society. He adopted great plainness of garb, and while working his mines lived and dressed more coarsely than any of his workmen. With his coarse clothes, slouched hat, bare feet, and his pantaloons rolled up to his knees and covered with mud and dirt, he would hardly have been recognized as the son of the greatest American statesman, and one of the most polished gentlemen of any period or country. Underneath this extraordinary exterior were a heart of gold and a cultivated mind. He was a Whig in Among the pioneers was Colonel Henry Dodge, who removed from the Missouri or "Lower Mines." He located near where the town of Dodgeville-named for him—the county seat of Iowa County, Wisconsin, now stands. He there established a smelting furnace. Dodge was an old Indian fighter who distinguished himself in the Black Hawk war and acquired great popularity. He became delegate to Congress, and Governor of Wisconsin Territory, and after its admission as a State he was twice elected to the United States Senate. He still lives at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The richness of the mines attracted to them men of all professions-physicians, editors, lawyers, men of letters, and statesmen. Some were distinguished. The poet Percival, who was an M.D., spent the last days of his life in the mines of Southwest Wisconsin. Having been appointed State Geologist of Wisconsin he spent his time exploring the mines. The eccentricitics of this remarkable man were distinctly developed. He lived a recluse, practicing the most rigid economy, and died at Hazel Green, under circumstances of a very peculiar character. He bequeathed his entire property, which was considerable, including his magnificent library in Connecticut, to a gentleman with whom he had resided. There appeared among the miners in the spring of 1835 H. H. Houghton, a printer from Vermont, who has since made his impress upon the mining region as editor of the Northwestern Gazette and Galena Advertiser. Commencing his career "prospecting" as a miner, he “drifted" into the editorial chair, which he has occupied since the autumn of 1835, and is thus the oldest editor in the State of Illinois, respected for his ability and his private virtues. : RESIDENCE OF NELSON STILLMAN, GALENA. The rocks exposed within the mining district | necessary to sink a perpendicular shaft. After are, commencing with the lowest, the Lower penetrating the soil from 10 to 20 feet, they Magnesian Limestone, which is the equivalent secure it with timber or two-inch plank. This of the calciferous sandstone of the New York is to "crib it." The size of an ordinary shaft Geological reports. The second stratum is the is four by six feet. At the distance of ten to St. Peter's Sandstone. The third is the Blue twenty feet from the surface the Galena Limeand Buff, or Trenton Limestone. The fourth stone is usually struck. If it is soft the miners is the Galena Limestone. In this deposit seven- go down with pick and gad, but commonly poweighths of the Galena is found. The next above der is used, and the rock is blasted, until the is the shales of the Cincinnati group, and the stratum in which they expect to find the ore is last is the Niagara Limestone, capping the loft- reached. They then "drift" off in any direciest cliffs. The ore occurs in three modes, tion in which they hope to "cut a crevice" or viz. surface deposits, vertical crevices, and flat"opening," as it is in these that the largest sheets. The first is called by the miners "float mineral," and indicates deposits in the rock in close proximity. In the vertical fissures galena is found in a thin sheet attached to the walls, one or both, or merely separated from one or both by clay or other matter. Crevices have been found taking a saddle-shape, by the portions each side of the centre dropping gradually to lower strata. Flat sheets are a deposit that may occur any where proceeding from the vertical crevices, but are chiefly limited to the lower formations, or as low as the Trenton Limestone. deposits of mineral are found. Subterranean chambers are then excavated in all directions. An "opening" or enlarged crevice is in part filled with loose material left behind in the decomposition of the rock, the remains of strings, bunches and sheets of ore, and other loose matters that have been introduced. These " openings" of irregular dimensions are from four to fifteen feet in height, four to ten, but sometimes forty feet in width, and have been met with several hundred feet long. They are sometimes repeated to the number of five, one below another, but one alone is more common. In the best mining grounds the veins run in Should water be encountered at any distance an east and west, north and south direction, in descending-and this is really the greatest approximately. They are termed "ranges," difficulty miners have to contend with-they put whether applied to a mine or a district. When on a pump driven by horse-power. When a persons wishing to prosecute mining have pro- crevice is cut and the miners get into caves, or .cured their land, either by purchase or lease,"broken ground," which frequently happens, they commence by "sinking a shaft." Where it becomes necessary to secure the roof. This it is possible there is an entrance to a mine by is done either by timbers taken down for that means of an inclined plane, but it is generally purpose, or by leaving or making pillars of the rock. Whenever the "drift" is driven to an extent that forbids a free circulation of air, or if the "choke-damp" occurs, ventilation is secured by sinking another shaft that intersects the first and thus supplies oxygen. The furnaces are always constructed near a water-course, and the water is conducted by a pipe into a shed. A rough wooden trough placed under the stream of water receives the mineral, and as the water falls over it the dirt is washed away, and much of the finer ore in scales or crumbs is carried along down the trough, but its specific gravity is such that it sinks upon the floor of the trench, while the water flows on and out through a drain. This fine ore is shoveled out and again subjected to the action of water outside, by being put in a wooden box open at one end, which is placed under any little fall in the water-course. Men here stir the mineral about in the box with a common hoe, while the flow of water carries off all that remains of the dirt, the mineral again being retained by its great gravity. The washed ore is now ready for the furnace. The mines are lighted by means of common tallow-candles, as there is no danger from the explosive gases that prevail in coal mines. But the miner's candlestick is unique. A person about to descend into a mine is handed a candle and a lump of white clay, or "fire clay." It is about the consistence of such a lump of mud as boys use for making "mud-balls." He is expected to wrap the ball of clay around the end of his candle. The advantage of so plastic a candlestick is obvious. If a miner or visitor desires to relieve himself of his candle, all he has to do is to "stick it" up or down as the case may be, and it adheres to whatever surface it meets. This "fire-clay" of which the The log furnace that was adopted as an immining candlestick is made abounds in the lead provement upon the rude stone furnace used region, and a supply is always kept for this pur- by the squaws, was not a great advance upon pose. that, though a larger per-centage of lead was After the ore is dislodged it is carried to the extracted. At many of the primitive smelting foot of the "shaft" by means of a wooden hand-places a profitable harvest of rich lead was, managed railway, and then hoisted by means of tub and windlass. This, however, is a slow, laborious operation, nevertheless it is almost exclusively used. The owners of the Elevator Mine at Shullsburg have built, and now use, a machine for hoisting which is worked by horse-projection was made on thether surface of power. When the ore reaches the surface it is weighed and sold at a given price for 1000 pounds, and always for ready money. It is then carted off to the furnace in wagons. There it is sorted over, and the large lumps are thrown upon an open floor and broken up by hammers. WEIGHING PIG-LEAD. long time afterward, extracted by the white settlers from the slag and other refuse of the Indian's smelting. The log furnace consisted of a back and two side walls. These were built of stone to the height of six or eight feet. A either side wall about eighteen inches from the floor. The largest logs procurable were rolled in and stretched from side to side. On top of the logs was placed a large quantity of the ore, and then fuel and mineral were piled alternately upon it to the very top of the walls, each "charge" containing from 3000 to 5000 pounds weight of ore. A fire was then kindled under the furnace, and as the logs burned the ore melted and was plunged to the bottom of the furnace; and as the furnace was built on the side of a hill, a small trench from the bottom to the surface allowed the fluid mass to pour upon the ground. A "charge" was melted in the course of eight to twelve hours. Only from thirty-three to forty per cent. of lead was thus extracted. Two brothers, Burton, from England, brought to the Galena Mines the first "reverberatory" furnace, and tried to conceal from others the working of it. But Robert A. Drummond not only discovered the mode of its operation but invented an improvement thereupon. The "Reverberatory Furnace" was built of stones, and had an oven in the side wherein the ore was put, while the fuel was placed in front of it. Drummond's improvement consisted in the furnace being so constructed as to cause the blaze to pass over the mineral. The Scotch Hearth, or Blast Furnace, has now superseded all others. It consists of a box of cast iron, two feet square, one foot high, open at top, with the sides and bottom two inches thick. To the top of the front edge is affixed a sloping shelf or hearth called the workstone, used for spreading the materials of the "charge" upon, as occasionally becomes necessary during smelting, and also for the excess of molten lead to flow down. For the latter purpose a groove one half an inch deep and an inch wide runs diagonally across the workstone. A ledge one inch in thickness and height surrounds the work-stone on all sides except that toward the sole of the furnace. The hearth slopes from behind forward, and immediately below the front edge of it is placed the receptacle or "melting-pot." An inch from the bottom, in the posterior side of the box, is a hole two inches in diameter, through which the current or "blast" of air is blown from the bellows. The furnace is built under an immense chimney, thirty to thirty-five feet high, and ten feet wide at its base. Behind the base of the chimney is the bellows, which is propelled by a waterwheel, the tuyère, or point of the bellows, entering at the hole in the back of the box. The fuel, which consists of light-wood, coke, and charcoal, is thrown in against the tuyère and kindled, and the ore is placed upon the fuel to the top of the box. The blast of air in the rear keeps the fire burning, and as the reservoir or box is filled with molten lead the excess flows down the, grooved hearth into the "melting-pot," under which a gentle fire is kept, and the lead is ladled from it into the moulds as is convenient. Before adding a new "charge" the blast is turned off, the "charge" already in is drawn forward upon the work-stone, more fuel is cast in, and the "charge" is thrown back with the addition of fresh ore upon the wood. The combustion of the sulphur in the ore produces a large amount of the heat required for smelting. The furnace is thus kept in operation sixteen hours of the twenty-four. The ore is of different degrees of purity, but the purest galena does not yield on an average over sixty-eight per cent. of lead from the first process of smelting. The gray slag is very valuable, though the lead procured from it is harder than that of the first smelting. There is left about 75,000 pounds of gray slag from each 1,000,000 pounds of ore. The slag furnace is erected under the same roof with the Scotch Hearth, and has a chimney of its own a few feet from that of the hearth, and the "blast" is secured from the same water-power by an additional blast-pipe driven by the same wheel. It consists of a much larger reservoir, built of limestone, cemented and lined with clay, with a cast-iron door in front, heavily barred with iron. It will burn out so as to require repairs in about three months. Open at the top, the slag and fuel are thrown in promiscuously. |