500 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   The Oak Hill Church joined with Horeb in 1883 in withdrawing from the circuit and they called Rev. Thomas Roberts for their pastor. His successors have been Rev. J. Mostyn Jones and others of lesser note. Rev. R. O. Williams is pastor now.   The Masonic lodge at Oak Hill dates from: June 8, 1866, and the charter members were O. C. Miller, W. S. Williams, T. J. Jackson, Joseph Rule, T. B. Gaston, W. S. Tyrrell, David Griffith, Vinton Powers, William J. Evans, J. J. Fenton, Joseph Stafford, T. J. Evans, B. P. McNamee. The charter was granted October 7, 1866. The first meetings were held over T. J. Jackson's store, which stood on the corner now occupied by .the D. J. Jones blacksmith shop. 0. C. Miller was the first Master. The lodge moved soon to the third story of the Jones Hall, which burned down January 27, 1883. A Masonic hall was erected in 1883 and the first meeting in it was held November 22, 1883. Larger quarters in the John J. Thomas block were secured January 1, 1909, and the present lodge, room was dedicated May 26, 1914. The lodge still retains the old name, Portland.   A great event in the history of Oak Hill and the county was the holding of the first great Eisteddfod. for two days in the first week in October, 1875. Judge John J. C. Evans was chairman of the committee which conducted it and Benjamin G. Williams secretary. The session was held in a large tent on the lot of Benjamin G. Williams on the north side of the village. Several thousand people attended. The Eisteddfod is a Welsh institution handed down from the days of the druids and hundreds of English speaking people attended although the proceedings were conducted in the Welsh language. Choirs came to compete in the choruses from as far as Cincinnati.   FIRE OF 1883   The growth of Oak Hill has been steady. The great fire of January 27, 1883, which swept away all the buildings in the two blocks on the south side of Main Street except the Parry and Warren store led to the erection of new buildings and a later fire on the north Side had the same effect with the result that the village now has some handsome business blocks and Main east of the railroad has been paved as far as the township line. The finest block is that of the Oak Hill Savings Bank Co., completed late in 1914. The first bank at Oak Hill was organized in 1892 by Eben J. Jones, John J. Jones, John D. Davis; John J. Thomas,. T. J. Hughes, Elias Morgan, John C. Jones and Miss Margaret Edwards. The bank passed into the hands of the Oak Hill Savings Bank Co. in 1902, and it is now one of the strong institutions of the county, with Eben J. Jones and E. Stanton Davis the officers in charge. A branch of the Citizens Savings .& Trust Co. of Jackson was established in the village later.   Boom OF 1897-98   An awakening following the boom of 1897 led to the establishment of several new Fire Brick companies, the Ohio company in 1898 and   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 501   the Davis company in 1901, both in the village. The brothers, David D. Davis, Evan D. Davis and Edward D. Davis, were leaders in these companies. Three other plants have been established outside of the village, the Diamond, by the Jones brothers on the railroad south, a plant in which Ben Jones, of Cincinnati, was one of the principals, and another on the. C. H. & D. Railroad near Cackley Swamp, by the Pyro Clay Products Co. The village is now building a city building. J. C. Messner is mayor; D. S. Parry, Jr., clerk, and Eben D. Evans, treasurer of the village.   JACKSON IN 1874   By 1874 there were sixty odd business firms in Jackson in addition to the six furnace companies, the most important of which was the Franklin Mills Company, composed of Sutherland, Davis, Peters and Hunsinger. The plant was established in 1854 as a flour mill but a woolen mill was added about ten years later and the two businesses were conducted together. The woolen factory manufactured jeans, flannels and gowns and carded great quantities of wool for the farmers' wives. In 1874 the establishment employed fifteen persons, The Jackson Foundry & Machine works operated by Benoni Gray and W, T. Washam was another important establishment. The firms 'and individuals engaged in various lines of merchandising were G. H. Rupp, Jacob Steinberger, French and Vandevoort, M. A. Brotheridge, Williams and Waterman, Long and Farrer, Ira and Morris Sternberger, J. F. Cook, J. Wade & Co., Mark Sternberger, John Branson, Charles Carpenter, 41, Frank Motz, 0. S. Miller, William Ryan., S. A. Stevenson & Sons, S. A. Zaneis & Ca., Miss L. D. Jones, Mrs. Mary O. Harra, Bertsch Bros., John Snider, C. Graham, G. W. Miller, W. T. Washam & Co., Mrs. E. Tolley, Mrs. E. Ruf, Nathan Louenstein, D. 'L. Pickrel, Price Brothers, W. F. Hale, J. A. Starkey, R. W. Thomas, Allen & Marshman, Rice & Colvin, C. M. Martin, Dr: B. F. Holcomb, L. B. Gibson, Grant Clothing House with S. Strauss, Jr., as manager. Of the above, Rufus Peters is still in the milling business with the Peters Milling Co., named for him. Miss L. D. Jones who opened her millinery in April, 1872, remained in business until her death in 1914. G. W. Miller was druggist at the stand established by his grandfather, Dr. J. H. C. Miller, and continued by his father, O. C. Miller, since 1854. The firm of S. A. Zaneis & Co. included George Pugh, who in after years was elected treasurer of the county for two terms and is still living. Price Brothers consisted of 'four men, William T., John H., Joshua E. and Ben F. Price. They operated a mine on Horse Creek as well as the store in Jackson. The last two are still living. Dr. W. F. Hale, who was a soldier in the Fifty-third Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, began business in 1869, with a capital of about $230; is still in business on Main _Street. R. W. Thomas, who was a! soldier in the old Fifty-sixth, came to Jackson from Center--611e in Gallia County, and he is now engaged in the same business in the firm of R.: W. Thomas Shoe Company.   502 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   There were two banks in 1874 and the officers of the First National Bank were Horace Lette Chapman, president; Volny H. Benton, cashier, and T. J. Edwards, assistant. The last named was a son of Eben Edwards, the first Jackson Welshman elected to a county office. Other business and professional men were Nelson T. Cavett, who was a saddler ; H. A. Bedel, a jeweler ; Mrs. M. A. DuHadway, milliner ; David Edgar, liveryman ; Chestnut and Woodmansee, clothiers ; Doctors, A. B., W. H. and I. T. Monahan, C. K. Crumitt, William E. Williams; Attorneys, Irvine Dungan, James Tripp, Levi Dungan, J. W. Laird, J. W. Longbon, E. B. Bingham, W. K. Hastings, T. L. Hughes, Jr., the last two partners. H. C. Miller, insurance agent. The last named is still engaged in the same business. Dr. W. H. Monahan remains, and Attorney L. B. Bingham resides in Toledo. David L. Pickrel named   MAIN STREET, JACKSON   above lives retired in Jackson, also Mark Sternberger and T. J. Edwards, H. L. Chapman lives at Columbus, but he still retains the presidency of the First National Bank. John M. Martin, brother of Courtney M. Martin, was postmaster of Jackson. Ira and Morris Sternberger were in business at the corner of Main and Broadway. Dr. W. F. Hale was in the Grattan Block. H. J. Carr living south of town had a fruit tree nursery. B. Kahn, Anson Hanna, William Vaughn, Jacob A. Long and others were offering building lots for sale in new additions to the town. David Armstrong, of Waverly, was elected cashier of the First. National Bank to succeed Volny H. Benton, who resigned on account of failing health, and entered upon his duties November 2, 1874. H. A. Bedel, the jeweler, came from Baltimore in 1874, and began business in a room in the Isham House facing the courthouse.   John Burt sold his hotel in November, 1874, to Sheriff R. W. Hubbard. There was a small furniture factory conducted by John Daubor and brother, and a. planing mill started by Evan M. Thomas, which he named the Jackson Planing Mill. Thomas was born near Oak   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 503   Hill in 1842. He learned the trade of carpenter at Cincinnati. He came to Jackson in 1874. His wife dying, he married Mrs. Eunice Tolley named in the list of milliners. Joseph B.. Watson was the market gardener of the town. He established himself at his garden in Jamestown in 1869 and operated there until a few years before his death which occurred in 1914. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1823, came to Ohio in 1850 and located first at Portsmouth and at Jackson in 1860. He was one of. the independent spirits of Jackson for half a century.   The names of three Monahans appear in the list of doctors, the two brothers, Arthur B. and Isaac T., and William H., son of the first named. At the same time, there was a brother at Wellston and another at Hamden. These brothers were sons of James and Maria A. Monahan, who were natives of Maryland, but they moved in early days to Belmont County and in later life to Jackson County where they died. Dr. Arthur B. Monahan was born in Belmont County, lived in Monroe and Jefferson counties and then in Athens County. He represented that county in the Ohio House, then went into the army, and located in Jackson in 1865. He was elected to the Ohio House from Jackson in 1875 and died in office June 20, 1878. He had two sisters and ten brothers of whom six became physicians. His brother Dr. Isaac T. Monahan moved to Jackson in 1861. Dr. A. B. Monahan was a republican, but Dr. I. T. Monahan was a democrat, and the latter was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1875, at the same election that made his brother representative. Senator Monahan met a tragic death, for he and his wife were passengers on the steamer Golden City which burned to the water's edge March 30, 1882, when nearing the wharf at Memphis. Dr. J. B. Johnson, living in Franklin Township in 1874, was born in Delaware, August 18, 1825, and came to Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1842. Later he settled at Grahamsville in Scioto Township in Jackson County, a hamlet laid out by John Graham, April 12, 1852, with twenty lots. He married Catharine Trexler of an old Jackson County family and soon built up a large practice in the southern part of the county. He removed to Jackson in 1877, where he died.   Thomas L. Hughes, Jr., the youngest attorney, was a son of Thomas L. Hughes, of Oak Hill, and was the first Jackson County man to take a post graduate course, going to Princeton after graduating from an Ohio college. He first entered the legal profession but in a few years became a Presbyterian minister and left Jackson. Levi Dungan, one of the oldest attorneys in 1874, was a native of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where he was born December 28, 1814, a son of Levi Dungan, who was a native of Ireland. He came to Jackson in 1842, where he lived until his tragic death. He held many offices at the hands of his party, prosecuting attorney three terms, mayor. of the town, representative in the Ohio House, elected in 1867. He also served many years as member of the board of education and as teachers' examiner. His home was near the site of Old Diamond and while walking home on a dark night February 10, 1883, he fell over the Diamond Cliff and was instantly killed. He was the father of ten children, four by his first   504 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   wife and six by his second. He was the leader of the democratic party of the county for nearly forty years. George R. Goddard, manager of the Chapman Coal Mine for many years, was born in the county in 1837 and now lives retired on the old Peter Pickrel farm south of Jackson.. R. H. Jones, who was an attorney at Oak Hill in 1874, moved to Jackson in 1883. He was the son of Evan Jones, a native of Wales, and his son was born in Wales, May 26, 1841. The father settled at Oak Hill where Jones learned the saddler trade under Joseph Rule. When. the war came he enlisted in 1861 in the first company, went into Hickenloopers Battery later, and came out of the army a captain in the Fifth United States Colored Troops. He was admitted to the bar in 1872. In 1881 he was elected representative and served two terms. His youngest son, Charles H. Jones, was elected prosecutor in 1912 and is now serving his second term.   EVENTS OF 1873-76   The years of 1873 to 1876 being of such prominence in the history of the county, the following notes deserve preservation. Dr. Joseph Jones began the practice of dentistry at Portland in 1873, Josiah C. Cremens, of Franklin, killed an eagle on his farm which measured seven feet from tip to tip. E. F. Swift shipped great quantities of Jackson Hill coal to Scioto County fire brick companies.   ISAAC ROBERTS   Hon. Isaac Roberts died at the home of his son-in-law, January 18, 1873. He was the first attorney to die within the limits of the county since its organization. His pallbearers were Judge Hastings, James Tripp, Levi Dungan, Porter Hadway, J. W. Laird, Davis Mackley, Irvine Mangan and John L. Jones. He was born in Ross County, September 3, 1804, 6, son of Capt. William Roberts, who served in the Virginia line in the Revolution. He moved to Jackson County in 1854. He was elected prosecutor two years later and served one term. In 1861 he was elected the first representative of Jackson County as a single legislative district and served one term. Notwithstanding his years, he served in two military organizations in the war, the Eighteenth and Fifty-third regiments.   SCHOOLS AND RAILROAD   There were 459 pupils enrolled in the Jackson Union Schools in 1873. There were over 700 cases of measles in the county in 1873. The charter of the Jackson & Pigeon Railroad Company with a capital stock of $100,000 was recorded. It was intended to build a railroad from Jackson to Byer but the project died. Later railroad communication was established by means of the Horse Creek branch of the Ohio Southern and the C. H. &. D. from Coalton to Byer. The officers of the company   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 505   were : H. L. Chapman, president ; Isaac Brown, secretary ; T. P. Sutherland, treasurer and the same, and James Clement, J. H. Bunn, James Tripp, Levi Dungan, directors. William Andrews was killed by the cars at Oak Hill.   The boilers of Orange Furnace exploded March 9, 1873, entailing a loss of $2,000. Frank Rush was seriously injured.   The shade trees now standing in the Public Square were set out in April, 1873. A prehistoric relic was found four feet deep in the sand rock by men blasting for the grading of the Public Square, April 24, 1870. It was seven inches long in the shape of a pick with a clean cut hole one-half inch in diameter through the middle as if for the handle. It had a bluish slate color. It was given to Capt. Lewis Davis.   NEW CHURCHES   The Catholic Church of Jackson was built, the foundation being laid in May, 1873. The German Evangelical denomination bought a lot on Pearl Street from A. Osborn in June, 1873, to build a church which is still used. H. S. Bundy and his son-in-law, Ben F. Stearns, bought 720 shares of Keystone Furnace for $72,000. The furnace owned 6,766 'acres of land. The New Methodist Episcopal Church at- Petrea was dedicated June 22, 1873. The building committee were Lorenzo D. Livly, Allison Brown and James F. Rice. T. P. Sutherland began building his residence on South Street in June, 1873. The well at the corner of the Public Square was sunk in July, 1873.   George Reiniger was appointed postmaster at Samsonville. He has since been elected treasurer of the county, auditor and commissioner, the office which he is now holding. Mrs.. Electa Erwin, a daughter of S. W. Spencer, who was postmaster at Berlin, at his death was appointed to succeed him. Moses J. Morgan was elected superintendent .of the Jackson schools succeeding James Yarnell. Morgan was the son of David J. Morgan, of Jefferson Township. He was a candidate for auditor in 1873, but was defeated. He died in 1874. The Triumph Furnace Company got their shaft down to the coal in June, 1873, and were disappointed in the quality with the result that the projected furnace was abandoned. George Radabaugh died August 2, 1873, at his home in Madison Township. He was born in Virginia in May, 1788, and came to Ohio in 1812 and settled east of Portland where he died. His family was very large. Peter Keller, one of the oldest German pioneers, died in Scioto Township, March 3, 1873, in his eighty-second year. The lightning struck the iron rod supporting the Fish on the Jackson school building, Monday, September 10, 1873. The First National Bank increased its capital stock to $100,000 in October, 1873, and the new stockholders were H. S. Bundy, John Sanders, A. B. Monahan, T. S. Matthews, W. T. Washam, T. M. Jones, C. F. Bertsch, William Jackson, H. F. Austin, John Stanton, William Stanton, John Bennett, Moses. Sternberger, T. J. Edwards and Dan D. Morgan.   506 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   TRIUMPH FURNACE DISCONTINUES   The Triumph Furnace .Company disbanded about November 1, 1873, and sold the machinery to Huron. James Sherrick, of Liberty, killed his neighbor Levi Straus, November 4, 1873. They quarrelled about some potatoes. Mrs. Anna Tilton, a widow living a mile east of Jackson, shot a boy named William Franklin Johnson, aged ten years, Monday morning, November 24, 1873, as he was returning from school with some little mates along a path through her land. She was a daughter of Henry McArmick one of the pioneers. Her trial began March 9, 1874, and lasted seven days. She was found guilty of manslaughter and given a sentence of three years. Dr. 0. C. Miller, who was born at Richfield in Summit County, Ohio, June 28, 1822, died in January, 1874. His funeral was the largest in the history of Jackson up to that date. Rev. J. H. Acton preached the sermon. Mrs. William J. Kirkendall was appointed postmistress at Dawkins Mills in February, 1874. A great revival occurred in the month of 1873-74 and more than 300 persons united with the Presbyterian or Methodist churches, including such men as John M. Martin, Mayor J. W. Laird, Auditor J. R. Booth, Asa A. Farrar, George W. Johnson, Hillborn C. Miller, Elihu Johnson, David D. Dungan, Irvine Dungan, W. T. Washam, John D. Mitchell, Dr. C. K. Crumit and many other leading citizens.   JOHN M. JONES   John M. Jones died April 11, 1874. He was a stock holder in Tropic and Star furnaces and the National Bank and had been sheriff one term during the war. He was a son of Thomas Jones, North, and was about forty years old. Orange Furnace laid off the field west of Portsmouth Street in Jackson in town lots in April, 1874. Pleasant Valley Church on the Chillicothe Road was dedicated Monday, May 10, 1874, by the Baptists. Jackson's new steam fire engine costing $5,600 arrived in April, 1874, and was tested April 23. John Mossberger died May 22, 1874, at the home of Samuel Mossberger in Madison Township, aged about 109 years. He was the oldest man in the history of the county. He had been a soldier in the War of 1812 and had lived in Jackson County territory for more than sixty years. Dr. Thomas R. Clewers died June 12, 1874. He was born in England, September 23, 1800, came to this country in 1828 and located at Oak Hill in 1835. Ten years later he came to Jackson where he died. Ezekial Masters, a soldier of the War of 1812, died in Franklin Township in June, 1874, aged ninety years. Capt. John Bennett died. August 2, 1874, in his eighty-fourth year. He was born in Virginia and came to Jackson in 1809, where he found work as a salt boiler. He married Anna Stockham, January 17, 1817. He was the, father of nine children who grew to maturity and he was a soldier in. the War of 1812. Polly Seel, wife of Peter Seel, died in August, 1874, aged eighty-seven years. She was one of the first white women to settle in what is now Jefferson Township, coming there   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 507   in 1814. Her maiden name was Polly Sly.. All through the year 1874 public readings were held at the courthouse and on Friday night, December 11, the readers were George W. Miller, Miss Frank Hanna, John C. Stevenson, C. A. Atkinson, Irvine Dungan and Moses J. Morgan. The readers December 18th were James Tripp, J. W. Laird, Emma Miller, J. L. Jones and Rev. J. K. Gibson. These readings were social events as well as literary and promoted the community idea. They might be established in all rural communities today with profit. Mrs. Sarah YrDarling died November 20, 1874, aged sixty-seven years. She was born in Virginia and came to Jackson County in 1817. Her funeral was held at the Washington meeting house in what is now Coalton. John Burt bought the Isham House in December, 1874, of Dr. I. T. Monahan, paying for it the sum of $15,000. The hotel passed through various hands until it was bought by Edwin Jones and razed to the ground together with one room of the Commercial Block, which had belonged to the heirs of David D. Dungan to make way for the modern structure, the Cambrian built by him in 1900. Many famous men were guests at the. Isham at one time or another and not the least notable were Gen. John Morgan and Bill Nye.   LEWIS DAVIS   Lewis Davis, who was one of the six men heads of families who established the first Welsh colony in this county, died January 28, 1875, aged eighty-eight years. George W. Johnson, who had been Probate judge of the county, died March 31, 1875. He was a son of Hon. Elihu Johnson and was born August 7, 1835. He served a short term in the army, had been mayor of Jackson and held many other minor positions.   The. Welsh class meeting was still an important religious service, and Davis Mackley who attended such a service at Oak Hill, April 9, 1875, wrote thus : "I heard the fine toned bell of the new church, (built in 1874) and hastened down to the village and went to Church. They held Class meeting which lasted an hour and a half. There were some 25 male children and each repeated a verse in the Welsh language. I concluded that the Welsh language will be used for a hundred years to come. This new Welsh Church is decidedly the finest and most costly church in Jackson county."   The old town house in Jackson, at the corner of Main and Church streets, formerly the residence of Judge Westfall, was removed by John Burt in April, 1875.   FOUR JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP PATRIARCHS   Four men Azariah Arthur, John Johnson, John Shoemaker and Joseph Phillips were living in Jefferson Township, May 1, 1875, who had been voters in the township for half a century. Randall Russell, born in North Carolina, October 15, 1796, came with his parents to Bloomfield Township in this county in 1806 and died March 30, 1875,   308 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION       aged seventy-eight years. Dr. Timothy Marvin, born January 6, 1812, who came with his parents to Bloomfield. Township in 1819, died May 5, 1875. He read medicine under Dr. Gabriel McNeal of Jefferson, who was a preacher too. A. S. Kyle and his son, J. C. Kyle, of Youngstown, came to Jackson in 1875 and began sinking a slope to the coal at a depth of fifty feet in the field west of Bennetts Grove. The slope was 160 feet long. George Pore, born December 18, 1802, in Gallia County, died January 11, 1875, at his home near Winchester in Bloomfield Township. His funeral was the largest ever held in the county up to that time, more than 2,000 people attending. Rev. Abraham Cartlich preached the sermon. W. C. Gould, of Washington Court House, bought one-half interest in the Herald and moved his family to. Jackson in July, 1875. Under his. management the paper showed great improvement.   MURDER TRIAL IN 1875   Benjamin Fagan was killed by George W. Partlow, May 3, 1868, but his trial did not occur until November, 1875. The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter. It was shown that one of the jurors took out his Copy of the Standard about 2 in the morning while the jury was deliberating and read the evidence as reported in it. Before that the jury had stood three for acquittal and after that they agreed to convict. Partlow was granted a new trial on that account, the court holding that here had been misconduct on the part of the jurors. A new jury was empanelled November 11th, and Partlow was found guilty. He was sentenced to one year in the penitentiary.   An epidemic of small pox broke out in. Jackson the last of November, 1875, at the home of David Jones, near the Valley House. Charles Jones was the first to die, a boy of seventeen years. Moses J. Morgan,- superintendent of the Jackson schools died after a few months illness at the home of his father, David J. Morgan, of Jefferson, November 23, 1875. The high water in Salt Creek, December 27, 1875, caused Tropic mine to cave in, in one place, but the mine was not damaged. Dan W. Hoffman died at Circleville, December 31, 1875.   S. P. Baldridge, a former resident of Adams County, succeeded John M. 'Martin as postmaster January 10, 1876. He was a soldier in the Ninety-first Regiment in the war and settled at Jackson after the surrender. Nicholas Bishop of Bloomfield Township was killed by lightning January 20, 1876, under a tree near Keystone Furnace.   WELL KNOWN CLERGYMAN DIES   Rev. Robert Williams died at his home. near Moriah Church in Madison Township, October 10, 1876, aged seventy-five years. He was born in Anglesey, in North Wales, became .a minister of the Calvinistic Methodists and immigrated to this counry in 1836, where he remained until his death. His coming caused hundreds of Welsh families to settle in Jackson and Gallia counties because his residing at Moriah insured   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 509   the holding of services in their own language on Sundays. His long Service, ability and personal influence made him the father of the settlement and one of the notable men in the history of the county. His funeral was the largest in the history of the county up to that date, for all Welshmen who could attend were present at Moriah, October 12, 1876, and hundreds of English speaking friends attended also, making altogether more than 3,000 people. All the ether Welsh ministers in the county were present, viz., Rev. John W. Evans, Evan S. Jones, John Rogers, Edward R. Jones, John. M. Jones and Rev. David J. Jenkins, who had charge of the services, also some Welsh ministers from other counties. He left a wife and two daughters to mourn, the youngest of whom, Mrs. George E. Morgan, now lives in Jackson. Other Welsh ministers born in Jackson County who moved elsewhere or were ordained later than 1876 were Rev. John. P. Morgan, who died in. Van Wert County, Ohio ; Rev. Daniel Thomas, who died in Wisconsin ; Rev. Daniel Jewett Davis, Rev. David Thomas, Rev Benjamin F. Thomas. These ministers traveled the circuit of Welsh churches in the two counties in turn and at one time there were seven eight ministers on the circuit at the same time, so that they came around once a month and preached at two churches each day.. That was before any church elected a pastor.   JUDGE WILLIAM SALTER   Judge William Salter died at Portsmouth, October 6, 1876, aged ninety years. He was born in Pennsylvania and located at the Scioto Licks, at. Jackson, in 1805, when he became a salt boiler. Of the men who worked with him one or two summers were Duncan McArthur and Joseph Vance, both of whom became governors of Ohio. He left Jackson in 1809 and went to the Kanawka Salt Works. In the summer of 1850 he was struck by lightning and rendered unconscious. A physician summoned declared him dead, but he revived. The only after effects were the turning of his hair white as snow.   ACCIDENTS   Abraham Johnson, one of the commissioners of Jackson County, was killed by the falling of a derrick at the building of Hollingshead Bridge in Milton Township, October 19, 1876. He was serving his first term .and his home was in Washington Township. John S. McGhee of Wellston, a republican, was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by his death. Ex-Judge W. K. Hastings, who went to the centennial at Philadelphia with a party of fifteen Jackson people, committed suicide October 27, 1876, on League Island by shooting himself in the forehead. His friend, Dr. A. B. Monahan, brought his body back to Jackson for interment. He had been highly honored by his county. Mental derangement caused his act. Charles A. Atkinson, W. C. Evans, Leander French and George W. Miller were of his party.   The boiler of a portable sawmill belonging to Benjamin Jones ex-   510 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   ploded December 6, 1876, on the land of John Phillips, south of Oak Hill, killing Amos Marsh, a soldier of the Civil war ; his son, William Marsh, and Daniel C. Jones, and injuring several others, but not fatally. The latter was a brother of Evan C. Jones, county surveyor. Evan Evans, one of the six Welsh pioneers who emigrated to this county in the year 1818, died October 23, 1876, aged eighty-two years. His wife was Susannah Jones and they were married in Wales in 1813.   FIRST SPIKE OF THE OHIO SOUTHERN   The first spike in the Narrow Gauge Railroad, afterward known as the Ohio Southern, was driven by James Emmett near Tropic Furnace, December 7, 1876. A cold wind was blowing, but many were present, including all the school children with their teachers. Moses Sternberger was president of the meeting. Addresses were made by Dr. I. T. Monahan, James Emmett and Hon. John H. Thomas of Springfield.   DROUGHTS AND FLOODS   The year 1874 was very dry in Jackson County and the (drought attracted general attention. Oddly enough, there had been similar droughts in 1834 and in 1854. In the fall of 1854 there were many forest fires. A pioneer wrote of that drought as follows : "Then a large portion of Jackson county was woods and after the leaves fell they were so dry that fires swept all over the county. There were many days, perhaps weeks, that the weather was clear and still and the air was so full of smoke that one could look at the sun at noonday with the naked eye. Long before the sun would set it would be entirely hidden. It would be late in the forenoon before the sun could be seen, first appearing as a great lump of blood. The fall of 1834 was remarkable for a large crop of mast or nuts. I gathered many bushels of hickory nuts on the creek bottoms below where Cambria Furnace is now located. Wild pigeons were so abundant, eating acorns that they could be numbered by millions. Morning and evening they would pass to and from their roost, passing like clouds and taking several hours to pass over a given point. They would, late in the fall, after most of the acorns had fallen, settle on the ground to feed. When they became frightened they would arise at once, causing a roaring which sounded almost exactly like thunder." The droughts of 1834 and 1854 were followed by very rainy years.   WILD PIGEONS   Pigeons were numerous in this county until 1861, when the last large flight attracted attention. They had three very large roosts in the county, one on an east branch of Salt Creek and one on the largest western branch in this county. These roosts were in existence when the county was surveyed more than a century ago, and the two   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 511   creeks upon whose headwaters they were located were named Pigeon Creek by the surveyors, one in Coal Township and one in Liberty. Oddly enough, the crows began to multiply in this county in the '90s and they established a roost on the land of Charles W. Harlett in South Wellston on the ridge separating the waters of Little Raccoon and Pigeon Creek and today fully a quarter of a million of crows roost there every night during the winters. The roost is resorted to from the last of July until about the middle of March, when pairing begins in earnest. These crows divide into ten or fifteen large divisions which forage in different directions, going 70 to 120 miles away during the day. The division that passes over Jackson begins to return toward the roost about 3:30 P. M., and thousands upon thousands pass over in about half an hour from the direction of the Scioto Valley. Men and boys have visited the roost at night and killed birds until they were tired. but up to this year they seem to increase and nothing seems to frighten them. The chances are that disease may attack them and destroy this army of crows as it did the -hosts of wild pigeons of this region in the '60s. The crows serve a useful purpose in destroying the young rabbits, which are becoming a pest in Southern Ohio, but at the same time they are a pest in that they destroy the nests of all other birds, eating both • eggs and young, causing a great diminution in the number of useful and song birds. It has been observed also that the birds of Jackson County seem to be abandoning the woods and fields on account of the crows and are flocking to the vicinity of the farmsteads and into the towns themselves. This change of habitat has led to another change for finding an abundance of food near the farmsteads, and many birds that once migrated now remain in the county all winter, especially bluebirds, robins, wood wrens and ground robins. Hundreds of robins roosted in the gorges of Salt Creek, Rock Run 'and Pigeon Creek all through the winter of 1914-15.   CHAPTER XI   LITERARY AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS   THE STANDARD AND STANDARD JOURNAL--GEORGE D. HEBARD-JACKSON SUN-JACKSON UNION-WELLSTON TELEGRAM AND SENTINEL-OAK HILL PRESS-MISCELLANEOUS LITERARY WORK—HISTORY OF COAL DEVELOPMENTS-INDUSTRIAL USE-VALUE FOR SMELTING PURPOSES- GROWTH OF SHIPPING BUSINESS-SPRINGFIELD, JACKSON AND POMEROY RAILROAD-BECOMES DAYTON, TOLEDO AND IRONTON LINE-LARGEST COAL EXPORTER IN STATE-EXHAUSTION OF MANY COAL MINES-STATE INSPECTORS-ACCIDENTS UNDER OLD-TIME CONDITIONS.   The Standard, and its successor, the Standard Journal, have played an important part in the history of the county, and the following outline of their history belongs here: The Standard was established by Col. James Hughes, who came to Jackson from Virginia in the. early '30s. He earned his title of colonel in a regiment of Ohio militia organized in the county about 1836, which he commanded for about six years. He was a large fleshy man and presented a fair; appearance on horseback. He was popular in the county for he was elected to a number of offices, such as prosecutor, representative. and :minor places. Among other things he was a teachers' examiner, And next to J. W. Longbon he was the most active worker in behalf of schools and education in the history of the county. He married Elizabeth, a sister of Prof. W. W. Mather, a New, England girl who had come to Ohio to visit her brother and sister, Mrs. David C. Bolles. His house stood on Main Street almost opposite the residence of Dr. W. E. Williams, deceased, which was bought by the Elks for their home in February, 1915. Hughes' venture in the newspaper business came about as follows: Two young men, named Charles W. Hoy and George D. Hebard, had established a paper in Jackson in the spring of 1846 which they named the Aurora. It was printed in the office of the Auditor and became a democratic organ.   GEORGE D. HEBARD   George D. Hebard was born at Athens, Ohio, April 20, 1827, and learned the printing business at. Gallipolis under William Nash. He was only nineteen years old when he came to Jackson to assist Hoy. The earliest issues were independent, but as the campaign of 1846   - 512 -   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 513   progressed, Hoy began to lean toward the democrats, and when William Bebb, the whig candidate for governor, came to Jackson and spoke a few words in Welsh the Aurora came out with some alleged funny criticism, which launched the paper in the democratic party. It languished from that day and Hebard left. He spent the rest of his life in newspaper work and died at Gallipolis. Hoy finding that there was no demand for a democratic paper arranged a deal with Col. James Hughes, and on February 20, 1847, he sold his press and appurtenances to Hughes for the east half of the southeast quarter of section 2, township 8, range 18, containing eighty acres. Hughes took charge of the office in March, and on March 25, 1847, he issued the first number of the ,Standard. Hoy moved to Virginia in later years. His son, Dr. .W. S. Hoy, who came to Jackson County some years ago, was elected t6 the Ohio House as a republican in 1914. Hughes was a whig and he was the first man to hoist the name of Zachary Taylor as a candidate for President in 1848. Hughes left the county in 1849 and moved to Wisconsin. He returned to Jackson on a visit in 1862, when the Fifty-third Regiment was in camp near Diamond Furnace, and made a speech to the soldiers at a big dinner given them. He died in Wisconsin in January, 1874. J. W. Laird succeeded Hughes as editor of the Standard, and in turn he was succeeded by Thomas R. Matthews. He moved from Vinton, in Gallia County, to Bloomfield Township in 1845 and established -a tannery near the farm of George Poor the pioneer south of Winchester, but in 1852 he moved to Jackson and bought an interest in the Standard. Laird and Matthews conducted the paper together until October 27, 1853, when Matthews became the sole proprietor. Laird had been connected with the paper when it was owned by James Hughes and he spoke of his seven years' connection in his valedictory. Matthews began to publish some local ,news. He was soon assisted in the printing office by members of his family. There were nine children in the family, of whom Lavinia was the oldest. She married Capt. Frank Washburn of Gallia County and died in Cincinnati. The second Child. was John, who became a soldier in the Fifty-third and located at Portsmouth after the war. The other children were : Ione, who married John L. Jones ; George, who served in the war ; Anselm H., who at sixteen went into the army and now lives in Jackson ; Esther, Mary and Lydia, who are living at Portsmouth, and Grace, who introduced kindergarten teaching in Jackson. In 1854 J. M. Laird, a brother of J. W. Laird, became associated with Matthews in the management of .the Standard. He was a practical printer. Later he went to Portsmouth, where he died.   During the campaign in 1856 Davis Mackley, the prosecuting attorney, contributed a number of articles to the Standard, and in the spring of 1857 Matthews proposed to him to become the editor of the paper and Mackley consented. He continued as editor for several months until Matthews sold out to George W. Miller and John Q. Gibson, doing the work gratuitously. He continued as editor under Miller for a short time, but' they disagreed as to the possession of the exchanges   Vol. I— 33   514 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   and Mackley retired. Later Mackley returned to the paper as editor for $10 a week. Later, in, 1858, Miller and Gibson sold theB paper to Dr. J. H. C. Miller, who edited it one week and sold it to W. E. R The latter sold the paper to James .Tripp and W. E. Burke and F. M. Keith became the nominal editor in 1860. Later in that year Tripp solf his interest to Burke and the name of the latter appeared editor, but Mackley was employed to do all the writing. In February as 1861, James Tripp and Davis Mackley bought .the paper and Mackley became the editor in complete charge for the first time February 9,   DANIEL W. WILLIAMS   1861. James Tripp sold his interest to Mackley July  18, 1863, the day after the Morgan raid, and the latter became the sole owner as well as editor until his death in 1887. John H. Mackley succeeded to the editorship until the paper was sold to R. N. Wilson, who was in editorial charge for a brief period.   The paper then passed into the hands of the Standard-Journal Company, and the first issue of the Standard-Journal appeared August 1, 1888, with James M. Lively as editor. Lively sold a part of his interest to Daniel W. Williams in July, 1889, and the latter has edited the paper since, with the exception of a period from March, 1905, to ,June, 1907, when Thomas C. Gerken, his associate, served as editor as well as manager. Matthews, who, next to Mackley, was connected   ROCK IRON REGION - 515   longest with the Standard up to 1889 was appointed the first postmaster of Jackson in 1861 under Abraham Lincoln and the republican party. He resigned in April, 1868. His daughter, Miss Ione Matthews, who had been performing the duties of his office since his health began to fail, applied for the position and was forthwith appointed. She thus became the first woman postmaster of Jackson and held the office until her marriage to John L. Jones, who was prosecutor of the county for a number of years and also mayor of Jackson. He was a veteran of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was one of the most courageous men that ever carried a musket. In addition to the editors enumerated John J. Hoffman, William M. Bolles and Stephen P. Drake occupied the editorial chair for short periods. On April 3, 1862, Hon. Thomas Lloyd Hughes began to conduct a department in the paper on the fourth or last page. This led many Welshmen to subscribe for the paper. They were all readers, and from that date the paper became a financial success. J. W. Longbon conducted an educational column at several different periods. Many others have contributed to its columns, among them Emerson McMillen, Horace L. Chapman, Hillborn C. Miller, William R. Evans, Moses Morgan, Michael McCoy and practically every other Jackson County man who could wield a pen has written to it at some time or other. Capt. William J. Evans was a news correspondent from Oak Hill for more than thirty years. Thomas R. Matthews introduced the fashion of describing his walks in the country. Davis Mackley continued it, and the feature is one of the most widely read today. The connection of so many men with this paper has made it one of the most important institutions in the life of the county for nearly seventy years.   JACKSON SUN   John J. Mackley, son of David Mackley, established the Jackson Sun in 1889, and it has had for its editors a number of young men. S.. D. Mackley, Thomas E. Moore, W. T. Morgan, J. N. Davis and Daniel kknownis have been the best knoWn, but many others have written for it. S. D. Mackley, the first editor, was a grandson of Davis Mackley, and died in his young manhood. Thomas Emmett Moore, who was editor for a number of years, was the oldest *son of John T. Moore. He was admitted to the bar but he preferred journalism, and when he left the Sun he went to Wellston, where he edited the Sentinel for several years. About 1914 he went to Dayton, where he is editing one of the leading dailies. W. T. Morgan was the son of Thomas Morgan of Jefferson Township, who emigrated from Wales in 1838 with his parents, Moses and Elizabeth E. Morgan. They settled on Hewitt's Fork in 1839. They were the parents of nine children. Thomas Morgan became a stone mason and helped to build four or five furnaces. He married Mary Williams and became the parent of eight children, of whom Stephen, the oldest son, was elected to Congress for three terms from the Tenth District of Ohio. William T. was the sixth child. He   516 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   was his brother's private secretary while he was in Congress, and he died in 1906.. Dan T. Davis, the present editor of the Sun, is a son of David J. B. Davis of Hewitt's Fork. The paper is owned by a stock company of which E. E. Eubanks is president.   JACKSON UNION   The third paper, established in Jackson in 1848, was named the Union. The owners were Martin Owens and Jacob Westfall, two democratic leaders, and it was made the organ of the party in the county, but Jackson was too small for two papers and in about two years the Union was discontinued. Six years later the democrats determined to make a third venture in the newspaper business and the Iron Valley Express was founded. John Sanders was at the head of the movement. He was a native of North Carolina and his maternal grandfather, Major Laningham, was killed at the battle of Guilford Courthouse in the revolution. He came to Ohio in 1823, and in 1840 he settled in Jackson County. He lived for twenty-five years on a farm in Flanklin and eight years on a farm in Lick and moved' to Jackson in 1872. His only daughter, Rebecca, became the wife of Capt. Lewis Davis, who helped so much in .the development of Jackson. The company employed a Mr. Turner to edit the Iron Valley Express, but he was succeeded by John C. Stevenson and J. W. Bowen in turn. In 1863 the printing office was destroyed by Union soldiers in retaliation for the destruction of the Standard office by Morgan's soldiers. The paper resumed publication in a few weeks under various editors until Smith Townsley bought it in 1868. In 1875 W. C. Gould came to Jackson from Washington Court House and bought a half interest in it, and in 1879 the other half. Seven years later S. V. Hinkle and J. W. Johnson bought the paper and conducted it until the latter moved to Waverly. Hinkle sold it to James D. Witman and the latter sold it to Carl Johnson and E. G. Chapman in 1914. Johnson was a son of J. W. Johnson, the former owner. It is now a prosperous paper.   The opposition to Davis Mackley in his own party led to the establishment of the Journal, July 5, 1882, by J. M. Tripp and John L. Davis. Tripp sold his interest to T. C. Gerkin of Marietta, an experienced printer, in August, 1883. He took charge of the business and mechanical end of the business and Davis continued as editor. ^Later J. M. Downey served as editor. In 1888 the Standard-Journal Company .was organized and the Standard and Journal were combined as the Standard-Journal. T. C. Gerkin was continued as business manager and retained that position until June, 1907, when he sold a part of his interest to Dan W. Williams and engaged in farming in Jefferson Township.   WELLSTON TELEGRAM AND SENTINEL   With the growth. of Wellston there came a demand for a local paper, and the Argus was established in the spring of 1883 by Messrs.   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 517   Smallwood and Cameron. A few years later Ben Griffith established the Gazette at Coalton between Jackson and Wellston. His effort did not meet 'with much success, but when H. V. Speelman established the Coalton Republican conditions had improved. In a few years he moved his paper to Wellston, where it prospered, and under another name, The Telegram, it survives and is a flourishing weekly. The Argus passed through various hands, and finally became the Sentinel. This paper has a daily and a weekly edition. It was the organ of the republican organization in the county, of which 0. B. Gould was the recognized head until he moved to Williamson, West Virginia. Thomas Emmett. Moore was its editor for several years, but many other writers have been connected with it.   THE TRANSCRIPT   A third paper, known as the Transcript, was established at Wellston as a democratic organ of the Wellston wing of the party in the county, with W. J. Huske as editor. Its existence ended soon after Huske received an appointment in one of the departments at the state capital under Gov. James Cox.   OAK HILL PRESS   A weekly paper was established at Oak Hill by a company, and later another paper was started by Rev. G. James Jones, after a short ownership of the controlling interest in the Jackson Sun. Eventually Jones secured the field to himself and changed the name of the paper to the Oak Hill Press. It is now a flourishing weekly, edited by Mr. Funk, who came to Oak Hill from Scioto County. A second paper was, published for a little while at Byer by C. Percy Rhodes, a grandson of Davis Mackley, but he soon left the county and the paper was discontinued. Thomas Emmett Moore, who has been connected with two Jackson County papers, is also an author and has published two novels.   MISCELLANEOUS LITERARY WORK   The first historical notes about Jackson County were written by George L. Crookham, but they were burned when his schoolhouse was burned in the early '40s. T. J. Williams, of. the Fifty-sixth Regiment, published a history of his regiment, much of which had been printed in the Standard-Journal. The history of the Salt Licks was published by Dan W. Williams in 1900. Historical notes have been written and published by Davis Mackley and H. C. Miller, but they have never been collected in book form.   HISTORY OF COAL DEVELOPMENTS   The existence of large deposits of coal in Jackson County was known from the earliest days because several of the hill veins had been exposed   518 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   under rock shelves by erosion. The most notable instance was in the southern part of Madison Township, on the land now owned by John D. Jones, where a vein was exposed to its full height under an overhanging rock for fully 100 feet. There were many similar exposures on a smaller scale. In addition to these there were scores of exposures in hillside, gully or slip and in one or two places in the great buffalo trails. The existence of lower veins was discovered in 1799, when the salt boilers found the mud wells of the Indians insufficient for their use and began to sink wells to the stratum of conglomerate underneath Salt Creek Valley. Reference is made to such 'coal deposits in the first statute relating to the Licks enacted in 1803. There is a tradition that one of the first salt furnaces on Sugar Run was built in part with blocks of coal, and its owner discovered the nature of the mineral soon after he kindled a fire under his kettles.   The name of the first blacksmith at the Scioto Licks has been lost, but David Mitchell had built his shop before 1808, and he was the first man to use Jackson County coal, whose name has survived. The coal used by him was discovered in a gully near what is now known as Chapman. A few years later. Dr. Gabriel McNeal used coal in his smithy on his farm in Jefferson, which was found in a gully in the woods not far from his house. As early as 1820 coal from small mines near Buffalo Skull was hauled to the blacksmiths of Ross County, and in 1823 a vein of coal was stripped on the George W. Riegel Farm in the southern part of the county, and some of this coal was hauled later. into Pike and Scioto counties for the use of blacksmiths. By the year 1832, when W. Williams Mather and his assistants began their geological investigations, there were 100 or more coal openings in the county, the majority of which were in the Jackson Hill vein, but several other veins had been touched, especially the lime stone veins, which had been found by ore diggers supplying Jackson Furnace, built in 1836. Some of these mines, or rather benches, were dignified with names ; that of Charles McKinniss was what is now known as Coalton, having received the name of Congress Bank. The James Howe Mine in 'Liberty is mentioned in deeds, and it led to the settlement of W. W. Mather and Rev. David C. Bolles on farms on Salt Creek below Strong's Mill. Bolles became the owner of the first mine opened by James Howe. This was operated by successive owners of the farm until the present day and there is still an acre or two of the coal which has not been mined on account of the improper methods used. Bolles died on his farm in 1840.   Before this date the Jackson 'shaft coal had been re-discovered by Rev. Joseph Powell, who had employed two men to dig a well on his lot near the site of the Crescent Theater on Main Street in Jackson. About twenty-four years later the mine which led to the building of Orange Furnace was sunk only a few hundred feet west of this Powell well.   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 519   INDUSTRIAL USE   But it remained for James L. Rice to make the first practical use of this shaft coal. As early as 1859 he sunk a well on lot 49, on Main Street in Jackson, and found the shaft coal. From this well he raised about a peck of coal and took it to the shop of William Gilliland to be tested. The test was satisfactory and Rice induced the owners of the flour mill, later known as the Eagle Mill, to sink a shaft to this coal instead of hauling their fuel from the hill mines several miles away, which were almost inaccessible in winter on account of the bad roads. Some of the machinery for this mill had been formerly in the Strong Mill on Salt Creek at what is now Brirlytown. That old mill passed in time into the hands of Andrew Crooks, and when the Davis Mill in Jackson burned down Andrew Crooks moved his machinery to Jackson and located his mill on Water Street at the corner of Locust.• It was run by steam, but the expense of procuring the fuel led the firm, then consisting of Andrew Crooks and James Linn, to listen to Rice's representations, and in July, 1861, he bored a hole on this lot and struck the coal. A force of men was employed at once to sink a shaft, and before August 18, 1861, they found the vein at a depth of only thirty-one feet. It was fifty-one inches thick and the coal was of a superior quality. The hill coal was discarded at once and Crooks and Linn thus became the first users of Jackson shaft coal in August, 1861. In a month or two James H. Linn concluded to sell the coal for domestic use, and the price at the beginning was only 31/2 cents a bushel. Such was the humble beginning of the coal industry in Jackson County. The mine was worked by Linn for a year or two when there occurred ea gas explosion in it. John Hall came very near losing his life, and the tipple was unroofed by the force of the explosion. This new peril hitherto unknown in this county led to the abandonment of the first Jackson County shaft.   VALUE FOR SMELTING PURPOSES   The value of this Jackson coal for smelting purposes was first appreciated by the projectors of Orange Furnace, and James L. Rice began sinking a shaft for them in November, 1863. This was the second shaft sunk into this coal. The third was what became afterward the Star Furnace Mine, which was started in 1863 by John M. Jones, 'Thomas M. Jones and Alanson Robbins. After operating it a while they sold it to the Star Furnace Company. The use of coal for smelting iron was not an experiment when Star Furnace was built, for stone coal had been used for more than ten years for that purpose in the Hanging Rock Region. As early as 1854 several carloads of Jackson coal had been taken to Washington Furnace in Lawrence County to be tested and it had been found satisfactory. Both Salt Lick and Orange Furnace had also given it a thorough trial and Young America Furnace had tested the hill coal in 1857. About this time local iron men began   520 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   to suspect that there was a difference between the Jackson Hill coal and the Jackson shaft coal. It was found also by boring that the shaft coal deposit was richest in and near the Town of Jackson. Nearly all the earliest mines were sunk within the corporate limits of the town where the coal was found from 40 to 90 feet below the surface. They were the Crooks &Linn,, Orange, Star, Fulton, Tropic, Huron and Eureka shafts. H. F. Austin and H. S. Bundy and others had found coal at the site of Wellston. For several years it was presumed that this also was the Jackson shaft coal, but by 1877 it was conclusively demonstrated that it was a different coal.   Later investigation has revealed the fact that eleven different coal seams may be found in Jackson, named in order from below as follows; No. 1, Sharon Jackson shaft coal, 2 ; No. 2, Wellston ; No. 3, Lower Mercer ; No. 4, Upper Mercer ; No. 5 ; No. 6, Brookville ; No. 7, Upper Clarion.; No. 8, Tower Kitanning; No. 9, Middle Kitanning; No. 10, Lower Freeport ; No. 11, Upper Freeport. The first two named are the coals that have made Jackson County famous,. and it was their development that led to the rapid increase in population and business in the coal era of Jackson County. No. 1, or the Jackson shaft coal, which has now been practically all mined out near Jackson, rests upon the conglomerate rocks, but there is another vein of conglomerate above it. It lies about 75 to 100 feet below the Wellston coal and it extended through the townships of Coal Lick, Liberty, Scioto and Hamilton for a distance of about sixteen miles and varying in width from one-half to five miles. Its floor is very irregular and it is often cut out by sandrock. This made systematic mining impossible, and many of the efforts to locate this coal proved very expensive, in some instances bankrupting the prospectors. This coal asS proven very satisfactory as a furnace coal, but it contains such a large percent of ash that there never was much of a demand for it for shipping purposes. The Wellston coal, however, has such a small percent of ash that it sprang into prominence at once as a shipping coal, the only drawback being its softness, resulting in too much shattering. This coal appeared in the hills around Jackson, but the vein is thin, falling to two feet in places. It grows thicker as it proceeds northeast, reaching three feet at Coalton and four feet at Wellston. The mines in the Jackson District of this No. 2 seam are all drifts, openings entering the hills almost horizontally, but slopes become more common as Coalton is approached, and shafts have to be sunk to the east of that point after the first mile is passed.   GROWTH OF SHIPPING BUSINESS   All the earliest coal mines were opened with the view of using the product in iron making, near the mine, for it was useless to enter the shipping trade with only the one small railroad running to the Ohio River at Portsmouth. There was a small demand for shipping coal and the first Jackson County coal mined for that purpose was in a   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 521   vein at the northern limit of Oak Hill, now owned by Mrs. John C. Jones. Two small drifts were opened, and the coal was hauled on a tramway about one-fourth of a mile to Reed's. Station north of the old Portland as early as the fall of 1853. The McClintock mines near Petrea became shipping mines as soon as the railroad reached that point, but the shipping trade languished until the Ohio Southern was completed to Jackson county.   The discovery of the Jackson coal did not affect the outside world, but when H. F. Austin and Harvey Wells began to advertise the Wellston steam coals citizens of Washington Court House, Xenia, Springfield and Dayton became interested, and it was not long until the Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy Railroad was projected. A number of railroad meetings were held in various towns and finally a company was incorporated by George H. Frye, James Pursell, W. W. Bell, R. R. Seymour, James Emmitt and Horace L. Chapman. The latter was the Jackson banker and Emmitt was the Waverly distiller. These men held a meeting at Greenfield, December 15, 1874, and outlined a plan of action.   SPRINGFIELD, JACKSON & POMEROY RAILROAD   It was advertised in the Standard, December 24, 1874, that books for subscription to the said Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy Railroad Company would be opened at the First National Bank and Iron Bank of Jackson, Saturday, January 23, 1875, and in ten other towns between the terminals of the projected road. The Legislature had granted a charter December 17, 1874, and the company was organized March 2, 1875, with James Emmitt as president. Jackson County responded with subscriptions amounting to $70,000. The first spike in Jackson was driven December 7, 1876, near the bridge where the Chillicothe Road crosses Salt Creek. The road was completed from Jackson to Waverly May 31, 1877. The road was narrow gauge, but the change to the standard gauge was completed January 1, 1880, to Jackson, and the first through train from Springfield came that day.. The road had seen many vicissitudes, but it was completed at last and the magic wand of King Coal soon worked wonders in Jackson County.   BECOMES OHIO SOUTHERN LINE   The road became the Ohio Southern in the. spring of 1882. A branch was built up ;Horse Creek to Wellston, and about the same time a branch of the great C. H. & D. system entered the county near the Ross County line, ran on the Baltimore & Ohio tracks to Byer and followed Pigeon Creek through Coalton to Wellston, and south to the head waters of Symmes Creek near the Gallia County line and on to Ironton. Both of the new roads were coal roads first.   In 1878, before these roads were completed to Wellston, the coal shipments from Jackson County did not exceed 10,000 tons, but in 1880   522 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   they were nearly 300,000 tons and continued to increase rapidly. The details of the history of the coal industry of the county would fill a large volume, and only the following data can be presented here.   LARGEST COAL EXPORTER IN STATE   By the year 1888 the coal output of Jackson County was 1,088,761 tons. This was produced by sixty-six mines employing 2,550 men. Ten years later the tonnage rose to 1,804,772, and Jackson County was the largest coal producer in the state. There was a total of eighty-nine mines in the county classified as follows : Drifts, 47 ; slopes, 13 ; shafts, 26 ; minor mines, 3 ; and the number of men employed had increased to   FURNACES AT WELLSTON   4,515. After the beginning of this century the tonnage fell to 1,303,529. The seams worked. were Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5. The total number of men- employed was only 3,019 and the number of mines in operation was eighty-six. These mines were owned by the following companies and individuals : Alma, Armstrong, Bloomfield, Banchor, Big Four, Chapman, Coalton, Crescent, Cochran, Comet, Commercial, Central, Dayton, Davis Fire Brick, Domestic, Evans, Elkhorn, Emma, Gem City, Globe, Iron, Goslem & Son, Hawkins & Son, Harper, Jones & Morgan, Jones, Jackson Iron & Steel, Jackson & Decatur, Jackson County, Kessler, Northern, Ohio Fire Brick, Ohio Portland Cement, Pritchard, Rempel Fuel, See Kay, Star Furnace, Symmes Creek, Sun, Superior, Tom Corwin, Zagelmeyer and Henry Hollberg. Of these companies the Superior Coal Company owned by far the greatest number of mines for they were operating thirteen openings in 1907. The deepest was No. 9, whose shaft was 150 feet deep. This is also the deepest in the county. It is located two miles east of Wellston. Morris L. Sternberger was for many years the principal stockholder and officer of the company. Subordinate officials have been 0. B. Gould, H. C. Murfin, N. M. White   HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 523   and Samuel Wilson, with a score or more minor officials. The company has since passed into the hands of eastern capitalists and all the old officials have been superseded. Evan A. Thomas, boss of No. 1, moved to the farm when the mine was abandoned. J. H. Duane of No. 2 was killed in an accident. The Emma Coal Co., named in honor of the only daughter of Eben Jones, who is one of the wealthiest men of the county, is owned by his brother, Edwin Jones, who today and for ten years past has been one of the foremost citizens of Jackson. He has served as mayor of his city and in 1914 he managed the campaign for the, republicans as chairman of the Ohio Republican Committee. He also owns the Northern Coal Co. John E. Hayes was the superintendent of the various mines of the Chapman Coal Co. for many years. A number of old coal companies once \very prominent are no longer in existence. Such is the Southern Ohio Coal & Mining Company, which operated a number of mines near Coalton. The smaller mines in the southern part of the county, such as Ohio, McKitterick, Thomas, Oak Hill, Davis Fire Brick, Ohio Portland Cement, Commercial, are in seam No. 5, while Elkhorn, Limestone, Kessler and others are in No. 4. Jeremiah Morrow, superintendent of the Springfield Coal Company, belongs to a historic Ohio family for he is the son of Rev. Jeremiah Morrow and a grandson of Jeremiah Morrow, the first congressman from Ohio and afterward governor of the state. He was born at Chillicothe in 1843; served in the army and in 1865 came to Jackson County, where he has been engaged ever since in the coal industry. H. C. Murfin, with the Superior Coal Co. for so many years, was a son of James Murfin, the Scioto County furnace man, and a brother of L. T. Murfin of the Globe Iron Company. Thn operatorsrick Brothers, coJohnperators and merchants ; JOhn J., G. Crookham and W. F. McKitterick were John McKitterick's sons. Their mother was a daughter of George L. Crookham, the noted educator of early days. John C. Kyle, operator of Kyle's Slope, was born at Youngstown, Ohio, June 12, 1855, and came to Jackson County in 1879. Thomas J. Morgan, of the Wellston Coal & Iron Company, who superintended their various mines until his health failed, was a native of Bloomfield Township. In 1873 he concluded to enter politics, but not securing the nomination for auditor he turned his attention to the coal industry and became one of the leaders in a few years.   EXHAUSTION OF MANY COAL MINES   After 1907 the exhaustion of many of the Jackson County mines progressed rapidly, especially those working the Wellston seam. The panic caused the suspension of some and the liquidation of others. The most notable change was the passing of the Superior Coal Company and the retirement from the local industry of practically all the principals connected with the works as well as the officers. It was succeeded by the Superior Colliery Company and the offices were moved from Jackson. John E. Baumgartner succeeded to the superintendency. By   524 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION   1912 the report for which year is the last available, there were only seventy-two mines in operation, and the output of the majority of them was greatly reduced. The tonnage for the entire county was only 783,334 and the total number of men employed was only 2,044.   In that year Superior No. 1 which has had such an interesting history, was simply taking out pillars and employing only twenty-two men. Evan A. Thomas was foreman. The mine was soon afterward abandoned. In a few years more than two-thirds of the mines will have been worked out. Already more than 3,000 miners have moved to other fields, the majority to other states. However, there remain great areas of Jackson County coal of seams above No. 2 which have not been developed and they must , remain until the richer coals of Virginia and Kentucky have been exhausted.   STATE INSPECTORS   The history of the coal industry of the county would not be corn.; plete without a reference to its citizens who have been state inspectors. Hon. Andrew Roy was the first. He was made chief inspector by Gov. William Allen in 1874 and served four years. He was appointed a second time by Gov. Charles Foster and served four more years. He was a native of Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he was born, July 19, 1834. He came to America in 1850 ; to Arkansas in 1859 ; entered the army in 1861; was wounded at Gaines Mill, being left for dead on the battlefield ; was captured and kept in Libby prison, and was exchanged and discharged in the fall of 1863. Locating in Jackson County he bought a tract of land, when later, in May, 1883, he laid out the Town of Glen Roy, which for many years was one of the thriftiest mining villages in the world. He died in 1914. Daniel Harry, of Jackson, was a district inspector in the early days of the Jackson field under Gov. Joseph B. Foraker, and Gov. William McKinley appointed Samuel Llewelyn. He had been a soldier in the Thirty-third Regiment and had served two terms in the Ohio House. George Harrison, of Wellston, was another official selected from Jackson County, and he was chief inspector for a number of years and was in charge when the new code enacted, when Senator Daniel W. Williams was chairman of the committee on mines, went into effect. He served under Gov. Myron T. Herrick, Andrew L. Harris and Judson Harmon. John Burke, . of Wellston, is district inspector at this time. He was appointed under Gov. Judson Harmon. David H. Williams, appointed by Gov. Asa Bushnell as district inspector, is a native of this county but was living in Athens County when appointed.   ACCIDENTS UNDER OLD-TIME CONDITIONS   With the great number of men employed in the mines under the conditions prevalent before the days of inspection there were many fatal accidents, running from two to about twenty-two in some years.