St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

A History of Henry and St. Clair Counties, 1883

St. Clair County Resources

Before the resources are gone into detail, let us refer to the fact that while growing faster than almost any county in the state previous to the war of 1861, the ten years succeeding that was one of almost death. Every muscle and fiber of her body has been wrenched and paralyzed through the period of strife, which not only devastated her fields, but drove her people from their homes. The following short sketch is given, from Campbell's history:

"St. Clair County grew steadily until the war, when it was invaded by detached bodies of soldiers. Citizens were dragged from their homes at night and murdered, their houses burned and their families left destitute and terror stricken. On September 2, 1861, Osceola, then a considerable town, having a large trade with Arkansas and the Indian Territory, was entered by General Jim Lane's command of about 1,500 men, and its court house and all other buildings except ten houses, were plundered and burned. A long line of wagons bore away the booty."

This destruction of her leading town by the Jayhawkers, and the overrunning of her territory, leaving desolation in their path, destroying the fruits of years and driving away her people, was a serious blow to her progress for many long years. In 1870 St. Clair County had a less population than in 1860. Thus not only had that decade been the destruction of her wealth, but she had even ceased to grow. Before the war, no doubt, her growth and prosperity was due, to a large extent, from the Osage River. Here were transportation facilities enjoyed by few counties, but the advent of railroads and the destructive influences of the war gave her a set back which has not even yet been recovered fully, notwithstanding the gigantic struggle she has made the past twelve years.
As before remarked, remove the shackles of a monumental fraud and of her land monopoly, and St. Clair County will arise, and with the strength of a giant, assert her right to rank in all the elements of prosperity, and in the culture and refinement of her people, with the best in the land. Her granite rock, her iron beds, her immense coal measure, her wealth of timber and the determined energy of her people, will prove her future station in the sisterhood of counties. The immigrant can find no better or cheaper home than in St. Clair County, and soon the iron horse and the electric wires will place her in contact with the outside world. Then those so fortunate as to have a home here will thank God and prosper.
Before the statistics of her farm and stock are entered here, and the wealth of landed estate and personal property, something can be said of her mineral resources. That St. Clair County is immensely rich in coal and iron, is well known. That there is also lead in paying quantity is also well known, as well as her mineral paint and cement. Silver, copper and nickel have also been found, and it is believed by many that silver will yet be discovered in inexhaustible quantity. That indications are such is certain.

Coal
Whether Coal can be called a mineral may be doubted, but it is, nevertheless, found under this head in this work. St. Clair County is, at least one-third of its territory, underlaid with a fine article of bituminous coal, with veins from twelve inches to six and seven feet in thickness. The veins so far discovered are generally from three to four feet in thickness and lie, comparatively speaking, close to the surface, being found from six to seventy-five feet in depth. These veins not only are found in hills, but upon the prairies. A three-foot vein of coal is found on section 15, township 38, range 26. Another mine, with a vein fully as thick, within a mile and a half of Osceola, while the western part of Tabor, in Monegaw and Chalk Level their entire southern portions, covering one-third of their area, all are underlaid with coal, the veins running from three to six feet in thickness. When better transportation facilities are provided that section of St. Clair County will be a perfect mining camp.
The basil rock in the north and western portion is limestone, underneath which is found rich deposits of coal, which will richly pay for mining. Coal mines have been profitably worked in different parts of the county, particularly in townships 37 and 39, range 27, and townships 36 and 38, range 26. The coal is of superior quality, ranging from two and a half to five feet in thickness, and is said to be equal to the best charcoal for working iron or steel. There is not much inducement to develop the rich coal deposits for home use, owing to the large amount of timber in the county.
Mineral can be found in abundance all along the Osage cliffs. Some may ask why these mines are not opened. It is simply because the people have not the capital to develop them. The wealth is here, that is certain, and the coal mines of St. Clair County will some day prove of great wealth, and in supply simply inexhaustible.

Silver
The finding of silver in several places in the county has in times gone by created much excitement. There is not the least doubt that silver in good paying quantity will yet be mined in this county. A short time since, silver was discovered about one mile from the Horse Shoe Bend, on and near the Osage River, and within a few miles of Osceola. W.S. Gordon & Sons, Dill & Son, Hotchkiss, Patterson & Keith, men of experience, prospered for silver with strong hopes of yet finding it in paying quantities. One of the gentlemen was an old experienced miner, who had been in California, Colorado and Montana, and knows what "paying rock" is, and has faith in the development of the silver ore in these hills.
Another excitement was created by finding silver on Bush Creek. Silver was found there a few years ago on the farm of Mr. W. Lamey, but has since died out, owing to the fact that while ore was found that would assay from ten dollars to eighty dollars per ton, it required capital to work it. The search was not continued, and whether it exists in paying quantity has not been ascertained. Specimens of ore from different sections of the county have been assayed and both silver and gold found.
The greatest excitement with regard to finding silver was in 1872, when it was discovered in Hickory as well as in St. Clair County; and the following from the St. Louis Rural World will be of interest now, and much more so when capital shall have developed the wealth that is surely hid among the hills and ravines of this and adjoining counties.
The article put a damper on those who believed in the metal being found in quantities; but since the article was written, there has been unmistakable evidence that silver in St. Clair County is a solid reality. The Rural World said:

"On Bear Creek, in township 38, range 24, St. Clair County, for four months there has been great excitement over ore that has been found, supposed to be silver. This mineral occurs in a hard, carboniferous limestone, in a disseminated state, and in considerable quantities. After its discovery by Renfro & Milear the contageon spread, and James Anterby, Mr. Harding, A.J. Gibson, W.V. Bridges, Jasper Bridges, Elisha Bridges, John Smith, John Keaton and John Morris have prospected, mined, blasted, dug, sweat, hoped, imagined, and no doubt prayed, for the great flow of treasure they were certain was soon to pour into their coffers. But days hurried into weeks, and months took on their record of time; men might be seen in groups, in silent, watchful moods, whispering of probable fortunes to be lost, or torn from them by some wiley miner, mineral company or lawyer sharper, who might be then spying out their hidden home of wealth. Haggard, eager, expectant and wan faces peer out from many places, as if weary of waiting, but yet sanguine of the coming of the silver treasure. News of treasure was received of such virgin purity that it was malleable enough to hammer out into sheets; every man in the vicinity was carrying a "pocket full of rocks", some of which reached our city through the hands of Hon. J.H. Bohn. By solicitation of Mr. J.S. Maffinger, of Hickory County, we visited this locality, and found the same state of excitement above described. An examination made presents sulphuret of iron, pyrites of iron, antimony and carbonate of lime, with traces of nickel.
There is connected with this excitement a legend of immense mineral wealth found by the Spaniards long ago, and that a Spaniard a few weeks ago visited this locality and offered $500 to any one who would show a certain rock with some characters or designs upon it; the Spaniard went away, and to make the story a good one, the stone must be found. Accordingly, a stone said to contain a "turkey foot" and signs cut into it was at last discovered. Many have gazed in wonder and admiration at the characters, cut by some intelligent Castillian to hand down to other races of old Castile, the abiding place of untold wealth. The spot became almost sacred; worshippers came a long pilgrimage to the "turkey foot" Mecca, and gazed, wondered, admired and retreated backward, gazing as they went.
Being shown to the secluded valley, where this stone with the mysterious markings had been carried and hidden, we found simply a large flat stone whose surface bore the fissures and furrowings by the action of water upon the softer portions of the exposed surface. The imagination had to be wonderfully drawn upon to present the faintest approach to the figure of a "turkey's foot". The power of a strong glass gave no trace of the work of a tool of any kind. The vicinity is no doubt rich in several valuable minerals, but there is no trace of silver to be found in any of the ores yet mined."

This closes the record of silver, but the fact that it does exist and in large quantity is fully believed, for evidence is not wanting of the "find", and the purity of the metal.

Pure Galena
That lead of a fine quality and inexhaustible in quantity, lies under the surface of a considerable portion of St. Clair County is a fact too easily of proof to be gainsaid. The following from the Osceola Democrat was published in 1873:

"Within the past twelve months frequent discoveries of lead have been made in this county, but by most persons it was thought not to exist in what is usually termed "paying quantities". On Tuesday last we were shown by Hon. Waldo P. Johnson one of the finest specimens of lead ore we have ever seen, consisting of a small lump weighing six pounds two ounces, which at first sight appears to be a lump of pure lead, as if having been run into a lump and then pressed flat, but an examination of it proves to be incorrect, as by striking on it with some hard substance, it crumbles. It is fully ninety per cent lead, which will at once be observed to be a very superior ore. It was found on Sac River, about ten miles south of Osceola.
No man well versed in the mineral resources of this county, doubts that if the means were at hand to develop them, the quantity and quality of the minerals of the county would be immense and superior. Enterprise and capital is all that is wanting."

Since the above was written, lead has been found perhaps in fifty different places, all showing ore of great purity. Scattered over the extent of the county which these indications show, there is an immense amount of this article to be found by a thorough prospecting of the country. In fact, it is hard to tell just what minerals underlie the surface of St. Clair County. Gold, silver, iron, copper, nickel, have been found, by accident in most cases. Coal and iron is apparent enough; the others will have to be more thoroughly developed to judge what their value may be, with the exception of lead, which is surely here, and in quantity simply infinite.

Lead
In 1880, the Osceola Sun published the following in regard to a lead found in Monegaw, a distance of nearly twenty miles from that found on the Sac River. The sun, after speaking of coal, says:

"Lead has also been discovered in these rough regions, and unless the surface indications are false, and different from that of the lead region about Short Creek, Joplin, Granby, etc., there is abundance of it in this country.
We have in our office specimens of the silver, iron and lead taken out of these hills by mere surface prospecting, and are satisfied from the specimens and indications that it will pay to go deeper. We saw some specimens of silver ore from the Hugh Johnson mines, in Monegaw Township, which are said to contain silver in paying quantities, but as our time was too limited to visit the mines, we cannot judge of the quantity of the ore, except from hearsay, which places an almost fabulous value, not only on the silver, but also on the lead deposits found on the Johnson farm and in the immediate vicinity."

Take the range of hills which line the banks of the Osage and Sac Rivers, and you will find every kind of mineral and coal upon the surface, not in large quantities to be sure, but such surface indications as show plainly that under the sod and down among the rocks and deep in the bowels of these hills untold wealth lies yet hidden from sight. But the day is not far distant when the underdeveloped resources of these bluffs will be brought to the light of day, and the eye feast upon untold wealth.

Iron
It ahs been long demonstrated that there is an unlimited supply of iron ore, containing a paying per cent of pure iron, in the hills of the Osage in this county. Jackson Township is rich in this metal, and it covers nearly one-third of the township. Splendid specimens have been picked up in Doyal, Dallas, Polk, Osceola, and in many other places, that it requires no further proof of the fact that it is here in large quantities, and that it belongs to that valuable ore known as brown hematite, while both specular and red hematite have been found as well. St. Clair County is rich in iron ore.

Copper and Nickel
Of copper and nickel, specimens have been found showing these minerals are here, but the indications have not been so great as to give any very great confidence that it exists here in large quantities. There is a strong belief that copper will be developed largely at some future day, and that a nickel mine will yet be unearthed of great value, but even if in these two minerals there should be found but a limited supply, there will be found enough of the others mentioned to give St. Clair County a front rank among the mineral counties of the state, while in agricultural resources and stock raising, she will be fully abreast of her sister counties.