Coals
The lowest coal measure in our county is the Sharon, overlying the conglomerate of the Sub-car- boniferous Limestone. Its outcrop can be seen in the bed of Mondaycreek, northeast of Maxville. It is usu- ally a thin vein but in Section 14, Hopewell township, there is a small area that can be mined. It must be remembered that the Maxville Limestone can be seen topping the hill above Glenford on the farm of Plum Reed. The Quakertown is the next seam in the ascending scale. It lies about fifty feet above the Sharon and is. very thin. It can be seen in the ravines of western Mondaycreek and Jackson townships. At times it has been found to be two feet in thickness and farmers. have quarried it. Connected with the Lower Mercer Limestone is a thin stratum of coal which has received the same name. It is less than a foot thick. Above this is the Upper Mercer which is known in many places as the "16-inch vein." The Tionesta Coal (3b) is found on Coalbrook in Mondaycreek where it has been known for years as Cannel Coal. It is rich in oil and has a thickness of two feet. The outcrops of this coal are also found throughout southern Jackson. Twenty feet above the Putnam Hill Limestone is a vein often wanting. It is from eighteen to twenty-two27
inches thick and of a good quality. In the clay bank at the New Lexington Brick Plant and several miles north of this point the horizon is plainly shown. It lies beneath the Ferriferous or Baird Ore. In the ore diggings in Mondaycreek it was often found. We now come to the workable coal measures. The Lower Kittanning may be considered the base of such coals. It is known by different names---No. 5, Lower New Lexington, and Lower Moxahala. It has been mined at New Lexington and is now mined at Nugent- ville and Redfield. At Bristol Tunnel it was worked in the same hill with the No. 6 above it, and was loaded over the same tipples. It is about four feet thick and is a valuable steam coal. The most general coal and the one most valuable is the Great Coal Vein or Middle (Upper) Kittanning. This is the seam mined at Shawnee, New Straitsville, Congo and Baird Furnace, where its thickness is from ten to fourteen feet. At Dicksonton, McCuneville, McLuney and along: the C., S. & H. R. R. in Bearfield township it is only about four feet. It is known too as the Upper New Lexington. In many places, about fifty feet above the Great Vein, is often found the mere tracings of a seam. It is the Lower Freeport or 6a. In Perry county it is locally known as the Norris Coal, because it was for- merly mined at Millertown by a man of that name. It often reaches a maximum thickness of six feet but it usually is much less. The Upper Freeport Coal is not known in the western or northern part of the county. It is a seam. of about five feet and is mined at Hamburg. Its local name is the Stallsmith. Its rank in the series of coals is No. 7.28
On the tops of the hills in the southeastern part of the county is often noticed a thin streaking of coal "blossom." It is the horizon of Coal No. 7a. This is the highest of the coal strata in the county. This seam was once mined near Chapel Hill under the name of the "patriot coal."29