Courtesy of the Chester County Historical Society.          

Daily Local News
22nd March 1900

David M. Hess, Philadelphia, through the agency of W. Smith Campbell, Esq., has sold his mineral farm of 119 acres in West Nottingham township to Mone R. Isaacs has three men working on the property now opening up the old quarries.

Daily Local News
13th September 1900

Job S. Pugh, of Oxford, has leased for five years the flint quarry on his farm in East Nottingham to A.C. Johnson of Baltimore. Mr. Johnson’s workmen began operating on the property on Monday.  The flint will be taken to Oxford and then shipped by rail to Elkton, where it will be used in the purification of vitriol.

Daily Local News
31st October 1900

Feldspar in East Nottingham

The recent development of feldspar in East Nottingham township has been quite remarkable.  There are three quarries in operation at present, and Mr. Walker, who owns one of them, is putting up buildings to accommodate a number Italians, whom he is compelled to bring from Philadelphia, as help cannot be procured in that neighborhood.

Daily Local News
19th November 1900

Feldspar Quarries Opened

In the neighborhood of West Nottingham, where the feldspar industry has flourished at different times in recent years, there is renewed activity just now, and several of the land owners are taking out large quantities of this mineral.  At Embreeville the mine has been neglected for some time, and in other sections of the county little is being done.

Daily Local News
7th February 1901

Some of the financial men in this section have been considering the advisability of starting a new enterprise, a stock company for the development of barren lands in West Nottingham.  The promoters of the scheme argue that as there is nothing on top of the ground, much wealth evidently lies beneath the surface, and therefore the investment must pay.

The land is a tract of 485 acres, with boundaries like the famous biscuit-shaped Congressional District in Ohio once formed to legislate William McKinley out of the House of Representatives at Washington.  It resembles somewhat a turnover pie with edges bitten in irregular scallops.  That, however, need be no bar to its productive merits.  Those who are interested in the scheme call it the Double Back Action Double Decker, Corundum, Feldspar, Mica Hematite and Paint Company of North America, Capital Stock, $50,000, in shares of $50 each.

Proposed officers are these: President, David E. Chambers, Unionville; Vice-President, J. Elwood Quay, Phoenixville; Secretary, John C. Ferron, Londonderry; Treasurer, H. Smith Worth, Oxford; Engineer, Wilmer E. Pennypacker.  Mr. Worth has declined the Treasureship, but he knows a man who might take it.

During a goodly portion of yesterday the suggested officers pored over a map of West Nottingham, looking up the merits of the land.  The tract is marked “Estate of Frederick Cooper,” and is in charge of J. Hay Brown, of Lancaster.  It is assessed at $4,000 and offered for sale at a price in the neighborhood of $2,500.  Nearly all the land in that neighborhood is rich in minerals and the Baltimore Central Railroad passes directly through this tract.  The nearest station is Sylmar, on the Maryland line.

Offers have been made to accept in exchange stock in the West Chester Street Railway, the Assembly Building, the trolley line to Pottstown or Unionville and Roselyn.

Daily Local News
12th February 1901

 Secretary Wilmer E. Pennypacker, of the new “Hematite, Feldspar, Mica, Paint etc., Co.,” is in receipt of the following letter from an Oxford man.

Dear Sir:- I have just learned that a “sindicate” has been formed in West Nottingham to work the extensive mineral mines and exhaustive green serpentine quarries in West Nottingham township, and that Messrs. Chambers, Quay, and Ferron are at the head of the enterprise, and as I am located near the property and have had considerable experience in working on this tract, I thought I might with your assistance secure the position of manager for the company.

Should you know anything about this deal, and keep me post, and think there will be nay chance for me to secure a lucrative position, when you think the proper time has arrived, I will come over and endeavor to obtain an interview with the “sindicate.”

Trusting that you can be of some service to me in this project, and that you will not consider it too much trouble to assist me in making an honest living, I remain yours respectively. 

Daily Local News
20th November 1901

West Nottingham – Charles Wilms, Jr., to the Baltimore Feldspar Co., two tracts, 38 acres 149 perches, 4½ acres, 800 shares of capital stock at $100 each.

Daily Local News
21st December 1901

The Baltimore Feldspar Company has built a mill at Sylmar, and is extending a railroad from the quarries to the Baltimore Central Railroad. This new enterprise is making business quite brisk in West Nottingham and giving employment to all who desire work.

Daily Local News
20th December 1902

On the Spencer property, in West Nottingham, Harry Hopkins and his partner, Mr. Black, are preparing to revive the iron industry, which has been lying dormant there for a period of thirty years.  They have on hand 700 to 900 tons of ore, and will begin shortly hauling it to Sylmar Station, where it will be shipped to some furnace for smelting, possibly to Sparrow’s Point, Baltimore.

Should the venture pay it is likely that a furnace will be established near the present mines, as all that country is rich in mineral deposits, and a large amount of ore may readily be taken out.

The haul to Sylmar is a distance of about two miles.

Daily Local News
14th November 1904

Chrome pit to be Opened

According to Burgess Stubbs, Oxford and the immediate vicinity is about to reassume the position it once held as the center of mineral as well as of agricultural wealth.  Several projectors have been making investigations in the neighborhood and as result certain Philadelphia companies are trying to get hold of the old chrome deposits just below the town.  At one time these deposits were the principle source of chrome in the country and hundreds of men were engaged in the pits, but the advent of Siberian chrome and the discovery of other cheaper material for making paint, killed the business and operations were discontinued year ago.  Now it is though that the pits contain other valuable deposits besides chrome and an attempt will be made to get some of them out.  Inasmuch as strata of citrate of magnesia and kaolin are worked in the immediate neighborhood, the presence of valuable deposits in the old chrome lands would not seem improbable.

Daily Local News
1st December 1906

Pietro Natale, a young Italian, who has been living near Sylmar, this county, and who has been in the Chester County Jail since November 25th, awaiting trial at Court on a charge of assault and battery with intent to commit rape, and, on another charge of carrying deadly weapons,  was released from custody but held in his own recognizance in the sum of $300, after a hearing before Judge Joseph Hemphill, in chambers, yesterday afternoon on a writ of habeas corpus, on petition of the accused council, W. S. Harris.

Natale had been employed in Montgomery’s quarries in West Nottingham township since November 11th, and, it is alleged that on the afternoon of November 23rd he had met on the public highway, Miss Hattie Cooper, a pretty schoolgirl of that vicinity and daughter of A. C. Cooper, who was on her way from school.  He stopped here, and made, it is claimed, an indecent proposal, but miss Cooper succeeded in eluding the Italian and hurried to her home some distance away.  Next afternoon, on her way home from school, she again saw Natale and another Italian coming along the road, one of them carrying a gun, she became frightened and ran down the road until she met George Boyd, the rural mail carrier who advised her to go to his home a short distance away, and after he had finished serving his mail he would take her home.  Just them Miss Mary Phillips and her sister came along in a wagon and took Miss Cooper with them, when the Italians disappeared in the woods.  Miss Cooper told her experiences to her parents and next morning accompanies her father to Montgomery’s quarries where she pointed out Natale and a companion as the men she has seen on the road.  Shortly afterwards, the two men left the quarry and remained away all day.  Natale being arrested on warrant of Justice Giffiing when he returned next day and was lodged in jail without bail.

The above story of the affair was testified to by witnesses before Judge Hemphill, the examination being conducted by Assistant Director Attorney Sproat, while Wm. S. Harris represented Natale who had been brought up from prison by Warden Joseph James.

The witnesses were Miss Hattie Cooper, Miss May Phillips, Calvin Watson, Clarence Campbell, A. C. Cooper, George Boyd, Atwood Montgomery, all living in the vicinity of Nottingham.

After brief argument by counsel, Judge Hemphill decided that the testimony offered did not sustain the charges, so Natale was released, but was obliged to give bond for $300 for his appearance, if needed again.

Daily Local News
21st December 1908

Postmaster Alexander has received a communication from a member of the United States Geological Survey asking that the department be put in possession of complete details regarding the deposit of asbestos which is believed to have been discovered in the barrens just to the south of Oxford and which some Oxford capitalists are arranging to exploit.  It is possible on receipt of the facts the United States will make some thorough investigation of the barrens and that the many persons who have always contended that they were full of valuable minerals will find their faith justified.  The asbestos prospecting is being held in abeyance pending some action by the government.

Daily Local News
5th January 1909

Sheriff’s Sale Confirmed

At the recent sale of real estate by Sheriff R. Thomas Garrett, a tract of 52 acres of land in West Nottingham township, belonging to the Bessemer Iron Ore Company, was sold for unpaid taxes amounting to over $100 on lev. fa. Issued by the School District of West Nottingham township, and the property was purchased by Henry A. Kaufman, agent for Charles Ingram, of Baltimore, Md.  The latter petitioned the Court to confirm or set aside the sale, as there was question as to whether the service of the writ had been proper.  The Court has now dismissed the exceptions and confirmed the sale.  The purchase price was $171.

Daily Local News
27th March 1909

Gold Mine Discovered

Some weeks ago gold was discovered upon the farm of Walter Reynolds, in West Nottingham, near New Bridge.  Sediment from the bottom of a spring on the place was sent to the Government officials at Washington D.C., for analysis.  This week a letter was received stating that it tested 20 per cent. gold and 6 per cent. silver, and would have been rated higher had not a quantity of  dirt been mixed with it.  Since this has been made public several moneyed men have interested themselves in the matter; and it is probable that the vein will be opened in the near future.  Neighbors and friends of Mr. Reynolds are congratulating him upon his good luck.

Daily Local News
9th July 1909

To Clean Up the Barrens

The much-talked of barrens, that stretch of desolate country which makes an unfertile stretch for miles across Elk, East and West Nottingham township, is to be cleaned up.  E. Stanley Grier, by purchasing the holdings of the old Tyson Mining Company, of Baltimore, has secured control of the entire tract and instead of leaving it as a dismal wilderness with nothing on it but scrub oak and green briars, he is going to turn a portion of it into farm land and promises that it will blossom like the green bay tree.

The Tyson Mining Company many years ago worked their holdings for chrome and made considerable money at it, but for the past forty years the demand for chrome has been so small that it was unprofitable to dig it.  Since then they have been prospecting in a desultory manner for other minerals, and although they found many indications of asbestos, magnesia, feldspar, and even gold and silver, they never considered it worthwhile digging for.  In purchasing their holdings Mr. Grier intends, however, to reimburse himself from the sand and gravel on the tract rather than the minerals.  He is also of the opinion that a large portion of the land would make good pasture land especially for Angora goats, and it is possible that he will begin raising these on a large scale.

The barrens have always been the source of wild dreams among the people of Oxford and vicinity.  Every one believes that underlying them is some valuable mineral in quantities large enough to make the man who finds it and digs it out independently rich.  Several companies for the single purpose of prospecting and drilling holes to see what was in the underground have been talked of, but have never materialized.  It is know that the rock there contains many unusual elements and the only thing remaining is to find some way of discovering the valuable deposit and getting them out and using them.  Mr. Grier’s brother-in-law, who has considerable experience prospecting in Montana, will follow a similar line in this neighborhood on his off days.

Daily Local News
23rd August 1909

Fighting a Barrens Fire

Rivaling a western prairie fire, about one hundred acres of the Barrens below Nottingham was burned yesterday.  It was by far the worst fire seen in that neighborhood for years and but for the heroic fighting on the part of the railroad section men who were hurried to the scene from all directions, it is likely that several sets of buildings must have been destroyed.  As it was, it required the utmost endeavor on the part of forty men to keep the flames from burning the hay stack and barn on M. J. Laughlin.  The fire came up to the very edge of the stack but was beaten back again and again and the stack finally saved.  The fire started in the morning and for a time the Nottingham section men tried to cope with it alone.  It became too much for them, however, and when they were nearly exhausted a hurry call was sent up the line for help.  A special train took down the Oxford gang and the regular afternoon train brought up men from Rising Sun.  Even then they were scarcely able to control it and it looked at one time as though the entire barrens were to be burned.  They finally got it out, however, and were enabled to go to their homes.  The fire was a most remarkable sight.  Huge pine trees caught and the flames shot fifty feet into the branches.  Even the oaks and maples were burned, branches two inches in diameter being burned off almost in an instant.  Scores of young rabbits and other animals were driven from their cover and had to seek shelter in other sections.  Altogether about one hundred acres were burned.

Daily Local News
27th November 1909

Asbestos in Barrens

The opening of the slate quarries at Peachbottom by J. C. Gorsuch, a former Oxfordian, has stirred up the mineral fever in that borough and it is possible that the much talked of mineral booms which has been expected for years is at hand.  This barren land has been quietly acquired by residents of Oxford until it now belongs in a great measure to them.  While mineral of all sorts can be found there in great abundance, the men who are working up the project place their homes upon asbestos which has been found in a free state on top of the ground.  The specimens are not the most valuable commercial variety of asbestos but there is reason to believe that a small amount of digging would reveal this in considerable quantities.  If they strike it, the fortunes of the prospectors is made.  The whole matter is being shrouded in mystery and is not even of an early start being made.  That a pit will be dug, however, is undoubted and when once begun, it will the barrens a full test of their usefulness.  The shaft will probably be sunk somewhere near the old Chrome pit which was operated for a great many years and which laid the foundation of several fortunes in this end of the State.  The famous Powers and Weightman magnesia mine is also located in this strip of barrens.