Courtesy of the Chester County Historical Society.          

Daily Local News
17th February 1911

Trying to Buy the Barrens

It is understood upon good authority that three men of considerable means, two of them in Oxford, and one of Lancaster county, are making an effort to purchase the strip of Pine barrens which lies all the way across East and West Nottingham township.  A large portion of this is owned by a mining company which formerly operated Chrome mines and there seems to be some difficulty getting a proper title.  This objection, it is understood, is now in a fair way to be overcome and the men interested are quire sanguine of their ultimate success.  They refuse to divulge their purpose just at present but it is believed that in addition to trying out some asbestos deposits there they will use the barrens for pasturing sheep and angora goats.  There are a number of other minerals which have been located in this strip but not in such forms as to be commercially profitable.

Daily Local News
22nd March 1911

Set on fire by sparks from the burning barrens, a tract of which has been on fire for several days, the home of W. Smith Campbell, near Sylmar, was burned to the ground yesterday.  The inmates were eating dinner when the conflagration started, but did not notice that the house has caught until the entire roof was in a blaze, and it was too late to save anything.  With exception of a small amount of furniture on the lower floor, everything was destroyed.  All the efforts of the few people who could gather to help were bent toward saving the barn, and this building, although surrounded by the fire, escaped.  A particular unfortunate part of the loss was the burning of $180 in cash which belonged to Mr. Campbell’s daughter, and which they could not rescue from the upper part of the house.  About two acres of the barrens were burned entirely over, the fire starting near Montgomery’s quarries.

Daily Local News
25th April 1911

The machinery from the Sparvetta mines, near Sylmar, is being hauled to the railroad and will be shipped to New York State, the mines in the barrens being exhausted.  Wilson G. Boyer, of Oxford, is superintending the removal of the machinery.

Daily Local News
31st November 1911

The case of Mrs. Sarah Campbell, of West Nottingham township, to recover $1700 from the Brandywine Summit Kaolin Company, for damages by reason of the burning of her house and contents by a fire started on the defendant’s property, the trial jury last week awarded her $900.  Her counsel, T. W. Pierce, has filed in the Chester County Court, a motion for new trial, which will now put the case on the argument list for the December term.

Daily Local News
3rd April 1916

As is known to scientists or geologists, Chester county is rich in mineral deposits, even gold having been found in small quantities.  Corundum is one of the valuable minerals mined, and lead, iron, and graphite are found in large quantities.

One of the deposits which had not been worked recently is chrome,  This has been found in considerable quantities.

The barrens south of Oxford are said to have advanced in value, on account of its use at the present time for the manufacture of dyestuffs. It was years ago mined extensively in the barrens, but for a long time little chrome has been taken out. Several farms in East Nottingham and Elk townships have chrome leases on them giving the Tyson mining Company, of Baltimore, the right to take out mineral.  The variety found in Elk township is sand chrome, which was obtained by washing the gravel, in the manner of pacer mining for gold.

Rock chrome was formerly taken out at Wood’s Pit, Fulton township, Lancaster county.

Chrome or chromium is plentiful in Hungary, Sweden, and in various sections of America.  Chromic oxide is the coloring ingredient in emerald and is used in porcelain painting.

Chromate of lead is known to artists as chrome yellow.

Bichromate of potash, prepared from chrome ironstone, has many uses in the arts.

There are still large deposits of chrome in Elk township barrens.  E. Stanley Grier owns a big scope of this land, and should the demand and price become certain he could produce the mineral in quantity.

The mining operations of the Tyson Mining Company in that section were once extensive, a large number of men being employed.

In the past few weeks people from Wilmington have searched in the neighborhood south of Oxford for deposits of chrome that could be worked profitably.  It is said their find has been satisfactory, and that John Cain, of Lombard, has been engaged to superintend the mining of the chrome.  The shortage of dye material, owing to the war, is becoming acute, and the revival of chrome mining may add something to the activity of this part of the country.  At any rate, it is to be given a trial, although we have not been informed of the exact spot where operations will commence.

Daily Local News
31st December 1917

An Oxford , Pa., special of December 30 in a Philadelphia paper says: Discovery of a large body of chrome ore in several forgotten mines near Oxford, Chester county, is expected to relieve the serious shortage in the metal, one of the most essential products in the manufacture of munitions.  The mines were discovered through a search made by Government and local engineers.  Since the beginning of the war there has been an overwhelming demand for chrome steel. When munition companies in this country were besieged by European nations for war materials in the Fall of 1914, it was immediately realized that, unless additional chrome deposits were located somewhere in the United States the supply of the metal would be exhausted.

For the past three years American engineers have been making a vigorous search for the ore, and recently they found that the old mine in Chester county contained considerable high-grade ore.  The mines were originally discovered in 1827 by Isaac Tyson, of Baltimore, and for a number of years he practically supplied the demand for England and the United States.  For approximately thirty years the deposits constituted the only known sources of supply of chromic iron ore in the country.  The ore was laboriously mined and hauled five miles by wagon to the railroad, whence it was shipped to Port Deposit.  From there it was sent by boat to Baltimore, where it was crushed in a building built for that purpose.  A large portion then was shipped to England for use of British dye and chemical manufacturers.

In 1848 the industry in this country underwent a severe change because of the discovery in Asiatic Turkey of several deposits of high-grade chromic iron ore. As a result of the development of these mines in the next ten years the American industry suffered a decline from which it never recovered.  The Turkish miners worked for sixteen cents a day, and this cheap labor, together with cheap water transportation, eliminated the mines owned by Tyson.  The increased cost of labor here, due to the Civil War, was another important factor.  Other chromite deposits were discovered later in South Africa, Australia, and French Oceania, and for the last few years the chief sources of supply have been Rhodesia, New Caledonia, Turkey, and Greece.  In 1913 the entire world’s supply consisted of 49,772 tons, and this was increased in 1914 to 74,686 tons, with but 691 tons produced in the United States.  American imports in 1915 amounted to 76,458 tons.

With munitions manufacturers in dire need of the ore, Government engineers in 1916 made a search of the country and located deposits of a very low grade in the States of Washington, Wyoming, and California.  Those three States last year produced 40,000 tons, while the imports increased to 114,685 tons.  Because the ore found in the Western States had to be shipped a great distance to the principle market centers in the East engineers renewed their search and then found the old Tyson mines, which were filled with water.

The property, which consists of 1,000 acres, slants across the State boundary into Cecil county, Md.  There are three mines on the property, and upon the dumps engineers have found considerable quantity of the desired ore.  Work has now stated to pump out the shafts, and later they will be explored with the purpose of blocking out the material.

In the old days the crude ore never was milled, but was hand-picked and chipped in that condition. It is now proposed to apply modern methods and mill the material, by which the engineers expect to get a product containing not less than fifty per cent of chromic oxide, which is worth a minimum of $50 or more a ton.

F. Lynwood Garrison, of Philadelphia, consulting engineer for the United States Bureau of Mines and Chairman of the National Manganese Commission, is in charge of the resurrection of the mines.  He says that present demand for the ore is practically unlimited, and its need is becoming a very serious matter.

Oxford Press
1918 (reprinted March 11th 1943)

H. A. Robeson, who recently purchased the farm of Miss Nettie Jenkins, deceased, Rock Springs, has uncovered a good deposit of chrome on the property.  While in The Press offices, Tuesday, he exhibited samples of the ore, which are heavy with mineral and were found close to the surface.

Daily Local News
25th March 1918

Owing to the scarcity of chrome in this country it is badly needed by the government.  Officials have been investigating these mines with the intention of re-opening them, which is now likely to be done at an early date.

In the Recorder’s office last week, at Lancaster, a deed was given by F. Lynwood Garrison to the Chrome Mining Company for “all mining rights and mining privileges granted to Isaac Tyson, Jr., in Lancaster county for the valuable consideration not mentioned.”

It appears that when these properties were sold by the Tyson Chrome Company after mining ceased the Tyson family reserved all mining rights and privileges, and that was what has been purchased by the new Chrome Mining Company, which is supposed to be in the interests of the Government.  The largest of these mines is located on the farm of Jesse Wood, along the Octoraro, which at this point is the dividing line between Lancaster and Chester counties.  They had been worked to a great depth.  One of them was seven hundred feet.  While the ore was of good quality, on account of water it became expensive to mine, and ore could be imported from other sections for less than it could be mined for.  But at present prices, and with the improved pumps and machinery of these times, there is no doubt it can be made profitable, and it is generally believed by people of that section that operations will begin a very short time.

This deposit is one of many that appear in veins in southern Chester county.  In West Nottingham and London Britain mines were opened and operated many years ago, but abandoned.

Daily Local News
26th March 1918

Chrome Mines Still Undeveloped

Recently there was published the report of E. F. Bliss, of the U.S. Geological Survey, of the chrome deposits in southern Chester county.  E. F. Bliss is Miss Eleanor Frances Bliss, the daughter of a U.S. Army officer.  She visited this section last Fall, spending some time around Rising Sun, and inspected Wood’s Pit, London Britain township, and other places.  She was accompanied by another lady, Miss Anna Jones.  Her report shows that she took the matter up with thoroughness.

The Wood’s Pit property was originally sold by the heirs of Thomas Wood to Isaac Tyson, Jr., and the mining of chrome was begun around 1820.  When Abner Carter bough the tract from the Tyson Mining Company in 1885, the company reserved the mineral right, which stipulates that $1 per ton royalty shall be paid to the owner of the property for mineral taken out.  The Tyson some years ago sold to the Octoraro Water Company 440 acres in West Nottingham with the mineral rights included.

It is probable that the right to the chrome in much of the chrome-bearing land in this section will have to be established, as the Tyson Mining Company, in disposing of the real estate reserved mineral rights on many properties.

At the same time if there is enough chrome in the old diggings to help win the war, the people who own the land will not object strongly to it being taken out.  There are men yet alive who know more of the character of the deposits in Wood’s Pit and the Line Pit at Rock Springs, because they worked in the deep shafts from which the ore was taken.

There have been inspections and talk of pumping water out of the shaft, but nothing else.  The shaft is said to be 700 feet deep.  There has, however, been no actual work in these mines, which may be developed later.

Daily Local News
30th April 1918

Constable Harry Hall, of West Nottingham, who is in West Chester again this week, assisting Sheriff Ortlip in Court work, states that prospecting for deposits of chrome are being made in that section by capitalists who desire to open the mines.  There is known to be valuable deposits of this mineral in southern Chester county, and the prospectors are seeking the best stops to open up mines.  They found chrome in paying quantities on the properties of Mr. Hall and Mr. Hilaman, which are near Sylmar, and it is probable that operations will begin soon to mine this mineral.

Oxford Press
2nd May 1918

A vein of chrome has been discovered on L. N. Hilaman’s farm at Chrome and the mine will be opened up in a short time.

3rd May 1918

Messrs. H. B. Pyle and Craig Adair, Wilmington, have begun excavations on W. D. Irwin’s mineral tract in Elk township, near Mt. Rocky.  They are in search of rock chrome.  The location is on the old Sidwell meadow, extending from the Oxford-Elkton road east nearly to the covered bridge over the Little Elk, not far from Elk Mills.  Mr. Irwin bought this meadow tract several years ago.

He has leased to these gentlemen the right to mine rock chrome on his property for a year.  He would not consider a proposition to wash for sand chrome, as he does not want his meadow damaged in any way.

The place where the excavation is being made by J. P. Corcoran, of Elk Mills, is not far from the Oxford-Elkton road.

It is on the spot where J. P. Cain, of Lombard, Md., took out some fine specimens of rock chrome several years ago.  Before he passed away Mr. Cain showed the location to Mr. Irwin, who had just come into possession of the tract of mineral land.  Further east, on this tract, a shaft was once sunk by the Tyson mining Company to the depth of about 125 feet.  A drift from this shaft followed the vein for a considerable distance.  Much good ore was taken out.

When Mr. Irwin began to use the land as pasture for his stock, he feared the open shaft would be dangerous, and filled it up.

Mr. Irwin will get, under the terms of his lease, a royalty of $6 per ton on any rock chrome taken out on his land.

Daily Local News
16th May 1918

A Lancaster exchange says: Two leases for mining privileges covering tracts if chrome lands in lower Lancaster county, Chester county and Maryland, and aggregating more than 1,000 acres, were placed on record in the offices of the Recorder yesterday.  The leases are executed to W. Frank Gorrecht and Harry B. Cochran, of this city and embrace practically all of the mining rights in that locality, once owned by Isaac Tyson, Jr., deceased.  One lease is given by the Octoraro Water Company, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, for nearly 500 acres in Chester county, and also embracing the mining rights on large tracts of land in Lancaster and Chester counties, and in Maryland, which were purchased by the company from the Tyson estate some thirteen years ago.  Included in these mining rights are the famous Woods mine at Little Britain township, which at one time produced the entire supply for the world, but has been lying idle for nearly half a century.

The other lease is given by Mrs. Annie H. Peebles, and covers a tract of 176 acres in Fulton township.

Daily Local News
18th May 1918

In the office of the Recorder of Deeds, Jesse H. Kirk, in the Court House an indenture has been filed by Mary L. Kirk, through her attorney, Edwin M. Kirk, granting Craig Adair and Harry S. Pyle of Wilmington, Delaware, the right to search for, dig, and mine chrome ore on her property, in West Nottingham township, the right to extend for one year, and as long thereafter as the ore may be found is paying quantities.

The lessees will pay a royalty of ten per cent on the gross receipts from the sale of the chrome mined on the property, but no payment in any one month shall be less than $100.

Years ago much chrome was mined in the vicinity, but the mines have not been worked for some time.  They are now being revived, as a result of the war, which has caused the importations of the mineral to cease.  The deposits are believed to be extensive and valuable.

Oxford Press
9th August 1918
(Reprinted 8/4/1943)

Messrs. Pyle and Adair, Wilmington, representing the National Mineral Co., have opened Chrome operations in James S. Reishers meadow, Elk Township.

They have located a considerable bed of sand chrome.  The work is in charge of J. George Stewart, who is making his headquarters at Oxford Hotel, and advertises this issue for help.

Daily Local News
31st August 1918

Constable Harry Hall, of West Nottingham township, who has been in West Chester for the last week acting as a deputy sheriff, is a carpenter by trade, and has just about completed a big building for a power plant and cleaning arrangements for the Bellefonte Mining Company, which is about to reopen the old chrome mines on the J. Calvin Campbell farm, in said township.  An up-to-date equipment of mining machinery will be installed and the real work on mining chrome will be completed.  The company will reopen the shaft and go deeper and take out the mineral, which is mined with a mixture of good building sand.

The deposits will be washed and chrome deposits separated for marketable purpose.  The process will be much like placer washing, done in the West for gold.  The work will proceed on a large scale, if the expectations of the company are fulfilled.

Chrome today is more valuable and the methods for obtaining it greater than it was fifty years ago, when the old mines at the southern end of this and Lancaster counties were worked.  Other mines, some in this and Lancaster county and Cecil county, Maryland, are to be reopened and worked.

Daily Local News
27th September 1918

Chrome Mining Brisk

The chrome miners on J. C. Campbell’s farm, West Nottingham, are busy, some expensive machinery being installed.  In Reisler’s meadow, Elk township, machinery is also being put in.  A number of men have been engaged on each operation.

Oxford Press
November 1918
(Reprinted 11/21/1943)

The Wilmington Mineral Company loaded a car of chrome in Oxford on Wednesday.  They have taken out about 16 tons from James Reisler’s meadow, Elk Township.  Owing to approach of winter the operation will be suspended until spring.

23rd November 1918

The old chrome mines of southern Chester county, which have been closed for years, are now being operated, due to war necessities, and the Wilmington Mineral Company this week loaded several cars from one in Elk township.

Daily Local News
7th December 1918

The war demand for chrome has developed a number of old chrome mines and deposits in southern Chester county and several of the former have been reopened and worked.  One of the largest plants, however, is being installed on the property of Calvin Campbell, in West Nottingham township between Fremont and Nottingham station.

A corporation called the Dellfint Company, has erected a big building or mill, at that place and has installed boilers, engines, scoops, washers etc., to carry on the obtaining of chrome and preparing it for the market.  Harry Hall, of Sylmar, who has during the week been acting as deputy for Sheriff Ortlip, has been made superintendent of the new plant and expects to start operations soon.

The chrome deposits at this place are not mined or quarried, but scooped up from the creek etc.  The rock and sand with the chrome is then carried up on shuts, run over breakers and riddles and finally dashed into pans, similar to those used in the placer gold washer plants in the West and the pure chrome separated.  It is then dried and is ready for shipment.  The company has motors for this and soon will be able to send large quantities to the markets for commercial use.  The development of this industry will make us independent of the foreign article and give employment to a considerable number of persons.  The Chester county chrome is superior, but the crude methods for getting it out and ready for use in former years handicapped the business.  New methods and machinery will overcome this.