Newspaper Clippings from the Chester County Historical Society Prior to 1870
Courtesy of the Chester County Historical Society.
Village Record 1st July 1851
Pennsylvania Chrome Mines – On the Octoraro creek, which separates Chester and Lancaster counties, there is Wood’s chrome mine, about nine miles from Nottingham, which is 170 feet deep, 200 feet long, and about 40 feet broad. This is considered to be the largest chrome mine in the world; and the researchers and analysis of several chemists, both of this country and Europe, have ascertained it yields the best ore, being nearly pure bi-chromate of iron, 93 per cent. of which is oxide of chrome. The mine has been worked about 15 years, with a brief interruption. The site of the mine is represented as offering – what, indeed the whole region has long been – a rich field of interest to mineralogists. It abounds in magnesian and chrome minerals, yielding also beautiful specimens of emerald, nickel, pennine, kammerite, marmolite etc. The magnesian ore is found in veins in serpentine, some of which have been followed into the side of the hill nearly 100 yards.
Village Record 29th July 1851
Chrome Mine – A property in Nottingham township, Chester county, in the Chrome region was sold a short time ago, at a very moderate price. Shortly after the sale, it was found to contain a valuable chrome deposit, the existence of which was probably known to the purchaser, and unknown to the former owner. The purchaser, we understand, put a large number of men to work, a few days since, and the former owner, having prohibited them from proceeding has brought an action of ejectment against the workmen. Sheriff Bishop arrested some twenty or thirty of the workmen, on the 17th inst., and bound them over to answer at the Court of Quarter Sessions.
Jeffersonian 26th February 1859
Chrome and the Chrome King
Some twenty years ago the south-western townships of Chester county, were thrown into a fever of excitement by the deposits of Chrome discovered in that region and the amazing profits expectant thereon.
The trade in this valuable mineral became monopolized by Isaac Tyson, of Baltimore, a member of the Society of Friends, who, in anticipation, bought up rights to dig and mine, every where over the country, and controlled the home and nearly supplied the foreign market. His gains were immense, and he was generally considered on the high road to a colossal fortune.
At this date, 1859, the sand Chrome, all through the dominions of Scrogy, and the adjoining State of Maryland, is almost exhausted. The chief supply is the Lancaster mines, where rock Chrome is dug out, and can be had plentifully. The monopoly, however, is at an end, and the shadow of the Chrome King has grown less. About eight years ago, Chrome was discovered in Sweden and Norway, abundant as stone here and picked up in the same way. The foreign market is supplied thence, and it has ceased to be exported from the United States. Had this discovery been made eight years earlier, Mr. Tyson would have been ruined, as he had invested, at that time, some three hundred thousand dollars in speculations abroad over the Chrome districts.
The friends of Mr. T. will be sorry to hear that he is suffering from paralysis. The business is in the hands of his son, who has turned his attention to the manufacture of Bichromate, with great advantage. The elder Mr. Tyson, the pioneer and Chrome King of the former years, has realized all that a moderate man need wish, his fortune rising, by general estimation, beyond half a million.
Village Record 1st January 1861
The Chrome Banks of Chester County - A correspondent of the West Chester Jeffersonian, writing from Hopewell Borough, thus describes the Chrome Works in that vicinity:- Some six miles southwest of this place lie the famous chrome mines, familiarly known as “Wood’s Chrome Banks.” They and a tract of land are owned by a Mr. Tyson, of Baltimore Md., properly styled the “Chrome King.” To these quarries or mines we paid a visit during the last season, when there were upwards of 70 hands employed in and about the mines, independent of those engaged in hauling the chrome to market. There are two shafts sunk, from which the ore or mineral is taken. They have descended to the amazing depth of three hundred feet. The mouths of the shafts have nothing dissimilar in their appearance to that of an ordinary well, probably a little wider. They descend perpendicularly some 75 feet, then strike off in an oblique direction for a distance, then perpendicularly again, and so on to the bottom of the pits, the men being, as we are told, some fifty yards further south at the bottom than at the entrance. The chrome is drawn up by mule power. Two buckets about the size of a flour barrel are attached to a rope at each end. While one is being emptied the other is being filled. Some 300 yards distant is the mill for grinding the chrome preparatory to barreling it. Here they have a water-power excelled by few, having the advantage of all the water of “Octoraro Creek” if needed. From here there is a shaft runs (connected by machinery to the mill) to the mines, and there attached to pumps for the purpose of pumping the water from the pits.
The hands employed are principally Irish, and are a rough, hardy looking set of fellows. The wages are good – considerably higher than farm hands receive. …
Scientific American 26th January 1861
A correspondent of the West Chester Jeffersonian, writing from Hopewell Borough, thus describes the Chrome Works in that vicinity:- Some six miles southwest of this place lie the famous chrome mines, familiarly known as “Wood’s Chrome Banks.” They and a tract of land are owned by a Mr. Tyson, of Baltimore Md., properly styled the “Chrome King.” To these quarries or mines we paid a visit during the last season, when there were upwards of 70 hands employed in and about the mines, independent of those engaged in hauling the chrome to market. There are two shafts sunk, from which the ore or mineral is taken. They have descended to the amazing depth of three hundred feet. The mouths of the shafts have nothing dissimilar in their appearance to that of an ordinary well, probably a little wider. They descend perpendicularly some 75 feet, then strike off in an oblique direction for a distance, then perpendicularly again, and so on to the bottom of the pits, the men being, as we are told, some fifty yards further south at the bottom than at the entrance. The chrome is drawn up by mule power. Two buckets about the size of a flour barrel are attached to a rope at each end. While one is being emptied the other is being filled. Some 300 yards distant is the mill for grinding the chrome preparatory to barreling it. Here they have a water-power excelled by few, having the advantage of all the water of “Octoraro Creek” if needed. From here there is a shaft runs (connected by machinery to the mill) to the mines, and there attached to pumps for the purpose of pumping the water from the pits. Strangers are at liberty to descend into the pits, having a torch and a man to lead the way for them; but the “trip” down is a dangerous one, requiring care and caution, as the rounds of the ladder are continually wet and slippery. Owing to the constant dripping, it is the most beautiful place to get a suit of clothes spoiled, and those desiring to see the wonders of underground work had better prepare themselves with an oil-cloth suit. The magnitude of the business done here cannot be well comprehended by the mere reading of a meager description of it. This is said to be the richest vein in the known world.
Chrome ore is composed of the oxyd of iron and chromic acid. This is the acid, of all the salts called “chromates,” that are now very extensively used in the arts. Chromic acid possesses the remarkable property of igniting ether when brought into contact with it; and some method may yet be employed for using it in the manufacture of igniting compounds as a substitute for phosphorous and the chlorate of potassa. Chromic acid combined with potash is the most common form that is used in the arts. In this relationship it is called the bichromate of potash; its color is a deep orange, and in form it is a beautiful crystalline salt. It is used as a mordant for coloring black on wool, and for making black ink when combined with logwood; it colors orange and yellow on cotton goods, and the oxyd of chrome is a common green pigment employed in lithography, copperplate and steel plate printing. Its green color is very permanent, and this quality renders it well adapted for printing bank notes for which purpose it is now much used. The oxyd of chromium when reduced to fine powder is one of the best reducing and polishing substances for metals known, and which we think is even superior to the finest emery for polishing steel. The best iridium pointed gold pens become useless when used for writing signatures for a few hours over the green chrome ink that is printed on bank bills.
Village Record 27th October 1866
A Visit to the Chrome Mines of Chester County
The immense piles of serpentine rock, blasted and drawn from the bowels of the earth, in West Nottingham, Chester county, and at Wood’s Mine over the Octoraro, in Lancaster county, in one of the loops made by that remarkably crooked stream, surprise and astonish a stranger for the first time, as evidence of long years of labor, and of wealth, in a part of the country called, in the neighborhood, the “Barrens.”
For agricultural purposes, the immediate barren ridge of serpentine rock, like that near West Chester, will never be very available, but there are great valleys and spots in it made productive, and, viewed at a distance not without enchantment. This barren ridge is the cropping out of an immense body of serpentine rock, on a vastly larger scale than any near West Chester, and is dotted over with black, pitch pine trees, large enough for saw logs, which it is said make the best quality of floorboards.
The Baltimore Central Railroad passes along the eastern margin of the “black barrens” to the Rising Sun village, keeping on the ridge dividing the waters of the Octoraro and North East creek, without bridges. Since the completion of the railroad to this point a great deal of grain heretofore hauled to Oxford, reaches depots much nearer; among them, Mr. Stubbs’ in West Nottingham, admirably arranged for shipping grain.
One of the fords on the Octoraro for grain teams and other travel is Blackburn’s at the mouth of Black Run. A petition was presented at the last Court of Chester county for a bridge view at this point, in conjunction with a jury of view from Lancaster county. The viewers Charles K. McDonald Esq., James R. Ramsey and R. Haines Passmore, of Chester county, and Messrs. Russell, Housekeeper and McCullough, of Lancaster county, met at the proposed site on Saturday, Oct. 13th, and unanimously agreed to report in favor of a bridge – unquestionably a correct conclusion. The solid rock will dispense with much of the usual masonry and excavations of foundations. The ford at present is a dangerous one, and in high water in the winter season. The secluded, romantically situated Nottingham Center kept by Mr. Melrath, where the township elections are held and the kindliness hospitality and goodness of heart are found, with patriarchal simplicity is on one of the main roads, a mile and a half or so from the fording.
Wood’s Chrome mine is about three mile southwest of Melrath’s, and is worked on an extensive [illegible word]. The water is pumped from the mines by machinery put in motion by the water power of the Octoraro. A shaft of wood over a quarter of a mile long, six inches square, and resting on iron wheels, not unlike car wheels, is worked backwards and forwards, on these wheels or pulleys, by the crank of a powerful waterwheel. This shaft works the pump that runs down into the mine, said to be about 600 feet deep and still progressing profitably. The chrome is in the rock form and to an observer resembling the serpentine rock, but heavy like iron in weight. It is the chromate of iron. Chrome, the books say, is white, brittle and hard. Its oxide communicates to glass a durable green, which resists the strongest fire. It is employed at the manufactory of Sevres, in France, to give a fine green to the enamel of porcelain. It forms the coloring matter of the emerald, actynonolite, and serpentine. Chromic yellow is employed for painting furniture, carriages etc. This is a chromate of lead, a manufactured article. Chromate of iron is worth from $40 to $60 a ton, and eventually becomes a valuable and important article of commerce and of the shops.
The water power at Wood’s mine is used also to crush the ore and grind it fine enough to be put into barrels for transportation. A barrel of it weighs 1200 pounds, and four barrels make a load for a team of four horses.
The agricultural improvements of the southwestern part of the county are not behind what are esteemed the most highly improved parts of the county. To convince anyone of this would only require a short visit by railway to the farm of Charles K. McDonald Esq., or other that might be named, equally accessible. Their fruit is less injured than other parts of the county. The apple crop there is a very good one this year.
The road from Wood’s mine leads up the Octoraro through a well improved country, to Pine Grove ford and iron works of Enos Pennock Esq., formerly county commissioner of Chester county. He is rebuilding his dam torn away by a freshet, and expects to resume the rolling of boiler iron this winter.
No part of the county is now more attractive than Scrogy, highly improved, a well watered and productive soil, dotted all over with fine houses and barns, settled with an enterprising and intelligent people,
Oxford Press 4th December 1867
East Nottingham, Dec. 3, 1867
Mr. Editor: As you don’t hear often from these diggings I may inform you of my trip out into the barrens the other day to see the miners, for I suppose you have not heard that there is digging going on for iron in these parts. As I said I was going out to see them, I met an Irishman and he stopped me to ask the way to Patterson Grier’s. I told him Patterson was dead. He said he had heard so, but he has lived here seven or eight years ago, where Grier kept store, and went away two or three dollars in debt to him, and as he was in the neighborhood he was going to pay it. He said that the widow had the best right to it. His name is Brown and I think he is the best kind of Irish Brown.
Parties from Reading have men digging for iron on James Magaw’s land. They are getting out quantities of what they say is good iron ore. If so, there is any quantity of it in these parts.
Jeffersonian 7th December 1867
Iron Ore. A rich vein of iron ore has recently been discovered on the farm of James McGaw, in East Nottingham township, about two miles south of Oxford. The field in which the ore was found has been leased for ten years by a company in Berks county. Mr. McGaw granted them the privilege of opening four pits, and two have already been dug, in the second of which a vein of the ore of best quality has been struck, and a considerable quantity thrown out. The discovery of the ore was made by some Irish chrome diggers who had been working in the vicinity, and who took some specimens of the surface stone – which bore iron indications – with them to our neighboring county. There are surface indications of iron ore on many of the farms in the same locality, and we have no doubt but that it exists in great quantities.
Jeffersonian 21st December 1867
Iron Ore has been discovered on the farm of Robert McMullin in East Nottingham township. It is said to abound in large quantities. It has also been recently found on several adjacent farms. If some enterprising farmer in that locality would unearth a good coal mine the people of other sections of the county might be induced to think that “scrogy” was of some account.