HENRY COUNTY. 195 



miles iu width, coal has been found in many places. The seauis, how- 

 ever, are thinner than at the two corners. Some of the shafts have been 

 abandoned, and some never were worked at all. I propose to briefly 

 notice some of the coal mines discovered in this portion of the county, 

 before describing the important coal mines about G-alva and Kewanee. 



About one and a half miles north-west of Geneseo, there in an aban- 

 doned shaft, where a coal seam from one and a half to three feet thick 

 was found at a depth of about sixty feet. This, I believe, is the old 

 Allen's mine. Indurated clay, limestone and sandstone were all pene- 

 trated in sinking the shaft. The coal was of good quality; bright iri- 

 descent iu color; hard, even fracture, and rhomboidal cleavage. The 

 seam was considered too thin for profitable working. 



At Atkinson, the next station east of Geneseo, on the Rock Island 

 and Chicago Railroad, the well dug to supply the large steam mill stand- 

 ing near the depot, passed through a seam of coal three feet thick, a'ud 

 twenty feet below the surface. One-half mile east of this well there is 

 a shaft still worked, out of which has been taken about ten thousand 

 bushels of coal. The seam is here three and one-half feet thick, and 

 twenty-two feet below the surface, and is operated by a horse gin. There 

 is in this locality a good slate roof over the coal, ten feet thick, and it 

 is underlaid by a bed of fire clay. 



About four miles north-west of Cambridge, in the township of Oscoe, 

 Mr. A. A. Crane has put down a coal shaft, striking a seam from thirty- 

 two to thirty-six inches thick, at a depth of eighty-seven feet. The seain 

 appears to thin out towards the north and thicken towards the south. 



On the farm of Samuel Dixon, in Muusou township, eight miles east 

 of Cambridge, coal is mined to some extent, the seam being the same 

 as at Atkinson, and twenty-four feet below the surface. Two miles south 

 of Cambridge, a shaft was being put down, when I was there. A boring 

 previously made was reported to have indicated coal, at a depth which I 

 do not now remember. 



Coal is mined in this vicinity about Round Grove, equally distant 

 east from Cambridge and north from Galva, and in considerable quan- 

 tities. It is hauled in wagons to Cambridge and over the surrounding 

 prairies, and thus finds a ready market at the mines. 



In a few more places over this broad strip of country between Cleve- 

 land and Kewanee, coal has been discovered; but sufficient has been said 

 to indicate the general character of the seams here mined. I come now 

 to the most extensively worked locality in the county, and perhaps the 

 heaviest deposit of coal within its limits. Galva and Kewanee, both in 

 the south-eastern corner of the county, but a few miles apart, are widely 

 known as coal mining localities ; but at the latter place the mines are 

 worked to much the greatest extent. Five or six shafts are put down 



