GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 51 



" Virginia Mine. Some two or three miles nearly due south 

 of Mount Hope is the famous Virginia Mine, on the 16th sec- 

 tion, in township 41, and range 1 east. This mine was discov- 

 ered in 1834 or 1835, by Bartlett Brundage, and the fame of 

 it soon attracted to it a number of miners, who obtained the 

 privilege of working lots of twenty-four feet in diameter ; and 

 during the first year of its discovery the number engaged in 

 mining is supposed to have been between 200 and 300. The 

 School Commissioners (for it was on the public school land), 

 in order to secure the rent on the mineral obtained, determin- 

 ed to appoint a single smelter, who should be responsible for 

 it ; and the number of applicants was so great, that they deci- 

 ded to make the selection by the drawing of lots, when it fell 

 to John Williamson, who, having held it for a short time, sold 

 to C. B. and I. Inge for 17,000. They having retained this 

 office until the autumn of 1835 or '36, disposed of their right 

 for $14,000 to Mr. Clendennin. He held it for about one year, 

 when the mineral having accumulated in such quantities that 

 he could not or did not smelt as fast as it was brought in by 

 the miners, great dissatisfaction was excited, and the miners 

 having rebelled and refused to furnish him the mineral, suit 

 was commenced, the final termination of which was that the 

 lease granted to him was broken. Soon after a number of 

 smelters were appointed by the Trustees of the Public Schools, 

 and at one time there were as many as ten log and three ash 

 furnaces in operation. 



" In 1844, the Meramec Company obtained a lease for working 

 the mine and smelting the mineral, with the understanding 

 that they were to buy the miners' rights to the tracts on the 

 lode. They commenced operations actively and energetically, 

 putting up a steam engine and pump, sinking the shafts deeper, 

 running levels, and erecting a furnace ; when one of the parties 

 becoming embarrassed in his mercantile business, and another 

 dying, operations were suspended, in 1846, for the want of 

 funds; and since that time little or nothing has been done, 

 while the machinery has been rusting, the buildings decaying, 

 and the shafts and levels been caving i;i. 



"The ore is found more in a vertical fissure, whose course is 

 nearly due north and south, and has been traced by diggings 

 from a short distance north of the Meramec, over a line, ex- 



