320 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
was then 15 years of age, and had already given evidence of earnest- 
-ness of character and a desire to obtain an education. Gov. David 
Tod told the writer of this article, that after the Brier Hill coal was 
fairly introduced in the Cleveland market, the demand for it was so 
great that he could not supply orders, and was urged to load a boat on 
Sunday. He went down to the canal to consult the boatmen on the 
subject. All the employes of the boat, except young Garfield, were 
engaged playing cards, while the driver boy was found on the front of 
the boat, alone, intently studying a history of the United States. Gar- 
field’s name was not in that history, added Gov. Tod, but the future 
student of American history will find it there. 
The first coal mined at Mineral Ridge occurred in the year 1835, 
the mines being opened at Coal Run, on the land of Michael Ohl. In 
1833 Roger Hill, a Pennsylvanian, who had formerly mined coal in 
Beaver county, of that State, moved to Mineral Ridge. He pointed 
out a coal bed to Mr. Ohl, which, on being opened, proved to be 4 feet 
thick. Hill, who was employed to open the mine, in drifting into the 
hill, selected a square and heavy piece of the mineral, which differed 
in weight and appearance from the body of the seam, and carried it 
home to test its qualities. The piece refused to burn, and was pro- 
nounced bastard cannel, or black stone. It was afterward left un- 
wrought in the mine, forming the floor of the excavations. The main 
part of the coal found ready sale for blacksmithing and domestic pur- 
poses, and in 1857 the first shipments were made to Cleveland. 
In 1854 John Lewis, an English miner, who had mined blackband 
ore in the old country, settled at Mineral Ridge. One day, while 
digging up the floor of his room to set a prop, he was struck with the 
similarity of the floor to the blackband ore in Victoria mines, in Eng- 
land. He informed the proprietors of the mine, Messrs. Ward & Co., 
that the floor of the mine was a deposit of blackband ore. The pro- 
prietors directed the English miner to mine and calcine some of the ore, 
which was done with promising results. All the workings were now 
reopened, and the blackband mined out. The stratum of ore ranged in 
thickness from 1 inch to 1 foot, and after being calcined yielded 50 per 
cent. of iron. Several years elapsed before the full value of this dis- 
covery was appreciated; the art of calcining the ore, and mixing it | 
judiciously not being properly understood. In 1868 the pig iron, made 
from a judicious mixture of the blackband and Lake Superior ores, pro- 
