322 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
September of that year. The late Thomas Ewing was one of a firm 
who opened the first mines at Nelsonville, the mines being located on 
the Dover Run canal basin. Only the lower 4 feet of the coal bed was 
mined, the upper bench being left for a roof. Twenty years afterward this 
mine was reopened, and the top coal, abandoned by the first workers, 
was taken down and sold. C. Fay, John Carruthers, C. and L. Steen- 
rod, and J. F. Somers were among the pioneer miners of the Hocking 
Valley. The best market for coal in those early days was Newark, 
Ohio. Among the early buyers in Columbus were John L. Gill, and 
the old Neil House. 
Coal was first mined in a systematic manner on the Ohio river, be- 
low Wheeling, in the year 1833. Samuel Wyllis Pomeroy, of Boston, 
Mass., purchased the lands on which the Pomeroy mines are now 
opened, in 1803. In 1818, with the view of opening the mines, he wrote 
to a merchant in Cincinnati to ascertain the consumption of coal be- 
tween his property at Pomeroy and the Falls of the Ohio river. He 
received the following reply : 
I am able to communicate to you the following information: 
Bushels. 
Cincinnati Steam Mill consumes annually ............cocescoscoscccesceee 12,000 
Iron Foundry ¢ Sl py Niussee aca tabsameeparesansceecneee 20,000 
Steam Saw Mill ‘ MM eeeaes audecusethee ieee e csatenene 5,000 
Manufacturing Co. NM ef A RU Orne eee dagen 5,000 
Sugar Manufacturing Co. “ COR pie atadcaneeet ee ee tue mene ees ae 2,000 
ATOUNEGs¢S. sejadetscwscesoleantsdesseresessoceseceoeessomeesecesensesenaece ns 44,000 
In Maysville, or Limestone, used or Sold «...............coeesceeeecceseeees 30,000 
Tn. Louisville; usedorisoldicissossieeceouceeescnuossteccsncaescaceeseoscate conan 30,000 
Madison Mill (140 miles below Cincinnati)...............seccceeeee cosees 12,000 
DOtal ecesecs shits Beet Ca iicodesces cdcccsldestedsaeandeceeeetconees cena 116,000 
Coal was not used for domestic purposes in the towns of the Ohio 
river until the year 1833. A steam tow-boat, named the Condor, built 
by the Pomeroy Coal Co., in 1835, was the first tow-boat on the Ohio 
river. She took the loaded coal boats to Cincinnati and brought back 
the empty boats to the mines at Pomeroy The Lake mo built at 
Pittsburgh in 1837, followed the Condor. 
The shaft coal at Steubenville was discovered in the year 1829 by 
Adam Wise, while boring a hole for water for the supply of one of the 
village manufactories. The coal was met at a depth of 225 feet below 
