MASSILLON COAL FIELD. 797 
The coal is fully up to the best standard of the seam in quality and 
strength. It is quite uniform in thickness, ranging from 33 to 4 feet. 
_ There is no excess of sulphur. 
The roof is sandstone oftener than shale. The face of the coal 
runs N. EK. and 8. W. 
The mine is entered by a slope, and has but a single entry. It is 
drained by a 6-inch pump, but is flooded whenever the working is sus- 
pended. It is connected by a branch railroad with the Cleveland, 
Akron, and Columbus R’y, and also with the canal. It is located in 
section 15. Other openings have been made to the coal in the same 
section. 
The Franklin Slope is a nearly exhausted mine in the same vicinity. 
In the southeastern part of the township, near Manchester, in sec- 
tions 26 and 27, coal of good promise has been found by boring. There 
are about 200 acres in the basin, as is supposed. Brewster & Sons’ Coal 
Company holds a lease upon it. 
Coal was once mined on section 34, and it is also known to underlie 
section 33 in mineable thickness. 
The Johnson mine, in section 1, connected with the mines of 
Coventry township, comes under the general description already given 
of that field. 
LAWRENCE TownsHIp, STARK COUNTY. 
This township is undoubtedly the most important of the entire 
field, or at least has been so. Fourteen more or less important mines 
have been opened within its boundaries, and while several of them have 
been exhausted, there is still a large production of excellent coal. It is 
this township, in fact, more than any other, that has given character to 
the entire field. 
Following the Tuscarawas Valley from the northward, we find, on 
entering the township, a number of partially or completely exhausted 
mines in the bordering hills. 
The Lester Mine (situated in the north part of fractional section 6) 
belongs to the same basin with the Chippewa mine, or, at least, to one 
closely connected with it. It was worked asa railroad mine for some 
years, but at present it is only a country bank. The Crawford Coal 
Company had possession of it in the time of its largest development. 
The coal was found to be soft, and was mainly used as a steam coal on 
