1875—Old-Timers Recall Day When Small Quantity of “Black Diamonds” Set Town Talking, by Katherine Burr Fleming
Durham was excited! They had not been keyed to such enthusiasm or curiosity since President George Washington passed through their lovely community in 1797 on his way to Hartford. It was not an easy matter to convince these slow-believing Yankee farmer folks; and when the Pennsylvania mining engineer said that the resemblance of the Durham hills and valleys and the rock formation compared favorably with productive coal districts of Pennsylvania, they merely raised their eyes in mild surprise. But after various technicalities and explanations proved satisfactory, they became as eager as the engineer, W. Carr, and their willing assistance was rewarded a short time later by actually striking a bed of coal!
RESIDENTS ENTHUSIASTIC
The venture took place at the foot of a wooded slope behind the farmhouse of Samuel Stevens on the Durham-Middletown Road, in the year 1875. His son, John H. Stevens, still resides there, and he vividly remembers the interesting experience that happened when he was a young man. When the digging started, after a very careful study of the most certain location where coal should be found, schoolboys no longer took an interest in their classes and remained away from the house of education to be on hand just in case there was something in all the talk concerning a coal mine. What was there to prevent one being in Connecticut, anymore than any other locality. A geography published in 1809 reported large deposits of coal in New York and Rhode Island.
The discovery might never have been made if Carr had returned to the coal fields following a brief residence in Killingworth. He had married a native of that town and was living in the old homestead of Samuel Stevens, who occasionally stopped by to call. An exchange of visits was accepted and when Carr got his first glimpse of Durham, he was exceedingly eager in his prophecy of “black diamonds”.
It is indeed noticeable that the topography of Durham is quite similar to the coal regions of Pennsylvania, principally the first locations, where the surrounding hills rise to a height of seven or eight hundred feet as they do in Durham. Much of the township is a great plain in all probabilities settled centuries ago when the ocean receded.
The proof of Carr’s calculations lies at the foot of a 34-foot hole, now completely filled with water. Beside it is a small mound of slack which Mr. Stevens says once stood ten feet high, for it contained a considerable amount of slate that has since crumbled away. A few feet from the hole is one of the strangest streams in this part of the country, not only in the fact that it flows north, which is quite unusual, but that it has a bed of slate for some distance along its course.
BROOK CONTAINED FOSSILS
Dozens of fossils were dug out of this brook bed by Samuel Loper of Durham; a few of them are now in the college museum in Middletown. During a period of three years, Mr. Loper removed the thin sheets of slate and found the petrified forms of fish, twelve inches in length, lizards, leaves, and numerous other forms of animal and plant life.
The slow task of digging the hole near the stream with pick and shovel, with the aid of a horse for carting away the dirt, was discarded when a thin vein of coal came to light. The hoped-for product was really right under their farms and visions of plenty of heat for long, cold winter months set them hurrying about the neighboring farms to raise the necessary wherewithal to purchase a diamond drill.
Easier said than done, and a very few were willing to squander hard-earned money on a possible coal mine. With half the amount donated by interested townsmen, the only means of owning the drill rested with a man who had made them a bargain. Not exactly to their liking, for it meant giving up the work already started, but it remained the only expedient whereby they could later return to their first operations. That was, if half the cost of the drill was met by J. Rogers, who lived a mile and a half away from the Steven’s place, they would drill on his property first.
Consequently, the drill was set up on the Roger’s place, and operations were started once again, while a breathless crowd gathered to watch the new developments. Each time the drill struck deeper into the earth, it brought up no findings of a coal deposit. The labor of the 300-foot hole was not entirely in vain, for it located an excellent spring which has furnished water to at least two farms. Mr. Stevens says they received many a drenching as the core of the drill came up with a pressure of water, and they hastened to slip on a sixteen-foot pipe.
MONEY GAVE OUT
Money, not to suggest some of the enthusiasm, had given out, and the second attempt had proven that if there was any coal in that vicinity, it lay too deep to reach with a drill. Work was suspended, and a small group of disappointed men were now convinced that no coal would be dug in Durham.
Durham was excited! They had not been keyed to such enthusiasm or curiosity since President George Washington passed through their lovely community in 1797 on his way to Hartford. It was not an easy matter to convince these slow-believing Yankee farmer folks; and when the Pennsylvania mining engineer said that the resemblance of the Durham hills and valleys and the rock formation compared favorably with productive coal districts of Pennsylvania, they merely raised their eyes in mild surprise. But after various technicalities and explanations proved satisfactory, they became as eager as the engineer, W. Carr, and their willing assistance was rewarded a short time later by actually striking a bed of coal!
RESIDENTS ENTHUSIASTIC
The venture took place at the foot of a wooded slope behind the farmhouse of Samuel Stevens on the Durham-Middletown Road, in the year 1875. His son, John H. Stevens, still resides there, and he vividly remembers the interesting experience that happened when he was a young man. When the digging started, after a very careful study of the most certain location where coal should be found, schoolboys no longer took an interest in their classes and remained away from the house of education to be on hand just in case there was something in all the talk concerning a coal mine. What was there to prevent one being in Connecticut, anymore than any other locality. A geography published in 1809 reported large deposits of coal in New York and Rhode Island.
The discovery might never have been made if Carr had returned to the coal fields following a brief residence in Killingworth. He had married a native of that town and was living in the old homestead of Samuel Stevens, who occasionally stopped by to call. An exchange of visits was accepted and when Carr got his first glimpse of Durham, he was exceedingly eager in his prophecy of “black diamonds”.
It is indeed noticeable that the topography of Durham is quite similar to the coal regions of Pennsylvania, principally the first locations, where the surrounding hills rise to a height of seven or eight hundred feet as they do in Durham. Much of the township is a great plain in all probabilities settled centuries ago when the ocean receded.
The proof of Carr’s calculations lies at the foot of a 34-foot hole, now completely filled with water. Beside it is a small mound of slack which Mr. Stevens says once stood ten feet high, for it contained a considerable amount of slate that has since crumbled away. A few feet from the hole is one of the strangest streams in this part of the country, not only in the fact that it flows north, which is quite unusual, but that it has a bed of slate for some distance along its course.
BROOK CONTAINED FOSSILS
Dozens of fossils were dug out of this brook bed by Samuel Loper of Durham; a few of them are now in the college museum in Middletown. During a period of three years, Mr. Loper removed the thin sheets of slate and found the petrified forms of fish, twelve inches in length, lizards, leaves, and numerous other forms of animal and plant life.
The slow task of digging the hole near the stream with pick and shovel, with the aid of a horse for carting away the dirt, was discarded when a thin vein of coal came to light. The hoped-for product was really right under their farms and visions of plenty of heat for long, cold winter months set them hurrying about the neighboring farms to raise the necessary wherewithal to purchase a diamond drill.
Easier said than done, and a very few were willing to squander hard-earned money on a possible coal mine. With half the amount donated by interested townsmen, the only means of owning the drill rested with a man who had made them a bargain. Not exactly to their liking, for it meant giving up the work already started, but it remained the only expedient whereby they could later return to their first operations. That was, if half the cost of the drill was met by J. Rogers, who lived a mile and a half away from the Steven’s place, they would drill on his property first.
Consequently, the drill was set up on the Roger’s place, and operations were started once again, while a breathless crowd gathered to watch the new developments. Each time the drill struck deeper into the earth, it brought up no findings of a coal deposit. The labor of the 300-foot hole was not entirely in vain, for it located an excellent spring which has furnished water to at least two farms. Mr. Stevens says they received many a drenching as the core of the drill came up with a pressure of water, and they hastened to slip on a sixteen-foot pipe.
MONEY GAVE OUT
Money, not to suggest some of the enthusiasm, had given out, and the second attempt had proven that if there was any coal in that vicinity, it lay too deep to reach with a drill. Work was suspended, and a small group of disappointed men were now convinced that no coal would be dug in Durham.