Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/241

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 181 places, and to these the farmers carried their grain and received from the mill the flour or meal ground from their owti grain. If farming was the most important of the industries in Southeast Missouri during this period of its history, mining was second in importance. Large numbers of families de- pended in whole or in part lipon mining for support. Austin, who was given a great tract •5) famous. They were worked by the French and were one of the prime motives for French exploration and settlement. The region to which the early French seek- ers after mineral wealth gave most attention lies between the head waters of the St. Fran- cois and the Missississippi and between the Maramec on the north and Apple creek. So full of mineral wealth was this district that it was early called the mineral district of Louis- Happy Missouri Corn Grower of land by the Spanish for the erection of the first reverbatory furnace, saj's that it was the custom for the poor to resort to the mines after harvest, and to spend several months engaged in labor in these mines. The rich families sent their slaves about the same time, so that the greater part of the mining was done from August to December. This offered to those who farmed an opportunity, which they were not slow to use, to spend the months not needed upon the farms in labor at the mines. The mines of the southeast had long been iana. Within its 3,000 square miles are found many minerals. Lead, iron and zinc are those of most importance, but besides these are cop- per, manganese, salt, antimony, cobalt, plinn- bago and some others. All the early French explorers mention the richness of the lead mines. These deposits of lead were known and worked even by the Indians. The French began to take out lead in this district proba- bly before the year 1700. It is impossible to fix, with certainty, either the date when lead was first mined or the men who opened this first mine. Schoolcraft,