Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/244

 184 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI operated bj- water po^-er, aud worked. This treatment secured iron of a fair grade in small quantities. The great handicap to mining, both lead and iron, was the absence of sufficient capital to provide proper equipment. It is quite cer- tain that even vast sums of capital could not have provided equipment such as in use today in mines, but it could have made a very great improvement in the methods of those days. It was, however, impossible to secure capital sufficient for the purpose. It was a new coun- try and like all new countries, suffered from a scarcity of money. It was only by the slow process of growth and development that capi- tal could be produced in sufficient quantities to operate the mines in any adequate or effi- cient way. We are inclined to smile at the modest efforts and poor facilities of the early miners, but we should not forget that their limited product was contributing to the for- mation of that store of wealth which makes possible the improved methods and splendid machiner3' of todaj'. The early French mining was even more wasteful and less carefully organized than that of which we have spoken. There were a great many shallow diggings in many parts of the mineral district in which ore was taken out, but the only furnace used in the early times was an "Ash" furnace, that could not have saved more than sixty per cent of the lead, the rest being lost in the slack. When Louisiana was ceded to the United States, in 1803, the government reserved to it- self all mines and salt springs in the entire territory. This was in accordance with the usual policy in such cases. It was the pur- pose to lease these mines and springs and to collect a rental charge upon them. It was dis- covered, however, that the cost of clearing the land was greater than the revenue obtained, and the fact that the rental was not carefully collected explains the non-existence of accu- rate statistics concerning the reduction. It is said that in the year 1811 five million pounds of ore were delivered at Shiboleth, but in 1819 it was reported that only one million pounds were yielded. Mine a Breton at one time yielded three million pounds a year, but in 1819 the yield was not more than five hun- dred thousand pounds, and there were not more than thirty miners at work throughout the year. It was in 1819 that the government of the United States sent Schoolcraft to the mineral region to study and make a report on the condition of these mines. He found IM. Bre- ton, the discoverer of the mine which bears his name, still living near Ste. Genevieve. He was at that time one hundred and nine years old. This report which Schoolcraft prepared and submitted to the government is the most accurate and authentic source of information concerning the mining industry which there is in existence. Its author, Henry R. Schoolcraft, who was born in Albany, New York, in 1793, and re- ceived rudimentary education, moved in 1817 to Pittsburg. From his earliest years he w^as very much interested in mining and geology. At his own expense he traveled over portions of the country west of the Mississippi and the South, then came to St. Louis. He was ap- pointed an agent of the government and made his headquarters for a time at Potosi. Here he studied the conditions of the mines in all the di.stricts, especially in Washington county, and drew up a formal and elaborate report concerning the entire mining region. Alost of the shafts were from ten to thirty feet deep and were sunk in stiff, red clay into the lead here found imbedded. This ore was