Notes on the State of Virginia

A Compilation of Data About the State's Natural Resources, Economy and the Nature of the Good Society

Thomas Jefferson

• Publisher: Madison & Adams Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9788026893745
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

"Notes on the State of Virginia" is the only full-length book which Jefferson published during his lifetime. Widely considered the most important American book published before 1800, this book is both a compilation of data by Jefferson about the state's natural resources and economy, and his vigorous argument about the nature of the good society, which he believed was incarnated by Virginia.Contents: An Exact Description of the Limits and Boundaries of the State of VirginiaA Notice of the Rivers, Rivulets, and How Far They Are NavigableA Notice of the Best Seaports of the State, and How Big Are the Vessels They Can ReceiveA Notice of Its MountainsIts Cascades and CavernsA Notice of the Mines and Other Subterraneous Riches; Its Trees, Plants, Fruits, &c.A Notice of All That Can Increase the Progress of Human KnowledgeThe Number of Its InhabitantsThe Number and Condition of the Militia and Regular Troops, and Their PayThe MarineA Description of the Indians Established in That StateA Notice of the Counties, Cities, Townships and VillagesThe Constitution of the State, and Its Several ChartersThe Administration of Justice and the Description of the LawsThe Colleges and Public Establishments, the Roads, Buildings, &c.The Measures Taken With Regard to the Estates and Possessions of the Rebels, Commonly Called ToriesThe Different Religions Received Into That StateThe Particular Customs and Manners That May Happen to Be Received in That StateThe Present State of Manufactures, Commerce, Interior and Exterior TradeThe Public Income and ExpensesThe Histories of the State, the Memorials Published in Its Name in the Time of Its Being a Colony, and the Pamphlets Relating to Its Interior or Exterior Affairs, Present or Ancient

QUERY VI.

A notice of the mines and other subterraneous riches; its trees, plants, fruits, &c.

Table of Contents

I knew a single instance of gold found in this State. It was interspersed in small specks through a lump of ore of about four pounds weight, which yielded seventeen pennyweights of gold, of extraordinary ductility. This ore was found on the north side of Rappahanoc, about four miles below the falls. I never heard of any other indication of gold in its neighborhood.

On the Great Kanhaway, opposite to the mouth of Cripple creek, and about twenty-five miles from our southern boundary, in the county of Montgomery, are mines of lead. The metal is mixed, sometimes with earth, and sometimes with rock, which requires the force of gunpowder to open it; and is accompanied with a portion of silver too small to be worth separation under any process hitherto attempted there. The proportion yielded is from fifty to eighty pounds of pure metal from one hundred pounds of washed ore. The most common is that of sixty to one hundred pounds. The veins are sometimes most flattering, at others they disappear suddenly and totally. They enter the side of the hill and proceed horizontally. Two of them are wrought at present by the public, the best of which is one hundred yards under the hill. These would employ about fifty laborers to advantage. We have not, however, more than thirty generally, and these cultivate their own corn. They have produced sixty tons of lead in the year; but the general quantity is from twenty to twenty-five tons. The present furnace is a mile from the ore bank and on the opposite side of the river. The ore is first wagoned to the river, a quarter of a mile, then laden on board of canoes and carried across the river, which is there about two hundred yards wide, and then again taken into wagons and carried to the furnace. This mode was originally adopted that they might avail themselves of a good situation on a creek for a pounding mill; but it would be easy to have the furnace and pounding mill on the same side of the river, which would yield water, without any dam, by a canal of about half a mile in length. From the furnace the lead is transported one hundred and thirty miles along a good road, leading through the peaks of Otter to Lynch's ferry, or Winston's on James' river, from whence it is carried by water about the same distance to Westham. This land carriage may be greatly shortened, by delivering the lead on James' river, above the Blue Ridge, from whence a ton weight has been brought on two canoes. The Great Kanhaway has considerable falls in the neighborhood of the mines. About seven miles below are three falls, of three or four feet perpendicular each; and three miles above is a rapid of three miles continuance, which has been compared in its descent to the great falls of James' river. Yet it is the opinion, that they may be laid open for useful navigation, so as to reduce very much the portage between the Kanhaway and James' river.

A valuable lead mine is said to have been lately discovered in Cumberland, below the mouth of Red river. The greatest, however, known in the western country, are on the Mississippi, extending from the mouth of Rock river one hundred and fifty miles upwards. These are not wrought, the lead used in that country being from the banks on the Spanish side of the Mississippi, opposite to Kaskaskia.

A mine of copper was once opened in the county of Amherst, on the north side of James' river, and another in the opposite country, on the south side. However, either from bad management or the poverty of the veins, they were discontinued. We are told of a rich mine of native copper on the Ouabache, below the upper Wiaw.

The mines of iron worked at present are Callaway's, Ross's, and Ballendine's, on the south side of James' river; Old's on the north side, in Albemarle; Miller's in Augusta, and Zane's in Frederic. These two last are in the valley between the Blue Ridge and North mountain. Callaway's, Ross's, Miller's, and Zane's make about one hundred and fifty tons of bar iron each, in the year. Ross's makes also about sixteen hundred tons of pig iron annually; Ballendine's one thousand; Callaway's, Miller's, and Zane's, about six hundred each. Besides these, a forge of Mr. Hunter's, at Fredericksburg, makes about three hundred tons a year of bar iron, from pigs imported from Maryland; and Taylor's forge on Neapsco of Potomac, works in the same way, but to what extent I am not informed. The indications of iron in other places are numerous, and dispersed through all the middle country. The toughness of the cast iron of Ross's and Zane's furnaces is very remarkable. Pots and other utensils, cast thinner than usual, of this iron, may be safely thrown into, or out of the wagons in which they are transported. Salt-pans made of the same, and no longer wanted for that purpose, cannot be broken up, in order to be melted again, unless previously drilled in many parts.

In the western country, we are told of iron mines between the Muskingum and Ohio; of others on Kentucky, between the Cumberland and Barren rivers, between Cumberland and Tennessee, on Reedy creek, near the Long Island, and on Chesnut creek, a branch of the Great Kanhaway, near where it crosses the Carolina line. What are called the iron banks, on the Mississippi, are believed, by a good judge, to have no iron in them. In general, from what is hitherto known of that country, it seems to want iron.

Considerable quantities of black lead are taken occasionally for use from Winterham in the county of Amelia. I am not able, however, to give a particular state of the mine. There is no work established at it; those who want, going and procuring it for themselves.

The country on James' river, from fifteen to twenty miles above Richmond, and for several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excellent quality. Being in the hands of many proprietors, pits have been opened, and, before the interruption of our commerce, were worked to an extent equal to the demand.

In the western country coal is known to be in so many places, as to have induced an opinion, that the whole tract between the Laurel mountain, Mississippi, and Ohio, yields coal. It is also known in many places on the north side of the Ohio. The coal at Pittsburg is of very superior quality. A bed of it at that place has been a-fire since the year 1765. Another coal-hill on the Pike-run of Monongahela has been a-fire ten years; yet it has burnt away about twenty yards only.

I have known one instance of an emerald found in this country. Amethysts have been frequent, and crystals common; yet not in such numbers any of them as to be worth seeking.

There is very good marble, and in very great abundance, on James' river, at the mouth of Rockfish. The samples I have seen, were some of them of a white as pure as one might expect to find on the surface of the earth; but most of them were variegated with red, blue, and purple. None of it has been ever worked. It forms a very large precipice, which hangs over a navigable part of the river. It is said there is marble at Kentucky.

But one vein of limestone is known below the Blue Ridge. Its first appearance, in our country, is in Prince William, two miles below the Pignut ridge of mountains; thence it passes on nearly parallel with that, and crosses the Rivanna about five miles below it, where it is called the South-west ridge. It then cros...

Table of contents

• Notes on the State of Virginia
• Table of Contents
• QUERY I.
• QUERY II.
• QUERY III.
• QUERY IV.
• QUERY V.
• QUERY VI.
• QUERY VII.
• QUERY VIII.
• QUERY IX.
• QUERY X.
• QUERY XI.
• QUERY XII.
• QUERY XIII.
• QUERY XIV.
• QUERY XV.
• QUERY XVI.
• QUERY XVII.
• QUERY XVIII.
• QUERY XIX.
• QUERY XX.
• QUERY XXI.
• QUERY XXII.
• QUERY XXIII.
• APPENDIX.
• AN APPENDIX RELATIVE TO THE MURDER OF LOGAN'S FAMILY.[71]