The Cheshire Historical Society
Hitchcock Phillips House
43 Church Drive
Cheshire, Connecticut 06410 USA
Telephone: 203-272-2574
THE BARITE MINES OF CHESHIRE
Sample on display at the Cheshire Historical Society
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"But it was the barytes mines in Cheshire that made the locality famous, a century ago, and brought Cornish miners by the hundreds over from the old country to this little New England community. "In 1840 an old colored mammy, called "Jinney" found some beautiful stones on the side of a hill near her cabin, and when examined by Prof. Silliman of Yale, were pronounced sulphate of barytes or heavy spar. There was a large market for this material at that time and N.H. Gaston, Joel Hunt and others of New Haven organized a company and began mining at the Jinny Hill site, on the Amos Bristol farm. James Lanyon was superintendent of the mines, and when the Stamford Mining Co. bought out the original mining company, the retained him as general manager. "For twenty years barytes mining was conducted on a large scale. Shafts were sunk as deep as 500 feet, and tunnels almost a mile in length followed the three distinct north, south, and central veins. Over five hundred miners were employed at one time, and sixty to seventy tons of ore were excavated daily. It was estimated that over four and a half million dollars worth of barytes was taken from one mine in a single year, and the miners' pay-roll exceeded thirty thousand dollars a month. "When the Jinny Hill mines began to run out, the Stamford Co. purchased the Capt. Peck mines in the northwestern section of the town, and operated them under the supervision of James Layon and his two brothers Joseph and Henry. "Operating became more expensive and difficult, as the veins shrunk, and eventually in 1878, when the tariff on imported barytes was removed, the Stamford Co. closed its mines in Cheshire and the industry was abandoned." - C.A. Goddard, Industries of Cheshire, Program of the Cheshire Tercentenary Celebration of the Three Hundreth Anniversary of the Settlement of Connecticut, 1635-1935. |
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"EBENEZER HOUGH HOUSE, 304 Blacks Road Ebenezer Hough, well known in his time for his grist mill on the Quinnipiac River, built this house in 1789. He sold it to Elija Baker (great-grandfather of Ray Baker of Cheshire Street), who, with several associates, operated a barytes mine on the property briefly in the mid-nineteenth century." - Landmarks of Old Cheshire, page 52. |
"THE BARITE MINES OF CHESHIRE
The 19th Century Barite Mining and Milling Industries of Cheshire and New Haven, Connecticut"
36-Page Pamphlet written by Crawford E. Fritts - State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut, Natural Resources Center, Department of Environmental Protection is available at the Cheshire Historical Society. The cost is $10.
From the pamphlet, page 3:
INTRODUCTION
Barite is the mineral name for natural barium sulfate (BaSO4), which was known as barytes or sulfate of barytes prior to 1925. It is softer than the common rock-forming minerals such as quartz and feldspar, and it is characterized by cleavage planes in three principal directions along which it can be broken easily. Thus it can be crushed and pulverized quickly at relatively low cost. The mineral is about 4 1/2 times as heavy as water, and is chemically inert. These properties make it suitable for use as an adulterant and "make-weight" in many ways.
During a period of 40 years in the 19th century about 160,000 tons of white barite were mined at Cheshire, Connecticut.
At that time the mineral was used primarily in the patin manufacturing industry of New York City, where it ws mixed with lead oxide (white lead). Today more than 1,000,000 tons of barite are mined annually in the United States, but only a small percentage is used for the manufacture of paint. Most of the present production goes to the oil industry, where the processed barite is used to weight lubricating muds for deep well drilling.
Cheshire no longer is a mining community, and it is unlikely that mining will be resumed here as long as minerals of economic interest can be obtained elsewhere more easily, in greater quantity and at lower cost. Nevertheless the town will remain important from the historical point of view, because it now can be shown that the Jinny Hill mine, which operated from 1838 to 1877, was the first barite mine in the United States, and, at one time, it also was the most important domestic source of barite used in the manufacture of paint at New York.
From the pamphlet, page 5:
Mineralogical and Geological Data
DISCOVERY AND FIRST DESCRIPTION OF CHESHIRE BARITE
In the town of Cheshire, barite first was found on the south west side of Jinny Hill about 1 1/2 miles southeast of the green. The main vein formerly was exposed near the present Coleman and Jinny Hill Roads. Rockey reported that the largest deposit was found by "Professor Silliman" near "Jennie's Hill," which supposedly had been named for an elderly negress who lived in that area. E.R. Brown of Cheshire was acknowledged for the information, which apparently had been obtained orally from other local residents. Later Brown himself gave "Jinny" credit for discovering the mineral deposit (supposedly in 1840) and he stated that Professor Silliman of Yale College "subsequently" identified it. Although this later interpretation by Brown now is a popular local legend, it is somewhat doubtful that "Jinny" ever played an important part in the actual discovery. It seems quite possible that Silliman alone found the deposit during one of his many tours of New Haven County when he studied the rocks and the minerals exposed there...during the period 1811 to 1813, most likely in 1812.
From the pamphlet, page 17:
BARITE MINING IN NORTHERN CHESHIRE
In 1864, negotiations also were made with land owners in northern Cheshire, where four small barite mines eventually were developed.
The first of them was on the west side of Peck Lane about 1,500 feet south of the Schoolhouse Road intersection (plate 1, mine 3)...a total of 144 acres of land in that area. [After 1865] the company was engaged in active mining but only for a few years.
A second barite mine in norther Cheshire (plate 1, mine 4) was also backed by New York interests...Thomas R. Hubbard of Brooklyn, N.Y., obtained for $50 a lease of mineral rights on 25 acres of land owned by Thomas Andrews on the western side of Reinhard Road south of Johnson Avenue.
...A third New York firm, the Cheshire Barytes Company, also operated briefly in the northern part of town. A shaft was sunk about 1,000 feet east of Peck Lane approximately three-quarters of a mile north of the present State Route 70 in West Cheshire (plate 1, map 2). The original lease of mineral rights on 3 acres of land there had been granted by William Peck to Leonard Hunt of the Town of Morrissania, Westchester County, N.Y. on September 29, 1866. The leased land was about 20 rods west of the New Haven and Northhampton Railroad and was described as the same lot in which Levi Bradley of Cheshire had dug several pits for "Barytes" in 1844. ...The Cheshire Barytes Company was formed shortly after Hunt obtained the lease, but mining was unsuccessful. The company was plagued by numerous financial difficulties during the period 1868 to 1871, and it finally declared bankruptcy in the fall of 1872.
A fourth barite mine was developed in northern Cheshire about 1,300 feet north of Jarvis Street on the east side of Peck Lane (plate 1, mine 5). ...Production there apparently was small, and the mining oepration probably short lived. The mine dumps in that area have disappeared since the recent relocation of Peck Lane, and the old shaft has been filled in. A private home now occupies the site immediately east of the highway.
By the fall of 1871, all four the small barite mines in northern Cheshire apparently had been abandoned.
If this has been of interest
to you,
please contact the Cheshire Historical Society for this informative pamphlet
on the Barite Mines in Cheshire.
Call 203-272-2574 or e-mail edwinkania@cox.net for more information.
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