Pioneer history of Ingham County, compiled and arranged by Mrs. Franc L. Adams, secretary of the Ingham County pioneer and historical society.

INGHAM COUNTY NOTES

229

underlaid with a coal strata, but the quantity or quality would
not tempt experts to make any effort to go into the mining business, in fact, said in substance that "the game would not be worth
the candle" under present conditions.
In 1893 the coal question in Ingham county received an added
impetus when in digging a well on the A. D. Hawley farm in
Vevay township there was found a vein of coal six feet in thickness.
This part of the county, which lies exactly between the well known
mines of Corunna and Jackson, gives strong indications of the
existence of coal, and causes the land owners to feel sure that their
efforts to uncover coal in paying quantities will be successful.
Messrs. L. S. Bates and L. J. Lincoln are so firmly convinced that
coal is to be found that they have leased 800 acres of land in the
southeastern part of Vevay, three miles from Mason, and will at
once begin prospecting. Their leases give them the privilege of
boring for and mining coal, and if they find veins two feet thick
they will continue to work. The farms are owned by A. D. Hawley, Jesse Gray, Ira Teall, Selwin Bush, Dennis Stevens, W. S.
Chalker, F. Searle and others, all of whom are long since dead, but
not until their hopes of fruitful coal mines had died before their
eyes.
WILLIAMSTON COAL DEPOSITS.
Williamston Enterprise, March 13, 1918.
At the regular meeting of Williamston Lodge No. 205, 1. O. O. F.,
last Thursday evening Thomas M. Jenkins gave a very interesting
talk on the coal deposits of Williamston and anecdotes in connection with the mining thereof.
Among other things, he described how, during his recent operations here, the miners working for him broke through into the old
workings of thirty-six to forty years ago. The shaft put down by
Mr. Jenkins was not far from the old shaft which had been filled
with water for nearly forty years. His miners, however, worked
in a different direction for many months and did not come near
the old workings, but finally in attempting to reach another
pocket of coal their tunnel broke into the old mine. There was