PROMINENT PERSONS
353
band of Indians had camped in 1753, while
returning from a raid with their white pris-
oners. One of these, Mrs. Mary Inglis,
made her escape afterward and described
the spring where the Indians had supplied
themselves with salt by boiling down the
water. Although Ruffner realized the po-
tential value of this spring, he died in 1803
without developing it, willing it to his sons,
David and Joseph. Before 1803 the spring
was producing one hundred and fifty pounds
per day, by simple methods, and the salt was
noted for its superior quality, but desiring to
obtain a larger supply, the brothers began to
look for the source. They traced it to the
"Great Buffalo Lick" just at the river's edge
six miles above Charleston ; this was twelve
or fifteen rods in extent. In order to reach
the bottom of the quicksand through which
the brine flowed, they set a platform on the
top of a hollow sycamore tree about fom
feet in diameter, and by means of a pole
with its fulcrum on a forked stick, a bucket
made of half a whiskey barrel could be filled
by one man armed with pick and shovel,
and emptied by two men standing on the
platform. Rigging up a long iron drill with
a two-and-a-half-inch chisel, they attached
the upper end to a spring pole by a rope,
and with this primitive instrument finally
bored forty feet through solid rock, reach-
ing several cavities filled with strong salt
water. This was brought to the surface
undiluted, through wooden tubes, joined to-
gether and wound with twine. Thus was
bored, tubed, rigged and worked the first
drilled salt well west of the Alleghanies, if
not in the United States. Considering the
Ruffners' lack of preliminary study or ex-
perience, working in a newly settled coun-
try, without steam power, machine shops.
VIA.-23
materials, or skilled mechanics, this is a
wonderful engineering feat. In a crude way
they invented nearly every appliance that
has since made artesian boring possible. In
February, 1808, the first salt was taken from
the furnace, and the price reduced to four
cents a pound. Ruffner Brothers were the
pioneers of salt manufacture in the Kana-
wha valley, an industry that as early as 1817
comprised thirty furnaces and twenty wells,
producing seven hundred thousand bushels
yearly. David Ruffner, the leader, was edu-
cated in the Page county schools, and en-
gaged in farming until he began the manu-
facture of salt. Subsequently he made many
improvements in drilling appliances, some
of which are still in use. He became the
leading man in Kanawha county, which he
repeatedly represented in the Virginia legis-
lature and he was for many years presiding
judge of the county court. He was married,
i:» 1789, to Ann, daughter of Henry Brum-
bach, of Rockingham county, Virginia, and
had by her four children: Henry, who be-
came a Presbyterian minister and was presi-
dent of Washington College, Lexington,
Virginia; Anne E., Susan B., and Lewis
Ruffner. His brother Joseph (bom Feb-
ruary 14, 1769, died 1837) sold his interest
in the salt works and went to Ohio, where
he bought land which eventually became a
part of Cincinnati. Judge Ruffner died in
Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1837.
Newman, James, of "Hilton," born in 1806. He was a noted agriculturist and a man of broad information. He was for years president of the Virginia State Agri- cultural Society, and did much to promote the improvement of stock in Orange county, introducing and long maintaining the noted
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