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CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Guidebook for 1995 Annual Meeting
Pages 49-55
GEOLOGY OF MASTERS’ KILN AND HISTORY OF THE MARBLE OCCURRENCES IN LAURENS AND
UNION COUNTIES, SOUTH CAROLINA
John M. Garihan, William A. Ranson, and Kenneth A. Sargent
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Furman University
Greenville, S.C.
Clark A. Niewendorp
South Carolina Geological Survey
Columbia, S.C.
INTRODUCTION
Masters’ Kiln is one of the known historic kiln sites in
the piedmont of South Carolina. This guidebook article is
intended to give a brief historical background of the kiln
sites in Laurens and Union Counties and then a descriptive
overview of the geology of the Masters’ kiln, which concludes
with a brief petrography of the skarn developed along
the contact between marble and country rock. The details of
the metamorphic petrology must await further study. Figure
1 shows the location of the kilns, quarries, and marble locations
described in this section.
HISTORY OF THE LIME KILNS OF LAURENS
AND UNION COUNTIES
Lime was an important commodity in the early 1800’s
for use in both agriculture and the building trades. In agriculture,
lime rendered “…stiff clay land more light and
porous…” (Tuomey, 1844) and helped neutralize acidic
soils. In the building trades, a mortar made from lime and
sand was the most frequently used until the late nineteenth
century. Marble was also quarried and used for building
stones and for monuments.
The first reference found by the authors appears in the
1843 Report of the Commencement and Progress of the
Agricultural Survey of South Carolina by Edmund Ruffin.
Ruffin describes the occurrence of a “limestone” on the
south fork of Raiburn’s (sic) Creek on land owned by a J.
Garlington and the erection of a kiln there during 1842-1843.
In Sloan (1908), this kiln is referred to as Mahaffey’s Kiln.
Ruffin also reports the occurrence of a white to pale blue,
crystalline marble in three outcroppings within a two mile
extent stretching from the Reedy River to Walnut Creek, a
major south tributary to the Reedy River. These outcroppings
varied from 40 to 100 yards in outcrop extent and up to
10 feet in height. The northernmost end of this trend is the
Masters’ Kiln location. According to Ruffin, the discovery
of this location occurred a few years earlier when a well was
dug on an adjacent ridge and “limestone” was discovered at
a depth of 64 feet. He does not mention whether a kiln was
present by 1843.
The 1844 Report of the Geological and Agricultural
Survey of the State of South Carolina by M. Tuomey
describes the occurrence of a 15 by 20 foot thick bed of limestone
with a N30E strike and SE40 dip outcropping along a
tributary to the Saluda River one half mile south of Ware
Mill (located at Ware Shoals). This outcropping later became
the location of Raysor’s Kiln but in 1844 no quarrying operations
had been initiated. Tuomey also mentioned the occurrence
on Reaburn’s (sic) Creek and noted that it was being
worked.
The 1848 Report on the Geology of South Carolina by
M. Tuomey describes the occurrence of a 15 to 20 foot thick
bed of limestone between beds of gneiss outcropping along
the Saluda River south of Ware Mill and along an adjacent
creek. Two other occurrences located approximately two
miles to the northeast (probably those along Walnut Creek)
were also mentioned. No quarrying operations were yet
active at any of these locations. Tuomey describes the limestone
as a “white crystalline rock… colored by streaks of
chlorite, and groups of crystals of actinolite.” Tuomey
describes the Reaburn’s (sic) Creek location in greater detail
and includes a figure depicting the outcrop. He also discussed
the kiln located there. The limestone is described as a
blue limestone associated with soapstone and gneiss. The
middle 10 feet of the bed was composed of “good limestone”
but the material above and below was of poor quality. The
kiln was described as being “unfavorable to the quality of
lime produced, and to the economy of the operation.”
Tuomey also included a discourse on the burning of lime and
the construction of kilns. A portion of this discussion is
reproduced in Appendix A.
Raysor’s Kiln commenced operations sometime during
the interval between 1848 and 1860. the November 6, 1860
issue of the Laurensville Herald contains an advertisement
by Raysor for the best “southern made lime” from his kiln at
Arnold’s Old Quarry at 30 to 34 cents a bushel depending on
the number of bushels. The January 18, 1861 issue of the
Herald contains a similar advertisement for lime from G. W.
Sullivan’s Kiln near Popular Springs. Around 1870, Sullivan’s
Kiln was acquired by Dr. Jake Masters and the kiln
was renamed.
Additional references to these localities occur in the
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