USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume I > Part 18
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The Carlisle Notes is now the principal journal in the south part of the county. Edley W. Rogers, one of the young newspaper men of the state, bought an interest in this paper in April, 1907, and since April, 1908, has been sole proprietor. The News is well edited, and is capably managed for the best interests of Carlisle and vicinity.
The Dugger Journal was established about 1906, the first numbers be- ing printed in Sullivan. The first issue printed at that town was in Feb- ruary, 1906. Joseph F. Ferry was owner and manager, and in February, 1907, sold the Journal to Maurice Shirley, formerly of the Sullivan Times.
CHAPTER XVII.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINERAL WEALTH.
Sullivan county is one of the great coal bins of American industry. For years the railroads and factories have been getting their fuel from the rich stores that underlie the green fields and wooded uplands of this county. Every mile or so along the E. & T. H. Railroad a switch opens a little line that runs back into the country to the mines. And every few hours a train of coal-laden cars is drawn out from this spur to the main road and hurried away perhaps hundreds of miles to factory furnaces. Coal is the larger part of the freight which originates in this county, the labor of producing it is the largest single industry, and the occupation furnishes to the county its most diverse and problematical social elements.
While the coal fields of Sullivan county have been known to exist and have been under development more or less for more than half a century, the fortunes of industrial progress have been such that the county has always been only a fuel storehouse, not also a manufacturing center. A group of factories located at the doors of the mines would seem an economic result, since it would appear to be cheaper to transport the finished material of manufacture rather than the bulky fuel with which to make it. But seemingly no fixed laws govern such matters, and sometimes the raw material of manufacture is brought to the coal
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supply, sometimes the fuel is conveyed to location of the raw material, and again factories are located at convenient railroad and labor centers, remote from both sources of fuel and materials of manufacture. With- out inquiring into the reasons in this particular case, it is sufficient to state that Sullivan county has been content to produce and send away its millions of tons of coal to manufacturing plants at a distance. At the time of this writing a new phase in these problems has appeared. The plan has been favorably discussed of converting the coal into power at the mines, and conveying the product through electric wires to the factories. By this plan the cost of fuel transportation would be practically eliminated, and it is possible that in a few years the coal on being drawn from the ground will be converted at the mouth of the mine into electric current, and thence flashed across the country to the motors of the cities and factories.
In the account given by David Thomas of his travels up the Wabash valley in 1816 (elsewhere quoted at length), after describing the Turman settlement and prairie, the writer says: "In this neighborhood we have passed a coal mine, which has been recently opened, though the work has been but partially performed .. As the excavation is made in the channel of a small brook, the torrent, by removing loose earth, doubtless led to this discovery. All the strata of this fossil that we have seen in the western country has appeared near the surface; and it would not surprise me, if it should be brought forth in a thousand places where the shovel and the pickaxe have never yet been employed."
This is the earliest known mention of coal mining in Sullivan county. A general knowledge of the existence of the mineral throughout the Wabash valley was of an earlier date. The use of coal in these early years was entirely local. Occasionally someone would open a surface vein on his farm, and use its product as a substitute for wood. Or a
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blacksmith would sometimes burn the mineral coal instead of charcoal. But at that time the timber supply was abundant, and except in these individual instances the burning of coal had not come into vogue. An- other obstacle to the general use of coal at that time was the fact that stoves were not yet introduced, and that a practical method of burning coal without the attendant inconveniences of dirt and smoke had not been devised.
Along, in the thirties some coal from this vicinity was sent down the river by flatboat to New Orleans. The coal traffic had already begun between the ports of the upper Ohio and the lower Mississippi, and the Wabash valley coal sent downstream was said to command as high a price as the Pittsburg coal.
The railroads and factories are the principal consumers of coal. For domestic use the favorite fuel until within recent years was wood. There was accordingly little use for coal until the era of manufacturing and railroads. The development of the coal industry is closely involved with the evolution of transportation. Until the superior facilities of the rail- roads were afforded, the production of coal for distant markets was unprofitable, and on the other hand the railroads themselves soon became the largest users of coal. Though it is evident that coal was mined in this county during the first half of the nineteenth century, and that it was transported down the Wabash and perhaps overland for some dis- tance before being placed on the flatboats, it may be stated that the history of coal mining as an industry began with the opening of the first railroad lines through this region. Of some interest in this connection is the statement contained in the report of the president of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad (Vandalia) in 1852, calling attention to the need of coal cars, since the coal traffic, in his judgment, was certain to be a large part of the railroad's business.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
The first railroad in the county was put in operation in 1854. The following year an advertisement in the Democrat mentions the first practical coal mine in the county, the property of Hanchett & Kelly, of Farmersburg. This enterprising firm took the coal from a bank several miles from the railroad, and in order to obviate the transportation by wagon from mine to railroad, they built in the latter part of 1855 a wooden railroad, of a three-foot gauge, over the three miles to Farmers- burg. Their cars were each of twenty-five bushels capacity, and it was of course necessary to reload into the regular railroad cars. Some years later the mining companies were able to persuade the railroads to build switch tracks out to the mines.
The development of the mining industry went on gradually during the following years. It is only within the past decade that this county has risen to rank among the leading counties of the state in amount of coal production. A newspaper item that appeared in the fall of 1863, while the war was in progress, states that large quantities of coal were being shipped from this county, and that in the machine shops of the Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad, where the coal was chiefly used, it was considered of a very superior quality. The adjacent counties were far in advance of Sullivan twenty-five years ago in the coal industry. The report of the department of statistics in 1883 gives the total pro- duction of the twelve mines of this county as 87,470 tons. In the same year Clay county mined 661,410 tons; Daviess county, 240,000 tons ; Parke, 119,567 tons ; and Vigo county, 96,710 tons. The average number of employes in Sullivan county in 1883 was 239, and the amount of capital invested was $74,050.
The remarkable rise of Sullivan county to first place among Indiana counties took place during the present decade. At the beginning of the century it ranked third or fourth, then advanced to second place, and
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
the state geologist reported (August, 1906) that this county was first, with Greene second and Clay fifth. Estimates which were published in January, 1907, showed that the thirty-seven mines of this county pro- duced an aggregate for the preceding year of 2,262,428 tons. Greene and Vigo counties were next, each having twenty-eight mines in opera- tion. The total production of Greene was 2,243,584 tons, and of Vigo, 1,868,465 tons. The number of miners in the respective counties in the order just mentioned above was 3,666, 3.679 and 3,222 .*
When it is considered that the population of Sullivan county in 1900 was about 26,000, with allowances for the increase of the following six years, it is evident that the 3,666 miners are a large and important ele- ment of the total population, and that with their families and dependants they are capable of exerting a very great influence on the social and political life of the county.
Some interesting statistics on the Sullivan county coal deposits are contained in the state geologist's report for 1898. On that authority, it is not difficult to understand the pre-eminence of the coal industry in this county, since it is estimated that 440 square miles of the county area (the whole of it) is underlaid with coal deposits, and that of this the area of workable coal is 365 square miles. In other words, four-fifths of the
* During 1907 Sullivan county fell to second place in total production, being again passed by Greene county. The figures for that year are contained in the state geologist's report :
Tons.
Wages.
Greene county
2,704,408
$2,189,153
Sullivan county
2,660,333
2,263,994
Vigo county
2,581,379
2,246,366
The thirty-four mines mentioned in the inspector's report had a total of 4,016 employes. The principal mining companies of the county at the time of this report were: The Indiana Southern Coal Company, Consolidated Indiana Coal Company, the Vandalia Coal Company, Dering Coal Company, Jackson Hill Coal Company, Shirley Hill Coal Company, Southern Indiana Coal Company, Sullivan County Coal Company, Carlisle Coal and Clay Company, etc., there being sixteen companies in all.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
surface of the county has coal deposits underneath which may be made to yield fuel wealth. The estimated total of tons in the deposits was placed at 4,650,000,000 tons, and at the time of the report the estimated amount of workable coal still unmined was 950,000,000 tons. The total annual output of the county at the present time is about three million tons. Unless the demand or the working facilities make possible a pro- duction many times as great, it seems probable that Sullivan county will produce coal for several centuries to come. In the report for 1898, the greatest thickness of a coal vein in the county was coal 5 at Alum Cave, ranging from nine to eleven feet.
Chronological Notes on Coal Industry.
Jan. 25, 1866-Apparatus is placed for sinking coal shaft at Currysville.
Sept. 20, 1866-Superior quality of coal 5 feet thick is dis- covered at a depth of 173 feet.
Feb. 10, 1870-Hon. James M. Hanna deeded 160 acres in Curry township to his son B. G. Hanna and son-in-law Henry Overholser, who formed the Standard Coal Co., with a capital stock of $24,000.
Nov. 22, 1871-A meeting was held at Paxton preparatory to prospecting for coal in that vicinity. In October, 1872, Jasper Davis opened a bank of coal of good quality.
March 2, 1872-Organization of the Carlisle Coal Prospecting Co. completed, with William Orr, president, John Speake, secretary, and James M. Parvin, treasurer. Active work soon after begun.
March 30, 1872-Harry Stipes, Mr. Russell and Jonas Ladson behind a movement at Paxton to open a coal mine. The Paxton Coal Company organized, with capital of $4,500. Preparing to sink a shaft on farm of Jonas Ladson where the railroad crosses the Caledonia road.
March 12, 1873-Hinkle and Plough sinking a shaft at Pittsburg in Jackson township; Stansil & Co. to commence hoisting coal on Usrey farm ; coal of good quality struck at Paxton at depth of 157 feet.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
May 21, 1873-Mr. Daniel Case working a mine in Traders Hollow, in Cass township, with 7-foot vein of solid coal, a little better than the Silver Fork coal, hitherto the best in the county. S. R. Hamill and a Mr. Thomas in this township recently, consider- ing the building of a switch from the E. & C. Railroad to the mines.
Aug. 19, 1874-Prospecting shaft at Shelburn, sunk below coal K, was a failure, a vein of inferior soft coal 2 feet I inch thick being the prize of their labor.
Aug. 19. 1874-After nine months of work without capital except their own industry and perseverance, the Handford brothers, having dug 201 feet, discovered a vein of good coal 31/2 feet thick. In August, 1878, an item stated that the Sullivan shaft of the Hand- ford brothers employed 18 or 20 miners, and that wages had been advanced 10 cents a ton. Their original shaft had been sunk con- siderably deeper and they were then working a much better vein of coal. Nov. 21, 1878-About 4 p. m. explosion at Handford mine killed eight men, including Thomas and Samuel Handford. The explosion took place in the lower vein and was caused by a careless miner who used powder instead of a pick in opening an air passage. after having been warned of the presence of gas in the passages.
Nov. 11, 1874-Announcement made that special coal trains were being run over the E. & C. R. R. between Terre Haute and Shelburn.
Feb. 26, 1879-Coal in 4-foot vein, at a depth of 75 feet, found in Turman township on the land of F. M. Brown.
Aug. 15, 1884-Currysville Coal Co. of Sullivan county has been incorporated under the laws of the state, the purposes being to develop mining lands and utilize clay in the manufacture of brick. The capital stock, $50,000, the incorporators being George C. Rich- ardson, Isaac Woolley, M. B. Wilson, John C. Chaney, Henry Hafer.
June 8, 1888-The board of equalization has been wrestling two days with attorney of the New Pittsburg Coal Co. over raising the valuation of the company's property from $9,000 to $20,000. The board have raised the valuations of other coal companies several thousand dollars each. The coal plant of the Pittsburg company, including the coke ovens, has cost about $50,000, and being new, would sell for at least two-thirds of that amount.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Feb. 7, 1883-Miners employed by the Shelburn Coal Co. at Sullivan and Shelburn are out on a strike. The price paid here has been $1.06 a ton, at Shelburn 90 cents. On Feb. Ist price was reduced at Sullivan to 86 cents and 69 cents at Shelburn because the railroad refuses to pay over one dollar a ton ; price has been $1.25. The difference in price is caused by the difficulty of getting at the coal both here and at Shelburn.
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June 15, 1886-Company has been organized to work the mine on the farm of Noah Crawford in Jackson township near the Clay county line. A contract has been made with the E. & T. H. R. R. by which that railroad company binds itself to construct and have in running order by September Ist a branch line from the mine to a point on the main line about one mile south of Farmersburg. The mine was near Alum Cave, at which a house was erected for the miners.
July 12, 1886-Excitement created by the announcement that the drill at the gas well had gone through an immense vein of cannel coal.
Nov. 1, 1887-Stock company has been organized at Pleasant- ville to mine coal. The town is underlaid with coal of superior qual- ity, and coal that was mined here took the gold medal at the New Orleans exposition.
Feb. 8, 1889-Options have been taken on large bodies of land near Pittsburg in Jackson township by a syndicate of capitalists in which Pres. Mackey (E. & T. H. R. R.) is interested. A branch is to be run from the coal road now in operation between Farmersburg and Alum Cave to Pittsburg.
Feb. 12, 1889-The Superior Coal Company had sunk shaft on Shoefstall farm in south Cass township, built a house for the miners, and put in approved machinery. A branch of the I. & V. R. R. was constructed to the mine, but the coal has since been found to be defective and the mine is to be abandoned. Oct. 25, 1889-Reported that Superior mine is to resume work after idleness of about a year.
May 17, 1889-Town of Pittsburg is surveyed and lots platted.
Feb. 10, 1891-Citizens' meeting held at office of I. H. Kalley to consider the propriety of testing the 22-foot vein of cannel coal said to underlie the town (Sullivan) at a depth of 500 feet. Sev- eral committees appointed. March 13-Meeting at the town hall on
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
March IIth was addressed by Thomas P. Fry of Chicago on subject of boring with diamond drill to test the existence of this coal vein. Dr. Crowder, C. W. Welman, Charles Padgett, C. L. Davis, WVm. Wilson, Stewart Barnes appointed a committee to canvass for subscriptions.
Feb. 27, 1891-The New Lebanon people are prospecting for coal. At Pleasantville a meeting was called in the M. E. church on the 18th to consider the advisability of organizing to drill for coal.
Oct. 20, 1893-The coal company that has lately opened a mine at Star City have bought 2,400 acres of land in the vicinity. The railroad is building a track from Hardersville to the mine.
Jan. 6, 1894-The 84,000 bushels of coal shipped daily from Jackson township require 140 cars of 600 bushels each.
May 19, 1893-The Island Coal Company loses its buildings at the Superior mine by fire on the early morning of May 14th. The loss included a block of coal weighing 5,700 pounds, mined at great expense for exhibition at the world's fair. The mines are the largest in the county. Loss, $50,000.
Feb. 7, 1893-Jackson Hill Coal Co., or members of that com- pany, who own land in all directions around Hardersville, are sinking another shaft at a point four miles west of Hardersville.
Feb. 17, 1893-First-class coal can always be bought in Sullivan for two dollars a ton.
May 12, 1893-The Sentinel of May 9th reports that articles of incorporation of the West Jackson Coal Mining and Transportation Co. were filed; capital stock, $500,000; directors, John T. Hays, Sullivan, Emerson B. Morgan and W. F. Nisbet of Evansville.
July 4, 1893-A force of workmen have been put at work on the extension of the branch railroad to Hardersville, which will fur- nish an outlet for coal from the new mine being opened up near the King postoffice, where a town is being laid out to be called Star City. When completed ( ?) the line will make a loop from Farmers- burg circling through Hymera, Hardersville and Star City, striking the main line again at Currysville. The coal business along the line of the I. & I. S. also being developed. A new mine has been opened on the edge of Busseron bottom, another near Dugger,
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
while the Hancock and Conkle mine is to be improved with new machinery.
Feb. 13, 1894-The Jackson Hill mine at Hardersville was flooded on the 9th by the bursting of the reservoir used to furnish water for running the compressor. Over two hundred men were in the mine at the time, and alarmed by the roar of the water all started for the shaft. In order to reach it they had to cross the sump, in which the water had risen to within 18 inches of the roof. George Sargent, pit boss, took a position near the sump and remained standing in the water until he had seen the last man across.
July 20, 1899-Scarcely a week passes without news of invest- ments in coal lands or of improvements in different plants in the county. The output of 1898 was the largest in the history of the county, nearly 700,000 tons, which is an increase of nearly fifty per cent over 1897. Miners have had steady employment at good wages, and no trouble of importance between them and the operators. All the old companies are running mines at full time. New shafts are being sunk one mile south of Dugger by Ingle and Co. of Evans- ville, who will employ 100 men and ship 500 tons daily; by the Hymera Company, to a recently tested vein seven feet thick and said to be of first-class quality ; by the Jackson Hill Coal and Coke Com- påny, near Eagle, who are lining their shaft with steel and equipping the plant with the latest electrical machinery ; at Farmersburg, Noah Crawford, president of the company, is putting in new machinery and enlarging the plant. The E. & T. H. R. R. is building branches to the new mines.
Nov. 9, 1899-The Bunker Hill mine, owned by W. H. Crow- der, to be improved with a 160-horsepower electrical mining engine.
Sept. 5. 1901-Seven-foot vein opened at depth of 300 feet at Jackson Hill No. 3, three miles west of Jackson Hill postoffice.
March 6, 1902-Walter Bogle, coal operator of Chicago, has taken options on three or four thousand acres of land northeast of Sullivan, and purchased part of the land.
July 10, 1902-The . United Coal Co. incorporated last week, with $100,000 capital. own 1,200 acres in Cass township along the I. C. Railroad. John T. Hays, Judge D. W. Henry and C. J. Sher- man, directors.
July 10, 1902-The United Coal Company are paying cash for
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
the lands bought in Cass township. In the past week John T. Hays and Judge Henry have paid out $30,000 and have $10,000 more to complete the deal for the 1,200 acres.
April 17, 1902-Little Giant Coal Co. organized with a capital of $100,000, the incorporators being John S. Bays, Cuthbert J. Sherman and Lee F. Bays. Their lands located one mile north of Pleasantville .- Walter S. Bogle Coal Co. has been incorporated, directors being Walter S. Bogle, Norman S. Birkland, Charles W. Gilmore, of Chicago, and John S. Bays and Walter S. Bogle, Jr., of Sullivan. Home office at Sullivan. The mine is two miles north of Sullivan, on the Southern Indiana, on land formerly owned by Dan. S. Herbert, and the company has bought 1,700 acres northeast of Sullivan.
July 10, 1902-The Ehrmisch Coal Co. of Brazil is buying 1,000 acres from D. E. Everhart, Austin Everhart, and T. C., J. H. and Mrs. W. H. Magill, at fifty dollars an acre. Of the 400 acres sold by D. E. Everhart at $20.000, half of it was bought by him a few years ago for $2,000, and he paid for it through hard work and thrift.
Aug. 28, 1902-J. D. Terhune made payments yesterday on 800 acres south of the White Rabbit mine, in Cass and Jefferson town- ships. The stockholders of the new company being mostly residents of Jeffersonville and New Albany, they have called their company the Jefferson Coal Co.
Oct. 2, 1902-Almost the entire east half of the county is now either sold or under option to coal companies. The largest mine is the Bogle, northeast of Sullivan, which is now prepared to ship coal. The shaft is 180 feet deep. This mine will employ 400 men.
Nov. 13, 1902-Another attempt to organize a coal trust fails. The project was in the hands of A. M. Ogle, J. Smith Talley, J. K. Siefert, Jacob Kolsem and other well-known operators, who designed to organize all the mines of the state. The profits of the coal industry for the previous months had been so large that the properties were held at inflated values, and investors would not buy.
Dec. 20, 1902-The largest deal in coal lands yet closed in the county was transacted when the Manufacturers Mining and Fuel Co. secured 1,200 acres of coal lands in Hamilton township, about a mile north of Sullivan. Anderson and Muncie capital behind the deal.
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HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Test drillers had been working there night and day for three months, the tests showing a thickness of five feet in No. 6 vein, five and a third feet in No. 5, and a fair vein of No. 7, with good roof. The Southern Indiana Railroad was projected to pass through the middle of this land, and it was also accessible by the Illinois Central.
Dec. 25, 1902-All the coal lands east of the E. & T. H. R. R. said to be taken up. Jackson township except in the extreme north is honeycombed with the mines of Harder and Hafer, who also operate 1,200 acres for the E. & T. H. R. R., the Ehrmann Coal Company, the Fairbanks Land & Improvement Co., and the New Pittsburg Coal & Coke Co. Cass township has many small operators. D. J. Terhune and the U. S. Steel Corporation have 1,200 acres. The largest mine is now the Wolford in Curry township. Job, McDonald and Matson have 1,200 acres for the Mammoth Co. in Hamilton township, Keller Mining Co. has 1,400 acres, Bogle Mining Co. has 1,280 acres, Green Hill Coal and Mining Co. has 1,000 acres -all in Hamilton township. Drilling has also begun west of the railroad. Land selling at double the price of a year ago.
Jan. I, 1903-Louis Hicks, representing a syndicate of Indian- apolis men, has ordered abstracts of 900 acres just west of the South- ern Indiana Coal Co. at Gilmour. William Zellars of Brazil, who recently bought 1,000 acres, has purchased another thousand. Some land is bought complete, at $50 for "the top," and $40 for the "bottom."
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