USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > Centennial history of Coshocton County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 15
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After the Pennsylvania main line three more roads spiked their rails through our county where the hills began yielding their riches of bituminous coal.
In the early eighties the north and south line of the Wheeling & Lake Erie, which has become part of the Wabash System, was in its narrow-gauge stage of development. At one time in later years the road south of Coshocton consisted of two streaks of rust and a right- of-way. It was staggering under first and second mortgages and equipment mortgage which piled up a debt as high as its water tank. The transformation came with the extension of coal fields-enough Coshocton coal to burn mortgages.
The only railroad in the county which does not reach Coshocton, and the one which covers the longest distance within our borders, by a fraction, is the Dresden branch of the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway, part of the Pennsylvania Lines. Its construction was long interrupted. The tunnel in Bedford Township-the only railroad tunnel in the county-had been started, and bridge approaches begun, when everything went down in the Panic of '73. The road was completed at the close of the eighties.
The Toledo, Walhonding Valley & Ohio Railroad, of the Penn- sylvania Lines, was built in the early nineties. This capillary in the system which covers the industrial heart of the country contributes its share to the enormous coal traffic moved over the Pennsylvania.
208
SOUTH LAWN AVENUE SCHOOL, COSHOCTON. WITH FIRE ESCAPE SUDDENLY ADDED AFTER THE CLEVELAND DISASTER.
209
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
Herewith is tabulated the valuation of railroad property within the county, as presented by the railroads to the meeting of county auditors in Columbus, hospitably regaled by the railroads. The taxes paid by the railroads to the county in 1908 are also shown.
RAILROADS IN COSHOCTON COUNTY-1908.
-Mileage-
Road
Valuation. Main Line. Siding. Taxes.
P., C., C. & St. L.
$1,081,866
23.08 *23.08
21.68
$24,886.32
W. & L. E ..
378,100
27.68
9.49
7,293.84
T., W. V. & O
329,239
25.06
6.84 7,111.24
C., A. & C.
141,106
27.85 3.45
3,109.70
Prominent in the development of Coshocton County's extensive coal interests is J. W. Cassingham. From researches by him it is ascertained that coal was mined as early as 1834 by Morris Burt just east of Coshocton on land now owned by W. G. Hay. Soon afterward mines were opened by Jack Robson, Elisha Turner and Thomas Thornsley near what is now called "Hardscrabble." The coal was used mostly by the distillery here. The stoves of Coshocton were then burning wood, and, besides, Madam was prejudiced against coal on account of its soot. The ax and sawbuck were among the household gods of that period.
The largest mines in the county about 1850 were in the hills north- west of Franklin Station, the coal going to Newark by canal. H. Goodale controlled the property. There is still considerable output in that locality. The Columbus Coal & Mining Company is in the field. A track to the Panhandle was built after the canal days.
About 1856 mines were opened by Foght Burt on the farm south- east of Coshocton now owned by the heirs of W. K. Johnson. A standard gauge track was built to the Panhandle, then called the Steubenville & Indiana, over which the railroad's cars were hauled by horse power and later by small engine to the mine opening for loading. This was before the day of the tipple. Inadequate supply of cars was followed by the closing of the mines. Since then Thomas
* Second track.
210
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
Williams has conducted the mining there, marketing the coal in Coshocton for steam and domestic purposes.
Coke burning in this county was known just before the Civil war when John McCleary operated a mine at Rock Run, and converted part of the output into coke. Six years afterward the Rock Run Coal Company acquired the property, but a year or so later discontinued operations. Subsequently there were limited developments by others in that locality.
The first mine in the Coshocton territory producing coal to any considerable extent with the coming of the railroad was the Beech Hollow mine on Joseph K. Johnson's farm in 1861, opened by Edward Prosser, who knew mining from his boyhood back in Wales. After four profitable years he sold to the Coshocton Coal Company. Colonel J. C. Campbell, the superintendent, conducted the business profitably. Beech Hollow coaled the railroad engines, and the rest of the product went to western markets. This mine became the property of Prosser & Cassingham about 1880, and was operated until the vein of coal under the farm was exhausted.
Mr. Prosser opened the "Blaen Nant" (Welsh for bottom of the hill), along the Ohio Canal near Franklin, but lost heavily when he sold the mine for stock in the Newark rolling mill, which failed.
Mathias Shoemaker opened a mine on B. F. Ricketts' farm, east of Coshocton, which gave a moderate yield several years until aban- doned for want of drainage facilities. Afterward the Miami Coal Company renewed operations there for a short time, and then Prosser & Cassingham conducted the mine successfully until the coal was exhausted. The mine named "Pen Twyn" by Mr. Prosser, the Welsh for top of the hill, was an important factor in the coal production of this locality until worked out in 1883. Of all the men connected with the mining industry of Coshocton County, no one was held in higher esteem than Edward Prosser. He was actuated by liberal motives , in his relations with employees, and he sought to contribute to their advancement. The miners at Pen Twyn were largely men of his own nationality. Welsh religious services and singing school were held by them at Mr. Prosser's home.
The Home Coal Company mine at Hardscrabble was opened in 1868 by N. E. Barney, D. L. Triplett, John A. Barney, S. H. Lee. G. W. Ricketts and Edward Prosser. In 1876 the property was sold
211
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
to Edward Prosser, E. T. Dudley and J. W. Cassingham, and a few years later bought by G. W. Ricketts and David Waggoner, who con- ducted it until the vein was exhausted. The output of this mine was probably the largest in the Coshocton district, and contributed ma- terially to the commercial expansion of the city.
Near the home of John Porteus, south of Coshocton, a mine was operated about the close of the Civil war by the Union Coal & Mining Company. The superintendent was Colonel Robert Youart, succeeded several years later by Colonel Wood, and afterward L. W. Robinson, a son-in-law of Lewis Demoss and now associated with one of the largest coal companies near Dubois, Pa. When the Porteus mine was abandoned the equipment was sold to Mr. Cassingham, who opened and developed a mine in 1887 on the Vance & McCleary land.
The building in 1882 of the Connotton Valley, now the Wheeling & Lake Erie, gave an impetus to the coal business here by furnishing an outlet to Lake Erie at Cleveland. The Morgan Run Coal & Mining Company built a branch railroad three miles up Morgan Run, and the output has been heavy for years. The Wade Coal Company is also an extensive producer from a mine on Morgan Run. H. D. Dennis, of Cleveland, is the principal owner of both mines, which ship to his yards in the lake city. The present Wade mine is to be abandoned this year, and a large new development begun in a field east of the old.
John Conly conducted a mine south of Rock Run on what is now the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and afterward it was transferred to H. D. Dennis. It has since been abandoned.
What has become one of the largest and most profitable mines in the county was opened in 1884 near the Panhandle west of Conesville by David Davis, J. W. Cassingham and D. M. Moore. It is related that when Mr. Davis was earning his dollar a day as a miner he showed one day the hills in that part of Franklin Township to the young woman who is now Mrs. Davis. "Those hills are full of coal," he told her. "and some day I'm going to own them."
In 1885 Mr. Davis bought the interest of Mr. Cassingham and Mr. Moore. The Pennsylvania Lines are large users of the Davis coal. From the days that David Davis worked with a pick he was a close observer and familiarized himself with the most minute details of conducting a mine. His first experience as an operator was in a small
212
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
mine near his present field, hauling the coal by wagon to the canal. He still gives constant personal attention to his business.
After filling the office of County Auditor, Mr. Cassingham in 1887 opened a mine on the McCleary & Vance land, and shipments went over the Wheeling & Lake Erie to Canton, Cleveland and other points on that line. This mine continued one of the largest producers in the Coshocton field under the ownership of Mr. Cassingham until 1895, when the property was transferred by him to the Coshocton Coal Company, composed of Captain J. M. Drake, J. W. Warwick and Charles Zettelmyer, of Cleveland, and C. L. Cassingham, of Coshoc- ton, by whom it has since been operated extensively.
In 1894 the Oden Valley Coal Company acquired a large acreage of coal northwest of Conesville and opened mines thereon that year, connecting with the Panhandle by using part of the Davis track to the railroad. G. W. Cassingham is the principal stockholder in the com- pany and superintendent of the mine.
Within the last four years the Arnold Coal Company and the Burt Coal Company have opened mines along the Wheeling & Lake Erie southeast of Conesville, both of which properties are now owned by the Barnes Coal Company, of Coshocton.
When David Davis started coal development near Conesville there were not more than three houses in the hamlet which now has grown to a village of four hundred. The wage-earners are mine workers. A large sum is disbursed monthly by the Davis, Oden Valley and Barnes mines.
One of the most important mineral developments in the Coshocton district is the opening of twelve hundred acres of coal land in Franklin Township by the Warwick Coal Company, of Cleveland. The acreage extends into Tuscarawas and Linton Townships. The company is composed of C. L. Cassingham, J. W. Warwick and Charles Zettel- myer, all of whom are practical coal men. The equipment of these mines is of the most improved character, with electric mining machin- ery and motor haulage to facilitate extensive production.
.
Within a radius of two and a half miles of Coshocton are a dozen country mines, not connected with railroads, and producing consid- erable coal for steam and domestic use in Coshocton.
According to the report of the Department of the Interior on the production of coal, Coshocton County has been steadily increasing her
213
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
output in recent years until in 1907 it exceeded 400,000 tons, valued at half a million dollars.
A picture which has gone with the passing of Coshocton's early mining life was that of good-natured, whole-souled Margaret Rob- son whose husband was a miner at Hardscrabble. The matron of the miners' boarding house would walk the mile and a half from Co- shocton to Beech Hollow, both hands loaded with baskets of groceries, and a sack of flour balanced on her head. Her cheerful smile of greet- ing never left her, even in the years when she lived in darkness and recognized friendly voices that she had known in the old days.
In the ranks of the miners was first promoted the organization of labor within Coshocton County which has grown to a movement of the highest importance in the last score of years. That was a field day in industrial history twenty-three years ago when labor united its demand for protection and higher wages by the organization of the first local union here under the Ohio Miners' Amalgamated Associa- tion headed by the popular John McBride. Sam Nicholas, the lawyer and now judge, went to the mines to urge that organization, and to this day he is remembered by the miners. Morgan Run Local 379. Wade Mine Local 7, and Coalport Local 628, were the first to organize.
The miners' organization has made progress. It needs but a look at 1896 and 1909 to comprehend this. The conditions then and the improvements today afford a striking comparison, as described by E. P. Miller whom the miners hold in the highest regard. When he came here in '96 the miners were getting fifty-six cents a ton for picked coal; now they are paid ninety-six cents a ton for screen lump coal. Drivers then got $1.65 for a nine-hour day ; now $2.56 for an eight- hour day. Outside men were paid from $1.35 to $1.50 a day; their wages now are $2 to $2.25. Trapper boys who open and shut the doors through which the coal cars pass in the mines got fifty cents a day in '96, and now are paid $1.13.
Mr. Miller is secretary and treasurer of Subdistrict No. 6, United Mine Workers of America, covering the counties of Coshocton, Guernsey, Noble, Muskingum, Morgan, and the Crooksville district of Perry, embracing a membership of 8,200.
Important state offices of the Ohio organization of miners have been creditably filled for years by Coshocton men. William Green, President of District 6 (Ohio) U. M. W. A .. is strongly favored for
214
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
president of the national organization. Dennis H. Sullivan, Vice- President of District 6, exerts much influence in behalf of the miners' interests. In preceding years the State organization came to Co- shocton for its president, W. M. Haskins.
Machine mining was successfully demonstrated in this county by the Coshocton Coal Company, which installed electric machines, 1901, after an unsatisfactory experiment at the Morgan Run mines. The puncher, a machine operated by compressed air, is in use in the Davis mine, Conesville.
Much headway has followed the policy of miners and operators acting jointly to regularly reach agreements in the last decade. Prior to that the conditions were unsatisfactory to both. As an instance, when a salesman succeeded in getting an order and the company called for the miners to dig the coal, there would come a question at times among the men whether their wages shared in the increased price for the product of their labor, and the upshot would be a refusal to work, resulting in loss of the order to the operator and loss of wages to the miner. Under the present system of joint agreement covering a stated period the operators are enabled to sell according to fixed cost of production, and the miners' pay is definitely determined.
The miners' local unions in the county in the beginning of 1909 included the following membership: MEMBERS
Conesville, Local No. 515 (Davis mine) 08
Conesville, Local No. 976 (Oden Valley mine) . 77
Conesville, Local No. I (Barnes & Hudson mine ) 81
Conesville, Local No. 2 ( Barnes & Hudson) . 67
Cassingham, Local No. 215 (Pleasant Valley) 125
Morgan Run, Local No. 379 (H. D. Dennis, Cleveland ) 125
Coalport, Local No. 628 (Barnes mine) 72
Wade Mine, Local No. 7. 32
New Cassingham Mine, Local No. 1803. 46
John Williams, Local No. 1852 (South of Rock Run) 19
Retail Mine, Local No. 741 . 20
Rock Run, Local No. 1980 (Nichols)
8
Drake, Local No. 93 (East Coshocton). 6
To the total of 779 union miners is expected to be added nearly a hundred more with the organization of Roscoe Local, prospective membership of 60, and West Lafayette Local with 30 members.
215
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
In the progress of organized labor a step of far-reaching impor- tance was the establishment of the Central Trades and Labor Council of Coshocton. Ten years ago a few crafts were represented in the local of the American Federation of Labor established here. Now there are represented fifteen crafts in the Council with the following membership: Miners, 779; Potters, 41 ; Glassblowers, 120, last fire ; Printers, 32; Pressmen, 19; Bartenders, II; Painters, 30; Barbers, 16; Carpenters, 62; Tailors, 18; Lithographers, 19; Electrotypers, 7; Federal Union, 65; Railroad Trackmen, 200; Bricklayers, 75; Hod Carriers, 15.
The pioneer local of the American Federation of Labor, with Edward McCabe as President, and workers of the industrious, thor- ough-going union spirit of Secretary Al Tyler giving a willing hand to help along, built up a membership of five hundred. Out of this grew the Central Trades and Labor Council, whose present officers are: Charles Eddleman, President; Daniel Bowers, Charles W. Brownfield, John Poulton, Thomas Furnell, Jr., Vice-Presidents; John Lane, Secretary ; Gus Ogle, Financial Secretary; Johnson Mc- Dowell, Treasurer; E. A. Mueller, Sergeant-at-Arms. The trustees are E. P. Miller, J. T. Hart and George C. Ordway.
In the organization of the Labor Day celebration, with the multi- tudinous details involved in effective advertising and arranging a day's entertainment for an assembly of thousands of people, Chair- man Ordway's administrative qualities have been admirably demon- strated.
The advance of the city of Coshocton is a foremost achievement in the county history, an imperishable monument to those who have developed resources, expanded manufactures and commerce, fostered improvements for the general good, and promoted the social welfare. Running through it all is the spirit of that creative energy which has wrought in this county such a marvelous transformation within the span of a single lifetime, and of the dauntless vigor and enterprise which typify Coshocton citizenship.
Two-score years ago that pioneer industry, the steel works, was founded, and the name of Houston Hay became known in markets of America and abroad as the axle manufacturer. It was Mr. Hay who blazed the way for those civic improvements and public utilities which lifted Coshocton into modern city life. He lighted the city with gas
216
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
from 1872 to 1888, and then with electricity, and in 1899 incandescents made radiant the stores, offices, shops and homes. From a quarter that hankered to gain control of the electric light there emanated charges about high rates. The truth was there were no large profits, no dividends to stockholders for thirteen years, all earnings over the requirements for running expenses going into repairs and extensions of the plant to provide improved service. The company was willing to sell, and those who raised the dust of rate agitation got the busi- ness. October 29, 1901, a franchise was obtained from the city coun- cil, against the protest of Councilmen C. D. Brooke and E. C. Rinner, paying the electric light company $70 a year for each street light, with all-night lighting except moonlight nights. This nine-year fran- chise expires in October, 1910. The company furnishes incandescent lighting and steam heat.
In 1899 Contractor John Kissner began brick-laying in Main Street, transforming it from a dirt road to a paved thoroughfare. Then in quick succession came more brick-paved and asphalted streets, smooth and broad as boulevards. Extension of sewerage over the city marked a great stride in Coshocton's advancement along sanitary lines. Miles of cement sidewalks have beautified the town.
The Coshocton Board of Trade was organized 1899. Lots are sold to raise funds for bringing new industries here. To the public- spirited citizens who have subscribed for such building lots all credit is given. It is they who sounded the keynote for the new Coshocton. Theirs is the work that lives in the fires of new industries lighting the skies of Coshocton, theirs the honor that endures in the prosperity of a thriving city, the growing center of a rich farming community reaping the benefit of a city market offered by a population exceeding ten thousand.
Today Coshocton is a city of advertising, the metal-sign industry which has sent the city's name over the world. The first of these metal signs came from the presses of H. D. Beach, and represents the important outgrowth of the novelty-advertising industry devel- oped from the printing on burlap schoolbags and yardsticks by J. F. Meek in the days when Will Shaw showed the way to possibilities in this business.
With its advertising institutions, its glass works, its pottery, paper mill, brick works, axle and machine shops, linotype, printing houses,
CARNEGIE LIBRARY, COSHOCTON.
217
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
corrugated-paper plants, glove factory, piano works, furniture fac- tory, foundry, packing plant, carriage shops, enameling works, plan- ing mills, flour mills, and retail establishments of the finest, Coshocton compels attention among industrial centers of Ohio. Lots were sold last year to bring the Clow Pipe Works to this city. When this plant is erected it is expected to employ more than a thousand men.
The year which saw many beginnings in the new life of Coshoc- ton-1899-also witnessed the extension of the telephone from the city to the country when the Citizens Company began wiring homes in the county. Since that the Bell system has extended into the coun- try, and local telephone lines have been installed by farmers.
Natural gas came to Coshocton as a Christmas gift, 1902. It is piped from the Homer field near Utica, Knox County, thirty-two miles away. West Bedford and Warsaw are also supplied by the same line. This winter there was a daily flow of two and a half million cubic feet of gas into Coshocton worth at the current rate of twenty-eight cents a thousand, with ten per cent discount, $630 a day.
The earlier waterworks system of twenty-two wells has been sup- planted by one large well thirty-two feet deep and thirty feet wide, sunk in the field near the Canal Lewisville road beyond the Tus- carawas River bridge. The water, purified by natural sand filtration, is pumped to the top of Reservoir Hill in East Coshocton. The reser- voir has a capacity of 324,000 gallons. The purity of Coshocton water is a most important advantage of this municipality, and owned and managed by the city it strikingly demonstrates the benefit of govern- ment ownership of a class of public utilities.
In 1903 the city council accepted the $15,000 library gift of An- drew Carnegie made through his secretary who directs library dona- tions and with whom F. E. Pomerene corresponded. Several avail- able sites in the heart of the town were offered, in the territory of four of the city's five school buildings, east of the Panhandle, but the west end was astir. There was pulling and hauling in council, and the city was led into strange ways. Coshocton started out to locate a library, and three different sites east of the railroad were officially chosen. One contract was not altogether to be kicked under the table, and the city paid a forfeit of $1,500 for a five-foot sidewalk from Main Street to the Sixth Street Theatre, before the owner of the lot along- side agreed to tear up his library contract.
218
HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY
Affairs were reaching a crisis. Before a large crowd the council went through a stormy session-one of those scenes which have made the old city hall memorable in the electric light and paving conflicts between public and private interests.
There was the customary edifying process of browbeating and bulldozing some councilmen. Then it was proposed that council re- tire with the library board to a room upstairs, to talk it over in private.
Councilman John Wisenburg, whose integrity and public spirit have won him the esteem of the people, protested long and vigorously against binding the council by admitting the vote of another body, the library board. The meeting waxed warm. A majority of the councilmen voted for a site east of the railroad, but the others, talked to and talked at a great deal, voted with library board members for the site at Chestnut and Fourth streets. This was supposed to settle it.
"We're not bound to vote for it," said Wisenburg to Craig as they all filed downstairs to the council chamber.
"They'll not hold me to it," answered Craig, who was once sheriff.
"Vote no," said Wisenburg.
"I will," but Craig found parliamentary machinery a different thing to master from the engines in the Coshocton Novelty.
It was moved to adopt the site at Chestnut and Fourth, and the clerk was ready to call the roll.
"Craig," he began.
"Yes," answered the engineer.
Wisenburg called across the table, "Change it, Charley; recall your vote." But it was not recalled. Somewhere there was a mis- understanding. And thus was the library storm laid by a vote.
Joseph Love's years of service as librarian, dating back to the days of the public library in the Burns Building, have been most use- ful and valuable to the community. An incident in his work has been the saving of thousands of dollars in the preservation of books by his own binding when the original covers have become too worn to hold a volume.
Miss Lucy Beach, assistant librarian, brings to the work a lively interest in literature and a ready disposition to serve inquirers. The library is held close to the people, an institution prized by all, in school and out. From the collection of Coshocton's daughters who started the first library the list has grown in the Carnegie institution to 7.500
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