USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 53
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457
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
etc., had passed over it. It was the first steel rail, now called Bessemer rail, ever used.
The invention of Sir Henry Bessemer, which revolutionized the iron and railroad business, consists in blowing cold air into the converter-a pear- shaped vessel, which has been partly filled with molten cast iron. By this process the oxygen of the air, forced through the hot iron, produces the most intense heat known, and eliminates from the molten mass the carbon and silicon it contains, and produces decarbonized and deciliconized iron, known generally as malleable iron. Some carbon, however, is required to produce steel, and a small quantity in the form of spiegeleisen is added to the material in the converter. This furnishes the necessary amount of carbon to produce steel, while it also expels the oxygen that has remained after the blast of cold air has ceased. By this means, and by no other now known, steel rails can be made at a cost so low that they can be used as railroad rails. If it were possible to make them from our native ores in Westmoreland by the Bessemer process, and if our ores were as rich as the ores of the Menominee regions in Michigan, of the Lake Superior ores, the matter of transportation could easily be overcome, and the iron industry from native ores would be readily revived. As it is, the iron used in our factories is entirely from Lake Superior and other western ore, which is almost universally smelted before it reaches the West- moreland manufacturer.
CHAPTER XXXI
Coal.
Coal is by far the most valuable product of Westmoreland county. From our mines we ship coal daily in every direction. Its use has become so general and so extensive in the United States that perhaps a few words concerning its discovery and the early history of the trade may not be out of place here.
From statistics published by Richard Cowling Taylor in 1848, we learn that its first discovery in the United States was made by the renowned Father Hennepin, a French Jesuit missionary, in 1769, who discovered it near Fort Creve Coeur, near Ottawa, Illinois. Little use was made of his discovery, but the credit of being the first to know of its existence in America is never- theless due him.
A letter written by William Byrd, of Virginia, dated May 10, 1701, speaks of Colonel Randolph, Captain Epes, Captain Webb and others, going to see a bed of coal which at times of great rains was uncovered, but which was generally found very deep in the earth. This was in Virginia, about twenty miles above Richmond. The same writer in 1732 describes air furnaces at Massaponax, Virginia, and there first mentions the use of coal in America, though that is supposed to have been "sea coal." Lewis Evans, in 1755, pub- lished a map of what is now the Ohio Valley surrounding Pittsburgh, in which coal is shown elsewhere, but none at or near Pittsburgh, nor anywhere in west- ern Pennsylvania. So with Nicholas Scull's map of Western Pennsylvania, published in 1759. Yet the use of coal was known in Pennsylvania in 1758, for Colonel Bouquet, in writing to Colonel Burd about the encampment at Lig- onier, advises him to examine the country for "sea-coal," and, if none can be found, says that charcoal must be made. All coal was then designated as "sea coal." In opening a road from Christopher Gist's plantation to the Monongahela river at Dunlap's creek, Colonel Burd makes several important entries in his diary. He says that "Encamping about four and one-half miles from the river, on September 21, 1759, on Saturday the 22nd, they moved for- ward, going westward. On Saturday camp moved two miles to Cole run. This run is entirely paved in the bottom with stone coal, and on the hill on
1
459
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
the south of it is a rock of the finest coal I ever saw. I burned about a bushel of this sea coal on my fire." Coal was formerly mined in northern England alone, and was carried to London by water, and was called sea coal for that reason. In this way it was distinguished from charcoal.
A coal seam near Pittsburgh took fire in 1765, and is said to have burned steadily for sixteen years. In William Scull's map of Pennsylvania, published in 1770, coal is marked in Berks county, and also in Pittsburgh. Furthermore, in George Washington's journal of a tour to the Ohio river, which he made in 1770, under date of October 14th of that year, he says: "At Captain Craw- ford's all day. We went to see a coal mine not far from his house on the banks of the river. The coal seemed to be of the best kind, burning freely, and abundance of it." Captain Crawford was the unfortunate William Crawford who afterward became the first judge of Westmoreland county, and who was burned at the stake by the Indians in Ohio. He lived at Stewart's Crossing, on the Youghiogheny river, opposite Connellsville. At that time coal was used to some extent in Virginia, and Washington was supposed to be a good judge of its quality. Later developments confirm his judgment when he decided that the Connellsville coal was "of the very best kind."
The Virginia coal mines were the first that were worked in America. The mines were on the James river, in Chesterfield county, first worked in 1750. In a Virginia Gazette of July, 1766, Samuel Davis advertises coal for sale at Richmond at twelve pence per bushel, and says it is "equal to New Castle coal." In 1776 Thomas Wharten, Jr., and Owen Biddle, of Philadelphia, were authorized to buy coal from Virginia.
In a paper read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, on January 4, 1785, by William F. Bush, the Penn manuscript is quoted to prove that the Penns were aware of coal in abundance around Pittsburgh in 1769. Thomas Penn, in a letter from London, dated January 31, 1769, written to Governor John Penn, says, "We desire that you order five thousand acres of land to be laid out about Pittsburgh, including the town which may now be laid out, and I think from its situation it will become considerable in time; and that the land may be laid out to Colonel Francis and his associates and other gen- tlemen of whom I wrote you, as contiguous as may be and in regular angled tracts if possible." Following this, on May 12th, he wrote respecting the same survey, saying, "I would not engross all the coal hills, but rather leave the greater part to others who may work them." In 1784 the Penns still retained large tracts, notwithstanding the divesting act, and sold the privilege of mining coal in the "Great Seam" to any one on the payment of thirty pounds for such mining lot, a lot extending back to the center of the hill. Thus was the coal trade begun in Pittsburgh.
In 1785 Samuel Boyd patented a tract of coal in Clearfield county, and in 1804 shipped the first arkload of coal down the Susquehanna river to Colum- bia, in Lancaster county, a distance of two hundred and sixty miles, and the
460
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
"fuel was a matter of great surprise" to the people of that county. The first coal sent to Philadelphia from the western part of the state was from Clearfield county, by the Allegheny Coal Company. It was taken down the Susquehanna river to Port Deposit, and thence over the Chesapeake Bay to Philadelphia. This was in the summer of 1828.
In the early years of the last century the coal mined in Westmoreland county was not worth considering. The principal fuel used was not coal, but wood, of which the country had an abundance. About 1850 those who had to purchase fuel began to purchase coal, but still wood was used by the major- ity in heating their houses. There were hundreds of farmers who had acres of coal who nevertheless purchased it or wood from their neighbors, not knowing what lay concealed beneath the surface of their lands. Gradually the coal began to be opened in places where its outcrop was patent to the casual observer. These openings were always what is called "drifts." These drifts were called coal banks, and the output was only to supply a limited local market, and was mined in the most primitive manner. They knew noth- ing of the use of explosives in mining, and in nearly every coal bank the coal was brought to the pit's mouth on a wheelbarrow, by man power.
There were a few arkloads of coal shipped from the county on the canal, but the amount was so small that it is not worth considering. When the rail- road building era of the fifties came the coal industry began, though it was confined to coal fields in close proximity to the main lines. The modern idea of building a road to the coal fields was not thought of in Westmoreland county till about 1870. The southwest branch of the Pennsylvania, extending from Greensburg to Uniontown, opened up the richest field of coal in western Pennsylvania, but its projectors builded more on the richness of the agri- cultural region through which they were passing for freight and passenger traffic than they did on the coal, yet the coal and coke shipments have long since surpassed all others on that road. The coal industry, as it now exists, that is, the shipping coal from Westmoreland to foreign markets, was in its first stages of development when the panic of 1873 came. Little was done in the coal trade until the times began to brighten up in 1877. Then the trade, as we now know it, began to grow, and by 1880 both the shipment of coal and coke had become established industries in our county. With these industries came a corresponding increase in the value of coal lands. Until these developments were made land was valued because of its location or sur- face ; since then, the value of the land, if underlaid with coal, has increased so much that its surface value is generally lost sight of. Ten times its sur- face ; since then the value of the land, if underlaid with coal, has increased the value of the coal depends very little, if any, on the value of the surface.
The coal mined in Westmoreland county so far has been almost entirely the vein that is geologically known as the Pittsburgh seam. It underlies the greater part of the county, and has an average thickness of about eight feet.
461
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
Its depth varies with localities and with the topography of the surface, but it is generally found from fifty to two hundred feet below the surface. The table here given is taken from the reports made by the mine inspectors, and published by the State Bureau of Mines. It is not absolutely accurate, but shows in the main the extent of the coal industry in our county for 1904. In the last year many new mines have been opened and have been operated to their fullest extent. Our coal fields in Westmoreland county seems to be almost in- exhaustible.
462
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
NAMES OF OPERATORS AND COAL COMPANIES
Total Production of Coal in Tons
Total Production of Coke in Tons
Number of Days Worked During the Year
Number of Employes
Keystone Coal and Coke Company, operating
the following mines:
Greensburg No. 1
190,333
1,020
275
154
Greensburg No. 2
373,716
276
381
Greensburg No. 3
34,60I
215
35
Carbon
261,784
16,317
262
286
Hunker.
15,176
265
26
Arona
307,539
286
343
Sewickley
267,684
297
304
Madison
286,678
275
313
Claridge
299,274
297
334
Salem
227,136
34,895
232
284
Hempfield No. ]
267,934
312
286
Hempfield No. 2
13,196
225
11
Seaboard
9,665
224
13
Seward
26;918
245
48
Keystone
7,587
181
127
Totals.
2,589,221
52,232
Av. 259
2,895
Jamison Coal and Coke Company, operating the following mines:
Jamison Nos. 1 and 2
304,590
94,176
302
380
Jamison No. 3
438,966
131,164
301
426
Jamison No. 4
179,143
295
136
Totals
922,699
225,340
Av. 299
942
Loyalhanna Coal and Coke Company, opera- ting the following mines:
Loyalhanna Nos. 1 and 2
289,857
53,079
271
527
Pandora
167,495
296
246
Totals.
457,352
53,079
Av 284
773
Hostetter-Connellsville Coke Company:
Hostetter
175,000
140,000
264
419
Whitney
180.000
150,000-
194
401
Totals.
355,000
290,000
Av. 229
820
American Coke Company :
Puritan or Baggaley.
252,172
161,600
285
372
Dorothy
147,448
91,500
222
281
Totals.
399,620
253,100
Av. 254
653
Atlantic Crushed Coke Company : Atlantic Nos. 2 and 3
136,775
30,840
228
178
Superior Coal and Coke Company:
Superior No. 1
225,788
39,617
304
253
Superior No. 2
24,873
234
51
Totals.
250,661
39,617
Av. 269
304
Pittsburg and Baltimore Coal Company:
Edna No. 1
303,845
249
276
Edna No. 2
38,965
215
129
Totals
342,810
Av. 232
405
Huron Coal Company :
Huron Nos. 1, 2 and 3.
124,573
259
112
Derry Coal and Coke Company:
Derry ..
283,887
294
324
Derry No. 2.
582
135,431
149
15
Totals
284,469
135,431
Av. 222
339
463
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
NAMES OF OPERATORS AND COAL COMPANIES
Total Production of Coal in Tons
Total Production of Coke in Tons
Number of Days Worked During the Year
Number of Employes
Ocean Coal Company :
Ocean Nos. 1 and 2 .
287,663
267
272
Ligonier Coal Company :
No. 2.
41,424
3,305
267
80
Maher Coal Company: No. 3.
66,024
272
56
Alexandria Coal Company .
250,834
82,300
235
339
Donohoe Coal and Coke Company
217,285
91,342
270
261
Latrobe Coal Company . . ..
304,736
89,826
247
330
H. C. Frick Coke Company :
Monastery
104,663
65,700
230
203
Saxman Coal and Coke Company
188,486
42,249
302
257
Bessemer Coke Company :
Duquesne.
161,430
89,860
275
163
Millwood Coal and Coke Company: Millwood .
99,380
297
131
Bolival Coal and Coke Company: Lockport.
19,768
10,030
260
41
Latrobe-Connellsville Coal and Coke Comp'y : Gilson .
76,526
29,698
270
115
Peters Paper Company :
Peters
25,722
296
37
J. D. Houston :
Houston
2,813
103
13
Seward Coal Company :
No. 1.
3,850
116
33
American Steel Hoop Company :
Isabella Mine
14,747
6,900
25
220
Pittsburg Coal Company:
West Newton Shaft. .
259,033
240
257
Darr
443,791
267
476
Totals.
702,824
507
733
H. C. Frick Coke Company :
Alverton No. 1
121,612
80,000
201
231
Alverton No. 2 .
28,210
18,500
110
90
Bessemer Nos. 1 and 2.
90,263
58,800
267
125
Buckeye
162,995
104,200
933
276
Calumet
157,320
99,600
213
290
Central
230,304
148,200
268
292
Chambers
22,697
125
38
Enterprise
21,331
14,000
203
43
Marguerite No. 1
27,884
17,750
217
4.4
Marguerite No. 2
195,189
124,250
217
344
Mammoth Shaft
202,315
127,800
268
205
Mammoth Slope.
134,877
85,200
268
123
Mullen
36,828
20,300
173
82
Mutual No. 3
101,808
65,900
209
165
Mutual No. 4
66,281
27,600
235
160
Rising Sun
30,088
19,600
267
39
Standard Shaft
484,813
329,440
275
709
Standard Slope
121,203
82,360
275
177
South West No. 1 A
297,884
187,800
282
403
South West No. 1 B
148,942
93,900
282
197
South West No. 2
179,560
116,400
265
221
South West No. 3.
153,200
84,500
234
213
South West No. 4 .
87,926
57,000
219
120
United
242,957
157,200
262
336
Totals.
....
... .
464
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
NAMES OF OPERATORS AND COAL COMPANIES
Total Production of Coal in Tons
Total Production of Coke in Tons
Number of Days Worked During the Year
Number of Employes
Pittsburgh Coal Company :
Ureka
139,925
177
140
Euclid .
75,133
6,014
125
114
Port Royal No. 1
84,375
28,348
271
103
Port Royal No. 2.
13,046
271
123
Waverly
100,336
22,234
213
147
Yough Slope
78 149
160
125
Totals.
520.964
56,596
Av. 203
752
W. J. Rainey:
Acme ..
103,537
67,433
265
176
Union
28.536
18.849
229
62
Totals.
132,073
86,282
494
238
Hecla Coal Company, Ltd. :
Hecla No. 1.
172,187
122,256
272
233
Hecla No. 2.
336,302
237,685
266
476
Hecla No .. 3.
65,427
41,632
304
105
Totals.
573,916
401,573
Av. 281
814
Penn Gas Coal Company :
Ayers Hollow.
74,788
158
154
Penn Gas No. 3 .
161,216
3,696
255
218
Penn Gas No. 4 .
49,859
158
102
Totals.
285,863
3,696
190
472
Bessemer Coke Company:
Empire
104.240
69,161
307
161
Humphrey .
107,968
56,945
305
111
Totals.
212,208
126,106
Av. 306
272
Penn Coke Company :
Clare.
29,000
22,600
239
51
Hester.
32,300
23,430
238
55
Totals.
61,700
46,030
238
106
Mt. Pleasant Coke Company :
Boyer
101,695
66,332
264
180
Amyville-Youghiogheny Gas Coal Company:
Amyville
44,476
164
63
Veteran Coke Company :
Veteran
51,928
33,527
269
65
Clair and Rockwell Coal Company :
Jacobs Creek .
19,055
160
38
Brush Run Coal Co.
2,311
288
18
Pittsburgh Coal Company;
Equitable .
132,559
238
145
North Webster
75,570
182
105
Totals.
208,129
420
250
A. R. Budd Coal Company
Monessen Coal and Coke Company:
Iron City ..
25,587
128
92
Lynne Coal Company .
16,425
90
56
Penn Gas Coal Company:
Coal Run ..
84,811
193
103
Penn Gas No. 1
152,666
214
183
Penn Gas No. 2
191,281
199
333
Penn Gas No. 5
121,297
143
217
Totals.
550,055
Av. 187
836
157,044
256
189
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
465
NAMES OF OPERATORS AND COAL COMPANIES
Total Production of Coal in Tons
Total Production of Coke in Tons
Number of Days Worked During the Year
Number of Employes
Manor Gas Coal Company : Denmark .
377,583
300
485
Westmoreland Coal Company :
Export
733,675
307
647
Larimer
430,790
305
365
Osborne
156,631
305
118
Westmoreland Shaft.
438,991
300
460
Totals.
1,760,087
304
1,650
W. B. Skelly Coal Company:
Elizabeth
109,730
229
126
Leechburg Coal and Coke Company:
Hill
57.491
311
106
River View
46,001
305
74
Totals.
103,492
Av. 308
180
Lucesco Coal Company ..
New York and Cleveland Gas and Coal Co. :
Lyons Run. . .
270,916
238
350
Ben Franklin Coal Company:
Metcalf ..
35,400
204
48
Apollo Coal Company :
Northwest .
31,100
195
65
Central Coal and Coke Co. of Pittsburgh:
Philmont No. 1.
20,245
154
214
Pine Run Coal Company :
Pine Run Nos. 1 and 2.
58,558
299
94
Penn Manor Shaft:
Penn Manor
206,765
275
270
Valley Camp Coal Company :
Valley Camp.
24,941
148
51
West Penn Mining Company:
W. P. Mine ....
37.475
289
57
Allegheny River Coal Company: Edgecliff .
1,915
88
15
Paulton Coal Mining Company: Paulton .
7,655
262
26
Valley Coal Company: Valley
49,507
218
69
Osceola Coal Company:
Osceola .
166,999
276
205
Braeburn Steel Company
20,074
308
24
Louis Coal Company:
Blackstone ..
41,438
298
63
Hamilton Coal Mining Company:
73,700
226
84
Pittsburgh Coal Company:
Ocean No. 1
135,867
188
172
Shaner
92,80]
171
I25
Guffey.
113,111
184
128
Big Chief.
66,776
173
95
Totals.
...
53,744
281
91
Crag Dell .
30
CHAPTER XXXII
The Coke Industry.
The mannfacture and sale of coke has given Westmoreland and Fayette counties a name throughout America. It is such an important product in our county that it is quite proper that we should look somewhat into its origin and into the growth of the industry.
It is probable that F. H. Oliphant was the first in this country who manu- factured it, though in small quantities, and used it in smelting iron at his furnace in Fayette county. This was in 1835. In 1841 William Turner, Sr., Provance McCormick and James Campbell contracted with John Taylor, a stone mason, to put up two ovens for the purpose of manufacturing coke. These were built on his own land on the banks of the Youghiogheny river, a few miles below Connellsville. The ovens were very small, only made to hold between sixty and seventy bushels of coal. Several experiments made with them during the summer resulted unsatisfactorily. This was doubtless because they did not understand the business. The want of draft and the small amount of coal which was required to fill the ovens probably prevented favorable results. These obstacles were gradually overcome, and finally, even from these ovens, a fair quality of coke was produced. In the winter of 1842 they loaded a coal boat, ninety feet in length, and when the high waters of spring came they then floated it down the river to Cincinnati in search of a market. The foundries of the city were unwilling to invest in it, though it was carried about in sacks and offered at low prices. Finally, a manufacturer named Greenwood purchased it at six and one-fourth cents per bushel, paying half in cash and the other half in old mill irons.
In the same year a coal producer named Mordecai Cochran and his nephews began to make coke, and succeeded in selling it, though they did not find a ready market by any means. Richard Brookins next opened a mine near by, and erected five new ovens in which he began to make coke. He had also made coke on the ground after the old style of burning limestone, covering it over with earth so as to exclude the air. In this way he found he could make coke, but with a great waste of coal. In 1844 Colonel A. M. Hill who, like Cochran, afterwards became a prominent coal and coke producer, bought a farm and
467
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
erected seven ovens, these of a much larger size than the former ones, holding about one hundred sixty bushels each. The results were much better.
Coke is produced from soft coal by the simple process of roasting it for a day or two, the air being mostly excluded from it while the burning is going on.
These ovens were wide below and their sides gradually rounded towards the top. They somewhat resembled an old-fashioned bee-hive such as our ancestors made of twisted straw, and from this fact were called bee-hive ovens, a name by which they have since been designated, though they no longer have an oval shape on the outside. When the coal has been sufficiently roasted to make coke, a stream of water is applied to the burning mass within the oven, and the contents, when cooled, is drawn out and is the coke of commerce. These old ovens have long since been torn down ; the mortar of their joints has crumbled and mingled again with the earth, but the fires lighted then in them with a spark from the blacksmith's forge, burns now in thousands and thousands of ovens, has multi- plied millions of capital and supports one of the chief industries of the state.
The Connellsville Coke Region is the name generally given to a strip of country about forty miles long, and three miles wide, which extends northeast and southwest across Westmoreland county and part of Fayette. The real coke region is much larger than the above limits, though this is the original and evidentiy the best coking coal bed yet discovered anywhere. The coal of this lo- cality is of a peculiar quality, and is entirely suited to the manufacture of coke. It is soft and porous, yielding easily to the miner's pick.
The coal in the Connellsville Coke Region, particularly the narrow belt out- lined above, is remarkably free from sulphur, and is dumped into the coke ovens as it is dug from the mines. Because of its remarkable freedom from sulphur and other impurities, and of its high percentage of carbon, its hardness and con- sequent ability to bear heavy burdens of iron in the furnaces, the coke from this coal has been proved by many years of experience to be the best fuel of its kind yet discovered for iron manufacture. It has driven charcoal completely out of the market in smelting iron ore, and is almost without a competitor in the iron industry in America. Coke from our county and from Fayette county is regularly shipped to California, to those who smelt gold and silver ore dug from the Pacific slope.
When taken from the oven it no longer has the form or appearance of coal. It is much harder, has a ringing sound when struck, is of a grayish color, and is full of small cells or cavities. The Connellsville coking coal lies from sixty to one hundred feet under the ground along its longitudinal axis. As it ap- proaches the Chestnut Ridge it bends rapidly and then abruptly to the surface, and crops out along the western slope of the ridge. It is the same vein of coal which in other sections of Pennsylvania is used for fuel in houses and for steam-making machinery. Why this comparatively small basin should be purer and make better coke than other coals in the same locality, scarcely sepa- rated from it, is a problem which scientific investigation has not yet solved. Nor can this coal be used at all for smelting iron until it is coked. When put into a
468
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
furnace, and the necessary limestone and iron ore is put on it, this coal is so- soft that the weight above crushes it down so that it will not burn at all. More- over, the sulphur in it is sufficient to mix with and damage the iron produced. But, by making it into coke, the sulphur nearly all passes out and the product becomes hard enough to bear the immense weight of the ore and limestone which necessarily must rest on it in the process of smelting. The coke, being full of cavities, gives the air a chance to pass through it, and thus an intensely hot fire can be had by its use. The coke field from which a fairly good quality of coke can be made, and is being made, is much wider than it was supposed to be ten years ago, and future discoveries and experiments may still further extend its limits. At present a large field is being operated in Ligonier Valley, and the coke from it finds a ready market where Connellsville coke has been heretofore used entirely. It is of a high grade.
In 1871, at a point about midway between Larimer Station and Ardara, and about two miles from Irwin, Andrew Carnegie first experimented in making coke from fine coal, or slack, from the bituminous mines near by. At first the mound process, that is, piling the coal in a long mound through which ran a tubular ventilator for the purpose of giving sufficient draft to the fire, was used. The experiment proved that this slack coal could be used in producing coke,. and accordingly eighty regular coke ovens were constructed, to which were added forty more the following year. With these one hundred and twenty ovens, Mr. Carnegie produced a reasonably good grade of coke, and continued to operate them until 1900. The demand for slack coal for steam making then became so great that it was no longer profitable to use it in making coke, and these ovens were abandoned. Their crumbling ruins yet remain, and are pointed out as an evidence of Mr. Carnegie's early business sagacity, and of his connec- tion with the coke industry of our county when the industry was in its infancy.
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