USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Braddock > The unwritten history of Braddock's Field (Pennsylvania) > Part 3
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At the time of the secession of the southern states, Mr. Corey was connected with a firm which included Judge Thomas Mellon. The firm had made heavy shipments of coal to New Orleans. The coal of the northern men was at that time confiscated with the result that this com- pany was apparently ruined, having lost all its invested capital and it would require Fifty Thousand Dollars additional to pay its debts. The New Orleans agent of the firm, however, was pressed into the Rebel serv- ice and directed to look after the coal. He managed to. so place the coal that when orders were issued for a boat of the confiscated coal, the coal of other companies was taken out to fill the order. This continued until Commodore Farragut and General Butler came with the Union forces and drove out the Rebel Army and not only was the coal saved, but coal had greatly advanced in price so that the firm instead of being Fifty Thousand Dollars in debt was Two Hundred Thousand Dollars to the good.
The first coal operations in Braddock are difficult to define. From the time of the earliest settlers there were various pits, as they were called, opened into the edge of the coal veins for the purpose of getting fuel for the settlers. Early in the history of the district, George Bell and J. W. Buchanan, who bought a large tract of land covering the eastern portions of Braddock and North Braddock, undertoook coal mining but made little progress. Mr. Bell attempted to open a pit in the Upper Sixth Street ravine, but a dispute arose between him and Isaac Mills (the owner of the large Mills farm, which included the westerly part of Braddock and North Braddock) as to the location of the boundary line between their farms. This dispute lasted many years in the courts and ultimately the administrators of the estates of both these men sold the right to mine the
28
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
coal to J. B. Corey & Company, who operated in the hill west of Sixth Street.
The earliest operations were in the hill on the east side of the Sixth Street ravine. It is said that the pits first opened were those below the Braddock Cemetery. Thomas Fauset, an early land owner in this dis- trict, hauled coal from the mine to the river and floated it to Pittsburgh, about 1843. There were tracks constructed down the Sixth Street hollow for the operators on both sides of the ravine. In getting the coal out of the mines on the east side of the ravine dogs were used for a time. The use of dogs in mines is well known to Welsh coal miners, but apparently few people of the present day know of their use in this valley, though the old men who are familiar with the coal mines of this district remember their. use in various places throughout the valley. The miner wore over his shoulder, straps made in form somewhat after the manner of shoulder braces, with a hook at the back. From this a chain was attached to the small mine car and as the miner pulled his loaded car out of the mine, the dog, trained to harness, pulled by his side, or if the miner had two dogs, one pulled at each side. The dogs used in the mines were large strong dogs and were the property of the miners who used them in their work. The dogs fought among themselves, as dogs will do, and were somewhat feared by other residents of the community, but generally they were good workers and loyal to their masters. Later, mules were purchased by the operators to move the cars in the mine and these in turn were supplanted by steam power. Joseph Taylor, grandfather of John Taylor, of Jones Avenue, is remembered as one of the earliest mine superintendents of this district.
The Robinson pit was opened at a point below the present location of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Thirteenth Street by John Robinson, more famous on account of the Robinson House, the old hotel of stage-coach days, which stood until a few years ago just above Braddock Avenue near Thirteenth Street. The Robinson pit employed only a few men. The cars were lowered by gravity to a point near the present location of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, from which point the men pushed them down to the river and loaded the coal on flats.
There were other small pits in the east hill. Alexander Dempster for awhile conducted a mine for the local trade. The McCauley pit for the local trade was opened about the present location of Kellar & Milliken's brick works. under that part of the hill once known as Hillside Park. An- other pit, known as the Mckinney pit, was opened west of that, under the old earthwork forts which were constructed during the Civil War.
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. 29
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
The principal mine in this hill, however, was at the head of Robinson Street. It was first opened as a country pit, was operated at one time by John Giles, at another by Cheney & Baldwin, and was later operated ex- tensively by General Felix Negley. When the Civil War broke out, Gen- eral Negley left the mine to join the army and it was operated by a com- pany in which Judge Thomas Mellon was interested. For use of the miners the operators erected about a dozen houses, the group being re- ferred to collectively in the old days as "The Patch". These houses were constructed two stories high in front, with a one story kitchen at the rear.
BENJAMIN BRAZNELL.
About half of these houses were situated above the present location of Bessemer Station. One of them is still standing above Bell Avenue. The rest of them were located about Thirteenth Street. When these miners' houses were built, there were only about a dozen other houses in all within the present limits of North Braddock Borough. The daily output of the mine in its best days was two to three thousand bushels and was shipped to Pittsburgh by railroad; the Pennsylvania Railroad, a single track line having been constructed about 1850 from Pittsburgh as far east as Brin- ton. A track from the coal mine was constructed from the pit mouth down the hill along the present location of Robinson Street.
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30
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
Little was done in the hill west of Sixth Street until 1865, when J. B. Corey organized a company and bought out the rights of both parties involved in the disputed property line which had long been the subject of litigation between Isaac Mills and George Bell. The company included John Baldridge, who for many years took an active part in its manage- ment and upon the dissolution of the company bought much of the land which the company had owned. This company, about 1865, opened three pits near the present location of Coalmont Street. A track was constructed down Sixth Street Hollow, and during the eighteen years through which the mining continued, coal was taken out of about two hun- dred fifty acres, including a large part of the Mills and Soles farms. When the market was good, from one hundred to one hundred fifty miners were employed and the output of the mine was from five thousand to eight thousand bushels daily. Mr. Corey prides himself on being the author of a sliding scale agreement under which the company made its contract with the miners in its employ and through the use of which strike troubles were greatly reduced. The work in this hill was completed by a new company organized by A. A. Corey and known as A. A. Corey & Co.
Dickson, Stewart & Company, who are known as coal operators in this valley, constructed the lime kilns on top of the east hill overlooking the Sixth Street ravine and had some coal mines about Swissvale, operated extensively under Oak Hill, near Turtle Creek, and opened the mines which were later owned and operated by the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company about Turtle Creek and east and north of Braddock. The Duquesne mines, commonly called Mucklerat, north of Hannatown, were long operated by the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, until labor troubles became so continuous and so violent that the company was compelled to close the mine and abandon it. After it had been closed for some years, it was reopened by Mr. J. B. Corey, who entered into con- tract with the miners of that district under the sliding scale agreement that had been used by his company in North Braddock and the mine was then operated for several years without serious trouble.
There has continued a little mining of coal in the hills of North Braddock, taking out remnants of coal here and there, and cleaning out the old mines, until the present time. The coal miners of the early days and their children, however, as the coal mines in this district were worked out, took up other lines of business or employment and the history of coal mining in Braddock was practically ended with the closing of the Corey mine about 1883.
TRANSPORTATION ON THE MONONGAHELA.
BY W. ESPEY ALBIG.
Although the traffic on the Monongahela River from Brownsville to the Ohio had advanced from the canoe of the Indian and the Kentucky boat of the emigrant of Revolutionary times, to a water borne traffic of no mean size in passengers and miscellaneous freight, and to more than a million bushels of coal annually before the Monongahela waterway was improved by the installation of locks and dams late in 1841, yet no records remain of the constantly increasing stream of commerce passing over this route between the east and west. Here and there remains a frag- ment from a traveler, a ship builder or a merchant giving a glimpse of the river activity of the later years of the 18th century and the early ones of the 19th century.
The Ohio Company recognized the importance of this waterway, and early in 1754 Captain Trent on his way to the forks of the Ohio by Nema- colin's and the Redstone trails built "The Hangard" at the mouth of Red- stone Creek. From April 17th, when he surrendered his works to the French and retreated in canoes up the Monongahela, this avenue became more and more important until the steam railways supplanted the slow- er traffic by water.
The easy navigation of this stream led that man of keen insight, General Washington, into error, when, under date of May 27th, 1754, he writes: "This morning Mr. Gist arrived from his place, where a detach- ment of fifty men (French) was seen yesterday ...... I immediately de- tached seventy-five men in pursuit of them, who I hope will overtake them before they get to Redstone, where their canoes lie."
These men, however, had come by Nemacolin's Trail; but the force of 500 French and 400 Indians which followed close upon the heels of Washington after his defeat of Jumonville, and captured him at Fort Necessity, came up the Monongahela from Fort Duquesne in piraguas.
The expedition of General Braddock in 1755, disastrous though it was, opened up the way from the East to the fertile lands of the Ohio Valley. Under date of May 24th, 1766, George Groghan, Deputy Indian Agent, writes from Fort Pitt: "As soon as the peace was made last year (By Colonel Bouquet) contrary to our engagements to them (the Indians) a number of our people came over the Great Mountain and settled at Red-
32
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
stone Creek, and upon the Monongahela, before they (the Indians) had given the country to the King, their Father."
A letter written from Winchester, Virginia, under date of April 30th, 1765, says: "The frontier inhabitants of this colony and Maryland are removing fast over the Alleghany Mountains in order to settle and live there."
This migration was augmented by Pennsylvanians, following the act passed in 1780, which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery. About this time, too, it became generally known that the Monongahela Valley was Pennsylvania territory rather than of Virginia. Kentucky was an inviting district and her charms were made patent to all. So general became migration to Kentucky that the name "Kentucky Boat" was applied to the flat used in transportation on the Monongahela at that time. Boat yards for the constructing of all manner of river craft were opened at Brownsville where the overland route from Cumberland and the east first reached communication with the western waters, and at Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth) fourteen miles from the mouth of the Monongahela River.
In 1784 a petition was presented at the September term of the Fayette County Court for a road from "Redstone Old Fort along the river side to the grist-and sawmill at the mouth of Little Redstone and to Collo. Edward Cook's," since, "the intercourse along the river is so con- siderable, by reason of the number of boats for passengers, which are almost constantly building in different parts along the River side." The petition was granted.
The Pennsylvania Journal, of Philadelphia, in its issue of February 13th, 1788, carried the statement that "Boats of every dimension niay be had at Elizabethtown, in the course of next spring and summer. where provisions of all kinds may be had at a very cheap rate, particularly flour, there being no less than six grist mills in the circumference of three or four miles." In its issue of August 20th in the same year the Penn- sylvania Journal carried an advertisement that at "Elizabeth, town on the Monongahela" the proprietor (Stephen Bayard) "has erected a boat- yard .... ., where timber is plenty, and four of the best Boat Builders from Philadelphia are constantly employed."
Captain John May, who gave his name to the settlement at the mouth of Limestone Creek, Kentucky, and who in 1790 was killed by the Indians while descending the Ohio, under the date of May 5th, 1788, writes in his diary: "This day was raised here (at Elizabethtown) a large shed for
33
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
building boats. Almost all the Kentucky boats from the east pass this place: near two hundred have passed this spring."
The hardships entailed by this migration were enormous. Dur- ing the severe winters when the Monongahela was ice bound the road leading through Brownsville to the river was lined on both sides with emigrant wagons whose occupants with difficulty prevented themselves from perishing from the cold.
The Indian ravages on the boats on the Ohio and on the settlers in the Kentucky country occurred with terrifying frequency. Possibly fifteen hundred people perished through these attacks in the seven years following the close of the Revolutionary War. Finally the boats going down from Pittsburgh formed in brigades. Denny's Military Journal, of April 19th, 1790, gives an account of one such flotilla containing sixteen "Kentucky Boats," and two keel boats. The flat boats were lashed together three abreast and kept in one line. The women and children along with the animals were placed in the middle boats, while the outside ones were defended and worked by the men. These boats were guarded on either flank by the keels. In this case the Indians did not attack, but the unwieldy craft were almost wrecked in a furious storm of wind and rain. Despite these drawbacks, however, by 1790 the Ken- tucky country had a population of approximately seventy-four thousand people, many of whom had come down the Monongahela.
With the opening by France of the West Indies to trade and the right of deposit secured at New Orleans from Spain, the western trade, enormously expanded, bid fair to be controlled by Pennsylvania. Pitts- burgh at the mouth of the Monongahela had a commanding part of that traffic. Except for three or four months in the dry season this town was crowded with emigrants for the western country. Boat building was the chief industry of the place. Log canoes, pirogues, skiffs, ba- teaux, arks, Kentucky broad horns, New Orleans boats, barges, and keel boats with masts and sails-all were waiting the emigrant. The peo- ple of the Tennessee and Kentucky country brought all their supplies from Philadelphia and from Baltimore, now almost an equal commercial rival of her northern neighbor, and shipped their produce to New Orleans.
On March 31st, 1836, the "Monongahela Navigation Company" was authorized by Act of Assembly. It was to make a slack water navigation from Pittsburgh to the Virginia State line, and as much farther as Vir- ginia would allow it to go. The capital was to be $300,000, in shares of fifty. The locks were to be four and one-half feet high. The charter
34
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
was issued in 1837. The state subscribed $25,000, and later in 1840, $100,000 on condition "That all descending crafts owned by citizens of Pennsylvania, not calculated or intended to return, from any point be- tween Millsborough and the Virginia State line, shall pass free of toll thru any lock or dam of the lower division of said improvement, until the com- pany shall put the first dam above Brownsville in the second division under contract, and complete the same.
The ill-starred United States Bank, now an institution of Pennsyl- vania, was required to subscribe for $100,000 of- stock. The total sub- scriptions amounted to $308,100. From Pittsburgh to Brownsville was found to be fifty-five and one-half miles, and the ascent thirty-three and one-half feet; forty-one feet-a total of ninety and one-half miles, and ascent of seventy-four and one-half feet, requiring seventeen dams. High- er dams were then authorized, making four necessary below Brownsville, and three above to the State line.
Before these dams could be completed the credit of the state, which had been strained to the breaking point during the '20's and '30's for in- ternal improvements, broke; the United States Bank collapsed, leaving unfilled its obligation of $50,000 to the Company; many of the private stockholders refused payment; the State's subscription of $100,000, be- ing in bonds was collected at a loss; Baltimore capitalists refused aid; and, crowning all, a break developed in Dam No. 1 in 1843, which made- expensive repair necessary. The whole project became a "mortification to its friends and projectors, and a nuisance to the navigation." The Legislature, however, in order to improve the financial condition of the state, directed, by Act of July 27th, 1842, repeated by Act of April 8th, 1843, sales of all its corporation stocks, including the $125,000 in this Com- pany. This stock was bought in for $7,187.50 by a group of men-who with effective energy had on November 13th, 1844, the entire improve- ment repaired and completed for use to Brownsville, where connection was made with the National Road, which in turn connected at Cumber- land, seventy-five miles distant, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Baltimore. Pittsburgh at last was brought within thirty hours of the Atlantic Seaboard.
Long before the Monongahela River had been improved, however, and the steamboat had driven the keel boat and the flat boat from the western waters, the feeble frontier settlements of the Monongahela Val- ley were preparing to utilize the commercial possibilities of the south- west. In 1800 certain farmers near Elizabeth built a schooner of two
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1667586
THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
hundred and fifty tons burden, launched it in the spring of 1801, christen- ing it the "Monongahela Farmer." Her cargo taken on at Elizabeth and Pittsburgh, consisted, among other things, of 721 barrels of flour, 500 barrels of whiskey, 4,000 deer skins, 2,000 bear skins, large quantities of hemp and flax, and firearms, ammunition and provision for the crew, which consisted of eight men. The vessel was not rigged for sailing at this time. In the instructions to the master. Mr. Jno. Walker, he is directed to "proceed without unnecessary delay to the City of New Or- leans ...... Should the markets for flour be low at New Orleans and the vessel appear to sell to disadvantage you in that case have it in your power to sell a part of the cargo, to purchase rigging, fit out the vessel and employ hands to sail her to any of the Islands you in your Judgment and to the Best information May think best, and then make sale of the ves- sel and cargo."
This boat left Pittsburgh on a June rise, was attacked by the In- dians, lost one man by drowning, was detained by reason of low water for three months at the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), and for some weeks on a bar, now called Walker's bar, above Hurricane Island, reached New Orleans and with her cargo was sold profitably, although the flour was soured by being stored in the damp hold. The master contracted yellow fever, but recovered, and returned home after an absence of fourteen months; and, during the following year (1803), superintended the con- struction of the brig Ann Jane, 450 tons burden, loaded her with flour and whiskey, and sailed her with profit to New York by way of the rivers, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
Thus the commerce of the Monongahela flourished until the Enterprise, 45 tons, the fourth steamboat produced on western water, was built at Brownsville in 1814. The era of steam had begun.
The Monongahela products were becoming well known. Its flour "is celebrated in foreign markets, for its superiority, and it generally sells for one dollar more per barrel in New Orleans than any other flour taken from this country to that market. The best and greatest quantity of rye whiskey is made on this river. Peach and apple brandy, cider and cider-royal are also made in great abundance."
The slack water equipment multiplied commerce enormously. It was estimated that during 1837 the loss occasioned to coal alone by the ice was at least $40,000. In October of 1838 there was approximately 750,000 bushels of coal laden on boats which had been waiting three months for a shipping stage of water.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
Under date of January 1st, 1840, Thomas McFadden, wharf master of Pittsburgh, gives a statement of the number of arrivals and departures of steamboats employed regularly in the Monongahela trade: "In ad- dition to which a number of steamboats have occasionally gone to Browns- ville, &c., and a large number of flat-boats, loaded with coal, have descended the river without stopping at this port."
Steamers.
Tons.
Voyages.
Liberty
83
21
Franklin
34
- 65
Pike
35
34
Shannon
77
43
Tons.
Ploughman
38
58
14,196
Royal
68
29
Excel
41
13
Exact
61
3
Traveler, Ranger, D. Crockett, running constantly and employed in tow- ing flats, rafts, &c.
686 keels and flats loaded with produce. 9,482
1,048 flats loaded with coal, brick, &c, tonnage unknown. Total tons 23,678
During 1845 toll was received to the amount of over $15,000 from freights and rafts, etc .; above $8,000 for passengers of whom almost twenty-three thousand were through passengers; and above $5,000 for coal, amounting to more than four and one-half millions of bushels.
This favorable showing was increased during the next year to above $20,000 for freights; to above $12,000 for passengers; of whom al- most 35,000 were through passengers to or from the east; to above $10,000 for coal, amounting to more than seven and one-half millions of bushels.
Commerce continued to increase. Classified freights continued until the tolls in 1852, when the Pennsylvania Railroad reached Pittsburgh, and the B. & O. reached Wheeling, amounted to more than $30,000 annually. Coal tonnage grew steadily greater until in 1855 it reached the amazing total of almost 1,000,000 tons, and fifteen years later to twice that amount, this latter rapid increase being due in part to the building in 1856 of two locks above Brownsville, which carried the slack water navigation to with- in seven miles of the Virginia line. Through passenger traffic reached its climax in 1848 with a total for the year of almost forty-eight thousand souls.
To this latter traffic and classified freight the National Road con-
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
tributed largely. For from the time it was thrown open to the public in the year 1818 until 1852 it was the one great highway, over which passed the bulk of trade and travel, and the mails between the East and the West. As many as twenty four-horse coaches have been counted in line at once. During the eight years before the coming of the railroads more than two hundred thousand passengers traveled over the road by way of the Mon- ongahela; also another one hundred thousand traveled between Browns- ville and Pittsburgh, and over four hundred and fifty thousand traveled part of the way between these two places. William Henry Harrison as President-elect of the United States, used this route, and his body was re .. turned by the same route. It looked like the leading avenue of a great city rather than a road through rural districts. One man in 1848 counted 133 six-horse teams passing along the road in one day, and took no notice of as many more teams of one, two, three, four, and five horses. "It looked as if the whole earth was on the road; wagons, stages, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and turkeys without number." In the year 1822 six commission houses in Wheeling received approximately five thousand loads of merchandise, and paid nearly $400,000 for its transportation. About two-fifths of this passenger and freight traffic after 1844, when the slack water improvements reached Brownsville, was directed through the Monongahela.
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