Coal Mine and Coke Oven Reclamation and Preservation Project Phase II: Early Coal Mines of Henry Clay Frick

Westmoreland Fayette Historical Society Project Director: Cassandra Vivian

- Caption: View of Morgan Valley from the air. Overholt Distillery in foreground. Courtesy of Larry Hodge. Coal is the “world’s most valuable single mineral deposit.”

• Formed over millions of years as swamp turned to peat, sandstone, shale, and limestone. • An entire geological era named for coal: Pennsylvanian Era (325-285 MYA)

o because Pennsylvania has best coal deposits in world. • Pennsylvania has two kinds of coal: anthracite and bituminous.

o Anthracite, clean coal, fewer impurities, higher heat, burns cleaner: found in central Pennsylvania.

o Bituminous, soft coal, converted into coke, burns hotter, for foundry, steel and, most recently, electricity.

o The bituminous region in southwestern Pennsylvania stretches from Mason-Dixon line north to Clearfield County.

o Fayette, Greene, and Westmoreland are called the Connellsville Coal Basin (CCB).

• CCB known as the Great Seam was divided into Old Basin and Klondike. o Old Basin: northern Fayette County and Westmoreland County to Latrobe.

Area 50 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. Approximately 21 companies operated mines in Old Basin.

o Klondike encompasses mostly western Fayette and Greene counties. • This study is about the Morgan Valley: earliest part of Old Basin in Fayette County covering 10 miles.

o Galley Run, stream through the valley, provided water to quench the ovens.

Caption: This map shows the Morgan Valley and its mines and property owners from 1846 to 1890. The valley begins in the lower left-hand corner with the Henry Clay and follows the heavy black line from left to right. (Scottdale: 100 Years, Scottdale: Scottdale Centennial Association, Inc., 1979, p. 151.)

Morgan Valley • Morgan Valley most important coal/coke manufacturer in world from late 1860s to 1900.

o begins at Broadford along Youghiogheny (Yough) River north of Connellsville, o ends at Everson at edge of Jacobs Creek. o Beyond creek: Scottdale and Westmoreland County.

• Morgan Valley had a rich history before coal and coke. o On the pathway west. o George Washington traveled up the valley. o Daniel Boone had family in the area. o Mennonite families settled it in the 1700s. o Portion of Braddock’s Army may have crossed Yough at Broadford in 1755. o Passed up a portion of the valley before climbing to high ground. o Overholt Distillery, the brewers of Old Overholt whiskey, biggest industry prior to coal.

owned by Henry Clay Frick’s grandfather, Abraham Overholt, who also had a distillery at West Overton (Old Farm whiskey). Henry Clay Frick born and raised at West Overton.

Frick at Broadford • Henry Clay Frick’s genius spurred the American Industrial Revolution. • Built his first two mines at Broadford: Frick and Henry Clay. • 1879 he owned or partially owned Frick, Henry Clay, Morgan, Tip Top, Valley, and Foundry, all in Morgan

Valley. • Frick obtained his last mine in 1910; controlled over 70 works; built only 12 of them. • He is blamed for everything negative that happened in the coal and coke industry, including events that

happened long after he was dead.

The Mine Itself • A typical 19th century mine included:

o mine office, bosses worked and kept mine records; o engine house, motorized machines to run things like air fans; o machine and repair shops, built and repaired wagons, etc.;

o wash house, miners showered and kept personal items; o scale house, wagons of coal weighed and wages assessed; o sheds, for chores and supplies; o tipple, that moved the coal from mine to ovens and/or rails for transport. • Mine entrance determined by coal seam to be mined. Connellsville district: Pittsburgh Seam. o Each seam had a different name and different value (see chart). o Pittsburgh Seam best coal resource in world. Low Sulphur content made it stable. o Connellsville district, average Pittsburgh Seam 9 feet thick. o All seams found at different heights depending on terrain. 300 million years to form, earth pushed and pulled seam. • Could be just below surface or hundreds of feet below. o Mine entrance determined by location

of Pittsburgh Seam. Drift entrance: near the surface, miner walked into mine, coal easily removed. Slope entrance: a little deeper, coal still hauled out easily. Shaft entrance: seam hundreds of feet below the surface,

• shaft had to be dug and an elevator system used. • Most of the mines in Morgan Valley were drift and a few where slope.

The Beehive Coke Oven

Caption: Building beehive coke ovens at the Standard plant in Westmoreland County. (Post Card)

• The beehive coke oven. o Built of fire brick to withstand 2000°F. o Encased in cement to protect and drive larry cars loaded with coal over the top. o Each oven had a hole (trunnel) in the top to drop coal. o Coke drawn from a door in the front. o There was a tax on each oven.

when ovens not needed, cement top was broken. Then no tax assessed.

• Companies made 48-hour and 72-hour coke. o 48-hour needed 6 ½ -7 tons of coal burned for 48 hours. o 72-hour coke needed an 8-ton charge burned over a weekend.

After firing coke quenched by 850 gallons of water poured back into the nearby stream (creating Acid Mine Drainage AMD).

• Different types of beehive ovens: o Merchant and furnace ovens.

Merchant ovens made coke for general use including foundries. Furnace ovens made coke exclusively for blast furnaces in steel mills. Each required a different firing.

o Bank and block coke ovens. The bank ovens built in a single row abutting a hill or stream. The block ovens in two rows, one behind the other. Both near water essential to quench the coke after firing.

o 1908, the rectangular oven introduced to region. Constructed in a single row, larger than a regular beehive, with two doors one in front and one behind. Coke could be push out of the oven mechanically. Morgan Valley nearly depleted when the rectangular oven was created, it appears that

none were constructed in the valley.

• By-product oven. o It made use of all the gases that had been lost in beehives.

The by-products: ammonium sulphate, tar, light motor oil, gas, and heat were sold. o 1918, US Steel and its subsidiary (H. C. Frick Coke Company) built a by-product plant at Clairton

along Monongahela River. o Ended industrial mining in Connellsville region and killed Morgan Valley coke ovens.

• 1919, Frick shipped last cars of coke from White Mine in Morgan Valley. o Ended all beehive operations in its coal mines in 1940. o Last beehive coke ovens:

Fayette County, Shoaf Mine, south of Uniontown, shut down in 1972. Westmoreland County, Alverton (Donnelly), near Mount Pleasant, shut down in 1982.

Workers and Immigration • Mostly German, Irish, Scotch, and Welsh miners, early immigrants (1840s to 1860s), worked mines.

o Companies began recruiting immigrants via agencies in New York or Philadelphia. o Recruitment from southern and central Europe, became the biggest massive migration to

America. o Collectively called Huns, came from different countries, spoke different languages, brought own

traditions. • The first immigrants from central and southern Europe arrived in 1870,

o sent to Morewood by the H. C. Frick Company. o 1883, Slovaks, Magyars, Poles, Croatians, Hungarians, Russians, Ruthenians, Romanians, Syrians,

Armenians, Serbians. and Italians began to arrive. o 1890 one fourth miners in the Connellsville region from southern and eastern Europe.

• FOREIGNERS WERE NOT WELCOME! o 1885 Contract Labor Act: stopped individuals or organizations from trying to import immigrants

en-masse from foreign countries. Didn’t work. o 1892 an official immigration customs created at Ellis Island.

o 1894 Republican Bostonians created the Immigration Restriction League to stop immigrants from entering the country. o 1896 Republican Henry Cabot Lodge sponsored a bill in Congress requiring immigrants read 40 words in any language. President Grover Cleveland, Democrat, vetoed the bill. He vetoed it again in 1897. o 1907 another attempt began to limit immigration. o 1913 President Taft, Republican; 1915 President Wilson,

Democrat, vetoed such bills. o 1917 passed as Immigrant Act requiring literacy tests.

Wilson again vetoed, but Congress passed the legislation.

Creating the Infrastructure • Villages of Morgan, Owensdale, and Everson emerged as a result of mines developing in their area. • The companies build all these facilities, including roads, maintained them.

o And they paid taxes! o During strike of 1894 Frick workers fixed the roads to help pay his road taxes.

The Patch • Almost every coal mine had a patch with homes built by the company. Some were shanties, but some

were quite acceptable.

Caption: Typical patch houses of the H. C. Frick Company. Many of these houses are still standing at the Standard Patch along Route 819 just north of Mount Pleasant.

• Frick houses were built as double houses: o made of hemlock and painted, o four rooms with an outhouse in the backyard.

• Lite by kerosene lanterns and heated by coal, maybe wood. • Each Frick home had a small garden. • Rent varied. 1888 each family paid $6 a month rent, $1 for coal, and another for the company

doctor. • Superintendents and bosses had better homes often separate from the general patch. • The Frick patches were often hailed as among the best.

The Company Store

• Each company had to create a place for their miners to buy food. • The company store became a symbol of corruption. It was said that the companies charged the miners far above the market price.

• Frick created company script to save fledgling company during Panic of 1873 (see image). His miners used it to buy food.

He used his cash to pay his bills. • 1881 Valley Union Supply, Frick store at Valley Mine, was accused of falsifying records. Thomas Lynch, who ran Frick’s companies, disprove it, created chart below to compare

Frick stores with the local market.

• Ten years later a new law required stores be owned by separate corporation. o Frick created the Union Supply Company. o Other owners did likewise.

• 1891 Frick’s Union Supply Company had 23 stores and serve 9,000 miners in the Connellsville region.

Unrest in the Morgan Valley

Caption: Local miners and their families marching through the streets of Mt Pleasant during strike of 1886. (Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Vol. XXI, January to June 1886, New York: Frank Leslie Pub. House, Feb, 6, 1886, p. 408.)

• Coal was a new and growing industry. o Operators struggling to develop their mines,

find clients around the United States, compete with each other, and work together to find a solution to their employee discontent.

o The workers needed a decent wage a place to live in a rural area. It wasn’t easy for any of them.

• Region suffered strikes in 1875, 1881 (a month), 1886, 1887, 1891, 1894, and long after the mines in our project were closed.

o The issue always the same: pay and conditions. • Price of coke determined by the market place.

o A glut on the market, mines closed some ovens, laid off some men. o No orders, did the same and dropped the worker’s wages.

• Operators struggled to form a Coke Syndicate (suggested and run by Henry Clay Frick). • Workers struggled to form a union.

o Too many trying to organize. o Miners & Laborers Amalgamated Association (Amalgamated Association of Mining Employees)

would not last. o Knights of Labor, formed in Philadelphia in 1869. o United Mine Workers founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1890.

Strikes of 1887-1889 • 1887 Labor and management had to find a balance that served all.

o Frick first of operators to grant concessions to miners. August 19, 1887, Frick miners received a minimum pay scale and semimonthly pay. It

became Pennsylvania law. Further agreed to a sliding pay scale.

• Times of high demand for coke, miners paid full wages. • Coke demand low, received a fair reduction in wages. • Not all owners complied.

• 1889 a strike loomed again. o Yet another union emerged: Miners Progressive Union. o Operators, organized by Frick, finalized the Syndicate. o Miners wanted Syndicate to fix the sliding scale. o The long and agonizing road to unionization and stability continued.

Strike of 1891 • 1890 United Mine Workers became union of choice in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and beyond. • 1891 Miners were ready to strike again.

o Men still wanted some type of scale on the tipples, a sliding scale for wages, an 8-hour day, and a 15% wage increase.

• January 4 Miners and owners met in conference. o February 2, met again: no agreement but things looked hopeful. o February 10th the strike was called and 10-13,000 regional miners affected.

• Frick simply closed his mines. o Rainey, major mine owner in region, kept mines open and brought in Pinkerton detectives.

• March 2 met at Scottdale.

o Most operators attended (Lynch for Frick, Schoonmaker, Ramsay, Hostetter, Stauffer, and Overholt. Missing Rainey and McClure).

o No progress. • February 23 over 4,000 armed Hungarian, Slav, Italian, German, and American miners descended on

Dawson, west of Morgan Valley, at Rainey’s Paul Mine. • April 2, battle at Morewood, north of Morgan Valley. o Eight men were originally listed as killed and a number wounded. (Image: “Bloodshed at the Morewood Works,” Chronical Telegraph, April 2, 1891. Scrapbook, February 15 to April 3, 1891, Henry Clay Frick Business Records 1862-1987, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, Scrapbook Series, Box 496, Volume 9, p. 166. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.) o Buried at Saint John’s Cemetery in Scottdale. • Then the evictions began. The companies were clear: o a miner had to work to stay in the company houses. o If not, ten days to vacate. o April 8, eviction notices were to go to the constables for

delivery. • April 9, the following notice was posted on homes: “Name: You are hereby notified to quit and give up peaceable possession of the house and lot you now occupy and known and numbered as No. __ at Morewood mines, East Huntington Township, Westmoreland County, PA., on or before April 19th, as per terms of the lease under which you now hold, as we wish to have and repossess the same. Signed: The Southwest Coal and Coke Co.” The Southwest was part of the Frick holdings. (“May be Settled,” Chronicle Telegraph, April 9, 1891. Scrapbook, April 3-18 1891, Henry Clay Frick Business Records 1862-1987, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, Scrapbook Series, Box 496, Volume 9, p. 106. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.)

• At Broadford, 80 notices allowed families 10 days to vacate. More were served at Leisenring No. 2 south

of the Morgan Valley. The miners began to fight back. • May 26th the Mount Pleasant Journal declared the strike over.

o after nearly fifteen weeks of riots, marches, evictions, the National Guard, fires at the Rainey plants, the socialists introducing the red flag of anarchy, and men killed at Morewood Mine, the miners rushed back to work.

o Instead of an 8-hour day and wage increases; lower wages and more imported labor. They were beaten.

o Through most of the rest of the year the court cases filled the newspapers. o The Knights of Labor died for the second time. After the strike a new union, Federated

Brotherhood of Coke Workers of America formed. • Kenneth Warren in Wealth, Waste, and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry

stated, “The 1891 conflict highlighted the intensity of violence that could occur even in this country district. In fact, it achieved an intensity as great as that of the Homestead strike of the following year

without receiving anywhere near a comparable stature in the collective memory of working people or the same prominence in labor history.” He is right!

Strike of 1894 • Scale proved impossible to maintain.

o Frick’s 1891 scale was valid until February 8, 1894. Rate: $1.75 for coke, $1.00 per hundred for mining, and $1.95 for hauling. Other operators had reduced their scale considerably due to low demand.

o In mid-January Frick posted new scale. Reduced 1891 rate by 10 to 20 per cent with a base of $1.15 instead of $1.75. It was higher than other operators.

o Frick miners signed the scale which would commence the beginning of February. o Other miners were not hopeful as the last scale was broken by most operators.

• Enter the unions. o Mid-March United Mine Workers met at Scottdale; Connellsville area formally joined the now

national union. o Strike was called for April 2. o Guns, clubs, dynamite and intimidation were employed by strikers to force the workers out. o 400 deputies were in the region protecting mines. o A six-month new reign of terror began and violence lead to death.

• J. H. Paddock, the chief engineer of the H. C. Frick Coke Company, was beaten to death at Davidson Mine, a few miles from Broadford at the edge of route 119.

o It happened on April 4 following several days of rioting. o Frick blamed miners of Rainey and Cochran mines. o He was dissatisfied with Sheriff Wilhelm who was at Davidson at the time and did little to stop

the riot. • The Situation

o On the 6th the Frick Mines began to close down as rioters gathered at Mount Pleasant. o Group of 600 camped at Scottdale. o End of May over 150,000 miners from all over the country were on strike. o Italians, Negroes, and convict labor brought into regions to work the mines. o Miners starving, families in worse poverty. o Railroads weren’t running. Steel mills had to close.

• Evictions o Oliver, Mammoth, and Smithton were among the first patches for evictions.

At Oliver, the miners and goods were dumped along the road. They set up housekeeping there.

In Smithton, workers at Port Royal Mine moved cow sheds into woods and move into them.

o Frick also began to evict his miners. Frick contracted for Italians from Buffalo. They came and left claiming they were not hired to work the mines.

o Slav and Hun agitators were to be thrown out of the Frick mines for good. • Strikes continued far beyond our research dates and well into the 1930s.

How Frick Began

Caption: Frick’s empire went through a number of transformations and corporate names. This is the earliest bill head and company name we have found. (Broad Ford Mines Billhead 1870, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, 1862-1987, Box 523, Folder 1, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.) Frick Organizes

• Overholt, Frick & Co. The first coal company created by Henry Clay Frick. o The partners in the firm were A. O. Tinstman, J. S. R. Overholt, Joseph Rist, and Frick.

• 1871 Frick & Co. o It was a partnership between Tinstman, Rist, and Frick and it would last, precariously, until the

late 1870s. • H. C. Frick Coke Company

• Many sources list different dates for the formation of the final company. • An 1877 date is given in the Connellsville Coke booklet distributed by Frick company. • The Journal of the company states Friday, March 1, 1878.

FRICK MINE (Novelty)

Caption: 1908 insurance map of Broadford area noting the distillery (right along river) the railroads, the coke ovens, and various buildings including houses and mine buildings. (Insurance Map of Henry Clay Mine, United States Steel Company, RGGS Land & Minerals, 1908.)

• Frick Mine stood on the left side of the valley just as it exited the village of Broadford. o Entrance half way up the cliff side. o Ovens along the road and track side.

• Frick built 50 coke ovens at the Frick Mine. Then 50 more. • 1875, 130 persons were employed in the Frick and Henry Clay mines combined:

o 50 miners (at $1.50 a day) and 50 coke drawers ($1.80) o 10 outside laborers ($1.25), 2 inside laborers ($1.50), 4 outside mechanics ($1.75), 4 outside

mule drivers ($1.40), 7 inside mule drivers ($1.40), 2 weigh masters ($1.65), and 2 mining overseers ($1.80).

• The original ovens for both Frick and Henry Clay mines were 11’x5 ½‘ bank ovens o charged by three wagons for four days producing 48-hour coke and o charged by 3.5 wagons on weekends for 72-hour coke. o 11 car loads of coke were shipped daily to “Milwaukee, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and other

points west.”

Caption: Broadford Station along the B&O in 1800s. (Broadford Station, 3955, Westmoreland-Fayette Historical Society (Box #25, Folder #2 076), West Overton Village and Museums. Scottdale, Pennsylvania.)

• 18 tenement houses erected by Frick and Co. along river at Broadford. o Lumber purchased from Hoop Jones and Company. o George Newmyer (Newmeyer), a prominent landowner and mine operator, built three block

houses (duplex), a bake oven, and wash house for Frick in 1871. o 1873 John G. White built 10 duplex houses, paid $10,000. o Houses were mostly located facing the Yough down river from distillery. o Monday, March 20, 1876, Frick and Co took over company store at Broadford from local

merchant E. H. Reid.

The Ovens, the Growth, and the Marketplace • The first construction evidence at Frick Mine was the erection of coke ovens. As noted, Frick Mine

received 50 ovens in 1871 and an additional 50 in 1872. • 1910 it still had 105 ovens. • Frick Mine was off the oven list by 1913.

Caption: This chart and those in subsequent sections are a compilation from the originals that appeared weekly in the Connellsville Weekly, Courier, and Daily Courier from 1888 for decades. The newspaper printed the ovens of every mine in the Connellsville Coke Region.

• 1876 Two entrances to Frick Mine, both drift. Upper linked to Morgan Mine, next door. o 1885 2 upper and 2 lower entrances. o Upper worked by 11 miners and 2 boys; lower by 20 miners and 1 boy. o Difference between 85 workers in 1880 and only 35 in 1885 is probably related to opening of

Rist Mine across valley. It linked the Morgan, Frick, Henry Clay into a single unit in 1882 and many of the workers moved to Rist.

o Superintendent Robert Ramsay; Mine Boss John Keck. o 1890 nearing the end for commercial mining for major manufactures like steel.

Of the 50 acres of coal land, most mined out.

Strike of 1891 • April of 1891 Frick sent a Sheriff to Adelaide Mine across the river from Broadford to evict a number of

people. o Over 300 miners ascended on the region. o Events moved back and forth from Adelaide to Broadford via the bridge across the

Youghiogheny River. o Among evicted: Mrs. Weigenski, Mrs. Elizabeth Murphy, John Danks, John Campbell, Henry

Howarth, Peter Skero, Steve Prauncki, and Michael Barrett, the local leader.

o May 9th evictions returned to the Broadford area. o 15 families at Broadford quartered in a hall. Many homeless taken in by comrades.

Strike of 1894 • Marches, burnings, shootings, and assemblies 10,000 strong occurred throughout the region.

o One of the most stunning evictions was at Adelaide across Youghiogheny from Broadford. 60 families evicted; no place to go. Established a camp along the river (still campground today).

• Murder of J. H. Paddock, Frick’s chief engineer at Davidson Mine created problems at Broadford. o Not a shot fired by pursuers until Pittsburg, McKeesport and Youghiogheny bridge at Broadford. o Deputies fired; 1 miner fell. Lying on railroad track. Deputies kicked body off tracks. Miners using signals, scattered in all directions. o 2 miles below Broadford surrendered. Taken to Dawson and guarded by deputies until train arrived.

Caption: One by one the household goods of strikers were thrown out of the company houses. (“On the Warpath,” Pittsburg Press, April 23, 1891. Scrapbook, April 18 to May 12 1891, Henry Clay Frick Business Records 1862-1987, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, Scrapbook Series, Box 496, Volume 9, p. 41. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.)

Fire and Water • 1898 Fire mentioned in introduction started. Lasted longer than years mine was open.

o It became one of the major mine fires of the region. o To stop a fire in a mine one must cut the air.

One way is to suffocate it. Another: to fill it with water. Neither an easy task. Both were done at Frick.

• Water was as much a problem as fire. o As coal was removed ground water often took its place and had to be pumped out. o A wall of coal could be holding back underground water and once breached a flood began,

sometimes closing the mine for good.

Coming to a Close, Maybe

• 1910, 40 years after Frick Mine opened, the entire Morgan Valley, in decline for a number of years, was revived.

o The ovens, mostly banked (shut down), were still there stretching in a line up the valley. o It was “cheaper to upgrade these plants than build new ones.”

• 1918 Corrado-Schenck Coal Company took over some of the Morgan Valley mines. o By 1921 Corrado-Schenck was still operating.

• 1919 Frick Mine rented to Samuel Wiggins for $250 a year. • 1921 conveyed to “Samuel Wiggins, per letter of Gordon and Smith, dated June 8, 1921.” • 1950s and 60s Jim Wiggins operated the mine. Sold custom coal at $5.00 a ton. • Government clean water laws forced company to close. The small operation could not afford the cost

of cleaning the water. • 2003 US Steel sold Frick Mine. Deed dated 2/26/04 eff 1/1/03 whereby US Steel Corp. conveys to

RGGS, mineral & certain surface in Fayette Co. Pa. Rec Book 2901. Pg 1890. EF 11559” (Frick Mine, Property Record, RGGS Land and Mineral, 1882, p. 1.).

Caption: Here are three sites in the lower Morgan Valley where J. Wiggins mined. Top is the Frick Mine dated 12.9.58. Bottom left is the Rist Mine where strip mining took place dated 12.9.58 and to the right dated 4.7.66 is the Morgan Mine. There are three other Wiggins sites noted on the larger map. (RGGS UMM 100.03 underground map. RGGS Land & Minerals.)

• Eventually the mine openings were sealed. • The beehive coke ovens remained in place until the 2000s when the entire lower Morgan Valley was

swept clean.

HENRY CLAY MINE

Caption: Henry Clay tipple and slope entrance as seen from atop Broadford Road. (Connellsville Coke, H. C. Frick Coke Company, Pittsburgh, Pa. c.1883. Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, 1862-1987, Box 523, Folder 1, p. 8. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.)

• Frick built Henry Clay Mine from scratch. o John Bixler opened the pit mouth securing it with 20 posts. o John Wilhelm contracted to building the beehive coke ovens.

For 10 ovens, he was paid $1,980.00. In all he built 70 of the ovens at this time. o Zachariah T. Henry worked with or for Wilhelm. o L. M. Herrington pulled the first coke from the ovens.

He later became Superintendent of Schools for Fayette County. • Henry Clay Mine included 143.9 acres of surface land and 127.121 acres of coal.

o It stretched from B&O tracks along Yough up hillside to and including what would become the Broadford Road leading to Broadford from route 119.

Caption: Although it is unlikely that this photo is Henry Clay Mine, it resembles it close enough to get a picture of what it must have looked like. The mine was cut into the hillside. The entrance sloping down into the mine. The coal placed into wagons drawn by mules up the slope and into the tipple. From the tipple, it was dropped in the larry cars sitting atop the bank coke ovens. The larry cars carried the coal and dropped it into the ovens to be fired. Once fired the coke was pulled from the ovens and put into railroad cars to be taken to market.

• 1882 air was very poor within the mine. • 1888, six years later, a positive air report because of a new twelve-foot fan.

Growth and Change • Thomas Lynch was the General Superintendent at Henry Clay.

o Mining boss was Thomas Kane. • 1888 Frick dismantle the 100 original beehive coke ovens and build 120 new ones.

o Ruins can still be found.

The Strikes at Henry Clay • 1886 Strike had a direct connection to the Henry Clay.

o 400 men were en route to Scottdale and at 9 o’clock in the morning on February 8, shots were fired at the Henry Clay.

o Peter Soisson, the yard boss, was beaten. o The tipple, engine house, and a few railroad cars on the B&O track were set on fire. o A dozen men were trapped in the tipple. o The sheriff and 25 deputies were dispatched to bring back order.

• 1891 During strike eighty eviction notices were served at Broadford. o Some lived in canvas tents, school houses, or with friends. o One group went to live at the German Hall on the hill overlooking Broadford.

The building 40x60 ft., one story high. Ten families here. Probably the Rist family building standing next to their cemetery.

Slowing Down • 1900 coal for industrial purposes running out.

o Total area 143.900 acres; 16.566 were barren; 0.213 reserved; 22.663 assigned to other mines (probably Rist).

o Total area mine as of 3-12-1910 at 99.442 acres, coal remaining 5.016 acres.

o The estimate of the life of the plant was 4.2 years. • 1910 many ovens were fired up again.

o Huge bins built at Eagle and White mines and coal was brought in from other working mines outside of Morgan Valley.

• 1912 Area occupied by the plant 50 acres; farming 70 acres; waste area 19.471 acres. • 1930 Property Record report that the Henry Clay had been abandoned.

o 117.112 acres had been sold and the net area remaining was 26,908. o 26-pages of transactions in surface and mineral rights were broken up into parcels over the

years. o Finally, the remaining conveyed to RGGS Land & Minerals in 2003.

Fire • Henry Clay Mine fire began in 1897. o It was stopped by creating brick barriers, five of them, and filling the area with water. o As seen in this 2016 image: the red slag (coal ash) on the hillside shows the results of the fire: black coal turned into red slag. (Also, note in the lower right the orange color along the side of Galley Run. That is acid mine drainage AMD.)

Morgan Mine

Caption: This image shows the farmland of Peter Galley atop the hill. “He bought a farm of 100 ½ acres from Andrew Shallenberger, May 4, 1799. This farm was located about a mile north of the Youghiogheny River, on the Broadford Run [later named Galley Run], where the Morgan coke works are now found.” The smoke is from the Morgan Mine Coke Ovens.

(Henrietta Galley and J. O. Arnold, History of the Galley Family with Local and Old-Time Sketches in the Yough Region, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Printing and Publishing Co, 1906, p. 19.)

• The Morgan Mine was believed to be the first mine built in the valley: thus the name Morgan Valley. o One or two mines in the valley may have begun before Morgan. o Owned by A. S. M. Morgan originally from Morganza and former surveyor of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad. • 1866 A. O. Tinstman purchased land around Broadford with Joseph Rist and Morgan bought enough to open his mine in 1866. o Franklin Ellis reported Morgan was begun by Sidney and James Morgan and A. J. Crossland, not Colonel Morgan. o 1869 Enman, following Frick records, maintained Morgan opened in 1869 making Eagle Mine first opened in valley. o This will not be the last time we find such confusion and are unable to

substantiate the information without wading through hundreds of documents far beyond our mandate.

o 1876 Morgan sold interest in Morgan Mine to Col. Daniel Davidson (built Pittsburgh & Connellsville RR, first RR in area) and Albert Patterson for $60,000.

• Mine located on northwest side of valley, less than 1/4th of a mile north of the Frick Mine. o Traveling up valley on current Broadford Road one must look to hillside on left to see location. o Entire mine beyond railroad tracks south of Dry Run Road.

• Small mine, only 20 acres of coal land. o Original entrance a drift.

o Eventually two drift openings called Upper and Lower. The Lower linked to the Frick Mine. • Village around mine known as Sherrick Station became Morgan Station after mine built. o 10 tenements. o Car shops for building cars, wagons, and wheelbarrows existed here. o Today village is called Morgan. • 1875 Morgan Mine had 111, 11’ x 6’ bank ovens each charged with 110 bushels of coal for 4 days to produce 48-hour coke and

125 on weekends to produce 72-hour coke. o Morgan Mine shipped west, including California. o When anthracite region on strike in 1874 shipped to Susquehanna and Lehigh valleys.

• 1876 the mine employed 75 people: 30 miners, 32 outside laborers, 2 inside laborers, 1 outside mechanic, 2 inside mechanics, 1 outside mule driver, 4 inside mule drivers, 1 weigh master, and 1 mining overseer.

• 1877 Frick leased Morgan Mine. o June 15, 1878 H. C. Frick Coke Company invested ¼ interest in Morgan Mines.

o At that time had a house, a store house, car shop, stables, one half interest in two houses at Morgan Station, 111 coke ovens, 111 railroad cars, pit wagons, larries, wheel barrows, tools, mules, horses, and cart: a complete mine.

• 1880 120 men working at Morgan and built 50 new ovens.

Fires

• In July of 1884 the stables at Morgan Mine burned and 21 mules died.

Huns Not Welcome • Morgan Station was also visited by strikers.

o 1881 500 men camped at Morgan Station. • 1886 “Huns” went out on strike at Morgan and Summit mines.

o Coke drawers fighting for increased wages throughout Morgan Valley. • 1889 conditions got worse and the headquarters were at Morgan Station. o Strike began near Mount Pleasant at Schoonmaker’s Alice Works, o Located on hill above Morewood. o 600 Huns did not want a new agreement. o Cut 6 coal cars from pit mouth. o They ran downhill and crash. o Larry car thrown off top of ovens, wheelbarrows broken into splinters, oven front

smashed. o Huns from Alice marched on to Bessemer Mine armed with clubs, coke forks, and guns. o Continued to riot. They assaulted people. o Raided company store and almost set it on fire. o Did the same at Coalbrook Mine. o Beat a man named Joseph Harshman, a drawer,

dragged him down the valley to Morgan Station. Set up their headquarters.

o Just outside of Morgan Station encountered a posse and there was a shootout.

o At Morgan Station, took refuge in Soup House, the former company multi-resident house of Sherrick (former name for Morgan Station).

o Posse raided Soup House, captured 21: under beds, in cupboards, and everyplace else. o The remainder marched to Connellsville.

Continued their battle at Calumet, Mammoth, Hecla, and Stonerville (Alverton) patches.

o Eventually all became calm with nothing settled. • The strike of 1891 was more intense and troubling at Morgan.

o Thousands would descent on Morgan for meetings. o Two families were forcible ejected from their homes at the Morgan mines.

Their furniture was thrown into the road, while a large crowd stood by and watched the work of the deputy sheriffs. The families were those of George Ager (Eager) and William McEnery, two well-known

leaders of factions in the strike.

(“Hunger is Pressing Hard,” The Pittsburg Times, May 8, 1891. Scrapbook, April 18 to May 20 1891, Henry Clay Frick Business Records 1862-1987, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, Scrapbook Series, Box 497, Volume 10, pp. 194-95. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.)

What are Car Shops?

(Scottdale: 100 Years, Scottdale: Scottdale Centennial Association, Inc., 1979.)

• Morgan Station was the original location of the Frick company car shops. o Built wooden wagons used by miners to mine the coal and railroad cars to be used to haul the

coke to market. o 1893 car shops at Morgan to be moved to Summit Mine. o 1896 Still underway but moved to Everson. o Frick acquired the land for the Everson shops in 1895-6.

He established a pattern shop, foundry, machine shop, carpenter shop, and more. At car shops workers also made major repairs to boilers, pumps, etc., for all Frick

mines. o 1931 they added an electrical repair shop. o 1940 Other shops were dismantled and the land sold.

The Beginning of the End for Morgan

• 1895 Morgan Mine operated only 96 days. o Mine boss Thomas Coulehan. o Two years later only ribs and stumps remain. Mine boss was Daniel Alsop.

o 1910 Union Supply Company store closed; workers use Broadford store. o Matthew Gault manager of both stores. o 1911 total area of the tract was 113.272 with a barren area of 17.162, with a totally mined area of 95.797 and zero coal remaining. • 1917 Frick papers list Morgan as closed.

• 1921 April 21, Unsold interests conveyed to Samuel Wiggins, as was the Frick Mine property. • 1921, the Daily Courier (see illustration) reported that the Morgan Mine was being revived and that

Corrado-Schenck owned Morgan. o 1922 They invested a great deal of money, but only had 16 ovens working.

• 1930 Property Record calls Morgan Mine abandoned on January 1.

• 1954 Coal was still being mined by Gould Coal Company. o Called House Coal, it was being delivered to homes to fire their coal furnaces. o Gould’s ownership may have extended to Frick Mine ovens too.

• 2003 Conveyed to RGGS Land & Minerals.

Rist Mine

Caption: Tipple, coke ovens, and more at Rist Mine. (Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Part III, Industrial Statistics, Vol. XIII, 1885, Harrisburg: E. K. Meyers, 1886, PART 1 & 2, pp. 152b-153b.)

• After one turns the bend at Broadford to head up the Morgan Valley, Rist Mine entrance is on right 1/10th of a mile beyond current buildings.

o Runs at the edge of the Broadford Road. • Rist a consolidation effort. It combined underground coal from Henry Clay, Frick, Eagle and Morgan

mines. o Eliminated duplicate services: office work, water supplies, and more. o Did not eliminate coke ovens which remained on Courier list under former names.

• Rist opened in 1884 (others say 1882). o Slope opening. o Tipple crossed road.

Frick coke ovens used by Rist Mine on left side of road. o Huge 7-foot diameter, 62 ½ foot deep shaft built to ventilate mine. o Employed 41 men, 3 boys, and 11 others. o To convey coal to ovens, Morris Ramsay constructed a bridge.

In the photo above one sees the ovens, the bridge, the mine shaft, the tipple, the railroad tracks and more.

• 1890s Rist still had a double entry and a slope. o Throughout state inspector reports mine in good condition, air in good order. o In the late 90s Charles Winingroth was mine foreman.

Caption: The chart shows various tracts, their acreage, mining history, and where, if any place, some of the acreage was reassigned. (“Rist Mine,” Property Record, 1882-1916, RGGS Land & Minerals, p. 17.)

o It had 7.5-foot-high Pittsburgh Seam and was able to yield 11.250 tons of coal per acre. o Combined, Rist tracts included 1463.450 acres, held 117.874 barren acres, had 46.941 acres in

reservation, 734.348 acres assigned to other mines, and, as of October 17, 1916, 556.295 acres had been mined. Merely 7.992 acres remained. The plant life at that time was estimated as 1 year.

Fire at Rist Tipple • Tipples were large, multi-story, wooden structures used to haul coal out of mines and move it to

market via railroad cars or river barges. o Also used to move coal to ovens to be fired. o Never painted, wood would dry and become a fire hazard.

• 1884 A tipple built by C. N. Stauk(?) and Brother of Greensburg. o designed to span the railroad tracks.

• 1917 the huge Rist tipple caught fire. o 80 men were working at the plant. o Estimated only two months’ supply of coal yet to be mined. o Frick listed mine as closed the same year.

• 2016 Pillars of the tipple could still be found to the left side of the Broadford Road at Rist. o Only coke ovens remaining in this area are at Henry Clay Mine along the B&O at Broadford.

White Mine (Globe)

Caption: View of Mid-Morgan Valley mines with ovens, buildings, entrances, and roads identified. John Enman, educator from Bloomsburg State College, now university, worked diligently searching for the coal mine history of the region in the 1950s and 60s. He drew this and many other maps based on the 1892 H. C. Frick Company topographical map described in the introduction. In addition to drawing the location of the beehive coke ovens he shows the pit entries and some of the houses. Many of his papers can be found at the Coal & Coke Heritage Center on the Penn State Fayette Campus along Route 119.

• 4/10s of a mile beyond Morgan Mine is White Mine. o Underground portion under road and to the right. o Tipple and entrance to left in current junkyard. o Coke ovens, in three rows, in the valley beyond or at the edge of the junkyard this side of the

railroad tracks. o They were either covered over or removed and nothing is visible. o Directly across the tracks from the White ovens were 97 Foundry ovens.

• 1873 White Mine opened by A. A. Hutchinson & Brothers under the name of Globe Mine. o Two drift entrances, 25 miners, 2 outside laborers, 1 outside mechanic, 2 outside mule drivers, 2 inside mule drivers, 1 weight masters, 1 super, 1 mining overseer, and 12 coke drawers. • 1875 79 bank ovens of 11’x6’ in size each charged with 3 wagons of coal which filled 38 freight cars with coke and was shipped west. o 45 men working at time. • 1878 80 ovens.

• Centennial Medal for the quality of the coke produced. Superintendent Charles Cunningham; mining boss Robert Cowan.

• 1880 148 ovens.

o Bad ventilation report blamed it on mining boss. • 1881 H. C. Frick Coke Company bought Globe Mine.

o Changed name to White Mine. o Imported foreigners into the Coke Region. o 40 foreigners arrived at Morgan Station and stayed at Soup House. o Ten sent to Sherrick (Eagle) and White mines.

• 1887 52 new beehive coke ovens added to White. o Total to 200; remained for decades. o 1913 over 150 new ovens were added. o 2 drift openings.

• 1891 mine boss John Grambly (Grumley). • 1892 Frick constructed a water course from the White mines to Valley mines.

o Supervised by Grambly (later work for McClure Coke Company’s Mullen Mine). o Ran over a mile and penetrated No. 2 heading of Valley Mine. o Intended to form a natural drain for the Valley Mine.

• 1896 thru 1898 White managed by three different foremen: o (in order) Terrenee Donnelly, William Miner, and Jacob Houser.

• Over the next decade White Mine was in blast and running smoothly. o 1910 mostly worked out.

• Coke ovens continued, coal shipped in from other Frick mines. o Mainly from Gates Mine along Monongahela in Fayette County. o Coal stored in bins erected at Eagle and White. o Track laid to take coal to bins and then to ovens. o Cheaper to move coal than build new ovens.

• 28 tenements built at White. As of 1959 zero remained. o 1910 population was 162, by 1960 it was zero.

• 1917 932.075 acres with 368.311 acres mined and only 2.564 acres of coal remaining. • 1919 closed. • 1930 January 1 Property Reports being written so still owned by Frick.

• 1953 coal for sale by C. B. Pletcher. • 2003 sold to RGGS.

Foundry Mine

Caption: Blended map of underground and above ground to show where things could be found in the middle of the Morgan Valley. (Image from RGGS Land & Minerals 100 031.) In 1881, the state of Pennsylvania enacted a series of laws to

secure safety in the mines. Among them was the demand that mine owners must create an accurate map or plan of the workings of each mine. They had six months to comply and from time to time were ordered to update the maps.

• Foundry Mine directly across ravine from White Mine. o Ovens beyond railroad track; o Tipple and entry in the hillside beyond.

• Franklin Ellis: Foundry Mine established in 1869 by Strickler and Lane. o HAER Connellsville Coal and Coke report relying on Historical Data H. C. Frick Coke Company

Plants says founded in 1870. o Further HAER says that Foundry was acquired by Frick in 1879. o H. C. Frick Company Journal of March 1876 to May 31, 1880 entry of December 31, 1878: that

Frick bought 2/3rd interest of C. P. Markle and sons undivided ½ int in Foundry Mine Property. o Ownership confusion is biggest problem in doing research on coal mines of Pennsylvania.

• 1875 44 beehive bank ovens sized 11 ½’ x 6’ to make 48-hour and 72-hour coke at Foundry. o Shipped 28 cars of coke each week and 30 men were employed.

• 1880 New coke ovens and 50 men. • 1881 Mine boss John Minert told miners “were working beyond the air,” a typical mining jargon saying

there was not enough air in the deep portions of the mine. o The total coal acres: 40. o Portions consolidated into other mines.

• 1887 Connected underground with Eagle Mine, to northeast. • 1890 One of three mines merged into the name Summit: 1, 2, and 3. Foundry being 3. • 1891 Mines shared same ventilation system.

o Mining boss Edward Mooney. o Only coke ovens bore Foundry name. o They remained on the Connellsville list through 1912. o As one can see by the chart below, Foundry’s ovens were seldom in full blast. o 1905 all 97 ovens were out of blast.

• 1911 total area mined at Foundry Mine was 29.594 acres with zero coal remaining. o Much of surface tracts sold off over the years, but the mineral rights were not.

• 1920 Area occupied by plant was 1.544 acres. • 1930 26-acre Peter Galley Tract surface was sold to Joseph and Bolestawa Marchewka on November

14.

• 2003 Mineral rights and ‘some surface rights’ were conveyed to RGGS Land & Minerals deeded 2/26/04 effective 1/1/03.

Eagle Mine (Sherrick)

Caption: Miners from the Everson area.

• A mere .3 miles from White Mine on left-hand side of Broadford Road is a dirt road leading to Eagle Mine. It is blocked by a gate.

o The mine is a good mile back from turn. o Nothing left as it appears to have been strip mined and landscaped.

• Ellis states Eagle Mine opened 1868 by Markle, Sherrick & Co. o HAER and inhouse H. C. Frick Coke Company record use the date 1870.

• The mine consisted of two tracts: o John Sherrick Track of 153.075 surface acres and 119.703 underground coal acres. o Peter Galley Tract of 1.75 acres of surface. o Portions of Sherrick Tract were sold a number of times. o On July 8, 1885, 2.755 acres of coal were sold to James M. Schoonmaker, another mine

speculator soon to be head of the P&LE railroad. (Deed #150 dated July 8, 1885, Deed Book Vol. 63, page 202).

o A surface 4.486 acres were conveyed to Highland Kelly on February 7, 1900. (Agreement #1767, Deed Record Vol. 2, page 379).

o Again, a surface of 130.743 acres was conveyed to Joseph Marchewka on November 21, 1921. an additional 8.667 acres to him on November 14, 1930.

o On August 4, 1937 Alva E. Brown received 8.528 acres of surface acres (Deed 274-156). o As for the Peter Galley Tract, the 1.75 acres do not seem to be conveyed to anyone. o US Steel sold the mineral and certain surface rights of both properties in Fayette County to

RGGS Land & Minerals on 2.26.94 to be effective 1.1.03 (Book 2901, p. 1890).

Owners and Workers • 1876, still under original owner, Eagle Mine had 2 drift entrances, both running southwest.

o 80 coke ovens and a 100-foot excellent ventilation shaft.

o Mr. Sherrick was described as “a great, tall, gaunt looking coal miner, his lamp in front of his cap - the grease trickling down over his forehead, and his clothes hanging in ribbons. . .”

• 1878 was same year the Frick & Co began buying an interest in the Eagle Mine. o began by buying 2/3rds interest in C. P. Markle & Sons portion of Eagle Mine on December 31,

1878. o Markle was only part owner. o Frick now controlled 1,300 ovens in a three-mile line through Morgan Valley and shipped 125

car loads of coke every single day. o 1879 December 1 Frick and Company became H. C. Frick Coke Company.

• Eagle had 80 beehive coke ovens throughout its existence and it was seldom that all of them were in blast at the same time.

• 1882, under mine boss John Minert, the system was much improved. • 1891 name Eagle changed to Summit 1 and 2. Ovens remained on Connellsville weekly list as Eagle. • 1894 still under name Eagle, 18 families were evicted during strike. • 30 Italians came from Buffalo to work in the mines.

o led by Stephen Meggo. o Intimidated: they went home. o Meggo hired by Frick to bring 150 to 350 men to work through the summer.

The Slow Demise • 1909 mine, still under the name Eagle.

o Foreman of Summit Mine reopened Eagle mine. 20 and 30 ovens were to be put into operation.

o Coal imported from Gates Mine to Summit. o A new tramway built from Summit to Eagle.

• 1911 As of January 1, total area occupied by surface plant was 33.339 acres with 67 acres used for farming and 50 acres as waste.

• 1917 Frick marked Eagle as closed and Connellsville Courier noted that James Wardlaw was superintendent and part owner of Eagle Mine.

o Wardlaw an educator published educational books on mining for miners, offered citizenship classes, and eventually had a mining school (see image left). o His two important publications were Mining in a Nutshell and Mining, Mathematics, Simplified. o He held classes at Mount Pleasant Township high school twice a week for men trying to obtain foreman and fireboss certificates. • 1918 Corrado Coal Company or the Corrado Schenck Coal Company leased Eagle Mine from Frick. o Offices in Connellsville, company consisted of Gaetano Corrado, F. B. Donnelly, H. E. Schenck, and W. P. Schenck. o Corrado Company immediately opened a new pit, increased railroad siding, build a new tipple, and got underway.

o 1926, Corrado Company still in operation and had 14 plants in the region. o 1929 They ran ads looking for miners (see ad). o 1933 Corrado leased the Lemont Mine from Frick. It had been idle for six years.

He would employ 200 miners. o 2003 Ownership remained with US Steel.

sold all mineral rights to RGGS Land & Minerals in 2003. None of the Property Records name Corrado in any instance.

Cleaning Up • The land now part of Connellsville Auto Sales.

o Grounds near railroad tracks are strewn with automobiles. o Not a trace of this mine can be found above ground. o It was probably strip mined for the land is all flat and contoured. o No information about strip mining has been found.

• However, we do know that Eagle Mine discharged acid mine drainage into Galley Run as late as the 1970s.

Summit Mine (Owensdale)

• Summit Mine located to left of Broadford Road as it enters Owensdale. • Upper Tyrone Township supervisor’s web site maintains Jackson Shallenberger constructed the mine

that he called Owensdale 1872. o Uniontown Evening Standard insisted Cochran & Keister opened Summit Mine in 1873. o HAER, using Frick stats, recorded it was opened by Hurst, Moore & Company in 1874 (and

taken over by Frick Co in 1880). o 1875 Industrial Statistics of Pennsylvania agreed with HAER that first operators were Hurst,

Moore & Company. o When H. C. Frick Coke Company bought a portion of Summit Mine it cut check to Cochran and Keister. • 1879-80 Industrial Statistics reported 47 people employed at Summit: 20 miners, 20 outside laborers, 1 outside mechanic, 1 outside mule driver, 1 inside mule driver, and 1 mining overseer. • At 230 acres, it had highest acreage of coal land in valley. o 101 bank ovens 11 ½’ x 6’ in size produced 66 cars weekly Coke shipped by Morgan & Co. practically next

door. 75 men employed.

o Received name because “the railroad track falls both ways” thus at summit of Morgan Valley. • 1876 Mine was taken over by James Cochran & Co.

o 2 drift openings. • 1879 H. C. Frick Coke Company in December bought 1/4th interest in Summit Coke works.

o Other 3/4ths owned by Henry Ferguson (Frick’s partner), and Cochran and Keister. o H. C. Frick Coke Company soon owned half interest in Summit. o Sale included 102 coke ovens.

• 1880 entire mine sold to Frick enterprise in early February. o 96 men employed. o 20 new tenements built. o A new branch of Southwest Railroad constructed. o 41 new beehive coke ovens built.

Total now 142 where it would remain until near the end. o 38 tenements built at Summit and as of 1959 only 6 remained.

• 1881 Thomas Lynch General Superintendent and B. P. Howell mining engineer. o 1884 Mining boss J. Moody. o 1885 Robert Ramsey was super.

• Property Record for Summit Mine has 14 different tracts with 14 different owner’s deeds: seven for mineral (coal) rights and seven for surface rights.

• 1892 name was changed to Summit on June 10.

Strikes and Evictions: Summit in the Middle • 1891 Activity at Summit during this bitter strike.

o First mine Frick tried to restart in Morgan Valley. o Mid-April 28 men reported to work under armed guard. o Frick sent 26 Italians imported explicitly to work in the mines during the strike. o They were to move into the homes of the evicted miners.

• Gibbon family evicted at Summit before Italians arrived. • The miners held a meeting at Summit.

o Led by a brass band and careful not to step on mine property meeting was mostly orderly. o Mission was to get Italians to attend and not go to work. o Guarded by 12 deputies the Italians did not comply.

o The miners got a written note into the Italians. o They claimed they were shipped from New York and thought they were to work on a pipe line, not work in a mine. o Frick disputed, maintaining they were from anthracite region and had their own lamps and oil cans. • Evictions were carried out by Fayette County Sheriff McCormick and deputies.

o The sheriff was an appointed official, his deputies came from the unemployed. It created problems. In addition to lack of training, if a deputy harmed a miner he could be arrested himself.

o Next came the importation of Negros. 110 of them would be given employment at Rist slope, Broadford. About 100 at Summit and adjoining plants.

o On April 25 more evictions took place at both White and Summit mines. o Company C and the Sheriff evicted four families, Slavs, at Summit.

Strike of 1894

• After disastrous winter mines not working, people starving. o Frick and McClure kept their scale, others did not.

o Wage reductions were being announced. o Frick created a new scale. Men signed it. But, year to come would bring more strikes. • On June 25th, The Dispatch reported Negros had arrived: o Two carloads: 1 to Standard, other to Summit. o Battles took place in several towns in the Morgan Valley. • July 11, 1894 confrontation with Negros. o Men marching past the Summit plant to Scottdale. o 2,500 strikers, divided into companies. o Sudden crackle of firearms. o Negroes and deputies firing at the procession from behind the cars.

o Several men were wounded. “A Riot at Summit,” The Pittsburgh Times, July 12, 1894. Scrapbook, June 23 to October 12, 1894, Henry Clay Frick Business Records 1862-1987, Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, Scrapbook Series, Box 508, Volume 21, p. 57. Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh.)

Reaching the End • The mine was in decline.

o Between 1894 and 1898 ovens never in full blast. o They were well maintained with good ventilation and drainage supervised by foreman John

Noland. o 1895 Storm damaged mines in Morgan Valley.

Railroad tracks deluged, mines submerged. B.&O. bridge at Summit washed out.

• 1897 Frick bought coal land around the Summit Mine. o Paid $200 an acre to Soloman Keister on December 16, 1897. o Deeded to the Youghiogheny Water Company. o Coal deeded to H. C. Frick Coke Company.

• 1905 still coal left to be bought. o Joseph Bryner, Edward Maritta, and Henry Hetzel? bought three acres of coal near Summit

o Promised to reach the market within the month. • 1909 Summit reopened again.

o Still under ownership of H. C. Frick Coke Company. o Like Eagle, coal would come from another mine in a different district and o only about 25 to 30 ovens would be fired.

• 1910 most of the Morgan Valley was mined out. o Summit is listed as closed in 1910. The community still had a population of 288 but by 1960

only 52 remained. o Frick kept all ovens. World War I mines reopened. • Highland Kelly, farmer in Upper Tyrone Township purchases a portion of Summit Mine (see image: RGGS UMM 100 026 Eagle,

Summit Map. RGGS Land & Minerals.). • 1943 John Roth of Scottdale began to reclaim coke from refuse dumps. o Summit Mine was his headquarters. o Best coke was shipped.

Tip Top Mine

Caption: Tip Top Mine is located down in a deep valley along the railroad tracks. (Post Card)

• Who built what is still a problem. o Pittsburgh Daily Commercial said Charles H. Armstrong built 50 ovens along Southwestern

Railroad in 1875.

o Industrial Statistics: Charles H. Armstrong & Son built 41 ovens one mile northwest of Summit Mine in 1874.

o Enman, following Frick stats, gives date 1878. • 1875 Second Geological Survey of 1875 maintained Tip Top was a half mile from Summit Mine

o and had 12 bank ovens with 73 on the way. • 1878 Tip Top leased by H. C. Frick & Co.

o A drift opening and 32 men employed. • 1879 January 17, Frick bought mine from J. B. Young Trustees.

o Both Ellis and HAER support purchase date but HAER’s founding date is 1878. o Journal reported that Frick bought two-thirds interest in the Tinstman and Armstrong property

(Tip Top Coke Works) situated in Tyrone Township, Fayette Co., Pa. Other one-third property of Daniel R. Davidson. 56 coke ovens, buildings, coal rights, tools, mules, pit cars, and equipment. Two-thirds is valued at $50,600.

• Tip Top had two entrances. o Ovens along the western side of creek, remnants remain. o Coal land was 65 acres.

• 1882 Tip Top had bad ventilation and men working “beyond the air.” o Mining boss, Mr. McCleary. o Four-family units built at Tip Top.

• 1889 Both engine house and boiler house destroyed by fire. • 1890 explosion in mine.

o Four pounds of rock powder exploded prematurely, o badly burned miner Ned Sweeny.

Union Troubles • Big union problem at Tip Top.

o General Manager of H. C. Frick Coke Co., Thomas Lynch, involved. o Mine bosses pushing miners to top their coal loads in a competition. o Miners paid by wagon load of coal. o Committeeman of Knights of Labor, Mr. Varoski, told men NOT to participate. o Lost his job and men from all but Standard, Davidson, and Broadford threatened strike. o Went to arbitration. o Verostic found guilty but arbitrators, Rev. W. R. Funk, M. J. Kennedy, and Jacob L. Loucks,

recommended he be reinstated. o In their decision, the men reported:

1st. We believe Andrew Verostic done wrong. 2nd. We believe this wrong not intentionally done. 3rd. We therefore decide in favor of his reinstatement.

Strike of 1891 • In late April, evictions came to Tip Top and Valley mines.

o James Kegan, President of the Scale Committee of the union, was to be evicted. o He put up no fight and went peaceable and suggested everyone else do the same. o Tents were ordered.

Tip Top Keeps Growing

• 1894 Tip Top was finally fired up. o ovens were uncovered and men had been shipped in to man the mine.

• 1905 200 more ovens built at Tip Top. • 1909 Tipple erected, new entry opened for outlying coal, called crop coal.

• Today, tipple can be distinguished (see image). o The RGGS UMM 100 014 map says 59.890 acres of coal conveyed to J. G. Canose on December 7 1909. o A year later 24 people were listed as living at Tip Top. By 1960 no one was living there. • 1911: 100 mine cars of crop coal mined. Mine worked only a week before it closed. • 1911 Frick lists Tip Top as closed. o In October, all pillars and stumps removed. • 1915 it had a new revival. o Logan Rush bought remaining coal and built new tipple. o Rush worked at Union Supply Company for Frick and became Register and Recorder of Fayette County and later County Commissioner. o Rush founded Rush Coal Company with offices in Connellsville and was

a partner with W. E. Rice in the Tyrone Coal Company. o Both of these companies were created because of war in Europe. • 1920s S. C. Whipkey got both surface and lease rights for crop coal.

• He bought same and had a pit at Valley Mine. • 1918 Whipkey president of the Industrial Mill and Mine Supply Company selling equipment, machinery, lumber, mine supplies, steel rails for mines and the Fayette Mine Car Company, making coal and coke machinery. • 1925 working for Union Trust Company in Pittsburgh.

Valley Mine

Caption: Tip Top Mine lies along Jacobs Creek. Perhaps the best of all the Frick mines in Morgan Valley, Valley Mine had the most ovens for the most years and often was the only mine working in the area. It had a total of 200 acres of coal land.

• Once again discrepancies. o The Uniontown Evening Standard reported it was opened in 1870 by Wilson, Boyle & Playford.

o HAER agreed as to who but put date at 1869. Worse, called mine Valley (Clinton). • Clinton a small operation nearby. (see McClure map.) Founded by Solomon Keister; sold to Frick in 1889. Frick merged it into Valley at a later date. • 1875 Valley’s Pittsburgh Seam 11 feet. o 102 bank ovens charged by 3 ½ to 4 wagons of coal and produced 11 cars of coke daily. o 80 men working. • 1877 Frick leased the idle Valley Mine for $650 a month.

o Thomas Lynch superintendent and James Jackson mine boss. o Drift opening, double main-headings and five single cross-headings at 1180 yards apart. o Small furnace used for ventilation and 60 men employed.

o 102 ovens, coke shipped over B&O (former Mount Pleasant and Broadford RR). • 1878, 60 acres of coal already mined and approximately 340 acres remained. • 1880 Frick had bought the mine.

o Number of ovens increased to 251. o In blast most of life of mine. Many still in situ.

• 1880 Frick built a crusher at Valley Mine to break coke into different sizes for different uses. o Fired coke taken to top of hopper and thrown into crusher. o Moved thru series of screens to separated coke into five different sizes. o Each size had a purpose: egg, a 2.5-inch screen; chestnut, a 1 1/4-inch screen; pea, a 5/8-inch

screen; and dust, used for steaming purposes. o The different sizes were used for forges, boilers, tanks, springs, steel cars, drop forgings, shipbuilding, railroad car shots, riveting, bridge and structural iron works, and more. o The crusher was invented by J. C. Dysart. o Not very successful and not replaced after blown down. • 1882 and 1883 H. C. Frick Company bought Pennsville Mine and farm adjacent to the Valley works. o Pennsville Mine owned by Wilson, Boyle, Playford and Ewing o 400 acres sold for $190,600.

o Joined Valley works on southeastern side. o Farm adjacent to Valley Works purchased by Frick for $32,000.

Linked Valley Mine to two rail lines just like mines at Broadford. Remained a Frick farm for a long time.

• 1885 James Jackson mine boss and Robert Ramsay superintendent at Valley. o Mine divided into three sections: first, three openings. o Second was called southwest section; and the interior was redesigned. o Coal hauled by a stationary engine and steel wire rope as opposed to mules and wagons. o A furnace was used for ventilation.

o 57 men and 5 boys, 9 mules, 16 day persons inside, 12 outside. • 1888-89 H. C. Frick Coke Company bought the Clinton Mine and all the surrounding area both above

and below ground (see McClure map above for location).

Union Woes • 1881 Pit boss, James Jackson, arrested for attacking miners. • 1889 Strike at Valley Mine over coal drawers disobeying orders from Superintendent.

o Asked to pick out a specific type of coke for inspection. o Would have caused delays in their work. o They refused as they would lose money. o All men fired by mine Superintendent Thomas Lynch and never rehired despite union

negotiations. o Among them were Cloyd M. Parker, Secretary of the Knights of Labor. o Entire Valley plant on strike next day. Thomas Lynch reacted swiftly:

Notice to Employees. Valley Works As many of the men employed at this plant seem determined that this works shall be now in the interest of and for the exclusive benefit of a few person or persons other than the owners and as we cannot afford to do that in addition to paying 7 percent more wages more than our competitors, we will close this plant down indefinitely. Therefore in conformity with requirements of the scale, you are hereby notified that this plant will close down Dec. 27. (“Notice to Employees,” Thomas Lynch Misc. Letters and Documents (1889-1891), DOC 1889 Dec. 26, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, UPG Archives RG 82.1.)

o The incident continued until July 26 of following year. Men marched. Refused to work. o Unions created chaos and in the end, none of the strikers were reinstated at Valley.

Strike of 1891 • 175 men were on strike and many given eviction notices at Valley.

o People gathered during evictions at Valley in an organized manner. 32 families were evicted. Seven moved to Jackson Hall at Stoner and Pittsburgh streets in Scottdale, a former

Masonic Lodge. o Immediately 52 imported workers, Italians, Poles and Hungarians began to arrive at Valley.

Occupied recently evicted homes.

Strike of 1894 • June of 1894 four men accosted at Valley.

o Frick moved four American workmen from Leisenring to Valley: John Delaney, Oliver Attleby, John Britt, and James Furlough.

o Hundreds of strikers from Trotter caught them, beat them, took them prisoners, and paraded them from mine to mine.

o Sheriff dispatched and at Lemont there was a battle. o Guns fired. Men were wounded, some killed. o Bodies of wounded and dead left lying in streets for several days. o Early July, miners burned a duplex house at Valley. Frick offered $500 reward. o At the beginning of August miners blew up Valley water pipeline.

Fire Again • 1907 Painter Mine, not far from Valley Mine and connected to it underground, caught fire.

o Flooded to put out fire. • 1909 Wooden boiler house and engine building at Valley burned to ground. • 1937 Frick Farm forest caught fire. 35 acres were planted on the farm in 1920 and four to five burned

that day.

Waning Years • 1910 most mines in Morgan Valley in decline or closed. o Valley and Tip Top still working but future looked grim. • 1912 major changes were taking place in Morgan Valley.

Where hundreds of pit holes once tore good farming land to shreds there is now but little evidence that the surface was ever disturbed, the pit holes being dumped full of garbage and dirt and plowed over until the land is almost level. The public road over King’s hill and over Keister’s hill were thrown in and leveled thereby greatly decreasing the heavy grade of these well known hills. The Nathaniel King, Kelly and Keister farms, once catacombed with pit holes have been leveled and there is but little to show where this land has been thrown in. (“Owensdale,” Daily Courier, April 13, 1912, p. 1.)

• That garbage, as time would tell, helped create fires as it fermented in the mines. • 1910, 480 people were living at Valley Mine. By 1960 none. • 1918 Valley Mine was closed. • 1922 Valley Mine, like all the others in the Morgan Valley, was still working.

o By this time, it had over a dozen openings. o Coal taken from mine in buckets and piled in front of entrances to be hauled away in trucks.

• 1926 Drainage a problem again. If they could not solve it, they would close the plant.

Caption: Some of the many beehive oven ruins at Valley Mine. Coming to the End of the Line On December 31, 1921, the H. C. Frick Company ledger says it all.

• The accounts on a number of farms including George Rist farm were closed. o One third of remaining funds distributed to Walton Ferguson, E. M Ferguson, and Henry Clay

Frick (deceased in 1919). o Each partner received $82.58 cents. Their accounts were then closed.

Cleaning Up The need for cleanup came early.

• 1875 Bill forbidding pollution of PA streams introduced by Senator George H. Anderson of Allegheny County.

o Defeated. o Reintroduced under Game Laws and passed.

• 1876 New law requiring all drainage from mines to be held in tanks. Didn’t work. • 1915 State attempted to neutralizing mine water via chemicals. Did not work. • 1920s First use of term acid mine drainage, AMD.

o Decline of beehive oven pushed state to stop protecting mining industry. • 1921-25 Pennsylvania RR sued 28 coal companies in Indian Creek Valley, Fayette and Westmoreland

counties. They lost. o Went to PA Supreme Court, RR won. o Taken to US Supreme Court, refused to hear it. o Fayette County forbade discharge of AMD as of January 29, 1925. • 1927, the state passed the Goehring Bill which was to seal all abandoned mines in Pennsylvania. • 1933 Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FEMR) approved by US government. o Grants could be issued to states for public works projects. o Mine sealing under WPA and CCC began. Three phases. Federal CWA (Civil Works Administration) project State CWA project State RWD (Relief Works Division) project. • 1934 State conducted Abandoned Mine Survey in Western Pennsylvania. o Created maps for mine sealing. (see image)

o Used unemployed miners and intended to hire 160 men. o To map and chart abandoned mines. o Paid $30 a week. o Fifty men worked out of Latrobe under Leo T. Gibson.

• 1935-37 317 mines in 22 counties had 30,000 openings sealed. • 1936 Project reached Fayette County.

o Supervised by Thomas McGinty of Uniontown. o 400 men to close abandoned mine openings with concrete and earth.

• 1937 Clean Streams Law was enacted. (It has been amended 8 times, the latest in 2006). • 1937 August 30, 3,464 abandoned mines in Western Pennsylvania, 1,003 idle mines, 2,130 working

mines and all had AMD. o WPA sealed 400 openings and filled 60,000 cave-ins. o The estimate for completion ten years.

• 1938 WPA out of funds for sealing work. • 1946 Pennsylvania Sanitary Board established industrial fellowship.

o With Mellon Institute for Industrial Research. o Study lasted until 1962 concluding sealings did NOT reduce AMD.

• 1947 Mine Sealing became a state law. o Operators were required to seal their abandon mines within 60 days.

• 1948 Abandon mine seals began in Fayette County. o Uniontown office, division engineer was Thomas W. Keighley.

o The head of the mine sealing program was W. O. Vancourt of Ebensburg. o Begin at headwaters of a stream and work downward, stating that the work will be concentrated on tributaries of the Youghiogheny River o Used both dry and wet seals. They would o pump out and filter the existing water, o construct stone wall to cut air. o to take 25-30 years to complete the project.

• 1949 Jacobs Creek sealings begin. o John Y. Woods, Jr. division engineer. o Field office was in Greensburg. o State would do the work on mines abandoned six months before passage of the law.

o All others must be done by owners. • 1971 Along Galley Run six hydraulic seals and backfill were put in place. o Adelaide mine, a short distance from Henry Clay (across the Yough) received two. o Henry Clay received a hydraulic seal. (see image) • 1977 38 acid mine drainage problems identified on Galley Run. Each was given an identifying number. The Henry Clay was number M20 (Morgan US61, Foundry M59).

• 1998 Carnegie Mellon University located AMD at Henry Clay shaft which they called the B1. • They noted the mine was flooded. • 2016-17 $30 million pilot program begun by Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation.

o 14 sites in 14 counties.

o Fayette, Greene, and Westmoreland are NOT among them. (http://www.dep.pa.gov/business/land/mining/abandonedminereclamation/amlprograminformation/pages/abandoned-mine-reclamation-pilot-project-.aspx)

Today seals are in a variety of conditions from holding firm to broken, leaking, or destroyed.

- - - - - - - - -

© 2017 Cassandra Vivian

NOTE: This preliminary research is by no means complete. Much more work needs to be done to confirm and reconfirm the facts and conclusions drawn in the limited time of this short grant. All the facts recorded here have sources. The problem is the sources contradict each other. The speculators traded land as frequently as they traded partners. In a single day, a piece of land would be conveyed from one group to a second who would sell it to a third. Even government reports vary as to name of owner, number of ovens, number of workers, and more. I have contacted dozens of government sources and no one seems to know if these early mines had to be incorporated and who governed over them once they were. These include Pennsylvania State Archives, Philadelphia Archives, Penn State University Archives, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Fayette and Westmoreland County Recorded or Deeds, Fayette and Westmoreland County Prothonotary, Fayette and Westmoreland County GIS, Abandoned Mine Reclamation, Westmoreland Conservancy, and PA Department of Environmental Protection – California District Office, Office. All were helpful, but the answers to my queries were not found in their expertise.

But what we have achieved is an amazing resource of which we are proud. There is enough information and resources here for those who follow to pick up the banner and move forward. Coal and Coke were the major industries of America and their epicenter was the Connellsville Coal District.

THERE ARE LIMITED FOOTNOTES IN THIS BULLET TEXT. IF WE HAD INCLUDED ALL OF THEM THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSE TO 400 AND TRIPLED THE SIZE OF THIS DOCUMENT. HERE ARE A FEW MAJOR SOURCES:

Helen Clay Frick Foundation Archives, (AIS 2002 06), Henry Clay Frick Business Records, 1862-1987, Box #, Folder #, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh. (Includes daybooks, scrapbooks, and more.)

Newspapers.com: Connellsville, Uniontown, other regional papers. RGGS Land and Minerals: Maps, Property Records, and more. Westmoreland-Fayette Historical Society (Box #, Folder #), West Overton Village and Museums.

Scottdale, Pennsylvania.

OUR THANKS TO:

Bureau of Mines, California, PA, Tony Graziani of RGGS, Mount Pleasant Library, Pennsylvania State Library, Helen C. Frick Archives University of Pittsburgh, Coal & Coke Heritage Center, West Overton Museum, HABS/HAER archives at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, Special Collections and University Archives at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Fayette County Cultural Trust, and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Our assistants Nick Weglowski and Aaron Hollis. Additional people who contributed: Larry Hodge, Robert Hodge, George Wettgen, Joe Eckman, Mike Banaszak, Bobbi Kramer, Walter Brown, Duane Fuoss, Rob Ferguson, Rich Rega, Jacqui Cavalier,

“This project was completed in partnership with the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area. Funding was provided in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, Environmental Stewardship Fund, administered by the Rivers of Steel Heritage Corp.”

© 2017 Cassandra Vivian