As I reported in last week’s column, Warren Merritt’s presentation to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society contained far more information on the history of coal mining in this area than could be covered in a single column. This week we will attempt to include the other local mines that he covered and identify those in neighboring communities for which we have relevant information.
We will begin with the Katie Mine. According to its mine map it worked the Pittsburgh Seam under Gould City Hill. Its tipple was located near Villars Street and served the Bridgeville and McDonald (B & M) branch of the Chartiers Valley branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Villars was an extension of Hickman Street beyond Coulter, and the access into “Coultersville”. The mine was initially opened by the Amyville Youghiogheny Gas and Coke Company. Mr. Merritt noted that 1901 was the first year for which production was reported. The Mine Inspectors’ reports, his best source of such information, only covered mines with more than ten employees. There may have been small production in this mine prior to 1901.
According to the 1901 report the mine employed mules for transportation, a “fire basket” for ventilation, and a Jeffrey machine powered by electricity for mining. The Historical Society has a newspaper clipping reporting the acquisition of electric powered Morgan-Gardner mine cars replacing the mules a few years later; Mr. Merritt showed a photo of such a train. Another old photograph in the Historical Society files shows the tipple, a power house, and two stacks. The mine entry was on the hillside, across Villars. The speaker showed a contemporary photograph of the hillside where it had been located. By 1913 the mine had been acquired by the McClane Coal Company. Katie produced nearly 700,000 tons of coal between 1901 and 1913, peaking at 82,044 tons in 1904.
The Brandy Mine was an even smaller operation. A year ago, when I mentioned my research on local coal mines to my colleagues at one of our Bridgeville High School Alumni brunches, Ben Rupnik reported that he remembered a tipple on Chartiers Street, at the end of Chestnut Street. When I inquired about this at the History Center, Jim Watson promptly produced a Sanborn Fire Insurance map clearly showing it. Since then, John Schneider has found three photographs of the mine – one of the mine entry at the foot of the hill near Chartiers Creek, one of the rails used to haul mine cars to the top of the hill, and one of the tipple itself, with John’s grandfather, Park Crum standing on it.
Mr. Merritt’s investigation turned up additional information, suggesting there may have been two different mines in this general location. He found a mine map showing a small “Brandywine” Coal Mine. One portion of it extends under Chartiers Street from Chestnut about 250 feet toward Gregg, another leg about the same length directly under Chestnut, and a block about 200 feet square uphill as far as Pine Alley. This mine obviously was limited by encroachment of private properties on Chartiers Street. Separately he found evidence of the “Crum and Lynch” pit and the mining of a five-acre plot under Elm Street and extending to Elizabeth.
Records of the Brandy Mine from 1922 through 1925 show it producing about 25,000 tons of bituminous coal. In 1922 twenty-five employees mined 9,767 tons of coal in eighty-four working days, two-thirds of which was shipped to market. Two years later, eleven employees mined 4,175 tons in one hundred and fifty working days, almost all of which was sold locally. It certainly would be interesting to learn more about this company.
Incidentally, Mr. Merritt found no evidence to support my suspicion that “Lynch and Crum” (LC) was the source of the name of the “Elsie” mine, a name I encountered at some point. He did, however, find records of a mine by that name, located on the Chartiers Branch Railroad, with the address being Bridgeville Post Office. He speculated it might be the mine shown on mine maps as “Sossongs Pit”, located along the Pennsylvania Railroad, just north of the underpass taking Vanadium Road under the (now) Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad. The “Elsie” operation was reported between 1917 and 1922, with peak annual production at about 47,000 tons. Its Superintendent in 1917 was J. C. Crum. That year it was described as a “slope” mine, with a thirty-degree slope. Its sixty-seven employees mined 15,965 tons of coal that year. The next year its slope was reported to be fifteen degrees; fifty-five miners removed 42,421 tons. By 1922 the work force was down to fifteen workers with production at 10,000 tons.
Mr. Merritt also reported on C. P Mayer’s coal mining activities associated with the Mayer Brick yard. In addition to mining shale as a raw material for making bricks, he also had an active coal mine in the hillside beneath the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad, adjacent to the brick yard. Here, too, the Pittsburgh Seam outcrops at 820 feet above sea level. Although some of the coal was used for energy in the brickmaking process, most of the production (peak at 87,000 tons in 1920) was sold commercially. The mine entry is clearly shown on the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Mr. Merritt and his son found it and an impressive Pittsburgh Seam outcrop at the brick yard site. The actual mine was under the southern end of Great Southern Shopping Center.
In addition to these local mines the speaker’s files include detailed information on seven mines along Chartiers Creek downstream, three upstream, five along Painters Run, and seven up Millers Run. The folks at the Historical Society are brainstorming ways to make all this information accessible to the general public. A combination of digital, on-line files and hard copies in file folders is being considered.