The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-03-01

market. NlchO. Allen, 8 hunter, hrst
stumbled upon the black diamonds, near
Broad mountain, Schuylkill county, in
1890. He made a fire one night on the
hills, and when he wokeup in the morn
ing mass of fiery rock startled him.
Allen never made penny on it, and was
afterward drowned.
In 1900, William Morris, then of Port
Carbon, Schuylkill county, carted q
wagon load of coal to Philadelphia, a
distance of seventy miles. The Quakers
would not buy. his black rocks, and the
coal trade was knocked fiat. Along the
same route that wagon took seventy six
years ago, over 5000, 900 tons of coal
are now shipped by railroad every year.
In 1872, Col. George Shoemaker, living
about one mile from there, loaded nine
wagons and went to Philadelphia, where
he was denounced as kna-e and q
scoundrel. His coal was unsold, and he
returned in disgust. To-day there are
millions of dollars made on that same
kind Of fuel.
The first discovery of coal on the Le-
high was in the Mauch Chunk or Bear
mountain, nine miles west of Mauch
Chunk. Philip Ginter, a poor hunter,
is credited as the person who first dis
covered it in 1871. In the following
year the Lehigh coal company was
formed. Robert Morris, the celebrated
fnancier, was the leading member.
Coal was abundant, mining easy, but
the great question was, what should they
do with it 1t was in mountainous
region, surrounded by unbroken forests
only traversed by Indians and hunters.
Philadelphia. the nearest market, was
one hundred miles away. Samples were
carried around in saddle bags. In 1903
they foated coal down the Lehigh and
Delaware rivers on arks. Six arks were
first started, but only two reached mar
ket. 1t proved worthless, and was sub
sequently used to spall streets. The
trouble was they did not know how to
burn it. In 1914, however, coal sold in
New York and Philadelphia at S21 per
ton. The secret of burning it was dis
covered by accident. In 1920, 365 tons
reached market, sold for s. 30 per ton,
and Lehigh hipment to-day stands as
the first years product of the American
anthracite coal trade.
It is interesting as we'll as amusing TO
hear the story of how coal burning prop
critics were discovered. In 1872 Col.
White, of the Fairmount nail and iron
works, Philadelphia, was very anxious to
succeed in burning this coal. His men
spent one whole forenoon in trying to
ignite it and raise heat in one of their
furnaces. They tried every way but the
right way. They raked it, poked it,
stirred it up, and blew blasts of air upon
the surface through open furnace doors,
but all to no purpose. Those black
rocks would not burn, and when the
dinner hour arrived the men slammed
shut the furnace doors in disgust. When
they returned, however, they were as
tonished. The furnace doors were red
hot, and everything in danger of being
melted. They never had seen another
such heat. "Let it alone" ever after
wards was the recipe for burning hard
coal, and its stock went up. In 1925
the Schuylkill coal trade first opened by
canal from Pottsville to Philadelphia.
In that year $500 tons were sent down,
and in 1876 the Philadelphia and Read
ing company alone mined and sent to
market over 100000 tons. This cor
poration is one of the five that have the
entire control of the anthracite trade,
and they own at least one-third of all the
coal lands in Pennsylvania. The other
four corporations take theirs to New
York by rail.
In traversing the many iron highways
of the regions, the traveller is astounded
of the enormous investments of capital.
Millions upon millions of dollars are re-
presented, and thousands Of men and
BOYS at the mines and little world of
busy people in nearly all branches OF
trade gain livelihood in the various
cities and towns adjacent. And yet the
anthracite basins OF Pennsylvania re-
present but spot in the coal area OF the
country, only 470 square miles OF an
thracite in total of 206, 939. But its
value is greater than the entire area of
bituminous coal, and the fact that New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, and all
other leading cities in the East and
Northeast, and Canada, have the great
est source of their productive power in
these hills of Pennsylvania, and that the
entire population of the above sections
draw most of their supplies of fuel
from hence, and must continue to do so,
will always attach superior Importance
to the anthracite coal fields of this State.
Your correspondent descended the
deep shaft at East Norwegian, known as
the East shaft, Wadesville, short dis
tance from this place. 1t is operated by
the Philadelphia and Reading coal and
iron company. The car went down l, l2S
feet to Orchard vein. The shaft leads
down still further, distance of 1869
feet from th, surface, to Primrose vein
of white ash coal, and 1854 feet down
from the surface is the Mammoth vein.
A tunnel from Primrose will be dug
eastward toward the Mammoth vein till
it meets it on its upward course. This
remarkable shaft passes through rich
veins, which together represent thick
ness of solid coal of sixty-fourfeet One
hundred millions of tons is the csti-
mated capacity of this bonanza alone,
all within one hundred miles Of tide
water.
Imagine an immense black shedding
away up on the mountain side. Leading
down from it is another shedding ex-
tending to another building alongside Of
a lateral railroad. Then there is an en-
CINE house, nh office, q small village scat
tered here and there, long line of coal
cars, powerful locomotive, miners and
railroaders. Everything is black,
grimy, and dusty. Approaching a col
liery, the heavy grooming of the power.
full engine can be heard as it labors to
pump the water mp from the depths.
The empty cars descend on one side OF
the shaft and 60 up on the other, loaded
with large Jumps of coal. From the
mouth OF the mine it is dumped into