The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1913-10-02
FIRST COAL
MINING IN
COLORADO


of the Canon City district at the pres
ent time makes especially interesting
some facts related TO the Daily Record
this morning by J. E. Mcclure in reia-
ton TO the mining of coal in the pio-
neer days o. Colorado. According to
Mr.. Mcclure the first coal taken out
OF the ground in Fremont county for
commercial purposes and, perhaps. in
the state, was mined at Coal Creek in
1865 by a man by the name ~ Mercer,
who hauled his product to Denver by
OK team where he sold It for a good.
stiff price, probably, fifteen or twenty
dollars a ton.
Mercer continued the mining of coal
for several years; making trims to
Denver as often as he was able to do
so. The roads in that early iaJ were
but little better than trails and Mer-
Ger considered himself lucky If he got
TO Denver with as much as a ton of
coal at the end OF a weeks journey.
After he had been engaged in The
business for some time he purchased
a horse, which he hitched in front Dt
the oxen as a sort Of auxiliary power
to get his load over the rough places
in the road At that time A. VI. Cas-
sedy. who has been dead for many
years, was the owner OF a spring on
Garden park which produced coal oil
in considerable quantities and Mercer
made a business of bringing him emp
~ barrels from Denver in which TO
store its output. A well was sunk By
Mr.. Cassedy near the spring to the
depth of about sixty feet which lie
used as a reservoir for his oil. Fecm
this well the oil was pumped when
needed and disposed of to buyers;
hundreds of gallons of which were
sold in Canon City at a dollar and a
half a gallon.
MIR. Cassedy was the father OF the
coal oil industry In southern Colora-
do and made considerable money odt
Of his enterprise in placing his pro-
duct on the market He was a sort
of lawyer and an extremely shrewd
man in all respects. Believing that
coal could be profitably mined at
Coal Creek on a much larger scale
than Mercer was carrying on the
business Cassidy went to oskalnosa
Iowa, and induced a Mr. jeffrey,
prominent merchant Of that town. to
come here and engage in It on a some
what extensive plan. The expense
of transportation to Denver, however.
was too great and the venture proved
to be failure There was an abund-
ance of wood in the mountains in
those days to be had almost for the
asking and but few people knew any
thing about the use of coal for do
mestic purposes. and, as a result, Mr..
Jeffrey had difficulty in finding con-
sumers for the output Of his mine. He
is said TO have lost considerable
sum of money in consequence OF the
failure of his undertaking. The early
settlers OF Colorado either burned
wood or charcoal in their houses: both
of which was to be had in abundance
with little labor.
Mercer was the owner of large
body of land at Coal Creek, and. &C.
casionally accommodated his neigh
bors by taking their cattle and other
stock for p1sturage; charging them a
small fee for doing so. Among those
that he favored in this way was a
man by the name Of Hayes. VINO quar-
-eied with him over the charges MADE
,Sr pasturing a COW and shot him
dead. Hayes was arrested for the
crime and tried for murder. He was
convicted and sent to The penItent,ary
for long term of years.
We wish 10 thank nnr mann friordn