Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-07
Development of Coal
Mines Is Traced

| Lykens Valley, Dauphin county,
| these mines now being operated by
the Susquehanna Galleries Com
/ pany, recently gave a history of the
| Short Mountain corporation before
meeting of the Historical Society
of York county.
! Mr.. Stabler is "a years of age.
and is still engaged in the coal busi-
ness ip his native city. His paper
contains much interesting and valu-
able information about coal mining
as it was done more thanahalf a CEN
| tury ago. The facts which he used
were secured from the original
books of the Short Mountain Coal
! Company.
To add to the interest in this his
tory of coal mining in the tifties in
| Dauphin county, Mr.. Stabler has
| furnished the names of the dealers
in Harrisburg who purchased Short
Mountain coal in 1858 and later.
These dealers were Eby Kunkel,
Harrisburg Car Company, Gross and
Kunkel, Harrisburg Cotton Com
pany, John Wallower and Son,
Henry F'rick, John Eichinger,
Thomas II. Wilson and Company.
Mr.. Stabler's paper which he
read to the Historical Society of
York county follows
Incorporated in 1851
The Short Mountain Coal Com
.pany was incorporated in 1851 by
the State of Pennsylvania.
The land originally belonged to the
well-known Cope family of Phila-
| delphia, three brothers of whom
were largely engaged u century ago
in the shipping business. Job r.
! Tyson, IA prominent lawyer of Phila-
delphia, and at one time Il mem
ber of Congress-, representing one
of. the Philadelphia districts. mar
| ried a sister of the Cope brothers,
and became possessed of the coal
| property, called Bear Mountain"
including Bear Gap" upon which
coal WAS found. 1t is not known
| whether the Cope family was aware
of the existence of coal in that To-
calty, when they acquired the prop
erty
1t has been asserted that stephen
| Girard had no knowledge of the
existence of coal when he became
! possessed of the immensely valu-
! able coal lands that now belong to
! the Girard Estate
When it was found that a very
! high grade of pure red ash anthra-
cite coal existed in this mountain,
Mr.. Tyson and some members of his
| family and few friends proceeded
to develop the property.
1t is located at Wiconisco, Dau-
| phin county, about sixteen miles
! from Millersburg, the shipping point
on the Susquehanna river, at which
| point they reached the PENNSYLVANIA
! canal and Northern Central rail-
road. The company was capitalized
| at 100000, 1900 shares at $25 per
share. of which II, ,766 shares were
| issued.
Early Shipments
The coal reached Millersburg via
| Lykens Valley Railroad for ship
ment by canal, while the Northern
Central Railway cars were loaded at
| the mines and were transported over
| the Bykens Valley and Northern
| Central Railway to York, Baltimore
! and intermediate points. The COM
! pany paid the freight at the rate of
forty cents per ton (2,24O) pounds)
| from the mines to Mllersburg, for
shipment by either rail or canal.
The freight to Baltimore from Mil
| lersburg was, at that time, 1853,
when the mines We're opened, $3.50
| per ton in winter and $40 in sum-
mer.
The canal basin had a capacity of
six boats at one time. Some years
! later a large tonnage was carried by
the canal from Millersburg to HaVre
de Grace. the eastern terminus of
| the canal, and thence by steam tow
| boats to Delaware City, per the
| Chesapeake and Delaware canal, at
which point it was transferred by
| horse or steam power to vessels for
| New England ports. A large num-
! Der of boats were also taken to Bal
! timore daily, being towed by steam
! boats across the Chesapeake bay
! from the outlet" of the canal at
| HaVre de Grace.
The output the first year of min
! ing coal was, in 1853, 1000 tons. In
| 1854. 46,170 tons were mined with
fair profit ION paper The sys-
tenn of bookkeeping was so peculiar
! it is very difficult to figure out the
profits if any were made by the
company at that time.
Takes on New Life
In 1857 the capital of S325,OOO
was only half paid up. They showed
! n book profit that year of $1O,234.
In the winter of 1858, at an an
nual meeting i'm Philadelphia, the
Baltimore stockholders showed a
spirit of aggressiveness, and had Il
special committee appointed to eX-
anime the books, the physical prop
erty of the company, the manner
of operating the mining and trans
porting the coal to market, etc.
Three Baltimore stockholders We're
appointed TO serve upon this COM
mittee. They made Il lengthy and
! exhaustive report, as result of
which, a Board of Directors, largely
composed of Baltimore stockholders,
was elected to manage the affairs of
the company. This new board
elected James L. Sutton, president,
and Edward Stabler, Jr., secretary
and treasurer, whose term of office
commenced May 1, 1858.
| The company from this time took
on new life The business of min
! ing, selling and transporting the
coal to market was energetically
prosecuted.
The coal was sold on board cars
or boats at Millersburg at the follow
ing prices:
Lump size used for steam
purposes, per ton of 2240
IDS. ...'..'-..' ..'.''.'''''' $l'3O
Broken - No. 1 ....... 2.10
Large and Small Egg - Nos.
2 and 3 ............. 2.1O
Nut ................ 1875
pea" "Buckwheat" or
Rice" sizes were utterly
unknown in the market at
that time, but everything
smaller than nut was
thrown upon the dirt piles
or allowed to wash into
Bear Creek" and finally
into the Susquehanna
River. Freight at this time
| Do h,