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January, 1905 COAL AND TIMBER 23
—The Ada mine of the Eleanor Coal &
Coke Company, at Cheat Haven, Pa., has
been leased by the Royal Coal & Coke
Company of Uniontown.
—The Mount Carmel colliery, owned by
the Lehigh Valley Coal Company and employing
600 men and boys, has ceased operations
indefinitely because of a body of water
in the mine being in danger of floodingthe
gangways.
—J. W. McClain of Rostraver township,
Westmoreland county, Pa., has returned
from a trip to Saline county, Illinois, where
he and S. C. Cover of Crafton secured an
option on 12,000 acres of land bearing seven
veins of coal.
—The mine at Coal Center, Pa., formerly
owned and operated by C. Jutte & Co.,
and which has been idle since April lst,
has resumed operation under a partnership
arrangement between Messrs. C. H. Drum,
W. H. Greeg, A. C, Wm., and E. E.
Bradford.
—The Connellsville Central Coke Company
is reported to have purchased 50
acres of coal and 63 acres of surface in
Menallen township, Pa., paying $55,000 for
the same. The coal underlies the farms of
Oliver B. Jeffries and Jacob B. Graham.
—The Johnetta Coal Company, a concern
of the Pittsburg-Buffalo Company, is
surveying its 10-mile coal field in the
southern part of Washington county. The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company is under
contract to extend the Monongahela &
Washington branch across the National
pike into the fieldand is starting work. The
Waynesburg & Greene railroad and the
Baltimore & Ohio Short Line also will be
built into the heart of this coal field.Eight
mines will be constructed in the spring.
— Coke and coal are being shipped regularly
now over the Connellsville Central
railroad down Dunlap's Creek, from the
works at Footedale, Shamrock, Connellsville
Central and Buffington, at New Salem,
Brier Hill and Orient. Trains of 25 or
30 cars come this way, while other plants
continue to ship via the Monongahela railroad
river route. Cross-over tracks are
being laid near the Albion Hotel in Brownsville,
which will be used to switch these
trains to the main line of the Monongahela
railroad.
—The new shaft of the Westmoreland
Coal Company at Rillton, Pa., known as the
"Criterion" mine, was put in operation,
the cages and hoisting machinery being
completed and the first coal dumped
December S. This is one of the most complete
mining plants in Western Pennsylvania,
the Company having spared no expense
in its outfitting, all the machinery
as well as the tipple being of the most
improved pattern. George W. Wilkes,
formerly with the Bessemer Coal Company
at Bradenville, is the mine foreman.
—Two masked men entered the Leahy
Coal Company's office in the Masonic
temple, Altoona, Pa., at noon, December 10,
knocked down clerk Wilbur Ale, bound
and gagged him and stole over $2,000,
which had been placed in a satchel ready
to be taken to Lilly to pay off the miners.
Ale was alone in the office at the time,
Paymaster Charles Leahy having gone
to lunch. The robbers knocked at the door
and as Ale opened it, felled him with a
blow in the face, rendering him unconscious.
After tying him to the safe the
men took the money and disappeared.
Leahy found Ale on his return.
—Xo. 31 mine of the Shawmut Coal Company,
at Weedville, Pa., which has been idle
for eight motnhs, has started up again and a
goodly sized force of men will be given
employment. No. 31 is the mine where
armed guards were placed last summer for
some mysterious reason and have been
kept on in varying numbers ever since. A
contention over theownership of the property
and a possibility of a forcible attempt
at seizure at the hands of Ridgway parties
is supposed to have been the cause of the
display of arms. It is said the company
intends building a tipple at the operation,
instead of running the coal to No. 21 mine
to be screened.
—The Lynn Coal mine at Milesville, Pa.,
is on fire. The burrow of a groundhog is
said to have been the cause. Over 100
miners are out of work. It will cost the
Glassport Coal Company, owners of the
mine, several hundred dollars to extinguish
the fire.For several weeks Superintendent
W. A. Wilson has been aware that fire
existed in the mine, butit could not be
located until George Crossland, the pit
boss, discovered smoke-coming from a hole
in the surface that had been a groundhog's
retreat. Flames from the recent forest
fires swept into the groundhog's hole and
set fireto the coal. One thousand feet of
pipe were laid to the Monongahela River,
and engines installed to pump water to
flood the mine.
—A suit for $13,800 was filed recently
at Uniontown, Pa., against the H. C.
Huston Lumber Company by Thomas and
William Flanigan, doing business under the
name of Thomas Flangan & Son. The
amount is claimed as result of the defendants'
failure to carry out a contract alleged
to have been made in December,
1902. A second suit against the Huston
Lumber Company instituted by Thomas
Flanigan claims $800 on the grounds that
the defendants employed him to superintend
the construction of a trestle and coal
tipple in Springhill township and have failed
to pay him for the same. There was no
agreement as to salary, but the plantiff
says he worked eight months and believes
$100 per month to be reasonable. Attorney
Lee Smith represents the plaintiff.
—The Vinton Colliery Company, operating
coal mines at Vintondale, Pa., will
also operate at once, mines Nos 1 and 2,
owned by the Lackawanna Coal and Coke Co.
Company at that place. The Lackawanna
Company ceased operations at these mines
shortly after the shut-down at Wehrun.
The lease secured by the Vinton Colliery
Company covers all the coal property and
plants in Cambria County, as well as a
portion of their holdings adjoining Vintondale,
in Indiana County. According to the
term of the lease at least 100,000 tons must
be mined annually. The announcement of
the resumption of work at Vintondale
will be good news to the people of that
neighborhood. The Vinton Colliery Company
owns one mine at Vintondale, but
the new operations will give employment
to many additional men and will greatly
improve business at that point.
WEST VIRGINIA
CONSOLIDATION OF FUEL COM­
PANIES.
Another big deal in soft coal which includes
the consolidation of the Fairmont and
Somerset Coal Company and the Clarksburg
Fuel Company, has just been effected
by securing control of the Pittsburg and
Fairmont Fuel Company, formerly controlled
by Archer Brown, of Rogers,
Brown & Co., New York.
The company has a capital stock of
$2,250,000 and $1,500,000 of firstmortgage 5
per cent, bonds. It operates five mines
and owns 17,966 acres of coal land on the
Monongahela river, along what is known
as the West Virginia Short Line of the
Baltimore & Ohio railroad. The combined
companies own about 140,000 acres of coal
lands in West Virginia, Maryland and
Pennsylvania and large piers and coal distributing
plants at Chicago, Milwaukee,
Superior, Wis., and Boston. The officers
are: C. W. Watson, president; J. H.
Wheelwright, vice president; S. L. Watson,
treasurer, and T. K. Stuart, secretary.
The offices of the company have been removed
from New York to Baltimore.
—The tracks of the Coal & Coke R. R.
are now laid from Sago, W. Va., to Frenchton,
a distance of twelve miles. This road,
when connected up to Charleston which
will not be long, will be one of the busiest
in West Virginia. It runs through a fine
coal and timber section.
—A West Virginia charter for the purpose
of mining and drilling for coal, oil and
gas and dealing in timber lands, etc., has
been granted by the Secretary of State to
E. C. Twiggo, H. M. McCune, and others,
of Clarksburg, W. Va., with a capital stock
of $50,000. They are to operate in
Harrison County.
—The Kanawha and Michigan are putting
in an extra siding at Black Betsy, W.
Va., to accommodate the increasing rail
shipments of the Black Betsy Coal Mining
This company, under the able management
of Mr. Frank Tyree, is making an
enviable record for production.