COAL - Clpdigital.org

THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 33
THE START OF THE COAL AND COKE INDUSTRY IN THE PITTSBURGH DISTRICT.
By JOSEPH D. WEEKS.*
In the year 1760, so says Capt. Thomas Hutchins,
who visited Fort Pitt in July of that year, a coal
mine was opened on the Monongahela, opposite to
Fort Pitt, for the use of that garrison.
This is probably the earliest recorded continuous
use of the coal of that unrivaled deposit, the great
Pittsburgh seam, a deposit that, in the language of
Prof. Lesley, state geologist of Pennsylvania, is
"absolutely inexhaustible for several thousand
years;" that "has made Pittsburgh the envy of
the business world, and is a sufficient guarantee
for a destiny of inimitable magnificence in a not
distant future."
There is one earlier reference to this coal. In
1759 Col. James Burd, while completing the cutting
of Braddock's road, camped at a place near
the present site of Brownsville, some two and a
half miles from the Monongahela river, on the
banks of a small stream, which even then was
called Coal run. "This run," he says in his journal,
"is entirely paved in the bottom with fine
stone coal; the hill on the south side of it is a rock
of the finest coal I ever saw. I burnt about a
bushel of it on my fire." This, however, was only
a temporary use. The pit opened on Coal hill,
in 1760, is probably the first coal mine operated
in Western Pennsylvania.
MINING AND THE CITY IN THE SAME AGE.
Accepting this date, 1760, as the beginning of
coal mining in this region, it will be noted that
this industry and Pittsburgh are of the same age.
It was this year, so says Brackenridge in the first
number of the Gazette, quoting from Capt.
Hutchines, that "a small town called Pittsburgh
was built near Fort Pitt." Bue five years before
this Braddock met his disastrous defeat, and it was
scarcely two years since Fort Duquesne had been
abandoned and burned by the French on the
approach of the British.
The great abundance, excellent quality and ease
of mining of this coal at once directed attention
to it, and led to more than one prophecy from the
travelers who visited this point as to the future
prominence of Pittsburgh as a manufacturing
center. Rev. Charles Beatty, who visited the
fort in 1766, speaks of ascending "the hill opposite
the fort from which the garrison is supplied with
coals," and describes a burning coal vein that at
that time had been on fire for twelve months. He
says:
*This article was compiled by the late Joseph P. "Weeks, in 1880.
It is especially^ valuable by reason of the thoroughness of this
gentleman in his research into industrial affairs. The author is
well remt-mbfred by Pittsburgh industrial leaders of a decade
ago as the editor of tiie American Manufacturer.
"The earth in some places is so warm that we
could hardly bear to stand upon it; at one place
where the smoke came up we opened a hole in
the earth till it was so hot as to burn paper thrown
into it; the steam that came out was so strong of
sulphur that we could scarcely bear it."
In November, 1768, the proprietaries, as the
Penn family and their coadjutors were styled,
purchased from the chiefs of the Six Nations the
whole of the bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania,
except that portion which lies northward
of Kittanning, which was not purchased until
1784. The purchase price of this magnificent
domain, a portion of which has been described as
destined to "be an empire of itself, as wealthy, as
powerful as England, subsidizing all other countries
for its own uses, and unassailable from all
quarters of the compass," was $10,000.
The next year after this purchase, in 1769, Gov.
John Penn, in giving directions relative to the
survey of Pittsburgh, says: "I would not engross
all the coal hills, but rather leave the greater part
to others who may work them."' The difficulty
with the mother country interfered with the carrying
out of these instructions, but in 1784 the
proprietaries, who still retained their rights, sold
privileges to mine coal from the great seam in
Coal hill, opposite the town, for £30 a lot.
THE FIRST STEAM ENGINE.
From this time the demand for coal, not only
for domestic use but for manufacturing purposes,
increased rapidly. Various minor industries.
such as are common to frontier towns, and especially
to one situated as was Pittsburgh, were
established. The first steam engine was brought
to the town in 1794; salt was produced in the
neighborhood in considerable quantities, coal being
used in evaporation; coal pits were opened on
the Pittsburgh side of the river, at Minersville
(Herron's Hill) among other places, and in 1797
Craig & O'Hara located their glass works, the
first west of the mountains, just opposite the Point
on the South Side, this location having been selected
because coal could be obtained just at the
works, a proposed site on tbe Allegheny side of
the Allegheny river having been abandoned because
digging failed to show coal.
In the first twenty years of the new century the
new industry assumed new importance. Steam
engines were introduced into manufacturing; industries
requiring large amounts of eoal were es­
tablished and the population that was attracted to
this rapidly growing town found coal so cheap that
it was used with a freedom in the household