The coal company-built residences at Baggaley are typical double houses found in the coal patch towns throughout western Pennsylvania.  Each is a two-story wood-frame structure with a gable roof, a central brick chimney, and a rubble stone foundation. Behind a number of houses stand the original outhouses, each with four privies. Most of the houses have been altered with new siding and roofing material.  Virtually all of the residences at Baggaley have been converted into single-family dwellings.

In 1897 the Puritan Coke Company of Latrobe established the Puritan Mine and Coke Works, and the coal patch town of Baggaley, Unity Township, on the Hostettter Spur of the Unity Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  The Owen Murphy Company of Mount Pleasant constructed 150 houses for the coal company in the Baggaley Patch.  Each house had five rooms and a cellar, and the town had a water hydrant at every second block.  As was typical of the late-nineteenth century coal patches, Baggaley's miners houses had no indoor plumbing. The state mine inspector observed that Baggaley provided "better conveniences and water facilities than the average of similar towns."  The Puritan Mine and Coke Works employed 186 persons, many of whom lived in the coal company built houses in the Baggaley Patch.  About half of the miners came from middle Europe and Italy, the others were of English, Irish and German descent.

From September 1897, when it opened, to the end of the year the Puritan Mine, a slope entry mine produced 72,000 tons of coal and its coke works, containing 276 bee-hive coke ovens, produced 46,500 tons of coke. Owen Murphy Company of Mount Pleasant constructed the original 276 bee-hive coke ovens and was adding another 124 bee-hive block ovens to be opened in January 1898.  The coke ovens were charged by the coke oven larrys pushed by a 10-ton H.K. Porter steam locomotive.  The Puritan Coke Company also constructed a water reservoir with a 12 million gallon capacity for the coke works.

The Puritan Coke Company owned the Puritan Mine & Coke Works and the coal patch town of Baggaley for less than two years before the company was reorganized in 1899 as the American Coke Company, Latrobe. John McFayden, who served as general superintendent of Puritan Coke, continued in this position with American Coke Company. In 1899 the American Coke Company opened the nearby Dorothy shaft mine and coke works, in Unity Township.  In 1899 production rose at the Baggaley coke works to over 160,000 tons of coke.

In 1900 the Puritan Mine produced 312,699 tons of coal and the Puritan Coke Works produced 214,188 tons of coke.  The works employed 464 men and boys in the mine and at the coke works.  37 mules were used to haul the coal from the mine. 

The American Coke Company subsequently moved its offices from Latrobe to Scottdale where, in late 1903, American Coke Company was acquired by the H.C. Frick Coke Company.

Bagaley.  The Kranjsko Slovenska Katoliska Jednota, KSKJ, has the Society of the St. Alloysius #13 here. {from Rev. J.M. Trunk text published originally in 1912 Part 8, History of Slovene Communities.}

On Feb. 5, 1906, two Austrian miners, Frank Bobbin, 24 years old and single and John Zoric, 29 years old and single, were killed by a fall of slate in the mine. On that same day, Martin Oneditch, an Austrian mine age 19 and single, had his thigh broken by a fall of roof slate. On May 14th, 1906, Paul Naholic, a Slavonian miner age 20 and single, a mule driver, was severly injured about the back and shoulders by a slate fall.  On Aug. 22, 1906, an American miner, Alfred Garland, age 37 and married, a mule driver, was killed when he was caught between a mine buggy and a mule.
Another accident on July 29, 1907 claimed the life of an Italian miner, Salvadore Fare, age 26, married with one child, was fatally injured by being run over by a runaway mine car on the mine entry. (from the "Latrobe Bulletin," 1906 & The archives of the Latrobe Area Historical Society, Latrobe, PA.)

Miner Sacrificed His Life for a Sixty Cent Pick
For a coal pick, woth sixty cents, Valentine Marcus, an experienced miner, sacrificed his life, in the Baggaley mine of the Frick Coke Comapny, at three o'clock, yesterday afternoon, when he was caught under a fall of slate and earth, and was instantly kiled, having been crushed in a terrible manner.

Being an experienced miner, Marcus had been given the hazardous work of pulling stumps, as the last remaining sectionc of coal in the worked out portions of a mine are called.  While engaged in this occupation, the roof of the mne overhead began to crack, causing Marcus to run to safety.

"Don't go back; it's going to fall," directed Wiliam McClusky, the mine boss, who was standing nearby when the roof began to crack.

"My new pick, I forgot him," suddenly exclaimed the miner, and before Mr. McClusky could remonstrate he dashed back into the danger spot in search of the new pick for which had had paid 60c a day or two ago.

As he stooped to get the pick, he was blotted out of sight in the twinking of an eye, almost, the roof of the mine havig dropped on him.  Tons of earth and slate were piled up on him, and he was killed instantly, nearly every bone in his body having been broken.

Miners were hurried to the scene and after considerable work, the body of the unfortunate miner, with hand reached out as though to grasp the pick which lay but a foot away, was uncovered, and was carried to the man's home at No. 97, where a heartbroken widow and a number of sobbing children were waiting for it.

Marcus was 44 years of age and had been employed at the Baggaley mine for some time past.  The funeral services will be held at St. Vincent's church at 9:30 o'clock tomorrow morning, and the interment will follow in St. Vincent's cemetery.
(from the "Latrobe Bulletin," Aug. 18, 1909.)

Around 1900 the Union Supply Company built the Company Store in Baggaley, as the H.C. Frick Coke Company was involved as a partner with the American Coke Company. As was the practice in the coal patches, before the pay master handed out the pay statements on payday, he would check to see if the miner had brought anything at the Company Store. If there were no deductions for such purchases, he demanded to know why.  He then gave a stern warning to buy at the Company Store or else.  Since everyone knew what "or else" meant, the company store was well patronized.

In 1908 Frank Tewes built a grocery and meat market across from the Geiger store.  J.M.Sulkey purchased it in 1921, and Joseph Sulkey, Jr. still operates it.

Baggaley. The KSKJ has the Society of St. Alloysius #13 here.

About 1910, coal-cutting or punching machines were brought into the mine. They were operated by high pressure compressed air. These machines undercut the face of the coal seam to a depth of five feet, and across the face approximately 10 feet.  Men using an air drill then drilled holes for the explosives and shot the coal down.  These new machines eliminated much of the hard pick and shovel work for the individual miner to undercut the coal by hand.

Another improvement at this time was the addition of two air operated locomotives. They hauled the filled coal mine buggys to the hoisting rope where they were lifted outside the mine to the tipple and unloaded.

In 1910 disputes between the miners and the company took place, and picketing of miners from neighboring mines produced a slowdown at the Puritan Mine. About 1/4 of the Baggaley Mine work force was out on strike.  Since there was no organized labor union, the miners gained very little from the strike, and operations at the mine were soon back to normal.

By 1910 the Puritan Mine and Coke Works at Baggaley was reaching its peak in coal and coke production. The mine produced over 400,000 tons of coal that year and more than 250,000 tons of coke.  These production levels continued until 1918 when they began to decline.  The population of the patch town of Baggaley was also at its largest in the 1910's with nearly 900 persons residing in the H.C. Frick Coke Company-owned houses.

In 1919 Baggaley Mine produced 182,413 tons of coal, and 84,708 tons of coke, there were 397 coke ovens, with 113 in operation.  The mine worked 305 days and had 298 employees, the mine had 3 non-fatal accidents in 1919.

In 1920 the Baggaley Mine produced 208,166 tons of coal, and 82,000 tons of coke, there were 397 coke ovens, but only 111 were being used.  The mine worked 304 days and had 247 employees, the mine had 5 non-fatal accidents in 1920.

A wave of miners strikes swept Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties in 1922. Although Baggaley Mine was not on strike, the H.C. Frick Coke Company hired a group of Coal and Iron Police, as the coal company put it, to maintain order locally and protect company property.  These "Blue Coats" "Yellow Dogs" "Black-legged Cossacks" they were called by various names, were stationed outside the mine and at locations in the village to make certain that no problems developed.  The coal company had given their privately-paid policemen unrestrained authority to intimidate and coerce the miners and their families.  Most residents were afraid to go outside of their houses, even in the daytime.  To the miners and their families, the "Blue Coats" usually caused more trouble, than they prevented.

In December 1922, partly in response to the widespread coal miners strike in the bituminous coal fields, H.C. Frick Coke Company closed and abandoned the Puritan Mine (Baggaley Mine) and the Baggaley Coke Works. The coal miners and coke workers of Baggaley were forced out of work and had to find employment at other H.C. Frick Coke Company operations (some miners may have found work at the Dorothy Mine which reopened after the 1922 Coal Miners strike). Many other miners were forced to move to other coal patches that had working mines, or look elsewhere to find work. The H. C. Frick Coke Company provided no benefits to the layed-off miners.

By the late 1920's the H.C. Frick Coke Company sold the coal patch town of Baggaley to the Worthington Real Estate Company. This company began selling the coal company houses in the Baggaley coal patch town to former company employees or anyone interested in acquiring a coal company-built dwelling. Today most of the residents of Baggaley own their houses and the population remains around 800 persons.

(History and description of the Baggaley Mine & Coke Works, with additional data and pictures adapted from "Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1994,"  America's Industrial Heritage Project, National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, U.S. Department of the Interior, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

In 1905, the West Penn Railway extended its interurban trolley service from Youngstown, PA to Baggaley, PA.  In 1913 the trolly line was extended further south through Whitney, Pleasant-Unity, Trauger and Calumet to Hecla Junction.  From Hecla Junction the passengers could transfer to trolleys to Mt. Pleasant, Connellsville, Uniontown and Greensburg and beyond.

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