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| Shoaf, Georges Township, Fayette County,
Pennsylvania (ca.1902- ? ), Located on the abandoned B. & O. Railroad line, along Rt. T 419, about 3 1/2 miles northwest of Fairchance, Georges Twp., Fayette Co., PA Owners: (ca.1902-1922), H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA (ca. ? - 1951), U. S. Steel Corp, Pittsburgh, PA (ca.1958-1972), Max Noble [Operated the Shoaf Coke Works.] |
| DESCRIPTION: Shoaf, Coal Company Patch Town: This description of the coal patch town of Shoaf was written ca.1990 for the Industrial Heritage Survey and some of the details may have changed since then. The coal company patch town of Shoaf was laid out along two parallel streets east of the Shoaf Mine & Coke Works, and today about thirty of the original coal company houses remain, probably comprising about 75 percent of the original coal company owned housing. The land on which the town of Shoaf was built slopes, creating the need for a retaining wall on the north side of Rt. T 419, and as a result the houses on this side of the street are set below street level. The vast majority of Shoaf's extant housing is comprised of two slightly different types of the region's standard coal company owned two-family dwellings. All are the four-bay, gable-ended, clapboard structures with front shed-roof porches and two interior brick chimneys. The location of the chimneys is the sole difference in these structures; a few of the houses on the north side at the east end of T 419 have centrally-placed chimneys, one in the front, the other in the back of the house, the remainder have the more frequently-seen chimneys that pierce the gable roofline. At least eight houses, probably single-family dwellings, at the west end of town have been torn down, to strip-mine the coal seam under them, during the 1950's. It appears, however, that two, formerly three-bay, front gabled, single-family houses have been joined. With substantial alterations, the building is today a ten-bay, aluminum sided, structure with front shed-foof porches on both sides. At the opposite end of town, a large two-and-one-half story, frame house, probably the superintendent's house, stands. It is a five-bay structure with two interior, brick, end chimneys, front hipped-roof porch, and a central gable intersecting its front facade. The coal company store, the Union Supply Company, which once stood immediately east of the Superintendent's house, is not extant. |
An undated photo of the H.C. Frick Coke Company's town of
Shoaf, the Shoaf Mine tipple and Coke Works are shown in the upper right
hand corner. The Superintendent's house and Union Supply Company's
Store are in the middle right of the photo. |
| HISTORY: Shoaf, Coal Company Patch Town: The H. C. Frick Coke Company built the entire coal company town of Shoaf to house its employees working at the Shoaf No. 1 Mine & Coke Works, a drift mine placed into operation ca.1902. The H.C. Frick Coke Company extended the water lines from the Trotter Water Works system to its southernmost reaches to supply the Shoaf Coke Works and the town of Shoaf. The Shoaf Coke Works were put in operation ca.1904. Ten double houses and the Union Supply Company store were built in ca.1903. The largest number of houses were constructed in ca.1904, when fifty double-family houses and two single-family houses were erected. Thirteen more double-family houses were constructed in ca.1906. An additional ten two-family houses were built in ca.1914, thirteen in 1916, and ten single houses in 1917. Of the houses constructed from 1914, it is not possible to note exactly how many of these were constructed in Shoaf, since these figures include houses constructed at the neighboring Shoaf No. 2 [Smiley], to the east. About the time the Shoaf Mine & Coke Works closed in ca.1951, John Galbreath, who also bought the Leisenring Mines houses, purchased the bulk of the houses in Shoaf. A Daniel B. Swaney acquired the northern most street of houses in July of 1952. |
| (History and description of Shoaf, adapted with additional data from "Fayette County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1990," America's Industrial Heitage Project, National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, U.S. Department of the Interior, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
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| An undated photo, but from around ca.1920,
of Main Street in Shoaf, showing the superintendent's house or a boss's house
in Shoaf , from the files of the H. C. Frick Coke Company. (Photo courtesy of the collections of the "Coal & Coke Heritage Center," Penn State University Fayette Campus, Uniontown, PA.) |
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| The side yard of Company House No. 25 in
Shoaf in July, 1913. Pictured is Annie Salters Rodell, wife of Otto
Rodell, and her grandson Hubert H. Rodell. House No. 25, Shoaf, PA
won third prize for the best lawn and Flower garden in Shoaf. The H.C.
Frick Coke Company awarded prizes for the best gardens & lawns at the
various mining patchs that they owned. The prizes were to incourage the miners
and their families to take care of the yards, and to raise the produce they
needed. (Photo courtesy of the Noreen Rodell Whalen from the collections of the "Coal & Coke Heritage Center," Penn State University Fayette Campus, Uniontown, PA.) |
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| St. Helen Roman Catholic Church and coal
company miners housing, Shoaf, c. 1915. (Photo courtesy of the collections of the "Coal & Coke Heritage Center," Penn State University Fayette Campus, Uniontown, PA.) |
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Barbala Kvochko Hercsok Barbala Kvochko Hercsok and Ann. Barbala Hercsok b. 1881, est. d 1914. Origin Lehocz, Uzhorod (Ungvar) Austria Hungary (at that time). Married to Gyorgy Hercsok, a miner. Settled in Shoaf, PA. Four children: Maria, Anna, John & Elizabeth. (Photo Courtesy of Mary John.) |
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| Baseball was one of the main pasttimes in
the coal patch towns. Mine superintendents would go to just about any length
to field a winning baseball team. This was the Shoaf Mine team of 1913.
From Left to Right, kneeling, Gaster, unknown (clerk for Irvin Showalter),
and Superintendent Frank Emory. Standing, left to right, William Long,
Harry "Dutch" Morgan, Cooley Hull, William Daniey, Sam Gaster, Lake Malone,
Walter Monroe Hopwood, Branden Swaney, "Bugs" Brarthwood, "Babe" Clingan,
Jesse Leadbeater and Michael Walters. (Photo courtesy of Jill Molton, granddaughter of Michael Walters.) |
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| Undated photo of the Union Supply Company
employees at the Union Supply Store in Shoaf, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
The Union Supply Company was owned by the H.C. Frick Coke Company and
the stores were a part of every Frick owned coal patch town. They extended
credit to the miners, even during slack times. The payments were then
deducted from the miner's pay. This practice gave the company almost
total control over the miner's spending. The stores carried good quality
merchandise, at reasonable prices. (Photo courtesy of the collections of the "Coal & Coke Heritage Center," Penn State University Fayette Campus, Uniontown, PA.) |
| Support the Coal & Coke Heritage
Center, a non-profit research center and museum. Want to know more about the women who lived in the coal patch towns? You need this book. One of the few studies done on the women of the coal & coke era. Common lives of Uncommon Strength: The Women of the Coal & Coke Era of Southwestern Pennsylvania 1880-1970 Complied, written and edited by: Evelyn A. Hovanec, PhD 227 pages. Voices of the women tell unique stores of the coal and coke era, plus vintage photographs, documents, maps, and newspaper articles. Hardcover $35.00 Soft cover $25.00 Add $5.00 shipping / handling. Send Check or money order to: Coal & Coke Heritage Center, Penn State University Fayette Campus P.O. Box 519, Uniontown, PA 15401 |
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