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| Jamison No. 3 Mine & Coke Works (Forbes Road Mine) (ca.1900-1950's), Located off of PA Rt. 819, on T825, north of Greensburg, on the New Alexandria Branch, Hannastown Spur lLine, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Forbes Road, Salem Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA. [Jamison No. 3 Mine was consolidated underground with the Jamison No. 2 Mine (Hannastown Mine) in November 1920.] Owners: (ca.1900-1922), Jamison Coal & Coke Company, Greensburg , PA Company Store: Jamison Supply Company No. 3 (ca.1922-1930), Leased by Keystone Coal & Coke Company, Greensburg, PA (ca.1930-1950's), Jamison Coal & Coke Company, Greensburg, PA Company Store: Hannastown Supply Company |
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Jamison Supply Company The Jamison Coal & Coke Company,
Company Store at Jamison No. 3 Mine (Forbes Road Mine), Forbes Road, Salem
Twp., the photo is not dated. (Courtesy of Robert B. Van Atta and the Focus Magazine of the Tribune Review, Sunday, April 10,1994) |
| DESCRIPTION: The Jamison No. 3 Mine (Forbes Road Mine) mining complex at Forbes Road, Salem Township, is composed of the lamp house, the hoist-pump house, mule barn, and machine shop. The lamp house is a brick building painted white; it has one-story, measures 20' x 10', and contains six-over-six light double-hung sash windows; its roof was constructed with mine car rails which support a concrete slab. The hoist-pump-bath house contains yellow-brick common-bond walls, and a multiple gable roof; it measures 226' x 70' and features twelve-over-twelve-light double-hung sash windows spanned by double and tripple brick voussoirs; the roof, composed of rivated steel Fink trusses, is supported by brick pilasters. The building features decorative brick corbels. To the rear is a brick addition, forming the pump and bath house; it measures 45' x 10' and contains concrete-block walls. This addition dates from ca.1950. The nearby machine shop is also a yellow-brick building with stretcher-bond brick walls. It contains one-story, twelve-over-twelve-light double-hung sash windows, and corbelled brickwork under the eaves; no machinery survives from the mining period. The mule barn is a common-bond red-brick building containing one-story, a gable roof, and a double-door. The mine shaft, tipple, and head frame, which were located adjacent to the south side of the hoist house, have been demolished. A part of the slate dump (boney dump) east of the town remains, although it is slowly being reclaimed. |
| HISTORY: In 1900, the Jamison Coal & Coke Company of Greensburg opened the shaft-entry Forbes Road Mine, which it called the No.3 Mine. By 1903 Thomas S. Jamison was superintendent of the No. 3 Mine and the No. 4 Mine at Crabtree. Jamison Coal & Coke Company operated a coke works in conjunction with the No. 3 Mine. The coke works contained 400 bee-hive coke ovens and produced over 131,000 tons of coke in 1903. Miners produced nearly 439,000 tons of coal at the No. 3 Mine in 1903, over half of which was coked at the No. 3 Coke Works. The Forbes Road Mine and Coke Works employed 426 persons and was the largest of Jamison's four coal and coke operations. Jamison carried out a number of improvements to its No. 3 Mine in 1906. These included the construction of three permanent overcasts to aid in the mine's ventilation, additional permanent stoppings, and underground stables for the mules. Above ground the company built an addition to the pump house and boiler house. Jamison also completed an additional 100 bee-hive coke ovens, bringing the total number of coke ovens at Jamison No. 3 Mine Coke Works (Forbes Road Coke Works)to 500. This constituted the largest coke works in the Second Bituminous District. By 1910 Jamison operated six mines in Westmoreland County; however, the company closed the coke works at Forbes Road, concentrating its coking operation at its No. 1 (Luxor Mine), No. 2 (Hannastown Mine), and No. 4 (Crabtree Mine) Mines. In 1910, the No. 3 Mine at Forbes Road was the company's third leading coal producer; over 597,000 tons of coal was extracted that year at the No. 3 Mine. The company employed 424 persons at Forbes Road and had R. F. Pitcarian as its superintendent. The 1910's witnessed the highest level of production at the Jamison Mines. In 1915 the No. 3 Mine produced nearly 500,000 tons of coal, a level it was never to exceed. The Forbes Road operation utilized thirteen electric mining machines and an electric locomotive to haul coal. Its power plant contained a boiler house with seven water-tube boilers, typical of those found in physical plants of collieries throughout the region. At Forbes Road this included four Stirling boilers, two Erie boilers, and one Heine boiler, tha capacity of these being 1,900 horsepower. Two generator units supplied electricity at 275 volts DC. In 1919 Jamison No. 3 Mine produced 204,000 tons of coal, with 207 employees. The mine worked 260 days, and had 1 fatal accident and 4 non-fatal accidents. As with the other Jamison Coal & Coke Company properties in northern Westmoreland County, the Keystone Coal & Coke Company leased the company's mines and coke works from 1922 until 1930. Keystone Coal & Coke Company continued mining coal at Forbes Road Mine, though by 1926 the nearby Highland Mine (originally Jamison No. 6 Mine) was idle. From a low of 170,000 tons of coal in 1923 and to a high of 373,000 tons of coal in 1926, the Forbes Road Mine was one of the Keystone Coal & Coke Company's better producing mines during the 1920's. In 1930 Jamison Coal & Coke Company reassumed control of the Forbes Road Mine. That year the company assigned R.W. Sterrett as superintendent of this and the Hannastown mine. Under Jamison management again, Jamison No. 3 Mine (the Forbes Road Mine) employed 201 persons and produced over 197,000 tons of coal in 1930. Much of the coal produced at Jamison's mines in Pennsylvania was washed by Jamison and shipped to by-product coke plants in Pittsburgh. By 1940 equipment at the No. 3 Mine included five trolley locomotives, mechanical screens, picking tables and loading booms, and a work force of 350 miners was producing 2,000 tons of coal daily. Jamison's operations at Forbes Road Mine ceased in the 1950's. (History and description of Jamison No. 3 Mine & Coke Works, adapted from "Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1994," 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.)
Bishop closes more of the ethic Catholic Churches in the coal patch towns in the Diocese of Greensburg, PA, that the coal miners and their families built. Just another slap in the face to the coal miners that gave and gave to build these parishes. St. Mary R. C. Church, Forbes Road, PA was closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, PA in Oct., 2008. |
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David Nesbit, former coal miner of Forbes
Road Mine (Jamison No. 3 Mine) and Agnes McTurk Nesbit in their garden at
house, No. 52, in Forbes Road, date unknown. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Money) |
| Coal Miners Memorial
Jamison No. 3 Mine & Coke Works (Forbes Road Mine), Forbes Road, Salem Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA |
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