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| Mitchell Mine & Coke Works
(ca.1890-1902), Located on the Indiana Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, located near Blairsville, Oklahoma (Coral), Center Twp., Indiana Co., PA [In 1902 the Mitchell Mine, and the town of Oklahoma were renamed Coral, and Coral Mine & Coke Works. By 1912 the mine was known as the Potter Mine & Coke Works.] Owners: (ca.1890- ? ), Indiana County Coal & Coke Company, Blairsville, PA (ca.1892- ? ), Indiana Coal Company, Blairsville, PA (ca.1898- ? ), Indiana Coal Company, Blairsville, PA (ca.1900?-1902), Harry McCreary Company, (ca.1902-1916), Joseph Wharton Company, New Jersey (ca.1912-1916), Wharton Coal Company, New Jersey (ca.1916-1930's), Potter Coal & Coke Company, (ca.1930's-1939), Coral Coal Company,
Wharton Mine (ca.1905 - ),
Wharton No. 1 Mine & Coke Works
Potter Mine & Coke Works
Coral Mine & Coke Works |
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| A portion of the U.S.G.S. Indiana, PA 15min.
quad Map 1902 ed. (top) showing Graceton Mine & Coke Works and the U.S.G.S.
New Florence, PA 15 min. quad Map 1922 ed. (bottom) showing Coral Mine &
Coke Works (Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
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| The Coral Coke Works towards the end of their production
of coke, with the large bony dump from the Coral Mines behind
them. (Photo courtesy of the Topographic & Geologic Survey of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA.) |
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| Another view of the Coral Coke Works with
the large bony dump from the Coral Mines behind them. (Photo courtesy of mining historian John Busovicki of Clymer and the "Indiana Gazette," Indiana, PA.) |
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| An undated view of the Coral Coke Works
in operation, railroad hopper cars are shown being loaded with coke in front
of a bank of bee-hive coke ovens. The Coral Reservoir is show in the foreground.
People used to use the reservoir for swimming and to float on planks,
as can be seen in the lower right. (Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
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Another undated view of the abandoned Coral
Coke Works, with a large steam shovel used to strip mine the remaining outcrop
of coal in the Coral area standing abandoned in front of them. (Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
| DESCRIPTION: More than 100 homes were built at the present site of Coral, Center Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, about ca.1900 or ca.1902, to house the coal miners and coke workers at the Coral Mines & Coke Works. According to a ca.1913 account, the prebuilt houses, all single family houses, were the first of their type to be built in Indiana county. The average house is of balloon frame construction, two stories in height, and clad in shingle siding; it rests on a random rubble stone foundation and is topped by a front-gable roof covered with composition shingles. Measuring roughly 27 feet x 18 feet. The houses have simple shed porches across the front supported by chamfered wooden posts. A single brick chimney penetrates the roof rodge at center. Most of the houses in the Village of Coral have been altered with replacement siding, windows or continuous additions. |
| HISTORY: During the years of coke production at the Graceton Coke Works, a second beehive operation existed just a few miles south. In 1890, the Indiana Coal and Coke Company was founded by Jacob and Paul Graff, J. M. Guthrie, G. W. Hoover, John Elkin, and John R. Caldwell. In the next few years, 24 bee-hive coke ovens were built on the site and a tiny coal company patch town of six houses was established near the Mitchell Mine & Coke WOrks, in southern Center Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. The coal patch town was named "Oklahoma," the settlement housed the miners and coke workers from the Indiana Coal and Coke Company plant. The coal and coke produced at the Mitchell Mine & Coke Works was sulphurous and difficult to market. The mine and bee-hive coke ovens at Oklahoma were also destined to undergo several transfers of ownership. By the end of the 19th century, the Mitchell Mine & Coke Works were leased to Harry McCreary, manager of coking operations at the Graceton Mine, a couple of miles north of the Mitchell Mine. McCreary expanded the Mitchell Coke Plant to 300 bee-hive coke ovens, and built additional coal company owned workers houses to accommodate 400 employees. The residences were single-family houses, the first in Indiana County of this later most common type of miner housing in the coal company owned towns. In ca.1902, Harry McCreary again entered the coal and coke business with the purchase of the Indiana Coal and Coke Company lands, tipple, and houses. In addition, McCreary purchased 6,000 more acres of adjoining coal lands. Around ca.1902, upon completion of all his transactions, McCreary sold the entire parcel of property to Joseph Wharton, a Philadelphia investor whose Wharton Corporation also owned an iron foundry and blast furnace in Wharton, New Jersey. By ca.1902, the name of the coal plant and town had been changed to "Coral" local folklore says that the name was derived from the statement of a "oldtime coal prospector." This individual, evidently a far-sighted man, remarked to an early oral historian, "the coal and clay hereabouts will be as valuable as Coral." On acquisition of the Coral properties, Joseph Wharton was understandably anxious to secure the best management for his new plant, and persuaded McCreary to remain as temporary superintendent. By late ca.1903, 300 bee-hive coke ovens and 150 coal company owned houses stood at the location. His work completed, Harry McCreary resigned his position with the Wharton Corporation; he was succeeded by superintendent Thomas Murray. Three mines were soon operating at the newly renamed town of Coral, Mitchell Mine, Potter Mine and Wharton No. 1 Mine, with a combined daily output of 1,000 tons. The miners houses were built by the Johnstown Construction Company. The houses were rough framed in the lumber yard, then hauled to the town site on railroad cars, and assembled on the foundations built on site. This was one of the first instances of the prefabrication of coal company housing, later it became a common occurrence in Indiana County. |
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The Coral Coal Company Store ca.1920 was located on the
edge of town along the railroad tracks in Coral. (Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
| The Wharton Mine & Coke Works shut down
for a period in ca.1904, putting around 600 miners and coke workers out of
work. By ca.1906, the Wharton Mine & Coke Works was reopened and
was working at capacity. An electrical fire in ca.1906 destroyed the tipple,
coal crusher, and coal washer buildings, but by the end of 1906, the mine
and coke works were again in full production.
In ca.1910, the Wharton Mine & Coke Works again shut down, as Wharton's Iron Furnaces at Wharton, New Jersey, were in a slump. Around ca.1912, the mines were renamed the Potter Mines and Coke Works, of the Wharton Coal Company. The Upper Freeport coal was worked in the Coral Mine, the slope mine had electric haulage on the main passageways at this time. In ca.1916, the Potter Mines & Coke Works of the Wharton Coal Company were sold to the Potter Coal & Coke Company. In ca.1917 the Potter Coal & Coke Company built 50 new company dwelling houses and repaired and rebuilt 100 of the company old houses. Installed a water system, graded the streets, planted trees and wired all company houses for lighting. Cleaned up and enlarged the main airways from the fan to the face of the main entry and rearranged the ventilating system so as to increase the volume of air in the mine. Purchased a new fan with a capacity of 200,000 cubic feet per minute. Constructed 14 overcasts and 100 brick stoppings in the mine.
The 1919 Coal Miners Strike at Coral Mines "In the case of Coral, a small town seven miles south of Indiana, the "Bolshevik issue" lasted longer than in other places in the county and overlapped with the coal strike of 1919. Its strike began in April 1919 when the Potter Coal and Coke Company failed to recognize the United Mine Workers. The radicalism issue became entwtined with the strike in Coral when public authorities, including a post office inspector, pinpointed Coral as the site of radical agitation. More specifically Lindo Brigman, Post Office inspector for Indiana County, brought charges against R.E. Mikesell, Postmaster as; Coral, "for openly defending Bolshevik outlawry." This allegation brought a response from Peter Ferrara, a leader of District 2, who wrote to William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor of the United States, to answer charges which Brigman brought against the miners and the postmaster. He denied that the union miners were Bolsheviks and he called for the reinstatement of Mikesell. According to Ferrara's explanation of the incident, Mikesell's dismissal resulted from "the propaganda instituted by the Potter Coal and Coke Company and its agents, for the purpose of humiliating and annoying the said R.E. Mikesell at the expense of the United Mine workers local at Coral, Pa." "Two other special elements added to the complexity and heightened the emotional level of the struggle at Coral. Strikers suffered eviction from their houses in April and many of them spent the next year living in tents (see photo below; tent colony center right). coral_tent_colony.jpg (101111 bytes)To compound the problems of the union and the strikers Judge Jonathan Langham, Judge of the Indiana County Court of Common Pleas, presided at a court case involving the local strike leaders. The indictment charged the defendants with interferring with the operations of the company and with those workers who wanted to continue to work. In early July Judge Jonathan Langham issued a broad injunction which prohibited strikers form engaging in activities which impeded production. By the end of the month the defendants had been convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to jail." "The multiple offensive directed against the Coral strikers and the United Mine Workers placed a heavy burden on their limited resources. Nevertheless, they undertook actions which prolonged the conflict although the company and its political allies eventually won the struggle. John Brophy and the District 2 leadership aided by John L. Lewis provided tents for the dispossessed miners. Delegates to the District 2 convention in 1919 raised money to buy shoes for the children and wives of the strikers and also undertook a clothing drive in their behalf. John Brophy dispatched a corps of District 2 organizers to assist the Coral strikers. Brophy also sought intermediaries who would reach the officials of the Potter Coal and Coke Company and arrange for a negotiated settlement. All these efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful as the superior resources of the company and its allies prevailed over the endurance of the miners and the aid of District 2. On April 23, 1920, the District Executive Board decided to discontinue the strike." "Although many Indiana County Coal miners and leaders of District 2 expressed an ongoing concern about developments in Coral and provided some aid to the strikers, by September 1919 most leaders and members of the United Mine Workers, including those in Indiana County, shifted their attention to the proceedings of the national convention at Cleveland. Delegates supported a major wage increase, a shorter work week, and nationalization of the mines. Lewis, on the other hand, took a more cautious stance especially about nationalization and debates between leaders and insurgents marked the convention proceedings. The convention also provided an opportunity for local unions to offer resolutions and several Indiana County locals responded." In ca.1930 the Pennsylvania Department of Mines Report notes that 126 of the 300 Bee-hive coke ovens were in operation, producing over 50,000 tons of coke in ca.1930. Sometime during the 1930's the Potter Mine & Coke Works were sold to the Coral Coal Company, the company renamed the mines Coral Mine & Coke Works, Coral Coal Company continued operating the mines and coke works until they were shut down in ca.1939. A total of 4,412,000 tons of coal was reportedly produced. An unknown quantity of coal was stripped mined south of the pit mouth of the mine. The area of development when operations were discontinued included approximately 358 acres. There was adjacent to this developed area about 623 acres and 518 acres of coal classified respectively as measured and indicated reserves. The daily output of the mine was about 800 tons and 80 percent was from advanced workings. The system of mining was room and pillar. The coal was undercut by machine and shot down by permissible explosives. It was crushed by breaker to one-half inch and bony was removed; 3 percent of the coal was run of mine; 97 percent was washed and coked in 300 bee-hive coke ovens. The Jamison Coal & Coke Company, Greensburg, PA acquired the Coral Mines and Coke Works sometime around ca.1942. The Coral Mines and Coke Works were reopened by the Jamison Brothers of Greensburg, PA and working at full capacity again during World War II. By ca.1947 the Coral Mines & Coke Works were sold to Al Cromling of Derry, PA. Ownership of the Coral Mines & Coke Works changed hands several times over the next few years, owners were Beatty, Hess & Stewart Company in ca.1948, and H. G. Burns in ca.1955. The Coral Mines and Coke Works shut down permanently and were abandoned around ca.1955. The Coral Coke Works and the bee-hive coke ovens were all destroyed as part of a mine reclamation project in June, 1990. Most of the coal company built houses in Coral remain. The area is now know as Coral-Graceton. ("History of Coke" by Eileen Mountjoy Cooper, formerly of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA. Published on-line in the series "Coal Dust: The Early Mining Industry of Indiana County" by the Special Collections & Archives Indiana University Library, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA.) (History and description of the Coral Mines, adapted from with additional data and pictures added: "Indiana County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1993," 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 of the Coral Coke Works, taken many years
after they were abandoned. (Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
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Coral Coal Company Baseball Team ca.1930.
(Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
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John E. Sobota of Graceton, right, and the
late John Frederick of Coral was taken in ca.1940 at the Potter Coal and
Coke Co. in Coral. The boys were hired to clean out the old firebrick lining
of several of the old bee-hive coke ovens, so they could be relined. The
boys were about 17 years old in the photograph and were paid $2.25 for three
hours of work in one oven. (Photo courtesy by John E. Sobota and the "Indiana Gazette," Indiana, PA) |
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Four of the Coral miners, in their Sunday Best, on the
railroad tracks at Coral. (Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
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The present Coral Lutheran Church, located along Power
Plant road, was built sometime in the 1940's. (Photo courtesy of "The Dispatch," June 7, 2002, Blairsville, PA) |
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