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| Foster Mine
(ca.1882- ? ), Located north of Saltsburg, one-half mile west of Nowrytown, on Sulphur Run, at Foster, Conemaugh Twp., Indiana Co., PA [USGS Quad: Avonmore, PA UTM: E. 17 632050 - N. 4487800.] Owners: (ca.1882- ? ), Foster Coal & Mining Company, Philadelphia, PA (ca.1884- ? ), R. B. Wigton & Son Company, (ca.1880's ?- ? ), Fairbanks Coal Company, Saltsburg, PA (ca.1889- ? ), Saltsburg Coal Company, Saltsburg, PA
Foster No. 1 Mine (ca.1882- ?
),
Foster No. 2 Mine (ca.1890's
? - ? ),
Foster No. 3 Mine (ca.1903 ?
- ? ), |
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| A portion of the U. S. G. S. Elders Ridge, PA 15 mine
quad map showing the location of Foster, Conemaugh Township, Indiana Co.,
PA (Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
| DESCRIPTION: Three houses remained, ca.1990, to mark the site of the coal patch town of Foster in northern Conemaugh Township. The homes, all double houses for two families, are weatherboarded frame structures constructed on concrete block foundations. The houses are covered by side-gable roofs, and feature a heavy brick chimney at the center on the front slope. Full-length shed porches extend across the front. Most of the former company houses have been torn down, though some were relocated to nearby Nowrytown. The mine complex itself has been completely dismantled, though a large boney dump (slate dump) remains to the southwest of the town along Sulphur Run. The route of the abandoned railroad grade from Edri can still be followed at places. |
| HISTORY: The Foster Coal & Mining Company, A Philadelphia Company, was chartered in 1882 with $300,000 in stock. The company opened its mine one mile east of Coalport [Edri], on the Kiskiminitas River, in the Elders Ridge coal field in November of 1882. A one-mile long narrow-gauge railroad and an incline plane along Sulphur Run carried the coal from the mine to the river and the Western Pennsylvania Railroad at Coalport, later named Edri, where a tipple was located. The mine was equipped with electric drills, steam subways, and the dinky railroad. |
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| The Foster Mine tipple and the Avonmore
Coaling Station on the Western Pennsylvania Railroad were cut into the cliffs
along the Kiskiminitas River at Coalport. The Avonmore Coaling Station
is on the left were the mine wagons pulled by a dinky engine entered the
coaling station under a roof coveredway. A one-mile long narrow-gauge
railroad and an incline plane along Sulphur Run connected the mines at Foster
to the Coaling Station and tipple. The Avonmore Coaling Station used
the coal directly from the mine wagons from the Foster Mine into the typical
locomotive tender, between five and ten mine wagons would be used to fill
a tender. (Photo courtesy of the Richard D. Adams Collection. And the book on the Conemaugh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.) |
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| The Foster Mines of the Saltsburg Coal Company
served the Western Pennsylvania Railroad Coaling Station located along the
Kiskiminitas River between Edri and Avonmore and was a major shipper of coal
over the Conemaugh Division. In August, 1917, this mine shipped 592
car loads of coal and received 11 car loads. In its busier times the
Foster Mines required a train crew to serve this mine alone, shipping up
to 50 cars per day. (Photo courtesy of the Richard D. Adams Collection. And the book on the Conemaugh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.) |
 |
| The Dinky Engine crew that served the Avonmore
Coaling Station from the Foster Mines. William Moore was the long time
engineman of the Foster Mine locomotive. (Photo courtesy of the Richard D. Adams Collection. And the book on the Conemaugh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.) |
| The town of Foster was built ca.1882 by
the Foster Coal & Mining Company as coal company owned housing for the
miners.
In ca.1884 the mine was being worked by the R. B. Wigton & Son Company. By the late 1880's, the Foster Coal & Mining Company was acquired by the Fairbanks Coal Company. Eventually, by 1889 the Saltsburg Coal Company took over the mining operations. The Foster Coal & Mining Company had maintained the largest mining operations in the area until the arrival of the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company when they entered the Elders Ridge Coal Field.
In the "1889 Report of the Inspectors of Mines of Pennsylvania"
Fostermines are mentioned. In ca.1889, the Foster Mine produced 7,255 tons of coal with 129 men, with 8 horses and mules, the mine worked 206 days. In ca.1891, the Foster Mines produced over 47,000 tons of coal . That year, the mines were the only ones in Indiana County that operated with steam equipment for haulage of the coal in the mines rather than horses and mules for haulage. In ca.1908, the Saltsburg Coal Company's Foster mines employed 377 men and produced over 230,000 tons of coal. The nearby Edri Mines of the Saltsburg Coal Company subsidiary Edri Coal Company produced 41,000 tons of coal in 1908, with seventy-five men and boys. By ca.1914, there were three drift mines, Foster No. 1 Mine, Foster No 2 Mine, and Foster No. 3 Mine, as well as the mines at Edri. Total production of the Foster Mines now exceeded 421,000 tons of coal. In ca.1919, the Foster No. 3 Mine was idle, and Foster No. 1 & No. 2 Mines produced 326,259 tons of coal, with 325 employees, the mines worked 194 days, and had one non-fatal acident. In ca.1920, the Foster No. 1, No. 2 & No. 3 Mines produced 424,796 tons of coal, with 310 employees, the mines worked 273 days, with 4 non-fatal accidents. In ca.1922 a black miner was killed during a miners strike and riot at the Foster Mines near Edri, Indiana County, on January 24th, 1922. Two Eastern European miners are arrested and later acquitted of murder charges. Operations had ceased at the Foster Mines by the time of World War II. Only a few company houses, the route of the abandoned narrow-gauge railroad, and several large bony piles mark the site of the former operations. (History and description of Foster Mines, adapted with additional data from "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.) |
| "Coal Miners
Memorial Foster Mines, Foster, Conemaugh Twp., Indiana County, Pennsylvania" |
| To Select another Index to Indiana County Coal Mines Click on the Larry cars for Index Page or on a Letter below |
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| Select another Index to the Coal Mines
of Indiana County, Pennsylvania [Click on a letter to take you to that Index]
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Mines of Indiana County, PA Contact: Ray Washlaski, Editor Copyright 2008, All rights reserved, by Raymond A. Washlaski, Ryan P. Washlaski & The 20th Century Society of Western Pennsylvania. Web site Design by "Mercers, an Undertakers" Web Design Company |
