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Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania

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Coal Mines of Indiana Co., PA MAIN INDEX
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Victor No. 26 Mine,
Rembrant,
Cherryhill Twp.,
Indiana County,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

A Tribute to the Coal Miners that mined the
Bituminous Coal seams of the Victor No. 26 Mine,
Indiana County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

by
Raymond A. Washlaski, Historian, Editor,
Ryan P. Washlaski, Technical Advisor,
Peter E. Starry, Jr. "The Old Miner."

Updated Dec. 22, 2005

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Victor No. 26 Mine (ca.1907-  ?  ),
Located on the New York Central Railroad, on the west side of Pennsylvania Route SR403, 2 miles north of Clymer, at Rembrant (Rembrant Station), Cherryhill Twp., Indiana Co., PA
[USGS Quad: Clymer, PA]
[UTM: E.17 E.668200 - N. 4506650.]
Owners: (ca.1907-  ?  ), Victor Coal Mining Company,
             (ca.      ?       ), Russell Coal Company,

A portion of the U.S.G.S. Clymer, PA 7 1/2 min. quad Map showing Rembrant , Cherryhill Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania and the New York Central Railroad line from Clymer.
(Curtesy of the U.S. G. S., Washington, D.C.)

DESCRIPTION:
The former coal patch town of Rembrant, Cherryhill Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, is marked by only four coal company built houses, one of which is in ruins.  Rembrant was once the site of the former Victor No. 26 Mine.  Three of the houses stand on a hillside on the west side of the present Pennsylvania Highway Rt. SR 403, about two miles north of Clymer and a mile-and-a-half south of Dixonville.  The abandoned house, in ruins, is located across the highway.

The typical house is two stories in height and built on a T-plan.  The foundations are of random ashlar stone, siding is asbestos shingles, probably applied the the clapboard after the coal company sold the houses to private owners.  The houses have a gabled roof, covered in composition shingles.  On the front, a one-story shed proch extends nearly the entire length of the house;  similar shed porches run across the sides of the rear tee section.  Windows are double-hung with 4/4 lights.  Cordeled brick chimneys are located on the inside at the gable ends.  All the remaining houses in Rembrant have been somewhat altered.  No trace of the old Victor No. 26 Mine, except for a overgrown and covered up boney dump, remain.

HISTORY:
The coal patch town of Rembrant, in Cherryhill Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania was formerly called Rembrant Station, for the railroad station on the New York Central Railroad located there.  The few houses in Rembrant today are all that remain of a small coal company patch town at the site of the Victor No. 26 Mine, north of Clymer.  The Victor No. 26 Mine was established by the Peale family intersts, which were connected with the New York Central Railroad, and the mine likely provided coal for the railroad.

The Victor Coal Mining Company, which opened the Victor No. 26 Mine, was a subisidary company of the Peale Family interests.  The mine was also operated at times by the Russell Coal Company, another subsisdary company of the Peale Family.  The companies were a part of a holding company listed on the New York Stock Exchange as "Victor Collieries."

The Victor No. 26 Mine was opened in ca.1907, and the coal company houses probably date from about that time period.  Rembrant was apparently named for Rembrant Peale, Jr., who signed his name on one of the "Big Rocks" above Second Sample Run in 1907.

In 1914, the Russell Coal Company controlled the Victor No. 26 Mine, along with three others in the Neighborhood.  Production at the Victor No. 26 Mine at Rembrant totalled less than 14,000 tons, and there were only nine miners employed in the mine.

The Victor No. 26 Mine shut down sometime before World War II, and the houses today are all privately owned.

(History and description of the Victor No. 26 Mine and Rembrant, Cherryhill Twp., Indiana Co., PA, 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.)

The Penn Run Coal Company's Victor #45 Mine and the Russell Coal Company's Victor #29 Mine were opened near Clymer, in Indiana County, PA, in 1919. They were owned by Richard Peale, of St. Benedict, Cambria County, who owned the mines' parent company Peale, Peacock, and Kerr Corporation. A.C. Hoknke was the superintendent of Victor #45 and Russel Coal Company's Victor #29. The mines all used the New York Central Railroad for haulage. Although the men who worked at the Victor mines did not live in Company built towns. Peale did own and operate a company store in Clymer. In 1919, there were 4 Victor mines operating under the numbers 24, 25, 27, and 29. That year, the mines together had 430 employees and produced 335,470 tons of coal, which was comparable to other mines in Indiana County. The Penn Run Coal Corporation opened Victor #45 in 1924; it was also owned by Richard Peale. All of these mines had as their parent company the Peale, Peacock and Kerr Corporation, which owned significant coal lands in Cambria County, primarily in the area around Patton, Pennsylvania. In 1927, Victor #45 had 139 employees and shipped 68, 228 tons of coal over the N.Y.C. R.R. Both the Russell Coal Company mines and the Penn Run mines were abandoned and dismantled by the end of 1938, with all four mines working less than 38 days a year. ( as opposed to larger local mines averaging 130 days a year for the same time period.) The Penn Run - Russell Coal Collection is particularly relevant to the study of the mining industry due to the detailed information supplied on the documents. For each man employed, there are stated, among other data, his age, number of years, experience in the mines, origin of birth, number of dependents, the physical description, and the reasons for leaving his place of former employment. Thus, they are useful for researchers interested in immigration patterns, movement of mines within the area, and the study of family relationships during the 1930's.

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