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| Robindale Mine (Smokeless Mine) (Penelec No. 5 Mine) (ca.1914-1952 ? ), The Robindale Mine name was changed to the Penelec No. 5 Mine, after 1926, located at Robindale, (Smokeless P.O.), East Wheatfield Twp., Indiana Co., PA [USGS Quad.: New Florence, PA UTM: E. 17 666600 - N. 4473900.] [Town was originally called Smokeless, name changed to Robindale ca.1916.] [Mine name was changed to the Penelex No. 5 Mine, after 1926.] [Robindale no longer exists, the town was torn down and covered by the fly ash dump from the Seward Electrical Generating Station.] [The town of Robindale (Smokeless) is a coal mining Ghost Town, with only the Hice-Pershing Cemetery remaining.] Owners: (ca.1914-1926), Conemaugh Smokeless Coal Company, Johnstown, PA (ca.1916-1926), E. F. Saxman Company of Philadelphia, PA (ca.1926-1952 ? ), West Penn Power Company, Greensburg, PA (ca.1928?-1952 ? ), Pennsylvania Electric Company, |
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| A portion of the USGS New Florence, PA 15 min. Quad Map
ca.1922, showing the location of Robindale (Smokeless P.O.), West Wheatfield
Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. (Map courtesy of the US Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
| DESCRIPTION: The site of the former coal mining patch town of Smokeless, East Wheatfield Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania has been totally eradicated, and is now a fly-ash dump for the adjacent Seward Electric Generating Station. The Hice-Pershing Cemetery was preserved, and is the only remaining resource from the community. |
| HISTORY: The Conemaugh Smokeless Coal Company, owned by D. R. Robinson, opened the Smokeless Mine along the Conemaugh River, in southern East Wheatfield Township in ca.1914, and established the coal company patch town of "Smokeless." The town consisted of coal company built houses and possibly a company store. Twenty-nine men and boys were employed in the mine in ca.1915. In ca.1916 all operations were sold to E. F. Saxman Company of Philadelphia, PA for more than one million dollars. Saxman's reorganized company was called Robindale Mines, and the town of Smokeless was renamed Robindale. On March 30th, 1916, several days after the transfer of ownership, a gas explosion in the mine killed eight men in the Robindale Mine. By the late 1920's, the mines were being operated by the Pennsylvania Electric Company, As its Penelec No. 5 Mine. Production in ca,.1930 was nearly 182,500 tons of coal, consigned to the Seward Electrical Generating Station. 192 men were employed in ca.1930. Twenty-three houses and a church were shown as present at Robindale on the 1964 USGS Topo. map, but were torn down following the disastrous 1977 flood to make room for a new fly-ash dump for the Penelec Seward Electrical Generating Station. Several nearby houses that predated Robindale, including an early stone house associated with the Pershing family, were also torn down. The Hice-Pershing Cemetery along the Conemaugh River is all that remains at the site. A clean-up of the cemetery was done in 1987. |
| March 30, 1916, Robindale Mine, Seward, PA 8 Miners Killed From the Bureau of Mines Report.
The mine had not been working full, due to a strike and only
eight men went in that morning. At 8:20 A.M. the explosion blew the
cage and a car of rock into the headframe and damaged the tipple and headhouse.
By 12:30 P.M. the fan was repaired and running, and an apparatus crew
from another mine went down the slope. Other crews arrived later, and
by evening seven bodies had been recovered and the mine explored. The
other body was recovered later when the mine was fully unwatered.
Ventilation in the mine was poorly regulated, permitting gas accumulation
in headings, undetected because regular fireboss examinations were not made.
Ignition was by an open light, and the explosion was spread by dust
and gas through all of the mine with the exception of rooms off the main
aircourse. |
| Coal
Miners Memorial Robindale Mine (Penelec No. 5 Mine), Robindale, Smokeless P.O., East Wheatfield Twp., Indiana Co., PA |
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