|
|
|
|
(These pages Underconstruction)
| Mutual Coke Company, Greensburg, PA See: Mutual No. 1 Mine & Coke Works, Mutual, Unity Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA Mutual No. 2 Mine & Coke Works, Mutual, Unity Twp. , Westmoreland Co., PA Mutual No. 3 Mine & Coke Works, Mutual, Unity Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA See also: H. C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Mutual Mining & Manufacturing Company, Greensburg, PA United Coke Company, Greensburg, PA
Mutual Mining & Manufacturing Company, Greensburg,
PA
Mutual No. 1 Mine & Coke Works
(ca.1881-1890's),
Mutual No. 2 Mine & Coke Works
(ca.1886-1923), (ca.1933-1942), Old Basin By-Products Company
Mutual No. 3 Mine & Coke Works
(ca.1890-1900), |
| DESCRIPTION: The town of Mutual is
composed of the former company store and approximately twenty-five company-built
houses. The house are in two groups; one group is located along Brinker
Run, the other is along Mutual Road, a narrow lane rising to the west above
the stream. The former Union Supply Company Store of the H.C.
Frick Coke Company, is a two-story wood-frame building on Mutual Road. Resting
on a concrete-block foundation (not its original foundation) the building
is T-shaped with the front section and its main entrance parallel to the
gable ridge. The rear section also has a gable roof that intersects
with the gable roof of the front section. The building measures
approximately 64ft. x 36ft. Its exterior has been covered with metal
siding. A karate school occupied the much-altered building ca.1994.
The residences at Mutual are the standard two-story wood-frame, salt-box style, double houses found throughout the region's coal towns. Most have been converted into single-family houses and have been altered with various types of siding and the addition of rooms and enclosure of porches. With the exception of eight bee-hive coke ovens, which once formed part of a battery of block ovens, the coke works and mining complex at Mutual has been demolished. These few remaining coke ovens are along Brinker Run and are in greatly deteriored condition; the fronts of the ovens are missing. A small reservior along Brinker Run is visible and may have served the coke works which, by the 1910's contained nearly 200 bee-hive ovens. (The Mutual Coke Works was a relatively small operation compared to a number of other H.C. Frick Coke Company works in the vicinity of Mutual.) |
| HISTORY: The Mutual Mining Manufacturing
Company, led by Robert S. Jamison of Greensburg, opened the drift-entry Mutual
mine ca. 1881. (Robert S. Jamison subsequently helped found the Jamison
Coal & Coke Company, of Greensburg.)
The Mutual Mine was served by the Sewickley Branch of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, which later was a Division of the Pennsylvania R.R.. Five years later Mutual Mining & Manufacturing Company opened a second drift mine, Mutual No. 2 Mine (ca.1886) and constructed a new tipple. By 1886 the company employed 160 persons. 117 of whom were miners. The Mutual Mine included a coke works consisting of eighty-two Bee-hive coke ovens. The miners produced nearly 143,000 tons of coke and the coke workers produced about 42,000 tons of coke in 1886. In 1889 the H.C. Frick Coke Company had acquired a two-thirds interest in Jamison's Mutual Mining Manufacturing Company and its Mutual Mines and Coke Works. In 1890, soon after Frick's involvement with Mutual, a third drift mine, called Mutual No. 3 Mine, was opened, as the Mutual No.1 Mine was being worked out. The newly expanded Mutual Coke Works had 154 bee-hive coke ovens, producing 65,000 tons of coke in ca.1890. By 1890 the Mutual Mining & Manufacturing Company was reorganized as the Mutual Coke Company, with Thomas S. Jamison serving as head of the Mutual Coke Company. Frick retained a controlling interest in this concern as well as the United Coke Company which owned the Mutual property from about 1891 through 1895, when it was purchased outright by the H.C. Frick Coke Company. Throughout the late 1890's production figures at the Mutual Mines varied: in 1897 the mines operated just sixty-nine days and produced only 12,000 tons of coal. That year the Mutual Coke Works produced about 9,000 tons of coke. By 1900, however, Mutual No. 2 Mine, its entry reopened as a slope entry, was operated 258 days and produced 132,000 tons of coal. Mutual No. 3 Mine was closed by 1900. The Mutual Coke Works had 197 bee-hive coke ovens and produed 55,000 tons of coke. Frick employed 103 men and boys inside the mine and 56 persons in the coke works. R.E. Laughrey, who resided in nearby United, was superintendent of the Mutual Mines & Coke Works and United Mines & Coke Works. During the 1910's annual production at the Mutual Mine varied from a high in 1918 of over 135,000 tons to a low in 1915 of only 1,800 tons of coal. The town of Mutual had a population of nearly 500 persons during this time. As with other H.C. Frick properties, production dropped during the widespread Coal Miner's Strike in 1922 when most of the miners at Mutual Mine went on strike to improve their working conditions. About 73,000 tons of coal was extracted from the Mutual No. 2 Mine that year. As a result of the coal miner's strike of 1922 and the slump in the demand for coal the H.C. Frick Coke Company began shutting down a number of its properties. The Mutual Mine, never one of the company's larger producers, was closed in 1923. Its last year saw the production of 81,000 tons of coal and about 50,000 tons of coke, both operations employing 191 workers. Residents of Mutual had to find employment in the nearby United Mine or Calumet Mine and Coke Works or move on to some other mine. The United Mine Workers of America, Local #6827, represented the coal miners at Mutual Mine. |
 |
Gardens at Mutual Prize winning garden at Mutual Mine, with a battery of bee-hive coke ovens in the background, ca.1912. Note the Bee-hive coke oven bank across the road from the house. (photo courtesy of USX Resourse Management Division, Uniontown & HABS/HAER, America's Industrial Heritage Project, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
Dumping the Mine Cars Mutual Mine, mine car dumping platform. The mine car would be pulled to the top of the dumping platform, the car tipper would then release the back end boards of the coal wagon, and the coal would be dumped into the hopper. From the hopper the coal would be loaded in the larry for the coke ovens, or into railroad cars. (Photo captured from and old 16mm movie film, courtesy of Ernie Buyok, who was an engineer for U.S. Steel, and visited many of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. coal mines.) |
 |
Car Tipper Dumping Mine Cars Mutual Mine, mine car dumping coal into the hopper. The back board on the mine car was released and the coal is being dumped into the hopper. (Photo captured from and old 16mm movie film, courtesy of Ernie Buyok, who was an engineer for U.S. Steel, and visited many of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. coal mines.) |
 |
Mutual Mine Tipple The tipple at Mutual Mine, with the bee-hive coke ovens burning in the foreground. (Photo captured from and old 16mm movie film, courtesy of Ernie Buyok, who was an engineer for U.S. Steel, and visited many of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. coal mines.) |
 |
Bee-Hive Coke Ovens Burning Mutual Mine Bee-hive coke ovens burning in to background and the larry track in the foreground. (Photo captured from and old 16mm movie film, courtesy of Ernie Buyok, who was an engineer for U.S. Steel, and visited many of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. coal mines.) |
 |
Bee-hive coke ovens in operation at Mutual Mine. (Photo captured from and old 16mm movie film, courtesy of Ernie Buyok, who was an engineer for U.S. Steel, and visited many of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. coal mines.) |
 |
A driver and his horses leaving Mutual Mine. (Photo captured from and old 16mm movie film, courtesy of Ernie Buyok, who was an engineer for U.S. Steel, and visited many of the H.C. Frick Coke Co. coal mines.) |
 |
Houses and Gardens at Mutual The houses and gardens at Mutual, with the end of the battery of bee-hive coke ovens in the background, ca.1912. (photo courtesy of USX Resourse Management Division, Uniontown & HABS/HAER, America's Industrial Heritage Project, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
Mutual Coke Works Remains of the Bee-hive coke oven battery at Mutual ca.1994 (photo by Carmen Di Ciccio, courtesy of HABS/HAER, America's Industrial Heritage Project, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
| "Coal Miners Memorial,
Mutual Mines & Coke Works, Mutual, Unity Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania" |
| To Select another Index to Westmoreland County Coal Mines Click on the Larry |
 |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| Local History
Sites Links to other coal mining sites |
Reference Sources for Southwestern Pennsylvania Coal Mines | The New Message Boards have not worked, Use our guestbook for questions | Have
information to add on Westmoreland County Coal Mines? E-Mail the Editor |
|
View the "Old Miner's" Guestbook |
Let the Old Miner know you've been here. Sign the "Old Miner's" Guestbook |
 FastCounter by LinkExchange |
If you have additional information or pictures on the Coal
Mines of Westmoreland 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 |
