DESCRIPTION: Ligonier No. 2 Mine
The Mine and Coke Works buildings that composed the Ligonier No. 2 Mine complex at Peanut were located northwest of the town. This area is now wooded and a few remains of the brick bee-hive coke ovens may still exist.  Most of the coke works area has been used over the years as a dumping site for manufacturing refuse from the, now abandoned ceramics insulator plant in Derry, which last operated under the Westinghouse name, in Derry, PA, about a mile-an-half east of Peanut.

The concrete piers and substructures that supported the tipple and coal crushing plant can still be seen along with the old abandoned railroad grade of the Peanut spur of the Brandenville Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad that served the mine. The mine shaft has been sealed and covered over.  A small amount of coal, slate and coke can still be found the the area of the mine shaft, ca.2001.  Most of the mine slate dump (boney dump) has been reclaimed, but a large portion of the dump remains at its northern reaches, showing evidence of burning, and forming red dog, this area of the dump is now a junk storage area.

By ca.1900 Saxman's holdings included Saxman Coal & Coke Company, Superior Coal & Coke Company Derry Coal & Coke Compnay, Millwood Coal & Coke Company and Latrobe-Connellsville Coal & Coke Company.  A biographic sketch on Marcus W. Saxman published  in 1913, noted that these combined holdings, all of which were part of the Latrobe-Connellsville Coal & Coke Company, gave Saxman control of the seventh largest coal company in the United States at the time.

In addition to his coal properties, Saxman was a prominent capitalist in several other Lartobe-based ventures.  He served as treasurer of the Derry Glass Sand Company, president of the Latrobe Electric Steel Company, and president of the Citizens Bank of Latrobe.

Most of the coal company's properties were located in the Latrobe coal field, and its steam coal was purchased by a number of large railroads including the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Boston & Maine Railroad, and the Delaware & Hudson Railroad.

Among the coal properties of Saxman were the Derry Mines, northeast of Latrobe in Derry Township.  The first of these mines was the Derry No. 1 Shaft Mine, established ca.1892 by the Derry Coal & Coke Company.  The company had it's offices in Latrobe, PA, with E. F. Saxman serving as general superintendent.  By ca.1897 Derry Coal & Coke Company employed 185 persons at the Derry No. 1 Shaft Mine and operated a coke works containing 182 bee-hive coke ovens.  That year the mine produced nearly 136,000 tons of coal and the coke works produced about 34,500 tons of coke.  A spur off the mainline of the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad served the Derry No. 1 Mine & Coke Works.

By ca.1903 Saxman was greatly expanding his coal properties in Derry Township. That year the Derry Coal & Coke Company opened the Derry No. 2 Shaft Mine, just east of Bradenville.  This shaft-entry mine contained a coke works with fifty bee-hive coke ovens.

Another Saxman concern, the Latrobe-Connellsville Coal & Coke Company, was operating the Gilson Mine, near Superior, Derry Township.  This situation soon changed, however, when Saxman reorganized the Latrobe-Connellsville Coal & Coke Company and merged into it a number of his coal producers, this included the Derry Coal & Coke Company.  In addition, in ca.1903 the Atlantic Crushed Coke Company, led by H. C. Burket, a Greensburg business and associate of Saxman, added a third mine, Atlantic No. 3 Mine, to its coal property near New Derry.  The Pennsylvania Railroad expanded the Brandenville Branch, a short branch line to reach this mine.

One other Saxman controlled coal company emerged in the early 1900's. This was the Ligonier Coal Comapny, which established the coal patch of Peanut, just west of the unincorporated town of Derry.  The Ligonier Coal Company opened its Ligonier No. 2 Shaft Mine in ca.1902.  At this time, Edwin Williams was serving as the company's mine superintendent.  This mine contained a small coke works which had twenty bee-hive coke ovens.  In 1903 eighty miners worked at Ligonier No. 2 Mine & Coke Works.  The mine produced nearly 43,000 tons of coal and the coke works produced about 3,000 tons of coke.

By 1910 Saxman's Latrobe-Connellsville Coal & Coke Company was operating the Saxman Mine, Superior Mines, Gilson Mine, Derry No. 1 Mine, Derry No. 2 Mine, and the Millwood Shaft Mine.  Oddly enough, the Ligonier Coal Company and its Ligonier No. 2 Mine, though surrounded by properties of the Latrobe-Connellsville Coal & Coke concern, retained their independence from this larger firm.

In 1910 the Ligonier No. 2 Mine & Coke Works employed 160 men and boys, producing over 93,000 tons of coal.  The Coke Works, now containing fifty bee-hive coke ovens, produced just over 8,000 tons of coke.  An 1911 insurance map shows that the town of Peanut contained ten double family houses, seven small single-famile dwellings, and a company store.

During the First World War the Ligonier Coal Company was reorganized as the Saxman Coal & Coke Company.  This new concern renamed the Ligonier No. 2 Mine and Coke Works, the Saxman No. 2 Mine & Coke Works.  Saxman Coal & Coke Company also took over control of the town of Peanut and the Company Store.

In 1919 the Saxman No. 2 Mine & Coke Works (Ligonier No. 2 Mine & Coke Works) produced 152,807 tons of coal, and 23,447 tons of coke with 50 coke ovens, the coke works operated 234 days and the mine ran 244 days, with 132 employees.

In 1920 the Saxman No. 2 Mine & Coke Works produced 119,060 tons of coal, the coke works 27,601 tons of coke, still with 50 coke ovens, the coke works operated 297 day, but the mine only ran 205 days, with 114 employees, there was one fatal accident in 1920.

Through much of the 1920's the Saxman No. 2 Mine & Coke Works annually produced anywhere from 73,000 to 103,000 tons of coal.  The small coke works produced in the range of 27,000 to 31,000 tons of coke per year.  Between 100 and 120 miners were employed at the Saxman No. 2 Mine & Coke Works, many of whom lived in the town of Peanut.

Saxman Coal & Coke Company continued this mining operation until 1939, the coke works having been abandoned some years earlier.

(History and description of the Ligonier No. 2 Mine & Coke Works, adapted from "Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1994,"  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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