Somerset Coal Company
A close-up view of the map above, showing Somerset Coal Company's operating area southwest of Myersdale, Pa.
Somerset Coal Company seems to be an enigma in the historical coal-mining record, at least in regards to the information available on this short-lived 1902 company on the Internet. Therefore, West Virginia historian Larry Brian Radka feels obligated to pass these maps, pictures, and coal-mining information on to his neighbors up north, the residents of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and other interested parties. The map above is extracted from the 1903 sales brochure illustrated below.
Therein, under the title “Somerset Coal Company” its pictures (tinted and annotated by Larry) are interspersed below and all of its information on this coal company is quoted as follows:
SOMERSET COAL COMPANY
The properties of this Company are adjacent to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and its branches in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and consist of 32,000 acres of coal lands and twenty-two mines owned, controlled, and operated by this Company, which was formed in the early part of the year 1902, their capacity being about a million and a half tons of coal per annum.
We have installed at our mines, where coking coal is produced, three hundred ovens capable of turning out 135,000 tons of first-quality furnace coke per annum.
Transportation Facilities
[A close-up of the map above, showing the major line of the B & O Railroad connecting Johnstown, Pa.]
Shipments are made to all markets via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and its connections. Tide-water shipments can be made over the following ports:
[An old Photograph of "The Largest Schooner in the World at Curtis Bay, B & O R. R." taken around 1903]
Baltimore
Locust Point, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Curtis Bay, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Philadelphia
Jackson Street, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Port Richmond, via Philadelphia and Reading Railway
New York
St. George, via Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Port Reading, via Philadelphia and Reading Railway
Markets
From the extent of the territory covered by our operations, it would naturally be assumed that the coal is of varying chemical and physical properties. While this is true, it gives the Company an advantage in that it has a choice of many different kinds of coal to apply under special conditions and uses.
The selection of a proper coal is in the hands of a competent metallurgist and chemist, who has a thorough knowledge of the different classes of our coal, and is in every way able to make judicious selection to apply on any special business, so that under existing conditions the best results can be obtained.
It is not considered that one coal is better than another, but we have classified the coals according to their chemical and physical properties and ability to stand heavy draft, whether giving long or short flame, and their smoke-producing qualities.
We have fuels that are admirably suited for use in plants having insufficient draft, small fire-boxes under boilers.
A small fire box on a Baldwin steam locomotive, for more old pictures, click the photo above or below
For ordinary steam locomotives, where smoke is objectionable or heavy firing is required, and for heavy, locomotive, and marine firing, we have a coal that will not clinker, gives a long flame, and works well also under heavy puddling and heating furnace work. This fuel is one of the best domestic soft coals in Pennsylvania for use in both ranges and furnaces, and careful preparation is given to the coal shipped for this purpose.
For plants where the boiler capacity is limited, we have a coal that is specially fitted, for the reason that it can be carried for long periods in the furnaces without cleaning, and is capable of producing an evaporative power which commonly gives form eighty to ninety per cent, over builder’ rated horse-power on boilers. It is largely used in lime-burning, where its free-burning and non-clinkering qualities are appreciated.
For general puddling and heating furnaces, we supply a coal unusually low in sulphur contents. Its coke-making properties render its use economical where fires are carried to their fullest extent at all times, the coal banking down very well, and it will not clinker or run on the grate. The same coal is successfully used in pottery and brick work, where very high temperatures must be maintained, as in enameled-brick furnaces. This coal is also particularly adapted for blacksmithing purposes, especially in light forging, and the business of the Company in this particular trade is constantly growing.
Consumers who have tried the cokes of this Company have pronounced them equal to the best on the market. Unsolicited, we receive from one of the largest Eastern furnaces, which has consumed as high as 5000 tones per month of our coke, an average analysis of 481 cars showing the sulphur to be only .846 per cent. The coke is quite dense in its physical structure, and is capable of bearing the ordinary furnace burden.
There is a demand for this coke wherever it can be obtained, and a ready market is always open for it.
A Few Illustrated Notes
Among some of the coal mine companies that made up the Somerset Coal Company in 1902 were the Cumberland & Elk Lick Coal Company, Chapman Coal Mining Company of Baltimore, and Pine Hill Coal Company.
Among the mines in the consolidation were the Summit Mine, Allegheny Mine, Casselman Mine, Chapman Nos. 1 and 2 Mines, Coal Run mine, Shaw Mines, Hamilton Mine, Pine Hill Nos. 1 and 2 Mines, Ponfeigh Mine, Thomas Mine, Tub Mill Mine, Wilmoth Mine, Wilson Creek Mine, and Enterprise Mine, Elk Lick Nos. 1 and 2 Mines.
Three Elk Lick mines were apparently located along the B & O Railroad, in the coal fields southwest of Myersdale, Pennsylvania, near the Maryland state line. Elk Lick No. 1's coke ovens are probably illustrated above.
Polish immigrant Peter Urban, a 1907 pick and shovel coal miner
This was a pick and shovel drift mine that fired 270 bee-hive ovens with coal mined from the eight-foot-thick Pittsburgh coal vein, which provided good quality coking coal.
A pick and shovel miner unercutting coal to be blown down with explosives and shoveled into coal cars
No. 3 was a pick and shovel incline mine that extracted its coal from the five-foot-thick Redstone coal vein.
Pennsylvania's Somerset Coal Company as well as West Virginia's Fairmont Coal Company were absorbed by Maryland's Consolidation Coal Company in early 1903.
For information on the Monongah mines Nos. 6 and 8, where the worst U. S. mine disaster in United States history took place, click the old Consolidation Coal Company photograph above.