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Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron


klsm54

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The R&P Coal Co. was a major influence in the DuBois area.  Here are a few snippets of information.

 

This from "The Iselin Family Left Its Mark On The Pennsylvania Coal Fields" by Eileen Mountjoy Cooper......

 

In 1892, another new name was carefully lettered onto both R&P Coal & Iron Company and onto Clearfield County maps: "Helvetia," near Sykesville. The word "Helvetia," the Swiss name for Switzerland, reflects the ties between the Iselin family and their homeland. Nevertheless, the unusual name has engendered at least one folk legend, repeated by a retired miner from near Stanley:

 

"One day," the teller related, "old Mr. Iselin came down from New York and tried to buy a certain piece of property for his new mine, but the owner didn't want to sell. Mr. Iselin kept on, until the landowner, completely out of patience, slammed the door in his face, shouting, 'Mr. Iselin, da Hell ve cha!!' Later on,when the landowner finally gave in, Mr. Iselin called his new mine 'Hell-ve-cha.'"

 

Once named and duly christened, the mines and property at Helvetia and the accompanying the Mahoning Valley Railroad, which were established by Adrian Georg Iselin, were sold to the R&P C&I Co. by the banking firm for the then astronomical sum of $3 million. The transaction, which took place in 1896, demonstrates the close nature of business relations between banking firms and coal companies.

 

 

This from "History of Coke" by Eileen Mountjoy Cooper

 

In addition to operations of the R&P and C&I, two other strings of coke ovens burned in Jefferson County: Big Soldier, on the west branch of Soldier Run, and those of the Cascade Coal and Coke Co. at Sykesville.  Big Soldier Mine, owned until 1896 by the Bell, Lewis and Yates Mining Co., was opened in 1890. Within a few years, Big Soldier was known as the largest soft coal mine in the world, and photographs of the plant were featured in many turn-of-the-century schoolbooks. In 1896, the huge mine was sold to the R&P C&I as part of the assets of the Bell, Lewis and Yates Mining Co.  The coking plant at Soldier consisted of 100 ovens, some dating to 1880 and at that time supplied with coking coal by Old Soldier mine, which was abandoned before 1900. During 1895, 19,677 tons of coke were make at Soldier and shipped on the Reynoldsville and Falls Creek Railroad.

 

By the end of the 19th century, although the ovens of Jefferson County had a large capacity and high-grade product, investors began to envision eventual marketing problems from their coke production. Connellsville, the counties chief competitor, enjoyed the advantage of closer proximity to Pittsburgh, and still other coke companies began experimentations with machine- drawn ovens and with byproduct ovens in which coke oven gases are recovered and converted to usable substances.  Therefore, in anticipation of the loss of markets for its coke output, officers of the R&P C&I obtained a controlling interest in two corporations formed for the construction of blast furnaces at Dubois and Punxsutawney. As Jefferson Country coke was suitable for blast furnace use, these two facilities created outlets for a high percentage of locally-produced coke.

 

The first blast, or pig iron furnace opened in 1896 and operated under the name Punxsutaweny Furnace. This furnace had a daily capacity of 200 tons of pig iron and had in its stockpile 150,000 tons of iron ore brought from the Lake Superior region. The plant sold most of its pig iron locally; the DuBois Iron Works, the Mahoning Foundry and the Punxsutawney Foundry were among the firm's best customers.  A second foray into the blast furnace industry began in June, 1902, when the R&P C&I called a special stock holders meeting at Punxsutawney for the purpose of increasing the company's indebtedness by the sum of $2 million. This was done "in order to purchase a certain tract of land situated in Sandy Township in Clearfield County near DuBois: 75 acres...for the erection of a blast furnace

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The idea that the mine managers and owners did not want colored's and help that could speak English!  I wonder what the general managers would think if he went into a Walmart in Florida today. Everyone speaking Spanish & he'd be the only WASP in the store.

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