Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 24: The Coal Mining Industry, 1912

First Discoveries of Coal in Illinois - First Illinois Railroad - First Mines in Madi¬ son County - Railroad Building - Progress of the Industry - Working and Safe¬ guarding the Mines - Some Coal Mining Statistics.

Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollet mission¬ ary, accompanied La Salle, the great explorer of the west, on his first expedition to the Illi¬ nois country from Canada and makes the first historical mention of coal in this state. Hav¬ ing reached the Miami country the explorers were seeking a portage by which they could reach the Illinois river.

La Salle, while prospecting the country, be¬ came separated from the others and searching parties were sent out for him. "On the second day they found him," Father Hennepin says, "his face and hands all black with the coals and wood he had lighted during the night which was cold." This was a short distance from the headquarters of the Illinois. Father Hennepin further wrote : "There are mines of coal, slate and iron, and lumps of pure red copper which are found indicate that there are mines which will one dav be discovered." Later writers made it possible to identify the locality with greater certainty. In 1720 Father Charlevoix arrived at the junction of the Kan¬ kakee and Illinois rivers. Lower down he speaks of a fall called la Charbonierre, "be¬ cause they find many coals in its environs." This was in what is now La Salle county. Later French explorers speak of coal along the Illinois river, especially on the northwest side of the river near the site of the old Kaskaskia Indian town, now Utica. In his Gazetteer, in 1823, Beck says: "Coal is found in great abundance in different parts of the state."

In "Wild's Valley of the Mississippi Illus¬ trated," it is stated that "the first discovery of coal in the bluffs was made by the monks of La Trappe, who located on the great Cahokia Mound in Madison county in 1807. Their blacksmiths complained of a want of proper fuel, and on their being informed that the earth at the foot of a tree that had been struck by lightning was burning, they went to the spot and, on digging a little below the surface, discovered a vein of coal." The bluffs re¬ ferred to are about a mile northeast of the Cahokia mound.

The first railroad in Illinois was a coal road. It was built by Governor John Reynolds in 1837 and ran from what is now East St. Louis to the bluffs near the line of Madison and St. Clair, but lying within the latter county. The Governor owned a large tract of land on the bluffs in which coal had been discovered. He was anxious to get it to market and for that purpose built a crude railroad across the marsh to the river, six miles distant. Piles had to be driven on which the wooden rails were laid. For a while horse power was used. Later, iron rails were obtained from Pittsburg. On their arrival holes were punched in them by blacksmiths and spikes made to fasten them to the ties. This was the pioneer railroad in the Mississippi valley. A number of years ago Walton Rutledge, of Alton, then county sur¬ veyor, was engaged in verifying the boundary line between Madison and St. Clair, in connec¬ tion with the surveyor of the latter county, and traced the old embankment on which the first railroad in Illinois was built.

Walton Rutledge, the efficient state mine in¬ spector for the Eighth district, furnishes the editor with the following report of early coal mining in Madison county: In 1840 coal seam No. 1 was found to outcrop on Mill creek, one half mile north of the present limits of the city of Alton. Drift mines were opened by N. Scharf, Joseph Hall and Richard Whyers. Coal was mined and hauled to the levee in Alton for use of steamboats and was burned by private consumers in the city. This was the first coal that was mined in the county. Land was bought and shafts sunk on the hills, later on, by Thomas Dun ford and James Mitchell; also shafts were sunk in what was called Greenwood, or Buck Inn, by John Ap¬ plewhite, Thomas Hall, John Rutledge and others. These mines were the first of any ex¬ tent in the county and were known as Coal Branch.

In 1850 coal seam No. 6 was found crop¬ ping out on Wood river, three miles north of Fosterburg. Mines were opened there on Z. B. Job's land. Coal was hauled to what is now Godfrey, as the Alton & Sangamon road (now the Chicago & Alton) was just built out from Alton. It was supposed that this coal would supply the new road, but it could not compete with the Coal Branch product, which was nearer at hand, and the mines were abandoned. These mines were called the "new diggings,"

About 1851 a coal shaft was sunk at Edwardsville by Richard Cartledge, on seam No. 6, near the old distillery in the lower part of town. This was the first coal mined at Edwardsville. In after years shafts were sunk by Frank Shermack, John Gaffney, Wolf Brothers and Henry Voge. In about 1852 coal seam No. 6 was discovered cropping out on Wood river, two miles north of Bethalto. Two slopes were opened by a Boston com¬ pany. A large number of miners were em¬ ployed, a town was laid out and miners' houses built. This coal was brought into Bethalto by a spur track from the Alton & Terre Haute road ; thence by this road to what is now Hart¬ ford, thence by spur track to the Mississippi river and taken in barges to St. Louis. These mines were abandoned during the Civil war, owing to scarcity of miners and labor troubles. In 1862 a coal shaft was sunk near the north¬ ern limits of Collinsville. In 1863 the Vandalia road was building through Collinsville and mines were sunk on its line first by John Maul and David Williams of Belleville. Other shafts were sunk, later on, by William Fletcher and others, followed by Dr. Lumaghi, Joseph Wickliffe and Andrew Delano; also by the Consolidated Coal Company of St. Louis. In 1872 a shaft was sunk at Troy.

In 1873 The Consolidated Coal Company sunk two shafts at Worden. Later on other shafts were sunk at Worden, De Camp and near Staunton, in Madison county, on what is now the Wabash railroad.

In 1885 a new railroad was built from Springfield to East St. Louis, which was after¬ wards acquired by the Illinois Central. A town site was located five miles south of Edwardsville, which was called Glen Carbon.. Two coal shafts were sunk on this line, about

About 1900 the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad built a spur from the main line at Hillsboro to East St. Louis, passing through Madison county. A shaft was sunk on this line and a village site located called Livingston. About 500 miners live there. The town is two miles east of Worden.

In 1886 the Litchfield & Madison railroad was built through Madison county. Two large mines were opened on this line, near the county line and two miles from Staunton, and a village site located called Williamson. About 600 miners live there and are employed at the mines.

In 1888 the Donk Brothers of St. Louis, Missouri, built a railroad through the county from Madison to Troy, passing near Collins¬ ville. One mine was sunk at Marysville, one at Collinsville and another shaft at Troy. The road is called the St. Louis, Troy & Eastern. The Donk Brothers Company is the largest in the county, employing about 1,000 men in its three mines.

Coal mining has become one of the most im¬ portant industries of Madison county and has developed wonderfully in the last quarter of a century. There are fifty-five coal producing counties in Illinois and in 1910 Madison ranked fifth in output, which was 3,719,155 tons. It is surpassed in output only by Will¬ iamson, Sangamon, St. Clair and Macoupin counties. The greatest depth at which coal is mined in the county is three hundred feet at Williamson ; the least depth is forty feet at North Alton. The thickness of the seams ranges from two feet at North Alton to seven feet at Worden, Prairietown, Glen Carbon, Cantine and Marysville. Williamson, Donkville, Edwardsville, Collinsville, New Douglas and Carpenter have six feet veins, Troy, five

The immense growth of the mining industry is shown by comparison with the output in 1864, the earliest report available. In that year the output was 59,378 tons; in 1911 it was 3,766,002 tons. The average value of the pro¬ duct at the mines was $3,968,784, dug out of the earth in a single year. The cost to the consumer delivered, was twice or more that amount on the average.

There are now twenty-nine mines in the county, sixteen shipping mines and thirteen lo¬ cal for home trade. Coal is shipped to St. Louis, East St. Louis, Alton and other points east and north on the Vandalia, T., St. L. & W. Railroad and Illinois Central, as well as over other lines west and south.

The first carload of coal ever received in Chicago over the Chicago & Alton, came from the mine of Thomas Dunford at North Alton. The road was completed from Joliet to Chi¬ cago in 1856-7 and Superintendent McMullin sent to the agent at Alton, R. P. Tansey, for a carload of coal. The agent had Mr. Dunford ship it at once. It was only ten tons, which is small compared to the loads transported today.

During the year 1910 there was a total of 4,322 persons employed at the mines. During the same period there were sixteen fatal acci¬ dents and eighty-four non-fatal which lost thirty days' time in work. There are three shipping mines located near Collinsville, viz: Lumaghi Coal Company, mines 2 and 3, and the Independent Coal Company. There is one mine at Troy, the Brookside Coal Company These mines are on the Vandalia road. There are three mines on the St. Louis, Troy & Eastern Railroad, viz: No. 1, two miles north of Collinsville; No. 2, at Maryville; No. 3, at Troy. These mines are owned by the Donk Brothers Coal Company of St. Louis. There are two mines at Glen Carbon, Nos. 2 and 4 on the Illinois Central, owned by the Madison Coal corporation of St. Louis. There are three mines on the Litchfield & Madison road : No.

1, near Staunton; No. 2, at Williamson, and No. 3, at Edwardsville. There are two mines on the Wabash road - one the Decamp mine, near Staunton, and the Kerns-Donnewald mine at Worden. One mine on the Chicago & Eastern, located at Livingston and owned by the New Staunton Coal Company of St. Louis, and one at Edwardsville on the T., St. L. & W., making sixteen shipping mines. Two local mines at Collinsville, one the Abbey Coal Com¬ pany, the other the Bullock Brothers. One at Edwardsville, Home Trade Coal Company. One at Troy, the Troy Co-Operative Coal Company. Three at Bethalto, operated by Perry Meyers, James Hill and Ernest Rink, respectively. One at New Douglas, the Big Mound Coal Company. One at Moro, George Kabel, operator. One at Prairietown, Thomas Scnuler, operator. One at Carpenter, W. H. Backs, operator. Two at North Alton, oper¬ ated by Peter Syddal and Benjamin Eccles, respectively.

The coal seams of Madison county run from the outcrop on the river bluffs to a depth of 400 feet in the east part of the county. Twothirds of the coal of the county is mined by machines, and in two-thirds of the shipping mines the haulage under ground is done by electric motors. Mules gather the loaded cars from the working face to stations, where the cars are made up in trains and hauled to the hoisting shaft. Large and powerful machin¬ ery is used for hoisting. The greater part of the large mines are lighted by electricity. All mines have two shafts, one for hoisting the coal and for lowering and hoisting the em¬ ployes in and out of the mine. The other shaft is used for ventilation, with suitable stairway for employes to come out in case of accident by fire on the surface or machinery breaking down. A large number of the larger mines have all outbuildings made as near fireproof as possible. [The new law, which went into effect July 1, 1911, requires all shafts, build¬ ings on surface and for a distance of three hundred feet from shaft underground, to be made fire-proof, with elevated tanks, pipes and hose to protect both bottom and top of all mines for a distance, also of three hundred feet.] Where machines are used one hundred tons of coal are mined by use of one keg of powder. In hand mines twenty-five tons are gotten out for each keg of powder burned. Some of the large mines have upwards of forty mules each, with two electric motors, and having an output of from 3,500 to 4,000 tons in eight hours. Madison county mines are very good and safe; that is, the larger mines. Engines, boilers and buildings are modern and nearly fire-proof. The under¬ ground works are kept in good and safe condi¬ tion. Sixty per cent of the accidents are caused by falling coal and slate, as the seam is very high in some of the mines. There is coal enough in Madison county to last hundreds of years. It is this cheap fuel that has built up St. Louis and East St. Louis.

Since the above was written the editor has received from Hon. David Ross, secretary of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fol¬ lowing statistical report of the coal mining in¬ dustry of Madison county : For the coal min¬ ing industry for Madison county the follow¬ ing condensed figures are given, being the averages for each year for the past thirty years : Average number of mines, 28 ; aver¬ age number of men, 1,945; average number of tons, 1,603,900; average value of product, $1,396,9! 7- county. It is also found from an earlier re¬ port that the output of coal for the county for the year 1870 was 116,724 tons and for 1880, 239>725 tons.

The following is a detailed statement of the coal mining industry of Madison county for thirty years, taken from the annual coal re¬ ports of the bureau :