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| HISTORY: In the summer of 1902 the Greensburg-based Keystone Coal & Coke Company was formed with the merger of a number of small coal companies in Westmoreland County. These companies included several that were led by A.D. Harmon (Hempfield Coal Company, Salem Coal Company, Greensburg Coal Company, and Carbon Coal Company), one that was headed by J. Howard Patton (Claridge Gas Coal Company), and three that were directed by Harry F. Bovard (Sewickley Gas Coal Company, Arona Gas Coal Company, and Madison Gas Coal Company). The leaders of these coal companies all resided in Greensburg. Harry F. Bovard, who was born in Jacktown, Westmoreland County, near Irwin, in 1871 and began his career in the coal business as a clerk for the Madison Gas Coal Company, was appointed as Keystone Coal & Coke Company general superintendent. Julian B. Huff, a prominent Greensburg businessman, served as the first president of Keystone Coal & Coke Company. In 1910, with northern Westmoreland County's coal miners engaged in a long and bitter strike to improve their working conditions, the Keystone Coal & Coke Company, being an anti-union company, expanded its coal interests, and began construction of the Crows Nest Mine in Hempfield Township, northeast of Greensburg. The slope-entry mine was situated on the 84 inch-thick Pittsburgh coal seam. Buildings near the mine included a tipple, a lamp house, a bath house and laundry, a machine shop, a stable and a harness shop. In addition, Keystone Coal & Coke built over one hundred houses for its workers and erected a company store. The Crows Nest Mine was served by the Bovard Branch off the Mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Although the town was initially called Crows Nest, and the mine the Crows Nest Mine, the town name was subsequently changed to Bovard (ca.1914), in honor of Harry F. Bovard who succeded Julian Huff as president of the Keystone Coal & Coke Company. By 1915 the Crows Nest Mine employed 456 persons and produced over 726,000 tons of coal, the largest amount produced from what was one of the most productive mines in the county. Production continued apace during the First World War. Over 540,000 tons of coal were mined each year during the war. In 1919 Crows Nest Mine produced 495,832 tons of coal, the mine was in operation 248 days and had 330 employees. The mine recorded 2 fatal and 1 non-fatal accidents in 1919. In 1920 Crows Nest Mine produced 429,476 tons of coal, operating 259 days with 331 employees. The mine had 2 fatal accidents and 4 non-fatal accidents in 1920. Tests run on locomotive 60,000 at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, in 1926, were run on coal produced at Crows Nest Mine. 39. All of the tests were made with run-of-mine bituminous coal from the Keystone Coal and Coke Company's Crows Nest Mine at Hempfield, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. This coal is used at the test plant as standard freight locomotive coal. |
| Average analysis of the coal was as follows:--
Proximate Analysis Fixed carbon.........................per cent 57.92 Volatile matter..................... . " " 31.73 Moisture, combined................... " " 0.74 Ash................................. . " " 9.61 -------- 100.00 Ultimate Analysis Carbon.............................. per cent 74.21 Hydrogen........................... . " " 5.20 Nitrogen........................... . " " 1.37 Oxygen.............................. " " 7.11 Sulphur............................. " " 1.73 Ash................................. " " 10.38 -------- 100.00 Sulphur determined separately... per cent 1.8 Total moisture.................. " " 2.43 Calorific value, B. T. U. per pound dry coal. . 13,704 |
| In 1938 6 miners were killed in the Crows Nest Mine. |
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| The Tipple The Tipple at Crowsnest Mine, (Crows Nest) Bovard, Pa. (Photo courtesy of Charles "Chubby" W. Kocur and The Bovard 75th Anniversary Committee, Bovard, Pa.) |
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