The coal company houses on Adams Hill (Scab Hill) were built as a result of the coal miners strike of 1910-11, when the Penn Gas Coal Company sought to keep its mines running with imported workers, scabs & strike-breakers, with a heavy hand from the company's Coal & Iron Police, a common practice of the coal companies.  The company built about thirty two-story wood-frame double-family houses near its mine entrance, on the Adams Hill.  This community was soon dubbed "Scab Hill" by the resident striking coal miners.  These houses survive along three paved roads above the former site of the Penn Gas No. 2 Mine.

The Penn Gas No. 2 Mine buildings were built on the hillside above Tinkers Run.  Surviving structures ca.1994, include: the office building, foundry, engine house, boiler house, lamp house, and a small utility building.  The office is a one-story common-bond red-brick building with a gable roof.  It measures 24ft. x 17ft. and features arched window openings.  The foundry is a tall one-story common-bond red-brick building with a gable roof; it measures 46ft. x 42ft. and rests on a stone foundation.  The engine house is similar in appearance and measures 87ft. x 46ft.; it features a triple gable roof, double doors, and decorative wooden cornice returns.  Attached to the engine house is a metal building.  The boiler house is also a tall one-story common-bond red-brick building. It measures 79ft. x 21ft. and has a gable roof covered with slate; three ventilators line the roof which features decorative brackets.  The lamp house is a common-bond red-brick building and measures 53ft. x 13ft.; the tall one-story structure has a gable roof and rests on a rubble-stone foundation.  The utility building has construction materials similar to the lamp house.  It measures 19ft. x 17ft. and has a hipped roof.  The building rests on a rubble-stone foundation; its doors and windows have been infilled.

A thirty-stall brick mule barn was recently, ca.1994, demolished.  The buildings are currently, ca.1994, being utilized by Stern's, an antique automobile restoration firm, for storage of vehicles and parts.  No mine machinery is extant in any of the existing structures.  With the exception of the Westmoreland Coal Company's Magee Mine at Yukon and Ocean Coal Company's mine at Herminie, the mine complex at Adams Hill contains more intact buildings than any other historic coal property in Westmoreland County, ca.1994.

DESCRIPTION:
The original town of Hohntown [Hahntown], containing ten coal company-built houses that stood on the west side of Main Street, was eventually expanded to the south and east, and one row of houses was built along a road west of and parallelling Main Street.  The dwellings houses west of Main Street include four double-family houses and five single-family houses.   The double houses are two-story wood-frame buildings with gable roofs, brick chimneys, and cast stone foundations.  These miners residences were probably built in the late 1890's.  The single-family houses are one-story wood-frame buildings with a gable roof, a basement, and cast stone foundations. On the east side of Main Street there are a number of similarly constructed double-family houses and single-family houses that were probably built in the early 1900's. Three other structures of interest in the town include the S. M. Italiana building, erected in 1914, the Societa Veneta building, constructed about 1910, and a commercial building, erected about 1900, and now serves as the Korner Tavern.

The S. M. Italiana building was constructed as a social hall by the coal miners which immigrated from northern Italy.  It is a one-story building with a full basement, brick walls, a gable roof, and a stepped parapet wall along its main facade.  The Societa Veneta building also contains one-story and a full basement. It has brick and cast-stone walls and a gable roof.

The Korner Tavern is one of the early commercial buildings in Hahntown and also served as a hall for town meetings. (A recently produced history of Hahntown identifies the building as having served as a company store; however, residents in the community report that the coal mine operators in Hahntown never ran a store there.  The United Mine Workers of America, which gained recognition in Hahntown in the early 1930's, periodically met in this building from the 1930's through the early 1950's.)  It is a two-story wood-frame building with asphaltic siding, a gable roof, and a rubble stone foundation.  A large building that once served as the church and school was destroyed in a fire.

HISTORY:
Located about one mile south of Irwin, Hahntown extends along a hill that rises to the east above Tinkers Run, south of Adams Hill.  It was originally called Hohntown after the Hohn family that owned and subdivided this tract of farmland. Coal mining was initialy carried out on a small scale by local residents in the early 1860's.  This changed dramatically in ca.1872 when the Youghiogheny Railroad, a narrow gauge, 3 foot between the rails, railroad was completed through Hahntown and the Penn Gas Coal Company opened its Penn Gas No. 2 shaft Mine.  This  railroad was later changed to standard gauge and became the Youghiogheny Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  By the mid 1870's the coal company owned ten workers' houses along Main Street and three managers' houses located above and on the opposite side of Tinkers Run, on Adams Hill. The town of Hahntown continued to grow through the early 1900's when a number of commercial buildings and two Italian miners' social halls were erected by the miners' on Main Street.  In addition, houses owned by private individuals were constructed along two blocks on the hillside east of Main Street.

The character of the town changed as a result of a coal miners' strike in 1910-11.  The Penn Gas Coal Company constructed coal company owned houses on Adams Hill, nearer the mine and away from Hahntown, when it brought in "Strike Breakers," workers to break the strike, the coal company "scabs."  Hahntown residents subsequently referred to Adams Hill as "Scab Hill."  Although the mine closed in ca.1953, a number of houses remain that were constructed on Adams Hill above and east of Main Street.

HISTORY:
Led by William Coleman, J. H. Robinson, R. S. McGowin, R. H. Gratz, Lewis Cooper, John Lindsey,and John P. Steiner,the Penn Gas Coal Company, a Philadelphia, PA based concern, was incorporated in 1861.  One of its first mines was Penn Gas No. 1 Mine, a shaft located east of Irwin.  Opened about 1862, this mine was served by the Pennsylvania Railroad.  In the early 1870's the Penn Gas Coal Company constructed the Youghiogheny Railroad, a narrow gauge railroad, which followed Tinkers Run south from Irwin, through Hahntown and Rillton, to Gratztown on the Youghiogheny River.  In 1872 the Penn Gas Coal Company constructed its second shaft, Penn Gas No. 2 Mine, between Hahntown and Adams Hill. It was also called the Adams Mine, Penn Gas No. 2 Mine contained an engine house, boiler house, and blacksmith shop, along with a large mule stable.  The mine and tipple stood at the foot of Adams Hill near the railroad.  The company also constructed ten workers' houses on the west side of Main Street in Hahntown, and three houses for the mine managers on Adams Hill.

By 1880 Penn Gas Coal Company operated four mines in Westmoreland County.  This included the Coal Run Mine, Penn Gas No. 1 Mine, the Adams Mine (Penn Gas No. 2 Mine), and the Penn Gas No. 4 Mine at Sewickley Station, The company exported its coal to states in New England, as well as to New York and NEw Jersey, and as far away as Cuba and Mexico.  By 1886 the Penn Gas No. 2 Mine (Adams Miine) was the largest of the company's four mines, employing 299 persons.  The mine had three openings, two shafts and one slope entry, and produced in 1886 over 133, 000 tons of coal.  Twenty-five mules were used to haul the coal from the  working face of the mine to the tipple.

By 1900 the mine employed 375 persons.  That year miners at Penn Gas No. 2 Mine produced 249,000 tons of coal.  The Pennsylvania Railroad, which acquired the Youghiogheny Railroad, and rebuilt the narrow gauge as the Youghiogheny Branch of the Pennsylvania R.R., shipped the Penn Gas coal to market.

Despite the strike in 1910-11, the Penn Gas Coal Company continued to operate its mines, with imported scab labor (strike breakers).  In 1910 miners at Penn Gas No. 2 Mine produced nearly 238,000 tons of coal.   The company employed 270 miners as strike breakers during the 1910 coal miners strike, which failed because of these underhanded tactics by the coal companies by the summer of 1911.

Until 1910 only company supervisor's families lived on Adams Hill. In 1910 and 1911 during the coal miners strike, the coal company recruited southern and eastern European men, as scabs, to take the striking miners places in the mine, in order to continue operation at the Penn Gas No. 2 Mine.  The company provided them with passage from Europe and then New York and also provided new company-built housing on Adams Hill.  The striking miners resented this new scab labor and dubbed the settlement on Adams Hill as "Scab Hill."

Penn Gas Coal Company supplemented its mules for hauling coal with four compressed air locomotives.  In ca.1913 the Penn Gas No. 2 Mine was electrified, so that cutting machines, hauling and hoisting the coal as well as ventilating the mine was electrically powered.  Although, the miners continued to use mules to move the coal within the mine for another 25 years.  The Electricity for Penn Gas No. 2 Mine (Adams Mine), Lowber Mine and Rillton Mine (Riley Mine) was generated at the Adams Mine.  Eight to ten boiler houses used to line Tinker Run from the Adams Mine.  Steam was used to drive water pumps and generate electricity.  The water reservoir still sits beside the McCall house on First Street on Adams Hill.

In addition to the compressed air engines used in the Adams Mine, it employed thirteen electric-powered cutting machines.  By ca.1913 the company employed 440 miners, who produced nearly 525,000 tons of coal.

(History and description of the Penn Gas No. 2 Mine (Hahntown Mine), adapted from with additional data  and pictures "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.)

By the time the Adams Mine closed in ca.1953 all the coal company owned houses had been sold to the residents.  The Bilott family bought the company buildings and the remaining property;  in the late fifties they began building homes on Adams Hill. By ca.1973 there were 48 homes on Adams Hill, 36 of them were the original coal company houses.

A 1929 Model A Ford called "Jigger" was the first fire truck used and a building, owned by Pete Peretto, was the first fire station. In 1944, a 1930 Cadillac fire truck was purchased. A new fire station building was erected in 1953 on the corner of Main and Rose Streets in Hahntown, through generous contributions and the assistance of the Ladies Fire Auxiliary. A new addition to the building was added in 1957.

Ralph D Kautz

Joined: 17 Mar 2004

My favorite PRR branch was/is the Youghiogheny Branch. It started in 1872 as a 3 foot Narrow Gage Railroad built by the Penn Gas Coal Company to service its mine lands. A few years after it was built (date unknown) it was regaged to standard gage and operated as such until it was sold in 1899 to the PRR. It then became the Youghiogheny Branch of the PRR. It served Penn Gas Coal Company Mines at Hanntown and at (Blackburn) now Lowber Pa. The mines and Railroad were sold to Westmoreland Coal Company which operated the railroad for a few years then sold it to the PRR. Passanger Service was on line from 1873 to 1918. The stations were Irwin (point of origin on the PRR mainline), Hanntown, Linencross (now called Cereal),Chambers (now gone) Mcgrews (present day Rillton and former site of the Westmoreland Company Criterion Mine) Dick, now Dicks Station,Cowensburg (Junction with the Hempfield Branch and Youkon Branch PRR) Blackburn (now Lowber) and Gratztown Junction with the B&O Maineline and the Youghiogheny River.  The Branch Survived intact until the Lowber and Rillton Mines closed in 1939, abandoned in 1940 but the track was not pulled up until 1945, from Cowensburg to Lindencross tunnel.  The line from Irwin Pa to Cereal remained intact until 1982. The track from Gratz town to Cowensburg until 1972, inconjection with the abandonment of the Yukon Branch. From 1904 to 1931 the branch was paralled from Irwin to Rillton by a Trolley Line the Irwin Hermine Line Which left the railroad at Rillton and proceeded along the Clay Pike (Irwin-Hermine Road to Hermine. The road bed is still almost completely intact today, the bridge abutments acrossed Brokers Lane are still there, the small bridges acrossed litte sewickley creek are stiil there. I rode the old Roadbed on my Bicycle in 1955 . It was still clear to Dicks Station the last time I was Home in 1993, although the line from Dicks Station was Still Intact it was very overgrown and Diffacult to Navigate.  The lindencross(Cereal) Tunnel still Exists as does the roadbed along Tinkers Run to Irwin.I now live in Knoxville Tn. and don't Get back to Pa. often but I did grow up just to the west of Rillton and saw the last Working Mine on the Branch which Closed in 1953, the Hanntown Mine.

Frank Duschack, Coal Miner ca.1873-1884, Penn Gas No. 2 Mine,
Hahntown, North Huntingdon Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA

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