|
|
|
|
| Standard No. 1 Mine & Coke Works
(Standard slope entry Mine)
(ca.1878-1931), On the Mt. Pleasant Branch of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (mine served by both railroads), High Street and PA Rt. 819, Standard, Mt. Pleasant Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA Owners: (ca.1878-1883) A.A. Hutchinson & Brothers Company, of Pittsburgh, PA (ca.1883-1931) H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Company Store: Union Supply Company, Standard, PA Standard No. 2 shaft Mine & Coke Works (Standard shaft entry Mine) (ca.1878-1931), On the Mt. Pleasant Branch of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (mine served by both railroads), Standard, Mt. Pleasant Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA Owners: (ca.1878-1883) A.A. Hutchinson & Brothers Company, of Pittsburgh, PA (ca.1883-1931) H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Company Store: Union Supply Company, Standard, PA Standard No. 3 shaft Mine (Standard shaft entry Mine) (Standard No. 3 shaft Mine) (ca.1906-1931), On the Mt. Pleasant Branch of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (mine served by both railroads), Standard, Mt. Pleasant Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA Owners: (ca.1906-1931) H.C. Frick Coke Company, Scottdale, PA Company Store: Union Supply Company, Standard, PA |
 |
Location of the Standard Mines, Standard, Mt. Pleasant
Township, Westmoreland County, PA
Topographic Map showing location of Standard & Standard
Shaft, along with the extent Slate Dump ca.1964, Mt. Pleasant Twp., Westmoreland
Co., PA |
| DESCRIPTION: The town of Standard is composed of the company store and approximately 100 company-built houses, most of which are located along PA Route 819 and High Street. The company-built residences are primarily of two types; one is the standard two-story wood-frame double house with a gable roof; and the second type comprises a two-story wood-frame double house with a slatbox roof. Located on the corner of Diamond and High Streets is the former Union Supply Company Standard company store, now used by an automobile-parts retailer. It is one of the best preserved Union Supply Company stores in the region. Built ca.1900, this two-story building has common-bond red-brick walls (the main facade faces west and is painted white) with a three-story brick elevator shaft on the north wall. The building measures 109ft. x 52ft. and features a gable roof covered with slate, a pedimented gable across half of the main (west) facade, and large one-over-one-light double-hung sash windows with wooden lintels. The interior contains a vaulted ceiling with decorative plaster work. The building rests on a stone foundation. No structures remain from the Standard Slope Mine which was located east of Shupe Run. |
 |
| Map of Standard Mines and Company Patch Town, from the
H.C. Frick Topo. maps. (Courtesy of the John Envan Collection, Connellsville Coke Plats, at the Coal & Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette Campus, Uniontown, PA) |
| HISTORY: In 1878, A. A. Hutchinson & Brothers Company of Pittsburgh, PA opened Standard No. 1 Mine, on the northern outskirts of Mount Pleasant. This mine consisted of a shaft opening (Standard No. 2 Shaft Entry Mine) and a slope opening (Standard No. 1 Slope Entry Mine), and a large bee-hive oven coke works, containing over 500 coke ovens. A. A. Hutchinson & Brothers Company also constructed 150 houses for its workers, just west of the Standard No. 1 Mine and named the coal company patch community "Standard, PA." The Standard Mines and new community were served by the Mount Pleasant Branch of the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad. (From the "History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania" ca.1882, by George Dallas Albert, we have the following article on Standard Mines.)
Standard Mines adjoins the borough of Mount Pleasant, and
were opened in 1879. They are owned by A. A. Hutchinson & Brother,
of Pittsburgh, PA. The superintendent is Charles Cunningham, who here
and at other points has been connected with this firm since 1873. This
company has five hundred and sixty-nine. It carries on a large store, of
which D. M. Pigman is foreman. It owns fifteen hundred acres of coal
lands, of which two hundred is surface. It operates fifteen miles of
railroad under ground and seven outside. Its daily production of coke
is ten hundred and sixty-five tons, or seventy-one cars, at fifteen tons
per car, and has connections with the Baltimore & Ohio and Southwestern
Pennsylvania Railroads. The company has one hundred and fifty houses
for its hands. There was erected in 1881, at its works, by the Pennsylvania
Coal & Coke Company, a coke-crusher, which is the principal one in this
region. Its superintendent is J.C. Dysart. It makes five sizes
of coke. By 1882 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had extended its tracks to serve the Standard Mines, along with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Railroad, of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In December 1883 the H. C. Frick Coke Company acquired the Standard Mines property from A.A. Hutchinson & Brothers Company, of Pittsburgh, PA and soon after developed this works and the nearby Standard No. 2 shaft Mine into the largest coal and coke operation in the region. Frick appointed Robert Ramsay as superintendent of the Standard Mines operations. A fire in October 1886 destroyed most of the surface structures at Standard No. 1 slope Mine. No fatalities resulted from the blaze, that originated underground, and after the fire was extinguished the mine was drained and reopened. However, coal was removed exclusively from the nearby slope entry mine rather that the shaft mine. Another fire occurred in 1889 at the Standard No. 1 Slope Mine, destroying all of the mine buildings, including the boiler house and engine house. These structures were rebuilt with brick and iron. From the 1889 Mine Inspectors Report for Pennsylvania: Standard Slope Mine - is fully up to the requirement of the law. On March 25, I measured 43,200 cubic feet of air; July 31, 33,300 cubic feet and on October 18, 36,850 cubic feet, making an average for the year of 37,783 cubic feet per minute. The drainage is good. On December 18, 1889, the entire buildings with the machinery, boilers and tipple were destroyed by fire, caused by natural gas igniting, which is used to fire the boilers. This fully convinces me that the engine and boiler house should not be placed too close together, nor under the same roof. The company started to rebuild at once. Mining Boss, John Whitfield. Standard No. 2 Shaft Mine - This mine has been kept in a healthy condition durin th year. On March 26, 1889, I measured 75,880 cubic feet of air; July 30, 51,700 cubic feet, and on October 18, and 19, 75,140 cubic feet, making an average of 67,573 cubic feet of air per minute, for the year. On my visit October 19, there was considerable fire-damp on the falls, aftter the ribs had been taken out. This gas was moved that night after the miners had all gone home. A large volume of air was forced over the falls, and the gas was diluted before it got to the upcast. This kind of work is done by the officials in charge. Mining boss, John A. Hart. By 1890 the H. C. Frick Coke Company was extracting over 51,000 tons of coal from the slope entry mine. Much of this coal was delivered to the nearby Standard Coke Works operated in conjunction with Standard No. 2 shaft Mine.
James S. Mack of Mt. Pleasant was the superintendent of both the Standard Slope Mine and Standard Shaft Mines. In 1900, the Standard slope Mine employed 116 men and boys, who produced 72,000 tons of coal. By 1906 production at the Standard slope Mine grew to more than 121,000 tons of coal. However, soon after 1906 the company decreased the amount of coal it removed from the Standard slope Mine. In addition Frick constructed a new shaft, Standard No. 3 Shaft Mine, north of the Standard No. 2 Shaft Mine, and much of the coal from the Standard Mines was removed through the Standard No. 2 Shaft Mine. Through much of the 1910's production at the slope mine was extremely modest, averaging 1,000 or less tons each year. This arrangement apparently changed in the 1920's when large amounts of coal were removed from both the slope and shaft mines. For several years in the 1920's production levels recorded for the shaft and slope entry mines were combined. By 1928 the slope entry mine was producing about 105,000 tons of coal and employing 123 persons. H.C. Frick Coke Company closed its Standard slope entry Mine and Standard shaft entry Mines in 1931. |
 |
The Standard Coke Works after they were abandoned and
fallen into ruins. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
The slate dump and slate tipple at the Standard
Mines. (Photo of of Kenneth H. Eichner, and the Mount Pleasant Township Bicentennial Committee.) |
 |
The Standard Coke Works, with railroad yard in
foreground. (Photo of of Kenneth H. Eichner, and the Mount Pleasant Township Bicentennial Committee.) |
 |
Standard Mines ca.1912, Strandard, PA A drainage ditch from the company reservoir, looking toward the Standard coke works operation. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA and Historic American Building Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
Standard Mine The floor of the mine at the bottom of the hoisting shaft, were the mine cars were hoisted to the surface. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA and John K. Gates', "The Beehive Coke Years.") |
 |
Standard Mine, Interior ca.1914. A mined out area of the Standard Mine, ca.1914. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Management Division, Uniontown, PA and Historic American Building Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
Union Supply Company Store, Standard, PA
ca.1914. Standard Mine Company Store of the Union Supply Company. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA and Historic American Building Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
Standard Mine Miners Houses ca.1993 Existing coal company built houses in Standard, PA (Photo by Jet Lowe, courtesy of the Historic American Building Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
 |
Playground at Standard Mine. Located in the shadow and smoke of the coke ovens at Standard. The playground were built by the coal company's for the children of the miners. (Photo courtesy of the USX Resource Managment Division, Uniontown, PA and and John K. Gates', "The Beehive Coke Years.")) |
| Newspaper reports about Thomas Meagher,
a miner at Standard Mine.
From the Mount Pleasant Journal, Friday, March 20, 1903, in
"News From Our Neighbors": Thomas Maher, a driver in the Standard mines, was caught Saturday afternoon by his trip through a mistake of the signals, suffering a fracture of both bones of the leg below the knee, severe cuts about the head and an injury to his spine that has produced paralysis. His recovery is in doubt. From The Pittsburgh Gazette, Tuesday, May 12, 1903, Morning Edition: Thomas Meagher, 36 years old, died at Mercy Hospital yesterday afternoon. While working in the mines of the H. C. Frick Company at Mount Pleasant about a month ago his spine was dislocated by falling timbers. He had been in the hospital since March 20 and was married. From the Mount Pleasant Journal, Friday, May 15, 1903, Front Page, in "Coal and Coke, Items of Interest Gathered From Both Mine and Yard": Thomas Meagher, the Standard mine driver, who was caught by his trip and badly hurt some six weeks ago, died at Mercy hospital, Pittsburg, Monday. The body was brought for burial the next day to his Spring Garden home. He was 40 years of age and leaves his wife with four children. |
| "Coal
Miners Memorial, Standard Mines, Standard, Mt. Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania" |
| To Select another Index to Westmoreland County Coal Mines Click on the Larry cars for Index Page or on a Letter below |
 |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| Local History
Sites Links to other coal mining sites |
Reference Sources for Westmoreland County Coal Mines | The New Message Boards have not worked, Use our guestbook for questions | Have
information to add on Westmoreland County Coal Mines? E-Mail the Web Master |
|
View the "Old Miner's" Guestbook |
 Pete Starry, Mining Historian |
Let the Old Miner know you've been here. Sign the "Old Miner's" Guestbook |
 FastCounter by LinkExchange |
If you have additional information or pictures on the Coal
Mines of Westmoreland County, PA Contact: Ray Washlaski, Web Master Need a web site for your family or organization, The "Mercers, an Undertakers" Web Productions, will do it for you at a reasonable cost, contact the "Mercers, an Undertakers" Copyright 2002, All rights reserved, by Raymond A. Washlaski, Ryan P. Washlaski & The 20th Century Society of Western Pennsylvania. Web site Design by "Mercers, an Undertakers" Web Design Company |
