The railroad bed of the Unity Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad remains along the north side of the patch, the tracks were removed many years ago.  Remains of the railroad mine sidings and a few abutments remain south of the mine site.  In the hill side south of the mine site there is a large amount of coke, suggesting that there were coke ovens at St. Vincent's Shaft at one time.

Mount Pleasant By-product Coal Company was a small coal company led by J. U. Kuhns, who was also the president of Mount Pleasant Coke Company.  Mount Pleasant Coke Company operated two mines at Beatty Crossroads, about one mile northwest of Saint Vincent Shaft Mine.  D.C. Cramer of Latrobe served as mine superintendent for both the Beatty Mines and Saint Vincent Shaft Mines.

The shaft at Saint Vincent's was 244 feet deep and exploited the Pittsburg coal seam, which averaged 90 inches in thickness in this area.  Operations commenced in 1918 with the building of a railroad mine siding from the Unity Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad to serve the mine.

Production in ca.1918 amounted to nearly 42,000 tons of coal, most of which was shipped to market by rail. A small bank of coke ovens was probably built at St. Vincent Shaft Mine, as archaeological evidence of a coking operation exists along Monastery Run south of the mine complex. Some of the coal produced at Saint Vincent Shaft was probably sent to the coke works at Beatty No. 2 Mine, this coke works contained 182 bee-hive coke ovens.

Eighty-one miners worked at Saint Vincent's Shaft Mine ca.1918, most of whom lived in the company-built patch houses, located in the small coal patch of St. Vincent Shaft.

The coal company employed two large pumps to remove water from the mine, as the coal seam here was at the lowest point in the Latrobe coal basin, an collected ground water.  The capacity of these two pumps was 275 gallons per minute.  A 7 foot diameter centrifugal fan, manufactured by the Jeffrey Company and powered by elkectricity, ventilated the mine.  The coal cokpany employed seven horses to pull the mine cars in the mine.  Oddly enough, the first fatality at the mine occurred soon after it opened when one Charles A. Siegfried was thrown by a horse and killed while riding it from the mine to the stables.

Through the 1920's the amount of coal produced at the mine remained extremely modest.  In 1921, a year when the nation's economy was depressed, a work force numbering 116 produced slightly more than 30,000 tons of coal.  Two years later, however, the mine reached it greatest coal output for one year, with 153 miners producing over 198,000 tons of coal.  By 1925 production has again tapered off;  the company employed 120 miners and produced just under 40,000 tons of coal.

In 1930 the Mount Pleasant By-Product Coal Company was still headed by J.U. Kuhns of Greensburg.  D.C Cramer, the first mine superintendent at Saint Vincent's Shaft Mine, remained in that position.  The company produced over 83,000 tons of coal in 1930, employing seventy-five miners and operating for 155 days.

In 1937 P. B. Rule was superintendent, of Saint Vincent's Shaft Mine.  Saint Vincent's Shaft Mine was closed, when the mine suddenly flooded to the top of the mine shaft on May 31, 1937, killing two of the miners doing maintance in the shaft at the time.

The headframe, tipple, engine house, mine office, and horse barn were subsequently demolished ca.1962.  Only the coal company-built patch houses along U.S. Route 30 survive. The patch school house, although much altered and moved to a new location, survive.

The large slate dump from the mine was along Monastery Run.  St. Vinent College had that area stripped mined and the dump was removed and the area is now being used as the new football field.

(History and description of St. Vincent's Shaft Mine, adapted with additional data from "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.)

WORST DISASTER AVERTED

Only two men were on duty because of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, May 31, 1937, when a vast subterranean lake burst into the St. Vincent mine near Latrobe from the long abandoned Dorothy mine of the H.C. Frick Coke Company. Unfortunately, both men were drowned.

Water reached almost to the top of the 258-foot St. Vincent shaft. The two men had gone into the mine to remove dirt from the rail tracks. Normally, about 150 workers were on the job at the facility operated by the Mt. Pleasant By-Products Company.

Had the mine been operating, the death toll would have been substantial because of the quite rapid rise of the water that Memorial Day Monday.

Pumping of the water from the mine did not begin until April 1939, since it had to be done carefully to keep the sulfur mine water from affecting any drinking water supplies. One body was finally recovered in February 1940.

The one miner's body that was recovered was that of John Lane.  The other miner's body was never recovered. (Courtesy of the Latrobe Bulletin)

From the Latrobe Bulletin, Tuesday June 1, 1937
TWO MEN ARE TRAPPED AS A SUDDEN RUSH OF WATER FLOODS ST. VINCENT SHAFT, MONTHS' PUMPING LOOMS

123 Men Would Have Been Trapped In The Mine Had Flood Not Broken Through Until Today's Work Period.

WATER FROM SEVERAL OTHERS MINES PRESSES AGAINST SHAFT

Approximately 125 men owe their lives roday to the fact that yesterday was observed as a holiday and consequently they were not at work in the St. Vincent Shaft, of the Mt. Pleasant By-Products Company when an underground flood broke into the workings, drowing two men.

Had the accident occurred on a regular work-day, the 80 diggers and 40 day men regularly employed would have had no more chance to escape than John Lane, 63 years, pumper, and Barney Ransel, 50 years, a machinist, who were trapped when tons of water smashed through a concrete wall and cascaded into the mine, shortly after 1:30 o'clock, yesterday afternoon.

The bodies of the two victims have not been recovered and probably will not be for several months but there is no hope that the men are alive.

They are believed to have perished within a short time after the rumbling sound made by the water pouring into the mine came up the shaft giving warning that something was the matter below.

Mining experts are of the opinion that the water came from the flooded and abandoned workings of the nearby Dorothy and Baggaley mines.

The terrific force exerted by the pent-up waters, it is believed, gradually forced a way through the barier into the St. Vincent Mine.

There it burst through the wall of the workings with a roar that could be plainly heard from the surface.

The terrific force exerted by the wall of water forced it through 125 feet of coal and fractured a concrete wall which had been built as a protection to the workers.

It is believed to have pried between the strata of coal.

A pumper is kept in the mine at all time, so that Mr. Lane entered the mine at 6:30 o'clock yesterday morning, even through it was a holiday.

Some time later Robert F. Jones, the fire boss, entered the workings, taking with him Barney Ransel, a machinist.

Mr. Jones, after concluding his inspection, left the mine about 1:30 o'clock.

Ten minutes later a roaring sound was emitted from the mine shaft.

B.L.Brennecks, the engineer, rushed at once to the electrical hoist, and began to lower th cage, so as to afford means of escape for the men below.

Mr. Jones ran to the air shaft, about 300 feet distant, to determine if the men were attempting to escape that way.

Quick as he had been, approxmately 40 feet of water was already coming up the air shaft.

Mr. Lane and Mr. Ransel probably never relized what had happened when the wall of water struck them.

Over at the shaft, where the cage went down, Mr. Brennecks was able to lower the cage to within 25 feet of the bottom, where it stuck.  It is believed to have struck debris left where the water rushed through.

The mine filled with water so rapidly that it was completely flooded within seven minutes.  Water came within 28  feet of the top of the shaft.

Representative Jakie Elpern, who has been making efforts at Harrisburg for some time to have pumps sent to this district to clear flooded mines, was notified of the accident and visited the St. Vincent Shaft Mine yesterday.  He notified P.F.Nairn, deputy Secretary of Mine at Pittsburgh, and he also visited the workings.

A.G.Kelly, superintendent of the Humphrey mines, near Pleasant Unity, was also notified.

Last Fall Mr. Kelly engaged the Frick-Reed Supply Company of Pittsburgh, to pump out the Marguerite mine, and four of the pumps are still in this vicinity.

Mr. Kelly got in touch with J.A. Malady, consulting engineer for the Pittsburgh company, and preparations were made to move one of the pumps to the St. Vincent Mine at once.  Three others are also to be sent there as rapidly as possible.  They are deep well turbine pumps, each one capable of pumping 2,500 gallons of water per minute.

It is expected that it will take two days at least before the first pump is placed in operation, and it will likely be ten days before all four are going.

It is estimated that several months will be required before sufficient water has been pumped from the mine, to make it safe for men to enter.

Pipe was being hauled to the mine yesterday in preparation for the work.

It was not until 7 o'clock last night that news of the accident became generally known.

Then curious persons began to gather at the scene but there was litttle for them to see.  They stood about watching the workmen unloading pipe. Two State Policemen were on guard.

John McDonald, formerly of Latrobe, and mine inspector for the 11th District in the bituminous field, was of the opinion that the water which vroke into the St. Vincent mine, had come from other flooded workings in the vicinity, particularly the Dorothy and Baggaley mines.  Mr. McDonald has had a wide experience gained in 52 years of working around coal mines.

Other mining experts were of the same opinion.  They believe that water from several flooded mines, including the Whitney, Hostetter, Baggaley, Dorothy and old Unity mines possibly may be finding its way to the St. Vincent mine, and that it may be some time before it can be pumped out.  It may possibly take three or four months until sufficient water is removed so that the workings may be entered again.

Originally the St. Vincent mine contained 250 acres of coal, but now all of it but about 45 acres has been mined.

P.B. Rule, superintendent of the mine, is critically ill at his home in Greensburg and is unable to be on the scene.  William Dryle, the general manager, however, was on hand.

West Penn workmen were busy today, doing wiring and other work necessary before the pumps can be got going.

Many of the miners employed at the St. Vincent Shaft, were standing about watching the operation.

William Demsey, of Spruce Street, who is employed at the mine, went to work at 10 o'clock, last night, with his lunch, without knowing of the accident.  He had been out of town and had heard nothing of it before leaving for work.  As he was to relieve one of the men who was drowned, the news was a great shock to him.

Mr. Ransel, 50 years of age, who had been employed as a machinist for 25 yars, left his home at noon on Monday after a few hours sleep to fix a broken water line.  Although his name was Bernard, he was known to his friends as "Barney."  he is survived by his wife and the following children:  Mrs. Gertrude Hoza, of Carpentertown; James, of Unity Township; Stella, of Seton Hill; George, Alice and Paul, at home, and Raymond, of Seton Hill.  One brother, John of Unity Township, and three sistewrs:  Mrs. Charles Noel, of Unity Twp.;  Mrs. Charles Haberl and Mrs. Charles Rushie, of Latrobe, and five grandchildren also survive.

Mr. Lane, aged 63 years, had been employed at the mine 19 years.  He is survived by his wife and four children:  Orville, of Greensburg; Howard, of Harrison City; Mrs. Viola Cute and Mrs. Ethel Shick, both of Unity Township and nine grandchildren.
(Courtesy of the Latrobe Bulletin, Tuesday, June 1, 1937.)

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