This is sometimes called the Hocking Valley Coalfield. Its coal mining boom was from approximately 1880 until 1920. During this time it was one of the most important coalfields in Northern Appalachia. Not only was the field served by the B&O Railroad and the Hocking Valley Railway (the C&O Railway after 1930), but some coal was probably shipped out on the Hocking Canal.
The main coal seam mined in the Hocking Coalfield was the Middle Kittanning (called No. 6 coal in Ohio), which was at least 60" thick in this area, but flared out to even greater thicknesses in some places. Usually not all of the seam was economically minable, as is shown in the following cross section:
Image courtesy of othersPostcard captioned, "NIGHT SCENE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST MINE FIRE, NEW STRAITSVILLE, OHIO." Well, in the 21st Century the "World's Greatest Mine Fire" may now be Centralia, PA. But the New Straitsville fire is allegedly still burning, too. It was started in 1884 when coal miners on strike against the New Straitsville Mining Co. swiped a few loaded underground coal cars, soaked them in oil, and pushed them through the mine portal and down into the mine. In the 1940 publication "Ohio: A Guide to the Buckeye State" the area near the fire is described as "slowly toasting earth where cisterns steam and dry up, where potoatoes are dug pre-cooked, where an $80,000 school building is overheated when the furnace is turned off."Oct. 2004 image by authorCoal camp housing in Glouster, Ohio.Image courtesy of othersCoal miners and their coal mining machine at Glouster many years ago.May 2005 image by authorOld train station at Murray City.Image courtesy of othersClassic coal company town of San Toy, Ohio. According to the Ohio Mine Inspector's 1908 report The New England Coal Co. operated two mines here. Yet later accounts attribute ownership of San Toy to the Sunday Creek Coal Co. Like nearby New Straitsville, angry miners on strike set the No. 1 mine (and parts of the company town) on fire in 1924. After this the coal company closed the mine, but kept the No. 2 mine open for three more years. In 1927, at the end of the Hocking Coalfield boom, the company turned its back on San Toy, and before long it was deserted.Image courtesy "The Little Cities Archive"Photo showing one of the last families moving out of the mostly abandoned San Toy coal camp.Circa 2016 image courtesy of Mark HowellThis building was once the coal company store at Chauncey, Ohio.Google Street View imageRemaining coal company houses at Chauncey.From a 1924 Jeffery manualCoal mine at Murray City gets a new fan.May 2005 image by authorThe only remaining house from the company town of Jobs, OH.May 2005 image by authorThe slate roofs of the company built houses in Eclipse, OH, constructed by the Hocking Valley Coal Company. Their No. 4 mine was at Eclipse. Now the town has been granted a new lease on life as a tourist stop along the Hocking-Adena bike trail.May 2005 image by authorThe company store at Eclipse, OH. This structure has been completely restored since this photo was taken.May 2005 image by authorThese are the ruins of the collapsed tipple at Millfield, OH, which was still standing as late as the 1970s. It was here that the Sunday Creek Coal Company opened their No. 6 mine. In 1930 it blew up, resulting in the death of 82 employees of the coal company, making it the deadliest coal mining disaster in Ohio's history.May 2005 image by authorIn addition to a historical marker beside the road, there are some ruins of the Sunday Creek No. 6 mine still in existence today. The tall smokestack was originally part of the powerhouse.May 2005 image by authorDetail of the small building next to the smokestack. This may have been the mine office or lamp house. There is also a red brick building nearby that is in shambles, as well.May 2005 image by authorFormer coal miners' housing in Millfield, OH.Google Street View imageNicely preserved church at Sugar Creek.Image courtesy of The Historical Marker DatabasePictured here is a historical marker about, and remnants preserved from, the unique brick and concrete Hisylvania coal tipple that used to exist near Glouster, OH and was demolished in 2001.May 2005 image by authorThe heyday of the Hocking Valley Coalfield was 1880 to 1920. The designs of that era are still evident on this store in Hemlock, OH.May 2005 image by authorOne of the remaining coal camp houses at Congo, OH, where many of the coal miners were of Hungarian origin.May 2005 image by authorA coal camp outhouse still extant in Congo in 2005.May 2005 image by authorHaydenville was a company town with its own coal mine, of course, but it also had its own clay mine, block factory, and iron furnace. That's what makes the town unique. The enterprise, which began in the 1850s by the Haydenville Mining and Manufacturing Company, began to wind down in the 1950s, and the operation closed in 1964 and the homes were sold to the people.May 2005 image by authorMost, but not all, of the company housing in Haydenville was constructed using the company's own blocks. There are many different styles of housing there.May 2005 image by authorNear Morristown, OH there are the ruins of an old coal mine, identified for me as Sunday Creek Coal Company's Gem Mine. This building is at that site. It was perhaps a repair shop.May 2005 image by authorThere are a few buildings related to the Gem Mine still at the site, in addition to a few gob piles. This building may have been the mine office.May 2005 image by authorThe tipple at the Gem Mine site has been demolished, and we are left with these foundations.Image by othersCanaan Coal Company's colliery that once existed at Canaanville, Ohio.Oct. 2018 image by authorSome of the remains of the Canaanville mine still exist.Oct. 2018 image by authorCanaanville coal camp houses along U.S. Route 50.Oct. 2018 image by authorFormer Canaan Coal Company store and offices.Image by othersPaper scrip to spend at the company store shown above.Oct. 2004 image by authorStockpiles at a 21st Century coal mining operation in northern Athens County.Image courtesy of Matthew BoboA reader sent in this picture and wrote, "There is a monument in Millfield, Ohio next to the post office listing every person that was killed in the mine disaster (my great grandfather included)." I also asked him if he knew whether or not the coal seam fire at New Straitsville was still burning and he said, "Yes it is, if you dig the right spots the soil will be warm or hot still."Image courtesy of Ronald PittmanAbandoned coal company store in Carbondale, Ohio.1975 image courtesy of Ronald PittmanThis neat old tipple used to exist at Carbondale, but not anymore.2016 image courtesy of Eddie HelberDynamite storage shed remaining from the Carbondale coal mine.
From a May 31, 1964 Toldeo Blade article titled "Once Prosperous Coal Mining Sites Reflect Squalor of Ohio's Appalachia" -
"Southeast Ohio's rural slums are hidden by high, green, tree-topped hills that rise from clean, paved roads. They are in the former mining towns that once prospered, and in the rickety sheds that serve as homes for large and often indignant families ... One of the harder hit towns is Murray City, near Athens, in Hocking County. It is not a ghost town yet, but the signs are there. Its population now is 720, the postmaster Forest Ayers said. Once it was about 6,000 when the folks clustered around the mines within the municipal limits, and on Hound's Hill nearby, were included. Most of those on the street today are oldsters or youngsters, the former chawing and talking, the latter chasing after barking dogs. The men have, like those in most communities, formed car pools to work in the plants at Logan, Zanesville, Columbus - wherever they can find employment. Some stay away all week, then ride home on weekends for or five to a car, to whoop it up ... Most everything by way of architecture or furnishings looks old in Murray City. A hotel, always known simply as 'the hotel,' is sadly in need of repairs. Typical of the area, business windows are dust-covered and bare of displays. A layer of soot lies on may of the old, paint-peeling homes, and the worst are blackened and riddled with holes. There almost always seemed to be a mangy doag and a housewife in tattered clothes peering from inside. "But, said Mrs. Marie Roof, 30, "it's home." She said her unemployed husband, Gerald, and their two children live in 'a company house' on Hack Street. The Sunday Creek Coal Co., which still owned the land and housing in the area after the mining ceased, is selling it to the family for $500. Toilet facilities are outside, and although there is a water line serving the city from Burr Oak Lake, the Roofs rely on an outside pump. City water costs too much. Mrs. Roof explained that the house is 90 years old and that if she doesn't buy it, it will probably be torn down."
Source(s):
Palka, Eugene J. Artifacts of the Coal Age - Athens County Region. Athens County Historical Society & Museum, 1986.
