FILBERT, PA
Company store at the Filbert "patch." H.C. Frick Coke Co., which was absorbed
into newly formed U.S. Steel in 1903, called their stores "Union Supply
Stores." They closed the last one, at Continental No. 1 patch, in 1959.
About this store the late Regis Maher wrote, "Across the road and over the trolley rail was the company store where many people congregated
everyday except Sunday. Each miner had a charge account at the company store, and the account was monitored through the mine office by chief clerk
who made sure the miner had enough money coming in his next pay to cover any heavy charges. Thus there was a great deal of communication between the
store office and the mine office regarding money matters for the miners and their families." This is why I believe that very few Western Pennsylvania
mines used scrip, at least after around 1900. I think a credit account was more common. If the PA coal companies did use scrip then they probably
used paper bills rather than coins. Whenever one looks at eBay there is always a good selection of coin scrip from West Virginia, Kentucky,
Virginia, and Tennessee, but almost never any from Pennsylvania or Ohio. As a matter of fact, the only coin scrip I have ever seen from a Pennsylvania
coal mine would be the Valley Camp Coal Co. at Kinlock, PA. A few years ago I was on a history tour of a patch in Western PA and the tour guide began speaking
about miners paid in scrip. I asked if they got paper or coin scrip, and she said coins, but I don't know if that is true.
Frick Coke built Filbert, PA around 1909 but, instead of building beehive coke ovens, sent their coal out thorought the underground Palmer conveyor system to the Monongahela River.
By the time 1957 rolled around, H.C. Frick Coke Co. had morphed into the
Frick District of U.S. Steel's mining subsidiary and the Filbert coal mine closed in that year.
Except for the tipple and headframe, most of the buildings at Filbert associated with the mine are still existing. What
is particularly interesting is that U.S. Steel was still using them as repair shops for their equipment as late as 1989. That's a pretty late date for US Steel to be retaining a maintenance
crew in Fayette County, because by then almost all of the major coal mines in Fayette County were gone. They may have kept their repair shops in Everson in the northern part of the county open
into the 1980's as well.
Two structures on "Air Shaft Road" that were once intake and exhaust fans.
Aerial view of a portion of Filbert, PA with the remains of the mine complex on
the left, a part of the patch called Filbert No. 2 on the right, and New Salem Road in between the two features.
July 2002 image by author
Here's an example of Union Supply Company (HC Frick) paper scrip. This particular example
is stamped Hostetter, one of their coal and coke operations in Westmoreland County. But I have seen others stamped with names of other stores,
such as Wynn. So they must have had this company wide currency on which was stamped a certain company store where the scrip would be used.
Feb. 2003 image by author
Feb. 2003 image by author
Feb. 2004 image by author
Microsoft Virtual Earth image