Lincoln mine and coke works - Keisterville, Pennsylvania
A.L. Keister and Company opened the Lincoln Mine and coke works in 1900. A.L. Keister, of Scottdale, Pa., was president of the First National Bank of Scottdale, and was also a Congressman. He never married and died in 1917. The Lincoln Mine was a drift entry into the Pittsburgh coal seam. The original 80 oven coke plant eventually grew to 400 coke ovens. By the 1910s, A.L. Keister and Co. had been reorganized and renamed as Lincoln Coal and Coke Co. They continued to operate the mine and beehive coke plant until 1941, and in 1942 operated the coke ovens with coal trucked in from other nearby mines. Lincoln Coal and Coke closed their coke plant in 1942. There was talk that the East Fayette Coal Co. would lease the coke plant and resume production later in 1942. I'm not certain that this ever occurred. The coal outcrop at Keisterville was strip mined by Gilleland Coke Co. during World War 2. Today, Keisterville is one of many post-industrial Fayette County "patch towns" that has grown quiet.
