Mines in Brooke County developed rapidly in 1905 when the production reached 205,859 tons; by 1910 production was 485,699 tons, with six companies in the field. These included the A. Gilchrist and Sons Coal Company at Gilchrist, the LaBelle Cal Company, the Beech Bottom Coal Company at Beech Bottom , the Lewis Findley Coal Company at Locust Grove, theLaBelle Iron Works ( shaft mine) at LaBelle, and the Rex Carbon Coal Company. The Findley Coal Company was the largest with production of 138,991 tons.
By 1915, the Findley, the Gilchrist, and the LaBelle Coal companies had been consolidated under the management of the West Virginia-Pittsburgh Coal Company. The Beech Bottom mine was operated by the Richland Block Coal Company and the Clifton Coal Company had a mine at Clifton. The total tonnage in Brooke for 1915 was 814,605 tons.
A large number of coal companies were formed in Brooke County during World War I; by 1921, there were eleven with a total tonnage of 1,762,936. New mines included the Carnegie Wellsburg Coal Company mine at Goldie, the Consumer’s Fuel Company at Louise, the Follansbee Gas Coal Company mine at Arnold, the Pittsburgh-Wellsburg Coal Company at Tarr, the PV & K Coal Company near Follansbee, the Washington Pike Coal Company near Wellsburg, and the Windsor Coal Company mine at Beech Bottom.
Production increased during the 1920’s and in 1928, Brooke County produced 2,071,000 tons. The mines operating in the immediate neighborhood of Wellsburg included the J. J. Goldsmith mine, the J.J. Arnold Company mine, the Naylor Coal Company, the R.C. Reed mine, the Richland Colliers Company, the Superior Coal Company, the Washington Pike Coal Company, and the West Virginia-Pittsburgh Coal Company. At Beech Bottom the Windsor Power House Coal Company continued to mine and supply the power station of the West Penn Power Company and the Ohio Power Company. The Wheeling Steel Corporation also operated a mine at the same place, the coal being used in the company’s plants at Wheeling. Other mines included those of the Bertha-Consumers Company at Louise, the Bethany Improvement Company and the Archie Mitchell mine near Bethany and the R. Humes Coal Company near Follansbee.
In 1932, production in Brooke county was 984,303 tons; in 1933, 1,132,172 tons; in 1944 2,374,078 tons; in 1947, down to 2,303,390 tons; in 1956,1,023,901 tons. Some of this increase in tonnage may be attributed to strip mines which began operations during the second World War.
Brooke County Genealogy would like to compile a list of the early coal mines here in the county….
There were many “family mines”….do you remember these???
What we would like to find is: