Calumet, Pennsylvania
Encyclopedia
Calumet is an unincorporated community
in Mount Pleasant Township
, Westmoreland County
, Pennsylvania
, United States
. Although the United States Census Bureau
includes it in a census-designated place
with the nearby community of Norvelt
, they are in reality two very different communities, each reflecting a different chapter in how the Great Depression
affected rural Pennsylvanians. Calumet was a typical "patch town", built by a single company to house coal miners as cheaply as possible. The closing of the Calumet mine during the Great Depression caused enormous hardship in an era when unemployment compensation and welfare payments were non-existent. On the other hand, Norvelt was created during the depression by the US federal government as a model community, intended to increase the standard of living of laid-off coal
miners.
. During the Bituminous Coal Miners' Strike of 1894, Calumet was the site of a bitter confrontation between the strikers and the H. C.
Frick Coke Company, which at that time was part-owner of Calumet Coke Company.
The coke works closed in the 1920s, and the mine closed in the early 1930s during the Great Depression
, causing enormous hardship for the community’s workers.
. The Company built twenty-three houses in 1888 and the Calumet Coke Works containing 105 bee-hive coke ovens. This operation was served by the Southwest Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad
. About 100 miners were employed in the mine (a shaft operation) that exploited Calumet's 80 inches (2,032 mm) Pittsburgh coal seam
, and 75 coke workers were employed in the coke works.
By the early 1890s the Calumet Coke Works was enlarged and contained 225 bee-hive coke ovens. Typical annual production at the Calumet Mine in the 1890s was about 100,000 tons of coal; the Calumet Coke Works produced about 60,000 tons of coke each year. In 1889, after one year of production at the Calumet Mine & Coke Works, by the Calumet Coke Company, the H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired a one-half interest in the Calumet Coke Company.
During the bitter coal miners strike of 1894, a dozen deputy sheriffs , that were being paid by the H.C. Frick Coke Company at Calmuet, while off duty, went swimming in the reservoir there. Two of them were captured by several hundred angry strikers. The others escaped.
By 1899 H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired control of the entire Calumet Coke Company. Under the auspices of H.C. Frick Coke Company production at Calumet Mine rose through the early 1900s, despite the fact that the coal company continued to mine the coal by using hand labor. H.C. Frick
's theory was, why spend money on mining equipment, when you had willing men with weak minds and strong backs, that worked cheap, to do the mining work for you.
By 1900 over 900 persons, the miners and their families, were living in the coal company patch town of Calumet, in Mt. Pleasant Township, the Calumet Mine was annually producing over 200,000 tons of coal, and the Calumet Coke Works was shipping between 125,000 and 150,000 tons of coke each year. Robert Ramsey, a long-time H. C. Frick Coke Company employee, served as superintendent of the Calumet Mine & Coke Works operations at Calumet.
The condition of Calumet Mine in 1910, from the mine inspectors reports, was:
From the 1910s through the early 1920s the Calumet Mine was consistently one of the H.C. Frick Coke Company's better producers. By 1914 the H.C. Frick Coke Company employed 260 men and boys at the Calumet Mine, who produced over 225,000 tons of coal and 150,000 tons of coke.
Production at the mine decreased after World War I
, as with many other Frick mines the company did not mechanize or fully electrify its operation.
In 1919 Calumet Mine produced 189,557 tons of coal and 69,589 tons of coke, there were 260 coke ovens with 127 in operation. The mine had 270 employees, and 1 fatal accident in 1919. In 1920 Calumet Mine produced 157,816 tons of coal and 85,641 tons of coke, there were 260 bee-hive coke ovens with 150 in operation, and employed 241 men and boys. The mine had 3 non-fatal accidents in 1920.
As late as 1930 the H.C. Frick Coke Company was still using eleven mules or horses for hauling coal in the Calumet Mine, in addition to a single steam locomotive, and two mine locomotives operated by compressed air. Production in ca. 1930 amounted to a mere 9,000 tons of coal. The Calumet Coke Works had been abandoned by this time.
Around 1932 the H. C. Frick Coke Company closed and abandoned the Calumet Mine and sent a number of the miners to the Standard Shaft
Mine near Mount Pleasant
, and laid off the rest of the coal miners to fend for themselves, with no compensation or means of support.
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in Mount Pleasant Township
Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Mount Pleasant Township is a township in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 11,153...
, Westmoreland County
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 369,993 people, 149,813 households, and 104,569 families residing in the county. The population density was 361 people per square mile . There were 161,058 housing units at an average density of 157 per square mile...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Although the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
includes it in a census-designated place
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
with the nearby community of Norvelt
Norvelt, Pennsylvania
Norvelt is an unincorporated community in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Although the United States Census Bureau includes it in a census-designated place with the nearby community of Calumet, they are in reality two very different communities, each...
, they are in reality two very different communities, each reflecting a different chapter in how the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
affected rural Pennsylvanians. Calumet was a typical "patch town", built by a single company to house coal miners as cheaply as possible. The closing of the Calumet mine during the Great Depression caused enormous hardship in an era when unemployment compensation and welfare payments were non-existent. On the other hand, Norvelt was created during the depression by the US federal government as a model community, intended to increase the standard of living of laid-off coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
miners.
History
Calumet was founded by the Calumet Coke Company in 1888 as a housing site for its workers. The community, as originally laid out, consisted of twenty double houses, twelve single-family houses, and a few commercial and industrial buildings. The workers were employed in a coal mine and also tended ovens that produced coke (fuel)Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
. During the Bituminous Coal Miners' Strike of 1894, Calumet was the site of a bitter confrontation between the strikers and the H. C.
Henry Frick
Henry Frick was a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.Henry Frick was born in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He attended the public schools and apprenticed to a printer in Philadelphia. He served in the War of 1812...
Frick Coke Company, which at that time was part-owner of Calumet Coke Company.
The coke works closed in the 1920s, and the mine closed in the early 1930s during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, causing enormous hardship for the community’s workers.
Calumet Mine and Coke Works
In 1888, the Calumet Coke Company established the Calumet Mine & Coke Works along Sewickley Creek in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, PennsylvaniaMount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Mount Pleasant Township is a township in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 11,153...
. The Company built twenty-three houses in 1888 and the Calumet Coke Works containing 105 bee-hive coke ovens. This operation was served by the Southwest Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
. About 100 miners were employed in the mine (a shaft operation) that exploited Calumet's 80 inches (2,032 mm) Pittsburgh coal seam
Pittsburgh coal seam
The Pittsburgh Coal Seam is the thickest and most extensive coal bed in the Appalachian Basin; hence, it is the most economically important coal beds in the eastern United States. The Upper Pennsylvanian Pittsburgh coal bed of the Monongahela Group is extensive and continuous, extending over...
, and 75 coke workers were employed in the coke works.
By the early 1890s the Calumet Coke Works was enlarged and contained 225 bee-hive coke ovens. Typical annual production at the Calumet Mine in the 1890s was about 100,000 tons of coal; the Calumet Coke Works produced about 60,000 tons of coke each year. In 1889, after one year of production at the Calumet Mine & Coke Works, by the Calumet Coke Company, the H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired a one-half interest in the Calumet Coke Company.
During the bitter coal miners strike of 1894, a dozen deputy sheriffs , that were being paid by the H.C. Frick Coke Company at Calmuet, while off duty, went swimming in the reservoir there. Two of them were captured by several hundred angry strikers. The others escaped.
By 1899 H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired control of the entire Calumet Coke Company. Under the auspices of H.C. Frick Coke Company production at Calumet Mine rose through the early 1900s, despite the fact that the coal company continued to mine the coal by using hand labor. H.C. Frick
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel steel manufacturing concern...
's theory was, why spend money on mining equipment, when you had willing men with weak minds and strong backs, that worked cheap, to do the mining work for you.
By 1900 over 900 persons, the miners and their families, were living in the coal company patch town of Calumet, in Mt. Pleasant Township, the Calumet Mine was annually producing over 200,000 tons of coal, and the Calumet Coke Works was shipping between 125,000 and 150,000 tons of coke each year. Robert Ramsey, a long-time H. C. Frick Coke Company employee, served as superintendent of the Calumet Mine & Coke Works operations at Calumet.
The condition of Calumet Mine in 1910, from the mine inspectors reports, was:
- "Calumet Mine - Ventilation is good, except in a small section of the pillar workings to the left of the main haulage road. Drainage fair. Improvements made to Calumet Mine in 1910 were: 230 Wolfe safety lamps and equipment were renewed. Work was started on safety latches at landing for the shaft cage."
From the 1910s through the early 1920s the Calumet Mine was consistently one of the H.C. Frick Coke Company's better producers. By 1914 the H.C. Frick Coke Company employed 260 men and boys at the Calumet Mine, who produced over 225,000 tons of coal and 150,000 tons of coke.
Production at the mine decreased after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, as with many other Frick mines the company did not mechanize or fully electrify its operation.
In 1919 Calumet Mine produced 189,557 tons of coal and 69,589 tons of coke, there were 260 coke ovens with 127 in operation. The mine had 270 employees, and 1 fatal accident in 1919. In 1920 Calumet Mine produced 157,816 tons of coal and 85,641 tons of coke, there were 260 bee-hive coke ovens with 150 in operation, and employed 241 men and boys. The mine had 3 non-fatal accidents in 1920.
As late as 1930 the H.C. Frick Coke Company was still using eleven mules or horses for hauling coal in the Calumet Mine, in addition to a single steam locomotive, and two mine locomotives operated by compressed air. Production in ca. 1930 amounted to a mere 9,000 tons of coal. The Calumet Coke Works had been abandoned by this time.
Around 1932 the H. C. Frick Coke Company closed and abandoned the Calumet Mine and sent a number of the miners to the Standard Shaft
Standard Shaft, Pennsylvania
Standard Shaft, Pennsylvania is located in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It is a community located near Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania.-History:...
Mine near Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania
Mount Pleasant is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It stands 45 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Population in 1900, 4,745 people; in 1910, 5,812 people; and in 1940, 5,824 people...
, and laid off the rest of the coal miners to fend for themselves, with no compensation or means of support.