BOOTH
-BOWEN & CASSELL CREEK COAL TIPPLES
( William Booth and Jonathan P. Bowen: Founded the Booth-Bowen Coal & Coke Company )
Inside the Booth-Bowen Coal Mine.
BOOTH-BOWEN
COAL COMPANY - 1920
( Enhanced Photograph Provided By: Buddy French )
The Booth - Bowen Coal Tipple was
located just north of Freeman,WV, close to what is now
Rt. 52 toward Welch. The Booth - Bowen Coal Company was
the fourth mine to be established in the famous
Poachontas-Flat Topcoal fields of southern West Virginia.
The Booth-Bowen Coal & Coke Company was founded by William Booth and Jonathan P. Bowen in 1884. A year later William and James Booth, along
with James Taylor secured the lease on the land at
Freeman, WV, where the Booth-Bowen mine opened. Mr. Bowen and his son Harry took control of the company in 1893. It was first mine to be operated near
Freeman, WV. The first
president of the company was William Booth. The vice
president and general manager was William Bowen's father, Jonathan P. Bowen ( 1830 -
1902 ). Jonathan Bowen who migrated from Wales operated the
company for many years. In the 1920s William L. Osborne
was the superintendent of the Tipple .
The company held 1038 acres of
land at Freeman , adjoining to the town of Bramwell. The
Booth - Bowen Company operated one mine which was
equipped with the most modern mining equipment. The mine
had a daily capacity of 600 tons of coal and during 1929
mined and shipped a total of 220,716 tons of coal. The
company employed 150 men.
CASWELL
CREEK COAL COMPANY- 1933
A third coal company known as the
Caswell Creek Coal Company also operated in Freeman with
a third company store also located in that community. The
Caswell Creek Mine opened in 1884 by Jenkin Jones and
John Freeman. Both these men were of foreign birth.
Freeman was born in England and Jones in Wales. The
company mine was also located on Simmons Creek near
Freeman. Their equipment was orignally one mule, one
mining car and a few pick and shovels. The tipple was a
simple wooden structure. Both these men dug coal in the
mine to get it started.They ran the business as a
co-partnership until 1889, when the Caswell Creek Coal
and Coke Company was organized to take over the property
of the Simmons Creek Mine. In 1907 these companies were
incorporated under one corporation: The Pocahontas Coal
Company, Inc.
Caswell Creek Elkhorn tipple as it appeared in 1933 that was now owned by Pocahontas Fuel Company. This tipple was shut down in 1937 and the remaining two years of coal left in the Caswell Creek Elkhorn mine was removed through the Norfolk/Angle mine on Rt. 52 just above Maybeury. In 1940 the Caswell Creek Elkhorn tipple was dismantled by Pocahontas Fuel and moved to their Rolfe mine in Northfork Hollow and reassembled because that tipple had burned down.
( Enhanced Photograph Provided By: Buddy French )
Enhanced Photo of Booth Bowen Porter Mine Locomotive at Simons, WV - YR. 1915
( Above Enhanced Photograph Provided By: Buddy French )
A Steam Locomotive at Simmons Creek in the ara of Simmon Mining Tipple.near Freeman, WV
Enhanced Photograph Provided By: Buddy French
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