Buckeye Coal Tipple

This photograph of The Buckeye Coal Tipple was taken July 8, 1937. It is the second of two Tipples owned the Buckeye Coal and Coke Co. The first tipple was located in at the head of Buckeye Hollow just north of the town of Freeman, WV. Buckeye Coal and Coke Company, located at Freeman on Simmons Creek near Bramwell, WV, opened in 1886. This was three years after the first coal was shipped from the historic Pocahontas, VA coalfield. The Buckeye Coal and Coke Company was founded by the Hewitt family who came to Bramwell in 1885 from Torborough, Pennsylvania. The company had leases on 900 acres of land and operated two mines and 100 coke ovens with 200 employees in the early 1900s. Three years after opening there were 117 people working for Buckeye. Payroll records from that time show that miners received $1.05 for loading a coal car that held 2 1/2 tons. Timbers for use in the mines in those days sold for a cent a piece. Kirk Asbury's father is known to have cut timbers at this price. Many of us will remember Kirk Asbury who lived beside the Elizabeth Bowen Methodist Church and was 98 years old at her death in the 1980s.

On July 1, 1886 Stephenson, Mullen & Company first opened a mine there totaling 238 acres that was leased from the Bluestone Coal Company with an initial investment of $50,000. The mine was in the No. 3 seam and averaged 73 inches in height. Then in 1888, the name changed when the Buckeye Coal & Coke Company was incorporated on June 22, 1888 and the lease was increased to 983 acres. The original Buckeye tipple was replaced in 1901. There were 172 coke ovens by 1908 but only 72 coke ovens, at least in use, when they were shut down in 1919.

The families that lived in the nine houses that were located in the immediate vicinity of the Buckeye Tipple are superimposed here in the general location of the houses for the 1920s and 1930s period. Four additional houses were located 1/4 mile up the tracks . The Cambell Family and the Buster Bailey family occupied two of those houses. The Office of the Buckeye Tipple Manager is also depicted in the photograph where it originally was located. John Henry Richmon (Goldie Richmon's father) was the boss over the Buckeye Tipple crew while Mr. Richard Foster was the boss over the Buckeye Mine crew. In the far right of the tipple photo one can see a "Smoke House" that was used by the Murray family for curing meat. It was located beside the Murray House. Bill and Ella Patterson lived in the Patterson house. Bill was killed in a mining accident. After Bill's death Ella married Gaylord Petty and they lived in the same house. The W.H. Petty family bought one of these Buckeye Company Houses in 1937, dismantled it and used much of the old lumber to build another house on Pinnacle Mountain. That house still stands.

The well known Dr. - Homer Luttrell, M.D. worked for this coal company and delivered many of the coal miners children that lived in this coal camp, and along the Simmons Creek plus in the town of Bramwell. The Buckeye Coal Tipple was managed in the 1930s by Mr. Rickman, a well know and respected citizen of Bramwell. Although the tipple and coal camp are only memories now for many Bramwell and Freeman residents, they had a profound affect on many of their ancestors lives during the late 1800s and for the first fifty years of the 20th century.

( Porter Mine Locomotive photograph from the files of Raymond Bailey's family. )

The "Porter Mine Locomotive (shown here in 1937) was unique to the Buckeye Mine operations. This locomotive is being driven by a son of Alex Bailey; Cletus Bailey ( 1902 - 1949 ) with his brother Raymond (May 28, 1909 - 1986) riding on the front of the engine. Steam Loco in use 51 yrs. As late as 1937 this locomotive was used in and out of Mine No. 1 of Buckeye Coal & Coke Co; 7-8-37. The Buckeye operation opened in 1886, only three years after the first coal was shipped from the Pocahontas field.

The first coal shipped from this Flat Top Coal fields that included the Buckeye mine was in June, 1883, and, as shown by the statistics, the whole output of coal for the first year, 1883, was 55,522 tons, and of coke 23,762 tons. A large number of collieries have been opened and are in operation in Mercer County, and there are a number of others opening up in the Widemouth Valley. The following are among the collieries in the County of Mercer:

Caswell Creek Coal & Coke Co.
      Mill Creek Coal & Coke Co.
      Booth-Bowen Coal & Coke Co.
      Goodwill Coal & Coke Co.
      Coaldale Coal & Coke Co.
      Buckeye Coal & Coke Co.
      Louisville Coal & Coke Co.
      Klondike Coal & Coke Co.
The total output from these coal mines for the year of 1904 was 1,274,070
tons of coal, and of coke 190,132 tons.

John Cooper Story

By: Buddy French

The community of Coopers :

The community of Coopers is located on the former Norfolk & Western Railway, Bluestone branch line where Mill Creek empties into the Bluestone River. It's situated midway between Bramwell, West Virginia and Pocahontas, Virginia and was founded by John Cooper. Cooper opened his first mine in 1884 near the headwaters of Mill Creek. As time and finances permitted, he began building a community along the banks of the Bluestone River where he and his family would live. A company store, employee housing, a church and train station soon dotted the landscape. A few private businesses also sprang up. A barber shop, three story boarding house, 'Poppy' Perdue's restaurant and Williams general store were located across the tracks and alongside the Bluestone River. At its peak, Coopers was bustling with activity from mining operations, passenger train service and passing coal trains. Its convenient location enabled one to make a quick trip by train to Bramwell, Pocahontas or Bluefield. Today, Coopers is a quiet and sparsely populated little hamlet with an illustrious past that has slowly faded into history. For the most part, it's only recognized by railroad and coal field history buffs for its significant contribution to the development of the Great Flat-Top Pocahontas Coal Fields.

John Cooper…The Making of a Coal Baron

Having learned his trade in the school of hard knocks, John Cooper's life was truly a story of rags to riches. He was born to a very poor family on Nov. 14, 1842, in Pensnett, a village in Staffordshire County, England. His father was a coal miner and by the age of six, John also began working in the mines to help with the family finances. His first job was a "trapper", one who opened and closed ventilation doors. He couldn't afford to go to school but was a regular attendant at Sunday school where he acquired the basics of reading and writing. He had a tremendous appetite for learning and collected old newspapers and discarded books, staying up late at night reading them.

When his father was killed in the mines he continued working there into his teenage years. He gained experience in just about every position in the mines but saw little opportunity for advancement. Upon hearing of the booming young coal industry in America, he and his mother and two brothers began making plans to come to this country. With the combined income of his brothers who also worked in the mines, they saved every penny they could over the next two years to pay for their voyage to the land of opportunity. In June 1862, they arrived in America and settled in the anthracite coal fields of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

John immediately applied for his naturalization papers so he could become an American citizen. While working in the Pennsylvania mines, he quickly advanced up through the ranks into management positions. In 1866 he returned to his hometown in England and married Maria Padbury and then returned to Pennsylvania with his new bride. Thomas, their first child was born there in 1869. Over the next three years Maria gave birth to two daughters, Annie and Sallie.

In 1873 John moved to the New River Gorge coal field of West Virginia where he established residence at Quinnimont.

That same year saw the birth of his fourth child and second son, Edward. He was confident that the newly developing coal field would give him access to new opportunities. John began working with Joseph L. Beury who had just recently opened the first coal mine in the New River Gorge field. There are historical references that Cooper was involved in other mining operations in this field, but only the more notable information will be listed here. While at Quinnimont, John gained valuable experience in developing and operating a mine. A short while later he acquired a small coal lease several miles down the New River Gorge near Hawksnest. It was a low coal seam measuring about thirty-six inches and very difficult to mine. Shortly after opening this mine, the coal fields were hit hard by a recession. In 1877 at the age of thirty-four and with no buyers for his coal, he closed his mine and found himself practically broke. Over the next few years, he became very discouraged and was barely able to feed and support his family.

In 1882, a German friend back in Pennsylvania heard of his misfortunes. He offered to lend money for train fare back to Pennsylvania for him and his family for which he was about ready to accept. At about the same time and at the height of his discouragement, he was contacted by the firm of Echols, Bell and Catlett of Staunton, Virginia. They advertised and offered to the public, investments in their company so they could buy up coal land in the New River coal field. Coal leases were then offered to those who could be trusted to open and successfully develop mines in return for a percentage of the profit. Being acquainted with John, they recognized the strong work ethic and keen business savvy he possessed. The market was recovering from the recession, and he was offered a lease in a 55-inch coal seam and $4000 to develop it. The mine was located just a short distance up the New River Gorge at Elm Station and his mine became known as the Elm Colliery. From that point on, John saw his life literally go from rags to riches as this was the catalyst that launched his business career to unimaginable new heights.

It is presumed that in 1882, Cooper was also keeping up with the news of a coal seam measuring twelve-foot thick, that had recently opened just across West Virginia's southern border at the present-day site of Pocahontas, Virginia. Named the Pocahontas No. 3 seam, this coal bed extended over into a large area of southern West Virginia. Its low ash and sulfur content earned it the reputation of "smokeless coal" and was soon to become known as one of the highest grade of coal in the world.

Recognizing the remarkable potential in this new field, John Cooper left the New River Gorge field and moved to Mercer County in early 1884. He quickly took up the business of securing a 1000-acre coal lease from the Bluestone Land Company. This land company would be taken over by the Flat-Top Coal Land Association which eventually evolved into the Pocahontas Land Corporation. His coal lease was located about three miles east of Pocahontas on the West Virginia side of the state line.

Coopers Sterling East and West Colliery was located at the base of Flat Top Mountain. It was the first to open in southern West Virginia's famous Flat-Top Pocahontas Coal Field. His first coal shipment was on November 4, 1884, after the Norfolk & Western Railway constructed a branch line from its Flat Top Extension, up Mill Creek to his mining operation. His mine originally opened under the name of John Cooper & Company, but on May 27, 1891, it was incorporated under the name of the Mill Creek Coal & Coke Company.

The Norfolk & Western Railway continued building its line down the Bluestone River and later named it their Bluestone Branch. In 1885, the N&W had begun developing plans to tunnel through Flat Top Mountain near the headwaters of Mill Creek and very close to Cooper's mining operations. From there, the N&W could extend its mainline down the Elkhorn Valley into McDowell County and on to Ohio. In 1886 and within just a few hundred feet of Cooper's coal tipple, the Norfolk & Western Railway entered a contract for construction of a tunnel. It would follow the contour of the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed through Flat-Top Mountain and was completed and ready for use by 1888. The new single-track tunnel measured 3,014 feet long by the time it exited the western slope of the mountain. Early N&W maps referred to it as the Flat-Top Tunnel but by 1890, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph newspaper called it the East End Tunnel. The N&W then changed the name to Elkhorn Tunnel, but it eventually became more locally known as the Coaldale Tunnel.

In 1888, John Cooper soon began preparations for developing a new mine near the railroad tunnels western entrance at the headwaters of Elkhorn Creek. It was incorporated under the name Coaldale Coal & Coke Company and began production circa 1890. Cooper quickly set out to build a community for his miners and their families and named it Coaldale.

Coaldale, West Virginia ca. 1910 :

Although it once consisted of approximately forty to fifty homes, a church, company store and an N&W power plant, there are few traces left of the old Coaldale community. Only a concrete water tank foundation and the collapsed entrance of the original N&W Coaldale Tunnel remain today. There's an archaeological gold mine of ruins for the Coaldale mining operation. Just a few hundred feet around the mountainside from the old Coaldale Tunnel entrance, one will find the site of the railroad load out yard for the Coaldale tipple. Also, there's a wall constructed of hand cut stone and the remains of brick tipple foundations. Just beyond the tipple site are remnants of 110 partially covered beehive coke ovens extending several hundred feet around the hillside. Some are still accessible where you will find chunks of coke lying on the oven floors.

John Cooper had a lengthy last will and testament drawn up and dated the 13th day of August 1894. He listed his wife Maria and seven children, Thomas, Annie, Sallie, Edward, Emma, Mary, and Kate as heirs to his wealthy estate. In 1899 Cooper had become ill and must have known he was dying. He had a codicil drawn up to amend his last will and testament dated the 1st day of August 1899. The reasons given in the will, and I quote were, "the business conditions of affairs have changed in such a way that I deem it inadvisable to direct that my Executors shall make division of my estate at the time and in the manner provided in clause "Sixth" of my said Will". Courtesy of Eastern Regional Coal Archives. The changes were apparently made to adjust for the business climate to be more advantageous to his heirs.

After John's passing in 1899, Thomas and then Edward continued to manage the Mill Creek operations until 1926 when William C. Atwater & Company bought the Mill Creek Coal & Coke Company but retained its famous name. The small coal mine John Cooper opened with a mule and borrowed harness in 1884 expanded many times over and played a significant role in supplying coal for the growth of industry in America. When the Mill Creek Corporation was dissolved in 1953, the Mill Creek Company mines had produced 24,022,000 tons of high-quality coal.

It's unfortunate that the little six-year-old boy who worked in the mines in England as a "trapper" would never live to see the tremendous success of the coal mining empire he had created. John Cooper died at home on Dec. 6, 1899, at the age of fifty-seven.