CHAPTER XVII
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINERAL WEALTH.

Sullivan county is one of the great coal bins of American industry. For years the railroads and factories have been getting their fuel from the rich stores that underlie the green fields and wooded uplands of this county. Every mile or so along the E. & T. H. Railroad a switch opens a little line that runs back into the country to the mines. And every few hours a train of coal-laden cars is drawn out from this spur to the main road and hurried away perhaps hundreds of miles to factory furnaces. Coal is the larger part of the freight which originates in this county, the labor of producing it is the largest single industry, and the occupation furnishes to the county its most diverse and problematical social elements.

While the coal fields of Sullivan county have been known to exist and have been under development more or less for more than half a century, the fortunes of industrial progress have been such that the county has always been only a fuel storehouse, not also a manufacturing center. A group of factories located at the doors of the mines would seem an economic result, since it would appear to be cheaper to transport the finished material of manufacture rather than the bulky fuel with which to make it. But seemingly no fixed laws govern such matters, and sometimes the raw material of manufacture is brought to the coal supply, sometimes the fuel is conveyed to location of the raw material, and again factories are located at convenient railroad and labor centers, remote from both sources of fuel and materials of manufacture. Without inquiring- into the reasons in this particular case, it is sufficient to state that Sullivan county has been content to produce and send away its millions of tons of coal to manufacturing plants at a distance. At the time of this writing a new phase in these problems has appeared. The plan has been favorably discussed of converting the coal into power at the mines, and conveying the product through electric wires to the factories. By this plan the cost of fuel transportation would be practically eliminated, and it is possible that in a few years the coal on being drawn from the ground will be converted at the mouth of the mine into electric current, and thence flashed across the country to the motors of the cities and factories.

In the account given by David Thomas of his travels up the Wabash valley in 1816 (elsewhere quoted at length), after describing the Turman settlement and prairie, the writer says: "In this neighborhood we have passed a coal mine, which has been recently opened, though the work has been but partially performed . . . As the excavation is made in the channel of a small brook, the torrent, by removing loose earth, doubtless led to this discovery. All the strata of this fossil that we have seen in the western country has appeared near the surface; and it would not surprise me, if it should be brought forth in a thousand places where the shovel and the pickaxe have never yet been employed."

This is the earliest known mention of coal mining in Sullivan county. A general knowledge of the existence of the mineral throughout the Wabash valley was of an earlier date. The use of coal in these early years was entirely local. Occasionally someone would open a surface vein on his farm, and use its product as a substitute for wood. Or a blacksmith would sometimes burn the mineral coal instead of charcoal. Rut at that time the timber supply was abundant, and except in these individual instances the burning of coal had not come into vogue. Another obstacle to the general use of coal at that time was the fact that stoves were not yet introduced, and that a practical method of burning coal without the attendant inconveniences of dirt and smoke had not been devised.

Along in the thirties some coal from this vicinity was sent down the river by flatboat to New Orleans. The coal traffic had already begun between the ports of the upper Ohio and the lower Mississippi, and the Wabash valley coal sent downstream was said to command as high a price as the Pittsburg coal.

The railroads and factories are the principal consumers of coal. For domestic use the favorite fuel until within recent years was wood. There was accordingly little use for coal until the era of manufacturing and railroads. The development of the coal industry is closely involved with the evolution of transportation. Until the superior facilities of the railroads were afforded, the production of coal for distant markets was unprofitable, and on the other hand the railroads themselves soon became the largest users of coal. Though it is evident that coal was mined in this county during the first half of the nineteenth century, and that it was transported down the Wabash and perhaps overland for some distance before being placed on the flatboats, it may be stated that the history of coal mining as an industry began with the opening of the first railroad lines through this region. Of some interest in this connection is the statement contained in the report of the president of the Terre Hlaute & Indianapolis Railroad (Vandalia) in 1852, calling attention to the need of coal cars, since the coal traffic, in his judgment, was certain to be a large part of the railroad's business.

The first railroad in the county was put in operation in 1854. The following year an advertisement in the Democrat mentions the first practical coal mine in the county, the property of Hanchett & Kelly, of Farmersburg. This enterprising firm took the coal from a bank several miles from the railroad, and in order to obviate the transportation by wagon from mine to railroad, they built in the latter part of 1855 a wooden railroad, of a three-foot gauge, over the three miles to Farmersburg. Their cars were each of twenty-five bushels capacity, and it was of course necessary to reload into the regular railroad cars. Some years later the mining companies were able to persuade the railroads to build switch tracks out to the mines.

The development of the mining industry went on gradually during the following years. It is only within the past decade that this county has risen to rank among the leading counties of the state in amount of coal production. A newspaper item that appeared in the fall of 1863, while the war was in progress, states that large quantities of coal were being shipped from this county, and that in the machine shops of the Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad, where the coal was chiefly used, it was considered of a very superior quality. The adjacent counties were far in advance of Sullivan twenty-five years ago in the coal industry. The report of the department of statistics in 1883 gives the total production of the twelve mines of this county as 87,470 tons. In the same year Clay county mined 661,410 tons; Daviess county, 240,000 tons; Parke, 119,567 tons; and Vigo county, 96,710 tons. The average number of employes in Sullivan county in 1883 was 239, and the amount of capital invested was $74,050.

The remarkable rise of Sullivan county to first place among Indiana counties took place during the present decade. At the beginning of the century it ranked third or fourth, then advanced to second place, and the state geologist reported (August, 1906) that this county was first, with Greene second and Clay fifth. Estimates which were published in January, 1907, showed that the thirty-seven mines of this county produced an aggregate for the preceding year of 2,262,428 tons. Greene and Vigo counties were next, each having twenty-eight mines in operation. The total production of Greene was 2,243,584 tons, and of Vigo, 1,868,465 tons. The number of miners in the respective counties in the order just mentioned above was 3,666, 3.679 and 3,222.

When it is considered that the population of Sullivan county in 1900 was about 26,000, with allowances for the increase of the following six years, it is evident that the 3,666 miners are a large and important element of the total population, and that with their families and dependants they are capable of exerting a very great influence on the social and political life of the county.

During 1907 Sullivan county fell to second place in total production, being again passed by Greene county. The figures for that year are contained in the state geologist's report:

	Tons	Wages
Greene county	2,704,408	$2,189,153
Sullivan county	2,660,333	2,263,994
Vigo county	2,581,379	2,246,366

The thirty-four mines mentioned in the inspector's report had a total of 4,016 employes. The principal mining companies of the county at the time of this report were: The Indiana Southern Coal Company, Consolidated Indiana Coal Company, the Vandalia Coal Company, Dering Coal Company, Jackson Hill Coal Company, Shirley Hill Coal Company, Southern Indiana Coal Company, Sullivan County Coal Company, Carlisle Coal and Clay Company, etc., there being sixteen companies in all.

Some interesting statistics on the Sullivan county coal deposits are contained in the state geologist's report for 1898. On that authority, it is not difficult to understand the pre-eminence of the coal industry in this county, since it is estimated that 440 square miles of the county area (the whole of it) is underlaid with coal deposits, and that of this the area of workable coal is 365 square miles. In other words, four-fifths of the surface of the county has coal deposits underneath which may be made to yield fuel wealth. The estimated total of tons in the deposits was placed at 4,650,000,000 tons, and at the time of the report the estimated amount of workable coal still unmined was 950,000,000 tons. The total annual output of the county at the present time is about three million tons. Unless the demand or the working facilities make possible a production many times as great, it seems probable that Sullivan county will produce coal for several centuries to come. In the report for 1898, the greatest thickness of a coal vein in the county was coal 5 at Alum Cave, ranging from nine to eleven feet.

Chronological Notes on Coal Industry.

Jan. 25. 1866-Apparatus is placed for sinking coal shaft at Currysville.

Sept. 20, 1866-Superior quality of coal 5 feet thick is discovered at a depth of 173 feet.

Feb. 10, 1870-Hon. James M. Hanna deeded 160 acres in Curry township to his son B. G. Hanna and son-in-law Henry Overholser, who formed the Standard Coal Co., with a capital stock of $24,000.

Nov. 22, 1871-A meeting was held at Paxton preparatory to prospecting for coal in that vicinity. In October, 1872, Jasper Davis opened a bank of coal of good quality.

March 2, 1872-Organization of the Carlisle Coal Prospecting Co. completed, with William Orr, president, John Speake, secretary, and James M. Parvin, treasurer. Active work soon after begun.

March 30, 1872-Harry Stipes, Mr. Russell and Jonas Ladson behind a movement at Paxton to open a coal mine. The Paxton Coal Company organized, with capital of $4,500. Preparing to sink a shaft on farm of Jonas Ladson where the railroad crosses the Caledonia road.

March 12, 1873-Hinkle and Plough sinking a shaft at Pittsburg in Jackson township; Stansil & Co. to commence hoisting coal on Usrey farm; coal of good quality struck at Paxton at depth of 157 feet.

May 21, 1873-Mr. Daniel Case working a mine in Traders Hollow, in Cass township, with 7-foot vein of solid coal, a little better than the Silver Fork coal, hitherto the best in the county. S. R. Hamill and a Mr. Thomas in this township recently, considering the building of a switch from the E. & C. Railroad to the mines.

Aug. 19, 1874-Prospecting shaft at Shelburn, sunk below coal K, was a failure, a vein of inferior soft coal 2 feet 1 inch thick being the prize of their labor.

Aug. 19, 1874-After nine months of work without capital except their own industry and perseverance, the Handford brothers, having dug 201 feet, discovered a vein of good coal 3 1/2 feet thick. In August, 1878, an item stated that the Sullivan shaft of the Handford brothers employed 18 or 20 miners, and that wages had been advanced 10 cents a ton. Their original shaft had been sunk considerably deeper and they were then working a much better vein of coal. Nov. 21, 1878-About 4 p. m. explosion at Handford mine killed eight men, including Thomas and Samuel Handford. The explosion took place in the lower vein and was caused by a careless miner who used powder instead of a pick in opening an air passage, after having been warned of the presence of gas in the passages.

Nov. 11, 1874-Announcement made that special coal trains were being run over the E. & C. R. R. between Terre Haute and Shelburn.

Feb. 26. 1879-Coal in 4-foot vein, at a depth of 75 feet, found in Turman township on the land of F. M. Brown.

Aug. 15, 1884-Currysville Coal Co. of Sullivan county has been incorporated under the laws of the state, the purposes being to develop mining lands and utilize clay in the manufacture of brick. The capital stock, $50,000, the incorporators being George C. Richardson, Isaac Woolley, M. B. Wilson, John C. Chaney, Henry Hafer.

June 8, 1888-The board of equalization has been wrestling two days with attorney of the New Pittsburg Coal Co. over raising the valuation of the company's property from $9,000 to $20,000. The board have raised the valuations of other coal companies several thousand dollars each. The coal plant of the Pittsburg company, including the coke ovens, has cost about $50,000, and being new, would sell for at least two-thirds of that amount.

Feb. 7, 1883-Miners employed by the Shelburn Coal Co. at Sullivan and Shelburn are out on a strike. The price paid here has been $1.06 a ton, at Shelburn 90 cents. On Feb. 1st price was reduced at Sullivan to 86 cents and 69 cents at Shelburn because the railroad refuses to pay over one dollar a ton; price has been $1.25. The difference in price is caused by the difficulty of getting at the coal both here and at Shelburn.

June 15, 1886-Company has been organized to work the mine on the farm of Noah Crawford in Jackson township near the Clay county line. A contract has been made with the E. & T. H. R. R. by which that railroad company binds itself to construct and have in running order by September 1st a branch line from the mine to a point on the main line about one mile south of Farmersburg. The mine was near Alum Cave, at which a house was erected for the miners.

July 12, 1886-Excitement created by the announcement that the drill at the gas well had gone through an immense vein of cannel coal.

Nov. 1, 1887-Stock company has been organized at Pleasantville to mine coal. The town is underlaid with coal of superior quality. and coal that was mined here took the gold medal at the New Orleans exposition.

Feb. 8, 1889-Options have been taken on large bodies of land near Pittsburg in Jackson township by a syndicate of capitalists in which Pres. Mackey (E. & T. H. R. R.) is interested. A branch is to be run from the coal road now in operation between Farmersburg and Alum Cave to Pittsburg.

Feb. 12, 1889-The Superior Coal Company had sunk shaft on Shoefstall farm in south Cass township, built a house for the miners, and put in approved machinery. A branch of the I. & V. R. R. was constructed to the mine, but the coal has since been found to be defective and the mine is to be abandoned. Oct. 25, 1889-Reported that Superior mine is to resume work after idleness of about a year.

May 17, 1889-Town of Pittsburg is surveyed and lots platted.

Feb. 10. 1891-Citizens' meeting held at office of I. H. Kalley to consider the propriety of testing the 22-foot vein of cannel coal said to underlie the town (Sullivan) at a depth of 500 feet. Several committees appointed. March 13-Meeting at the town hall on March 11th was addressed by Thomas P. Fry of Chicago on subject of boring with diamond drill to test the existence of this coal vein. Dr. Crowder, C. W. Welman, Charles Padgett, C. L. Davis, Wm. Wilson, Stewart Barnes appointed a committee to canvass for subscriptions.

Feb. 27, 1891-The New Lebanon people are prospecting for coal. At Pleasantville a meeting was called in the M. E. church on the 18th to consider the advisability of organizing to drill for coal.

Oct. 20, 1893-The coal company that has lately opened a mine at Star City have bought 2,400 acres of land in the vicinity. The railroad is building a track from Hardersville to the mine.

Jan. 6, 1894-The 84,000 bushels of coal shipped daily from Jackson township require 140 cars of 600 bushels each.

May 19, 1893-The Island Coal Company loses its buildings at the Superior mine by fire on the early morning of May 14th. The loss included a block of coal weighing 5,700 pounds, mined at great expense for exhibition at the world's fair. The mines are the largest in the county. Loss, $50,000.

Feb. 7, 1893-Jackson Hill Coal Co., or members of that company, who own land in all directions around Hardersville, are sinking another shaft at a point four miles west of Hardersville.

Feb. 17, 1893-First-class coal can always be bought in Sullivan for two dollars a ton.

May 12, 1893-The Sentinel of May 9th reports that articles of incorporation of the West Jackson Coal Mining and Transportation Co. were filed; capital stock, $500,000; directors, John T. Hays, Sullivan, Emerson B. Morgan and W. F. Nisbet of Evansville.

July 4, 1893-A force of workmen have been put at work on the extension of the branch railroad to Hardersville, which will furnish an outlet for coal from the new mine being opened up near the King postoffice, where a town is being laid out to be called Star City. When completed (?) the line will make a loop from Farmersburg circling through Hymera, Hardersville and Star City, striking the main line again at Currysville. The coal business along the line of the I. & I. S. also being developed. A new mine has been opened on the edge of Busseron bottom, another near Dugger, while the Hancock and Conkle mine is to be improved with new machinery.

Feb. 13, 1894-The Jackson Hill mine at Hardersville was hooded on the 9th by the bursting of the reservoir used to furnish water for running the compressor. Over two hundred men were in the mine at the time, and alarmed by the roar of the water all started for the shaft. In order to reach it they had to cross the sump, in which the water had risen to within 18 inches of the roof. George Sargent, pit boss, took a position near the sump and remained standing in the water until he had seen the last man across.

July 20, 1899-Scarcely a week passes without news of investments in coal lands or of improvements in different plants in the county. The output of 1898 was the largest in the history of the county, nearly 700,000 tons, which is an increase of nearly fifty per cent over 1897. Miners have had steady employment at good wages, and no trouble of importance between them and the operators. All the old companies are running mines at full time. New shafts are being sunk one mile south of Dugger by Ingle and Co. of Evansville. who will employ 100 men and ship 500 tons daily; by the Hymera Company, to a recently tested vein seven feet thick and said to be of first-class quality: by the Jackson Hill Coal and Coke Company, near Eagle, who are lining their shaft with steel and equipping the plant with the latest electrical machinery; at Farmersburg, Noah Crawford, president of the company, is putting in new machinery and enlarging the plant. The E. & T. H. R. R. is building branches to the new mines.

Nov. 9, 1899-The Bunker Hill mine, owned by W. H. Crowder, to be improved with a 16o-horsepower electrical mining engine.

Sept. 5, 1901-Seven-foot vein opened at depth of 300 feet at Jackson Hill No. 3, three miles west of Jackson Hill postoffice.

March 6, 1902-Walter Bogle, coal operator of Chicago, has taken options on three or four thousand acres of land northeast of Sullivan, and purchased part of the land.

July 10, 1902-The United Coal Co. incorporated last week, with $100,000 capital, own 1,200 acres in Cass township along the I. C. Railroad. John T. Hays, Judge D. W. Henry and C. J. Sherman, directors.

July 10, 1902-The United Coal Company are paying cash for the lands bought in Cass township. In the past week John T. Hays and Judge Henry have paid out $30,000 and have $10,000 more to complete the deal for the 1,200 acres.

April 17, 1902-Little Giant Coal Co. organized with a capital of $100,000, the incorporators being John S. Bays, Cuthbert J. Sherman and Lee F. Bays. Their lands located one mile north of Pleasantville. - Walter S. Bogle Coal Co. has been incorporated, directors being Walter S. Bogle, Norman S. Birkland, Charles W. Gilmore, of Chicago, and John S. Bays and Walter S. Bogle, Jr., of Sullivan. Home office at Sullivan. The mine is two miles north of Sullivan, on the Southern Indiana, on land formerly owned by Dan. S. Herbert, and the company has bought 1,700 acres northeast of Sullivan.

July 10, 1902-The Ehrmisch Coal Co. of Brazil is buying 1,000 acres from D. E. Everhart, Austin Everhart, and T. C., J. H. and Mrs. W. H. Magill, at fifty dollars an acre. Of the 400 acres sold by D. E. Everhart at $20,000, half of it was bought by him a few years ago for $2,000, and he paid for it through hard work and thrift.

Aug. 28, 1902-J. D. Terhune made payments yesterday on 800 acres south of the White Rabbit mine, in Cass and Jefferson townships. The stockholders of the new company being mostly residents of Jeffersonville and New Albany, they have called their company the Jefferson Coal Co.

Oct. 2, 1902-Almost the entire east half of the county is now either sold or under option to coal companies. The largest mine is the Bogle, northeast of Sullivan, which is now prepared to ship coal. The shaft is 180 feet deep. This mine will employ 400 men.

Nov. 13, 1902-Another attempt to organize a coal trust fails. The project was in the hands of A. M. Ogle, J. Smith Talley, J. K. Siefert, Jacob Kolsem and other well-known operators, who designed to organize all the mines of the state. The profits of the coal industry for the previous months had been so large that the properties were held at inflated values, and investors would not buy.

Dec. 20, 1902-The largest deal in coal lands yet closed in the county was transacted when the Manufacturers Mining and Fuel Co. secured 1,200 acres of coal lands in Hamilton township, about a mile north of Sullivan. Anderson and Muncie capital behind the deal. Test drillers had been working there night and day for three months, the tests showing a thickness of five feet in No. 6 vein, five and a third feet in No. 5, and a fair vein of No. 7, with good roof. The Southern Indiana Railroad was projected to pass through the middle of this land, and it was also accessible by the Illinois Central.

Dec. 25. 1902-All the coal lands east of the E. & T. H. R. R. said to be taken up. Jackson township except in the extreme north is honeycombed with the mines of Harder and Hafer, who also operate 1,200 acres for the E. & T. H. R. R., the Ehrmann Coal Company, the Fairbanks Land & Improvement Co., and the New Pittsburg Coal & Coke Co. Cass township has many small operators. D. J. Terhune and the U. S. Steel Corporation have 1,200 acres. The largest mine is now the Wolford in Curry township. Job, McDonald and Matson have 1,200 acres for the Mammoth Co. in Hamilton township, Keller Mining Co. has 1,400 acres, Bogle Mining Co. has 1,280 acres. Green Hill Coal and Mining Co. has 1,000 acres -all in Hamilton township. Drilling has also begun west of the railroad. Land selling at double the price of a year ago.

Jan. 1. 1903-Louis Hicks, representing a syndicate of Indianapolis men, has ordered abstracts of 900 acres just west of the Southern Indiana Coal Co. at Gilmour. William Zellars of Brazil, who recently bought 1,000 acres, has purchased another thousand. Some land is bought complete, at $50 for "the top," and $40 for the "bottom."

Jan. 8, 1903-U. S. Steel Corporation is engaged in securing 2,000 acres between Farmersburg and Shelburn. The most serious obstacle now with operators is scarcity of miners.

Jan. 22, 1903-Manufacturers and Consumers Fuel Co. of Anderson has purchased 2,700 acres of coal land in Hamilton township. The coal is badly needed in the gas-belt factories, and shafts will be sunk at once.

Jan. 22, 1903-The Fairbanks Coal Co. has been organized to supply that township, whose residents now have to go east of the E. & T. H. R. R. for their coal, sometimes waiting 24 or 48 hours for their turn. The capital of $6,000 is all subscribed, and the drilling commenced Monday.

March 5, 1903-The Indiana Harbor R. R. Co. buys 1,980 acres west of Farmersburg; must mean that that railroad is coming to the county (?).

April 16, 1903-Shaft to be sunk for the E. & T. H. R. R. five miles northeast of Sullivan. New York capitalists buy 6,000 acres in Cass and Hatldon townships, and four mines to be opened at once. It is expected that the Monon will run its Summit-Vincennes extension through this tract.

May 28, 1903-James Epperson, state mine inspector, estimates that the mining capacity of coal mines will be increased about 20 per cent this year, due to the increase of facilities. This increase is almost entirely confined to Greene and Sullivan counties.

July 16, 1903-J. K. Dering of Chicago gets 4,000 acres from Paxton to the Jefferson township line. - County Assessor Francis E. Walters estimates that 50,000 acres of mineral land in this county have been sold at an average of $30 per acre. In nearly all the deeds inflated values have been assigned, and according to the consideration named in the deeds about $3,000,000 has been paid into the county. At the present time the sales average about 2,000 acres a week.

Aug. 13, 1903-Eleven mines are now under construction within a radius of seven miles north and east of Sullivan.

Aug. 20, 1903-J. Smith Talley, Charles J. Barnes, F. T. Dickason and others have incoporated the Shirley Coal Co., $650,000 capital, to work in Cass township.

Sept. 10, 1903-According to the state mine inspector, Mr. Epperson, nine-tenths of the coal development in the state is in Sullivan and Greene counties, though fourteen counties ship coal. The Southern Indiana Railroad has done much to give facilities. The annual output in these two counties reaches about 5,000,000 tons.

Oct. 15, 1903-The coal company of Fairbanks have laid out a town of 26 lots, and have voted to call it Dixie, but as there is another postoffice of that name in the state it will have to be changed.

Nov. 19, 1903-Mining operations handicapped by great scarcity of cars, especially on the Southern Indiana.

March 3, 1904-The Indiana & Chicago Coal Co. will sink two shafts to veins 3 and 4. One shaft north of Dugger will ship over the I. C. and Southern Indiana, while the one south of Dugger will use the Indianapolis Southern and the Indianapolis and Vincennes. The sinking of so many shafts puts Sullivan county in good condition to stand a strike.

Aug. 11, 1904-The Fairbanks Coal Co. about ready for business. Their coal is surpassed in point of combustible matter by only one mine in the state.

Jan. 12, 1905-The largest deal in coal mines yet consummated in Indiana has been or will be closed within the next few days. Twelve or more big mines along the C. & E. I. and the E. & T. H. railroads have been acquired by the Dering Coal Co. of Chicago, formed under the corporation laws of Delaware and capitalized at $5,000,000. It is understood that the Frisco System is back of the enterprise. Nearly every mine acquired has a capacity of two thousand tons a day. Some of the mines lie near Clinton, and two are in Illinois.

Feb. 2, 1905-Report of state geologist: New shafts sunk in Indiana, 37: in Sullivan county, 10; Clay county, 6; Greene county, 6; abandoned in Indiana, 11; in Sullivan county, 0. Tons mined in Sullivan county for past year, 1,553,338, giving this county third place. Powder used in Greene county, 51,633 kegs; in Vigo county, 71,669 kegs: in Sullivan county, 23,526 kegs. One keg mines 43 tons in Greene county, 24 tons in Vigo, and 65 tons in Sullivan. Sullivan county employs 275 pick miners, 178 machine miners and helpers, 908 loaders, 476 inside day and monthly men, and 283 outside day men. Seventeen mines in operation in Sullivan county. Nine fatal accidents in this county, out of 55 in the entire state.

Feb. 16, 1905-Dering Coal Co. absorbs the Willfred mine in Jackson township, of which Paul Wright was president and largest stockholder.

Feb. 23, 1905-A Chicago syndicate has closed deal for 1,500 acres of land in Curry township, northeast of Shelburn. Market for coal lands is now very dull, owing to the depressed condition of the coal trade.

March 30, 1905-The mining company at Alum Cave is preparing to move its property. The mine has now been burning for three years.

April 6, 1905-Nine mines owned by a company of which J. K. Seifert of Chicago is the head have been transferred to the Indiana Southern Coal Company of which D. W. Cummins is president. Rumored that John R. Walsh is at the head of the new company. The nine mines, which brought $2,000,000, include the Shelburn, Citizens, Cummins, Alum Cave, Gilmour, Green Hill, Indiana Hocking and the mines of the Forest Coal Company and the Pittsburg Coal Co. - The mines of the Dering Company have contracts to furnish coal to the C. & E. I., Frisco, part of the Rock Island System, and some plants of the U. S. Steel Corporation.

May 4, 1905-A New York syndicate has bought seven of the largest mines in the county for about $2,500,000, John S. Bays having managed the deal. The properties include the St. Clair mine of the North Jackson Hill Coal and Mining Co., the White Ash mine of the Hymera Coal and Mining Co., the Star City mine of the Harder and Hafer Coal Mining Co., the Union Coal Co., the Glendora mine of the W. S. Bogle Coal and Mining Co., and the Kellar Coal Co. Ten thousand acres are involved in the transaction, with an annual output of about two million tons. It is certain that the railroads are behind the deal.

May 4, 1905-Indiana Southern Coal Co., of which D. W. Cummins is president and J. K. Seifert secretary and treasurer, has closed deal for 2,200 acres of undeveloped coal land lying south of Jackson Hill in Cass and Jackson townships.

May 19, 1905-John S. Bays is named as the Indiana agent of the Consolidated Coal Co., a Maine corporation capitalized at $4,000,000, of which $3,400,000 is the amount represented in Indiana. The company owns eight Sullivan county mines in operation and has leases over several thousand acres in the county. This company is one of three large ones which have been fighting the past year for control of that field. (Indianapolis News.)

May 19, 1905-R. B. Harder and Hymera Coal Co. pay out more than $80,000 to farmers for coal lands in Jackson township.

May 25, 1905-Thousands of acres in Haddon, Turman, Fairbanks and Gill townships have been optioned for coal in the last few months.

June 22, 1905-Lattas Creek Coal Co. buys out Keystone Coal Co. and about $80,000 worth of coal lands besides, all in northern Cass township. Indiana Southern Coal Co. supposed to be back of the transaction.

July 13, 1905-The Vandalia Coal Co., the largest of six big combinations and capitalized at $7,000,000, is buying in Sullivan county the Island Valley Coal Co., the Indiana & Chicago, the Indianapolis and Sullivan, the Superior mine, and the property of the J. Smith Talley Coal Co., containing 2,200 acres of undeveloped land.

July 20, 1905-Seventy mines in Indiana have now been merged into six big operating companies.

July 27, 1905-Pennsylvania capitalists have drill at work on the Joe Akin farm near Carlisle. The Frisco System has leased 2,000 acres near there.

Sept. 7, 1905-Mines Nos. 1 and 2, or Consolidated 31 and 32, at Hymera, were shut down a day or two ago, and it is reported thev will not resume work for thirty days. The only reason so far as the public knows is that there is no market for the coal and that the company can not get it hauled into Chicago. The Hymera people hope that when Walsh gets his road into Chicago that such difficulties will be solved.

Sept. 14, 1905-Better times are predicted as result of merger. The Vandalia Coal Co., which is the holding, company of the Vandalia Railroad, assumes control of eighteen coal companies distributed in Vigo, Clay, Greene, Sullivan and Knox counties.

Nov. 20, 1905-Coal mining industry looks brighter at Dugger. Keeley mine, which has been closed since last August for repairs, has opened with a small force. New shaker screens and endless rope system of haulage have been installed so that capacity of mine has been increased. New steel tipple at Caledonia soon to be completed.

Dec. 21, 1905-Secretary of the U. M. W. of A. reports that the mines in the 11th district work only about four days a week.

Jan. 6, 1906-The blockades are lifted and car shortage felt at only a few places. The railroads handled more Indiana coal in December than in the same month last year.

Jan. 11, 1906-The Paragon Coal Co., capitalized at $5,000,000, has been organized at Terre Haute with headquarters there. To operate mines about Shelburn and Farmersburg.

Jan. 25, 1906-The coal trade in Illinois and Indiana less satisfactory than last year. The shot-firers bill caused a shutdown of eight days throughout the state, the first general shutdown since 1897.

Feb. 1, 1906-Government tests at St. Louis show that Indiana coal is the greatest steam-producing coal in the country.

Feb. 15, 1906-The Consolidated Indiana Coal Co. sell some large mines in this county to the Dering Coal Co. Understood to mean that the Rock Island interests have assumed control of both companies.

The Strike of 1906.

April 5. 1906-The miners working in the mines owned by members of the operators' association were all out on a holiday April 2. Many were in town making the most of what is expected to be a few days' strike. No Sullivan county operators have yet signed the 1903 scale, but some have signified their willingness, and operators in other parts of the state are signing.

April 19, 1906-Miners have been idle two weeks, and business men complain. There is not the usual amount of drunkenness. Squire High of Fontanet asked the brewing companies not to follow their former custom of sending free beer to aid the miners, and the brewers heeded the request. In former years there was much carousing during a period of idleness among the miners. The Sullivan County Coal Co. at Dugger has signed the scale, being the third member of the operators association to do so, and for this it will probably be expelled from the association. The Carlisle Clay and Coal Co. had signed previously, and both mines are open and a full force at work.

May 10, 1906-The fear that the raihoads would refuse to furnish cars deters many small operators from signing scale. District President O'Connor furnishes statement to show that at least ten large owners have signed.

May 24, 1906-The joint convention of miners and operators fails to agree. The miners declare that it would be unfair to arbitrate as long as enough operators have signed to produce one-fourth of the regular output of the state.

June 14, 1906-Agreement is reached by the strike committee of the Indiana miners and the operators on June 13th, after a session of 17 days. Four hours after signing of the agreement the whistle of Citizens Mine announced work to begin following day. The men to get the 1903 scale, but agree to some changes of conditions. The 1903 scale means an increase of five and a half percent over the scale of 1904-05. About 52 mines had agreed to the scale between April 1 and June 1, and about 3,000 miners were at work before the final agreement.

July 19, 1906-The Carlisle mine resumes work after being closed two weeks, new machinery having been installed to increase the output from 200 tons to 2,000 tons a day.

Aug. 2, 1906-There is no demand for coal, and the miners of the nth district are practically without work. The only mines working, are those under contract to supply manufacturing concerns.

Oct. 4, 1906-The government reports five important mining consolidations in Indiana during 1905. The Vandalia took the Island Coal Co. in Sullivan and Greene counties, the Indiana & Chicago Coal Co. in Sullivan county, as well as many mines in other counties. The Dering company bought the J. Wooley Coal Co., Brouillets Creek Coal Co., Wilfred Coal Co., Indian Fuel Co., W. S. Bogle Coal and Mining Co., Willow Grove Coal Co., in Sullivan, Vigo and Vermillion counties. The Consolidated Indiana Coal Co. merged the properties of the North Jackson Hill Coal Mining Co., the Sullivan County Coal Mining Co., the Union Coal Co., Harder and Hafer Coal Mining Co., Hymera Coal Mining Co., and Kellar Coal Co., all but one being in Sullivan county. The Indiana Southern Coal Co. took over the Indiana Hocking Coal Co., the Citizens Coal Co., the Cummings Coal Co., the Rainbow Coal Co., New Pittsburg Coal and Coke Co., Greene Hill Coal and Mining Co. in this county. Many other properties were brought under one management by the transactions of the large companies in adjoining counties.

March 14, 1907-Nearly every mine in the 11th district running on half time on account, it is claimed, of no demand for coal. Miners are facing one of the most serious propositions in the history of the district.

April 23, 1907-All joint traffic rates on coal existing between the Southern Indiana and the Big. Four railroads to sixty cities on the latter road have been suspended. It is understood that many if not most of the thirty mines on the Southern Indiana will be compelled to cease operations. Many mines arc already closed for repairs, lack of work, great amount of coal on hand, and no market. Because of the withdrawal of the rates no coal from the 11th district is sent into the gas belt.

March 14, 1908-16,000 miners in the 11th district vote to strike. The fining system, docking, delivery of powder, and top wages are the subjects of contention. Miners claim that they are fined for failure to live up to contract, when there is no corresponding penalty for the operators. It is considered an inopportune time for strike, since there is no demand for coal.

June 30, 1908-T. E. Willard, the government expert in the employ of the geological survey, has visited and examined all the mines in the county except a few small ones. He thinks the mines in Indiana far superior to those of other states in methods used. West Virginia is the only state outside of Pennsylvania where he has seen mines in the same class with those in Sullivan county so far as methods go.

Oil and Gas.

During the present decade Sullivan county has attained to some importance in the production of oil and gas. Its oil wells have proved comparatively small as measured with the oil districts of adjacent counties, both in this state and in Illinois, but the discovery of gas about two years ago has earned for the county the title of the "Sullivan county gas field."

Shortly after the close of the Civil war some interest was taken in the deposits of oil which were disclosed in the Wabash valley. At Terre Haute a deep well, being sunk by Chauncey Rose, struck oil in small quantities, but the discovery was not appreciated. This was in 1865, only a few years after Drake and his associates had begun the development of the oil regions about Titusville, Pennsylvania. The use of the new fuel and its appearance in the markets of the world were regarded with much interest, and the discussion of the oil deposits, the methods of obtaining it from wells, and its value as a natural resource attracted attention everywhere. So it is not strange that the possibility of oil deposits in Sullivan county was often considered, and evidences of oil would attract popular attention. The first published item of this kind so far as known was contained in the Democrat of February 9, 1865, in which it is stated that a well of drinking water on the lot of Air. Otto is affected by the taste of petroleum, and that indications of oil appear on the surface of the water after it has stood for awhile. An intention was expressed to bore for oil in that locality.

The following year (1866) proved to be one of much excitement over the oil development in this county. In January it was reported that the Oil and Mining Company of Celina, Ohio, had leased 1,100 acres of land about ten miles northwest of Sullivan with the purpose of boring for oil. M. Beardsley of Merom was one of the incorporators of the company.

A little later two companies were formed to test for oil. In one of the bores made, gas was discovered in such quantities that the work could not be continued and the well was plugged. Natural gas was not yet in favor as fuel.

In May the Sullivan County Oil and Mining Company secured the lease of a well which had been bored by the railroad company some six or eight years before, near the Sullivan depot. After being sunk about 600 feet, the well was abandoned. At this depth, stated the Democrat, a peculiar substance had been found which at the time was unknown, but which was now believed to be petroleum.

The interest in oil soon died out, and the work of prospecting, was not productive of any practical results. Alore than three decades passed before attention was again paid to the oil and gas deposits of this section of the state.

The renewal of the efforts to develop the oil and gas deposits of of the county began with the opening of the present century, about coincident with the opening of the western Indiana and eastern Illinois fields. But actual operations in this county are still more recent. At the close of 1904 what was known as the Sullivan Gas and Oil Company (J. P. Johnson, of Princeton, president; F. J. Biggs, Princeton, secretary, and Sam A. White, of Sullivan, treasurer) leased a large amount of land in the western part of the county, and test wells were sunk in some places. Oil was discovered 011 the McGrew farm east of Farmersburg, and gas was struck at a depth of 250 feet by Harder and Hafer, southeast of that town.

The most important development of gas, which brought into general use the term "Sullivan county gas field," centered in the striking of gas on the Jamison farm about two miles west of Sullivan, where the presence of derricks, the working of the pumps and the pipes at the roadside are evidence of a prosperous gas field. On the night of April 16, 1907, the drill penetrated to the gas, and all night long the well continued to blow out oil and stone. A few flays later tests showed 300 pounds rock pressure, said to be within 50 pounds of the strongest well in the state. The Jamison farm has since continued the largest scene of operations in this county, both for gas and oil. During the year half a dozen wells were put down, and in November wells 4, 5 and 6 were reported to yield about forty barrels of oil a day.

The following items from the Democrat indicate the progress of the oil and gas development:

Aug. 17, 1905-The Jones Oil and Gas Company, the largest independent operators in the state, have leased 2,100 acres near Dugger, and 5,000 acres near Carlisle; boring to begin soon.

Dec. 28, 1905-Gas has been struck at a depth of 535 feet by the Fairbanks Gas and Coal Co.; Jan. 4, 1906-the gas has been piped to the engine boiler and boring continued, in search of oil.

May 3, 1906-The well on the farm of J. W. Bowen near Fairbanks was shot at depth of 440 feet, and said to have a capacity of ten or fifteen barrels a day.

June 7, 1906-Articles of incorporation of the Carlisle Oil and Gas Co. filed; $10,000 capital at one dollar per share. To drill on the farms of Finley Collins and William R. Colvin southeast of Carlisle.

July 16, 1906-Egypt Oil and Gas Co. files articles of incorporation to work in Indiana and Illinois. Sullivan men backing the company.

Dec. 27, 1906-Company formed at Farmersburg. Its first test well at depth of 1,900 feet yields few indications of oil.

Feb. 21, 1907-A little gas and some oil found at the well 011 the Julius Hoseman farm southeast of Merom. Well was drilled to 1,100 feet, then plugged to 700 feet where a layer of oil sand had been found, and was then shot; April 11-estimated that from 10 to 25 barrels of oil are now flowing from this well, with a large quantity of salt water.

April, 1907-Work has begun on T. H. Mason farm, south of the Jamison farm, and a company of local men leased about 1,100 acres near Sullivan and began drilling on the Frank Mason farm south of town.

Jan. 9, 1908-Hamilton Oil and Gas Co. has sold 1,000 barrels of oil to a Terre Haute firm from the Jamison wells.

April 25, 1907-Good flow at the Barnard well 100 feet south of the Jamison.

May 23, 1907-Oil sand struck at the Park Osborne well five miles northwest of Sullivan at depth of 527 feet.-Bailey McConnell, president of the Carlisle Oil and Gas Co., has signed over all the leases held by them on 4,000 acres southeast of Carlisle to the Union Oil Co. of Pennsylvania.

April 9, 1908-The Big Four Oil and Gas Co. of Bridgeport, Illinois, has leased hundreds of acres near Farnsworth and begun the building of the biggest rig in the county.

May 7, 1908-The Crawford Oil Co., after spending thousands of dollars and months of time, is about to abandon the territory east of Paxton.

June 18, 1908-A corps of surveyors now at work in Sullivan county for the Tide Water pipe line.