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History of Cambria County, V.1

574 HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.  
gheny Portage railroad, near the foot of Plane No. 4, now Lilly. The mine was about 300 yards from the road. The diagram accompanying the report shows that the coal road led up to the Portage railroad, evidently for the purpose of shipping coal by rail.
     Samuel Lemon, the father of John and Samuel Lemon, of Hollidaysburg, opened a mine near the foot of Plane No. 5, west of the Summit, and shipped coal on that road at a very early date. The Lemon seam of coal was named for him, as he was the first person in this locality to work it.
     In 1840 there were 41 coal miners in Cambria county, of whom 35 were in Washington township; three in Johnstown, and three in Conemaugh township.
     The first coal operators at South Fork were Jacob C. and George B. Stineman, Samuel Paul, Joseph Croyle and Richard J. Hughes, who organized the South Fork Coal and Iron Company in 1869, and opened the first vein of coal for the purpose of mining and shipping. At this time, about one hundred large cars, averaging forty tons to the car, are being shipped daily from South Fork and its immediate vicinity, which includes the Ehrenfeld mines.
     On January 1, 1862, it was noted in the newspapers that the Pennsylvania railroad had just added 200 eight-wheeled cars to its rolling stock for the increased trade of the Westmoreland Coal Company, whose mines were at Irwin and Shafton. Eight wheel cars at that time carried from nine to ten tons of coal.
     The first official record of the bituminous coal mined was kept in 1820, when there were 3,000 tons mined in Maryland. Twelve years later the output had been increased to 12,000. The federal records show that it began in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana, Alabama, Iowa, Arkansas, and North Carolina in 1840, when there were 464,826 tons mined in Pennsylvania, and three tons in North Carolina.
     The coal in the northern part of the county began to be developed in 1882, when the late Judge Dean, who was then president Judge of the Cambria courts, purchased coal along the Clearfield creek and built the "Cresson, Clearfield and New York Short Route R. R.," which was chartered December 19, 1882, to extend from Cresson to Irvona. It was thrown into service May 1, 1886, and was subsequently purchased by the Pennsylvania railroad, now forming a part of the Cambria & Clearfield division. The coal was bought for about five or


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Created: 5 Aug 2006, Last Updated:
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Lynne Canterbury, Diann Olsen and contributors