My second photo of the U. S. Steel owned Limestone Mines at Yellow Dog (Shadyside Village), Pennsylvania (near Worthington, PA)
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A place for documents, musings, and photos related to Worthington, Kittanning, Armstrong County, Western Pennsylvania, James Claypoole and allied families. This is the place where the odds and ends will find an online home.
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- Eric W. Cook
- A teacher, writer, and musician when not busy being a father and husband.
Keep them coming, I can get these to my dad and uncle to see if he can identify anyone. He worked there and they grew up next to the mine. We were at the portal this summer
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe! There are some nice photos in the Armstrong County book that was published in the late 1990's. I think this one of mine and two others that I don't have were published. Plus the two I have that I haven't seen published else where.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to try to track all the men that worked at the mine and have them tell their stories before they're gone.
Please post any information you have - it would be a great help to anyone interested in labor history, mining history, Armstrong County history, family history, etc.
These photos came from John Claire Ruffaner who was my great grandfather. He worked at the mines from around 1914-1930 when he was laid off during the depression. My grandmother was born in a house in Yellow Dog. John Claire was nick named Addie after the old miner in the photo. Sadly he died before I was born and none of his children could identify the other men in the photos without guessing, and then they weren't even sure. It had been too long. I'll try to get the reference for the Armstrong book for you if you don't have a copy.
Thanks again!
Eric
Eric, my name is Cady and I live in Shadyside village, and there are rumors about a mine collapse in the 1930s if you have any info about that. will you please contact me at my email
ReplyDeleteohsnapitszcadyx3@yahoo.com
thanks, have a nice day (:
Cady, I am unaware of a mine collapse, but that is certainly a possibility I'll look into.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is limestone mining operations ceased between 1930-33, due to the Great Depression. The Mushroom mines began I think in 1935, but I should double check that. It is possible that after regular mining ceased a cave in may have occurred because the mine would not have been maintained. Also it is possible a cave in during operations in the early 1930's may have convinced U.S. Steel to suspend operations. I'm not sure, those are just guesses. I'll ask around and look at some old newspapers, but I'd never heard of a cave in, although, that doesn't mean there wasn't one.
Thanks,
Eric
thanks so much for the message back. My mother in law and I have been searchin this for about two weeks now and your site is the closest thing we have come too. We have weird stuff happen in our house and a friend of ours said that the one set of houses were company houses and where our house is, where the mine was. And in the early 1930s is when our friend said the cave in was and 100 some people died. so if you find anything out let me know. thanks again!
ReplyDeleteCady
Dear Cady,
ReplyDeleteYou should never trust everything you read on the internet - or that other people tell you.
After some research, here is a little history of the Yellow Dog mines.
The mines were opened sometime in the 1890's and owned not by U.S. Steel as I thought, but by a company called Pittsburgh Limestone. Pittsburgh Limestone produced some cement, building a plant for that purpose at Yellow Dog in the 1910's. They also sold their limestone to the various steel companies in Pittsburgh, including U. S. Steele. The Limestone was moved out of the Buffalo Valley by the Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Rochester Railroad who ran a spur line down from their junction and Passenger station that used to be in Craigsville.
The mine company built the town in the late 1910's or early 1920's. It was called Yellow Dog because the miners promised to not unionize in exchange for higher wages and better treatment from the company.
In the 1930's the mine closed for long stretches due to the depression, and part of the old mines where leased to the future Moonlight Mushroom company. The mine was in full operation by the late 1930's and during World War II. The mine finally ceased producing in 1952. The company houses were sold as a unit at that time as well.
I haven't finished looking for any cave in, but a couple of notes.
1. This was all slope or face mining. That is the miners dug into an existing rock face or cliff, the did not dig down as in deep mines. If there was some deep mining it was all on the opposite side of the creek, and under the slop entrances, but I do not believe any of the original mining was deep, but I might be wrong about this.
2. If there was a cave in that killed more than one or two miners - it would be very, very well known to this day. My great-grandfather and several brothers and cousins all worked in the mines full time in the 1910's through the 1950's, my grandfather on my other side of the family worked there part-time in the late 1930's up until 1941 when he was drafted for the U.S. Army. Worthington and Yellow Dog were very small tight-knit communities, combined population of less than 1,000; and any cave in that killed or injured more than one or two men, well that would have been a huge disaster that would have been well remembered. In fact I doubt there were every 100 miners working at a time in the yellow dog mines. The group photos of employees never show more than about 60 to 100 at a time.
3. All the housing in Shadyside Village - was company housing except the one modern house at the top of the hill. There was no mine under any of the housing. The mining was all on the opposite side of the valley from the village.
I think someone is pulling your leg. They are obviously just making things up to scare you.
I hope that helps.
EW Cook, please feel free to post more pics at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yellow-Dog-Worthington-PA-Please-POST-a-Memory/235411209842498?fref=nf
ReplyDeleteLori Frantz
olgadabest@yahoo.com