By William “Skip” Deegans
Using the labor of recent immigrants and freed African American slaves, the stretch on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad from White Sulphur Springs to the Ohio River was completed in 1873. Anticipating the completion, Pennsylvania coal operator and Civil War veteran, Col. Joseph E. Beury, formed the New River Coal Company and opened a mine at Quinnimont in Fayette County. The Engineering & Mining Journal estimated that a capital investment of $2,000 would open a mine capable of producing 2,000 tons weekly or 52,000 tons annually.
Beury was the first operator to ship coal from the New River field. His coal was loaded onto small railroad cars called “buck jennies” and shipped to Richmond. These hopper cars that were more commonly used to haul iron ore could hold 10 tons each. Modern coal cars contain 100-125 tons.
Shown in the undated photograph are early miner’s log homes.
Photograph courtesy of the West Virginia University West Virginia Regional History Center. Advertisement from the Richmond Dispatch, 1873.
Sources: The West Virginia News, Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, National Park Service, C&O Historical Society.
