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ABOUT PENNS MANOR SCHOOL The land that makes up much of the state of Pennsylvania was given to a man named William Penn by King Charles II of England in the early 1700s. William Penn was an English Quaker who had founded the colony of Pennsylvania. Early settlers once moved onto land in the center of Green Township, an area they named "Penns Manor." Some time later a new township called Cherryhill Township was formed out of Green and Brushvalley Townships (in 1854), and Clymer is now located in Cherryhill Township. It was decided at one time to name the public schools "Penns Manor." (Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woodland.") ABOUT THE COAL MINING INDUSTRY IN CLYMER About the turn of the century the Peale family interests began surveys in the Clymer area. There were several companies: Russell Coal Company, Victor Coal Mining Company, Penn Run Coal Company, and Peale Coal Company. The major company was called Peale, Peacock, and Kerr. At one time the Peale interests had as many as nine mines operating in the area. Also commencing in 1905, The Russell Coal Company, part of the Peale family interests, and the Pioneer Coal Company, with its Rodkey and McKean mines in Buck Run, were also manned by Clymer men, many of whom lived along the north end of town. Coal mined at Clymer was shipped at an average of 2,500 tons a day in 1915 over the tracks of the New York Central Railroad. The Pioneer Coal Company later became the Empire Coal Company, and the company was allocated a large group of houses on the north end of Clymer, chiefly along Second Street. All the houses were owned by the Dixon Run Land Company. A row of houses on Harrison Street was (and still is) called "Seventeen Row."
Miners probably looked like these miners at the Iselin mine. Photo courtesy of John Busovicki.
The first foreman of Mine Number One was Pete Stewart. Other foreman since Stewart were: John Carlton, Sr., David Baird, Harvey Harmon Hetrick, Jake Frantz, Albert Bangston, Fred Ftancock, John Hutchinson, Fred Hancock, John Leadbetter, and J. F. Simpson. It's interesting to note that the miners at Sample Run Mine went on strike in 1917 because two men employed at the tipple were denied a few cents wage increase. Later, due to serious labor disputes, the New York Central railroad tracks were dynamited near the Sample Run Mine in 1928. A former United Mine Workers local president of Clymer, John Smith, was convicted and sentenced to prison. Before coal was mined in the Clymer area, there were many coal-mining operations taking place across the state. Coal was needed not only for heating and electrical generators, it was used to fuel the Industrial Revolution (such as in Andrew Carnegie's Steel Mills in Pittsburgh). As a consequence, many "boom" towns, like Clymer, grew up overnight. (There are also many towns like Peale, Pennsylvania that, when the coal ran out, became ghost towns.) Coal and its byproducts are also used as ingredients in many products. THE CLEARFIELD BITUMINOUS COAL CORPORATION The Clearfield Bituminous Coal (CBC) Corporation in Indiana County was formed in 1904 at the office of M. C. Watson in Indiana. (The company was originally formed earlier based out of New York.) Those involved in the transaction were Rembrandt and Frank Peale (New York), C. C- Springer (Boston), J. L, Mitchell (Philadelphia), Harry and J. 0. Clark (Glen Campbell), E. H. Ellsworth (Arcadia Coal Company), and M. C. Watson. In 1895, the original company acquired 2,000 acres of coal lands in Cambria County, which is adjacent to and east of Indiana County. In 1903, they acquired 15,000 acres of coal land in central Indiana County (with 10,000 acres along Two-Lick Creek). Since 1898, the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation had been a producer of "captive" coal, i.e., coal produced exclusively for New York Central Railroad, and so the Clymer mines were termed "captive mines." The coal remained captive up until 1947 when a new charter was created that permitted the private sale of school to other enterprises other than the New York Central Railroad. In 1920, the CBC Corporation had a building constructed at Water and Eighth Streets in Indiana to serve as their new corporate headquarters. ABOUT SAMUEL AND REMBRANDT PEALE Samuel Richard Peale (1830-1910) was the son of Dr. John W. Peale. S. R. Peale, an attorney, was elected as a state senator of Pennsylvania. The town of Peale was named after S. R. Peale. In 1881, S. R. Peale bought coal lands in Clearfield County. He had several business partners: John Reading, William Wallace, J. M. Gazzam, and William H. Vanderbilt. (* Note: A Commodore Vanderbilt established a model coal-mining town at Commodore, Pennsylvania, in 1920.) S. R. Peale purchased the right of way for the Beech Creek railroad, which was affiliated with the New York Central railroad lines. S. R. Peale and wife had six children: Rembrandt, John, Frank, Martha, Elizabeth, and another daughter. S. R. Peale died after being thrown from a horse in his hometown of Lock Haven Pennsylvania in 1910. Rembrandt with partners later formed the coal-mining company of Peale, Peacock, & Kerr of New York City. Rembrandt apparently settled in the small town of St. Benedict, Pennsylvania, and supplied the St. Benedict church with coal for decades- Rembrandt Peale apparently also helped to form the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania, in Clearfield County. * Note: This Rembrandt Peale Is not the Rembrandt Peale, famous American artist, who painted portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It's possible that the later Rembrandt Peale was named after the artist. There was once a mining village called Rembrandt, which was located on the right side of Penn Street (Route 403) north of Clymer toward Dixonville. 20 |
