The Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company was a

bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the coal seam, ...

mining company based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

and controlled by the

Mellon family The Mellon family is a wealthy and influential American family from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest serving U.S. Treasury Secretaries, while other members worked in the judicial, banking, financia ...

. It operated mines in the Pittsburgh Coalfield, including mines in

Becks Run Becks Run is a tributary of the Monongahela River. As an urban stream, it is heavily polluted, receiving combined sewer outflow from Carrick (Pittsburgh) and Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania. There is a waterfall on a tributary, just downstream from ...

and

Horning, Pennsylvania Horning is a neighborhood in the borough of Baldwin in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was the residence of miners of the Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad and Coal Company #4 Mine, which had a racially integrated workforce, unusua ...

. Unusually for that time in Pennsylvania, it hired

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

miners for some of its work.

History

The Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company was a

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust (law), a legal relationship in which one person holds property for another's benefit * Trust (bu ...

incorporated in New Jersey in 1899 by leading Pittsburgh industrialists, including

Andrew W. Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), known also as A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. The son of Mellon family patriarch Thomas Mellon ...

Henry W. Oliver Henry W. Oliver (February 25, 1840 – February 8, 1904) was an American industrialist. Biography Henry W. Oliver was born in Ireland in 1840. Two years later his family settled in Pittsburgh. Oliver began working at the age of thirteen as ...

, and

Henry Clay Frick Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company and played a major ...

. Although a New Jersey corporation, it operated only in the Pittsburgh area. At its inception, the company took control of over 80 coal businesses and of land on both sides of the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , ), sometimes referred to locally as the Mon (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in nor ...

. Pittsburgh Terminal Coal ran numerous coal mines in

Allegheny County Allegheny County ( ) is a county in Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, after Philadelphia County. Its county seat and most populous city is Pit ...

during the early 20th century. It operated the Darr Mine in

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Westmoreland County is a county in the state of Pennsylvania, United States, in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census the population was 354,663. The county seat is Greensburg and the most populous community is ...

. In 1915, it merged with the

Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company The Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company was a railroad and coal transportation company, founded in 1899 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was formed by merging more than 80 independent coal mines and river transportation businesses ...

. In 1945 it merged with

Consolidation Coal Company Consolidation may refer to: In science and technology * Consolidation (computing), the act of linkage editing in computing * Consolidation (locomotive), popular name of a steam locomotive with a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement * Consolidation (soil), a ...

, controlled by the

Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family ( ) is an American Industrial sector, industrial, political, and List of banking families, banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the History of the petroleum industry in th ...

Railroads

Near its beginning, the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company owned six collector railroads. The company operated the

Coal Hill Coal Railroad The Coal Hill Coal Railroad began as a coal mine on the north face of Mt. Washington, then known as "Coal Hill", begun by Jacob Beltzhoover in 1825. This mine was operated by a series of persons, finally by James M. Bailey, who extended the mine ...

, a ,

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railroad until 1871, when it was sold to the

Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad was a narrow-gauge railroad in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1871, it may have been the first American common-carrier narrow-gauge railroad. It purchased a rail line called the C ...

, which lengthened the line. The company assumed control of the

Montour Railroad The Montour Railroad was a short line railroad company operating passenger and freight service in southwestern Pennsylvania. At its height in the 1930s, the railroad served 27 mines transporting nearly seven million tons of coal annually in Al ...

in 1901.

Labor relations

Pittsburgh Terminal Coal paid compensation in the 1929 death of their union employee John Barcoski due to a beating by three officers of the

Coal and Iron Police The Coal and Iron Police (C&I) was a private police force in the US state of Pennsylvania that existed between 1865 and 1931. It was established by the Pennsylvania General Assembly but employed and paid for by the various coal companies. The Co ...

. The company was involved in labor disputes with

John L. Lewis John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) was an American leader of Labor unions in the United States, organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers, United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960. ...

and the

United Mine Workers The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American Labor history of the United States, labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing work ...

.Ingham, John N.
Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders
'. Greenwood Press, Westport, 1983. .

References

External links

{{Authority control Coal companies of the United States Coal mining in Pennsylvania Defunct mining companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1945 Defunct coal mining companies Defunct energy companies of the United States 1945 mergers and acquisitions Energy companies disestablished in 1945 1899 establishments in Pennsylvania Non-renewable resource companies established in 1899

History

Railroads

Labor relations

See also

References

External links