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W. E. Turkington was a coal operator and businessman at Cherokee, Kansas. He was the virtual owner of the Cherokee Coal & Coke Company and the Cherokee Supply Company store there. In 1892, we find him sinking a mine east of Cherokee.
“W. E. Turkington, who has been drilling for coal in the east part of the city, struck a large vein at 122 feet. The company so far have refused to say just how thick the second vein is, but admit that the first vein is 28 inches of fine quality. They are busy at work drilling a second hole, as they want to be sure that they have a paying vein before sinking a shaft.”
Source: The Scammon Miner, Scammon, KS, Saturday, 4 June 1892, Vol. II, No. 8, taken from a article in the Cherokee Sentinel.
Born in 1944 at the old Mt. Carmel Hospital, Pittsburg, Jerry D. Lomshek has been a lifelong resident of Crawford County and the Chicopee area. The grandson of a Slovene immigrant coal miner, he became interested in history at a young age, and began researching family and local history at the age of 14. This being a lifelong passion, he has amassed a mammoth amount of local historical data over the years. He has lectured and written several manucripts concerning the history of Southeast Kansas. From his service in the Navy, and as a registered nurse, he spent 45 years involved in various aspects of health care. Since retiring, he has devoted his time to further local historical research and various community involvement.
