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Pay day at the mines were a boon to area merchants, especially in Pittsburg, it being the largest town in the area. Miners and their families swarmed into town on these days to pick up provisions for the month, as shown here:
“This morning [April 18, 1891] at 8 o’clock the Santa Fe passenger [train] came in with the coaches full, and men standing on the platforms, who were all coming to Pittsburg to draw their wages. Over 400 miners and laborers in the Chicopee Santa Fe mines were all made happy by receiving the gold and silver for their month’s wages, and brought their wives with them to do their trading in our city, which makes our merchants feel happy, as their clerks are kept busy all day… Our streets have been thronged all day with more people than other western towns have at a Fourth of July celebration…”
Source: The Pittsburg Daily Headlight, Saturday, 18 April 1891, Vol. IV, No. 311.
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.
