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The Pittsburg Daily Headlight reported the following “Mine Gossip” in October 1903:
“The mines around Weir have names which are forcible, if not pretty. There is the Jack Rabbit, the Pumpkin Vine, the Blue Goose, and the Wild Car, and now Will Ryan has named his new shaft the Toad.
“The Southwestern Coal Co. is building 25 new houses at Mineral near No. 11 shaft. …. The Southwestern owns four shafts at Mineral; numbers 6, 7, 8 and 11. The latter is a new shaft but it is already employing 200 men. No. 7 is producing 500 tons daily and the tonnage at No. 8 is 600 tons daily. …. There is a shortage of men at Mineral and a large number of good union men can get employment here.
“The new mine being suck by the Bennett Coal Co., on the Exley farm between Weir and Cherokee, will be down to the coal this week. This is the shaft where four feet of what is termed genuine rosin jack ore [a type of zinc ore] was passed through.
“The Turkington mine near Cherokee has not only an excellent vein of coal but some of the finest fire clay in this section, which is fully as valuable as the coal.”
Source: The Pittsburg Daily Headlight, Monday, 19 October 1903, Vol. XVI, No. 136.
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.
