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Archiver > PABEDFOR > 2001-03 > 0983895726


From: "Batha Karr" <>
Subject: Re: Broadtop Mountain
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001 08:22:06 -0800


Broad Top Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania
Source: History of Bedford and Somerset Counties by Blackburn and Welfley,
1906, Volume I, page 222-224

"The first coal shipped from Broad Top was taken out of Six Mile run at the
mouth of Shreves run. The two creeks coming together washed the coal bare.
Ben Foster and Dave Shackler dug the coal, sledded it to Riddlesburg, and
built an ark and ran it down the river, how far I do not know, but I have
heard Uncle Ben tell about running the great falls, and I think they were
below Harrisburg. There was coal taken from Riddlesburg mine about that
time.

"The first profitable coal mine on Broad top was the Shoops run coal. It was
opened up where Dudley now is. I do not know who first opened it up, but
Barnetts worked it as far back as I can recollect, and did a good business
selling it in winter, when in good sledding it was hauled as far down as
Mercersburg and sold or traded for store goods.

"The Cook coal bank was opened at an early day by John Cook, who lived and
owned where Broad Top City now stands. He did a quite a business for those
days in the way of selling coal to peddlers who bought it and hauled it
south as far as Loudon and Hagerstown, and traded the coal off for dry-goods
or sold it. The Cook coal is the lower seam in the region and is divided by
three slates and I was told they worked for some time before they found the
upper bench and that was found by cutting a water drain.

Other valued articles by the same hand will appear under "Miscellaneous
Sketches."

Riddlesburg, named in honor of Samuel Riddle, its founder, was an early
settled locality, although its history as a village dates only from the
establishment of its furnaces. The land on which it is situated was
purchased by Samuel Riddle, who laid out a small town here prior to 1880,and
named it Allensport. He was an early coal shipper from the Broad Top field.
His operations only continued a short time, and Riddlesburg disappeared from
the map of Broad top, until resurrected by the building of the railroad in
1856, and later on, in 1868, by the construction of the furnaces, when it
built up rapidly and since which time has been an active business mart. The
furnaces are now owned and operated by the Colonial Iron Company, and the
population of the village is mostly employees of the company. The village is
also supplied with a large store, a church and a graded school.

Kearney, Defiance and Langdondale are populous villages to the heart of the
coal region, containing good hotels, stores and numerous miners' dwellings.

Batha Karr


----- Original Message -----
From: Batha Karr <>
To: <>; <>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: Broadtop Mountain


> Broad Top Township - Bedford County, Pennsylvania
>
> Broad Top township, situated in the ne part of the county, was taken form
> Hopewell and created into a separate township April 16, 1828. Dr. Jeremiah
> Duval was one of the earliest pioneers of this region. He came from
> Annapolis, Maryland, and brought with him a number of families besides his
> own. He secured title to his land here in 1785. The wife of Jeremiah
> Shreves, one of Dr. Duval's colonists, was the first person buried in the
> old cemetery known as Duval's graveyard. She came after her husband, and
> died the night following her arrival.
>
> The surface of Broad Top region is rough and rugged, but is underlaid with
> vast field of coal, and mining is decidedly the chief industry of the
> people. The following valuable sketch concerning Broad Top coal was
prepared
> about ten years since, by the time honored and most intelligent citizens,
> William Foster, who died September 3, 1902, at the advanced age of 81
years:
>
> "The first coal ever used on Broad Top was dug out of the bed of Six Mile
> run, near the Mountain House, by a man named Nathan Horton - a blacksmith,
> who came to Broad Top about 1750 or 1760, where he put up a blacksmith
> shop, - who told me he dug his coal about one mile; and his brother
Samuel.
> who settled on the Thousand Acre tract, got his coal there too. The
Hortons
> were all blacksmiths to the fifth or sixth generations. the youngest one
of
> the family was John, who married a Miss Aloway and moved to Woodbury, this
> county, and I think one of his sons is blacksmithing there today. About
the
> year 1856 I opened the old mine and could see the pick marks in the coal
> distinctly. I feel sure that was the first coal ever worked on Broad top.
>
> more tomorrow...
> From History of Bedford and Somerset Counties by Blackburn and Welfrey -
> 1906
>
> Batha Karr
>
>
>

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