Crawford County, Illinois Coal Mining History and Genealogy

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Crawford County, Illinois History and Genealogy Featuring Coal Mining

      Crawford County is a county located in the central pat of the state of Illinois.       39.00° N, 87.76° W
The population was 20,452 in 200 and 19,817 in 2010.
      The county seat of Crawford County, Illinois is Robinson.
Originally Palestine was the county seat, later it was moved to Robinson.
      There are ten townships in the county :
Hutsonville, Lamotte, Licking, Martin, Montgomery, Oblong, Prairie, Robinson, Southwest
      The cities and vilages of Crawford County, Illinois include :
Hutsonville, Oblong, Palestine, Robinson, Stoy

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1883 Excerpt from : History of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois⁵
Coal Measures -- The stratified rocks of this county all belong to the upper coal measures, the lowest beds appearing in the beds of the Wabash river and the highest along the western borders of the county, and include the horizon of coals No. 11, 12 and 13 of the Illinois Section. The only knowledge that we have of the underlying formations is derived from a shaft, and boring previously made to be four feet thick, and at a depth of 123 feet. The bore was made about a mile and a half northwest of the shft, and commenced fifteen feet below a thin coal which outcrops in the hill above. It was made for oil, during the oil fever, and no great reliance can be placed in the reported thickness or character of the strata penetrated. The shaft was sunk to the horizon of a coal seam reported four feet thick in the bore, but on reaching it in the shaft it proved to be two feet of bituminous shale and six inches of coal. . . . . . .

1883 Excerpt from : History of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois⁵

Coal Measures -- The stratified rocks of this county all belong to the upper coal measures, the lowest beds appearing in the beds of the Wabash river and the highest along the western borders of the county, and include the horizon of coals No. 11, 12 and 13 of the Illinois Section. The only knowledge that we have of the underlying formations is derived from a shaft, and boring previously made to be four feet thick, and at a depth of 123 feet. The bore was made about a mile and a half northwest of the shft, and commenced fifteen feet below a thin coal which outcrops in the hill above. It was made for oil, during the oil fever, and no great reliance can be placed in the reported thickness or character of the strata penetrated. The shaft was sunk to the horizon of a coal seam reported four feet thick in the bore, but on reaching it in the shaft it proved to be two feet of bituminous shale and six inches of coal. . . . . . .

Alpha Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 5 North, 11 West, Section 14,
Strip Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Alpha Coal Mine Alpha Mining Corporation 1976 - 1978

[Source - No. 1, Index 966]

C & B Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 6 North, 10 West, Section 7,
Shaft (Underground) Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years Post Office
address of mine

C & B Coal Mine Caley & Blair 1934 - 1935 Palestine³

[Source - No. 1, Index 2053]

Carver, J. H. Coal Mine

Mine Name Operarted By Years Post Office
address of mine

Unknown (? Carver ?) Coal Mine J. H. Carver ± 1934 Palestine

[Source - No. 3, Crawford Co. Number 4]

Courter Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 5 North, 12 West, Section 1, NW NE
Strip (Pit) Mine. with a depth of 13 - 15 feet and an average coal seam of 1½ - 3 feet.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Courter Coal Mine Courter Coal Company 1963

Last reported production : September 1963 [Source - No. 1, Index 2050]

Crawford Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 5 North, 12 West, Section 23,
Strip Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Crawford Coal Mine No. 1 Crawford County Coal Company 1959 - 1961

[Source - No. 1, Index 2051]

Crawford County Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 6 North, 11 West, Section 27,
Shaft (Underground) Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years Post Office
address of mine

Crawford County Coal Mine Crawford County Coal Company 1922 - 1923
± 1930 Palestine²

[Source - No. 1, Index 4681]

East Liston Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 5 North, 12 West, Section 4, NW NE
Strip (Surface) Mine. With a depth of 15 - 18 feet.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

East Liston Coal Mine East Liston Coal Company Before 1967

[Source - No. 1, Index 4667]

Green Coal Mine
Palestine Coal Mine
Snyder Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 7 North, 11 West, Section 23,
Strip Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Snyder Coal Mine Snyder Coal Company 1939

Palestine Coal Mine Palestine Coal Company 1940 - 1941

Green Coal Mine Green Construction Company 1941 - 1942

[Source - No. 1, Index 2054]

Hughes Brothers Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Oblong Township

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Hughes Brothers Coal Mine Hughes Brothers 1925

[Source - No. 1]

Ikemire & Core Coal Mine

Mine Name Operarted By Years Post Office
address of mine

Unknown (? Ikemire & Core ?) Coal Mine Ikemire & Core ± 1934 Palestine

[Source - No. 3, Crawford Co. Number 3]

McCammon, Jess L. Coal Mine

Mine Name Operarted By Years Post Office
address of mine

Unknown (? McCammon ?) Coal Mine Jess L. McCammon ± 1934 Palestine

[Source - No. 3, Crawford Co. Number 2]

McColpin Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County
Surface Mine

Mine Name Operarted By Years Post Office
address of mine

McColpin Coal Mine W. D. McColpin 1934 - 1935 Robinson

[Source - No. 1 ; No. 3, Crawford Co. Number 5]

Nettle Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 5 North, 12 West, Section 24,
Drift Mine. A "Drift" type mine is is an underground mine that is excavated where the coal outcrops in the side of a bluff or the highwall of a surface mine. The mine type for surface mines is "strip" because these mines are more commonly called "strip mines."

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Nettle Coal Mine Nettle 1875 - 1882

[Source - No. 1, Index 7430]

Pritchard - Schaeffer Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 7 North, 11 West, Section 14,
Strip Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

(? Pritchard - Schaeffer ?) Coal Mine Pritchard - Schaeffer Farm - 1964

[Source - No. 1, Index 4666]

Richwood Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 6 North, 10 West, Section 20

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Richwood Coal Mine Richwood Coal Company Before 1932

[Source - No. 1, Index 4673]

Right Way Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 6 North, 10 West
Shaft (Underground) Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Right Way Coal Mine Right Way Coal Company 1935 - 1937

[Source - No. 1, Index 2052]

Riverside Coal Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 6 North, 10 West, Section 7
Shaft (Underground) Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Riverside Coal Mine No. 3 Riverside Coal Company 1934 - ? 1943

Riverside Coal Mine No. 3 Ray Blair 1935 - 1943

[Source - No. 1, Index 2053]

Walker Coal Mine
This may be the Palestine Mine

The legal description lists this as : Crawford County - Township 7 North, 11 West, Section 23,
Strip Mine.

Mine Name Operarted By Years

Walker Coal Mine H. Walker Before 1967

[Source - No. 1, Index 4679]

Unknown Coal Mines
Source, Index Number	Township	Section	Type	Years Operated

1, 4668	5 North, Range 12 West	10, NE SE SE	Strip	Before 1936

1, 4669	5 North, Range 12 West	13, NW NE NE	Strip	Before 1936

1, 4670	6 North, Range 10 West	7	Shaft	Before 1911

1, 4671	6 North, Range 10 West	7	Shaft	Before 1911

1, 4672	6 North, Range 10 West	7	Slope	Before 1911

1, 4674	6 North, Range 10 West	20	?	Before 1932

1, 4675	6 North, Range 11 West	2	Shaft	Before 1910

1, 4676	6 North, Range 11 West	27	Old Shaft Mine	Before 1967

1, 4677	7 North, Range 11 West	28, NW NE	Strip Coal 1¼ feet thick.	Before 1933

1, 4678	6 North, Range 112 West	32, NE NE SE	Surface	Before 1936

1, 4680	7 North, Range 13 West	4, NE NE	Shaft 22 feet deep Coal 4.3 feet thick	Before 1961

1, 4883	7 North, Range 13 West	12, SW NE	Unknown type Coal 3 feet thick	Before 1882

1, 4888	6 North, Range 13 West	4, NE SW NW	Shaft 22 feet deep Coal 3 feet thick	Before 1961

1, 5303	6 North, Range 12 West	32, SE NW SE	Unknown Type	Before 1911

1, 5304	5 North, Range 12 West	9, NW NW NW	Surface	Before 1936

Crawford County, Illinois Coal Mine Fatalities
CONRAD November 21, 1941⁴, Earl Conrad, of Palestine, ground man, aged 21 years, was crushed between shovel cab and pit wall in the Walker Mine of the Palestine Coal Coampany.

Sources :

¹ Coal Mines in Illinois, Crawford County
                Illinois State Geological Survey, 615 East Peabody Drive, Champaign, IL. 61820
² Forty-Ninth Annual Coal Report of Illinois, 1930
                Department of Mines and Minerals
                Illinois Printing Co., Danville, ILL., 1931
³ Fifty -Third Coal Report of Illinois, 1934
                Department of Mines and Minerals
                Printed by authority of the State of Illinois
⁴ Sixtieth Coal Report of Illinois, 1941
                Department of Mines and Minerals
                Printed by authority of the State of Illinois
⁵ History of Crawford and Clark Counties, Illinois; Edited by William Henry Perrin.
                Chicago; O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, Lakeside Building, 1883

Coal & Coal Mining in Central Illinois