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Page 14—Linton Daily Citizen, Friday, October 31, 1975CLOTHING 1PRE-SPOTTEDDRY CLEANED FINISHEDTO YOUR SATISFACTIONSUEDE LEATHERRESTORED TO ORIGINALBEAUTYDR APES-FIN I SHED TO PERFECTION DECORATOR FAN FOLDED TAKE DOWN REHANG SERVICECoal mines of Greene Countytile Betty Mine*Little Betty Mine, Southwest of Linton, across the line in Sullivan County, was the scene of a terrible tragedy in 1931.In the late 1840’s bituminous coal began to be mined in Greene County. It was but a matter of owning land on which a seam of coal was visible along a ledge or formed an outcrop on a slope A pick and shovel were all the tools needed to become a coal miner.The Richland Blast Furnace, southeast of Bloomfield was one of the earliest industrial users of coal from the local mine. At Homer Booker’s mine, southeast of Mineral City, coal sold for 4 cents a bushel If delivered the price went to 7 cents per bushel The remains of the little tracks and coal carts still lie scattered about at w here the entrance to the mine once was, bearing evidence that it did a thriving business well past any of its local rivals.By the 1850’s the demand for coal had grown out of proportion to the supply. It was being consumed at an insatiable rate by the railroads, Richland Creek steamships, those on White River as domestic fuel and for use in a new crop of industries that had come to the Midwest. And the mines themselves were their best customers. But the lack of transportation kept the industryshackled within a radius of a few miles.It wasn’t until about 1869, when the Indianapolis Vincennes railroad was built across Greene County, that the local coal fields stepped up their output.In 1884. Linton was so small a town that many living, but a few miles distant had never been to the town. Others were unable to direct strangers to the town when called upon to do so But the Island Coal Company changed all that That same year the company sunk a shaft and called it. Island City No. 1, and Linton soon became a boom town, for the investors had bought up thousands of acres of land about two miles south of the village. Production was soon running to as much as 1,000 tons of good coal per day. By 1887, Island Citv mine numberW2, had been sunk and it was exceeding mine number 1. and bringing as much as 1,500 tons of coal to the surface daily.By 1890, Island City mines had reached their peak production. The Miners were then working ten hour shifts for seventy-five cents a shift and they saw little, if any of that The Company owned severablocks of houses and a store. It was common practice for the miners to rent the shacks, and accept scrip, called flicker or toad hide and it could be redeemed only at the company store. It not applied on account at the store, the miners paid a ten percent fee to convert the scrip into cash.When the newly-formed United Mine Workers »of America, met on March 8, 1892 the adopted rules were for aweekly pay law and the abolishing of the company stores By 1898. the eight-hour w ork day of six days a week was a reality along with a new pay hike which brought wages to $1 80 per day. With the company store system behind them the miners were no longer tethered to their miners' shacks Shaft mines were springing up like mushrooms giving the miners a choice of jobs, and a weekly cash income The IslandCoal Company erected, in Linton an impressive brick building and called it the Island City Block The miners, with tongue in cheek, called it “the company store.” Actually it was as near a metropolitan type store as one could find m Indiana In its own building, bearing the title, Linton SupplyCompany, t w e n t y - f i v esalespeople found steady employment with many others(Continued on page 15)j MERCURY CLEANERS! 1956 FULL SERVICE 1976PROFESSIONAL DRY CLEANER
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Linton Daily Citizen
Linton, Indiana, US
Fri, Oct 31, 1975
Page 44
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USA 11 Jul 2020
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