Wealth, Waste, and Alienation: Growth and Decline in the Connellsville Coke Industry

320 Pages·2001·2.22 MB·English

by  Kenneth Warren

Wealth,
Waste, and
Alienation

Wealth,
Waste, and
Alienation
Growth and Decline in the
Connellsville Coke Industry
Kenneth Warren
University of Pittsburgh Press
Copyright © 2001, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
10987654321
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Warren, Kenneth.
Wealth, waste, and alienation : growth and decline in the
Connellsville coke industry / Kenneth Warren.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn 0-8229-4132-5 (alk. paper)
1. Coke industry—Pennsylvania—Connellsville—
History. 2. Coke industry—History. 3. Connellsville (Pa.)
—History. I. Title.
hd9559.c7 u43 2001
338.4'766272'0974884—dc21
2001000364
For Jean

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
1. The Foundations of the Industry 1
2. The Maturing Industry 25
3. Organization in the Coke Trade 77
4. New Districts 120
5. New Technology 157
6. The Physical and Social Implications of
Beehive Coke Manufacture 195
7. Peak and Decline 229
Appendix A. Statistical Tables 261
Appendix B. Biographical Notes 267
Notes 271
Bibliography 287
Index 293

Illustrations
Maps
Coke works built before 1870 27
Coke works built 1871–1880 33
Coke works built 1881–1900 42
Growth of the H. C. Frick Coke Company, 1871–1901 49
Iron smelters known to be using Connellsville coke, 1879 60
Coke-producing districts or works of central and western
Pennsylvania, 1886 124
Development of the Lower Connellsville coke region 128
New coke districts of West Virginia and Virginia 147
Coke works built in the “old basin” after 1900 177
Byproduct ovens making furnace coke, 1914 188
Plan of Leisenring, Fayette County, 1886 196
Coke and mine settlements in the “old basin,” 1910 199
The new pattern—river coal and byproduct coking 240
The H. C. Frick Coke Company in the Connellsville
region, 1937 253
Photographs
Derelict ovens xvii
Henry Clay Frick, A. A. Hutchinson, Andrew W. Mellon,
and Frank Cowan, 1880 37
H. C. Frick, ca. 1890 55
Thomas Lynch 84
J. V. K. Thompson 109
Morris Ramsay 115