N&W in 1907 -- Nearby residence

[NW Mailing List]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 25, 1907

In City and Coal Field
------
    One of the most interesting and heretofore untold stories of the Pocahontas coal fields comes from Coaldale.  Those who have looked from the car windows and seen faced up the big Pocahontas seam just west of the Coaldale store, have noticed a residence situated between that point and the store.  It was built and occupied for some years by Thomas H. Cooper, manager of the Coaldale mine, and is now occupied by Joseph Padbury, an uncle of Messrs. Edward and Thomas H. Cooper.  The cellar of the house was dug into this coal seam, which measures nine and three-quarters feet at that point.  A hot water heater is used to heat the house, the furnace being located in the cellar.  Now the interesting fact is that all of the coal necessary to run that furnace is dug right out of the cellar.  The roof to the seam of coal is good and no danger comes to the foundation by reason of taking the coal out.
------
[Coaldale is at the west end of the old Elkhorn Tunnel, aka Flat Top Tunnel, Coaldale Tunnel.  Alex Schust has told me that the town of Coopers, aka Cooper, was named for Thomas Cooper's father, John Cooper.]

Gordon Hamilton
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20080729/334796f6/attachment-0001.html>