Wednesday, March 30, 2011

History of Coke

History of Coke
By Eileen Mountjoy Cooper
During the late 1800's and early 1900's, the combination of coal, capital, and railways brought a gigantic new industry to Jefferson and Indiana counties.  Due to their favorable Northeast location, the product of the area's first coal mines soon poured in a stead stream into markets as far away as New England, the Great Lakes and Canada.  In the mining areas, peaceful farms and sawmills were suddenly displaced by tipples, mule barns, and block of identical miners' houses. In some locations, another unfamiliar sight appeared - long rows of meticulously-constructed beehive coke ovens






The conversion of coal into coke for the smelting of iron was first attempted in England in the 18th century. Before this time, iron-making utilized large quantities of charcoal, produced by burning wood. As forests dwindled dangerously, the substitution of coke for charcoal became common in Great Britain, and later in the United States.  Before the advent of large-scale mining in Jefferson and Indiana counties, coke was manufactured by burning coal in heaps on the ground in such a way that only the outer layer burned, leaving the interior of the pile in a carbonized state. In the late 19th century, brick beehive ovens were developed, which allowed more control over the burning process.


As early as Jefferson and Indiana county coal company investors realized the suitability of their product for conversion into coke, a second industry quickly developed. In time, coke production became the principal consumer of coal from several large mines, and beehive coke plants created jobs for hundreds of men.  The coking facility in Walston, near Punxsutawney, stood unrivaled as the "king" of Jefferson Country coke producers. The town and plant of Walston, founded in 1883, was named in honor of Walston H. Brown, who was a New York financier of and first president of the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron Co.  The ovens at Walston were built by August Bauldauf, who emigrated from Austria in 1884. When he arrived in America, Bauldauf brought with him the skills of bricklaying and atone work learned through an apprenticeship in his native land. Soon after landing in New York, Bauldauf make his way to the offices of the R&P C&I and was hired to construct the battery of coke ovens at Walston.

John Delaney of Indiana got his start in Reynoldsville area as secretary to Ira Smith, who was associated with the Reynoldsville and Falls Creek railroad and later with the R&P C&I. As the Delaney and Bauldauf families were close friends, John knew the contractor quite well.  "At first" he says, "people, especially young people, make fun of Augie because he didn't speak English very will. But by the time he retired, he owned several mines in the area, and his home was a showplace. And he wasn't one of those supervisors who sat behind a desk and gave orders. When they say that August Bauldauf built the coke ovens, they mean he actually built them. The ovens were make of brick faced with stone, and Bauldauf worked right beside that men when they laid the brick and cut the stone."

Commercial sales of coke, at $2 per wagonload, began at Walston late in 1884. By 1885, the R&P C&I operated 356 ovens at the site and produced a highly saleable grade of coke form coal mined at Walston and at nearby Beechtree. The coking coal was taken from what geologists call the lower Freeport coal bed, which averaged five feet in thickness. The coal contained few impurities or slate partings and required little washing before being loaded into ovens. Walston also had its own deep well for drenching the coke before it was taken out of the ovens. This combination of good coal and pure water make a high grade of coke, which competed successfully for a decade with the coke of the famous Connellsville region.
By July, 1885, 500 men worked at Walston. As the compound expanded, residents of Punxsutawney, while pleased by the presence of a major industry so close to home, also encountered a few problems of adjustment in regards to their new landmark. An 1887 issue of the Balley News reported, "Punxsutawney experienced her first visit from the Walston coke oven smoke last Monday. It hung around the town all day and had a very disagreeable taste."   Local pride in the Walston coke plant was justifiable, as by 1867 part of the operation was billed as "the longest string of coke ovens in the world." That year, the Punxsutawney News noted "About one of the grandest sights in this end of Pennsylvania at night is the burning of the dock ovens at Walston. Since the completion and "firing" of the last batch of ovens, the line on the west side is over one mile long - making the longest block of coke ovens in the world! And driving along the road at night, in full view of this serpentine- like line, the spectacle is simply grand. There are other coking districts that have longer l ones of coke ovens that are broken by roads, etc., but Walston leads the world with one solid block and one -quarter miles long."

Walston, make a sharp contrast to the turreted mansion of the same name that overlooked the Hudson River in upper state New York. The housed in the mining community cost $200 each to build and rented for $48 per year.  By 1887, Walston housed 1,800 people. Since major portion of that number were newly -arrived immigrants, a great variety of people lived and worked side by side. In the words of a reporter for the New York Coal Trade Journal, "Walston at this time includes all known nationalities except Turks and Indians, and the paymaster and his assistants find use for nine languages. The coke ovens are burning there daily, and their sulphurous smoke blights everything on the mountains or a mile back."

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