| Annual Report of the Montevallo Coal
Company RR |
| as of June 1, 1864, |
| Superintendent's Report |
| |
| To the Presdt Directors & Stockholders of
the Montevallo Coal Mining Co: |
| |
|
Gentlemen,
|
| When I came here in January
last, I found eleven negroes belonging to the Company, and five
belonging to Gov. Watts as well as eleven mules, one waggon, a lot of
old craw bars and about enough of other tools to supply the force then
here. To attempt to comply with the Contract made with Maj Hunt of the
Nitre & Mining Bureau, the stock of Negroes, Mules, Tram Cars, Tools &c
had to be very much increased. |
| Getting the hands we have
found very difficult owing to the lateness of the time at which the
arrangements were made, the great demand for labor and the unwarranted
prejudice of the Negroes and their owners against Coal mines (a
prejudice which a conversation with the miners and a close inspection of
the mines would remove). This difficulty we hoped to ??? in a measure by
subletting contracts to parties who would furnish fifty hands
conditioned on our procuring for such parties a detail exempting them
from service in the field. We found however that the number of hands
required to get a detail was so great that we were unable to make but a
single contract (that with T. P. C. Brumby) before Congress passed the
provisional exemption act since which time we have had no applications
for contracts. We have however hired some hands so that we have now some
sixty eight hands (including two runaways) as per list herewith
submitted to which is appended the annual hire to be paid for each, as
also the names and salaries of our officers, their duties &c. |
| Our Rail Road was in such bad
order as to require immediate attention, the Board of Directors
therefore authorized me to procure the services of Mr A Golay and eight
hands I secured his services for five hundred dollars per month and
seven of his hands at thirty dollars per month, I promising him that his
hands should not be put to cutting Coal but should do any outside work
required of them. Owing to sickness in his family I released him and
retained his hands under very special charge. I also secured the
services of J E Abbott a very efficient Blacksmith at ten dollars per
day and his negro man at seventy five dollars per month, the Company
feeding & Mr Abbott clothing the boy. |
| Owing to the difficulty of
procuring lumber to repair our Rail Road, Tram Roads and to make other
necessary improvements the Board authorized me to make arrangements with
Mr Jas L Wainght(?) to secure a Saw Mill. With the assistance of our
President, I have secured an upright saw mill not to cost over $500 for
the mill alone and a Grist Mill for $1000. These will necessarily
involve an additional expense of about $3000 for Belts, Pulleys &c. In
order to put these mills in order to run we required a Millright and
Machinist as well as to put our Engine in running order I have therefore
secured the services of Mr Deoring(?) at ten dollars per day and board
and of Mr Dexter Machinist at eight dollars per day & board. We expect
to have these mills running in thirty days and then we can dispense with
Mr Deovings services and we then expect to put our Locomotive Engine in
running order if on closer examination it does not prove to be too much
worn and injured for service. |
| The difficulty of procuring
almost everything we need, necessarily involves great diversity of labor
and requires many hands to do the outside work & therefore requires a
great deal of looking after. I have employed J L Wa??ylet(?) at a salary
of $300 per month to take charge of the mills and take Mr Golays place
on the Rail Road. He also has charge of the transportation of Coal &c. I
have employed Maj M R Marks who is to be the general overseer of the
Irish Pit and the lardering interest he having hire to us thirteen
hands. We have Mr E N Whatley "as Pit Boss" who stays in the mines and
sees that the hands follow the directions of our Mining Engineer. We
have six other white men working in the mines but from various causes
they do not work regularly. We need one more faithful overseer to look
after and be with the hands who are working the night shift. |
| Owing to the manner in which
the mines have been worked heretofore (that is the gangways have been
driven but two or three hundred yards and all the Coal taken out) it was
necessary to drive the gangways beyond all the old workings before we
could get out any Coal of consequence. This has compelled us to have a
great many hands driving gangways and but few cutting Coal. As these
gangways are now driven beyond the old workings in all the pits except
the Wood's Pit we are gaining Coal. |
| The Coal in the Dutch Pit is
rather an inferior Coal and the roof troublesome to keep up with our
Engineer says is ??? to its being near the outcrop. Mr. Brumly's hands
are now working this pit. The contract between him and this Company has
never been carried out by either; he has never had over thirty four
hands here and now has but twenty. The Wood's Pit was not ready for him
to go into and is not yet ready, as the heading is not driven beyond the
old workings. |
| Much time & labor has been
consumed in driving headings cleaning and gangways &c that might have
been avoided if the old workings had been in such condition that our
Engineer could have gotten a proper survey of the Mines. |
| The main gangway and rock
ditch of the Irish Pitt are getting along pretty well. Most of the Coal
that has been gotten out has come from the Irish Pit on account of the
small number of hands & the necessary work on the platforms, railroad
but little coal was gotten out in Jany and no account kept of it on the
1st February there was |
| on hand say |
400 Tons |
| In February 8 coal cutters cut |
106 |
| March 13 "
" " |
180 |
| April
17 " "
" |
235 |
| May
22 " "
" |
535 |
| Add probable amt from Woods Pit Ditch Pit |
38 |
| " amt mined in Irish Pit by Brimly |
232 2/3 |
| " "
" " Du?? " "
" |
281 1/3 |
|
in all |
2008 Tons |
| There were shipped in February
202 Tons |
|
| "
" March
206 " |
|
| "
" April
338 " |
|
| "
" May
335 " |
|
| "
" to T H Watts
8 " |
|
| "
" " A White
8 " |
|
| "
" " J T T Ticherry
8 " |
|
|
W W Walley
3 " |
1108 Tons |
| leaving amount of Coal on hand June 1st say |
900 Tons |
|
| If we could increase the
number of hands we would increase the quantity of Coal in a much greater
proportion than would be supposed by the number of hands we now work &
the quantity of Coal we now get out as the repairs of the Rail Road, the
running of the mills, tramway & Blacksmithing is just as necessary for a
small business as a large one and the overseers & officers would have
but little more to do if we had three times the number that we have now. |
| We have bought three wagons;
one is a first rate wagon, and one a pretty good one but the other one
together with the one I found here needs considerable repairs. If we
should get hands enough to work the pits remote from the railroad we
will need two more four horse wagons & Harness. We have bought 28 mules
which added to the 11 on hand in Jany make 39. Of these three have died
& four have strayed. If we recover the latter we will have enough to
haul all the Coal we are likely to get out soon. |
| We have made some thirty new
trams besides repairing some of the old ones. We have material enough on
hand to keep our force supplied with all tools except shovels for the
next 12 months. We need the latter tools very much. Those we have are
very poor and many of them require repairs before they can be used. |
| As there were no buildings
here for the officers of the Company, the Secretary & Treas and myself
have each of us built a house, kitchen &c at an expense of about two
thousand dollars each. As these houses will be the property of the
Company when we leave them we would ask that you take some action in the
matter. |
| From the report of our Mining
Engineer, on the 1st January last the Irish Pit gangway was
driven 1191 1/2 feet from the entrance, measuring from the stake driven
in the ground 26 feet from the opening, and five rooms were then opened.
At this date the gangway has been driven 1439 1/2 feet and sixteen rooms
have been opened in all. Since the 1st Jany seven of the rooms have been
exhausted owing to the proximity to the old workings. The remaining
rooms have a range of four times the capacity of those exhausted and can
be advanced toward the outcrop from 100 to 150 yards. On the 1st Jany
the Rock Ditch was 364 feet from the entrance measuring from the
stake outside 28 feet from the opening and at this date it is 494 feet
and two rooms are in process of opening. On the 1st Jany the Dutch
Pit North gangway was driven 188 feet from entrance at Wagon road
now it is 521 feet from the first frame timbers at the Wagon road. There
have been 6 rooms opened in this gangway; one of those has been worked
to the outcrop and one has cave in partly through roof being softer than
ordinary and partly through improper timbering, another of the rooms
needs some repairs and the remaining three are in working order. The
Dutch Pit South gangway was 188 feet from the first frame timbers on
1st Jany and has advanced to 502 feet from entrance at Wagon road. There
have been five places opened in this gangway; the first opening is a
cross cut for air, the second an opening for a room which has caved in
and is lost; cause soft roof & improper timbering; the three remaining
rooms are all in working order. The roof is not as soft as some that was
worked in former years here but yet is softer than any worked lately.
The Wood's Pit was driven on the 1st Jany 371 1/2 feet all of
which was driven in the underlying rock and the seam of Coal. Since that
time we have carried on the water level a distance of 619 1/2 ft further
along the old gangway by digging off portions of the sides and taking up
the underlying strator of the old gangway, making a total length of 990
feet at this time and have opened out five rooms three of them being new
and two of them had been partly worked previously. The track or tram
road is made of pine and is not durable enough and causes too much
friction to allow of speedy transportation in order to get out a large
quantity of Coal so the change of scantling is necessary before a large
number of hands are put to work at Coal there which change is being
rapidly made. |
| Before the winter season sets
in it will be necessary to build some quarters for the hands, those now
built being inadequate for the purpose. |
| All of which is respectfully
submitted by your Superintendent. |
| Geo. M. Figh |