MOREWOOD, PA

Morewood coal and coke works was opened in 1879 by Morewood Coke Company. The co-owners were local coke king Henry Clay Frick, as well as Col. J.M. Schoonmaker. After 1885, Morewood was the Southwest No. 1 works of Southwest Coal and Coke Co., with H.C. Frick still on board. This time his partners were three steel companies in Illinois and Carnegie Steel. Southwest ended up being a bundle of serveral coal and coke plants nearby, including Alice (Southwest No. 2), one near Tarrs (No. 3), and one near Alverton (No. 4). By the 1890s, South West Connellsville Coke Company was the owner and operator at Morewood, again with Frick overseeing the operation, and leaving the day to day operations to his trusted lieutenant Morris Ramsay. Under Ramsay's watch labor relations deteriorated at Morewood to the point that nine coke workers were shot by police in 1891, an infamous incident now known as the "Morewood Massacre." (Not to single out Ramsay for villiany. There was plenty of blame to go around.) H.C. Frick Coal and Coke Co. became a subsidiary of the newly-created U.S. Steel in 1901 (or 1903), and Morewood operated as a Frick Coke / U.S. Steel captive coal and coke works from then until closing in 1934.

Mar. 2003 image by author This slate dump is the result of coal mining and coke making activities at Morewood in the early 1900s. H.C. Frick Coke Co. closed the operation in 1923.

Mar. 2003 image by author Detritus from coal mining operations at Morewood - coal mine timber props, mesh from coal mining screens, rusted steel sheeting from a tipple, and surplus refractory bricks from the coke ovens.

2005 image courtesy of Randy Biller The superintendent's house at Morewood is still in existence. It is on Morewood St., aka Route 981, just beyond the boundary of Mount Pleasant borough.

August 2002 image by author These houses are on the other side of the street from the super's house. At first I thought they were company houses, but I have my doubts about that. They don't look like the style of duplex housing that was built at coal and coke towns in this region. They are single family houses. Unless they were management level housing (company store manager, foreman, etc.).

Feb. 2003 image by author One of the last company-built "patch" houses left from South West No. 1 / Morewood. It is along US 119 between the Mount Pleasant and Scottdale exits. About a half mile away was another coal company town known as Alice (South West No. 2).

Circa 1960 image, MG-377 Enman, John Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg Shown are a few of the remaining coal company houses at mid-20th Century. I believe the house at the far right is also the one I photographed above back in 2003.

Circa 1960 image, MG-377 Enman, John Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg The roof of the (former) superintendent's house can be seen peeking above these beehive coke oven ruins. Within the next decade these oven remains would be obliterated by the constrution of the four-laned U.S. 119, although adjacent ash / gob piles remained for several more decades until being reclaimed by the PA DEP.

Feb. 2003 image by author This country bank mine portal, probably in the Sewickley seam, is in a hollow near Morewood. A Country Bank mine is a small farm mine.

Feb. 2003 image by author This structure, which looks like a loading bin of sorts, is beside the mine portal shown above.

Jul. 2003 image by author Stripping the Redstone seam outcrop at Morewood, Pa. in July 2003. This was known as the Zoracki Strip Mine of Amerikohl, mining the outcrop of the old H.C. Frick Coke Company's King Mine, one of the only non-Pittsburgh seam mines that company operated. Frick even had a small six house "patch" for the King mine right next to the surface mine shown here.