A story of the lumber merchants who supplied support timbers for the anthracite coal mines of Dauphin, Northumberland and Schuylkill Counties. Presented as part of “Pennsylvania Profiles,” a weekly series produced for the Sunbury Daily Item, with the above number published on November 21, 1977.
Panel 1 – The mining industry used vast quantities of timber. In 1905, for example, 216 anthracite collieries in eastern Pennsylvania consumed 32.5 million cubic feet of “prop” timber to support the ceilings of their mines.
Panel 2 – Hundreds of land owners went into the timber business by cutting and selling mine props.
Panel 3 – Entrepreneurs like “Cooney” Reiker of Trevorton bought props from the land owners, hauled and sold them to mine owners in Northumberland County. These middle men were called “prop merchants.”
Panel 4 – Some prop merchants built their own railroads. Charles W. Cook of Elizabethville operated the smallest, a 3-miler at Pillow, dauphin County. Probably the largest prop merchant was Monroe H. Kulp of Shamokin, who harvested huge tracts of timberland and owned a 90-mile rail network at Lewisburg.
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An explanation of the series “Pennsylvania Profiles” appeared in the Sunbury Daily Item, May 10 1985:
For the stories behind… forgotten but fascinating facts, you’ll want to read “Pennsylvania Profiles,” a weekly feature with vivid illustrations… in this newspaper…. Pennsylvania Profiles delves into the nooks and crannies of the Keystone State’s hectic heritage. [It] is researched, written and illustrated by Patrick M. Reynolds of Willow Street, a town in southern Lancaster County. He is a graduate of Pratt institute, Brooklyn, New York, and Syracuse University, New York. His features are available in books. Reynolds is a Vietnam War veteran and an Army reserve Infantry officer.
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Obtained through Newspapers.com.
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