The History of Shawmut's Rise and Fall

Thanks in large part to entrepreneur Joseph Veazic of Boston who elicited the help from wealthy and influential East Coast families to invest in the lands in and around Shawmut, nearly ten square miles of coal lands were purchased from Daniel Kingsbury.  As explorations commenced, coal was found in all quarters of the purchase. High hills rose above the seams, affording good cover and hollows opened out in all directions, permitting drifts to be opened to mine coal at the best advantage. Everything was so encouraging that the town was platted in 1861. 

Shawmut was built around the coal industry. Streets were laid out, houses and stores erected, schools established, churches provided, and an air of permanence settled upon the little city in the forest. It was an ideal country for workingmen. The woods swarmed with game; deer and bear were plentiful and the streams abounded with fish. Ridgway, the capital of the county, was twelve miles away and Brockwayville a mere eight miles.  But Shawmut cared nothing for these places – it sustained itself in the hope of future greatness.

Shawmut could have thrived had the Shawmut Coal Company mines been worked properly. But two stupendous blunders conspired to ruin the place. The first of these was the impractical Shawmut and Ridgway railroad built to connect the coal works with the Sunbury & Erie railroad. Shawmut is on one side of a high mountain. The Sunbury & Erie was being built on the other side, along Elk Creek from St. Marys to Ridgway. A railroad a few miles long was laid down from Shawmut over this mountain to get the coal to market. The mountain was found to be so high that the steep grade made necessary a series of switchbacks. The coal trains were pulled up the mountain side as far as they could go, then were switched back the other direction all while zigzagging up the mountain till the top was reached. Only small trains could manage and as a result, the transportation was expensive. It proved so costly that it exceeded the value of the coal when the market was reached.

Another obstacle was discovered soon after the operations were under way. The coal was of a decidedly inferior quality. It could not command the price which the original estimates had placed upon it. The company worked energetically and with a determination to overcome these obstacles but to no avail.  A mortgage of $300,000 on the property was foreclosed. The plant was knocked down and the dreams of Shawmut’s prosperity were dashed. Weeds grew in the streets of Shawmut. The collieries rotted down and the once comfortable town was deserted. 

The story continues…

The Shawmut property containing some 6,000 acres, was covered with a fine growth of timber. In 1885 all the standing timber was sold to the Ridgway Lumber Company, which manufactured the lumber and sent it to market on the railroad that traversed the valley. The timber contained a fortune to the Shawmut Lumber Company and would have helped swell the dividend to the company had the business been managed properly.  With the opening of the Shawmut country to the world again by the river bottom railroads, the story of Shawmut's coal deposits came to the ear of Captain John Brinker, an old Clarion County operator. Captain Brinker, with his partner R.W. Jones, had been in the coal business for years and gradually grew to be extensive operators on the Low-Grade Railroad, getting a hold on the Buffalo market. Together they made a fortune. In Buffalo they enlarged their market, and eventually needed more coal for their trade.

When the Ridgway Lumber Company opened the Shawmut country and built a branch road right past the site of the old Shawmut collieries, Captain Brinker evaluated the coal. A new Shawmut Coal Company was formed, which was Brinker & Jones, together with E.L. Hedstrom of Buffalo. The firm bought the Shawmut coal property. The lumber company had already begun to settle in the valley and the whole Mead Run, from Shawmut to the Toby valley and above Shawmut in the timber woods, began to blossom into activity. Mines were built, log cabins erected, hundreds of men employed, and little towns sprang up at Shawmut, Cartwright and Horton. Then Brinker & Jones went to work. As luck would have it, a hundred feet from the seam of coal which the old Shawmut Company sent to market, and which lost them their reputation, Brinker found an excellent vein. This he proceeded to present to the trade at Buffalo in competition with the best soft coal of the state.

The Northwestern Mining and Exchange Company, owning lands alongside the Shawmut Coal Company’s big tract, now began to operate its property. New collieries were built, and from Brockwayville to Shawmut was one straggling settlement of mining towns and patches.

The Noble Coal Company was organized by Burr E. Cartwright, a man of wonderful energy, but not enough money to back it. Cartwright enlisted some Eastern capital and with him, the Noble Company began operations on property adjoining the Shawmut and the Northwestern Company's holdings.  Once again, old Shawmut was gaining new life. 

For $500,000 the Noble Coal Company bought the Shawmut Coal Company property sending Brinker & Jones back to Buffalo. Coal came out of the mines in acres of cars. The great yards and long sidings were full of loaded cars and of empty flats going to market or to the mines. Railroading employed an army of men as well as the mines. Then came another sensation. An excellent fire clay was found in the drifts with the coal seam, and brick making was begun on a large scale. Shawmut was again predicted to be a coming place. Several new post offices were opened and once again stores, schools, houses and churches arose.  Hopes of an excellent paving brick were aroused. A sale to the Niagara Tunnel Company gave the hope a turn in that direction. Big kilns were built, modern machinery placed, and the factory turned out beautiful brick in massive quantities. Then the idea of drilling a gas well took root and sure enough - a fine pressure was found.  Shawmut was justified in the craze that encompassed the valley. All was on the upgrade, and it looked as if there was no end to the altitude ahead. But for some reason the bricks piled up in the yard and sales were not what they should be. The reason came to the surface: the bricks were too hard and not tough enough.

This was but one of the events that marked the end of the second era of glory. For Shawmut fell again. A fire swept over the big mill yard and millions of feet of good lumber was destroyed. A later fire destroyed the mill, and another fortune was in the ash heap. Following the heels of this, one of the large stockholders who lived in the East was caught in some financial troubles. On top of this came the panic and in the early part of 1893, Shawmut had slumped again. The sheriff paid a visit and shut up the mines and big brick works. The operations in the woods were stopped because the mill was already gone and once again, Shawmut was deserted.