History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania . whichwere put small cars, holding about three bushels of coal, which were piishedout by hand. As these gangways were further enlarged the cars were builtof greater dimensions, and finally mules were introduced to draw them inand out. At a later date slopes and shafts were siank to reach the deeperveins, and powerful steam engines and pumps had to be provided to carry onthese large mining operations. But the early methods of the Shamokin coalfield differed somewhat from these. The first plan of mining was to take thecoal out of the beds of the st
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History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania . whichwere put small cars, holding about three bushels of coal, which were piishedout by hand. As these gangways were further enlarged the cars were builtof greater dimensions, and finally mules were introduced to draw them inand out. At a later date slopes and shafts were siank to reach the deeperveins, and powerful steam engines and pumps had to be provided to carry onthese large mining operations. But the early methods of the Shamokin coalfield differed somewhat from these. The first plan of mining was to take thecoal out of the beds of the streams where it was exposed. When this supplywas exhausted, the next move was to uncover the coal on the banks and hill-sides and quarry it the same as stone. The first mining of any account in our county was probably done on veinNo. 11 in Shamokin creek, opposite Yosts planing mill. This was on thePrimrose, a famous red ash coal, long known as John Boyds stone coalquarry. The first regular shipment of coal from the Shamokin region was ^<e---. 1-!, 7 %V.-5-J^SJ-•!-^--^ ///> ^/^/^^^^^ DEYELOPJIEXT OF THE SHAMOKIN COAL FIELD. 363 made from this place in lS2tj. The late Joseph Bird, one of the first settlersof Shamokin and afterward a large coal operator, reported to the writer thefollowing accoi.mt of this transaction:— In 1826, John C. Boyd and ni}- father, Ziba Bird, built a dam in Shamokin creeknorth of Webster street and opened a coal mine. The coal was mined ont of the bot-tom of the creek. The vein had been discovered some j-ears before, being exposed bythe action of the water. !My father was the miner and John Rnnkle wheeled the coalto the bank on a plank, assisted by myself, who was then a small boy. Casper Reedand Samuel Startzel were hired to haul this coal from Shamokin to Boyds place, twomiles above Danville. They were several nmuths at the job. The coal was tlieu putin arks and floated down tlie rivrr to Columbia. This was the first Shamokin coal thatwas mine