Pomeroy in the 1930’s courtesy of Pomeroy Daily Sentinel
Hocking Valley Peacock Coal Shipments 1918 – 1920
Hocking Valley Peacock Coal Shipments 1918 – 1920 part two – note: these were obtained later and are not included in the statistics below
Peacock Coal company operated five mines in the Pomeroy Ohio area in the late 1910’s. A collection of Hocking Valley shipping receipts dated from 1918 to 1920 gives insight to some of the car movements of the era. Three of the mines are represented by the collection. The Charter Oak mine was located on the Ohio River so it is possible its output was shipped via river, or the receipts may simply be missing from this collection. The Scott mine is also not represented. Most receipts contained shipping mine, coal size, car number, consignee, and destination railroad.
Charter Oak Mine courtesy University of Pittsburgh
As would be expected, the Hocking Valley supplied the most cars, although by a lesser margin than might be expected. The Chesapeake & Ohio controlled the Hocking Valley at this time, but this shows that the Hocking Valley was operated independently as few C&O cars were used at the mines.
Destination By State
Michigan was the most common destination for the coal. The Ohio totals include carloads destined to the dock at Toledo even if the coal is ultimately bound for other states via ship. At least for this sample, all rail movements were much more important than transloading at the Toledo Coal Dock.
The customer base was diverse. Both large industrial users and commercial coal distributors are well represented.
Buckeye Steel Castings courtesy of Columbus Metropolitan Library