User:Choess/Fall Brook Coal Company

The Fall Brook Coal Company was a coal company in northern Pennsylvania which played an important role in the New York Central's extension into the Clearfield coal region.

Founding and expansion
The Fall Brook Coal Company was founded by John Magee, a businessman from Bath, New York. Magee was deeply involved in railroad promotion in Steuben County, New York. He was one of the incorporators of the New York and Erie Railroad, and was part of two construction syndicates which built the Erie's line from Binghamton, New York via Elmira to Corning in 1849 and from Hornellsville to Friendship in 1850. In the latter year, Magree was elected president of the Buffalo and Cohocton Valley Railroad, which connected with the Erie at Painted Post, New York, just west of Corning. Work on the Buffalo and Cohocton Valley was well in hand when the Erie was finished in May 1851; it reached Kennedyville, at the northern edge of Steuben County, in October 1851, and Batavia (after reorganization as the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad) in 1854.

The Erie's line from Elmira to Corning paralleled the Chemung Canal and its navigable feeder. Opened in 1833, the canal was seen as an transportation outlet for coal deposits in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, as the Allegheny Mountains made it difficult to connect the deposits to transportation in Pennsylvania. A canal along the Tioga River was initially projected, and two companies were organized to construct it: the Tioga Navigation Company (1826), in Pennsylvania, and the Tioga Coal, Iron, Mining and Manufacturing Company, in New York (1828). In 1833, they received permission from the respective state legislatures to construct a railroad instead, and in about 1840, they opened a railroad, lightly built with strap rail, from Corning south to the state line and thence to the coal mines at Blossburg, Pennsylvania. This allowed coal to be transported from the mines to the Chemung Canal, and then up Seneca Lake to the Erie Canal.

From 1845 until about 1852, the Blossburg mines were leased by John Ward & Co. to William M. Mallory & Co. for operation; Mallory and his partner Hiram W. Bostwick also controlled the railroad from the state line to Corning (renamed the Corning and Blossburg Railroad in 1851), Bostwick being president and Mallory secretary and treasurer. Mallory, and then Bostwick, also leased the line of the Tioga Navigation (reorganized as the Tioga Railroad in 1850), from the state line to Blossburg and the mines. Between about 1851 and 1852, Mallory and Bostwick suffered financial difficulties. Duncan S. Magee, the son of John, took over the lease of the Blossburg mines from them, on behalf of his father. In the summer of 1852, both the Corning and Blossburg and the Tioga Railroad relaid their lines with T rail and converted to a 6 ft gauge, to be compatible with the broad gauge of the Erie Railroad. However, Mallory and Bostwick leased the Corning and Blossburg to the Tioga Railroad for ten years, starting October 16, 1852, and it was sold at foreclosure on December 31, 1852, probably to John Magee. On May 19, 1854, the Blossburg and Corning Railroad was organized. The new company bought the rail line from Corning to the state line on June 13, 1854 and promptly became embroiled in a legal dispute over the terms of its lease by the Tioga Railroad. Duncan Magee was made treasurer and superintendent of the Blossburg and Corning; by 1860, John Magee was the president of the railroad and Duncan the treasurer and secretary.

''Did Magee really get the mines in 1851? Other chronologies have them operated by the Arbon Coal Co. to 1844, Mallory to 1857, and Magee after, due to Panic of 1857. See Lawrence, p. 70, which explains that Mallory & Bostwick were officers of a Corning bank; the bank owed money to Magee and he attached lease and railroad. Other docs say bank was liquidated in 1855 so Panic of 1857 hardly to be blamed.''

Duncan Magee encouraged his father to search for new coal deposits, which he could own, rather than lease. John Magee agreed, and funded further exploration of C.L. Ward's lands in Ward Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, having made an agreement to buy coal-bearing lands from Ward at a fixed price. Duncan took an active role in the surveys, which at first only found uneconomical deposits. A large deposit was located in 1857, but elevation and drainage would have made it very difficult to mine. Feeling the financial effects of the Panic of 1857, John Magee considered withdrawing his support for the coal exploration. Humphries Brewer, one of the civil engineers engaged in the surveys, persuaded him to continue, and three months later, a large and more easily mined deposit was found along Fall Brook. John Magee bought 6000 acres of land in Ward and Union Townships from Ward, and Duncan directed the sinking of a drift along Fall Brook in 1858. Surveys began for a railroad, which would have to climb 600 ft in 6 mi to reach the mines from Blossburg.

The two Magees and James H. Gulick (a longtime investor in the coal mines of the area) applied for a charter for a mining company in 1859. Initially vetoed by Governor Packer at the behest of rival miners, the veto was overriden by the legislature and the Fall Brook Coal Company was incorporated on April 7, 1859. Its charter allowed it to mine coal in Tioga County, Pennsylvania and build a rail line from its mines, to the Tioga Railroad. The railroad was completed in the fall of 1859. The 7.2 mi line ran down from the new village of Fall Brook, Pennsylvania, which had grown up at the mines, along the east bank of Fall Brook and the south bank of the Tioga River to reach the Tioga Railroad at Blossburg. Magee also acquired land and built coal trestles, mills, shops, boatyards and other facilities at Coal Point (now Salt Point), on the shore of Seneca Lake at Watkins, New York (now Watkins Glen). The coal trestles allowed railcars to load canal boats going up Seneca Lake to the Erie Canal. The Chemung Railroad had opened from Horseheads, on the Erie Railroad, to Watkins in 1850; by shipping over the Erie and the Chemung Railroad, coal from Blossburg and Fall Brook could bypass the Chemung Canal and be directly loaded into the larger Erie Canal boats. The opening of the mines was formally announced by Duncan Magee on April 1, 1860. The Magees ceased to operate the mines at Blossburg and concentrated entirely on the Fall Brook mines.

Civil War years
Samples of the semi-bituminous Fall Brook coal had been sent around the country by John Magee to various manufacturing concerns. This marketing effort produced a number of favorable testimonials and ensured sales for the Fall Brook Coal Co. as soon as the mines opened. The outbreak of the Civil War vastly increased the demand for coal. With the mines booming, the town of Fall Brook had 1,400 residents by the end of 1862. October of 1862 marked the expiration of the Tioga Railroad's lease of the Blossburg and Corning. John Magee did not choose to renew it, preferring to operate the Blossburg and Corning independently. A.N. Rogers was hired as the railroad's new superintendent, only to be involved in a wreck about a month later. Some reconciliation with the Tioga Railroad was achieved in 1863, when a division of freight rates was agreed upon and Levi H. Shattuck, superintendent of the Tioga Railroad (and formerly of the Blossburg and Corning) was appointed the Blossburg and Corning's passenger superintendent. This allowed the coordination of operations so that passengers no longer had to change trains at Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, on the state line. Furthermore, the companies were to enjoy mutual trackage rights over each other's lines.

John Magee moved to Watkins, the headquarters of the Fall Brook Coal Company, in September 1863. Sixty-nine years old, he had suffered a bruising political defeat and preferred to concentrate his energies on his coal enterprises. He soon found much to occupy him. The Civil War had made labor scarce, and Magee paid $300 draft exemptions for several of his employees to keep them out of the army. Housing shortages occurred in Corning, Fall Brook, and another mining town a few miles to the west, Morris Run. With labor scarce, the miners at the two towns unionized in 1863, to be followed shortly by the local labors and carpenters. The mines became closed shops, and the pay for miners reached $8 per day by the end of the Civil War.

A confrontation between John Magee and the unions was sparked by his visit to the mines in late 1864, when he discovered Morris Run Coal Company miners living in Fall Brook Coal Company houses, and vice versa. He severely reprimanded Humphries Brewer, now his mine superintendent, for allowing this to occur. Magee formed a united front with the Morris Run companies to require workers to live only in the housing of their own company, but the unions refused to comply. The paternalistic Magee was deeply offended, and responded by sending notices of eviction to all the workers in Fall Brook and shutting down the mines. Pennsylvania law required three months notice before eviction proceedings could commence. The laborers' union capitulated shortly before the deadline, agreed to the Fall Brook's housing contracts, and returned to work. The miners' union refused, and Magee and the Morris Run companies began taking legal action to evict the miners. While initial attempts by the Tioga County sheriff and a posse were repulsed, Governor Curtin sent the Bucktail Regiment to respond to the sheriff's plea for help, and they succeeded in ejecting the miners at Fall Brook and Morris Run. By mid-June, the mines were back in operation and most of the miners re-hired—but at nearly a 50% reduction in wages. The unions had been broken. The two companies also countered an attempt to unionize the laborers at Elmira and Watkins in May 1865 with threats of eviction.

During the war, Magee continued to work on providing better transportation for the Fall Brook's coal and improving the company's facilities. A charter supplement passed on April 15, 1864 allowed it to own land in the adjacent parts of New York State, lease the Tioga Railroad, the Blossburg and Corning Railroad, and the Corning and Seneca Lake Railroad, and to reduce the number of Fall Brook directors and issue more stock. The Corning and Seneca Lake was incorporated at the same time by the Magees, to give them a line from Corning to Watkins independent of the Erie, but was never constructed. Only the Blossburg and Corning was leased by the Fall Brook, the Tioga Railroad remaining in independent hands.

Other improvements included a telegraph line, which was built from Corning to Fall Brook in August 1864. On September 16, Fall Brook was incorporated as a borough. A hotel was built there in the spring of 1865. Heretofore, trains had moved from the Blossburg and Corning to the Erie where the two railroads crossed on the west side of Corning, at "Bostwick's Switch". In September 1865, the Fall Brook Coal Company laid a new track from the end of the Blossburg and Corning, in Tioga Avenue, to curve south and connect with the Erie near Hope Cemetery, at the east end of town, at "Magee's Switch".

Development of Antrim


The Fall Brook Coal Company continued to explore coal lands in Tioga County. Two of the company's surveyors found a promising coal deposit on Wilson Creek in 1866, and the land was purchased by Duncan Magee and Humphries Brewer for the coal company. Explorations continued the next year, the site growing into a small village, and proved so promising that the company decided to build a railroad through Wellsboro, Pennsylvania to reach the site. On April 4, 1867, the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville Railroad was incorporated. Humphries Brewer was the president of the new railroad, while James Heron, cashier of the Fall Brook Company, was secretary and treasurer. Anton Hardt was hired by Humphries Brewer to survey the new railroad.

However, as this enterprise was getting underway, the Fall Brook Coal Company was rocked by the deaths of several of its chief employees. Brewer died on December 25, 1867, to be succeeded as president of the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville by Henry Sherwood and as superintendent of the Fall Brook by Heron. Hardt took over from Brewer as mining engineer at Fall Brook. On April 5, 1868, Brewer was followed in death by John Magee. The presidencies of the Fall Brook and the Blossburg and Corning fell to his son and longtime partner, Duncan S. Magee. Before leaving for a European trip, Duncan christened the new village Antrim, in honor of County Antrim, the home of his paternal grandparents. However, Duncan never returned alive from Europe, dying at Wiesbaden on May 8, 1869. Duncan was replaced as the head of his businesses by his younger brother, George J. Magee.

George Magee continued to push forth the development of Antrim, although he declined to build too many facilities there until he was sure the coal there would become a paying proposition. However, work on the railroad began in May 1870, as Magee felt a line from Wellsboro to Lawrenceville would be profitable even if the Antrim coal mines were uneconomical. For the time being, Antrim was a lumbering town, centered around the modern sawmill Magee had erected. In May 1872, the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville was completed between those two points, a line of 28 mi. A setback occurred at the end of July, when the Antrim sawmill burnt down, but it was replaced by a new portable sawmill, hauled with difficulty over the rough roads from Wellsboro, and was in operation less than six weeks after the fire. The line from Wellsboro to Antrim was opened on October 28, 1872. It climbed up the valley of Charleston Creek, crossed the plateau, and descended to Antrim, on the rim of the Wilson Creek gorge, by two switchbacks.

Anton Hardt was now chief engineer of the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville as well as mining engineer at Fall Brook and Antrim; on January 1, 1873 he was promoted to superintendent of the Fall Brook Coal Company. On the same date, the Wellsboro & Lawrenceville was merged with the Blossburg and Corning to form the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railway, a paper railroad leased and operated by the Fall Brook Coal Company. At the end of the year, a new township was carved out around the bustling mines at Antrim. It was named Duncan Township, in honor of Duncan Magee.

A strange and memorable accident occurred on August 6, 1873, when Engine #13 was struck by a string of loose cars while switching the yard at Watkins. The engineer jumped, but the collision opened the throttle, and the engine launched itself off the end of the 40 ft high trestle at speed, jumped over two canal boats, and crashed into Seneca Lake, 78 ft from the end of the trestle. It took over a month to salvage the engine, as the front end sank into quicksand on the lake bottom. After this incident, #13 was dubbed the "Sam Patch" by the railroaders, for the famous jumper, and a cooperative shop crew painted that name on the engine during her repairs. "Sam Patch" retained her reputation for jumping the rails, crashing into the Tioga station the next year and scattering a prayer meeting held there. Conversion to standard gauge in 1879 in no way changed #13's habits, as she ran into the outlet canal at Geneva in 1880 and derailed later that year while double-heading a coal train near Post Creek.

Rails to Geneva
The Panic of 1873 placed great strain on the company. Mining at Fall Brook diminished, and the town saw very few improvements for the next four or five years. Furthermore, the Fall Brook Coal Company found itself pinched by high railroad rates. Coal from Fall Brook had to travel over the Tioga, Erie, and Northern Central Railroads (the latter the lessee of the line from Horseheads to Watkins), and these railroads were unwilling to renegotiate the coal company's tolls, which were based on wartime high coal prices of $12 per ton. After the failure of his negotiations, George Magee's next move was to enter discussions with the Sodus Bay and Corning Railroad, which had partly graded a rail line from Corning to Sodus Bay, New York via Geneva, at the head of Seneca Lake, and represented a possible northern outlet for his coal. However, the Sodus Bay and Corning was badly encumbered by debt. Magee made a contract with its bondholders that they foreclose, buy up the railroad's property, and transfer it to a new corporation, in exchange for 50% of the par value of the SB&C's bonds in bonds of the new railroad. Magee would also contract to deliver coal over the new railroad in sufficient amounts to pay off its bonds in a timely fashion. The bondholders agreed, and the new railroad was incorporated as the Syracuse, Geneva and Corning Railway on August 25, 1875, to build from Corning to Geneva, where it could reach the Auburn Road of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Edgar Munson, a native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania and one of the SB&C bondholders, was made a director and president of the new railroad. John Lang, treasurer of the Fall Brook, took the same position on the SG&C, while Magee, Daniel Beach, treasurer of the CC&A, and A.H. Gorton, its superintendent, were also included among the directors. One of the first acts of the new company was to assume from Magee the obligation to swap its mortgage bonds for the property of the SB&C, while leaving him to provide a tonnage contract. He did so in September, agreeing that all coal shipped from Morris Run and Fall Brook to the New York Central for ten years would pass over the SG&C for interchange at Geneva. The New York Central was a party to the contract; superintendent Gorton had spent three weeks on their railroad helping test Fall Brook coal as a locomotive fuel, and the association between the coal company and the railroad would grow closer in the coming years.

Surveying of the SG&C began in the fall of 1875. The SB&C's partly graded line along Keuka Lake was found to be unfavorable, and in December 1875, the directors, despite the opposition of Munson, voted to adopt a new route passing closer to Seneca Lake. Construction contracts were let in 1876, but the contractors failed, and Magee resigned from the board in September to take over the contracts himself. He had to mortgage all of the Fall Brook Coal Company's property in Tioga County to raise the funds for the endeavor. Construction pushed onward through 1876 and 1877, including extensive trestle work at Geneva at the edge of Seneca Lake and a high bridge over Watkins Glen. The new railroad was built as a standard gauge (referred to as "narrow gauge" in the contemporary press), rather than the Erie-compatible broad gauge until then used by the Fall Brook's railroads. The new gauge would make the railroad compatible with the New York Central. Nor was this change to be limited to the SG&C. The CC&A had been dual-gauged (to both the Erie and the standard gauge) by 1876, and was converted to standard gauge alone on November 30, 1877. The Erie itself was in the process of dual-gauging and converting at the time, so connection with that railroad was not abolished.

The success of the SG&C was by no means thought to be assured, and some of Magee's contemporaries believed that the project would ruin him. Furthermore, Edgar Munson had, after much difficulty, finally obtained title to all of the old Sodus Bay & Corning properties, and tendered them to the SG&C in May 1877, demanding the first mortgage bonds due under his contract. These were refused him, and he resigned from the board and sued the railroad in September. His litigation against the SG&C and then against Magee in person to obtain the bonds ultimately failed, but the legal battle dragged on for twenty years. Munson's legal fight notwithstanding, Magee, backed by Beach and Lang (who took over the presidency from Munson), was able to open the SG&C for service later that year, with the opening train reaching Geneva from Corning on October 16. Magee, Beach and Lang met with a party of New York Central officials, who were to take an inspection tour of the Fall Brook's line and coal mines. Regular freight and passenger service began in December. It was an important success for Magee, who had suffered a personal loss during this difficult period: his brother-in-law Louis J. Stothoff, the Antrim station agent, was run over and killed by a train in February 1877, while coupling cars near Antrim.

The successful completion of the SG&C, which, like the CC&A, was leased to and operated by the Fall Brook, allowed the diversion of coal traffic from the rail-water route. Instead of traveling from Corning to Watkins via the Erie and Northern Central and to Geneva by canal, the Fall Brook's coal could now travel over its own rails all the way from Antrim to Corning to Geneva. The change was made in January 1878, and by February, the new route was reported to be carrying 800 to 1200 ST of coal north per day. Most of this coal was coming from Antrim; Fall Brook was still suffering from the Panic of 1873, and the population there had dropped from 1500 to 300. By the middle of 1878, the Antrim mines had produced about 600000 ST of coal since their opening, and could produced about 300000 ST per year. Overall, the Fall Brook Coal Company had, since 1864, mined and shipped about 3500000 ST of coal. In addition to the traffic generated by the Tioga County mines, the Northern Central arranged for trackage rights over the SG&C from their crossing at Himrod Junction to Geneva to connect with the New York Central. This allowed Northern Central coal shipments to the New York Central to avoid a more roundabout journey via Canandaigua, New York.

While most of the Fall Brook's coal now proceeded by rail to the New York Central at Geneva, some still moved to Watkins to be loaded onto boats bound for the Erie Canal. (Indeed, all the coal moving there had come by rail since the abandonment of the decrepit Chemung Canal in November 1878.) In 1879, construction began in Geneva on a new coal trestle to replace the Coal Point facilities at Watkins and eliminate this traffic. The last Fall Brook coal train to Watkins ran in July 1879, and the tracks and trestle there were then removed. The first train of coal to the new trestle at Geneva dumped its load there on August 11, 1879. With the line to Geneva hitting a new one-day high of 3000 ST of coal shipped in August 1879, the company prepared to remove its headquarters from Watkins to Corning. This was completed in February 1880, and a new station and office buildings were erected at Corning.

Geneva was not the only coal terminal used by the Fall Brook, even after the elimination of Watkins. In October 1877, the New York Central chartered the Geneva and Lyons Railroad to extend north from Geneva to their main line at Lyons. This line, which was finished in November 1878, allowed coal to move directly to the New York Central's main line without having to use the single-track Auburn Road at Geneva. While the new railroad was built and largely owned by the New York Central (Magee did have a seat on the board of directors), the Fall Brook was granted operating rights over the new road, so its coal trains could proceed directly to Lyons without interchange. Coal could then be dumped at new trestles in Lyons and used to fuel New York Central locomotives stopping there, or reloaded into boxcars and shipped elsewhere in the country. Over the next decade, Lyons would replace Geneva entirely as a coal transfer point.

Other expansions
While the construction of the SG&C was the principal project which occupied the Fall Brook Coal Company during the 1870s, George Magee was not idle in promoting its interests elsewhere. The Morris Run Coal Company failed in March 1875, and the Fall Brook came to own a half interest in it when it was reorganized in 1877 as the Morris Run Coal Mining Company.

The change of route for the SG&C in 1875 left Penn Yan to one side of the railroad. Local agitation commenced with the idea of building a 3 ft gauge railroad along the old Crooked Lake Canal from Dresden, on the SG&C, to Penn Yan, perhaps to be extended along Keuka Lake to Branchport and Hammondsport. The Penn Yan and New York Railway was incorporated on August 24, 1877 to build about 7 mi from Dresden to Penn Yan. It bought the canal from the state Canal Commissioners in November. In February 1878, the Penn Yan & New York directors came to an agreement with the SG&C and the New York Central, wherein the Penn Yan & New York would grade its own right-of-way and supply ties, the New York Central would provide rail, and the SG&C would operate the finished railroad (a standard gauge). Encouraging reports of progress continued to circulate during the early 1880s, but the twisting route along the Keuka Outlet made it a challenge to lay out the railroad. It was finally placed under contract in November 1884. The first train ran on August 3, 1885, and the Penn Yan & New York was consolidated into the SG&C on October 1, 1885.

It also developed a route along the Cowanesque River: the Cowanesque Valley Railroad was incorporated on April 9, 1869, to build a line from Lawrenceville along the Cowanesque Valley to the Buffalo and Washington Railroad. With the backing of the Fall Brook Coal Company, it was built from Lawrenceville to Elkland in 1873. It was leased by the CC&A on September 15, 1873 and merged into it on June 1, 1874, carrying principally agricultural and tannery traffic.

In 1882, the Tioga Coke Works were built to the south of Tioga by George J. Magee, aided by the Fall Brook and the Morris Run coal companies. 200 coke ovens were constructed, as well as a coal washing plant, as the coke produced was of poor quality if the coal was not washed. The first superintendent was Samuel B. Elliott. He was replaced after his resignation by John J. Davis, formerly the superintendent of construction, who died in January 1891 and was succeeded by his son, James T. Davis. The coke works featured in the monument erected to John Magee in 1886, and produced 22124 ST of coke in 1892. The cost of washing the coal meant that the company could not produce coke at a price competitive with that made in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, and the works closed on July 1, 1894. They were dismantled by 1897.

Items to be added:
 * Coal production figures

The New York Central's venture
The increase in the coal business that followed the Fall Brook's extension to Geneva and Lyons was a welcome relief after the economic fluctuations of the late 1870s, which had often seen the mines idle or working but a few days a week. However, the coal company's renewed activity also sparked a further bout of labor unrest. With the demand for coal rising, local miners demanded an increase in wages; this was denied by the Fall Brook and other companies on the grounds that they were operating under contracts made in May 1879, when the price of coal had been lower, and could not pay higher wages. The miners throughout Tioga County responded by striking in March 1880, closing the coal mines and sharply reducing traffic on the company's railroad lines. The miners at Antrim capitulated in April, without success. Fall Brook, Arnot and Blossburg miners continued to strike until May, when the wage increases were granted.

These labor troubles, and the depletion of the mines at Fall Brook and elsewhere in the Tioga coalfield, alarmed the management of the New York Central. The Tioga County mines were important not only for the freight revenues they provided to the New York Central, but because they supplied the bituminous coal that fueled its locomotives. With the approval of William H. Vanderbilt, the New York Central began to expand its reach into coal fields further south in Pennsylvania. As the central Pennsylvania coal fields were already heavily developed by the New York Central's bitter rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New York Central would require the cooperation of the Tioga County coal operators. Backed by the finances of the Vanderbilt interests, these operators could buy coal lands in central Pennsylvania without immediately alarming the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Vanderbilt's first move, however, would be towards the southeast. In Philadelphia, Franklin B. Gowen, recently ousted from the presidency of the Reading Railroad following its bankruptcy, was struggling with McCalmont Bros. to regain control of the company. By purchasing a large block of Reading stock, Vanderbilt engineered Gowen's return to the presidency in January 1882 and obtained his support. The Reading's main line connected anthracite and semi-anthracite coal fields with Port Richmond in Philadelphia, to the southeast, but its Catawissa Railroad subsidiary extended northwest to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on the West Branch Susquehanna River. If the New York Central could connect with it, the two could join to form a trunk line to carry the Reading's anthracite, and other freight traffic, up into New York State. Fortunately for the two companies, a vehicle for this connection already existed: the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway, which had projected a line from Williamsport to Jersey Shore, up Pine Creek and down the Allegheny River to Port Allegany, as part of a route to Buffalo, New York. The Reading held a controlling interest in the line, and grading had begun in 1873, only to be abandoned during the panic of that year and not resumed. This railroad was now sold to the New York Central, a new board elected, and a grand compact was drawn up between the New York Central, the Geneva and Lyons, the Fall Brook and its two leased railroads, the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo, and the Reading and its mining affiliate, the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company. The agreement provided that the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo, supported by financial guarantees from the other companies, would build its line from a connection with the Catawissa Railroad up Pine Creek to a point near Stokesdale, on the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim. The lines thus interconnected would form a new route between Philadelphia and Buffalo, and the Reading and New York Central agreed to route traffic over it in preference to competing lines. All parties, including the Fall Brook, agreed to cooperate in car forwarding and supply along the through route. Magee's associate, Henry Sherwood, became the new president of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo; it was leased to the Fall Brook in December 1882 and opened in the summer of 1883. Large quantities of through freight, as well as locally mined coal, now began to move over the Fall Brook's railroads. During the year ending on September 30, 1883, the railroad hauled 1355290 ST of freight and carried 110,863 passengers.

The Cowanesque Valley bracnch was extended from Westfield to Harrison Valley, and passenger service began on the extension on September 17, 1883.

On February 6, 1884, the name of the JSPC&B was changed to the Pine Creek Railway.

On July 1, 1892, the CC&A was renamed the Fall Brook Railway, and the coal company transferred its line from Blossburg to the dying mines at Fall Brook to the new company.

The Panic of 1893 led the company to cut miners' wages by ten percent. This triggered a strike in Arnot, Fall Brook, and Morris Run at the end of December. The miners returned to work on January 8, 1894, without winning concessions. Labor trouble flared up again in the spring; the miners' grievances were general throughout the country, and the bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894 broke out. All work in the company's mines, including those at Antrim, halted until July 16, 1894, when the miners returned to work. The strike apparently did little to harm the company's growth: by September 1895, the Corning Journal reported that the Fall Brook Railway was shipping an average of 6000000 ST of freight per year, "the largest single track tonnage in the United States".

In 1895, the New York Central first offered to buy out Magee and take control of the Fall Brook Railway. He refused, but realized that the Central would eventually be able to force the issue. Anton Hardt felt that this knowledge hastened Magee's death, which occurred on March 11, 1897.

Items to be added:


 * 1884: carrying 5,000 tons of coal/day
 * In the summer of 1896, the company carried out improvements and reopened old drift No. 1 at Fall Brook.
 * Development of "Anna S" mine across from Antrim in late 1890s.
 * 1896: Vanderbilts rebuffed in trying to gain control of Fall Brook; retaliate by diverting anthracite shipments over LV.

Exit from railroading
Upon the death of George J. Magee, control of the Fall Brook Coal Company and the Fall Brook Railway passed to his son John Magee. John held out on the New York Central for two years, but ultimately bowed to the inevitable after lengthy negotiations between Daniel Beach and the New York Central's general counsel, Samuel E. Wilkinson. On May 1, 1899, the New York Central took a 999-year lease of the Fall Brook Ry., Pine Creek Ry., and the Syracuse, Geneva & Corning Ry. The transaction was initially structured as a lease to comply with the testamentary provisions of John Magee, Sr. On April 1, 1909, the three railroad companies were merged to form the Geneva, Corning and Southern Railroad, under NYC control.

The reopening of Fall Brook No. 1 in 1896 was apparently a short-lived affair: only five men were working in it that year, and it does not appear in production statistics thereafter. Fall Brook No. 2 continued to produce between 50000 ST and 75000 ST of coal per year through 1898, and a new opening to the workings 0.5 mi to the north, Fall Brook No. 7, was made in 1897.

In the summer of 1899, the United Mine Workers of America demanded an advance in wages for most bituminous coal miners in Pennsylvania, which was conceded by most companies except for those in Tioga County. However, some of the large operators in Central Pennsylvania made their advance conditional on the concession being made by all operators. In the mines controlled by the Erie Railroad, miners at Arnot and Blossburg had gone on strike in June to obtain the advance, but those at Morris Run repeatedly declined to strike. After vigorous organizing by the UMWA, they were finally persuaded to strike in early August. The Antrim miners were voluntarily granted the advance around this time, reportedly because many of them were leaving to work elsewhere; the miners at Fall Brook did not, and joined the strike on 18 August. Rumors were already circulating that the mines at Fall Brook would be abandoned, and in October, it was indeed announced that they would be shut down permanently. Anton Hardt afterwards claimed that there was a great deal of coal left in the mines, and that the strike had triggered their closing, but the No. 2 opening had been described as "nearly worked out" in 1898. The closing of the Fall Brook mines also meant an end to the Fall Brook name: in November 1899, the partnership of Magee & Ellsworth took over operations at Antrim.

With the coal strike resolved, production from the two openings at Antrim (Antrim No. 1 drift and Antrim No. 5 slope) rebounded to 153320 ST in 1900. In the following year, the Anna S. mine was reopened.

Magee & Ellsworth operated the Antrim No. 1 and No. 5 mines, both of which were plagued to some extent by black damp emissions from the abandoned parts of the mine. By 1902, activity at Antrim No. 1 was largely confined to drawing the pillars of coal left by earlier mining operations. Coal production from the two Antrim drift mines in 1901 was 163058 ST. Prospects were brighter at the Anna S. mine, separated from the railhead to the east at Antrim by the deep gorge of Wilson Creek. In 1901, a new tipple was built at Antrim No. 1, which was connected with the Anna S. by a steam-powered Bleichert aerial tramway that carried buckets of coal high across the creek. With the Anna S. as well as the two drifts in operation in 1902, the company's output increased to about 207739 ST. The new aerial tram at the Anna S. carried not only coal but some of the more daring miners who wanted to avoid the long, steep hike through the gorge to reach Antrim. In 1902, miner Robert Young did so, only to fall from a bucket as it passed one of the lift towers, sustaining dangerous but non-fatal injuries from his 50 ft plunge.

By 1907, only the Anna S. was operating, but production had climbed to its peak at 248658 ST of coal in that year. It fell again to 201325 ST in 1908. In 1909, the Fall Brook name, rather than that of Magee & Ellsworth, was again used. A strike against the company began in March and lasted for seven months; it was only open for 58 days that year, and production fell to 47332 ST.

Production rebounded somewhat in 1910, declining to 146957 ST in 1915. A new 1500 ft tunnel was driven that year to improve drainage in the Anna S.


 * Strike reported in Wellsboro Gazette of Jun. 3, 1909. Going on against the Fall Brook since March.
 * Report of strike in May. Specific to Antrim mines.
 * Strike settled in November.
 * 11 Apr 1909: approval of GC&S consolidation.
 * NYC looking to purchase 50,000 shares of GC&S from John Magee interests 30 Dec 1909.

Sale and final years
In 1925, the company's remaining coal lands around Antrim, including the Anna S. mine, were leased for operation to the partnership of Howell and Sill. Cyrus D. Sill (1870–1952) was an employee of the Fall Brook, handling sales of Antrim coal, while William Howell was a son of the company's one-time treasurer. Sill continued to be responsible for sales, while Howell directed the mining. In 1930, the Fall Brook passed from the hands of the Magee family, when Howell and Sill bought up the entire stock of the company. Sill became president and treasurer, while Howell became vice-president and secretary.

The Anna S. was closed on April 5, 1937, although Howell & Sill continued mining at a new shaft, Cushing No. 1, from 1938 on. As a result of the closure, the New York Central filed a request to abandon the line from Wellsboro to Antrim with the Interstate Commerce Commission on January 12, 1938.

In the beginning of May 1939, the Antrim Coal Co. was reported to be mining 500 tons of coal per day at Antrim, where they leased 4,000 acres from Howell and Sill. They removed the aerial tramway from the Anna S. to make room for their strip mining operations. Later that month, operations were halted by a short soft-coal mining strike.

Sill retired from the coal business in November 1940. The partnership of Howell & Sill was dissolved, although they continued to head the Fall Brook, which leased its mines to the newly organized Antrim Coal Company, owned by New York and Philadelphia investors. Antrim Coal continued to operate Cushing No. 1; it may have operated the Anna S., but production from the latter does not appear after 1940 in state mining statistics. In any case, Antrim Coal was struck by a devastating fire on December 7, 1940 that burned down their tipple and cleaning plant at Antrim. This halted their coal stripping operations there; the Fall Brook repossessed the Anna S. on March 3, 1941 and Antrim Coal filed for bankruptcy later that month.

The mines were then leased to a new company, the Hunter Coal Company. Hunter Coal began by reopening the Antrim No. 1 mine in 1941, followed by Cushing No. 1 in 1942 and the Bloss No. 1 drift mine, unused since 1903, in 1943. (Local newspapers report the Bloss drift open as early as 1941, according to the company's president, Samuel L. Shober, but it does not appear in state mining statistics until 1943). In addition to these deep mining operations, Hunter Coal began coal stripping operations on the Cushing and Bloss coal seams in 1942 and 1943, respectively. In late 1943, Howell, as owner of the Fall Brook, was negotiating a merger with Hunter Coal, and B&M Coal Stripping Co., Hunter's subcontractor. At the time, the Fall Brook owned 6000 acres of coal lands around Antrim. By 1944, the Fall Brook was back in the coal business for the last time, operating the Bloss No. 1 and Cushing No. 1 drifts and the Bloss and Cushing strip mines. The Antrim No. 1 drift was closed after 1942, only a small amount of coal being taken out. In the summer of 1944, shortly after the absorption of Hunter, the Fall Brook ordered a Bucyrus 320-B self-propelled power shovel for use in its stripping operations.

The end came for the Fall Brook in 1946. In February of 1946, Major Lee White, Jr., was appointed receiver of the company, after it was unable to pay a debt to F. M. Wattles. On March 23, 1946, the company was sold at a sheriff's sale to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which had loaned it about $140,000 to keep it in operation. At the company's dissolution, Millis F. Fordham (1893–1949) was president, while Howell was still vice-president and secretary. On May 19, 1948, the RFC sold the Antrim lands and mineral rights of the Fall Brook to the S & S Coal Company of Jersey Shore. At the time of sale, S&S, a partnership between Julius and Hyman Simon and Walter and Aaron Staiman, had already begun strip mining and lumbering for pulpwood in the Antrim area. The company was headed by Julius Simon, who, with his father Hyman, operated an auto wrecking business in Williamsport. Although they continued coal stripping operations, they dismantled the Fall Brook's self-propelled 425-ton steam shovel for scrap (the Fall Brook's mining equipment had been included in their purchase).


 * Gazette & Bulletin (Williamsport) of May 6, 1939 reports 30 Antrim miners taking part in general strike. Mines owned by Howell & Sill, Antrim Coal Co. recently organized for stripping there.
 * Howell & Sill working the Anna S in 1931, 1932, ... 1937.
 * Decline of mining at Antrim, opening of strip mines 1930s: Abandoned 1937:


 * See for complex case involving Antrim Coal Co. and F. M. Wattles.
 * Per, Howell & Sill dissolved upon Sill's retirement in 1940, but "a few years ago" they bought up control of the Fall Brook Co. which they had been leasing from. Now leasing mines to Antrim Coal Co. Notes that "Anna S." was named for a Magee daughter. (see also , which describes tramway, naming of Anna S.)

Legacy
Deep mining at Antrim ceased with the demise of the Fall Brook Coal Company. During the 1980s, strip mining operations by the unrelated Antrim Mining, Inc., daylighted parts of the former Antrim and Anna S. deep workings, worsening acid mine drainage into Babb Creek and Wilson Creek. After a federal lawsuit, Antrim Mining agreed to cease mining, reclaim its mine sites, and set up a trust fund to remediate acid drainage into Babb Creek.

With the exception of a few peripheral lines, such as the former Cowanesque Valley and the line to Penn Yan, the former Fall Brook Railway network passed largely intact from the New York Central to Penn Central in 1968 and Conrail in 1976. By this time, dieselization had minimized the importance of on-line coal mines to the railroads, and the decline of mining in the Clearfield coalfield led to the abandonment of the former Fall Brook line south of Wellsboro in 1988 to become the Pine Creek Rail Trail. Conrail disposed of the line south of Corning to the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad in 1992; John Magee's seeming folly, the Syracuse, Geneva & Corning, remains in service today, together with the line to Lyons, as part of the Norfolk Southern Railway.

While the height of the bituminous coal industry in Tioga County is clearly past, the remains of the Fall Brook empire have benefited from a new form of energy extraction: the hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus Shale to extract natural gas. Supplying this industry has proved highly profitable for the Wellsboro and Corning, while the sale of the treated discharge water from the Antrim mines for fracking use to defer treatment expenses is actively contemplated.

Despite the strip-mining and reclamation of many of the old Fall Brook mines, spoil piles and other remains of the mining era can be seen on the Mid State Trail, which passes a foundation for one of the Anna S. tramway towers and follows part of the old Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim railroad grade into Antrim.

Unincorporated material

 * 1880: hauling oil north to NYC from a tank farm on the Olean-Bayonne pipeline of Standard Oil


 * 1882: considered building a new line from Tioga to Blossburg, but in 1883 Erie agreed to a 20-year agreement for trackage rights
 * 1883: new locomotive orders; roundhouse burned
 * As of May 1883, Fall Brook plus Morris Run mining 1,000,000 tons of coal/year
 * 1884: filling in at Glass Factory Bay, Geneva to double-track
 * March 1886: contract with NYC expired, several iron works shut down using Blossburg coal; caused idling of mines at Fall Brook & Morris Run; rumors of new line Tioga-Blossburg again. Complaints about Erie freight rates.
 * April 1886: George Brown replaces late Alonzo Gorton as supt.
 * Brakemen's strike in October 1886, due to order for middle brakemen on coal trains (not to ride in caboose). Order rescinded in Dec. due to steam brakes on engines. Pay for conductors & brakemen increased by seniority. Fills at Geneva finished.
 * January 1887: strike at Arnot. Miners at Fall Brook & Morris Run making demands. Back to work in Feb.
 * 1888: Magee leases Pardee Colliery, Phillipsburg & cannel coal mine nearby.
 * 1888: semaphore signaling being installed along railroad. Company organizes a fire company in Corning, builds interlocking with Erie there.
 * December 1888: railway mail service begins.
 * 1891: Fall Brook leases Erie's line Morris Run-Blossburg.


 * Illustrations: pic. of "Sam Patch", Geo. J. Magee, maybe the Fall Brook Route? pic of John, Jr. and bio
 * need more description of route, or save for SG&C spinoff?
 * innovations on Fall Brook line--hydraulics at Corning shops, dispatching, etc. George Brown succeeded Gorton as supt.; Hardt has a veiled jab at him, Elmira Morning Telegram 1899 says "not thoroughly in harmony with Fall Brook employes". Invention of the brownie point.
 * Lincoln's car used on Fall Brook?