Selected pages of the 1860 charter of the Somerset Iron and Coal Company are reproduced below. The content of these pages was originally part of an 1841 report to the Allegheny Coal Company by Walter R. Johnson, in regards to his evaluation of coal, limestone and iron ore on various farms near Wellersburg, PA. Pages 17 and 23 mention the presence of an old coal mine on D. Korns' property (Daniel Korns). Page 21 proposes the Wellersburg inclined plane and is included below for that reason. For a 1939 view of the inclined plane, click here. For a modern aerial view of the location where the inclined plane crosses the main highway, click here.
Johnson's report documents mines on several of the local area farms. The Daniel Korns coal mine was likely a small one for personal consumption, as was apparently common in the area. Coal mining on one scale or another was not uncommon in the Korns family. Michael Korn, Sr., the father of Daniel Korns, Sr., was the co-owner of what may have been a commercial coal mine in Maryland that was purchased in 1796. Wilson Korns' son John was killed under rocks in a local coal mine. Wilson Korns' son Allen Lester Korns (my grandfather) worked a small coal mine on his property for personal use until the early 1950s. This fragment from the 1876 Beers map of Southampton township shows that the mine was already opened on the farm when Allen Korns' grandfather Daniel Korns, Jr. owned the farm. From this, we can probably infer that Allen's father J. Wilson Korns also worked the mine for personal use. Wilson Korns's son Earl Korns used a small steam shovel for stripping coal in Southampton township. I have also seen references to at least one Korns-owned mine in Ohio in the 1800s.
Subsequent to finding the 1860 report shown below, I also found a copy of the original 1841 document, titled "Report of a survey and exploration of the coal and ore lands belonging to the Allegheny Coal Company: in Somerset County, Pennsylvania; accompanied by maps, profiles and sections" by Walter Rogers Johnson. Click here to see a 3765KB PDF copy of the 1841 report. Because of the size of the file, it will take awhile to download, but it is well worth it.
Page 79 of the PDF (linked above) is an 1841 map of the area that shows the locations of the Hoyman tract, the Hardin tract, and the Daniel Korns farm. The Daniel Korns farm is clearly that of Daniel Korns, Sr., because it is in the same location as the Daniel Korns, Sr. farm that is shown in the 1829 draft of the Michael Korns, Sr. farm that is shown on pages 32 & 33 of the 1949 book "The Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset County Pennsylvania " by Dr. Charles Byron Korns. Note also that the 1841 map shows the location of the Hoyman tract, which is also shown on the 1829 draft of the Michael Korns, Sr. farm. As a result of the boundaries of the Hardin, Hoyman, and D. Korns properties that are shown on the 1841 map, one can clearly make out part of the outline of the distinctively-shaped Tract No. 1 from the 1829 draft of the Michael Korns, Sr. farm. Thus, the 1841 map proves that Tract No. 1 of the 1829 draft did not extend to what is now Highway 160. On the 1841 map, the farm that is marked "D. Korns" would have been Daniel Korns, Sr. (son of Michael Korns, Sr.). Daniel Korns, Jr. would have only been 21 years old in 1841, and might not have had his own farm yet. (The 1840 Southampton Township census suggests, but doesn't prove, that Daniel Korns, Jr. was living with his father in 1840.)
A table in the 1855 book "Statistics of Coal" appears to summarize Johnson's coal survey, and in doing so, also documents the Korns mine.
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