Sam Greene, back in the summer of 1912 after selling his interest in Chariton's Herald-Patriot and turning the editorial reins over to others, was preparing to pack up his family and move to California. But one last joy ride remained --- a trip to the future site of Melcher and the first of the big coal mines that would give it life.
Melcher, by now in 2022 consolidated with the neighboring village of Dallas as Melcher-Dallas, is located northeast of Chariton and southwest of Knoxville, not far into Marion County. It remains a lively town. But in 1912, the town site was a hayfield located astraddle the new Rock Island rail line just south of the pioneer village of Dallas.
A couple of years earlier, the Rock Island Railroad after considerable threshing about, had decided to build a new north-south line from Des Moines (the southern end of its newly purchased Mason City line that ended in St. Paul) south through Chariton to connect with its main Kansas City line. A byproduct of the new line was an explosion of the coal industry in northeast Lucas and southwest Marion counties.
I've written frequently about result in Lucas County --- the legendary mines of Tipperary, Olmitz and Williamson as well as the development of those towns and ghost towns, plus Purdy. But not so much about parallel developments just to the north.
So here is Sam's report of his trip to Melcher, published in The Herald-Patriot of July 25, 1912. The map of Dallas Township, Marion County, locating Dallas, Melcher and the first of the Melcher mines, is taken from a 1917 atlas.
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It has been a lingering hope of mine that someone would invite me to take an auto ride to Dallas, to see the big mine being opened there by the Consolidated Indiana Coal Company, which is in reality the Rock Island railroad, and sure enough last Wednesday the invitation came from Hon. J.H. Darrah. Three expert coal men, William Haven, John Verner and George Verner, were taken along to add dignity to the list of guests and the Darrah auto (a Chalmers) spun along with the five heavyweights as if there had been no load at all.
It is about 20 miles to Dallas by the nearest way, but the new mine is a mile or so southeast of the town of Dallas. There seems to be some misunderstanding as to where the town for the miners will be built. Many have figured on it being just on the southern edge of Dallas, at the new townsite called Melcher, named after Vice President Melcher of the Rock Island, who was killed in a wreck a few months ago. The town of Melcher is still a hay field, but there is a boom in the air, and even Dallas is perking up in anticipation of the coming growth. But Supt. P. P. Reece, in charge of the construction of the new mine, says his new town will be located a half mile east of the mine, and fully a mile and a half from the new town of Melcher. He expects to have a company store at Melcher also, as some of the miners will undoubtedly live there as the district is developed.
The Dallas coal tract, bought from the Whitebreast Fuel Company a few years ago by the Indiana Company, representing the Rock Island, contains nearly 4,500 acres of good coal. The Whitebreast Company hoped to develop the territory by inducing the Burlington to build a line through there, but the Burlington thought otherwise, and the tract was left idle, 12 miles from Knoxville, the nearest town.
The Indiana Company bought it with the expectation that the Rock Island would build a branch from Knoxville over to Indianola, but when the Rock Island secured the Mason City line from Des Moines to St. Paul, it changed its plans entirely and decided to build on south from Des Moines to connect with its Kansas City main line. Even then, Chariton was not on its proposed route. One survey lay through Russell and one near Lucas. The final decision, as everyone knows, was through Chariton, largely in order to reach and develop the great Inland coal fields, which would not have been developed for years if they had had to depend upon the Burlington road alone.
In the Inland fields, only one of which has been developed into a mine thus far, and that only to prove to prospective capital that there is abundance of good coal in the fields, there will be five or six mines opened, all to connect with the Rock Island, giving an unlimited market through the north for the coal. In the Dallas field of 4,500 acres there will be six mines when it is fully developed. Most of the best coal lies west and northwest, and some east, of the present shaft, which was sunk at this particular point, where there is not the best supply of coal, in order to be alongside the tracks of the new railroad. Here, besides the coal mine, a big power house will furnish electric power and lights not only for use in the mines but to Dallas and Melcher, and all the surrounding territory that wants it. The other nearby mines in the territory will be connected with the new railroad by long side tracks. All of these towns will be good mining towns, within trading distance of Chariton by wagon road, or by the new railroad, if the Chariton merchants reach out vigorously after the trade there.
At the mine we met 30 or more auto loads of "boosters" from Knoxville --- businessmen and their wives out touring the country on a grand skylarking chase, supposed to advertise the town as a trading center. They distributed a lot of circulars telling about their town and the coming Chautauqua, but aside from the pleasure of the trip to those in the autos, I am not sure that such jaunts do much good.
The new shaft at Dallas is one of the best in the west. In fact, it is almost a model for coal mines in Iowa, as regards safety and convenience. The main shaft is elliptical in shape, about 15 feet across at its widest part and 185 feet deep. It is built of steel, lined on the inside with reinforced concrete, which makes it waterproof. All of the framework and caging is of steel, which makes the shaft thoroughly fireproof. The latest machinery will be installed as soon as the mine is in operation, the present machinery being only temporary. The overhead structures are being built for permanence and the highest utility and will include the latest devices for the rapid sorting and loading of coal on the railway cars.
The air shaft of the mine is built on an incline which is not so steep but that the miners can walk up and down it. This saves the main shaft for hoisting coal alone, and makes two complete and safe exits for the miners in case of fire or other accident. From the mine avenues underground there are two connections with the slanting air shaft, so that miners at work can easily reach either it or the main shaft from any part of the mine. A big 12-foot fan will force fresh air down the inclined shaft and all through the avenues of the mine. A track will also be laid down the incline so that coal can be drawn up it if necessary, or other material hauled up or taken down.
The main shaft and the air shaft are both completed but the overhead works are not yet finished, so the mine is not yet ready for operation. The grading of the new railroad is not yet finished in this vicinity anyway, several big fills being yet to be completed by Amis & Dean and Donald Jeffrey which will keep the road from being in operation before next January or perhaps later.
Meanwhile the main avenues of the mine are being driven, the workmen being already 300 or 400 feet both east and west from the main shaft, under ground. Here they are already cutting through rich veins of fine coal, which in the whole field average four and one-half feet in thickness, which shows what an enormous quantity of the black diamonds there is in that one field --- enough to keep the six mines busy for fifty years or more.
Mr. Reece, the engineer in charge, came from a Pennsylvania mining family, from the Bald Eagle Valley neighborhood only a few miles from where I was born and raised, which was at Tyrone. We stuck up a list of mutual acquaintances in that far-off state, and felt almost like neighbors before we got through. He is a skilled man in his line, still young, but trained in mining from his youth, and a college graduate. He has done good work under Mr. Scholz, the mining head of the Rock Island system, and we predict that he will make the Dallas mine what it was intended to make it, a model in safety and utility for all the mines in this part of Iowa.
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