![]() ![]() The last named company brought with it control of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad, which connected the mines to the Baltimore & Ohio and later the Pennsylvania and Western Maryland railroads. Upon its formation, the Consolidation Coal Company acquired the properties of the Ocean Steam Coal Company, the Frostburg Coal Company, and the Mount Savage Iron Company totaling about 11,000 acres. Aspinwall, Erastus Corning, the Delanos and Roosevelts, and the Boston financier John Murray Forbes, who already had substantial investments in the region. The Consolidation Coal merger was put together by New Yorkers such as William H. railroad rail at its Mount Savage mill in 1844. Lewis Howell's Maryland and New York Iron and Coal Company rolled the first solid U.S. Naturally, New York capitalists and manufacturers played a leading role in developing the field. Cumberland coal was ideal for ship bunkering, and much of the output was shipped to New York Harbor. This also coincided with the development of ocean steam navigation and a rapid growth in the number of railroad locomotives and stationary steam engines. However, large-scale development could not occur until the mid-1840s, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Cumberland and provided reliable transportation. Coal had been mined in the region beginning in the 1700s, and the first coal company, the Maryland Mining Company, had been incorporated in 1828. The Georges Creek or Cumberland Coal Field, occupying part of the triangle of western Maryland, contained a high-quality, low-volatile bituminous steam coal which was also, thanks to the Potomac River, the coal of this type most accessible to Eastern markets. ![]() Starting life as the dominant operator in this small but significant coal field, "Consol" rose to become the nation's top producer of bituminous coal. Because of the Civil War, during which Confederate armies frequently blocked the region's only outlet to market, the company was not actually organized until April 19, 1864. The Consolidation Coal Company was incorporated in Maryland on March 8, 1860, for the purpose of effecting a merger of a number of coal operators mining the Georges Creek basin in Allegany County, Maryland. The Consolidation Coal Company (Maryland) ![]() Publisher ULS Archives & Special Collections Address University of Pittsburgh Library System Archives & Special Collections Website: /archives-special-collections Contact Us: URL: History Entered into Archivists' Toolkit by ULS Archives Service Center staff upon receipt of collection. Minute books and contract files provide the most comprehensive documentation in this collection. The records of the Consolidation Coal Company and its affiliated companies are arranged in seven series. In addition, a new research and development division was created to fund projects aimed at developing more efficient production methods and new outlets for coal consumption. Following a merger with the Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1945, the company pursued a policy of acquiring companies which afforded opportunities for greater diversification while selling off unprofitable lines. By 1927, Consol was the nation's largest producer of bituminous coal. The company expanded rapidly in the early twentieth century through the purchase of substantial tracts in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky as well as docks and distribution facilities in the Great Lakes region. ![]() Title Consolidation Coal Company Records CreatorĬollection AIS.2011.03 Extent 168.59 Linear Feet (92 boxes, 44 oversize boxes, 1 map drawer) Date 1854-1971 Date 1864-1964 Abstract The Consolidation Coal Company (Consol) was created by the merger of several small operators mining the Georges Creek coal basin in Allegany County, Maryland. ![]()
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