What's Under The Ground In Ten Mile Creek Country ?

These maps give one an idea of the condition of the the ground under us and the amazing extent of mining that's gone on here. The earliest of the mines shown here were worked starting around 80 some years preceding the late 70's when this map was made. All these open to large size.




There are only a few above ground reference points shown but I think there are enough to orient one as to what is seen.




Mather Collieries, solid line at right points north. They did not mine north of the town but to the south the mine went almost to State Route 21.

This shows the area from the river roughly south to Charmichaels

maps from collection of author

Steamboat To Clarksville and Other Boats On Ten Mile Creek

There are a few documented instances of steamboats on Ten Mile Creek. The month of July in the year 1888 saw what was one of the biggest floods ever on the Monongahela. At Brownsville in that year the river crested at 43 feet, the all-time high water mark there. This was three feet more than even the great flood of 1936. On the crest of this 1888 flood the sternwheel towboat WILLIAM WAGNER ran up Ten Mile Creek and landed at Clarksville. The boat was built at Pittsburgh in 1882 and was 100 x 17 x 2 feet. This was a good sized boat, much bigger than the few steam yacht / pleasure boats that are known to have travelled up our creek. There would have been no bridges to deal with at that time until they reached Clarksville, a little less than three miles from the river. Judging by the configuration of the creek it must have been some hard shoving once up to the area where Pitt Gas and Besco would later be. The vessel was owned By Capt. J. C. Cooper ( called Clinton by his friends ) and Levi Barker. Capt Cooper was in command on this trip. What business they had there, if they had a barge in tow or where at the town they landed is unknown. At that time some towboats running in backwater trades also carried a limited number of passengers, even a small 60 foot boat could be registered for 5 cabin and 5 deck passengers. It is possible too, that they did it just for bragging rights as that was sometimes done by these early rivermen. According To Capt. Way's Steam Towboat Directory the boat was " principally remembered as towing timber out of the Upper Monongahela to boatyards and elsewhere." She was out of documentation ( no longer operating ) in 1890. No photographs of her exist. Capt. Cooper's daughter, Mrs. Phil Kussart, is the author of a river history book titled " The Allegheny River . "

Another boat that visited Clarksville on a flood was the little steam propeller yacht GAZELLE. Nothing is known of either her business or the year she went up. She was 65 x 10 x 3 and built by R. C. Price at Allegheny ( now the North Side of Pittsburgh ) Pa. in 1901. At that time she was owned By Harrison P. Dilworth and other Greene County businessmen who had coal properties on the upper Monongahela. On the trip to Clarksville she was under the command of Capt. John S. Faddis who was, I believe, from the Rices Landing area. He was a riverman of some versatility. In 1905 Capt. Faddis was Master of the ROSE HITE, a large ( 155 x 28 x 4 ) Mon river packet boat that ran the upper Mon. He was at the wheel when she collided with the towboat JOHN F. KUEN above Brownsville and sank with the loss of 5 Black deckhands. He also ran the small DAISEY, a " daylight short trader " , between Martin Pa. and Morgantown early in the century. She was a little sternwheel packet , 75 x 14 x 2 with one boiler that was 54" x 7 feet, built at Antiquity Pa. in 1903. Originally built by Capt. E. E. Varian, she was later owned by H.E. and T. B. Eberhart. In 1908 she was sold to Capt. William Goudy of Rices landing and in 1911 she was sold down the Ohio River. No photo known to me exists of this boat. The GAZELLE probably looked somewhat like the HAZEL L. WATSON in the picture below.




This photo shows the little propeller steamer HAZEL L. WATSON running between East Millsboro and Millsboro with the Mouth of Ten Mile Creek in the background. This photo was taken after 1907 since we see the RR bridge across the creek's mouth. This is an old real photo post card view that I bought years ago and likely one of a kind as those often are. The writer of this card describes it as "the ferry", more accurate would be the old term packet boat or the modern term water taxi. It is likely to assume that she made occasional trips into Ten Mile, water permitting. She was built at Allegheny Pa. in 1901 and was 70 x 10 x 3. Owned by Capt. John O. Watson in 1907, Capt. William Syphers of Rices landing bought part interest and owned her outright by 1909. Syphers, who owned the Monongahela Hotel in Rices Landing, ran her between Brownsville and Rices Landing. Later owned by Crosan Construction of Brownsville , she was lost on Feb. 10, 1918 in the big ice of that year , at Rices Landing.
Ten Mile Creek did, and still does put out quite a volume of water. In old times before the new locks a bar would build up running across the river at the creek's mouth and had to be regularly dredged so that boat traffic could pass up and down.

One more steamboat that has a direct connection to Ten Mile is the CLAIRTON. She was built at Ambridge Pa. in 1927 and was 147 x 33 x 6. Originally the called YOUGHIOGENY for Carnegie Steel she was later named the B. F. FAIRLESS. She came to be called CLAIRTON in 1952, being the third and last boat of that name. She ran almost entirely on the Mon till 1964 and was laid up at / near Engles Boat Docks at the mouth of the creek at Millsboro. There was hope she could be utilized locally as a museum but this never came about. While she was laid up there she had a new career as a restaurant for several years. With my family I took a few meals on that old boat . I remember that it was none too fancy but quite clean, everything wood painted white, inside and out. Guests had to ascend to the boiler ( second ) deck for seating in a small saloon. I prowled around her several times on those visits and I fail to remember her having her wheel , it may have been removed. A final chapter to the story is that in 1974 she was sold to a New Orleans company. Her engines , less boilers, were installed in the NATCHEZ, a sternwheel steamboat built new in 1975 for the day excursion trade and those same engines power her in New Orleans Harbor to this day, every day. Some old boats never die.




The CLAIRTON when she was still the B. F. FAIRLESS at the Elizabeth bridge in 1950, shoving coal as she did for 37 years.

Baseball In Clarksville

Company store ball field, late 40's


There are at least 300 people in the photo above. On the left, the first building is a private residence, next is Dusha's Auto Body earlier it was a bowling alley and Yerkish's Beer Distributor ) then Jake Kensic's hotel. The building that was Louis Kauffman's store is just beyond Kensic's Hotel and then Steve " Caddilac " Kochis ' store. The darkest color building beyond that is the old water company. That building was built in 1927 and was the original Washington Supply company store.
This interesting picture shows the ballfield from a different angle. At the counter behind the backstop they sold pop and I think beer during the games. . In the vacant field to the right is where the annual firemans' carnivals were held. The large building in the left corner of the photo is the Louis Kauffman store. Visible on the hill is the large old Clarksville schoolhouse. Image from Stanley Fowler collection.


Ralph Minerd, Steve Cromika, Frank Cromika, John ?, Louie Missini, Bill Minerd, Bobby Dollar. This 1949 photo courtesy of Sarah Minerd Potter.




Vestaburg team at Clarksville




Crucible team
If you liked baseball it was great to grow up in Clarksville. As early as 1890 Clarksville residents formed a team known as the Invincibles. Dr.F.L.Blachley was manager. Members were I.G.Murray, Henry Murray, Elmer Holder, Charles Holder, A.P.Burson, Alex Simmons, William Hupp, Harry Hupp, Mont Greenlee, Austin Moredock, John Burson, Charley Crumrine, Frank Arnold and Walter McCullough. They offered to meet all challengers from other Greene County teams.
The entire Mon valley area has always been big on sports and there's likely been baseball played in Clarksville since the patch was built. In the 40's and 50's several local business' sponsored young men's teams. In the 1950's it was the home field of the Clarksville Merchants team. For a nice picture of that group, go here.  Early on the coal companys organized teams and most larger patch towns had a team at one time. These games were surprisingly well attended.



Clarksville Eagles Club team late 40's.

In the early 1960's baseball was everything to us. The older guys had a pony league. The little league had four teams, all drawn from just Clarksville ( both sides of the creek ), Besco and Pitt Gas. The men of the area organized the teams in the old Miner's Union hall in Clarksville. The names of those fine men that I can recall are John Chulick, Big Nate Calloway, Mel Remington, Willoghby Price,Walter Dusha and my father, John L. "Hoss" Durdines. I know there were many others and regret that I cannot name more. They let the kids pick the team names so we came to be called the Pirates, Braves, Yankees and the Orioles. We played both behind the company store and at a field the men built behind G. I. Town. "Shoes" Doman used to come down from his farm on his tractor and cut the grass and drag the infield before every game. They built a new backstop and concrete block dugouts that lasted till a few years ago. We, as a team, in our uniforms, with ball gloves of course, piled in these good men's family cars and several times went on trips to Forbes Field to Pittsburgh Pirate games . I remember seeing Willy Mays and Stan Musial and many other big stars play there. We were hauled to a super market opening at Richeyville where we saw, on a flatbed truck, Roberto Clemente, Bob Friend and Bill Mazeroski. I got handshakes and autographs from all three and that was pretty exciting. Those coal miner's did pretty well for their sons and neighbors.

Here is the Clarksville Orioles team of 1961.

From Left to right : First row : Billy Murphy. John Chesney, Larry Durdines, Bert Kiefer.

Second row : Wally Meyers, Bruce Hager, Nick Vuckovich, Dave Saunders , * Harris

Third row : Phil Knapik, Russ Deems, Monk Santucci, Bobby Garrett, Phil Rebottini, Mickey Beringo

Back Row : Coach John L. " Hoss " Durdines




They started you early on baseball too, I was 18 months old here, the picture and the shadow by my Daddy, Hoss, 1953 . Hoss was remembered by all his friends as a serious fan of baseball. I remember his joy when the Pirates won the World Series in 1960. He recalled to me the last time they had won, in 1927 when he was 15 years old. I still have his wallet from when he died in November 1963, in that wallet is a Pittsburgh Pirates schedule for 1964. He was ready.


Clarksville Ballfield 2009  All images property of author unless noted

All things must pass

Ten Mile Trivia # 1

There are two wonderfully droll insults in this. It was placed in an early Washington County newspaper on December 1, 1795 : Whereas a certain RALPH SMITH, of Morgan Township in this County (Greene Co. after 1796), some years ago called me a convict in a public company, and later spoke the same language in ambiguous terms, (such as his good breeding afforded). I do hereby request the favor of Mr. Smith, to wash and shave and go and inquire of Mr. James GILASPY, on the headwaters of Buffalo Creek, and Robert CARREL on the head waters of the Wheeling Creek, two gentlemen which sailed with me from the port of Londonderry, the 14th day of August in the year 1768, and landed at Newcastle, DE. the 3rd day of October following and acknowledge himself a malicious calumniator.
signed Myles Hay of Ten Mile Creek, Washington County.
He requests that he first " wash and shave " !

At Brownsville, for many years the head of steamboat navigation on the Monongahela river, passengers were transferred from the stage lines to the steamboats running between this point and Pittsburgh. West bound passengers were ticketed through from Cumberland, Baltimore and other points east, to Pittsburgh and other points west, via the National Road, and Monongahela river boats. It is shown by official figures that from 1844 to 1852 when the railroads came along, that more than three hundred thousand passengers left the stage lines at Brownsville and took passage on the Monongahela steamers down the river to Pittsburgh and Wheeling. Most of the emigrants and a large number of stage passengers, probably the majority, crossed the river at West Brownsville, and went over land across Washington County to Wheeling. The same was true of the journey from West to East. The National Road through Washington County was the short cut that saved much time over the longer river route past Pittsburgh. In 1852, Brownsville lost any advantages it had based on turnpike and river modes of transportation. In that year, the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was extended from Cumberland to Wheeling through Maryland and Virginia, effectively eliminating Brownsville as a major point of transit. The prominence of the National Road and of Brownsville came to an end as travel by stage, wagon and steamboat gave way to the railroad.

The first white settlers within the territory of Washington County were Everhart Hupp, George Bumgarner, and Abraham Teagarden and these first located their homes in the vicinity of the mouth of Ten-Mile Creek, all within the triangle made by Rice's Landing, Sandy Plains and Millsboro.

Charles L. Rowan was born in 1899, son of George E. and Althea (Prinkey) Rowan. In about May of 1936, he began employment as a laborer at the No. 5 mine of the Vesta Coal Company at Vestaburg, a job to which he commuted from his home. He was killed at the mine on Aug. 18, 1936, after only having worked there for three months. Said the Daily Courier : Rowan ... was decapitated and two other workers miraculously escaped a similar fate when a large slab of slate let go as they were leaving the Vestaburg workings after completing their day's work. The trio comprised a group of workmen who had left the man trip several minutes before the tragedy. Rowan was struck by the full force of the slate which landed on his head and severed it from his body, according to Deputy Edward Hagerty of Millsboro. The fatality was the first of the year at the Vesta Company mine.

Three young men held up the W.J. Rainey Coal Co. paymaster on a trolley car between Brownsville and Allison in Fayette County on the morning of March 11, 1922. They escaped with a satchel with about $30,000 in payroll cash. A guard with the paymaster was shot and seriously wounded as bandits and guards exchanged gunfire on the car, which had about 40 passengers.
That's a tremendous amount of money for 1922. Imagine 5 or more men exchanging gunfire on a trolley with 40 people on board.

Fairmont W. Va Newspaper dated Thursday, 9 February 1882:"Steamboating at Fairmont. The steamboat HARRY arrived here, this afternoon, at half-past four o'clock, having made the trip from Morgantown, about thirty miles, in less than seven hours.
They could have walked as quickly and I believe a horse walks faster than 4 miles an hour.

The Uniontown Morning Herald of June 7, 1926 reported that John A. Logan Strauch ... fell between two railroad cars while working on the Monongahela Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Clarksville. He had worked for the railroad for a number of years, at one time working out of the Rainey yards here, and was employed in the Brownsville section at the time of his death. The crew was shifting cars when the accident occurred.

Nick Massini discusses a ghost at Clyde Mine in Fredericktown, Pennsylvania. "The old Clyde mine was haunted by a fire boss that was killed years before. He was seen regularly seen making his run at the Ross Shaft area."
Richard Marcavitch recounted a ghost he saw at Vesta Five owned by the J and L Steel Company. He saw this ghost sitting in his dinner hole every day about the same time.

From 1906-1939 over 35,00 men died in coal mine accidents. In 1907 Pennsylvania lost 1614 with 5 disasters alone claiming more than 800 men.

Just one of the many reasons for the frightful accident rate is illustrated in this old photo showing a miner pouring black powder into a cardboard tube for inserting in a drilled hole to blast coal loose. On his cap is an open flame oil wick lamp. A sight like this would give a modern mine inspector an instant and fatal heart attack.


In the 30's Clyde miners developed a reputation as the first to go on strike. Then they got up early next morning to see that no one else worked.

Vesta 1 Allenport 1891 - 1924
Vesta 2 American Mine Lucy Station Elco 1892 - 1915
Vesta 3 Globe Mine Coal Center 1892 - 1918
Vesta 4 California, Daisytown, Richeyville 1903 - 1984
Vesta 5 Vestaburg 1907 -
Vesta 6 Denbo 1903 - 1947
Vesta 7 West Brownsville 1918 - 1923

Vesta 4 was the largest mine in the country. It eventually ran from the rail and river tipple at California Pa. to Pancake, just east of Washington Pa.

This old boatman did it all : Unknown newspaper dated Monday, 3 March 1884:
Interview With a Veteran River Man. Our reporter met Capt. I. N. Hook, the oldest river man on the Ohio, at the Swann House this morning. The Captain commenced steamboating in 1827. He was in this neighborhood at the time of the flood of 1832. He was the first who placed his barges in front of his steamboat when towing. Formerly it was customary to hitch them on behind, or tie them to the sides. His manner of towing was considered very amusing at its origin, but no one thinks of towing in any other way at the present time.
The Captain introduced the whistle now universally used at the present time. It was by accident that he discovered it. He was going into Wheeling and his whistle was broken. The upper hemisphere was blown off. He placed in its stead a keg. His whistle also caused much amusement but it has taken the place of the old 'bowl' screecher, which would almost lift a man off his feet when it blew.
The Captain also invented the 'spool windlass' by means of which the gates of the locks on all our rivers are now opened. They were formerly swung back by huge windlasses making hard work for eight men. Curious to say he took out no patents on the invention but gave the Company for which he worked all the advantages gratuitously.
He has been up the Little Kanawha repairing the locks damaged by the late flood. The Captain says he took the first steamboat to Burning Springs that ever passed up the Little Kanawha. He is now on his way to the Muskingum to repair the canal washed out in the flood.

I'll bet he invented the telegraph too, and the internal combustion engine , sliced bread , electricity, pop tarts and cheese in an aerosol can. I'll bet when the water got low he just put the boat on his back and waded upstream.

Monongahela Railway / Pennsylvania Railroad Map Of Coal Mines 1943

A click will open this partial map of the Monongahela Division of the PRR to a more readable size.


collection of the author