THE
GROWTH:
The
growth of Dravosburg, like so many of the other towns along the
Monongahela, can be attributed to coal. The hills were rich in coal seams
and,
with timber readily available it was relatively easy to build
gravity-operated tipples to take the coal to the river bank.
In
1835 William Whigham, son of Thomas Whigham an early pioneer of Mifflin
Township, opened a coal mine at the north end of town and operated it
until 1856. It is said that on March 22, 1856, Mr. Whigham hauled some of
his coal across the river to McKeesport on ice that was four feet thick.
William Whigham was also the president of the First National Bank of
McKeesport for several years.
The
Whighams sold the mine to William Stone, who operated it until his death,
when it was taken over by his heirs. During his tenure Mr. Stone named the
area Stonesburg. This was on the hillside below what we now call North
Hill.
A
second mine was opened in 1840 by James O’Neil who operated it until
1851 when he sold it to Michael Dravo & Sons. The Dravos built six
beehive coke ovens and used the slack from the mine to manufacture coke to
be shipped by river to southern markets. In 1869 the mine and coke ovens
were sold to J.C.Risher. |
John
Fleming Dravo, pictured at right, for whom Dravosburg is named, was one of
the most prominent businessmen in the Pittsburgh area in the mid
nineteenth century.
His
grandfather, Anthony Dreveau, came to this country in 1794 as a follower
of the Marquis De Lussiere. Dreveau was a premier horticulturist in the
area.
Anthony’s son, Michael Dravo, came to McKeesport in 1840 and began
mining coal. He is credited with being among the first to use horses to
haul coal from the mines. Previous to that manpower and dogs were used.
Michael was also active in establishing the Methodist Church in the area. |
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John was born in West Newton on October 29, 1819, and came to McKeesport
with his father in 1840. He engaged the coal mining business until 1868,
when he sold off his holdings, and established the Pittsburgh Coke, Coal,
and Gas Co. in Connellsville. He was President of the Coal Exchange from
1860 - 1870, and later was named to the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. He
worked to improve the rivers, was an early abolitionist, and leader of the
Republican Party. He was named Collector of the Port in 1881 by President
Cleveland, and continued that post by acclamation under President
Harrison. In 1886 he was induced to go to the Legislature from Beaver
County. There, he introduced a prohibition bill, and nominated M.S. Quay
for the Senate. Mr. Dravo was a stockholder, director and trustee of many
successful companies in the area.
In 1842, he
married Eliza Jane Clark, and they had ten children.
Mr. Risher had
previously opened a mine known as the Amity in 1851. He leased the Amity
to Daniel Bushmiller who operate it until 1859, then took it back. Mr.
Risher operated both mines until his death in 1889. Upon Mr. Risher’s
death his son-in-law Stephen S. Crump took over operation of the mine and
was quite successful, shipping as much as 2.5 million bushels of coal a
year from the Amity and Risher mines, in addition to shipping for other
mines.
Mr. Crump also
owned and operated a general store in Dravosburg, and when the State Bank
of Dravosburg was organized in 1903, he was elected its first president.
He operated the mine until 1900 when it was sold to the Monongahela River
Consolidated Coal and Coke Company.
He was also
Vice President of the Tradesman’s National Bank of Pittsburg, President
of the Dravosburg Bridge Company, a Director of the McKeesport Title &
Trust Company, Treasurer of the Richland Cemetery Company. and Trustee of
the J.C. Risher estate.
There
were also two sawmills in Dravosburg. One was started by William McCleary
in 1865 and sold to Alva Culp in 1880. This mill stood about 300 yards
south of Stone’s coal tipple, just about where Boswell Oil Co. is today.
Mr. McCleary stayed on as supervisor and the mill did a thriving business.
Mr. Culp also owned a boatyard but, two years after buying the mill his
hand was cut off by a saw he was operating, and he lost all interest in
the business. The mill was abandoned and the machinery was sold off,
however, the buildings stood until they were destroyed by the flood of
1936.
The
other sawmill and also a boatyard was started by J.C. Risher and stood
where the Ingram Barge Co. (Ohio Barge Lines) is today. W.C. McCune
purchased it in 1900 and operated it until his death in 1918. It was then
bought by the Hillman Coal Co. and used as a boat landing until they moved
out in 1951.
In
the 1870’s a young man named W.J.E. McLain, son of state senator J.R.
McLain of Washington County, came to Dravosburg to be the first principal
of the Amity Academy. McLain was educated at the West Alexander Academy
and Amhurst College, and taught previously at the fitting school for boys
near Lebanon Church. After teaching two years at Amity, he opened a large
general store, doing business as J.R. McLain & Sons.
William
Richards, who emigrated from Wales and settled in Mifflin Township in
1850, had nine children. Among them were George Washington Richards, born
in 1868, and Harry E. Richards, born in 1865. G.W. clerked at the above
mentioned McLain store from 1883 until 1892 when he went to the Pittsburgh
College of Pharmacy and became a druggist. He then went to work in the
McLain store in Duquesne and, in 1893, became a partner. The business was
later named McLain & Richards. Harry E. went into the grocery
business, and in 1905 built a three-story brick building on lower McClure
Street intended to be a hotel with three businesses on the ground floor.
The hotel was opened in 1907 and the building still housed several popular
businesses until it burned down in 1961. When I was a child, Harry’s
son, Howard, lived across the street from us and was still running the
hotel. |
