Coal Mines.
The greatest of our industries is coal mining. No county in the State surpasses Perry in the produc- tion of coal, nor in the use of modern appliances necessary for its successful mining. The pioneers of the county were in total ignorance of the immense wealth that lay buried beneath them. Many even did not know that there was coal here. It had no attractions for the hardy settler who found a sufficient supply of fuel in the forest around his home. He had to cut the trees down in order to have fields for cultivation. He had to burn the wood and if he could use it to warm his home he considered himself fortunate and counted it so much clear gain. It is not known when the presence of coal in our hills was first discovered. But as early as 1816 it was used to a limited extent. It soon found its way into some of the well-to-do houses in town, public buildings, etc. Somerset got her supply from the mines in the neighborhood of St. Joseph's. Dr. Ponjade, a French- man, operated a mine near Rehoboth in 1830. At about the same time the mines of Mondaycreek and Saltlick were opened. When the old Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanes- ville, now the C. & M. V. Railroad, was built coal min- ing became of some importance in the neighborhood of McLuney. The coal was shipped mostly to the towns along that road. The coal era of our county began in 1870. Through the efforts of Col. James Taylor and others, the vast mineral resources of the county were made known to the world. Capital flowed here and rail- roads were being built. The Baltimore and Ohio ex-122
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