Horning, Pennsylvania

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Horning, Pennsylvania
Neighborhood
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Horning
Coordinates: 40°20′15″N79°59′29″W / 40.33750°N 79.99139°W / 40.33750; -79.99139 Coordinates: 40°20′15″N79°59′29″W / 40.33750°N 79.99139°W / 40.33750; -79.99139
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
County Allegheny
Borough Baldwin
Elevation
1,037 ft (316 m)
Time zone UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-4 (EDT)
GNIS feature ID1177432 [1]

Horning is a neighborhood in the borough of Baldwin in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was the residence of miners of the Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad and Coal Company #4 Mine, which had a racially integrated workforce, unusual in that era. [2]

Baldwin, Pennsylvania Borough in Pennsylvania, United States

Baldwin is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States,, and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 19,767 at the 2010 census.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania U.S. county in Pennsylvania

Allegheny County is a county in the southwest of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2017 the population was 1,223,048, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia County. The county seat is Pittsburgh. Allegheny County is included in the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and in the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area.

Pennsylvania State in the United States

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the Northeastern, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.

Contents

"D" Mine (Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company #4)

Horning was founded at the opening of a coal mine along the West Side Belt Railroad by the Pittsburg Terminal Coal Company around 1903. In 1905, Philip Murray was elected president of the United Mine Workers of America local in Horning. On February 3, 1926, 20 miners were killed in an explosion in this mine. [3] It was the scene of armed labor unrest in 1928. [4] [5] The mine was closed October 5, 1939. [6]

The West Side Belt Railroad was a standard gauge railroad incorporated July 25, 1895. It ran from Temperanceville, to Clairton, Pennsylvania, with a branch to Banksville. It acquired the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad by merger in 1897, and the Bruce and Clairton Railroad in 1901. The railroad was bankrupt in 1908. The line was purchased by the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway in 1920.

The Terminal Coal Company was a coal mining company in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It operated mines in the Pittsburgh Coalfield, including mines in Becks Run and Horning, Pennsylvania. Unusually for that time in Pennsylvania, it hired African-American miners for some of its work.

Philip Murray Scottish-born American labor leader

Philip Murray was a Scottish-born steelworker and an American labor leader. He was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the first president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and the longest-serving president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

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United Mine Workers North American labor union

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Coal Region

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History of coal miners

People have worked as coal miners for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic role as a primary fuel, coal miners have figured strongly in labour and political movements since that time. After the late 19th century coal miners in many countries were a frequent presence in industrial disputes with both the management and government. Coal miners' politics, while complex, have occasionally been radical, with a frequent leaning towards far-left political views. A number of far-left political movements have had the support of both coal miners themselves and their trade unions, particularly in Great Britain. In France, on the other hand, coal miners have been much more conservative.

The 1927 Indiana bituminous strike was a strike by members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against local bituminous coal companies. Although the struggle raged throughout most of the nation's coal fields, its most serious impact was in western Pennsylvania, including Indiana County. The strike began on April 1, 1927, when almost 200,000 coal miners struck the coal mining companies operating in the Central Competitive Field, after the two sides could not reach an agreement on pay rates. The UMWA was attempting to retain pay raises gained in the contracts it had negotiated in 1922 and 1924, while management, stating that it was under economic pressure from competition with the West Virginia coal mines, was seeking wage reductions. The strike proved to be a disaster for the union, as by 1929, there were only 84,000 paying members of the union, down from 400,000 which belonged to the union in 1920.

References

  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Horning, Pennsylvania
  2. Smith Brown, Eliza (2007). African American Historic Sites Survey of Allegheny County. DIANE Publishing Inc. pp. 178–179. ISBN   9781422314906.
  3. "Pictures Rescue work in Burning Mine". New York Times . 6 Feb 1926. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  4. "Labor: Horror in Pennsylvania". TIME (Feb. 13). 1928. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  5. "(Letters) Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Corp". TIME (Feb. 27). 1928. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  6. "Allegheny County Pennsylvania Coal Mine Index". Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania. Retrieved 26 December 2010.