THE CONNELLSVILLE COKE REGION 195 



by which in consideration of their contributing their labor 

 in the building of the boats in question and in the manufacture 

 of suflicient coke to load those boats, they were to have a 

 one half interest in one boat. 



''Mordecai Cochran was a prosperous farmer and owned 

 300 acres of land, much of whicli was underlaid with the now 

 famous seam of Connellsville coking coal. He, therefore, 

 had within his own grasp all the facilities for the successful 

 mining of coal, the manufacture of coke and the means of 

 transporting (tlie Youghiogheny river) the same to a market. 

 The young men, Sample and James Cochran, helped to build 

 the boats in question, mined the coal, manufactured the 

 same into coke and landed it in the boats, and these were 

 floated down the river to Cincinnati, Ohio. Upon the arrival 

 there, Mordecai Cochran went to see Miles Greenwood, the 

 principal iron manufacturer and foundryman of the west. 

 Mr. Greenwood said that he did not need the coke, and 

 seemed to have doubts of its value as an iron smelting fuel; 

 however, Mr. Cochran finally persuaded him to send carts 

 down to the wharf for enough coke to make a test. These 

 carts were loaded with coke free of charge and the test was 

 made immediately. Greenwood was greatly surprised at 

 what he termed the wonderful heat of the strange fuel and 

 the ease with which it melted the pig iron, and he at once 

 purchased the remaining coke at a very fair price. He told 

 Mr. Cochran to go home and make all the coke he could." 



This, without a doubt, was the great commission to 

 initiate the manufacture of Connellsville coke and ship it as 

 an article of conmaerce. It was the formal and complete 

 introduction of it as an iron smelting fuel, and from that 

 time to this there has never been the slightest doubt as to 

 the superiority of Connellsville coke over all other iron smelt- 

 ing fuels. Until Mr. Cochran gave away those cartloads of 

 Connellsville coke its value was unknown. 



The seam of Connellsville coal, which is the basis of 

 all this wonderful progress and gratifying prosperity, is one 

 of the most remarkable in the states, if not in the world. It 

 is pre-eminently a coking coal. There is no other seam that 

 can compete with it in cheapness of production. There is 



