The Pioneer Colliery was
located south of Ashland Borough on the south side of the Mahanoy Creek. The
colliery was opened by a drift driven west on the north dip mammoth vein by
Bancroft, Lewis & Company in 1853 and as the name signifies, this was the
Pioneer Colliery of the famous and productive Mahanoy Valley. The first shipment
of 317 tons of coal was made in 1854 and in 1855, 33,169 tons were shipped.
Bancroft, Lewis & Co.
continued mining the drift level to 1861 when they sunk the slope 330 ft. on
the north dip mammoth vein. A novel arrangement was used at this colliery. In
place of the cages then in use for hoisting the coal on steep pitching slopes,
this arrangement consisted of a peculiar car that received the coal from the
mine car at the bottom of the slope and at the top discharged the coal automatically
and the car was ready to return to the mine without loss of time. This was the
first "gun boat" placed into service in the anthractie region and
was patented by Joseph Bancroft.
Bancroft, Lewis & Co.
continued mining the slope and two drift levels until 1869 when they dismantled
the machinery and abandoned the colliery.
In 1869, Patterson and Eltringham
leased the nearby tunnel colliery with the intention of combining it with the
Pioneer Colliery workings but meeting with financial difficulties in 1871, this
was not accomplished by them.
In 1871, Seigfried and Harris made extensive improvements at the tunnel colliery and arrangements were made to mine the remaining coal in the pioneer colliery workings.
After these completions
of improvements of both collieries were finished in 1873, both collieries were
purchased by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. who continued
the plan of mining the consolidated collieries.
In 1879, the P&R C&I Co. extended the holmes slopes to the third level and continued mining below the old pioneer works until 1891 when it was abandoned as the coal was exhausted.
In 1924 and 1926, the P&R
C&I co. drove two water level tunnels 1170 ft. each but at different elevations
intersecting all veins between the diamond and buck mountain vein. Their object
was to recover the unmined coal left by the former operators but in may of 1929
all mining ceased.
The total shipment from Pioneer Colliery was 1,063,507 tons.