The Taylor Colliery


Located directly north of the Glendower Colliery in the Heckscherville Valley at the head waters of the west branch of the Schuylkill River. The original openings were two drifts driven on the south dip of the mammoth vein by Gorman & Company in 1850 and was mined by them until 1855.

In 1855 Taylor & Atwood sunk the slope 250 ft. below water level on the "Daniel" (bottom split mammoth vein) and mined it to 1860 when they were succeeded by George Spencer and John Mcginnis who operated until 1863.

In 1863, Taylor and Jones came into possession of the colliery and continued to 1865 when the colliery was in poor condition due to neglect and they suspended operations. Gorman & Winterstein took over the colliery and placed it in good condition.

In 1865, John Mcginnis again operated the colliery until 1869 when a squeeze on the gangway occurred and the colliery was abandoned and allowed to fill with water.

In 1870, Thomas H. Shollenberger removed the water in the taylorsville slope and in 1871 built a new breaker and extended the coal slope to a depth of 840 ft. and the pump slope 1140 ft.

In 1872, the colliery was purchased by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. who operated it in conjunction with the glendower colliery.

In 1904, the P&R C&I Co. sunk the buck mountain slope 1040 ft. and tunneled to the bottom split mammoth vein abandoning the hoisting and pump slopes.

In 1909, the Glendower Breaker was abandoned so the coal was transported nearly 3 1/2 miles over mine car track to the Pine Knot Breaker for pre- paration. The Taylorsville Colliery was abandoned April 17, 1933. Total shipments of the colliery was 533,149 tons when it was suspended in 1874.