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Shawnee, Ohio historical information wanted



Fellow Archivists and Historians,

Since the last posting i put out resulted in a couple of interesting leads i thought i would give it another shot.

I am from a small town in Southern Ohio called Shawnee, once a thriving coal mining community it is not a part of the economically depressed area referred to as Appalachia.  Although the town celebrated it's 125 anniversary with a published history I am always looking for more and better information.  Therefore i was wondering if anyone had in their  collections information about or pertaining to this community.  The mining companies that i know of were: The New York Coal and Iron Company (a NYS corporation);  The Newark (Ohio) Coal, Coke and Iron Company, The Upson Coal Company, The Whipporwill Coal Company.  There were also several brick manufacturers, namely The Ohio Mining and Manufacturing Company (a NYS corporation), The Claycraft Company; The Shawnee Flash Brick Company(a Delaware corporation).

The town was also important to the early labor movement especially were it related to coal mining.  We had several locals of the Knights of Labor but the most important was Local 169.  After the veil of secrecy was lifted Local 169 incorporated an Opera House company and built a three story red brick opera house in 1881 that still stands today.

The 6th president of the United Mine Workers Thomas L Lewis (no relation to John L) was from Shawnee.  I was told several years ago by the UMWA's historian Mayer B Fox that Lewis took the early records of the union with him when he retired.  I tried unsucessfully to locate descendants of his two daughters in Charleston WV one of whom was married to a Dr. Mathney.

Well i think i have covered the important bases here.  But i thought why not throw it out to the masses you never know where your going to find things.  

One case in point to the above reference. When i worked a large national bank here in NYC i was once given a list of "worthless securities" that the bank had in their vault.  These were for companies that no longer existed or for a variety of reasons had not redeemed stock or bonds.  Going over this list i noticed the mention of the Ohio Mining and Manufacturing Company and upon inspection found not only three very colorful and interesting bonds but correspondence that gave the main office address on Wall Street in Manhattan and the plant address in Shawnee Ohio.  Who would have thougth i could find Shawnee history in NYC and hence my request here for any references to the above in any of the collections out there.

Thanks for your help and sorry for the windiness of this request.

Rob Dishon
Historian
Shawnee, Ohio

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