EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society focusing on our region’s history.

The discovery of coal in 1833 and black band ore in 1854 in Mineral Ridge had much to do with the cities of Niles, Youngstown and Cleveland’s development of industry and Mineral Ridge’s development.

Niles was right next door to Mineral Ridge, and the coal and black band ore helped supply their needs for their mills with low costs for shipping on coal carts pulled by teams of horses. A few years after the discovery of the black band ore, two furnaces were built in Mineral Ridge to produce pig iron, which was also used in the local mills as well as shipped by the canal and later railroad to Cleveland.

Youngstown, which was close by, had a few furnaces to produce pig iron and only one mill because of the limited resource of ore. Joseph G. Butler states in his “History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley” that “the local iron industry was doomed.”

He claims two incidents happened that changed the situation. One was the discovery of this local black band ore, and the second was the use of Mahoning block coal as a fuel for blast furnaces. In the “Magazine of Western History,” Henry James Seymour talks about Cleveland lawyer and businessman, David W. Cross.

“In 1855, he entered upon an enterprise that had much to do with the growth of manufacturing in Cleveland, as the full supply of cheap coal that was offered at an opportune time was one of the great factors in our city’s advancement,” Seymour wrote.

This enterprise was leasing land in Mineral Ridge with Oliver H. Perry to mine the coal and black band ore. Perry and Cross shipped the first shipment on the canal in Niles to Cleveland. Other Cleveland businessmen also leased or purchased land, including the owners of the Rice, French & Co., who shipped the first shipment of coal in 1857 to Cleveland on the railroad from Niles.

Coal had been discovered on Michael Ohl’s farm in 1833. The mining of coal started on Ohl’s farm in 1835. More mines opened in the area and, in 1854, Samuel Burnett, then owner of the Moss Ancestral Home, leased 89 acres of his land to local business owners for the purpose of mining coal, iron ore and fire clay. This is about the same time that black band ore had been discovered.

An English miner, named John Lewis, had mined black band ore in his old country. He noticed while digging up the floor of his room that it was similar to the black band ore of the Victoria mines in England. He took a sample to the Messrs. Ward & Co. in Niles and Ward told him to mine some and calcine it.

The results were as he had thought — black band ore. All the coal mines were reopened to mine what would become one of the most important discoveries in the Mahoning Valley for that time period. It wasn’t until 1868 that the full value of this black band ore was discovered. The black band was mixed with Lake Superior ore and produced a pig iron that was “eagerly sought for” and became known as “American Scotch.” Rice, French, Chamberlain and Seward formed the Mineral Ridge Railroad Corporation in 1856 and built a railroad that would go to Niles from their coal mines and neighboring coal mines to connect with the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad that had just been completed in Niles.

A Western Reserve Chronicle article published on April 28, 1858, describes Mineral Ridge as a boomtown because of the mining of coal and black band ore:

“If we had been told one week ago, that within seven miles of this place, a town containing one hundred and seventy buildings, with a population of one thousand inhabitants, had been built within less than one year, we should have doubted the truth of the statement, exceedingly; and yet such is the fact,” the article states.

Many people had come to work in the mines and along with that came stores, churches and industry. As stated before, two furnaces were built in Mineral Ridge to process this black band ore to make pig iron. Mineral Ridge continued supplying coal and black band ore to many area mills and Cleveland throughout the Civil War and after.

However, the coal and ore in Mineral Ridge was dwindling and getting harder to mine. The last coal shipped out of Mineral Ridge was around 1888 with the black band ore mining ending about 10 years earlier, but mining continued on a small scale and supplied local mills, steam and houses. Most of the mines were not operating in the late 1890’s. If they were operating, they only had a few employees per mine.