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The Fall Brook Coal Company and the Fall Brook Railway Company were important
players in the development of the semi-bituminous coal fields of Tioga County,
Pennsylvania. The Fall Brook interests were primarily owned and operated by
the Magee family of New York state. John Magee, who was born near Easton, Pennsylvania
in 1794, was the man who founded the companies and brought them to prominence.
Magee took up residence in Bath, Steuben County, New York, in 1816. Between
1818 and 1826, he served as constable and collector of Bath, deputy sheriff,
high sheriff, and census marshall for Steuben County. Active in Democratic politics,
he served two terms in congress between 1827 and 1831. While he and his family
focused mainly on the railroad and mining industries in Tioga County and south
central New York, Magee was also involved in land speculation, lumbering, milling,
banking, and related activities. Additionally, he directed the affairs of the
newly organized Steuben County Bank from 1831 until his death, owned large tracts
of timber land in Michigan and Wisconsin, and established and managed mail coach
lines.
Coal was first discovered in the Tioga region near present-day Blossburg around
1792. David Clemons opened the area's first mine in 1815 and less than twenty
years later, two transportation companies had been formed to ship the district's
coal to markets in New York state. The first was the Tioga Navigation Company,
which was chartered in Pennsylvania in 1826. The second was the Tioga Coal,
Iron, Mining, and Manufacturing Company, incorporated under the laws of New
York in 1828 with the power to construct slack-water navigation from the Pennsylvania
line to the junction of the Tioga and Chemung rivers near Corning, New York.
The company was authorized in 1833 to build a railroad from the termination
of the Chemung canal feeder to the Pennsylvania line, and was later renamed
the Corning and Blossburg Railroad.
In 1851, Magee obtained the lease for the coal mines at Blossburg, Pennsylvania.
It was also during this year that he began maneuvering to obtain an owner's
share of the aforementioned Corning and Blossburg Railroad. By April 1854, Magee
had gained control of the road, which he incorporated as the Blossburg and Corning
Railroad. Tiring of working under a lease, his son, Duncan S. Magee, began searching
for new coal lands in 1856, which resulted in the discovery of coal near Fall
Brook, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, and the organization of the Fall Brook Coal
Company in 1859. By 1860, the Magees had opened facilities for shipping coal
on Seneca Lake in Watkins, New York, establishing themselves and their company
as a major coal mining and transportation operation in north-central Pennsylvania
and the Southern Tier of New York.
The discovery of coal near Wilson's Creek, Tioga County in 1866 led to the construction
of the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville Railroad, which was eventually extended to
the Fall Brook Company's mines at Antrim. John Magee had lived to see his various
coal enterprises prosper, creating an impressive network of mines and rail lines.
When he died in 1868, his son, Duncan S. Magee, directed the family enterprises
until his death one year later, whereupon he was succeeded by his brother, George
J. Magee. In the ensuing years, the Magees and their associates moved the Fall
Brook Coal Company's base of operations from Watkins to Corning, New York, and
organized or acquired other mining enterprises, such as the Buffalo Coal Company
and the Clearfield Bituminous Company.
A number of different railroad companies and lines were associated with the
Tioga coal region and the Magee family in particular. These various interests
underwent a variety of consolidations and name changes over time. In 1873, the
Blossburg and Corning and the Wellsboro and Lawrenceville were consolidated
to form the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railway Company, which was incorporated
under the laws of both New York and Pennsylvania. The Cowanesque Valley Railroad
was purchased by the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim in 1874. In order to provide
a cheaper outlet for the coal mined at Fall Brook, Antrim, and Morris Run, George
J. Magee undertook the construction of the Syracuse, Geneva and Corning Railroad,
which was completed from Geneva to the Fall Brook Company's headquarters at
Corning in 1877. The Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway, later renamed
the Pine Creek Railway, joined the Fall Brook system upon its completion in
1883. Records pertinent to all these companies are present in the collection.
In July 1892, Fall Brook's coal mining and railroad operations were split into
two separate companies: the Fall Brook Coal Company and the Fall Brook Railway
Company (formerly known as the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railway Company).
George J. Magee died in 1897 and was succeeded as president of the coal and
railway companies by his son, John Magee. In 1899 the Fall Brook Railway Company,
the Syracuse, Geneva and Corning Railway Company, and the Pine Creek Railway
Company were leased to the New York Central Railroad and Hudson River Railroad
for 999 years. In 1907, these three roads were consolidated to form the Geneva,
Corning and Southern Railroad Company which was immediately leased to the New
York Central. By 1914, the Geneva, Corning and Southern was officially absorbed
into the New York Central's system, operating as the "Pennsylvania Division."
The bulk of the collection covers the operations of the various railroad companies,
and is comprised mainly of financial materials, such as balances, bills, budgets,
distributions, expenses, inventories, journals, ledgers, reports, statements,
vouchers, etc. Files relative to Magee family members such as Duncan S. Magee,
General George J. Magee, John Magee, and John Magee, Jr., are also present.
Examples of other types of records include: accident reports and releases; files
relating specifically to the Antrim operations; coal and transportation companies
associated with Fall Brook or the Magee family; Fall Brook agents, business,
and general correspondence; land records and legal papers; and mining and engineering
files.
The preceding subgroups hold a large volume of correspondence which highlight
the operations of many of the banking houses, coal and railroad companies, industrial
suppliers, etc., based in New York and Pennsylvania. A number of the letters
relate to local and national politics, as well as strikes and industrial strife.
Among the many notable correspondents are George F. Baer, Simon Cameron, Austin
Corbin, Chauncey M. Depew, Melvil Dewey, Roswell P. Flower, Franklin B. Gowen,
M. A. Hanna, Anton Hardt, Daniel H. Hastings, David B. Hill, William J. Howell,
Stephen W. Kearney, John Lang, John H. Lang, Levi P. Morton, Marlin E. Olmsted,
M. S. Quay, Winfield Scott, Cyrus D. Sill, C. Vanderbilt, W. H. Vanderbilt,
W.K. Vanderbilt, and George Westinghouse, Jr.
**PLEASE NOTE**: The collection is still being
organized, it is estimated that only 20% of the materials have been either examined
or processed. Listed below is the current organization of subgroups and series,
which inculdes series descriptions and container lists for those series which
have been at least partially processed. The series titles which do not include
a date range or contents note are proposed series, which may be deleted or modified
after processing. Also included is the following link to a database which contains
a very basic container-level inventory
of the collection.
Portions of series {#48.20}, {#48.22} and {#48.25} in the Business Correspondence were processed from August 2014 - March 2015 in conjunction with a grant from the Tom E. Dailey Foundation, Inc.
| PA State Archives | Hours, Directions, & Fees | Research Topics | Finding Aids for Collections | Land Records |