History
of Zeigler, Illinois
City's
History Actually Began with sinking of Mine in 1902
No
community in Franklin County can boast a more colorful, productive
background and growth as can the City Of
Zeigler.
At
the present time. during the City's Semi Centennial Celebration,
the citizens of this community can reflect through the years,
to 1914 when the town was first incorporated and even beyond,
as early as 1902 when the area, now known
as Zeigler, was nothing more than a wooded area and some prairie
land, and be overwhelmed by the many changes made
in these passing years.
Zeigler's
growth and enterprising independence is due largely to the vision
and enterprise of one man- Joseph Leiter. About
the year 1900 , Leiter , a Chicago financier
and wheat speculator, flushed with his past success, was casting
about for new worlds to conquer. Leiter began buying up land
in the Six Mile Township area at $20 and $25 an acre and acquiring
mineral rights on the property of owners who would not sell surface
and underlying minerals. In this manner be acquired a tract
of about eight thousand acres.
Mine
No. 1 Started
In
1902, Leiter sunk Zeigler Mine No.1 for his first coal shaft
into the rich treasure below and brought out the first of countless
tons of the world's best bituminous coal. Leiter secured the
services of Robert W Hunt & Company, engineers, who
sent L.V. Rice, the engineer who built the huge ferris wheel of Chicago Exposition of 1903 fame and the Eads Bridge across
the Mississippi River at St. Louis, to take personal charge of
the work, and to plan development of a coal producing center. The
shaft of the mine was 400 feet deep and the shelf coal was from
seven to 14 feet deep, averaging nine feet. When
the mine was sunk, Leiter set out to build a town to go with
it. The same architect designed the town , taking
Washington D.C. as his model. The center of the town is a circle,
with streets running from it like the spokes of a wheel. In the
center was the company's office building. Around it and facing
it were business buildings, including a company store. Leiter
built cottages for the workmen complete with running water. which
rented at $6 to $9 per month, depending upon the number of rooms,
which ran from three to six. He also built a school, a
small hospital, and other buildings. He gave the town his father's
middle name, Zeigler.
Leiter Owned The Town
For
a number of years, Mr.Leiter owned
the town of Zeigler. It was unincorporated. He built a tow story
white frame house facing the circular square, where he and his
wife lived when he was at Zeigler, and he operated in baronial
style. He had a couple of bob tailed horses hitched to varnished
coach and the coachman who drove him about his town wore a coat
with big brass buttons and a shiny top hat. That he held himself
in high regard was evidenced when he built his engine room at
the mine and had the date 2902 cut in the cornerstone. He explained
that he was a good thousand years ahead of his time.
The
first quarrel between Leiter and his miners resulted because
Leiter had the newest and the best of everything, including an
electric loading machine. Leiter said it would handle 500 tons
a day. The men said it would handle 75 tons. If it handled 500
, it would make wages equal to the scale. Otherwise they
wouldn't. Leiter stood by his machine. the men stood by their
experience in mining. On July 8 1904, notices were posted that
all person who had been connected with the mine but were not
now at work were to get out of not only their houses, but clear
out of town. They stated leaving. If they wouldn't work, Leiter
said he could get men who would.
UMWA
Comes to Aid
The
United Mine Workers of America came to the aid of the miners,
and they started building a camp midway between Zeigler and Christopher. The
miners erected tents with wooden floors, dug a well, and moved
in to set the thing out. Leiter
started moving in a bunch of pluguglies from
Chicago and St. Louis, most of whom were
hired as guards. Zeigler and the surrounding area were shut off
from the rest of the world. This applied even to the roads and the railroads.
Guards patrolled every road and lane, and no one got through
without a pass signed by Joe Leiter. The trains were stopped
the same way, and even if a man had a ticket to Zeigler, he found
himself dumped on the prairie several miles out of town. There
were six guard stations around the town, connected by a telephone
system so the guards could communicated in case of attack at
any point. The guards were trigger happy. There were frequent
skirmishes between the miners and the guards, and when word got
out that an incoming train was bringing in non-union miners,
the workmen would pour a rain of lead at the incoming train from
the trees and bushes along the right of way. This went on through
the summer of 1904. Leiter finally shut the town off completely
by erecting a high barrier surrounding the mine and several hundred
adjoining acres. He obtained a huge searchlight from the battleship
Main and installed it atop the tipple. At night it played constantly
over the surrounding countryside. Armed guards were at their
posts day and night equipped with machine guns.
Workers
Imported
Leiter
brought in workers from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky.
When they saw the setup , a lot of them
refused to enter the stockade. Stories were told that a lot of
others, changing their minds after they got inside the stockade
discovered they had no choice in the matter. Leiter finally
sent agents to Europe who hired laborers and brought them back.
Another source of labor derived from the fact the place offered
sanctuary for fugitives. In return for a willingness to work
in the mine, they were protected. As a result the place became
isolated in every respect from the surrounding country. A person
from behind the stockade was definitely not welcome anywhere
else. A veteran newspaper man recalled a visit to the place to
check up on information that a man supposed to have been murdered in Kentucky was actually behind the stockade.
Such infact, turned out to be the case.
Two men had been executed for his supposed murder. By this time,
Leiter had erected barracks for the miners and their families
and they lived their lives behind the stockade.
Joe Leiter's Dream of Modern Mine, City Met Many Set Backs Tragedy
Strikes
In
February 1905, the company's office burned and in April an explosion
in the mine killed 47 men. it was believed at that time that
union men had slipped through the blockade and set off the blast.
but it was later learned that the ventilating fan had been shut
off for several hours and the mine had become filled with gas. In
the spring of 1905, the miners began to break up
their camp near Christopher and seek employment at other mines. Leiter
continued to operate with non-union miners and coal production
began to increase. It increased for several years, and Leiter
continued to add to and improve on the property. Then in January,
1909 disaster struck again. While workmen were cleaning up the
ravages of a fire, another explosion occured with
heavy loss of life. After another explosion in 1909
, when three men lost their lives, Leiter decided to lease
the mine to Bell & Zoller, which
company operated it as a union mine until it closed Dec 21, 1948. No
trace remains today of the famous stockade,
and the men who worked behind it have long since died or departed.
If any of them are at Zeigler today, they don't admit it. Joe
Leiter, big, burly, with hands like hams, believed in the power
of might and money. He wore a revolver strapped to his belt and
behind his swivel chair in his office were two high caliber rifles. His
father, who died shortly after the mine was opened was
reported to have told Joe on his death bed, "You can never
buck the union". But Joe didn't
feel that way about it, and until his own death he never recognized its existence. Bell & Zoller Mining
Company, after having obtained a lease for the No. 1 mine continued
to operate the mine and later, about 1918 added No. 2 mine, a
larger and more modern plant than the orginal.
Sink
No.2 Mine
They
began the sinking of No.2 Mine about a mile south and west of
Zeigler in 1918. Two shafts were put down about three hundred
feet to a vein of coal eight to eight and a half feet in thickness. One
shaft provided an outlet for the coal while the other provided
a means of putting down materials. Both shafts were used in the
ventilating of the mine. By 1922 and 1926, this huge mine had 1200 men on the payroll
and mined approximately 8000 tons of coal daily. At this time both Zeigler
No1 and Zeigler No.2 mines employed 2500 coal diggers and put
17,500 tons of coal on the market daily. During this period both
mines were on a hand loading basis. In 1936 Bell & Zoller built
what was then the most modern and up-to-date coal preparation
plant in the world at the No.2 mine. The mine at that time was
mechanized. The new preparation plant handled the output of both
Zeigler No.1 and No.2 mines, that of No.2 on the first shift
and No.1 on the second shift.
Bell & Zoller operated its own railroad system in hauling mine-run
coal from Zeigler No.1 to the cleaning plant. This arrangement
existed until Zeigler No. 1 mine was abandoned. Zeigler No.2
continued to operate until June 26, 1951 when a notice was posted
that the property had been abandoned. Over the 30 year span during
which the mine operated steadily, it produced approximately 30
million tons of coal. Crossing where the Illinois Central depot
now stands, It was necessary that the railroad reach that point
because the Ice house was located across the street and the trains
would pick up ice to deliver to the mine to use in drinking water.
It extended north from No.1 Mine, Leiter
had his own network of switch tracks built before the
road merged with the I.C. Railroad switching area. The switching
area was used as a siding for loaded cars on the way to market. Mrs.
R.E. Breeze, an earlier Illiniois Central
depot employee, recalls that the railroad was still in use when
she came to Zeigler in 1912.
In
addition to his coal interests, Leiter set out a large apple
orchard of 640 acres, built modern dairy barns, and acquired
a herd of 70 pure bred Short Horn Durham dairy cattle, and by
the use of line and phosphate he increased the fertility of the
soil. He also operated a large general store. The business,
the first store in Zeigler, was know as the Zeigler Store Company
and was under the management of J.S. Gauvey.
City
Incorporated in 1914
Author: Unknown
