Researcher continues work highlighting Henry Clay Frick
Local author Cassandra Vivian talks about how immigrants played a part in the history of the early coal mines, during a recent session held at the Mount Pleasant Library.
Rachel Basinger
Rachel Basinger
Monessen native and Mount Pleasant resident Cassandra Vivian has received a third grant to continue her research into the life and mines of Henry Clay Frick.
A Monessen native now living in Mount Pleasant has recently received a third grant to continue research into the life and early coal mines of Henry Clay Frick.
Cassandra Vivian received the latest grant of $6,000 from the Rivers of Steel foundation.
Michael Edwards, president of the Fayette County Cultural Trust, said he’s known Vivian for a number of years and she has spoken at their ambassador program.
“Since the Morgan Valley (where most of Frick’s mines were) is located in Fayette County and because we had also done work with the Rivers of Steel, it was a natural fit for the Fayette County Cultural Trust to oversee this leg of the grant,” he said.
Vivian, who authored “Hidden History of the Laurel Highlands,” and “National Roads in Pennsylvania,” had previously received two $5,000 grants for the project.
She used the first grant she received to conduct preliminary research and found out about all of the mines.
The second grant allowed her to expand on her research, and it was then that she realized that no one knows the history.
“That’s the bigger story,” she said. “It’s enormous.”
With this grant, she is conducting a total of four information sessions at the Mount Pleasant library and five sessions at the Connellsville Canteen to collect any information or personal stories from individuals whose ancestors worked in the mines.
“My ultimate goal is to do a book, but I want to do a book talking about people who made it all happen — the ancestors of local individuals — that’s the story,” Vivian said. “I’m trying to find these people. Who are they — what did they do?”
“Part of the trust’s mission is to preserve and promote our history,” Edwards said. “There is no cost to attend Cassandra’s (Vivian) sessions. Providing the place for the sessions was our in-kind contribution to match the grant funding.”
Frick’s mines started at Broadford just above Connellsville, continued up the Morgan Valley into Everson, Scottdale and eventually Mount Pleasant.
“These were the first coal mines in the area and where Frick got started,” Vivian said.” It’s where industry started and blossomed.”
Twenty-five people made it to the first session at the Mount Pleasant library on Jan. 13, where Vivian spoke on the mines themselves and where they’re located.
Immigration was the second session at the Mount Pleasant library, held on Feb. 10, and Acme resident Carmella Demoise attended that session with her father’s lunchbox, from when he worked in the mines, in tow.
“My father was a miner all his life in the outlying areas of Saltsburg,” she said. “Some mines operated for a while, and when the coal petered out, the miners moved on to the next mine. I found it all very interesting. It was a way of life for us growing up.”
Mary Kaufman, director of the Mount Pleasant Library, said hosting these sessions is a great fit for the library.
“This is the kind of thing we want to be doing,” she said. “The library should be a community center — a community resource — and I firmly believe in lifelong learning.”
The next session at the Mount Pleasant Library will be on the strikes on April 14 and the fourth session at the library will be June 9 on Frick himself. All sessions at the library are 1-3 p.m.
The sessions at the Connellsville Canteen will be held from 3-5 p.m. on May 19 on immigrants, July 21 on strikes, Sept. 22 on Frick himself and Oct. 20 to discuss the final product.
Edwards said they’re also hoping this will help promote the Coal and Coke Museum at Penn State Fayette (the Eberly Campus).
“This is most likely the best resource for an actual collection,” he said. “We want to link people to that resource.”