Apr 26, 2009 5 min read

There’s the tipple, engine room and a rail line of cars filled with coal in a recreation of the Colonial No. 1 Mine in Smock. Uniontown resident Jim Yarris recently created the model in memory of his father-in-law, the late George “Dutch” Suich. “He worked 45 years in the coal mines,” said Yarris. “He started when he was 13.”

The model includes a hand-carved figure of Suich on his way to work.

Yarris said, “He was a big guy with a big heart.”

Jim and Nira Yarris recently showed off the model where it was made in their basement, but it soon moved to its permanent residence in the Smock Heritage Museum.

The museum, which is open from June through October and is housed in the former company store, honors the history of Smock, which was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. That same year, the Smock Historical Society was founded and the society opened the museum in 1995. The museum includes recreations of life in Smock during the coke and coal era, including rooms of a typical coal company patch house, a barbershop, tavern and a classroom among other displays on mining and local sports teams.

Rita Kantorik, treasurer, explained the Smock Historical Society included information on Yarris’ replica of the Smock mine in its last newsletter and people are already anticipating its arrival. She said it would be placed in the mining section.

Kantorik, who lives in Smock and is the sister of Nira Yarris, said of the model, “It’s nice. He’s really gone into detail. Jim is very talented. Nira, too.”

In fact, the Yarris home is filled with evidence of this couple’s talents. Nira Yarris sews, bakes and cans. She made the wedding dresses for her daughters and daughter-in-law. Through the years, she’s won many blue ribbons and titles in competition at the Home Economics Building at the Fayette County Fair. She knits slippers that are annually placed in gift boxes for the Operation Christmas Child project at the family’s church, Third Presbyterian.

Jim Yarris has a large garden in their back yard that also is filled with trees and flowers. He and two of his three brothers built each other’s houses.

“After he built our house, he had to build furniture to fill it up,” Nira Yarris said, smiling.

The couple pointed to the kitchen cabinets that Jim Yarris built in the basement and first floor of their house. He built furniture for their children and grandchildren.

Their family includes son, Kerry, who is deceased, and his wife, Nancy, of Pittsburgh and their sons Kean and Macklin; and daughters Jamie, who is married to Russ Filburn, of Uniontown, and their children Corey, Adam and Breanna; and Kandy, who is married to John Newell of Pittsburgh and their daughters Molly and Megan.

Jim Yarris maintains a workshop in his basement. He had worked for 20 years for Region Electric in Uniontown and then retired from U.S. Steel’s Everson Shop in 1989. Kandy Newell gave her father a woodcarving set that year, which led him in another direction.

Since then, Jim Yarris has created many birdhouses, including the 25 outside their home. He created a box filled with wooden toys that include tops, Jacob’s ladders, dreidels and puzzles. He is making Santa Claus Christmas ornaments for family members. He has also created a series of Santa figures, a Noah’s Ark with animals and a three-dimensional snake puzzle that are displayed in a curio cabinet at the home.

Then Yarris had the idea to make a replica of the Smock mine in honor of his father-in-law.

Suich was born in 1907 in Trauger, Westmoreland County, and he entered the mines at Palmer. He married Bridget Eski on Aug. 30, 1929, and the couple had four daughters: Kantorik, Barbara Battistone of Pittsburgh, Yarris and Deborah Bernocco of Williamsport.

Suich began working in the Smock mine in 1931 and was employed there until the mine closed. He then worked at Maxwell until 1958 when that mine closed. Steve Billy was his mine buddy all those years, staying by his side when Suich was covered in an accident in Maxwell. Suich and his wife then moved to Hammond, Ind., while he worked at J&L Steel in Chicago until he retired in 1970 and they moved to Uniontown. Suich died in 1974 and his wife died in 1999.

To make his model, Yarris used photo books created by Jack Gates, such as “The Beehive Coke Years,” that showcase local history. Yarris, whose grandfathers Albert James Kermis and Frank Joseph Yarris also were coal miners, referred to photos of the Smock mine to base his model. He selected the 1930s as his setting.

The replica features a wood and metal tipple with coal cars in the cages, recalling how coal was lifted out of the mine and sent out by rail. The redbrick engine room, which has a light, pulled the cable that worked the cages. Yarris also created the engine and cars filled with actual coal – two have slate. Coal has spilled over the cars onto the tracks as it did long ago. Jim Yarris painted the engine room and Nira Yarris painted the rest of the model, placing sandpaper on the roof of the tipple to give it a different look.

The sculpture of Suich stands next to a small sign that reads “Danger” in six languages, an indication of the times when immigrant coal miners didn’t always read English.

With a little imagination, the model can transport people back in time. It serves as a reminder to those who have lived during these days of old and an educational tool for those who want to learn about them.

Anyone who would like to see Yarris’ model can view it at the Smock Heritage Museum, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays from June through October or by appointment by calling Rita Kantorik at 724-677-2415.