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<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV id=IncrediOriginalMessage dir=ltr><I>-------Original Message-------</I></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV id=receivestrings>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><I><B>From:</B></I> <A href="mailto:gwhough@oakapple.net">Trustees and Executors for Granville W. Hough</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><I><B>Date:</B></I> 4/24/2010 7:30:14 AM</DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><I><B>To:</B></I> <A href="mailto:granville-hough@oakapple.net">granville-hough@oakapple.net</A></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><I><B>Subject:</B></I> [Granville-Hough] Steckelberg Coal Mine</DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Steckelberg Coal Mine</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> I looked through some old Steckelberg pictures and found a picture</DIV>
<DIV>postal card showing Henry and Will Steckelberg preparing the shaft for</DIV>
<DIV>their first coal mine. For Kendrick and Susanna Hough, Henry was their</DIV>
<DIV>great-grandfather and Will their great, great uncle, and the year was</DIV>
<DIV>between 1910 and 1920, I do believe. Will died quite young of heart</DIV>
<DIV>attack, and Henry died in his sixties of the same malady; so neither</DIV>
<DIV>ever made a personal narrative of their developing a coal mine in</DIV>
<DIV>Henrietta, OK. They were two young farm men from Pioneer, NB, with no</DIV>
<DIV>experience in anything except farming, though I believe Will had had a</DIV>
<DIV>short course in business. We do not know how they got interested in the</DIV>
<DIV>project, how they financed the land purchase and the mineral rights, or</DIV>
<DIV>how they learned what they had to do to start a coal mine.</DIV>
<DIV> Grandma Carol Hough could remember little about the coal mines,</DIV>
<DIV>except that the Steckelberg holdings belonged to the children of Will,</DIV>
<DIV>Henry having sold out when he discovered he was allergic to coal dust.</DIV>
<DIV>Aunt Dorothy Neville is the best source of information we now have. She</DIV>
<DIV>believes that sister Emma (great great aunt Emma Steckelberg, Professor</DIV>
<DIV>of Languages at Chadron, NB, and first female magna cum laude graduate</DIV>
<DIV>of the University of Nebraska, was one source of funds. I found old</DIV>
<DIV>papers concerning a loan to Will Steckelberg from his father August</DIV>
<DIV>Steckelberg, the original Steckelberg immigrant from Germany, so he may</DIV>
<DIV>have been a supporter, as well.</DIV>
<DIV> What puzzled me was how Henry and Will learned all the things you</DIV>
<DIV>have to do to develop a mine; how to build the shafts, get the coal out,</DIV>
<DIV>and provide air to the workers. Aunt Dorothy said there were earlier</DIV>
<DIV>coal mines in Henrietta, and two families she mentioned were the</DIV>
<DIV>Camerons and the Wells. (Two Cameron sisters came to see David soon</DIV>
<DIV>after he was born.) She believed Henry and Will worked with these other</DIV>
<DIV>miners to learn the necessary skills. She recalls that, early on,</DIV>
<DIV>Henry and Will formed the Southern Coal Company; but was later the Atlas</DIV>
<DIV>Coal Company. (Someone else probably had the Southern Coal Company name.)</DIV>
<DIV> Henry soon learned he was allergic to coal dust and became the</DIV>
<DIV>salesman for the operation. Later, he wanted to get back to his true</DIV>
<DIV>love of farming, and he sold out his interest to Will. After Will died,</DIV>
<DIV>his widow and children continued to operate the mine. After they closed</DIV>
<DIV>the operations, they were able to get into other businesses.</DIV>
<DIV> The coal miners of Henrietta never got rich, and they were soon in</DIV>
<DIV>competition with petroleum products for railroad operations and for</DIV>
<DIV>heating. I do not know when they went out of business, but it was</DIV>
<DIV>probably the advent of WW II.</DIV>
<DIV>Aunt Dorothy has been to the old mine shafts, and each shaft is</DIV>
<DIV>accompanied by big piles of tailings and other debris which had to be</DIV>
<DIV>removed to get to the coal. On her last visit, she said the abandoned</DIV>
<DIV>shafts had no guard rails and animals and humans could fall in at will.</DIV>
<DIV> The whole town of Henrietta is riddled with underground coal mine</DIV>
<DIV>shafts. There has been no known falling in of houses, but the gradual</DIV>
<DIV>settling has caused new homes to have doors which did not close, or</DIV>
<DIV>windows which were somewhat askew. If ever there is an earthquake</DIV>
<DIV>there, it could be catastrophic.</DIV>
<DIV> At some point, Polish mining families began to move from</DIV>
<DIV>Pennsylvania to Henrietta, and they probably brought a lot of on-hands</DIV>
<DIV>knowhow to the operations. They also introduced a Catholic element into</DIV>
<DIV>the otherwise Protestant groups of Henrietta. I believe that Aunt</DIV>
<DIV>Dorothy could remember when her father Henry stilled worked for the</DIV>
<DIV>mine that he would go around each day in a flatbed truck to collect the</DIV>
<DIV>Polish miners. Carol could remember the harsh and uncompromising</DIV>
<DIV>attitude of the one Catholic priest toward her Catholic friends and</DIV>
<DIV>classmates.</DIV>
<DIV> So, for Kendrick and Susanna, this is a little about the coal-mining</DIV>
<DIV>days of your great grandfather, Henry Steckelberg. He eventually got</DIV>
<DIV>back to eastern NB, where he was proud of his purebred Hereford</DIV>
<DIV>livestock. He died of heart attack out in his pasture looking after his</DIV>
<DIV>cattle, probably where he wanted to be.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> P. S. I do remember a funny story about the Cameron sisters. They</DIV>
<DIV>kept up old customs of tea and cookies in the afternoon, and Grandma</DIV>
<DIV>Carol was invited to come when she was about 13. She was trying to be</DIV>
<DIV>as grownup as possible and sat in the chair which seemed in place for</DIV>
<DIV>her. In walked the Cameron cat, "Toodles," who sat down in front of</DIV>
<DIV>Carol and glared at her with a fixed and unwinking stare. Carol got</DIV>
<DIV>afraid she was going to be scratched when one of the sisters suggested</DIV>
<DIV>she move to another chair, which she did. "Toodles" then hopped into</DIV>
<DIV>the chair, sniffed around disdainfully, then settled down for a nap.</DIV>
<DIV>Grandma Carol was careful never to sit in that chair again though she</DIV>
<DIV>did have afternoon tea with the Camerons. That is the background of</DIV>
<DIV>their coming to see David when he was a tiny tot.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>PPS. For those who find Steckelberg to be a strange German name, just</DIV>
<DIV>recall that the most recent addition to the Hough descendants, is a</DIV>
<DIV>young Thornhill, son of Amanda (Hough) Thornhill. You will find that</DIV>
<DIV>Thornhill is as close as you can get to an English version of Steckelberg.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>_______________________________________________</DIV>
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