I am looking for a bit of history on the midland coal company near trivoli & farmington,il. I know it closed down in the 1980’s as my father whom passed away last year worked there for 16 years til it closed.
My dad said they had train tracks there & they loaded coal there. Im intrested in the brief history on the mine itself or the railway. I am going nuts trying to find any info on this mine on yahoo search. Im sorry to waste forum space if it’s a bother but Im trying to find out more for genealogy about what my dad did & the history of the rail & stip mining.
Also if i wanted to look into my fathers employment record where would i go the courthouse or down to the state capitol. I believe that can give me dates when he was employed to when they laid off. Any info or advice is well appriciated. Thank you much.
Jan
(just remembered something dad had mentioned the name peabody along time ago. Did peabody buy the mine out or was it a near by mine? God,i wish i put it all on record or had an excellent memory)
Trivoli was (is) on the track of the Union Pacific that runs from Peoria to Middle Grove–last I heard it was in place, but out of service. Historically, this line belonged to the Minneapolis & St. Louis (later Chicago & North Western), and had crossed the Mississippi River at Keithsburg.
We used to originate some coal trains at Elm Mine, which shows in my railroad atlas as being just west of Trivoli. Could that be where your dad worked?
Now, as far as records, the county courthouse should be able to come up with a birth and/or death certificate, if he was born or died in that county. I assume you know most of that information. If you’re into genealogy, you might be able to trace ancestry back a generation or two. I’m not sure they’d have employment records, but it might be a good place to ask about such things.
The Peabody Coal Company name is pretty well-known in Illinois mining. They’re usually thought of as being further south than this, though. Perhaps some of our members from your area can come up with something better on which mines they owned.
I’ve alway had a thing for your dad’s Midland Coal Co. In 1963 when I learned they were running one of last operating steam railroads in Illinios; I talked my Dad into taking me and a few railfan friend’s down to photograph the railroad. I’ll never forget that day mainly because when we were driving on the main highway between Farmington and Midland Grove we noticed the track along the highway. About a mile up we came across a coal train with a steam engine coupled to it backwards. It was in the middle of nowhere. We were estatic knowing that we had found this locomotive and train all to ourselves to explore. It turned out that the train was stopped because a track crew were adjusting the track ahead of it. While we were there, the engineer invited us into the cab of Engine Number 80. He actually let us shovel the coal into the fire box. We found the men who ran the railroad were friendly and very open to visitors and they told me that they were not sure how much longer the railroad would be in existance. The trucks were taking the coal from the mines to their destinations where they were loaded on to the coal cars on the Chicago Northwestern. Now the UP.R.R. If you are interested you can go to the Railfan Mag. web site look up past back issues and look for Feberary 2007. Jim Boyd did a story about Midland Coal Co. operations. The cover has a picture of old engine #84 on the front page!
Janice, I would suggest you contact your local county genealogical society. The above suggestions are good also, but genealogists are usually knowledgable about the history of their area. I do research for the St. Louis Genealogical Society and we have experts on local industries, record repositories, birth, marriage, burial and death records and many other things. We have a member who retired from the Terminal RR Co. and knows just about everything about Metro East. (E. St. Louis area)
If your county doesn’t have a genealogical society, check around in your area. Most medium size cities will have a society and all will be helpful. Sometimes they are listed as historical socities.
Janice- The tracks are pretty much gone. The best advice i can give you is join the PeoriaRails yahoo group. There’s some pretty knowledgable people on that message board. Good Luck!
peoria rails yahoo group even discussed this at one time. Check them out for sure just toss out a question and David and the gang will do their best to find an answer.
The Peabody mines were/are in southern Illinois. I was born and raised in Benton, Il. and the I.C. ran behind my house and in front of my grandparents house. I used to watch them pull several trainloads of coal out of the mines each day. This was in the 40’s and early 50’s and they were steam of course.
