Workday Wednesday: Scranton Coal

In 1866, my 4th-great-grandfather Hugh Winters was a cartman. He drove a coal wagon for the Scranton Coal Co., located at Furman St., near State St., Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 23 November 1866

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 30 April 1866

The coal was delivered from northeastern Pennsylvania to New York by way of the Delaware & Hudson Canal and the Gravity Railroad.

Coal had many uses. It was a source of fuel for steamships and railroads, and it was also used in stoves. There was a monthly public coal sale in Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 23 March 1866

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 December 1866

Available from  Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, BEDT, East River Terminal Railroad & Palmers Dock

Coal wagon. One of a series of designs for various types of horse-drawn transport by J & C Cooper, 1904.  Coachbuilders and Wheelwrights' Art Journal. Available from Wikimedia Commons.

Portion of map of Brooklyn and vicinity, from Rand McNally's Atlas of the World, 1897. Scanned by David Rumsey Collection. Available from Wikimedia Commons. This is the area where Hugh Winters lived and worked in 1866.