Mining
In 1890 the Alexandria Coal Company, led by Thomas J. Donohoe of Greensburg, PA, built houses, the Alexandria Mine, and coke works at Goff, a small rural community near the confluence of Crabtree Creek and Little Crabtree Creek, in Salem Township. The Alexandria Coal Company’s property was served by the New Alexandria Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
About 1898 Donohoe and his son-in-law Arnott Wilson formed the Donohoe Coal & Coke Company. Donohoe apparently had divested himself from the Alexandria Coal Company, which sold its Alexandria Mine properties in Goff to the Jamison Coal & Coke Company.
The Donohoe Coal & Coke Company then opened a coke works and drift mine, called the Donohoe Mine, along Crabtree Creek,and erected the copany town of Greenwald, the town was formerly called Deweytown, just east of Goff.
By 1900 Donohoe Coal & Coke Company ranked twenty-eight among Westmoreland County’s coal producers in the Second Bituminous District. John P. Donohoe served as the general superintendent and site superintendent for the company. The Donohoe Mine employed 140 miners and the coke works employed seventy-four coke workers. The miners produced over 100,000 tons of coal in 1900 and the coke works produced slightly more than 14,000 tons of coke.
Equipment at the mine included three electric locomotives to haul coal, but the minig of the coal was done by hand. There were four boilers at the mine in 1914, with 193 bee-hive coke ovens in operation and 400 workers employed.
During 1914, the Donohoe Mine constructed various improvements and building for the use of its employees. The Donohoe Mine built a concrete Swimming Pool or its employees and families. Also, a large building, 24 ft. by 60 ft., with two floors, has been erected for the free use of all employees who desire to take a pledge to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors for a period of one year. The building is equipped with three pool and billiards tables, music, card and reading tables, hot and cold water, baths and showers, closets, etc. Bowling alleys and other amusements will be added in the near future.
The Donohoe Mine closed in September 1923 after striking miners sealed the mine’s entrance. The Donohoe Coal & Coke Company never reopened the mine.