By Bobby Bice
I purchased the accompanying photo several years ago in an antique store in Clarksburg. The seller had a tag on it that stated it was “WV or PA”. I
didn’t recognize the location immediately and figured it would be a fun challenge to identify later on. I have thousands of organized photographs, so this image went into an “unknown” envelope for several years.
One day, while further organizing my collection, I got this photo out and started looking at it in detail. I noticed the houses toward the right side of the photograph were in a box shape, facing each other, and it reminded me of the houses at Gypsy with the center green once used for picnics and ball games.
Then, I looked off to the left side of the photo and noticed very faintly that three homes were under construction and sitting back in a different row than the other homes.
I’ve always been fairly familiar with Gypsy and knew that there were once three 3-story homes in the back row at Gypsy. During the early years of the twentieth century when Gypsy was a true railroad and coal mining camp, this “back row” was often identified as the “first row” due to its proximity to the rail tracks. Two of those 3-story homes currently remain standing.
The photographer would have been standing on a hillside across the West Fork River. The river and railroad tracks are in the immediate foreground with Shinnston over the hill in the background. The road to Seminole is not seen, but would be beyond the left side of the photograph.
When this photograph was taken, the coal mine was part of the Briar Hill Coal and Coke Company. Not long after this photograph was taken, the Fairmont Coal Company purchased the mine. During the 1908-1911 era, many of the local coal camps were sold into the Consolidation Coal Company as that company had been formed from mergers between FCC and several other smaller mining operations.
The mine located here at Gypsy, which had been known as Fairmont Coal Company’s Gypsy Mine became Consolidation Coal Company Mine Number 21 at Gypsy. Gypsy also had two additional mines;
No. 91 and No. 54. Gypsy’s mining operation closed permanently in May 1928. The actual mine operation is visible in the distance, left of center. The large three story building visible to the left in the image was operating as a hotel when this photograph was taken. Many mining communities had hotels located within the ‘camp’, which were also operated by the coal company.
Like most mining communities, Gypsy had its own company store for miners to buy their living supplies.
The building is barely visible in this image, but is located between the mine and the two story homes.
One of the early company store managers was Francis Metz. Some of the clerks he supervised in the store were Mayme Moore (later Phillips), Dorsey Warfield, and Margaret June Kyre. Michael Gill served as bookkeeper for the store. Benjamin L. Duty later became store manager. He lived in Shinnston with his wife, Eva, in a large yellow brick home on Shinnston’s west side that has been the Hall residence for many years. It is unfortunate that, for many years, the alley next to the Hall home has had a sign denoting the location as Dudy Alley instead of the accurate name spelling of Duty Alley, regardless of repeated attempts to change its spelling.
A school house is not visible in this photograph, but Gypsy had three school houses over the years, dating back to Civil War times. Clay District had its own board of education until 1933 and they operated a school house in Gypsy, known as The Lincoln School. When the mine opened circa 1900 and miners located there with families, the need for a larger school house was increasing. Therefore, the CD BoE approached the coal company and the two traded properties in an agreement so the BoE could build a school suitable to meet the needs of the Gypsy residents. A large brick school at Gypsy was built during the very early 1900’s and was located along Route 19, just south of Gypsy Hollow Road. It continued to be used until the early 1960’s and was razed prior to May 1965. The original deed for the land stated that the board of education had to return the property to the coal company if the lot was no longer used for educational purposes. The school lot has been owned by members of the Spagnuolo family since it was purchased by them from the Consolidation Coal Company in August 1965.
A photograph of the Gypsy mining village and coke ovens was featured in a national series of mounted presentation boards published by The Philadelphia Museums, circa 1905. The image used for that series was taken from the opposite direction of the one featured here in this month’s story behind the photo.
Photo Caption: This very early 1900’s view of Gypsy shows the mining camp with some houses still under construction.