Fairmont Coal Field

From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia

The Fairmont Coal Field is the name used to describe a coal producing section of West Virginia that includes the following counties, in whole or it part: Monongalia, Marion, Preston, Taylor, Barbour, and Harrison counties.

Coal from the Fairmont Coal Field was first mentioned in the Gazetteer of Virginia in 1835, the article reporting coal shipments to markets in Pittsburg and Cincinnati. Those shipments likely were made via flatboats on the Monongahela River.

Following the completion of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (http://www.wvrailroads.net/index.php/Baltimore_%26_Ohio_Railroad) (B&O) to Fairmont in 1853, the O'Donnel mine, previously selling its products only to local markets, began shipping coal to markets in Baltimore via the railroad. In 1854, a mine was opened in Fairmont, near the B&O railroad station, by Francis H. Pierpont and James Otis Watson.