Finding aid prepared by Laura A. Hess
Curlew Mines Ledger, Union County, Kentucky
1859-1866
University of Kentucky Special Collections
Collection is arranged chronologically.
Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
2009MS202: [identification of item], Curlew Mines Ledger, Union County, Kentucky, 1859-1866, University of Kentucky Special Collections.
0.1 Cubic Feet
1 item
In 1853, President John Tyler, along with J.M. Smith, C.M. Mathias, Wilson Corprew, and David Conn, organized the Kentucky Coal Company and opened a mine in Union County, Kentucky. The town that sprung up around the mine was named Curlew because of the large number of curlew birds that lived in the area. The mine operated until the start of the Civil War, during which it was destroyed by Union troops. It reopened in 1902 as the Bell Union and Coke Company. The name changed again to the Cooperative Company in the 1920s and the mine remained under that name until it closed in 1931.
Workers of the Kentucky Writer's Projects of the Work Projects Administration. Union County: Past and Present. American Guide Series Illustrated. Louisville, Kentucky: Schuhmann Printing Company. 1941. Print.
The Curlew Mines Ledger, Union County, Kentucky contains the daily transactions for the mine. The records date from 1859-1866, though there is a gap between July 1860 and November 1865.