Sam Dixon, Coal Baron      Including the story of the mine at Price Hill, West Vriginia

     AUTHOR'S NOTE:   The material for this article was provided by Bill Williams.  It was made available to him by Tom Franz of Ashland Ky. Sam Dixon was Tom's Great-Grandfather.

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     Samuel Dixon was born at Kelton, Yorkshire England on November 14, 1856, the son of James and Ann (Faulkner) Dixon.  His father was an ironstone miner.

     As a lad, Sam worked as a trapper boy.  Due to hard times in the mining industry in England, many there began to look to the U.S. as a land of wealth and prosperity.  Sam came to the U.S. in 1877 and worked for his uncle, Fred Faulkner.  Faulkner owned mines in West Virginia.

     Sam Dixon rose quickly in the Faulkner organization.  Some of the positions he held were Supervisor, Mine Foreman and Bookkeeper.  Through the 1880's his employment history was sketchy.  Not much is known of him until about 1893 when he became President and General Manager of the MacDonald Colliery Company. 

     Sam purchased the Price Hill property in 1899, which then consisted of approximately 2000 acres of undeveloped coal lands.  That same year he organized the Price Hill Colliery Company.

     During the latter part of the 1890's he acquired a number of valuable coal properties.  In 1895, he bought the Sugar Creek Coal and Coke Co.  In 1899 he bought out Justus Collins in the Collins Colliery Company and the John A. McGuffin interest in the Dun Loup Coal and Coke Company; Harvey Coal and Coke Company, and the Prudence Coal Company.  His next move was to purchase the Great Kanawha Colliery Company operations with large frontage on the Kanawha River at Mount Carbon.  Thus, he acquired river and rail transportation for his product.

     The Mabscott Coal and Coke Company, Beckley Coal and Coke Company, and more than 10,000 acres of coal land for the Crab Orchard Coal and Land Company were next acquired.  All of these properties were merged into The New River Company in 1906.  Sam served as President and General Manager from its organization until 1913.

     Sam, while President of The New River Co., maintained a series of retail coal yards in several cities including Cincinnati and Chicago.  This allowed his coal to be transported all over the U.S.  New River Smokeless Coal and its trademark became known across the nation for its quality.

     Sam was forced to resign from the New River Co. in 1913 because northern stockholders felt that Dixon was spending too much  money acquiring property and they felt he was doing so for his own gain and at the expense of the company.  The company was placed in receivership.   During this time Colonel Dixon was named as one of the receivers.  The company protested and the decision was reversed. 

     With the help of investors and friends, Sam was able to gain control of several properties including The Price Hill Colliery.  This property had been abandoned due to a poor grade of coal.  Sam suspected a richer vein of coal was located farther underground if the mine was reopened and production resumed.  He then severed all ties with The New River Company which continued to operate with a new president.

     Sam reopened the Price Hill mine and, true to his prediction, a richer vein of coal was found.  He built the town for his workers.  Dixon had a deisel-powered power plant installed at Price Hill which, at the time, was a first for the coal industry in W.Va. The Price Hill mine became the most successful in the whole New River field.  It employed 450 men and produced 480,000 tons of coal annually.  The mine continued operation until about 1940, when it closed due to water in the mine.

     Dixon had also built railroads to transport his coal in the 1890's.  He became one of the railroad pioneers in West Virginia.

     The White Oak Railroad was built by Sam Dixon and his associates in 1899.  It ran from Glen Jean to Carlisle, opening up the Wingrove, Scarbro, Whipple, Carlisle and Oakwood mines.  This line was later extended through Oak Hill to Stuart, opening up the Parral and Stuart mines.  These were later known as Summerlee and Lochgelly.  A connection with the Virginian Railroad was also constructed.  Later the White Oak Railway was extended to Price Hill, opening up the Sherwood and Price Hill mines.

     Sam was also involved in the construction of the Piney River and Paint Creek Railroad which ran from the mouth of White Stick, through the City of Beckley to Cranberry.  The completion of this road developed the Sprague, Skelton, Prosperity and Cranberry mines.

     He tried to deepen the channel of the Kanawha River.  This would make it easier to transport his product by river.  The matter was handled by President Taft personally but Taft was not reelected in 1912, thus putting the project on hold.  Years later, after Sam's death, the project was completed.  Many of the ideas Sam envisioned have now come to pass, and stories about him have become part of the folklore of Fayette and Raleigh County.

     Sam also had an active interest in politics, and knew and entertained many of the coal men, business men, and political leaders of his day, including Senator Harley Kilgore.  He was a delegate to the 1896 National Republican convention, and was a member of the Electoral College that elected McKinley President.  He also loved the press and at various times owned The Fayette County Journal, Raleigh County Herald, Charleston Daily News and Charleston Daily Mail.

     From about 1906 until 1912, Sam was firmly in control of the Republican Party politics.  He never ran for public office, but during the period he was one of the most powerful political "bosses" in West Virginia.  It has been said that on election day, Sam would vote "everything from mules to dead men".  He was known to hire trains or trucks and load them with miners, and travel from precinct to precinct in the mining towns.  The miners would vote in each town.  Tactics such as this would always bring Republican victories in Fayette and Raleigh County in West Virginia.

    Sam had served as a lay minister in England.  He helped to organize a Masonic Lodge in 1895 in MacDonald, WV, which is now a part of Mount Hope, W.Va.

     Sam Dixon helped put "King Coal" on the economic throne and kept it there.   It was said that he bought and sold more land than anyone in West Virginia.

     He died on July 6, 1934 and was buried in Doswell, Virginia.

 Submitted by WC Stump, 2/89