Coal in Dallas County was mostly a local business, and the county's own histories do not quite agree on how much it mattered. The 1879 History of Dallas County describes a scatter of small hillside banks along the Raccoon rivers, most of them worked by a handful of men for nearby buyers. The 1907 Past and Present of Dallas County remembers two real shaft-mining towns, Van Meter and Dawson, and calls the county an important producer.
Written from 2 county histories, all free to read on the Internet Archive: The History of Dallas County, Iowa (1879); Past and Present of Dallas County, Iowa (1907). Everything below comes from those books, and where they give an opinion, we say so.
What the 1879 and 1907 histories say
The 1879 History of Dallas County took its geology from an earlier geological survey report, and that report was mildly hopeful. The county's best coal, it said, came from thin beds that held little pyrite and so made a purer fuel, wanted locally for special purposes. Beds of twelve to twenty inches were thick enough to be mined "with good profits." When demand grew, the report expected deeper coals to be reached by shafting, at depths from a few feet to one hundred and fifty feet below the valley floors.
The 1879 writers then added their own update. Since the survey, several mines had opened and "quite a number" were working, but nearly all were thin veins near the surface, two to three feet thick, yielding soft coal. The book's verdict was plain: they were "not very extensively mined, as they only supply the local demand."
The 1907 Past and Present of Dallas County is more generous. It says Dallas County "ranks as one of the important" coal producing counties of the state, that coal had been mined within its borders for over forty years, and that the county is practically all underlain by the lower coal measures. Its veins, the book says, ran from a few inches to three or four feet; some outcropped along the streams and others could be reached only by sinking shafts. It adds that mines near Dawson, Linden and along the Des Moines river were being worked extensively, while some in the southern part of the county had been temporarily discontinued. Nearly all of the specific mining history in the 1907 book comes from just two places, Van Meter and Dawson.
Caldwell's bank and the Wiscotta bank, near Redfield
In 1879 the history named Caldwell's bank as "perhaps" the most worked of the county's surface mines. It sat near the Middle Raccoon river, about eighty rods south of a crossing called "hanging rock ford," on section 4, township 78, range 29, not far from Redfield. The vein ran three to three and a half feet thick and gave a soft coal the book compared to Des Moines coal. The bank was opened on the high table-land with its entrance driven into the hillside, and the vein dipped downward. Sixteen hands worked there, taking out an average of about three hundred and fifty bushels a day.
The same book recorded a local estimate that a shaft about 125 feet deep on the flat land below Redfield would reach a vein four to six feet thick and of better coal, though "no definite steps" had been taken toward it.
About eighty rods east, on the north side of the river on what was known as the Redfield land near Wiscotta, lay the Wiscotta coal bank. Its vein was also three to three and a half feet thick and was thought to be the same seam, cut off by the river, but here it lay nearly level. The bank had been opened years earlier and small amounts taken out, then it sat idle for several years until, as the 1879 book put it, "this winter," when two men reopened it on a limited scale.
“Sixteen hands are now working in it, and mining, as an average, about three hundred and fifty bushels of good coal per day…”
Small banks in Union, Adams and Linn townships
Farther down the river the 1879 history found two more banks. Payton's bank, near George B. Warden's farm on section 2 of Union township, had about two feet of coal but sold little, since local demand was light and there were no conveniences for shipping. Marsh's bank, farther down in Adams township, had a similar vein and was the only bank opened in that township.
Northwest of Redfield, in Linn township, several banks were "being mined to a considerable extent." Maulsby's bank, in the southwestern part of the township on the north side of the Middle Raccoon, showed a two-foot vein a short distance below the surface. Prospecting found a second vein about four feet thick some thirty-six feet lower, with fire clay fit for potters beneath it. Howell's bank, a little to the south, looked much the same. Bailey's bank lay a short distance west, and George Duck's bank farther west, about in section 29, each with a two-foot vein.
Near the west line of the county, on the south side of the Middle Raccoon near Harvey's Mill, D. Lewis worked the same two-foot vein on section 31. The book ended its tour with a caution: none of these mines were worked very extensively, and only four to six men were engaged in them. One more coal man appears in the 1879 county directory: F. West, listed simply as "coal bank," section 14, with a Xenia post office.
Van Meter and the Chicago Coal Company
The 1907 history calls Van Meter, then a town of 450 on the Chicago & Rock Island road, "formerly a great coal mining point," and says its mine was once the largest and most extensively worked in the county. The mine was first opened by Boag & Van Meter, who began sinking a shaft in 1878 and later sold out to the Chicago Coal Company. In 1879 that company ran it with J. L. Piatt as president, John Walker as superintendent, John Honicker as clerk and Ira S. Hall as weighboss, and the book says it produced a large output of good coal.
The shaft was 257 feet deep, about thirty rods northwest of the town limits and about the same distance south of the main "Coon" river. Numerous houses went up and a large number of miners found work there. Between the railroad and local trade, the book says, the mine ran at its utmost capacity. Control passed to J. L. Piatt and later to J. L. Piatt, Jr., and C. B. Piatt, who ran it with varying success until a few years before 1907. It closed, according to the book, because of the difficulty in securing help and the increased cost of production.
The depths in the 1907 book do not line up neatly. The town history gives the shaft as 257 feet, the geology chapter says two veins at Van Meter were mined at 285 and 305 feet, each about three feet thick, and the brickworks drew clay "from the coal mine at a depth of 265 feet." The book does not explain the difference, and it gives no year for the closing.
“The coal suddenly seemed to give out, the mining stopped and an exodus commenced.”
Dawson: the coal town that gave out
Dawson, in Dallas township a few miles west of Perry, began when the Milwaukee road put in a siding and grain house in 1881. In the early 1880s the Chicago Coal Company, prospecting for coal fields, struck an area five miles west of Perry that seemed good for "not only a paying mine but a town as well," and opened both. The 1907 history describes a quick boom: Dawson became "a hustling little market," and the miners brought their families, with houses springing up "thick and fast about the edge of the shaft."
Then, in the book's words, the coal "suddenly seemed to give out," mining stopped, and an exodus began. A Dawson Coal Company was organized but did not bring back working veins. By 1907 the old shafts were marked only by the remains of their dumps, which had shrunk as the material was hauled off for road making and other uses. One old shaft, by the barn of the brick company, was still open: a hole twelve feet square and about ninety feet deep. The Dawson Town & Gas Company then tried to restore the village with a large brick and tile plant, built in 1889, which became a losing venture and went to a receiver. In 1899 B. O. Witter, his son R. S. Witter and Dr. Eldridge bought the plant from the Union National Bank at Omaha.
Coal came back to Dawson on a smaller scale. By 1907 another vein had been opened on land west of town, and the Hutchison Brothers' shaft was doing "a big local business." Loading was inconvenient, so they shipped little; their fifty ton output was hauled away by wagons from the surrounding country. They were sinking a new shaft to shorten the underground haul to the hoisting cages and had gone down forty-five of a planned one hundred and five feet. The book put Dawson at about three hundred and twenty-five residents.
Coal, clay and the family records
In Dallas County coal and clay came out of the same ground. The 1879 history found fire clay beneath the Linn township banks and under the vein near Harvey's Mill. At Van Meter the Piatt Pressed & Fire Brick factory stood beside the abandoned shaft, using clay partly raised from the mine, and the 1907 book claimed that clay had "no superior in the state." At Dawson the one open shaft sat beside the brick company's barn. The 1907 book lists brickmaking at Van Meter, De Soto, Adel, Redfield, Minburn, Dawson and Scandia, and by then J. L. Piatt, Jr., was mayor of Van Meter and a member of the Piatt Brick & Tile Company.
For family researchers, the honest limit is that neither book's coal passages say where Dallas County's miners came from, name ordinary miners, or record strikes or accidents. What they do give is a set of names to follow: the 1879 bank names Caldwell, Payton, Marsh, Maulsby, Howell, Bailey and George Duck, plus D. Lewis and F. West; the Chicago Coal Company men Piatt, Walker, Honicker and Hall at Van Meter; and the Hutchison Brothers at Dawson. Most of the 1879 banks are known only by a surname, so connect a family to one through township and section numbers, not the name alone. Granger does not come up in these coal passages; the 1907 book mentions it as a stop on the Milwaukee branch and on the new electric road from Des Moines.
Finding your ancestor in Dallas County
- Census records (free through 1950) list each person's occupation and town, so a mining family shows up decade by decade.
- Death records: search our Iowa database by surname.
- The county histories themselves: the biographical sections of The History of Dallas County, Iowa and Past and Present of Dallas County, Iowa hold hundreds of family sketches.
- Newspapers on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America carried obituaries, accidents, and local news.
Tell us one grandparent's name. We'll take a free first look at the records and email you back.
Ask about my family →Frequently asked questions
Was Dallas County, Iowa, a major coal mining county?
The two histories disagree. The 1879 history says the county's mines were mostly thin surface veins, not very extensively mined, that only supplied local demand. The 1907 history calls Dallas County one of the important coal producing counties of the state, mined for over forty years, but its detailed accounts cover only Van Meter and Dawson.
Where was the largest coal mine in Dallas County?
The 1907 history says the Van Meter mine was once the largest and most extensively worked in the county. Boag & Van Meter began its shaft in 1878 and sold to the Chicago Coal Company, which ran it in 1879. The Piatt family later operated it until it closed over labor and cost problems.
What happened to the coal mining town of Dawson?
The Chicago Coal Company opened a mine and town five miles west of Perry in the early 1880s. Miners brought their families, but the coal suddenly seemed to give out and an exodus followed. A brick and tile plant came in 1889, and by 1907 the Hutchison Brothers worked a smaller shaft west of town.
Where were the coal banks near Redfield in 1879?
The 1879 history lists Caldwell's bank on section 4 near hanging rock ford, the Wiscotta bank about eighty rods east, and the Maulsby, Howell, Bailey and George Duck banks in Linn township. D. Lewis mined near Harvey's Mill on section 31. Payton's bank was in Union township and Marsh's in Adams.