The following story about Jacob Shiro‘s Mine appeared in a Gratz history published in 1997:
SHIRO’S MINE
In 1886, Jacob Shiro became superintendent of a coal operation located on the Gratz side of Short Mountain. He was in partnership with C. T. Bowman, William A. Kotka, and H. B. Hoffman. These men reopened a tunnel made twenty years earlier. Amos Hoffman and John B. Miller, originally owned, but later abandoned it. Shiro and Company received a ten year lease on this land, to mine the coal from a fifteen foot thick vein. It was a various time named North Side Colliery of Keystone Mine, but better known as Shiro’s Mine.
About a year after the mine reopened, one of the mules was stolen from the mines, the thief apparently not captured.
The Shiro mines continued to operate for many years. The coal taken out of the mine, was sold mostly to area residents. In 1900 this mine supplied the coal for the Gratz schools.
During the summer of 1897, Jacob Shiro rebuilt the road that led up the mountain to the mine. It was said to have cut off one-half mile of travel from Gratz. A. S. Snyder, J. A. Miller, and George Ernst had earlier been appointed by the court to find and view a proper location for a new road, from Gratz to the mines of Coleman, Shiro and Company.
In January 1899, an accident occurred at the mine which trapped the workers. A breakdown occurred in the gangway, but fortunately, the miners found an opening large enough to crawl through and escape. No one was injured. Later that year, a gas engine was purchased to upgrade the mine. It was used at their coal breaker.
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Addendum to the above story:
In late July 1902, there was an explosion at the mine believed to have been caused by a spark igniting the gas engine that had been installed in 1899. At that time a hard coal strike was taking place in the anthracite region, but the Shiro Mine, not having union employees, continued to operate because it was only supplying the local coal trade. The fire that resulted from the explosion destroyed much of the Shiro operation and although there is evidence that some coal was supplied locally in September 1902, Mr. Shiro announced in September 1903 that he intended to retire from the mercantile coal business.
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The photograph of Jacob Shiro, top of post, was taken about 1865 when he served in the Civil War.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.