Belleville History Alive!

Keeping people warm in days when coal was king, Part 3

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< · other area coal retail businesses began recieving their supply of coal from trains which chugged their way across the city during the noon hour along tracks that ran along Pinnacle Street connecting the two railway stations on the north and south ends of Belleville. "The coal cars were unloaded at the tracks behind our house and were loaded into bins in our backyard. Neighbourhood kids often came to pick up the coal that fell off the cars and my own kids would go and help them pick them up, too," chuckled Lynch. Though the company had its own weighing scale, the bags of coal still had to be weighed on a scale at the Market Square before being delivered to customers, she said. "When delivered to customers, they were mostly in 100-lb bags. Some deliveries were made to people who lived above the stores in the downtown area. So, that meant climbing a steep flight of stairs to deliver the coal. It was hard work," added Lynch. After the war years, home-heating oil first made its appearance in the market and by 1953, the prices of coal, which was selling for $17.50 a ton at the time, could not compete against fuel oil available at a market price of 17 cents a gallon. According to the 1959 city directory, other coal companies that also existed in Belleville at the time were Fitzgibbon Coal and Wood Yard on 73 Lewis St., Moira-Schuster Ltd, Moore, J.C. on Newberry, Sills, AA and Son Ltd. on Front Street, Smith Fuels Ltd. on Pinnacle Street and Taylor W.J and Son on Campbell Street Electric and natural gas heating finally took over leading to the demise of coal retail businesses in the area as everywhere else. William Lynch retired James and Nellie Lynch from the business and sold established a coal company it, shortly before his death in the early 1980s, to a business called Lynch Coal local family by the name of Co. in the 1900s. This Rosebush. 1907 picture was taken on Contact Benzie Sangma at: the government dock, now bsangma@cogeco.ca known as Meyers Pier.

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