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| Ben Ranney, Park Naturalist at Little Buffalo State Park dressed as a collier |
A man who made charcoal to fuel the furnaces that produced iron
in the 1800s and early 1900s.
How was he taught?
A collier was trained by working under a master collier.
Where did he live?
The collier’s families lived in the company’s town, but the
collier lived in a hut or cabin near where he built the pits to make charcoal from
April through November.
Two cents a bushel for good charcoal, about $1.50 a day,
$500 a year. This was very good pay at that time.
What did the other townspeople think of him?
Colliers considered washing to be taboo during charcoal
making season. When they came back to town, they were covered with charcoal
dust. Most fathers didn't want their daughter to marry a collier unless the
father himself worked at that occupation. Parents threatened their children to
get them to behave by telling them that the collier would get them, calling him the bogeyman.
How dangerous was the work?
Any occupation dealing with fire is dangerous. For a
collier, not watching the stack close enough when it started to smolder could
end up with a blazing fire. Not cooling the charcoal adequately before putting it
on the wagon could end up with a blazing wagon. Sparks from the stack could
ignite a whole forest. Besides all of those dangers, sometimes the collier had
to walk on top of the stack to check for open places. He could and sometimes
did fall in!
Reference:Fagley, Paul T. “From Forest to Fuel: The Craft of
the Collier,” Greenwood Furnace History Series No. 4 Course. PA Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources, November, 2002.
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