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'''Llewellyn W. Johns''' (born [[November 10]], [[1844]] in Pontypridd, South Wales; died [[February 4]], [[1914]] at [[The Elms]]) was the chief mining engineer for the [[Pratt Coal and Coke Company]].
[[File:Llewelyn Johns.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Llewelyn Johns]]
'''Llewelyn William Johns''' (born [[November 10]], [[1844]] in Pontypridd, South Wales; died [[February 4]], [[1913]] at [[The Elms]]) was the chief mining engineer for the [[Pratt Coal and Coke Company]] and the [[Republic Steel & Iron Company]].


Johns was the son of William and Catherine Hopkins Johns of Glamorganshire, Wales and was the product of a long line of mine engineers. With the field crowded by his brothers, he took to speculating and amassed a small fortune as a concessionaire to mine operators. He supported the miners during the strike of 1850, but never recovered his lost business. He proceeded to train in engineering at the Western Academy in Bath for fifteen months before withdrawing to help his family by taking a job at a government chain works in his home town. From there, he was consigned to work in the mines himself. His health deteriorated, though, and unable to secure a better position, he made his way, at age 18, to Liverpool to seek passage to America.
==Early life==
Johns was the son of William Tregolwyn and Catherine Hopkins Johns of Glamorganshire, Wales and was the product of a long line of mine engineers. With the field crowded by his brothers, he took to speculating and amassed a small fortune as a concessionaire to mine operators. He supported the miners during the strike of 1850, but never recovered his lost business. He proceeded to train in engineering at the Western Academy in Bath for fifteen months before withdrawing to help his family by taking a job at a government chain works in his home town. From there, he was consigned to work in the mines himself. His health deteriorated, though, and unable to secure a better position, he made his way, at age 18, to Liverpool to seek passage to America.


Johns arrived in New York Harbor on [[April 3]], [[1863]], Good Friday. He took a room at a boarding house on Greenwich Street with the last of his funds. He spent the next day walking around the city until he found a surveyor working in Central Park. Within a week he had earned a full-time position with T. H. Tomlinson, but left after three months, apparently infected with a restless need to see more of the country, and to spend his funds as quickly as he could earn them.
Johns arrived in New York Harbor on [[April 3]], [[1863]], Good Friday. He took a room at a boarding house on Greenwich Street with the last of his funds. He spent the next day walking around the city until he found a surveyor working in Central Park. Within a week he had earned a full-time position with T. H. Tomlinson, but left after three months, apparently infected with a restless need to see more of the country, and to spend his funds as quickly as he could earn them.


Johns worked for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Allentown, Pennsyvlania, and then in the coal mining district of Wilkes-Barre. In [[1864]] he moved to Chicago to work for the Lake Shore Railroad's car works, then to Omaha, Nebraska, where he helped construct bridges for the Union Pacific Railroad, traveling with its crews to Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden and Salt Lake, Utah. Hearing of gold found in Montana he drove an ox-team three hundred miles to Helena where he was lucky to find a position assisting an Englishman residing there.
Johns worked for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and then in the coal mining district of Wilkes-Barre. In [[1864]] he moved to Chicago to work for the Lake Shore Railroad's car works, then to Omaha, Nebraska, where he helped construct bridges for the Union Pacific Railroad, traveling with its crews to Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden and Salt Lake, Utah. Hearing of gold found in Montana he drove an ox-team three hundred miles to Helena where he was lucky to find a position assisting an Englishman residing there.


The next spring, Johns made his way to the Placer Mines in Lost Chance Gulch. He redeemed an abandoned claim and worked it successfully, taking $15,000 in gold dust. He invested in a partnership with a sawmill operator to build a 12-mile long flume. The project ran out of funds when it was only half-completed, though, and Johns, again penniless, borrowed three dollars from a friend at Deer Lodge and took the stage to Pioche, Nevada, working the mines there through the winter to acquire enough money to return East.
The next spring, Johns made his way to the Placer Mines in Lost Chance Gulch. He redeemed an abandoned claim and worked it successfully, taking $15,000 in gold dust. He invested in a partnership with a sawmill operator to build a 12-mile long flume. The project ran out of funds when it was only half-completed, though, and Johns, again penniless, borrowed three dollars from a friend at Deer Lodge and took the stage to Pioche, Nevada, working the mines there through the winter to acquire enough money to return East.


After returning to Pennsylvania in [[1868]], Johns worked in mines and helped build cars for the Honeybrook Coal Company. He was soon promoted to the position of mining and mechanical engineer for the company and remained there for two years before going to Lime Ridge to assist Major W. R. Thomas. Thomas left in early 1872 to participate in construction of an iron furnace at Rising Fawn, Georgia. Johns intended to follow him, but stopped on the way at [[Warrior]] to assist [[J. T. Pierce]] in the construction of coal mining works. In the fall he stopped in the newly-laid out city of [[Birmingham]] on his way to meet Thomas in Georgia. He was placed in charge of constructing the coal mining works for the furnace, but the local coals proved too poor for the purpose and the company failed in the [[Panic of 1873]]. Johns suffered another period of poverty before he was eventually paid the wages owed him by the the company's new owner. He married the former Jennie Scott, an English immigrant, in September [[1874]].
After returning to Pennsylvania in [[1868]], Johns worked in mines and helped build cars for the Honeybrook Coal Company. He was soon promoted to the position of mining and mechanical engineer for the company and remained there for two years. During his time there he survived a mine cave-in that trapped him underground for 14 hours.  


In [[1875]] Johns traveled alone to California by way of St Louis, Missouri, but soon turned back toward Virginia City, Nevada where silver was being mined. He began working as a carpenter, but soon proved his skill and was hired as timber boss, and then assistant engineer, for the Ophir Mines. He invested his earnings in mine share margins, and again lost his meager fortune.
Johns left Honeybrook to assist Major W. R. Thomas at Lime Ridge, Pennsylvania. It was the Thomas family, into which his sister had married, that later induced him to come to the South. Major Thomas left in early 1872 to participate in construction of an iron furnace at Rising Fawn, Georgia. Johns soon began making his way to follow him. In the fall he reached in the the newly laid out city of [[Birmingham]], again penniless and needing work. He happened to run into [[Frank O'Brien]], who was the son of his former supervisor in Scranton. O'Brien gave him work as a carpenter until he could find a better-paying job in the mines assisting [[J. T. Pierce]] in the development of works at [[Warrior]].  
He returned to his wife in Georgia that same fall and worked for a while at the re-started furnace. [[James Thomas]] hired him away in [[1877]] to help supervise the coal mines and coke ovens at [[Helena]] that would supply the [[Oxmoor Furnace]]. He prevailed in a dispute with fellow superintendent [[Hopkins]] and succeeded him in that position, opening the [[Black Shale Mine]], [[Little Pittsburg Mine]], and [[Helena Mine]] and constructing more than 100 coke ovens.


The works at Helena were bought in [[1879]] by [[Henry DeBardeleben]] and Johns became mining engineer for the [[Pratt Coal and Coke Company]]. He was placed in charge of the [[Pratt Mines]], which produced high-quality coking coal. He opened the [[Pratt Slope No. 2]] and the vertical [[Ellen Shaft]] in [[1880]], doubling the output. The works at Pratt continued to expand through the 1880s with several drift operations and the opening of numerous headings in the [[Laura Slope]] and [[Enoch Slope]].
During the [[1873 cholera epidemic]], Johns went ahead to Rising Fawn and was placed in charge of constructing the coal mining works for the furnace, and twice survived close calls with runaway mine cars. The local coals proved too poor for the purpose and the company failed in the [[Panic of 1873]]. Johns suffered another period of poverty before he was eventually paid the wages owed him by the the company's new owner. He married the former Hanna Jane ("Jenny") Scott, an English immigrant, in September [[1874]].


<!--While engaged in sinking a slope for the Honeybrook Coal Company, in Pennsylvania, in 1868, and while about two hundred feet down in the slope, it caved in, enclosing the whole party. Three were badly hurt, and the whole party were mined out after being buried alive fourteen hours.
In [[1875]] Johns traveled alone to California by way of St Louis, Missouri, but soon turned back toward Virginia City, Nevada where silver was being mined. He began working as a carpenter, but soon proved his skill and was hired as timber boss, and then assistant engineer, for the Ophir Mines. He survived another cave-in there, where temperatures below ground reached 150 degrees. Johns invested his earnings in mine share margins, and again lost his meager fortune.


At Rising Fawn, in 1872, while driving a train of tram-cars out of the mines, he forgot to sprag the wheels of the car while passing a dangerous point. Perceiving his mistake, he jumped off the car for this purpose, and when he did so was caught between the train of cars and the wall of the slope, and was badly injured. It was four months before he recovered. Soon after regaining health he came near being involved in a far more serious accident. There was a long incline running from the mines to the Alabama Great Southern Railroad track. From the top to the bottom it was three-quarters of a mile long. He got on a tram-car and started down this, and when he had gone some distance the car got loose. Captain Johns jumped just in time to save himself, and stood and saw the car shattered into atoms.
==Birmingham District==
Johns returned to his wife in Georgia that same fall and worked for a while at the re-started furnace. [[James Thomas]] hired him away in [[1877]] to help supervise the coal mines and coke ovens at [[Helena]] that would supply the [[Oxmoor Furnace]]. He prevailed in a dispute with fellow superintendent [[Hopkins]] and succeeded him in that position, opening the [[Black Shale Mine]], [[Little Pittsburg Mine]], and [[Helena Mine]] and constructing more than 100 coke ovens. He added to his record of escaping death from cave-ins and runaway mine cars, surviving several incidents in the Helena mines.


At Helena he passed through a number of narrow escapes from death. One day while at the Black Shale Mines he boarded the tram-car, and the engineer, not being aware of his presence, let it go fast, and lost control of it. He jumped off and fell by the man-way, and the large wire rope trailing behind the car beat on his person, bruising him badly.
The works at Helena were bought in [[1879]] by [[Henry DeBardeleben]] and Johns became mining engineer for the [[DeBardeleben Coal & Iron Company]], and later for [[Enoch Ensley]]'s [[Pratt Coal and Coke Company]]. He assisted [[Billy Goold]] in surveying much of the Birmingham district and was placed in charge of the [[Pratt Mines]], which produced high-quality coking coal for [[Alice Furnace]] and others. He opened the [[Pratt Slope No. 2]] and the vertical [[Ellen Shaft]] in [[1880]], doubling the output. The works at Pratt continued to expand through the 1880s with several drift operations and the opening of numerous headings in the [[Laura Slope]] and [[Enoch Slope]]. His penchant for close calls followed him to Pratt and he survived the explosion of a steam pump at [[Village Creek]] and a natural gas explosion in the Ellen Shaft on [[July 17]], [[1885]].


At Williams & Savage's old mine the incline of the slope was thirty degrees, and was eleven hundred feet long. He started down it with a negro on a car, and when at the half-way point the wire rope broke, and the car went onward at a maddening rate of speed. Death seemed the inevitable fate. The car turned over and threw the two off, bounded back on the track, and was crushed to splinters at the foot of the slope. On another occasion at this same slope, while himself and Captain Pete Thomas were half-way down, it caved in, completely cutting off, as it seemed, all means of egress. Less skillful miners would have perished most miserably. They went into a crossentry and dug out into the next room above, came into the main slope again, and made their way out.
Johns remained with the company through the sale of its works to the [[Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company]] and [[Republic Steel & Iron Company]]. When [[Thomas Jones]] was elected [[Governor of Alabama]] in [[1890]], he appointed Johns as a colonel in his staff.


In 1882, while endeavoring to pump water on Village Creek with a fire engine, he had another most novel experience. There were four others beside himself working the engine, and when they had gotten up ninety pounds of steam it still refused to work, and the steam was raised to a hundred pounds, when it exploded, scalding one man and badly hurting two others. The engine passed immediately over his and Andy Kridler's heads. The latter was then his chief mechanic.
[[File:Llewelyn Johns monument.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Johns' monument at Forest Hills Cemetery]]
Having settled down with Jenny and their four children he finally was able to amass a secure fortune, which he invested more wisely than he had as a youth. He was respected as a prominent figure in the development of the [[Birmingham District]]'s mineral resources. He retired from active work before [[1903]] and constructed a home on a 20-acre estate south of downtown which he called [[The Elms]]. There he displayed, in glass cases, his old school uniform and the "Indian suit" that he wore scouting North Alabama with Goold.  


July 17, 1885, he, perhaps, had the most narrow escape of all. In company with Mr. J. G. Moore and Mr. William Faul, he went into the Rock Slope at the Ellen Shaft, where natural gas very frequently collected in large quantities. Perhaps there is no more forcible agent in nature than natural gas, and certainly none more dangerous. He had previously given instructions to have the gas blown out with compressed air, but they were not compiled with. He, ignorant of this, went into the slope with his companions, when suddenly himself and Mr. Moore were completely enveloped in flame, the gas exploding on coming in contact with their mining lamps. He fell to the earth face downward, and as he did so Moore exclaimed, " Oh, God, I am burned to death." He sprang to his feet and ran out, at the same time calling to Moore to hurry out before the second explosion occurred. They were both terribly burned, and the wonder is, that they had not sucked in the flame, and thus met a most painful death. Mr. Faul had not reached the explosion and thus escaped. Another trying ordeal was passed through by himself, Mr. J. G. Moore, and Thomas Turner, the two being his assistants at Ellen Shaft. There was no air passing through the mines, and he knew that the air-way was stopped up somewhere, and with them went in search of the trouble. At the bottom of Ellen Shaft there are lateral headings to right and left. Some distance to the right the air-course runs down one hundred and forty-seven feet. At the same point the Rock Slope runs slantingly down to the right at an angle of thirty degrees, and is three hundred and twenty feet long. The compressed air goes down this into the mines and returns through the course already mentioned. The foul air collects here badly, and soon creates an explosion. There were at that time eighty miners at work entirely ignorant of their impending fate, unless something was done to avert it. Their lives were in the hands of these three men, and all depended on their being able to find where the air- course was stopped. At last they found it, near the mouth of the air-shaft, the entry having caved at this point. In order to clear the debris away they had to hang over this shaft and work at it like Trojans. As they effected an opening, the air shot through the mines with great velocity. A terrible explosion was thus prevented.
Johns was active in the [[Order of the Elks Birmingham Lodge No. 79]] and donated a large plot at [[Woodlawn Cemetery]] for use by the group.


While Captain Johns was timber boss at the Ophir Mines, near Virginia City, Nevada, he had with a force of hands timbered a mine about two hundred and fifty feet when the timber gave out. The men had gone on one hundred and seventy feet further cleaning away the rubbish. He heard a cracking overhead and called to the men to look out. They barely had time to escape before the whole of the latter caved in, which it took three weeks to clear away. The temperature of these mines was a hundred and fifty degrees, being hot enough to boil an egg. There were cooling stations in the mines to which the men were compelled to resort every twenty minutes. Had they been confined by this falling mass their deaths would have been equivalent to the torments of the damned.
He died at his estate in [[1913]] and is buried alongside his wife under a [[Llewelyn Johns monument|large, sculpted monument]] at [[Forest Hills Cemetery]]. A group of close friends, called the [[Welsh Boys]], sang hymns at the graveside in his native language.


Thus ends a series of thrilling experiences the like of which not one in ten thousand is called upon to pass through.
Pratt's [[Johns Mine]] and "[[King John]]" blast furnace were both named for him. The town of [[North Johns]], near the former mine, preserves the association. Johns' son, [[Wallace Johns|Wallace]] went on to establish the [[Johns Funeral Home]] in [[1899]].
 
Captain Johns is a worthy and enterprising citizen, and his achievements are such that any one might feel a high degree of pride in being their master. No one has contributed more largely than he to the development of the Birmingham district, and has a better knowledge of its vast resources or more confidence in its great destiny.
 
To his indomitable energy and perseverance is due the comfortable fortune of which he is the possessor. He is the father of four sprightly children, and enjoys with them and Mrs. Johns the many blessings of life by which he is surrounded, and being yet in the vigor of manhood it is hoped that there are many years of happiness and usefulness allotted him.-->


==References==
==References==
* {{Dubose-1887}}
* {{Dubose-1887}}
<!--http://www.jeffcohistory.com/newsletter_Oct_14_pg3.html-->
* "Now Visiting Here: Colonel Johns of Birmingham, Ala.: Pioneer in the Iron and Steel Industry." (November 27, 1903) ''The Wilkes-Barre Record''
* {{Armes-1910}}
* Lewis, Ronald L. (2009) ''Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields.'' Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press ISBN 0807887900
* Badham, Tom (Fall 2014) "[http://www.jeffcohistory.com/newsletter_Oct_14_pg3.html Llewelyn William Johns: Birmingham Pioneer Miner]" ''Jefferson County Historical Association newsletter''
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Llewelyn}}
[[Category:1844 births]]
[[Category:1913 deaths]]
[[Category:Miners]]
[[Category:Engineers]]
[[Category:Industrialists]]
[[Category:Forest Hill burials]]

Latest revision as of 10:35, 22 July 2019

Llewelyn Johns

Llewelyn William Johns (born November 10, 1844 in Pontypridd, South Wales; died February 4, 1913 at The Elms) was the chief mining engineer for the Pratt Coal and Coke Company and the Republic Steel & Iron Company.

Early life

Johns was the son of William Tregolwyn and Catherine Hopkins Johns of Glamorganshire, Wales and was the product of a long line of mine engineers. With the field crowded by his brothers, he took to speculating and amassed a small fortune as a concessionaire to mine operators. He supported the miners during the strike of 1850, but never recovered his lost business. He proceeded to train in engineering at the Western Academy in Bath for fifteen months before withdrawing to help his family by taking a job at a government chain works in his home town. From there, he was consigned to work in the mines himself. His health deteriorated, though, and unable to secure a better position, he made his way, at age 18, to Liverpool to seek passage to America.

Johns arrived in New York Harbor on April 3, 1863, Good Friday. He took a room at a boarding house on Greenwich Street with the last of his funds. He spent the next day walking around the city until he found a surveyor working in Central Park. Within a week he had earned a full-time position with T. H. Tomlinson, but left after three months, apparently infected with a restless need to see more of the country, and to spend his funds as quickly as he could earn them.

Johns worked for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and then in the coal mining district of Wilkes-Barre. In 1864 he moved to Chicago to work for the Lake Shore Railroad's car works, then to Omaha, Nebraska, where he helped construct bridges for the Union Pacific Railroad, traveling with its crews to Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden and Salt Lake, Utah. Hearing of gold found in Montana he drove an ox-team three hundred miles to Helena where he was lucky to find a position assisting an Englishman residing there.

The next spring, Johns made his way to the Placer Mines in Lost Chance Gulch. He redeemed an abandoned claim and worked it successfully, taking $15,000 in gold dust. He invested in a partnership with a sawmill operator to build a 12-mile long flume. The project ran out of funds when it was only half-completed, though, and Johns, again penniless, borrowed three dollars from a friend at Deer Lodge and took the stage to Pioche, Nevada, working the mines there through the winter to acquire enough money to return East.

After returning to Pennsylvania in 1868, Johns worked in mines and helped build cars for the Honeybrook Coal Company. He was soon promoted to the position of mining and mechanical engineer for the company and remained there for two years. During his time there he survived a mine cave-in that trapped him underground for 14 hours.

Johns left Honeybrook to assist Major W. R. Thomas at Lime Ridge, Pennsylvania. It was the Thomas family, into which his sister had married, that later induced him to come to the South. Major Thomas left in early 1872 to participate in construction of an iron furnace at Rising Fawn, Georgia. Johns soon began making his way to follow him. In the fall he reached in the the newly laid out city of Birmingham, again penniless and needing work. He happened to run into Frank O'Brien, who was the son of his former supervisor in Scranton. O'Brien gave him work as a carpenter until he could find a better-paying job in the mines assisting J. T. Pierce in the development of works at Warrior.

During the 1873 cholera epidemic, Johns went ahead to Rising Fawn and was placed in charge of constructing the coal mining works for the furnace, and twice survived close calls with runaway mine cars. The local coals proved too poor for the purpose and the company failed in the Panic of 1873. Johns suffered another period of poverty before he was eventually paid the wages owed him by the the company's new owner. He married the former Hanna Jane ("Jenny") Scott, an English immigrant, in September 1874.

In 1875 Johns traveled alone to California by way of St Louis, Missouri, but soon turned back toward Virginia City, Nevada where silver was being mined. He began working as a carpenter, but soon proved his skill and was hired as timber boss, and then assistant engineer, for the Ophir Mines. He survived another cave-in there, where temperatures below ground reached 150 degrees. Johns invested his earnings in mine share margins, and again lost his meager fortune.

Birmingham District

Johns returned to his wife in Georgia that same fall and worked for a while at the re-started furnace. James Thomas hired him away in 1877 to help supervise the coal mines and coke ovens at Helena that would supply the Oxmoor Furnace. He prevailed in a dispute with fellow superintendent Hopkins and succeeded him in that position, opening the Black Shale Mine, Little Pittsburg Mine, and Helena Mine and constructing more than 100 coke ovens. He added to his record of escaping death from cave-ins and runaway mine cars, surviving several incidents in the Helena mines.

The works at Helena were bought in 1879 by Henry DeBardeleben and Johns became mining engineer for the DeBardeleben Coal & Iron Company, and later for Enoch Ensley's Pratt Coal and Coke Company. He assisted Billy Goold in surveying much of the Birmingham district and was placed in charge of the Pratt Mines, which produced high-quality coking coal for Alice Furnace and others. He opened the Pratt Slope No. 2 and the vertical Ellen Shaft in 1880, doubling the output. The works at Pratt continued to expand through the 1880s with several drift operations and the opening of numerous headings in the Laura Slope and Enoch Slope. His penchant for close calls followed him to Pratt and he survived the explosion of a steam pump at Village Creek and a natural gas explosion in the Ellen Shaft on July 17, 1885.

Johns remained with the company through the sale of its works to the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company and Republic Steel & Iron Company. When Thomas Jones was elected Governor of Alabama in 1890, he appointed Johns as a colonel in his staff.

Johns' monument at Forest Hills Cemetery

Having settled down with Jenny and their four children he finally was able to amass a secure fortune, which he invested more wisely than he had as a youth. He was respected as a prominent figure in the development of the Birmingham District's mineral resources. He retired from active work before 1903 and constructed a home on a 20-acre estate south of downtown which he called The Elms. There he displayed, in glass cases, his old school uniform and the "Indian suit" that he wore scouting North Alabama with Goold.

Johns was active in the Order of the Elks Birmingham Lodge No. 79 and donated a large plot at Woodlawn Cemetery for use by the group.

He died at his estate in 1913 and is buried alongside his wife under a large, sculpted monument at Forest Hills Cemetery. A group of close friends, called the Welsh Boys, sang hymns at the graveside in his native language.

Pratt's Johns Mine and "King John" blast furnace were both named for him. The town of North Johns, near the former mine, preserves the association. Johns' son, Wallace went on to establish the Johns Funeral Home in 1899.

References

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