Originally published in the Voice of the Valley, October 4, 2016
By Bill Kombol
Proprietors Paul and Hannah Knoernschild, standing to the left of the horse and buggy, in the coal and clay mining town of Taylor.
Taylor was a mining town located about 4 miles east of Hobart on a branch line of the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad. The area was first homesteaded by Sam Galloway, who discovered both coal and clay deposits in 1892.
Three years later the property was sold to Arthur Denny, who’d founded Seattle in 1852. He formed the Denny Clay Company, which opened the mines with the coal used to fire the clay manufactured into bricks, shingles, and sewer pipe. Over 633,000 tons of coal were mined and millions of clay products shipped. (more…)
Black Diamond History 