John Heaps
John Heaps (Oct. 14, 1815 – March 5, 1888) was an English immigrant to the United States who opened the first coal mine at Coal Hill near Glenmary in southern Scott County in 1878.
Biography
Born Oct. 14, 1815, John Heaps was originally from Farleton, a hamlet in Lancashire, England. His father was Christopher Heaps (1791-1837). He had two siblings: Richard Heaps and Jane Heaps. Like John, Richard migrated to the U.S.
John married Elizabeth Bone in England. They had six children: Hannah Heaps (born about 1837), George Washington Heaps (1856-1917), Martin Heaps (born 1858), Lettice Hope Heaps (1861-1948), Christopher Heaps (1866-1914), Sarah Ann Heaps (1868-1960) and Miranda Heaps (1871-1958).
John and Elizabeth and their oldest daughter sailed from Liverpool, England on the ship Monongahela in 1846, landing in Philadelphia, Penn. on Oct. 13, 1846.
Mining life
When the 1850 census was taken, John Heaps worked as a miner in Pittston, Penn. He also lived in Pennsylvania in 1860. By 1870, Heaps had moved to Clinton County, Ky., near Albany, where he worked as a mine superintendent.
The 1880 census also lists Heaps in Clinton County, which conflicts with historical accounts that he and Jabe Crook opened a coal mine at Coal Hill near Glenmary in southern Scott County in 1878.
Jabe Crook, who was a relative to prominent Glenmary resident Matthew Young, sold his interest in the mining operation to a group of businessmen from Lexington, Ky., in 1894. They formed the Glenmary Coal & Coke Co. and began coke production in 1895. It’s not clear whether Heaps also sold his interest in the mine at that time. However, he lived in Glenmary until the time of his death in 1888.
Death
John Heaps died on March 5, 1888 at age 72. He’s buried inside the Heaps partition at Coal Hill Cemetery. His wife, Elizabeth, was also buried there when she died in 1850. So was their son, Martin, who died at an unknown date, and his wife, Josephine Buster, who died in 1922. John and Elizabeth’s daughter, Sarah Ann, is buried in another part of Coal Hill Cemetery. She married James Toomey, the son of Irish immigrants to the U.S. who also moved to Glenmary to work in the mines.