Incorporated in Pennsylvania 21st February 1865. The president was Isaac Israel Hayes, surgeon and Arctic Explorer. The colliery had been originally started by the mining firm of Fowler and Huhn in 1861, with the opening of a 130-foot tunnel to tap a potentially profitable vein, made possible by an initial investment of $75,000. In 1864, the first shipment of coal from the mine, 230 tons, was completed, and 27,602 tons were shipped in 1865. The Knickerbocker company operated the mine until 1873, at which time the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company took possession and operations. Knickerbocker’s lack of significant capital, and the access fees payable to P&RC&I, which controlled the rails in the coalfields, may have limited production and profitability of the mine. After P&RC&I acquired the mine, the railroad invested $225,000 in improvements, which expanded drilling and increased productivity. By 1922 total shipments from the Knickerbocker colliery were approaching eight million tons, proving the viability of Hayes’s original scheme.
Capital $600,000 in shares of $10.