DeWitt Buchanan, Sr., also known as Buck, was one of the most colorful and influential players of the golden years of coal mining (early 1900s). His father was a Chicago financier who acquired a small financially strapped mining company known as the Wilmington Star Coal Company. This company was one of the last survivors of the nation’s first boom coal mining areas in northeastern Illinois whose heyday was during the middle and late 1800s.
Buck graduated from Purdue University in 1898 with a degree in engineering. He agreed to work for his father to manage Wilmington Star. Within a few short years he expanded Wilmington Star to acquire the largest continuous block of bituminous coal reserves in the vast Illinois Basin Coalfield. These reserves were thick, high quality reserves in Franklin County and totaled more than 76,000 acres. Buck also purchased large reserves of coal in West Virginia as well.
In honor of Franklin County and Benjamin Franklin, Buck renamed Wilmington Star to Old Ben Coal Company and proceeded to develop it into one of the nation’s largest coal producers.
Under Buck’s management, Old Ben contributed some of the most important safety features in underground coal mining. Most of these are part of standard mine operation today. These include the development of rock dusting and the use of closed lights. These safety innovations, which he introduced in the early 1920s, have ultimately saved thousands of coal miners’ lives. Buck also introduced new methods of mechanization and ways to increase recovery. He did so in a way that enhanced the opportunities of coal miners and the communities they lived in.
Buck retired from Old Ben in 1968 and passed on in March of 1977 at the age of 100 after managing Old Ben for 70 years. His rapport with miners, his close friendship with John L. Lewis, his appreciation for the communities his mines affected, and his contributions to the art of underground coal mining make him one of the greatest names in the history of this industry.
