In the Schuylkill region of the Southern coal field similar obstacles to the introduction of coal were encountered. Nicholas Allen, the discoverer of coal in that region, had formed a partnership with Colonel George Shoemaker, and the firm had purchased a tract of coal land near Pottsville, on which they began mining operations in the year 1812. They raised several wagon loads of coal, and offered it for sale in the vicinity, but with the exception of a few blacksmiths, who had been taught its value as a fuel by Colonel Shoemaker, no one could be found to purchase it. Allen soon became disheartened and sold his entire interest in the property to his partner, who, still persisting in the enterprise, mined a considerable quantity of the coal, filled ten wagons with it, and took it to Philadelphia in quest of a market. But it did not meet with a ready sale. People looked at the coals curiously, considered them to be nothing more than black stones, and, seeing no reason why they should burn better than stones of any other color, would not buy them. Colonel Shoemaker sounded the praises of his wares so vigorously and persistently, however, that at last a few purchasers were induced to take them in small quantities, just for trial. The trials, as usual, proved to be unsuccessful, and the people who had purchased the coals, believing they had been victimized, denounced Colonel Shoemaker as a cheat and a swindler; while one person, whose wrath rose to a high pitch, procured a warrant for the colonel’s arrest, on the charge that he was a common impostor. At this stage of the proceedings, Colonel Shoemaker, believing discretion to be the better part of valor, quietly left the city and started toward his home by a circuitous route, driving, it is said, some thirty miles out of his way, in order to avoid the officer of the law holding the warrant for his arrest. This was indeed a discouraging beginning for the Schuylkill coal trade. Fortunately, however, not all of the colonel’s customers at Philadelphia had met with failure in the effort to burn his coal. Messrs. Mellen & Bishop, a firm of iron factors in Delaware County, at the earnest solicitation of Colonel Shoemaker, made the experiment with the small quantity of coals purchased by them, and finding that the fuel burned successfully they announced that fact through the Philadelphia newspapers. Other iron workers were thus induced to try the coal, and finally all the furnaces along the Schuylkill had open doors for it. Eventually it came into use for the purpose of generating steam, the experiments of John Price Wetherill in that direction having been only partially satisfactory, but those at the Phœnixville iron works in 1825 meeting with complete success.