Petrea is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Lick Township, Jackson County,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, United States. It is located on

Ohio State Route 788 State Route 788 (SR 788) is a north–south state highway in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. The western terminus is at State Route 93 in Jackson. Its eastern terminus is also at State Route 93, this time less than we ...

between

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Q ...

and Wellston, at the intersection of Fairgreens Road (County Road 78), at .

History

The "Petrea Mine" was Jackson County's first Number 2 "Quakertown"

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

attached to a railroad, the

Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad The Marietta and Cincinnati (M&C) was one of five important east-west railroads of southern Ohio; it was later absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). Its original route ran from Marietta through Vincent, Athens, Hamden, Chillicothe, ...

. Around the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, there was a small slope mine owned by William T. McClintock that was rich in Number 2 "Quakertown" coal. It was located about a half mile away from the Petrea Station though, and over a number of ridges, so it was inaccessible to the railroad. At the time, the coal was being transported the half mile to the railroad by

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

s pulling carts on a private

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

track from the mine, but in 1866 the M&C railroad built the "Armstong Swtich" just west of Petrea with a

tipple A tipple is a structure used at a mine to load the extracted product (e.g., coal, ores) for transport, typically into railroad hopper cars. In the United States, tipples have been frequently associated with coal mines, but they have also been use ...

at the end. The Petrea Post office was originally established on January 3, 1879 and discontinued on February 16, 1880. At the time, the mail service was being handled through the Jackson branch. The post office was then re-established on December 11, 1900 and ultimately discontinued again on December 31, 1901. Mail service is now handled through the

Roads A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

branch.

References

Unincorporated communities in Jackson County, Ohio {{JacksonCountyOH-geo-stub