During the darkest days of the Great Depression, four brothers living in Durham formed a company which some 90 years later still serves greater King County – Palmer Coking Coal. Seven years earlier, Jonas, John, Bill, and Ed Morris, highlighted from left to right, joined with siblings to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of their parents, George and Mary Ann Morris. George Morris and Mary Ann Williams married on Dec. 25, 1876 in Holy Trinity Church of Nantyglo, Wales. There George worked as a coal miner, while Mary was the daughter of a collier, the Welsh term for miner. At the time, coal mining was one of the largest industries in Wales and a significant source of fuel that powered the industrial revolution.
After the loss of their first child, an eight-month-old boy named George Jr., the couple determined to start a new life in America. George sailed for Pennsylvania where he found work in the anthracite coal mines. After saving money for more than a year, he purchased passage for Mary and their second son, Abraham. Within two years, the family moved to Peoria, Illinois, another coal mining town, where three more children were born. A short stay in the silver mines of Idaho produced a fifth child, but more importantly a decision to move to Wilkeson, Washington where the next six of their 11 children were born.
By 1894, George opened a coal seam in Wilkeson, right in the middle of town according to his son, John. George also started a livery stable, garage, and transfer business, while his sons rose into the management ranks of the numerous coal companies that dominated east Pierce County. In 1912, the oldest, Abe Morris, along with Jonas Morris and a brother-in-law, Frank Merritt formed the South Willis Coal Co., with John Morris as office manager. The family’s South Willis Coal Co. was sold just before the end of World War I, after which coal prices plummeted and labor strife wreaked the coal industry. Abe Morris was an important fixture in local politics, twice winning a seat to the Washington Legislature before being appointed the State Coal Mine Inspector in 1920.
In 1921, Morris Brothers Coal Mining Company was formed by George Morris, four sons, and two sons-in-law. With $45,000 in capital ($767,000 in 2023 dollars), Morris Brothers purchased the town of Durham, its homes, hotel, and mines. The new company soon became an important coal producer in South King County. But the death of the oldest son, Abe in April 1933 created a vacuum that four of his brothers sought to fill. Jonas, John, Bill, and Ed Morris enlisted J.G. Raley, a Buckley banker, and ‘Millionaire Joe’ Kieulak, to become the six founding partners of Palmer Coking Coal.
Joe Kieulak was born in Poland in 1871 and emigrated to the U.S. at age 22 where he found work as a coal miner. He was closely linked with the Morris family, worked in their mines, and lived in the Durham Hotel operated by Jonas Morris and his wife, Maggie. Due to his propensity to save money, Kieulak was nicknamed “Millionaire Joe’ and was the new company’s largest stockholder, investing $5,000 in Palmer Coking Coal ($117,000 today). The name ‘Palmer’ came from the nearby train station at Kanaskat, and ‘Coking’ for the type of coal the company mined in Durham.
On August 14, 1933, with the U.S. unemployment rate approaching 25%, Palmer Coking Coal was incorporated, joining 27 coal companies that already operated in King County and with a statewide total of 64 firms. Palmer moved to Black Diamond in 1958 after purchasing the King County assets of the conglomerate, Pacific Coast Company. By 1975, when Palmer closed the last underground coal mine in Washington, it was also the last remaining coal company in the state. P.C.C. continued mining coal by surface methods until 1986 when it left the coal business to concentrate on sand, gravel, topsoil, and landscape products, which are still marketed from its sales yard on State Route 169.
The eleven children standing from left to right are Abe Morris, Jonas Morris, John H. Morris, Tom Morris, Bill Morris, Ed Morris, Beatrice (Morris) Hegre, Elizabeth (Morris) Nichols, Emily (Morris) Merritt, Harriet (Morris) Wheeler, and Marian (Morris) Masters. Mary Ann (Williams) and George Morris are seated. This photo comes courtesy of Palmer Coking Coal with enhancements by Oliver Kombol.
