Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography of FRED TROPF This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 277 FRED TROPF. The fundamental cause of many of the industrial disputes and disturbances of recent years has been due to the separation of financial ownership from the responsible direct management. A contrasted case, in which disputes have been conspicuous by their ab- sence, is furnished by the Tropf Coal Company of Mor- gantown, of which Mr. Fred Tropf is the manager. Mr. Tropf came up from the ranks as a working miner, qualified himself for the responsibilities of mine ownership on the score of actual efficiency, and today he works at the mines with his men, knows their viewpoint as well as his own, and conducts the business as a smooth running frictionless organization. Mr. Tropf was born in Brooklyn, New York, October 23, 1870. In 1880, when he was a boy of ten, he went to the Connellsville coal and coke region of Pennsylvania. With limited school advantages he started to work with a dump wheelbarrow and a small fork handling coke, and for sev- eral years he earned his living by labor in mines, car shops and other industries. Not satisfied always to work for others, he put himself in the ranks of independent operators near Scottdale, Pennsylvania, where he began working an abandoned mine and did it so systematically and efficiently as to lay the foundation of his success there. He has been a coal operator ever since. In October, 1916, he secured his present mine, which had been opened by Alexander Tait. This coal property lies under about 200 acres bordering the Monongahela River, three miles below Morgantown. There are four veins of coal in this territory, the Pittsburg being the most valuable. Above the Pittsburg lie at a distance of some sixty feet apart two other veins. The Tropf Coal Company confines its operations to the Pittsburg vein, where eight foot mine props are used. At the beginning Mr. Tropf loaded only one car per day, while now he has the facilities for the prompt loading of from fifteen to twenty-two cars. He em- ploys 165 men and the average production is 950 tons daily. A few other local men are associated with him, but he is the leading spirit and principal owner of the Tropf Coal Company, and personally superintends every detail of pro- duction. His mine has a reputation for fair dealing with its men. Differences almost universally are settled without calling upon officials of the unions. In only one instance, and that concerning a minor matter, was an outside union official appealed to. Mr. Tropf deservedly has won hosts of warm friends, is a man of liberal views, and plays a sub- stantial part in the affairs of Monongalia County. He married Miss Margaret McGoogin, of Scottdale, Penn- sylvania. They have one daughter, Anna Mary, now a stu- dent in -the high school at Morgantown.