FORD PLANS TO BUY GREAT COAL FIELDS

The New York Times
November 27, 1922

Negotiating for 195,000 Acres of Elk Horn Holdings in Kentucky and West Virginia.

WILL BUILD ELECTRIC ROAD

Vast Tract Was Acquired by John C. C. Mayo After Many Years of Effort.

Special to The New York Times.

ASHLAND, Ky., Nov. 26.—Henry Ford and a party of engineering experts will arrive in Ashland early this week to inspect an area covering 195,000 acres of coal lands in Eastern Kentucky and Western West Virginia, for which Mr. Ford is negotiating with the Elk Horn Coal Corporation. Negotiations were started in New York last week between John E. Buckingham, J. W. M. Stewart and John W. Patton of Ashland, representing the Elk Horn Corporation, and men from the Ford organization.

Judge Allie W. Young, attorney for the Elk Horn Corporation, said today that surveys of the territory involved in the deal would begin this week. After preliminary work is completed, Mr. Young said, both sides would meet in Detroit to continue conferences concerning the purchase.

If the deal is made the Elk Horn Corporation, it is stated, will retain only about 15,000 acres for its own use out of the vast holdings it now controls. It is understood that if Mr. Ford buys the properties, he will construct a double-tracked electric railroad from Eastern Kentucky to the Atlantic seaboard.

The land lies in Floyd, Pike, Magoffin, Letcher and Knott Counties, Kentucky, and Randolph and Upshar Counties, West Virginia. Numerous working coal mines are open and there are vast untouched areas. The territory comprises the greatest single coal mining field south of the Ohio River. The holdings mostly are on the Big Sandy River. A navigable stream, with direct connections to the Ohio River and of easy access to the Kentucky River and the lake region.

If the deal goes through and the developments contemplated are made, the lifelong dream of the late John C. C. Mayo will be realized. Forty years ago Mr. Mayo, a poverty-stricken country schoolteacher in the Johnson County mountains, saw the possibilities of the untold wealth in coal, oil and timber in the counties mentioned. Quietly he secured options on hundreds of thousands of acres. He worked day and night, borrowing money here and there to keep his options good. When the expense of options became too heavy he carried his plan to capitalists, but they declined to back him.

Those were hard years for Mayo and his wife. The latter kept books, looked after the options, arranged for working mines here and there to keep the property going, and became her husband's chief helper. Finally, however, Mr. Mayo succeeded in interesting capital, and wealth began to pour in.

Mrs. Mayo continued to look after the property. Mr. Mayo became ill, and after a long fight he died about eight years ago in a New York hotel at the age of 48. His wealth, estimated at $20,000,000, was bequeathed to his wife, with the provision that if she married again half the property was to go to the Mayos' two children.

Mrs. Mayo married Dr. S. P. Fetter of Portsmouth, Ohio, three years ago. He died about a year ago. Mrs. Mayo is understood to have turned over to trustees for the benefit of her two children about $5,000,000 for each.