The Post office at Rillton was once called McGraw, named after the railroad stop that was located at the town. In 1888 the name was changed to Rillton, but the railroad stop continued to be called McGraw until the passenger trains stopped running in 1918.
Rillton Post Office
In 1903 the Westmoreland Coal Company sank a 350 foot mine shaft at Rillton, a village named for Mrs. Rilla Fritchman Gaunt, whose husband Charles Gaunt owned a farm west of the mine site in Sewickley Township. Westmoreland Coal Company named the mine the Criterion Mine, because the company used samples of coal from this mine to demonstrate to new prospective customers the quality of its product. The Criterion Mine opened on December 17, 1904 and included a steel head frame (Tipple), 68 ft. tall, a brick power house and boiler house, measuring 74 ft. x 44 ft. and of brick construction, a second boiler house measuring 72 ft. x 20 ft., also of brick construction. The Criterion Mine shaft was 320 feet deep. Three Rand Imperial air compressors with a total of 400 horsepower, and a hoisting engine house with a Vulcan link reversible engine.
The electricity for the Criterion Mine and the company housing blocks was made at the Adams Mine in Hahntown, and transmitted to Rillton, and then on to Lowber.
The Charles E. Parr store, the company store, was built in 1905 by the J. Greer Company. It was called the Parr Store, because Mt. Parr owned 1/3 interest in the Greer Company.
Rillton information printed with permission from Raymond A. Washlaski, editor “The Old Miner”
For more information, visit Raymond’s website: http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/