Editing Bussey, Iowa (section)

==History==
Jesse Bussey, originally from [[Greene County, Pennsylvania]], bought the land for the town of Bussey in 1867. He laid out the town of Bussey on the line of the Albia, Knoxville and Des Moines Railroad in 1875, the same year the line was acquired by the [[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad]]. Mr Bussey went into the lumber and grain business there. By 1880, the population was close to 100, with four general merchandise stores and one drug store.<ref>Bussey, Chapter XIV -- Liberty Township, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LnB2S8O_3oMC&pg=PA789 The History of Marion County, Iowa], Union Historical Company, Des Moines, 1881, as reprinted in 1975 by the Marion County Genealogical Society; page 789; see also Page 433 for the reference to the A., K. & D. R. R., and page 790 biographical detail about J, Bussey.</ref> The town was incorporated in 1895.<ref>Tom Savage, Bussey, [https://books.google.com/books?id=DxagLIZHNv4C&pg=PA46 A dictionary of Iowa Place Names], University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2007; page 46.</ref> There were some problems with the initial incorporation, so a second vote was held in 1899, after which James Bussey was elected as the first mayor.<ref>John W. Wright and W. A. Young, Bussey, Chapter X -- Towns and Villages, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oX0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA160 History of Marion County Iowa and its People], S. J. Clarke, Chicago, 1915; pages 160-161.</ref>

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were numerous coal mines in the Bussey area. In the early 1890s, the Powers company had two mine shafts in the area with a private tramway connecting them to the company's tipple along the railroad line.<ref>Charles Rollin Keyes, Marion County, Coal Beds of Central Iowa, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0FlEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA340 Coal Deposits of Iowa] Iowa Geological Survey, 1894; page 340.</ref> J. A. Powers founded the O.K. Coal Company in Bussey, with a mile-long railroad spur to a mine a mile south of town. This mine was the largest producer in Marion County from 1895 to around 1902. Powers reorganized the O.K. company as the Mammoth Vein Coal Company when it moved its primary operations to [[Marysville, Iowa#Everist|Everist]], a coal camp 3 miles west of Bussey and a mile north of [[Marysville, Iowa|Marysville]].<ref>John W. Wright and W. A. Young, Coal Mining, Chapter XIV -- Finance and Industry, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oX0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA160 History of Marion County Iowa and its People], S. J. Clarke, Chicago, 1915; page 254.</ref> The Cricket Coal Company, later the Equality Coal Company, was based in Bussey and had a shaft outside of town, producing 18,000 tons of coal in 1915 from a coal seam that was 4 to 6 feet thick.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CRVbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA148 The Coal Field Directory and Mining Catalogue], Keystone, Pittsburgh, 1915; page 148.</ref>

[[United Mine Workers]] local 69 was organized in Bussey in 1899. In 1902, it had 275 members, but by 1907 most of the local mining activity had moved to Everist, and it had only 8 members. Prior to union organization, the minimum wage was $1.50 per day, but by 1902, this had increased to $2.15 per day. By 1907, wages ranged from $1.90 to $2.70 per day.<ref>Trade Unions in Iowa – Table No. 1, Mine Workers of America, United, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5dooAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA232 Tenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the State of Iowa, 1901–1902], Murphy, Des Moines, 1903; page 232.</ref><ref>Trade Unions in Iowa, [https://books.google.com/books?id=H1JaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA198 Thirteenth Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the State of Iowa for the period 1906-1907], Des Moines, 1908; page 198.</ref> A second union local, UMW local 2482, had 216 members in Bussey in 1912.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cfAUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1040 Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Convention of the United Mine Workers of America] Jan. 16 – Feb. 2, 1912, Indianapolis; page 80A.</ref>