Sergeant major Eldad Cicero Camp, a Civil War Union veteran, U.S. District Attorney, and businessman, did not use convicts in his mines but instead contracted with experienced miners. Fraterville, the name of Major Camp's first mine and the surrounding town, means village of brothers. The mine opened in 1870 and is located one mile to the southwest. Fraterville miners persuaded their relatives to join them in mining ventures, and they had opportunities to own their own land, build their own homes, and be paid in cash for the coal they mined, reinforcing Fraterville as a village of brothers.