John Cooper’s mine in the Cooper section of Bramwell shipped the first coal from West Virginia’s valuable Pocahontas Coalfield over the Norfolk and Western Railroad on 4 November 1884. The Coaldale, Caswell Creek, and Booth-Bowen mines, operated by Cooper, Jones, Freeman, Booth, and Bowen, were pioneer mines in the field. The Philadelphia-financed Flat Top Coal Land Association, later Pocahontas Coal and Coke, became the coalfield’s largest landholder.