Christy Coal Company continued to support the Pleasant Hill schools. As the richest benefactor of the school, the company not only paid its share of taxes but also would pay for needed school supplies during the year. The school reciprocated by buying most of its coal from Christy.
The Carbondale, Economy, and Gibson mines also opened in the area along Four Mile Creek in the last decade of the century, and Youngstown's population expanded. The population of Grant Township, which included Youngstown, grew from 697 in 1890 to 1,534 by 1900 with 199 school age children.
Hard Times For Education
The boom was short-lived, however. Christy Coal Mine closed around 1903 when the mine suddenly flooded one night, drowning the mules used for underground haulage, according to Alta Brown Alexander. The mine was then abandoned and Christy went bankrupt.
More hard luck followed. In 1907, Des Moines' city limits were extended almost to Four Mile Creek, and the Pleasant Hill School District lost about one-third of its property and one-third of its current funds (an amount under $45) to the Des Moines School District. (This expansion and consolidation was the result of state legislation.) The district also lost about $1,400 in yearly tax collections and was left with only about four farms – the Murrow's, Gray's, Warnock's, and Anderson's – to support the town's 60 students.
In 1908, the Carbondale mine played out, and many mining families left the area. By 1910, the township's population had shrunk to 954. The three brickyards, Fredregill's, Cooley's and Shackleford's, eventually closed, and the school district was left with little taxable property to support its students. For one year, 1908, the district tried to get by with only one teacher, Miss Gertrude Reed, for its 60 students, but the next year the board went back to two teachers.