|
|
What have we become if we forget our past? Without the documentation of the past, no one would remember
the trials and difficulties that were endured to achieve what we have thus far become.
For my sake and the posterity of my fellow miners, past and present, I offer what little I can in the way of history preservation
of the coal miner. Maybe someday, somewhere someone will pick up a copy of Legacy or perhaps view this website and remember
what the whole purpose of these books have been. An honored memorial to the endurance and will power of men and women across
this great country of ours who have paid a tremendous price for the meager living they carved from these mountains.
As I begin this edition of Legacy, my Dad suffers from the disease called black lung. He spent most
of his life underground trying to carve a living for Mom and three kids. We never got everything that we wanted while growing
up, but we got exactly what we needed. Food was always in the house and we had great times at Christmas, clothes to wear and
a roof over our heads. But more importantly, we had love. It was the type of love that would make a man risk his life every
day to see that his family was taken
care of. That quality in a father has all but disappeared in this day and age. Dad injured his back in 1985 and after surgery,
was totally disabled and retired. Over the past twenty-three years I have watched him age and the pain from the injuries he
obtained from the mines continued to worsen.
I admire him and respect him and appreciate all that he has and all that he still continues to do
for his family. I pray that the Good Lord will bless us with him for many years to come. I only hope that one day I can be
just a mere reflection of the Dad that he has been to us.
The object of these books are not to belittle either companies or workers but rather to try to document
the role both had in the mining of coal in this region. People, places, machinery, companies and even families have been significant
in the production of the fossil fuel and still do to this day.
As a child growing up, I remember different movies and television stories that would take place around
coal mining communities. The characters who would be coming into the area were educated, well dressed driving fine cars and
the residents of the coal mining communities were hillbillie hicks who would be wearing feed sack dresses, bibbed overalls,
no shoes and chewing tobacco and that was just the female characters. We are a proud breed of people who have worked in different
and sometimes life threatening jobs to provide for our families. The early miners had very little in the way of luxurious
pleasures. Most of them may have been immigrant workers who had large families and because of the financial hardships that
they endured, only a small part of the children had the pleasure of being educated. As stated previously in my other book,
most of the male children were employed in the mines or tipples like their adult counterparts were and paid very little with
no type of benefits. Their lives and futures were not really left for them to decide. They knew that they had to do what they
must to help the family survive. Some young boys would begin working because their fathers were hurt or either killed in the
mines and they were left with no choice but to begin their career as a coal miner, never being able again to make a choice
not to enter the mine.
I live in a community that was basically built around the production of coal. But over time, the coalmines
that feed finances to this and other communities have disappeared. I imagine that the demise of the coalmine industry began
in the late 1980s and has slowly went down hill since. Most of the underground mines have closed out and workers have had
to travel to other places in the county and other counties to find work. There are at least three active surface mines in
operation right now and I have been told that it will be a matter of a few years before they are closed out.
Coal is constantly under fire by people that feel that we need to stop using fossil fuels. We have
clean air activist who feel that the use of coal is polluting the atmosphere and thus the burning of it and oil and other
fossil fuels need to cease. While they go on their merry little crusade, another band of activist are on the march to stop
mountaintop removal or strip mining. These people feel that we need to stop leveling mountaintops and refiguring the landscape.
Back in the early ninetys I went to Bluefield to attend a National Coal Convention. Out of curiosity I went, not knowing what
to expect or what exactly I may be able to see. It was held at the Brushfork National Guard Armory, and as I walked into the
area they had set up, I was totally amazed at how many business and people that were depended on coal to make a living. Many
of them have never seen a coalmine or even been to this state before, but their
products were either directly or indirectly associated with coal.
Here in southern West Virginia, I have seen the scars that surface mining have left on the landscape.
But there are some good that can come from mountaintop removal. Yeager Airport in Charleston was built on a surface mine site
as well as new regional jails, high schools and other businesses.
The southern counties of West Virginia do not have the flat valleys that the northern counties have. Here we are more like
low lying valleys stuck between mountains always subject to flooding. Recently in 2001 and again in 2002, massive flooding
has struck the southern counties with devastating results. Families have lost homes, churches and complete lifestyles because
of flooding. Many have filed suit against surface mining companies and the timber industry. We are all entitled to an opinion
and I have one as well as others. For years the companies have removed the tops of the mountains for the extraction of coal.
And when the rains came the streams raised as they have for ages and the destruction was nominal. However, over the past few
years the timber industry has came in and destroyed the mountainsides while harvesting trees.
Roads are made every twenty feet or so all up and down the mountain, the trees are removed and nothing
is sown in their place. Hence there is nothing left but briars and poke bushes to hold back excessive amounts of water runoff
from heavy rains. The coal industry is tightly regulated by the state and federal government. But unfortunately, the timber
industry has very little restrictions and guidelines for which they must abide. It is my opinion that the recent flooding
is not the result of surface mining,
( although I am sure that it does affect the water runoff from the tops of the mountains) alone, but the removal of the forest
on a massive scale and the negligence of our forestry department to enforce some type of reseeding and surface care, has been
the major contributor to the recent devastating floods. And unfortunately, these are not hundred or five- hundred year floods.
They will be more flooding and more devastation until the government wakes up and realizes that they need the same strict
guidelines for timbering as they have made for the mine industry. The state of West Virginia Department of Forestry
has no ideal how to properly harvest the states valuable timber resources, and this is proven everywhere you look in the southern
counties. But once againthis is one mans opinion!
The purpose of this website is not to put blame on one person and show pity on another. To show coal
companies are murderous financial money- grubbers and the miner and his family as the poor souls who worked slave labor for
nothing. It is true that in the early days of mining, the coal companies did care very little about the workers and their
families and the worker lived on the border of poverty. But the times and conditions of that existed for both were hard and
the wages and living conditions reflected such. Companies today work close with the employees and offer great benefits and
pay.
As I look at some of the old pictures that were taken many years ago, I see a rough and rugged people,
who would have changed the way that they earned a living if they possibly could. It wasnt just the mining industry that had
low pay scales and bad living conditions either. Many of Americas working force just barely managed to make enough to scrape
by. A lot of the nations industries were either put on hold or had to change the products that they manufactured during both
World War I and World War II, but that was times that the coal industry had boomed. America needed
the coal to burn in its steel mills to make the weapons and supplies that the war effort needed.
Union labor leaders have even held off on contract disputes during times of war because the labor
leaders and the companies wanted to contribute to the war effort. But the conditions of the mines themselves and the way that
the coal was mined was not left up to safety inspectors or even government lawmakers. I wont say that the conditions were
ideal in any fashionthey werent! Mining laws were not enacted early in the industries beginning but at that time there was
only one state mine inspector and only two certain laws that he had to enforce.
The first mine safety law was introduced by the West Virginia legislature on February 22, 1883. The
two laws enacted were for water drainage and mine ventilation. Of course this was not much of a giant leap for mine safety
but it was a step in the right direction. This was also the time that Oscar A. Veazey was appointed as state mine inspector
and despite the complaints and efforts of Mr. Veazey, additional mining laws were not revised until 1887. The state legislature
then passed an act expanding the number of coal mining districts that would be inspected to four and the position of Chief
Mine Inspector was created and James W. Paul was appointed to the job. Also during this time period, the mining laws were
first printed in book form and later, the laws were printed in different languages so that the immigrant miners could read
them as well.
Between the years of 1897 and 1904, it is estimated that the coal production in West Virginia had increased by nearly 125%
and the need for a state Department of Mines office was established in 1905 with an additional increase to the number of mine
inspectors to seven. Coal had begun to carve its place in the industrial history of West Virginia. Seven state mine inspectors
were not nearly enough to cover the active coal mines in the state and laws were often ignored often with devastating consequences.
Mom and Pop coal companies were opening up in obscured location without the Department
of Mines knowledge so therefore it was impossible for the inspectors to enforce the mine laws at ALL mine sites that existed.
Little if any knowledge existed on mining practices and roof control. Ventilation was in fact a law
but the total amount of cubic foot airflow that is in use today to properly ventilate a mine of gas and dust was not known.
The smaller companies never had the financial resources to purchase, build or maintain ventilation devices. Coal company owners
opened and mined the coal seems using any means that they could. The width and length of the entries were not considered as
part of roof control nor was the diameter of mine timbers, or props used in determining mine roof control.
The first recorded mine disaster in West Virginia happened at Orrel Coal Companys Mt. Brooke Mine
in Newburg, Preston County on January 21,1886 claiming 39 lives. Unfortunately, this is the beginning of fatal mine reports
of accidents caused by poor mine ventilation and methane gas explosions. Thirty- nine dead is a large number of miners who
lost their lives at one time and at one place. But in the year 1905, West Virginia was plagued by the largest number of coalmine
disasters
in one year. Six mine disasters had claimed the lives of 56 miners. Grapevine Coal Co., Wilcoe, 7 lives. New River Smokeless
Coal & Coke Co., Red Ash, 24 lives. Cabin Creek Mining Co., Kayford, 6 lives. Two explosions at the Tidewater Coal & Coke
Co. in Vivian claimed the lives of 12 miners and Cardiff Coal Co., at Cabin Creek, claimed 7 additional lives. Where there
is coal, there is methane gasand explosions.
The largest mine disaster happened in the state at the Fairmont Coal Companys Monogah 6 & 8 mines
in Marion County on December 6, 1907.
When the explosion happened that day, eyewitnesses recounted that flames and black smoke shot out from the mouth of the mine
entries for 200 feet. The timbering and outside structures were hurled through the air for a distance of 150 feet all of which
were still on fire. Everything near the mine portals was completely gone! One worker had just entered the mine prior to the
explosion and fortunately for him, he had been behind a pillar of coal when it happened. When he came running
out to the surface or better yet, half crawling, he had most of his clothing either burnt or blown off and was nearly dead
from the carbon monoxide gases.
Rescue efforts were soon attempted but the poisonous gases from the mine kept driving them back. About
24 hours after the explosion, the main ventilating fans were turned back on and rescue attempts were once again made.
The horrific accounts made from those who entered the mine would cause nightmares to many. But the schoolhouse, open streets
and even a vacant storeroom were made into temporary morgues. 100 volunteers worked in shifts both day and night to dig the
graves in which to bury the remains. Four men were rescued from the mine site but later had died from the carbon monoxide
gas. After all was accounted for and the remains and body pieces were recovered, 361 West Virginia miners had
lost their lives in one swift fatal explosion that has become the worst mine explosion in the states history to date.
From 1902 through 1964, McDowell County holds the record for the most mine related deaths in the entire
state, over 548 total. In a close estimate alone, the death toll all together in the state since 1886 totals over 3000 West
Virginia coal miners who have lost their lives to the industry. Explosions still occur to this day but not in such force as
they did in the earlier days. Coal mine maps are available online, or those coal mines that have worked out or been abandoned.
After reviewing the maps of the mines that suffered explosions, it is not wonder that they had expoded. Ventilation was nowhere
near the current federal and state regulated demands for adequate mine ventilation.
The Eccles # 5 and # 6 mine explosion on April 28, 1914 in Raleigh County claiming the lives of over
174 lives. The map at right shows the Eccles mine after the explosion. You may click on the map which will take you to an
enlarged photo of it on another page.
One of the problems with coal mining in 1914 was the amount of entries that were being used. Today
many mines begin with 4 or more entries and expand as the mine advances deeper. But during this era, the Eccles mine only
had two working entires.
This does not allow for an intake entry for fresh air and possibly a haulage roadway, nor would it allow for adequate return
airflow. An adequate return airflow would allow the bad, dusty and gas filled air to safely be ventilated to the surface.
Eccles apparently had over 12 working sections in the # 5 mine, that is almost like 12 independant
coal mines inside one single mine. None of the working sections had their own seperate fresh air intake, a mandatory requirement
today. Each working section used the same airflow that came from the previous sections, this doubled the amount of methane
and liberated coal dust in each working area. An explosion was inevitable. If each working section in the mine had a seperate
independant fresh air supply, the exposion may not have took place or perhaps it would nopt have been so strong.
Dont be fooled!!! Mining is a very dangerous job! And it has cost many people, worldwide, their lives.
And not just coal mining either. There are more than just coal being mined here in the United States and many fatalities have
happened
in those industries as well. Many a worker has lost their lives for the acquiring of silver and gold. Shafts falling in and
roof falls along with mine fires and basic accidents that have evolved with the knowledge gathered to mine these precious
minerals. I know that we are all going to face the angel of death. But I am so very glad that I never met him underground.
I lived through my nineteen years as a miner and I am grateful that I have lived to retire. But I shall never forget those
who never made it home!
Mining has had many changes throughout the years and the methods and practices of how it has been
mined have also changed. And I am so thankful that the health and safety laws have also changed to meet the true needs of
the coalmining industry.
The numbers stated earlier, are just a prime documented number and does not honestly reflect the number of people that lost
their lives in the youth of coal mining. The union and later on, contract labor disputes have cost lives. The mine wars of
the early
part of the 1900s left many miner and their families sleeping in tents alongside cornfields, only to have hired guns from
private detective agencies to ride by in box cars and open fire with machine guns killing men, women and even small children.
In one report given to the state in the mid 1980s, it was estimated that nearly 600,000 West Virginians had lost their lives
due to coal mining in one form or another. I am not sure if an actual account could be totaled.
The number of accidents that have plagued the state have different causes and reasons, but there are another type of fatalities
that can not be to readily documented. The number of retired or disabled coal miners whose lives were shortened by the inhalation
of coal and rock dust in the mine atmosphere. Men who have worked the mines before the invention of modern equipment and strict
ventilation and dust control laws have been forced to sit by with oxygen and breathing machines strapped to their faces straining
to take their next valuable gulp of life giving air. They died because their bodies were no longer capable of supplying oxygen
to their lungs. They lived in excruciating pain and anguish fighting, straining for the very air that gave them life. To many
men for one person to count but every one here in southern West Virginia does know of at least one old miner who would sit
in their houses all year long because they were not even able to walk outside. Unfortunately for them and their families,
death was the only relief that they had.
Money was a hard commodity to come by in the early days. Before the days of the labor unions, it was estimated that the coalminers
annual wage for the year 1913, was around 48 cents per ton of coal that they mined, averaging out to be close to $737.62 for
a pick miner for the whole year. If they were lucky to work for a large company that provided housing, it wasn't hard to find
a place to live, maybe to pay the rent. The houses consisted of rough lumber material with no indoor plumbing or electricity
in some cases. Heat came from a single coal burning or wood burning stove in the living room of the house or a fireplace if
the home had been constructed with such. Usually he was paid in a type of currency called "script", it had the same face value
as government
currency but it could only be used at the issuing company's stores and other company owned businesses. He was required to
purchase all materials and tools needed to do the job he was hired to do from the company store and usually it was on credit.
If a man was hired to blast or "shoot" coal, he had to buy caps, fuses and even the dynamite from the company.
The needs of a growing family usually meant that the miner was working for the company for nothing. Therefore most of the
early miners were forever in debt to the coal company as long as they worked. Most married miners tried to keep a small garden
in the summer to help grow some of the food that the family needed to eat. When the wife needed to see a doctor for obstetrical
needs, or if someone in the immediate family needed to see a doctor for any reason that home made remedies could not cure,
they turned to the company doctor.
He was either visited or called in to the home and his expenses were taken directly from the miners pay. More than one miner
would often go to the company office on payday and receive an empty envelope because the company had deducted his bills from
his pay and he had
no money left to help him along till the next payday.
College or higher education wasn't something children dreamed of either. Many sons of coalminers would follow in their father's
footsteps and venture into the mine as well. In earlier Mine Reports concerning accidents, it wasn't uncommon to see the list
of
fatalities list the names of fathers, sons, brothers and uncles as names of the victims. As a coal company and the town it
built grew, entire families were employed and thus wiped out if an explosion ever took place.
Old miners that were interviewed had spoke of the pre-union coal mining days as the meanest and hardest life in the world.
Bad air, workers being trapped behind smoke and not being able to escape to fresh air. The poor roof conditions of the earlier
mines giving way to roof falls, trapping and even killing men as they were working. Water seeping into the mine shafts making
working conditions cold damp and unbearable. The pure physical agony of working in a narrow seam of coal all stooped over
or
loading coal cars while crouched over on your knees in seams less than 32 inches high in mud holes for the entire work shift
which sometimes could last as long as 12 hours or more.
But one of the most deadliest killers in the industry was the lung disease know as "Black lung". It is a disease where the
air sacs of the lungs have filled up and been clogged off by coal dust and rock dust. For many years, until legislation made
changes, the coal companies refused to recognize black lung as a true occupational disease. One old coal miner had quoted
the company doctor as saying, "Breathing coal dust can't possibly hurt you, believe me, its good for you".
For more on WV Coal History, please click the photo below.
|
|
|
 |
|
