Fayette County Towns

Muscle and Blood, Skin and Bones...................sang Merle Travis mournfully of the mining life, a "mind that's weak and a back that's strong." Yet despite the rigors of the bituminous coal miner's profession, aged veterans from the hand-loading era remember their work with a curious affection. The special relationship between man and mineral defined the parameters of the mining life. Although coal mining in southern West Virginia was dark, dirty, and dangerous work, something about it appealed to many a hardworking coal loader. Before the widespread introduction of sophisticated underground machines into the process around World War II, coal mining was a highly labor-intensive industry. Thousands of workers laboriously extracted the mineral from the unwilling earth. Yet the desolate hills and hollows of pre-industrial southern West Virginia were still largely uninhabited, offering no such teeming workforce. Thus as the railroads snaked along the river bottoms into the coal fields in the late 19th century, companies were forced to import their labor and set up mining communities, literally overnight replacing silent mountains and roaring streams with a boisterous new society of steel, smoke and sinew. To these small mining towns came thousands of blacks, fleeing the Deep South's endemic segregation, sharecropping, prejudice, and poverty. There came, too, thousands of eastern Europeans fleeing religious persecution and political revolution, escaping to new homes in the coalfields. Thus coal towns were filled with a rich and colorful milieu of race, class, color and religion. Underground, each man was his own boss, for in the hand-loading era coal miners were paid not by the hour, but by the ton. This was a powerful incentive which meant that better workers made more money. Merle Travis's pithy observations notwithstanding, coal mining was a highly skilled trade. Each miner had to timber the roof of his worksite, undercut the broad face of the ebony seam, drill a deep hole upward into the coal, pack it with black gunpowder, shoot the charge, and then laboriously hand-load the dislodged lumps of coal. Performing these complex and hazardous tasks by hand in the pitch-black darkness was painstaking and exacting. Each coal miner produced a finished product in which he could take pride. This was craft work. Moreover, in an age which witnessed the bewildering move from farm to factory for many new industrial workers, coal miners at least still worked the soil with their hands, "harvesting" the mineral. Despite the rough and rugged lifestyle commonly associated with other frontier industries, coal miners had a sense of worth and dignity of labor. Even the ever-present danger from gas and dust explosions and roof falls helped to strengthen the special relationship between man and mine, for only the most skilled men could be trusted to perform the delicate operation skillfully and safely. Coal miners tempted death each workday, and the men knew that their survival depended upon the skill of their fellow workers on the shift. Veteran miners shared something that outsiders could never grasp, like the camaraderie of combat-hardened infantrymen. Also helping to build close ties among the workers was the very nature of the small and isolated mining towns which clung to hillsides, dotted ravines, and sprawled promiscuously along creek beds throughout the coal fields. In these tiny "walking communities," work and home were closely inter-related. Often the railroad was the only way into or out of the towns, whose miners houses perched neatly in terraced rows on the steep rugged hillsides. This isolation bred close-knit ties of family, neighborhood, church, and home. Forbidden by a hoary superstition from entering the mines, coalfield women built elaborate support networks based around the work rhythms of the weekly household chores. Everyone knew everyone else, and today old-timers especially miss this fierce sense of community. Although the towns were segregated by race and ethnicity, such distinctions vanished at the two most predominant institutions in the community, the mine and the company store. Infrequent incorporated towns like Matewan supplied commercial and entertainment options not often available in the stark company-run industrial towns. Because conditions varied widely from town to town, generalization is difficult and imprecise. Research reveals a wide disparity between trim model towns, with bright gardens, sidewalks and verdant scenery, to squalid camps of tarpaper shacks patrolled by armed company thugs. Although it is common to decry conditions in the mining towns, even the roughest camps were probably superior to the tenement ghettos which the immigrants encountered in New York, or to the tenant-farming huts of southern black cotton workers. Relations between management and miners also varied widely, but helping to lessen tensions was the widespread practice of the early operators actually living in the mining town itself. Moreover, when coal tonnage stayed high, there was seldom labor unrest. But owing to the nature of the industry, sudden drops in demand could throw miners out of work, producing the potential for trouble. The rural nature of the coal fields meant that there was little or no law enforcement, and county government was nonexistent or inefficient. Although such violence was, it must be noted, hardly the normal state of affairs, ties between miners and company could deteriorate rapidly and with tragic consequences, such as the unpleasantness in Matewan during the spring of 1920.

Article by Stuart McGhee
Stuart McGehee is an Assistant Professor of History at Bluefield College in West Virginia and is the archivist for the Eastern Regional Coal Archives.

There were 92 different coal companies and 153 coal mines in Fayette County as of June 1923. Most of our fathers and uncles worked for one or more of these as young men. Some of the ones most familiar to us while growing up were:

The New River & Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, which produced the greatest tonnage of coal in Fayette County for the year ending June 30, 1923, maintained one office at Minden in Fayetteville district and another at Layland in Quinnimont district, both on branch lines of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad. This company operated three mines at Minden known as No. 2, No. 3 and No 4. Each had a drift opening in the Sewell coal bed with a thickness of 4 feet to 4 feet 6 inches. These three mines employed 649 men who worked 283 days. With 48 pick miners and 283 machine miners an output of 543,009 tons of coal was produced. Fifteen mining machines were used. The coal was moved by the use of twenty-seven locomotives.

The Stuart Colliery Company, with offices at Lochgelly and Summerlee, in Fayetteville district, on the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) and Virginian Railroad operated two shaft mines known as Lochgelly and Summerlee mines. The mines were in the Sewell coal bed, with a thickness of 4 feet. The company employed 305 men who worked 167 days. With 34 pick and 124 machine miners a total of 111,117 tons of coal were produced. Eleven mining machines were used, and the coal was moved by the use of 25 electric locomotives.

The Rock Lick Smokeless Coal Company, with office at Concho, in Fayetteville district, on the C&O Railroad, operated the Rock Lick mine which lies in the Sewell coal bed, with drift opening, with a thickness of 4 feet. The company employed 197 men who worked 114 days. With 7 pick and 71 machine miners a total of 103,234 tons of coal was produced. Five mining machines were used, and the coal was moved by the use of six mules and eight electric locomotives.

The Loop Creek Colliery Company, with offices at Beards Fork and Page, in Kanawha district, on the Virginian Railroad, operated mines known as Beards Fork North & South and Loop Creek Numbers, 1 and 2. These mines had drift openings in the No 2 Gas and Eagle coal beds with thickness of 4 feet to 4 ft. 6 in. The company employed 584 men. With 32 pick and 242 machine miners, an output of 474,447 tons of coal was produced.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COAL MINING IN WEST VIRGINIA

The existence of coal deposits in “Western Virginia”, as it was commonly called before it became a separate state on June 20, 1863, was well known to early explorers and to early residents, but there was no vast commercial market for it due to transportation problems common to hilly terrain with secondary roads which were often little more than trails.

Railroad construction had begun prior to the Civil War, and had reached the present boarders of West Virginia . All railroad building activities had to stop until after the cessation of hostilities in 1865, after which time the construction resumed until the Ohio River . Now the Eastern investors were ready to develop the dormant coal industry.

They sent in representatives to purchase the “rights” to the timber and minerals on the land for an average of $3 to $25 per acre. After the harsh financial deprivations of the Civil War, this seemed a magnificent windfall to the owners of the land. Their experience had not prepared them to appreciate the great wealth contained in their natural resources.

The investors, from their point of view, had made a sound investment at a fair price. It was they who risked capital to develop resources which, until they were developed, were practically worthless.

Before the Civil War, slave labor was used to work the mines but slaves did not work willingly underground. For a long time after this, coal miners were almost always white men. By 1913, for example, of the more than 70,000 miners in the state, only 14,506 of them were black. Of the more than 70,000 miners, 32,612 were white Americans.

Their wages, as of 1913, were 48 cents per ton of coal. The annual wage for a pick miner was $737.62, an increase of $119.10 over the previous year’s earnings.

The feudal system (coal companies being the “Barons of the Manor” and coal miners being the serfs) made it possible for the miner to live in housing consisting of rough lumber with no indoor plumbing and to do his necessary shopping at the company store where he might purchase on credit. He was paid in“play money” called “scrip” which was exchangeable only at the company store. He was required to furnish his own tools and blasting powder, which he purchased at the company store.

If he were married, the needs of a growing family usually outstripped his ability to provide for them on the wages he earned, thus most of them were perpetually in debt to the company store. Most married miners had a little kitchen garden to produce some of their food needs. When his wife had need of obstetrical attention, or if there were family illnesses, the company doctor was called in, and the miner had that expense deducted from his wages, more than one miner, at the end of a pay period, would pick up an empty pay envelope because his indebtedness had taken all he earned.

A miner’s son would often follow him into the mines. The sons had grown up with mining and it was all they knew. It is not uncommon in Mine Reports to see not only fathers and sons killed in a mine explosion, but to see many brothers perish, too.

Deadly methane gas, being odorless, was a silent killer of many miners but far more miners died of black lung disease where the air sacs of the lungs are destroyed from breathing coal dust. Mr. Williams said that the coal companies for many years, until legislation forced some changes, refused to recognize black lung as a valid medical disability caused by working conditions. Many company doctors would diagnose respiratory disorders as nearly anything but black lung. One coal company doctor had told Mr. Williams, “Breathe coal dust! It’s good for you!” At the time of his death in 1983, he was receiving benefits for black lung.

In many instances, miners were trapped by economic conditions into this particular vocation and, once in it, few could see their way out of it. Mouths had to be fed, bodies had to be clothed and housed, and the wage earned must do what he must to accomplish this.

Many miners who perished left widows and orphans. It was the rare miner who had or who could afford life insurance policies.

Harsh working conditions and inability of miners and coal companies to negotiate and make changes led to militant unionizing efforts, which were eventually given the stamp of approval by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Before unions became “acceptable”, there were many harsh skirmishes between opposing factions. To this day, in Kanawha County , one may still find bunkers where gunfire was exchanged in this deadly struggle to improve working conditions for coal miners.

Even with improving working conditions, mining was still dangerous work. Experienced miners learned to be cautious, and the Reports of Mine Inspectors indicated that experienced miners were far less likely to die in an accident than novices. Not so surprisingly, more mining accidents happened on Monday than on any other days of the week.

Each death reported is a story in itself, whether it be the story of the son of a former landowner who becomes serf, or whether it is the story of an immigrant who has come to America to seek a better way of like, only to meet death face to face in the bowels of the earth.

The story of coal mining in the early days of this 20^th century is in many ways a solemn one, but the relentless desire of the miners for a better way of like has borne fruit as we see safety features in mines rigorously enforced, children of miners receiving university educations, and the miner himself being paid a living wages that he might enjoy some of the fruits of his labors.

No state in the Union has been more dominated by one product or natural resource than has West Virginia . Since the beginnings of coal mining in the early 1800’s, the economy, welfare, and political life of West Virginia have been largely dependent upon its “black gold,” that underlies a great portion of the state. Coal was not a very important resource in West Virginia until after the Civil War. It was then that the advent of the railroads made the coal fields accessible and brought thousands of miners into the state. Since then, West Virginia has been fertile ground for outside exploitation, massive labor confrontations, union organizing, and a multitude of political intrigues. The coal fields have provided great wealth to individuals and corporations, while many of the miners and their families have known equally great poverty.