BLACK DIAMONDS The Southern West Virginia Coal Story

A Guide for 8th-Grade Teachers

Table of Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................1

Exhibit Text................................................................................................3 Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry..........................................4 Mining the Coal...............................................................................5 Danger in the Mines.........................................................................8 Sources...........................................................................................10

Background Material...............................................................................11 Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry........................................12

Section Vocabulary/Section Bibliography..........................14 Mining the Coal.............................................................................17

Section Vocabulary/Section Bibliography..........................21 Danger in the Mines.......................................................................23

Section Vocabulary/Section Bibliography..........................26

Activities....................................................................................................29 Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry........................................30 Mining the Coal.............................................................................35 Danger in the Mines.......................................................................37

Discussion Topics......................................................................................41 Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry........................................42 Mining the Coal.............................................................................43 Danger in the Mines.......................................................................44

Introduction

About the Exhibit This guide for 8th-grade teachers accompanies Black Diamonds: The Southern

West Virginia Coal Story, an exhibit developed by the National Coal Heritage Area and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History to travel to schools and communities around the state. The exhibit briefly establishes a historical context for the hand-loading coal era, including the factors that sparked southern West Virginia’s coal boom in the late 1800s. The goal of the exhibit is to help students and visitors understand the miner’s life under ground.

The exhibit includes an audiovisual component and hands-on simulated coal equipment. The audiovisual component consists of recollections by early coal miners and photo vignettes that illustrate the many faces of the southern coalfields. The hands-on coal equipment provides a glimpse of what it was like to set a charge and mine coal in the hand-loading era.

Additionally, as the exhibit travels from community to community throughout southern West Virginia, an interchangeable segment will focus on the host county. This segment will present a brief overview of each southern West Virginia county’s coal history along with historical photos.

Black Diamonds is the first installment of the coal history traveling exhibits program, sponsored by the National Coal Heritage Area and West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Future exhibits will cover topics such as company towns, the history of the West Virginia coal industry, and the West Virginia mine wars.

About the Teacher’s Guide The Black Diamonds teacher’s guide is set up in four units: Exhibit Text,

Background Material, Activities, and Discussion Topics. The exhibit text includes the actual labels students will read when viewing the

exhibit. The exhibit offers a brief overview of several different facets of the early hand- loading coal industry. The overviews are intended to be a starting point for delving further into each topic. Each section of the teacher’s guide is divided into three sections: “Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry,” “Mining the Coal,” and “Danger in the Mines.”

After previewing the exhibit text, teachers can look in the background material for more information on individual topics. In some instances, the background material covers information omitted from the exhibit due to space constraints; in other places, it might delve further into a related topic such as the railroad industry, which was vital to the early coal industry but is not necessarily a primary focus of the exhibit. The background material unit also includes potential vocabulary words and bibliographies, divided into basic and advanced categories. The basic sources are intended for students of varying age levels; advanced sources tend to be on a college level.

The activities and discussion topics expand upon information in the exhibit, which is also covered in the background material. Activities and discussion topics are matched with West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives for 8th-grade students wherever appropriate. The bold numbers denote activities or topics that align closely with

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Introduction

that particular objective; the objective numbers in regular type apply less directly. In some instances, student handouts have been enclosed.

The background material, discussion topics, vocabulary, and activities are not comprehensive and should be considered starting points for teachers and students. The objectives of this guide are to help students learn that

• southern West Virginia coal was and is among the most valuable in the world

• railroad construction made southern West Virginia coal profitable and changed the landscape of that part of the state

• workers came from all over the country and the world for jobs in the coal mines

• coal mining in the hand-loading era was extremely different from today

• working in early West Virginia coal mines was among the most dangerous occupations in the world

• compromise is an essential ingredient in balancing the employer’s need to realize profits and the employee’s rights to safety and a fair wage

Another goal of the exhibit and teacher’s guide is to empower students to become historians–and, hopefully, not in the boring connotation of the term. This project should help students realize that history is not just a series of names and dates embedded in a textbook. History consists of the stories that surround us, comprising the lives of our families, friends, and community. These stories explain why our families live where they do and why our towns look the way they do. Most importantly, these stories should not be told only by academic historians and professional writers, who have contributed, in great part, to a near consensus among young people and adults that history is the most boring subject in school. The stories need to be told by each individual and in a manner that strikes a very personal chord. This is the principal goal of Black Diamonds–to take a look at our history in a different way and challenge students and the general public to document and pass along their own part of West Virginia’s history. It is important for students to understand that every coal miner and every miner’s family have contributed as much to our history as have the most famous West Virginians.

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Introduction

Exhibit Text

Black Diamonds: The Southern West Virginia Coal Story

West Virginia is tied to the land and minerals that lie within its borders. For more than 100 years, no mineral has had a greater impact on West Virginia and its people than coal. This exhibit offers a glimpse of how coal was mined in the earliest days of the industry.

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Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry

Black Diamonds “Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood until a laborer with pick and windlass brought it to the surface. We may well call it black diamonds.”

—Author Ralph Waldo Emerson

West Virginia’s bituminous coal is among the cleanest burning in the world. It contains few impurities and is a cost-effective fuel for the power, transportation, chemical, and home-heating industries, among others.

Southern West Virginia first emerged as a leading coal producer in the late 1800s, sparked by transportation improvements, a pool of affordable labor, and the nation’s increasing demand for clean-burning coal.

Transportation “The building of the railroad . . . was the basis of everything that has followed.”

—Fayette County coal operator W. D. Thurmond

West Virginia’s mountains have been the greatest barriers to mining its coal. Large-scale coal mining was impossible in southern West Virginia prior to the arrival of railroads.

Completion of the Chesapeake & Ohio, Norfolk & Western, and Virginian Railways in the late 1800s and early 1900s gave entrepreneurs access to southern West Virginia’s vast coal riches. More importantly, railroads enabled coal companies to transport and sell their product profitably.

Labor “Attracted by the building of the railroad and opening of the mines, men were here from pretty much all over.” —McDowell County coal operator John J. Lincoln

The growing demand for coal in the late 1800s required a rapid buildup of affordable labor. The lure of a paycheck persuaded many native West Virginians to leave their farms to mine coal. Likewise, African-Americans from Virginia and the Deep South traveled to West Virginia in large numbers, and immigrants from other countries poured into the region. Southern West Virginia quickly became a melting pot of nationalities and ethnic diversity.

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Exhibit Text

Mining the Coal

Do you have what it takes to be a coal miner? The first requirement for any coal miner is to be courageous. Miners who are afraid of small, enclosed, dark places quickly have to overcome their fear. New miners have to get used to the distant sound of coal cars, whose rumbling might sound similar to a mine cave-in. Miners also have to be strong and in good physical condition.

In the early coal industry, a typical miner could shovel more than 10 times his body weight in about 15 minutes. Coal miners in the hand-loading era were skilled craftsmen who took great pride in their work. In addition to being miners, they also had to be experts in construction, track laying, explosives, and timbering.

How were mines created? Most coal in the early days came from drift mines, created by building a tunnel into a mountainside. As miners dug deeper, they would support the roof of the tunnel with pillars made either of wood or unmined coal. After digging to a proper depth, miners constructed side tunnels off the main entryway. The side tunnels led to individual rooms, where coal was mined. Many drift mines extended hundreds of feet below the surface.

Who mined coal? “There was a boy quit trapping in the mine, and . . . the mine foreman come in and asked Dad did he care to let me go in the mines to trap. And Dad said, ‘No, if he wants to go.’ Well, I said, ‘It’d tickle me to death to go.’ I thought I was a man then. . . . And I was an 11-year-old boy. That was on my birthday. And down in there I went.”

—Putnam County coal miner D. Guy Thomas

Young boys often worked long hours alongside their fathers in the southern West Virginia coal mines. They were hired to pick slate and rock from coal, drive mules in and out of the mines, and take food and supplies to the miners. Many boys served as trappers, a dangerous job in which they opened and closed doors for coal cars. Child labor laws of the early 1900s prohibited coal companies from working children in underground mines; however, the laws were poorly enforced, allowing the practice to continue for many years.

For most of its history, coal has been mined almost solely by men. Most miners considered the presence of a woman in an underground mine to be bad luck. An 1887 West Virginia law actually made it illegal for women to work in coal mines. The passing of civil rights and equal employment legislation in the 1970s finally paved the way for women to become miners.

Did you know? Each miner was paid based upon the amount of coal he loaded. As a result, he was not paid for his work preparing the mine, which included laying track and supporting the roof with pillars. At the same time, many miners were required to pay for their own tools, explosives, and other essential equipment.

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Exhibit Text

Did you know? The length of a miner’s workday varied. Each miner was expected to work long enough to clean up all the coal he had blasted on a given day. Many miners pushed themselves to work longer hours because the more coal they loaded, the more they were paid. As a result, a miner might remain under ground anywhere from 12 to 16 hours at a time.

What was it was like to be a miner? Mining has always been physically challenging, but it was particularly strenuous during the early days of the industry, when coal was loaded by hand. Despite the demanding nature of the work, miners took great pride in their jobs.

The hand-loading process involved five stages: (1) digging a trench beneath the coal seam (2) drilling blasting holes (3) inserting blasting powder (4) setting off an explosion (5) shoveling the broken coal into a car

Oil Wick Lamp (exhibit artifact) “I saw all of it. I worked through the time when we used lard fat lamps with a little spout shaped like a coffee pot’s; when we ventilated the mine by sinking a shaft in the floor and building a fire in it to suck in the good air and drive out the bad through a hole in the roof. I worked with my pick and shovel and I worked with machinery.”

—Fayette and Raleigh County coal miner C. A. Lawson

Candles were one of the earliest lighting sources in mines. By the 1860s, candles generally had been replaced by oil wick lamps with conical spouts, which provided better lighting. The open flame, however, carried a greater potential danger for causing explosions.

Pick (exhibit artifact) A miner used a pick to cut away a trench 3-to-4-feet deep underneath the coal seam. He then inserted blocks of wood to keep the seam from collapsing. This process could take anywhere from an hour to a day depending on the size of the seam, the hardness of the coal, and the ability of the miner.

Breast Auger (exhibit artifact) “You drilled your holes with a breast auger. I don’t know why they called it a breast auger, ‘cause you placed it on your knees in that low coal.” —Miner Howard Raber

Above the trench, a miner drilled 1 to 4 holes with a breast auger, a tool that ranged from 5 to 6½ feet in length. The miner place the auger against either his chest of knees depending on the height of the coal seam.

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Exhibit Text

Tamping Rod and Needle (exhibit artifact) The next step was to place blasting powder into each hole and pack it with dirt using a tamping rod and needle. Removing the rod and needle left a tiny channel that led to the powder. Next, the miner inserted a fuse, called a squib, into the hole and lighted it. The miner quickly took cover behind a pillar and waited for the blast. The explosion shattered the coal, which fell into the trench.

The Shovel (exhibit artifact) The final step was to shovel the loosened coal into a car. The coal you just lifted weighs 10 pounds. The average miner lifted more than twice this weight with each shovelful.

Mine Checks (exhibit artifact) Each miner attached a tag, known as a check, to the loaded car to receive proper credit for the coal he had mined. In the early days, mules pulled the loaded cars from the mine so the coal could be weighed. The cars later ran on tracks and were powered by electricity.

Why is coal no longer loaded by hand? One misconception is that the introduction of machinery immediately ended the hand- loading era and put miners out of work. Undercutting and automatic drilling machines were in common use by the 1920s and actually made the miner’s job easier. This equipment decreased the time it took to prepare the coal, leaving the miner more time for loading.

The invention of the automatic loading machine, which scooped coal directly into cars or conveyers, brought an end to the hand-loading era. Loading machines enabled coal companies to mine more coal using fewer miners. The number of coal mining jobs in the West Virginia has dropped from approximately 125,000 in 1948 to less than 20,000 today.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the nation’s largest mining labor union, initially resisted coal company efforts to replace miners with loading machines. However, in a series of compromises between coal companies and the UMWA in the 1930s and 1940s, the union allowed loading machines to be introduced at a faster rate in exchange for improved safety conditions, better pay, and a system for providing health and retirement benefits.

Electric Light (exhibit artifact) Electric hat lights were powered by battery packs that miners attached to their belts. Early electric lights were safer than carbide lamps and provided more light than safety lamps; however, they sometimes leaked battery acid, causing skin burns.

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Exhibit Text

Danger in the Mines

Danger in the Mines Between 1890 and 1912, West Virginia had the highest mine death rate in the nation. The most feared mine disaster was an explosion, caused when open-flamed lights ignited highly flammable coal dust or methane gas. The nation’s worst coal disaster occurred in West Virginia on December 6, 1907, when an explosion at Monongah killed at least 361 men.

The sight of men, women, and children gathered around a mine entrance was common after a mine disaster. Families often waited weeks to learn the fate of a missing father, husband, or son.

Early miners faced many hazards. Mine roofs sometimes gave way, killing or trapping miners under ground. By far, roof falls were the most common cause of mine deaths.

Carbide Lamp (exhibit artifact) “They call this a hot mine, meaning it’s got a lot of methane gas in it. Some of the men worry about it saying that one of these days we’re all liable to get blowed up. But others say the flames on our carbide lamps keep the gas burnt out enough so it won’t build up and explode. Well they may be right but I still worry about it. I can’t keep from it.”

—Boone County coal miner Jubel Evert

The carbide lamp produced more light and was easier to refuel than other lighting sources in the early 1900s. Like the earlier oil wick lamp, the carbide lamp’s open flame posed the threat of igniting methane gas and causing an explosion.

In the late 1800s, mining was primitive by today’s standards. The coal mine roofs were only as high as the coal seam. Since many coal seams are just a few feet high, miners usually worked in extremely cramped spaces.

Is mining safer today? Efforts of the United Mine Workers of America, coupled with public reaction to a devastating series of mine disasters in the early 1900s, pressured state and federal authorities to demand safer mines. Coal companies improved working conditions, and miners had access to better safety training and equipment. As a result, underground mines today are much safer, although miners still fear accidents and diseases such as black lung.

Safety Lamp (exhibit artifact) One of the earliest technological improvements was the safety lamp. The hand-held lamp cooled the flame to a safe temperature and could be used to check for deadly methane gas. The drawback was that safety lamps emitted so little light that miners used them with more potentially dangerous lights on their caps.

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Exhibit Text

Worst Mine Disasters in West Virginia Monongah, Marion County (1907), 361 killed Eccles, Raleigh County (1914), 183 killed Benwood, Marshall County (1924), 119 killed Layland, Fayette County (1915), 119 killed Everettville, Monongalia County (1927), 97 killed Bartley, McDowell County (1940), 91 killed Stuart (present-day Lochgelly), Fayette County (1907), 85 killed Jed (present-day Havaco), McDowell County (1912), 83 killed Farmington, Marion County (1968), 78 killed Switchback, McDowell County (1909), 67 killed Osage, Monongalia County (1942), 56 killed Switchback, McDowell County (1908), 50 killed Red Ash, Fayette County (1900), 46 killed

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Exhibit Text

Sources

Photos Eastern Regional Coal Archives, Bluefield, WV

West Virginia State Archives Photo Collection, Charleston, WV

Quotes Dix, Keith. What’s A Coal Miner to Do? The Mechanization of Coal Mining. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988.

Osborne, Roger. Land of Yesterday. Dayton, OH: Our Common Heritage, 1994.

Wood, Jim. Raleigh County West Virginia. Beckley, WV: Raleigh County Historical Society, 1994.

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Exhibit Text

Background Material

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Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry

West Virginia’s coal industry grew from a fledgling business to become the foundation of the state’s economy virtually overnight. Three factors precipitated the coal boom: (1) demand for clean-burning bituminous coal, (2) transportation improvements, and (3) a ready supply of affordable labor.

Clean-Burning Coal Different varieties of coal are ranked according to the amount of impurities and

volatile material they contain. Impurities include organic matter such as sulphur and ash. Southern West Virginia’s bituminous coal burns very cleanly, making it among the best and most valuable in the world.

Prior to the Civil War, coal in present-day West Virginia was used primarily by salt and iron manufacturers who discovered that coal burned hotter than wood. The first commercial coal mines in the region were established specifically to fuel the Kanawha Valley salt industry. By 1846, Kanawha Salines at Malden was burning nearly six million bushels of coal a year. This amount pales in comparison, however, to what was to come. In the late 1800s, three developments dramatically increased the demand for coal and gave birth to the southern West Virginia coal industry.

The expansion of railroads westward in the 1870s and 1880s (see next section) created an instant demand because steam locomotives relied on clean-burning coal as a source of fuel. About this same time, the emerging steel industry discovered a need for coke, a distilled coal by-product that burns hotter than coal. Coke was produced in the late 1800s by burning coal slowly in beehive-shaped ovens. A third development was the growth of the U.S. Navy shipyard at Norfolk, Virginia. As with locomotives, the modern battleships and cruisers stationed at Norfolk were fueled by large quantities of clean- burning coal. The railroad expansion enabled West Virginia coal to be delivered virtually to the front door of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

Transportation Improvements Regardless of demand, coal that cannot be transported to market is worthless. In

the late 1800s, the arrival of three railroads opened southern West Virginia’s untapped coalfields and created new towns virtually overnight and changed the size and appearance of other towns.

In 1873, the last spike on the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway was driven at Hawks Nest in Fayette County. Collis P. Huntington’s railroad connected the Atlantic Coast with the West Virginia town that would soon bear his name. Coal operator Joseph Beury quickly capitalized by opening southern West Virginia’s first commercial coal mine at Quinnimont in Fayette County. Other operations in the New River area soon began at Stonecliff, Fire Creek, Hawks Nest, Sewell, and Nuttallburg.

Ten years later, the Norfolk and Western (N&W) Railway, headed by Frederick Kimball of Philadelphia, allowed coal operators access to the Pocahontas coalfield of southwestern West Virginia. The N&W actually offered financial assistance to establish mines and towns along the railroad right-of-way. This monetary incentive spurred an influx of out-of-state funding to build mines and towns in southern West Virginia.

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Background Material

Between 1885 and 1891, coal production in McDowell and Mercer Counties increased from 32,341 to more than 1.2 million tons.

In 1909, Henry H. Rogers completed the Virginian Railway, also known as the Deepwater, into coal-rich regions that had been bypassed by the C&O and N&W. The Virginian connected southern West Virginia with both the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes and contributed directly to the growth of towns such as Mullens and Princeton.

Affordable Labor The final factor leading to West Virginia’s coal boom was an abundance of men to

mine the coal. Word of available mining jobs spread quickly. West Virginians left their farms to become miners, while African-Americans from the South and Europeans poured into the new coal towns. Between 1880 and 1920, the population of West Virginia’s southern counties increased from 93,174 to 446,051.

The population increase was due in large part to the arrival of African-Americans and European immigrants. The African-American population of McDowell County jumped from 0.1 percent of the county’s total population in 1880 to 30.7 percent in 1910. By 1912, nearly half the coal miners employed in West Virginia were either African- American or immigrants to this country. Ten years later, 75 percent of the state’s African- American male wage earners were coal miners, and more than 60 percent of the state’s African-Americans had been born out of state. As a result of the rapid growth of southern Logan County, residents formed a new county in 1895–Mingo–the last of West Virginia’s 55 counties to be created.

The population growth was generated largely by a coal industry campaign to attract African-Americans and immigrants to the state. Coal operators realized that European immigrants tended to work for less money than U.S.-born miners. With the backing of coal operators, the West Virginia Legislature created the position of Superintendent of Immigration in 1907. The role of Commissioner John H. Nugent, whose entire salary was paid initially by coal operators, was to promote the availability of West Virginia mining jobs. The effort was aimed at Europeans who had not yet emigrated as well as those who had arrived recently at ports such as New York and were looking for work. The largest groups of immigrants by nationality were Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Slavic, Austrian, and Russian.

Miners of different ethnicity and nationalities worked side by side under ground and seemed, for the most part, to receive pay equal to white native-born miners. However, African-American and foreign-born miners were proportionately underrepresented in supervisory positions, which were among the few underground mining jobs that paid an hourly wage.

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Background Material

Section Vocabulary

bituminous coal immigrants coke

Section Bibliography

Basic Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society. “History of the C&O.” http://www.cohs.org/history/ history.htm.

Conley, Phil, and William Thomas Doherty. West Virginia History. Charleston, WV: Education Foundation, 1974: 319-23. This section provides an overview of coal mining and a map of the state’s coalfields.

Dixon, Thomas W. Chesapeake & Ohio in the Coal Fields. Clifton Forge, VA: Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, 1995.

Doherty, William. West Virginia: Our Land-Our People. Charleston: The West Virginia Historical Foundation, 1990: 36-38, 197-209, 242. These sections discuss the use of coal as fuel, transportation improvements, coal production, and immigration.

Eley, Joseph J. “3,000 Years of Coal in West Virginia.” West Virginia Review 24(11): 7-10 (August 1947).

Goldenseal, the magazine of West Virginia traditional life, has featured a number of articles focusing on the early coal industry. The following articles pertain most closely to the development of early coal mines, transportation, or the influx of labor:

Athey, Lou. “Another Coal Man Looks Back: A 1901 Interview with W. D. Thurmond.” Fall 1989: 62-63.

Battlo, Jean. “Mining in the Melting Pot: The African-American Influx into the McDowell County Mines.” Winter 1997: 46-51.

Lawrence, Randy. “Make a Way Out of Nothing: One Black Woman’s Trip from North Carolina to the McDowell County Coalfields.” Winter 1997: 58-64.

McGehee, Stuart. “A Busy Time in McDowell History: Looking Back with John J. Lincoln.” Fall 1989: 56-64.

McGehee, Stuart. “Gary: A First-Class Operation.” Fall 1988: 28-32.

Miller, Reginald. “Conversations with the ‘Ole Man’: The Life and Times of a Black Appalachian Coal Miner.” Spring 1997: 58-64.

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Background Material

Tabscott, Robert. “John Henry: The Story of a Steel-Driving Man.” Summer 1996: 9-16. Wallen, James A. “Coal on the Kanawha.” Fall 1982: 40-45.

Withers, Bob. “Smoke and Cinders: Railroading Up Big Sandy and Back in Time.” Winter 1991: 57-64.

Historic West Virginia: The National Register of Historic Places. Charleston: West Virginia Division of Culture and History, 2000.

Norfolk and Western Historical Society. “An Introduction to the Norfolk & Western Railway.” http://www.nwhs.org/about_nw.html

Norfolk and Western Historical Society. “An Introduction to The Virginian Railway.” http:// www.nwhs.org/about_vgn.html

Rice, Otis K., and Stephen W. Brown. The Mountain State: An Introduction to West Virginia. Charleston: The West Virginia Historical Foundation, 1997: 218-23, 269-70. These sections discuss the early development of the coal industry and immigration.

Turner, Charles W. Chessie’s Road. 2d ed. Clifton Forge, VA: Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, 1986. This is the most complete history of the C&O.

Williams, John Alexander. West Virginia: A History for Beginners. Charleston: Appalachian Editions, 1993: 127-29, 150-51. These sections discuss the impact of railroads on coal industry development.

Wood, Vicki. West Virginia: The History of an American State. Montgomery, AL: Clairmont, 1998: 323-28. This section provides an overview of coal production from the beginning of the industry to the 1990s.

Advanced Athey, Louis L. “William Nelson Page: Traditionalist Entrepreneur of the Virginias.” West Virginia History 46(1985/1986): 17-24. This article discusses the origin of The Virginian Railway.

Bailey, Kenneth R. “A Judicious Mixture: Negroes and Immigrants in the West Virginia Mines, 1880-1917.” West Virginia History 34(2): 141-61.

Bailey, Kenneth R. “A Temptation to Lawlessness: Peonage in West Virginia, 1903-1908.” West Virginia History 53(1993): 25-45. http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh50_2.html

Conley, Phil. “Early Coal Development in the Kanawha Valley.” West Virginia History 8(2): 207- 15.

Conley, Phil. History of the West Virginia Coal Industry. Charleston, WV: Education Foundation, 1960.

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Background Material

Eavenson, Howard N. “Notes On An Old West Virginia Coal Field.” West Virginia History 5(2): 83-100 (January 1944).

Laing, James. “The Early Devevlopment of the Coal Industry in the Western Counties of Virginia, 1800-1865.” West Virginia History 27(2): 144-55.

Lambie, Joseph T. From Mine to Market: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway. New York: New York University Press, 1954.

Lewis, Ronald L. Black Coal Miners in America: Race, Class and Community Conflict, 1780- 1980. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1987.

Rice, Otis K., and Stephen W. Brown. West Virginia: A History. 2d ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993: 183-93.

Sullivan, Ken. “Coal Men of the Smokeless Coal Fields.” West Virginia History 41(2): 143-?.

Trotter, Joe William, Jr. Coal, Class, and Color: Blacks in Southern West Virginia, 1915-32. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.

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Background Material

Mining the Coal

Women in the Mines and Other Superstitions Until recently, women have not been allowed in coal mines on a regular basis due

to the superstition that it was bad luck. An 1887 law passed by the West Virginia Legislature prohibited “any boy under the age of 12” or “women of any age” from working in mines. The law was part of a larger bill intended to make coal mines safer. The legislators’ theory was that young boys and women would be in more danger than adolescent boys or men. With a few exceptions, women did not become miners on a regular basis until civil rights legislation paved the way in the 1960s and 1970s.

The premise about women being bad luck in the mines was just one of many frivolous superstitions. Another common superstition held that it was unlucky for a miner even to see a woman on his way to the mine. At work, miners usually ate in the same place every day, with the same friends, and rode in the same seats on the cars in and out of the mines. Many miners also refused to move to new tunnels on Fridays. Yet another superstition was that once a miner had gone home for the day, he should not return to the mine for any reason.

Boys in the Mines While women were forbidden from working in mines, it was common for young

boys to take on part-time or even full-time coal-related jobs. During the late 1800s, West Virginia and most of the rest of the nation made a transition from an agricultural subsistence economy to a cash economy. Until this time, most West Virginians lived on farms, raised their own crops, and needed little, if any, disposable income. To obtain goods they could not grow or make, they simply traded something they did have, such as a pig or a plow. This was known as the barter system. Transportation improvements in the late 1800s made it easier for people to travel to buy store goods or to order from a catalogue and have packages delivered. The company store, the economic center of a coal town, generally did not accept bartered items. Consequently, families in coal towns needed extra income, and many encouraged their boys to go into the mines at an early age.

Most young boys did not actually dig and load coal; instead, they worked as breakers, trappers, spraggers, or mule drivers, which were among the most dangerous and lowest-paying mining jobs. As teenage boys grew stronger, they were allowed to dig coal. Eventually, child labor laws prohibited boys from working in coal mines entirely.

Breakers. A breaker sorted coal in an above-ground building, which also was called a breaker. Breakers sat on boards across conveyer belts and picked out rock, slate, or other noncoal debris. They also sorted the coal by size–the bigger pieces being more valuable. The moving coal produced dust that coated the boys’ clothes and skin. To cut down on the amount of coal dust they inhaled, many boys wore handkerchiefs over their mouths. Most breakers were not allowed to wear gloves, even during winter, because coal operators thought it diminished their ability to feel the difference between coal and noncoal. As a result, the sulphur content of the coal caused breakers’ fingers to swell, crack, and bleed. Breakers also ran the risk of falling onto the chutes and being crushed or having fingers cut off in the machinery.

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Background Material

Trappers. In the early days of the hand-loading coal era, huge above-ground fans allowed fresh air in and forced dangerous gases, such as methane, out of the mines. Large wooden doors inside the mines controlled the flow of air. Trappers, also known as nippers or door tenders, opened the doors as they heard coal cars approaching and closed them after the cars had passed through.

In some cases, mules pulled the coal cars, giving miners control over how fast the cars traveled. In other instances, cars were propelled by gravity, similar to a roller coaster. A coal car, if not properly tended, could reach a high speed, limiting the time a trapper had to open a door. If the trapper failed to react quickly enough, the car would crash into the door and derail or split apart. The boredom of waiting for coal cars often lulled trappers into naps. Sleeping trappers sometimes fell onto the tracks, where they could be killed or injured by an oncoming car.

Spraggers. The only way to control the speed of nonmotorized coal cars was to run alongside them and jam a piece of wood, known as a sprag, under the wheels. This was one of the most dangerous jobs in the mine. Spraggers, also known as brakemen, had to focus on the car’s wheels rather than where they were headed. As a result, they often ran headlong into low ceilings or mine walls. Additionally, carelessness in jamming the sprag under the wheels could cause a spragger to lose a finger, hand, or arm.

Mule drivers. Mule drivers traveled throughout the mines delivering empty coal cars to miners and collecting fully loaded cars. This was a coveted job among boys because it paid better and allowed them the freedom to move about the mines. A boy started out driving one mule and gradually increased his team to six as he became more experienced.

Child labor laws. The West Virginia Legislature enacted a number of laws in the late 1800s and early 1900s prohibiting children under the age of 12, and later 14, from working in coal mines. Unfortunately, the legislature failed to provide adequate funding to inspect mines and enforce these laws properly. In 1907 and 1908, separate reports by the West Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs and the National Child Labor Committee denounced West Virginia’s lax enforcement of child-labor laws, which trailed all surrounding states in terms of restrictions. The reports found numerous cases of boys under 14 working in coal mines and usually in the most dangerous jobs. These findings failed to produce meaningful change. It was not until the 1920s that the legislature increased the punishment for hiring underage miners and funded a more adequate system of enforcement.

The Mining Process A miner’s work area, known as a room, was only as high as the coal seam. Since

many coal seams were less than four-feet thick, most miners had to crouch on their knees or lie on their backs. They picked away at the coal seam leaving solid blocks, called pillars, to support the roof. The underground mining method most associated with West Virginia’s low coal seams became known as the room-and-pillar system.

A miner used a pick to cut a trench three- or four-feet deep beneath the coal face. Depending on the size of the room, hardness of the coal, and skill of the miner, the exhausting undercutting process could last anywhere from 2½ to 6 hours.

The next step was to use a 5- to 6½-foot-long breast auger to drill one or more holes for the blasting powder. A miner paid for his own black powder, which was dangerous to handle. After the explosive was set, a miner corked the hole with clay or dirt

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Background Material

using a 5- to 6-foot-long tamping rod and needle. The needle stayed in contact with the black powder as the rod was removed. He then withdrew the needle, leaving a small channel for the fuse, or squib. After lighting the fuse, he quickly hid behind a pillar and waited for the shot to fire. The final step was to shovel the fallen coal into a mine car. A miner had to remove larger pieces of slate and rock, which would have been docked from his pay (see “A Day’s Wage” section). A miner hung a brass check on each car he loaded to receive proper credit for the coal he had mined. In the mid-1920s, a miner, using his pick, could mine and load more than 10 tons of coal a day.

Loaded cars were sent to the surface, pulled in the early days by mules or oxen. Although mules were used in some mines until the 1930s, motorized cars were commonplace by the 1920s, and much earlier in some areas. This technological transition replaced the mule driver with the motorman, who drove coal as well as men in and out of the mines. After the coal was checked for impurities (see “A Day’s Wage” section), the car was emptied into a tipple. The coal then was sent on a conveyer belt to the breakers to be washed and sorted. Finally, a conveyer belt sent the coal back to be loaded on to wagons or trains for shipment.

A Day’s Wage Perhaps the most important point to understand about the early West Virginia coal

industry is that hand-loading miners were paid based solely on the amount of coal they loaded into the cars. All other work–laying track, installing electricity, setting timbers to support the roof, and preparing the coal to be loaded–was considered dead work because they received no additional pay. With a few exceptions, early miners did not earn an hourly wage nor did they receive sick leave. One benefit to the system was that a miner could set his own pace, up to an extent. Some miners worked only until they had reached their required daily tonnage. If a miner was required to load four tons a day and had done so by noon, he could take the rest of the day off. Others, however, worked extremely long days and loaded much more than their required tonnage because the more coal they dug, the more they were paid. After 1898, in the few southern West Virginia mines that hired union employees, a miner could not be forced to work more than an 8-hour day.

All mining jobs were not equal. The mine foremen or section bosses could assign workers they disliked to work coal seams in unpleasant areas. Miners assigned to the dampest areas had to stand or lie in water all day. Other miners had to risk their lives working in areas known to have bad roofs. Naturally, miners could dig coal more quickly in dryer areas or in places where they needed less time to reinforce the roof. Every minute a miner was not actually digging or loading coal was a minute when he was not earning money.

Making it more difficult to earn a good wage, coal companies subtracted from a miner’s pay the noncoal debris he had loaded. A company check weighman inspected each car that came out of the mine and, based solely on his own judgment, docked the estimated amount of slate or rock mixed in with the coal. Howard B. Lee, who served as West Virginia attorney general in the 1920s, claimed that coal operators admitted to occasionally docking more than was deserved to make miners work more carefully. This practice was known as short weighing. Eventually, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) won the right to have a representative of the miners work with company check weighmen.

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Background Material

Some coal companies cheated miners out of their fair pay through a practice called cribbing, in which cars were altered to hold deceptively more coal than they appeared to. For example, if cars at a particular mine normally held 2 tons of coal, a coal operator might switch them out for cars that held 2¼ tons without informing the miners. In this instance, a miner would be paid for only 8/9 of what he had actually loaded.

End of the Hand-Loading Era A common misconception is that the introduction of coal mining machinery

immediately ended the hand-loading era and put miners out of work. Machines were an integral part of the hand-loading era, and some actually made miners’ jobs easier.

Undercutting the coal face was the first step to be mechanized. In 1900, 25 percent of all West Virginia coal was undercut by machines; by the 1920s, undercutting machines were in common usage. The machines generally were used overnight during the “hoot owl shift” so the coal would be ready to blast when the miners arrived on the morning shift. The men who operated undercutting machines were paid by the ton of coal they cut. Undercutting machines allowed more time for loading coal, which benefitted both miners and coal operators.

Another piece of equipment that helped miners was an automatic drilling machine, initially powered by air hoses and later by electricity. The automatic drillers replaced the time-consuming step of drilling blasting holes with breast augers. Again, the introduction of these machines allowed more time for loading coal, which was mutually beneficial to miners and coal operators.

The invention that eventually ended the hand-loading coal era was a machine that loaded the broken coal into cars. The first loading machines in the early 1900s were cumbersome and not well-suited for room-and-pillar mines. Many coal companies rejected loading machines, which indiscriminately loaded impurities, such as slate, along with the coal. Loading machines also required more skilled and highly paid workers to operate them. That stance began to change in 1924 with the introduction of the Shortwaloader, a loading machine designed specifically for room-and-pillar mines. A former Pennsylvania mining engineer, Joseph Joy, eventually invented the industry standard for automatic loaders. Joy loading machines were easier to use than earlier machines and loaded coal at a much faster pace than miners could. Today, most underground coal is mined by continuous miners, a machine that strips the coal from the face and loads it on conveyors. In a sense, the continuous miner consolidates all steps of the hand-loading process into one piece of equipment.

As a result of Joy loaders and union concessions (see “The United Mine Workers” in the next section), the amount of underground coal loaded by machines tripled nationally between 1936 and 1943. Hand-loading coal miners were given the opportunity to operate the machines, which required entirely different skills than many of them possessed. Miners who declined to make the transition or who could not operate the machines lost their jobs. Mechanization of the coal industry, in addition to an increase in surface and other types of mining, rapidly eliminated many coal mining jobs.

Today, only a small percentage of coal is produced by underground mining. It has been replaced by more cost-efficient methods such as surface mining.

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Background Material

Section Vocabulary

disposable income tamping rod barter system needle breaker squib trapper check spragger motorman sprag dead work mule driver check weighman room short weighing pillar cribbing face loading machines breast auger Joy loaders black powder

Section Bibliography

Basic Goldenseal, the magazine of West Virginia traditional life, has profiled the work and lives of many coal miners. The following articles pertain most closely to the hand loading of coal:

Julian, Norman. “My Line of Work: Augusta Gallozzi Recalls the Mining Life.” Spring 1982: 60-64.

Massey, Tim R. “‘I Didn’t Think I’d Live to See 1950': Looking Back With Columbus Avery.” Spring 1982: 32-37.

Simmons, Gary. “‘A Hard Life, Anyway You Take It’: Recollections of a Putnam County Miner and Mine Foreman.” July-September 1979: 30-36.

Yale, Andy. “24 Tons Was Enough: Gene McGraw Recalls Old-Time Mining.” Spring 1992: 23-29.

“The History of Mining in Cape Breton–Mining Technology.” Although this site pertains to Canadian mining, the glossary of terms is helpful in the study of coal mining in general. http:// collections.ic.gc.ca/coal/tglosary.html

Lasko, B. “A Coal Miner’s Collection of Items.” This personal page includes photos of miners at work with drills, pushing carts, and setting timbers. It also features photos and descriptions of hats, head lamps, lunch buckets, and safety lamps. http://www.thegoldweb.com/home/coal.htm

Library of Congress. “Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia.” http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cmnshtml/cmnshome.html.The library’s American Memory Project features southern West Virginia photos, including mines and miners. http:// memory.loc.gov/ammem/cmnshtml/cmnshome.html

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Background Material

Mine Safety and Health Administration. “A Pictorial Walk Through the 20th Century.” This site includes a history, photos, and glossaries of terms. The “Little Miners” section includes an exhibit of child miners. http://www.msha.gov/CENTURY/CENTURY.HTM

Mining History Network. This site allows students to compare and contrast coal mining around the world. http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RBurt/MinHistNet/welcome.html

National Child Labor Committee. “Mr. Coal’s Story.” This site features photographs of young coal miners and an appeal by the National Child Labor Committee to prohibit children from working in mines. http://www.history.ohio_state.edu/projects/childlabor/mrcoalsstory/

The Ohio State University History Department. “Turn-of-the-Century Mining Machinery.” This site includes photos of the early machinery that assisted hand-loading coal miners. http:// www.history.ohio_state.edu/projects/coal/Mechanization/SeeMachines.htm

U.S. Department of Labor. “DOL Library: Child Labor Reform.” http://library.dol.gov/special/ child/childlabor.htm.This on-line exhibit illustrates the problem of child labor nationally in the early 20th century and the work of individuals like photographer Lewis Hine to document abuses. http://library.dol.gov/special/child/childlabor.htm

West Virginia State Archives. “Archives and History Photograph Collection Database." http:// wvmemory.wvculture.org/photointro.html. This on-line collection includes photographs from the1981 Coal Life project.

WVGenWeb. “West Virginia Coal Mines.” This site includes links pertaining to early mining in the state. http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/txt.html

Advanced Dix, Keith. What’s a Coal Miner to Do? The Mechanization of Coal Mining. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988. This is the definitive book on the hand-loading era in West Virginia.

Tams, W. P. The Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia: A Brief History. Morgantown: West Virginia University Library, 1963.

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Background Material

Danger in the Mines

Mine Disasters In the early days of the hand-loading era, coal mining was one of the most

dangerous industrial occupations in the world. More miners were killed by roof falls than any other cause. Although less common than roof falls, the most dramatic mine disaster was an explosion. Each of the 13 deadliest coal mine disasters in West Virginia was caused by an explosion. Explosions usually occurred when an open flame, such as those on a miner’s hat, or an electrical spark came in contact with a large pocket of methane gas, which occurs naturally where coal is found. The resulting fire often spread quickly when it combined with the highly flammable coal dust.

An explosion at Monongah in Marion County on December 6, 1907, remains the deadliest coal mine disaster in the nation’s history. Note that the exhibit text reads “killed at least 361.” The Fairmont Coal Company, a subsidiary of Consolidation Coal Company, did not keep accurate records of which miners worked particular shifts. As a result, some historians have estimated the total death toll at Monongah to be as high as 500.

In addition to roof falls and explosions, the other leading causes of mine deaths were haulage accidents, electrocution, and accidents associated with setting charges.

Checking for Danger The first thing a miner or fire boss did at the beginning of his shift was to check

for deadly gases such as methane or carbon monoxide, which cannot be seen or smelled. Carbon monoxide commonly built up in mines after explosions or fires. To test for carbon monoxide in the early days, miners took canaries into the mines. Due to their small size, canaries would feel the effects of carbon monoxide before the miners. When a canary died or began to stagger, the miners knew that carbon monoxide was present and that they had to evacuate the area quickly. Another early method of checking for carbon monoxide was to carry a lantern into the mine. If the lantern’s light blinked out, the oxygen level probably was dangerously low. Today, miners perform the same safety checks using carbon monoxide detectors and monitors.

Most mining deaths in the hand-loading era were caused by roof or slate falls. Each time a miner entered his work area, he was supposed told inspect the roof for loose slate or rocks that could fall. For additional safety, he also braced the roof with timbers before mining the coal. In the mid-1900s, began using more reliable roof bolts instead of timbers.

Most mine disasters could have been avoided. Some coal companies cut corners financially by not properly ventilating gases or watering down coal dust. Miners, in turn, did not always spend enough time checking for gas or reinforcing weak roofs. Again, this was considered dead work because miners were paid only for the coal they loaded.

Early Legislation The West Virginia Legislature enacted laws very early to protect miners in the

workplace. However, as with child labor laws, the legislature did not establish a proper system or provide adequate funding to enforce safety laws. For instance, West Virginia

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coal mines became increasingly more deadly after the state appointed its first mine inspector in 1890. The state had failed to provide enough inspectors to keep pace with the rapidly escalating number of mines. The federal government took a similar hands-off approach. In 1910, Congress created the U.S. Bureau of Mines to improve safety conditions. The bureau, however, primarily just kept statistics and was not authorized to inspect mines until 1941. Several of the deadliest mine disasters, such as Monongah, Eccles (1914), and Benwood (1924) brought about safety changes, but it was not until the Farmington disaster in 1968 that state and federal officials greatly strengthened regulations and began providing adequate funding for enforcement and safety training.

The United Mine Workers of America Note: Discussion of the labor movement in this exhibit is limited to the impact of

unions on mine safety, mechanization, and wages. Since labor plays such a major role in the history of West Virginia’s coal industry, the Division of Culture and History plans to develop a future traveling exhibit specifically on this topic.

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) was organized in 1890 based on the theory that by working together, miners could force coal operators to improve conditions and pay. The UMWA’s main weapon was the strike, in which union members would walk off the job–sometimes against just one or two companies and at other times against all unionized mines nationally. During strikes, coal production came to halt, and thus the companies lost money. In the early 20th century, coal operators responded by bringing in nonunion miners or hiring armed guards to intimidate union supporters. Union miners frequently took up arms against the guards, resulting in a violent period of West Virginia history known as the mine wars.

The public generally opposed the labor movement and the violence associated with it; however, one UMWA cause could not be ignored–mine safety. West Virginians grew disillusioned over reading regular newspaper accounts of deadly mine disasters. Even government leaders, many of whom had close ties to the coal industry, were forced to take action. In reaction to a string of devastating mine disasters in the first three decades of the 20th century, the West Virginia Legislature finally appropriated better funding to inspect mines and provide safety and rescue training for miners.

As the number of mine deaths dropped gradually, the UMWA continued to push for better working conditions and pay. In a series of compromises in the 1930s and 1940s, UMWA president John L. Lewis bargained for new labor agreements with coal operators that essentially allowed companies to introduce machines into the mines at a far faster rate. Lewis knew that mechanization of coal mines would end the practice of paying miners by the ton. In exchange for mechanization, Lewis received a commitment from the coal industry to pay all miners by the hour instead of by the ton, improve mining conditions, provide better health insurance, and establish a miner’s pension fund. As explained in the “End of the Hand-Loading Era” portion of the previous section, these compromises led to the end of the hand-loading coal era and forced many miners to leave West Virginia in search of work.

New Safety Hazards Mines are much safer today due to improved technology and the combined efforts

of the UMWA, coal companies, and the government. The introduction of machines reduced some of the dangers but, at the same time, created new problems. Cutting and

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loading machines generated much more coal dust than miners had with their picks and shovels. During the transition to machine-loading mining, underground mines were still ventilated for the low level of coal dust associated with hand loading. As a result, workers in the early days of the machine-loading era (1940s and 1950s) began developing breathing problems at dramatic rates. Several West Virginia doctors were the first to identify black lung as a deadly occupational disease. Black lung is caused from breathing in large amounts of coal dust, which destroys the air sacs of the lungs. It was not until the late 1960s that the federal government passed legislation protecting miners from the hazards of black lung, a deadly disease. Today, mines are required to maintain a minimal level of airborne coal dust.

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Background Material

Section Vocabulary

subsidiary mechanization carbon monoxide black lung strike

Section Bibliography

Basic

Conley, Phil, and William Thomas Doherty. West Virginia History. Charleston, WV: Education Foundation, 1974: 330-31, 338-39. These sections provide overviews of the state’s mine disasters and mechanization of mining.

Dillon, Lacy A. They Died for King Coal. Winona, MN: Apollo Books, 1985. In his two books (see next entry), Dillon summarizes the major West Virginia mine disasters (five or more fatalities) and lists those known to have been killed.

Dillon, Lacy A. They Died in the Darkness. Parsons, WV: McClain, 1976.

Doherty, William. West Virginia: Our Land-Our People. Charleston: The West Virginia Historical Foundation, 1990: 251-54. This section discusses safety issues and the mechanization of mining.

Goldenseal, the magazine of West Virginia traditional life, has examined the dangers of early coal mining. The following article pertains to mine disasters during the hand-loading era:

Matney, Kathy. “Too Many Tragedies: Survivors Account Details of 1940 Bartley Mine Disaster.”

Nyden, Paul. “‘I Might as Well Go Back In’: Remembering the Eccles and Layland Explosions.” Spring 1982: 54-59.

Wolfe, Eugene. “Decmeber 6, 1907: No Christmas at Monongah.” Winter 1993: 9-15, reprinted in winter 1999: 12-20.

Rice, Otis K., and Stephen W. Brown. The Mountain State: An Introduction to West Virginia. Charleston: The West Virginia Historical Foundation, 1997: 223-24, 278-82. These sections discuss mine disasters, labor agreements, safety improvements, and the impact of mechanization.

West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Time Trail, West Virginia. The scripts of various programs that aired on West Virginia Public Radio include additional discussion topics and bibliographic references:

“Eccles/Benwood Coal Mine Disasters.” http://www.wvculture.org/history/timetrl/ ttapr.html#0428

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“1st Lawsuit over a Coal Mine Disaster.” http://www.wvculture.org/history/timetrl/ ttdec.html#1205

“Red Ash Coal Mine Disaster.” http://www.wvculture.org/history/timetrl/ttmar.html#0306

WVGenWeb. “West Virginia Coal Mines.”This site includes links pertaining to individual mine disasters. http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/txt.html

Advanced

Bailey, Kenneth R. “Hawk’s Nest Coal Company Strike, January 1880.” West Virginia History 30(4): 625-34.

Bailey, Kenneth R. “‘Tell the Boys to Fall in Line’: United Mine Workers of America Strikes in West Virginia.” West Virginia History 32(4): 224-37 (July 1971).

Dix, Keith. Work Relations in the Coal Industry: The Hand-Loading Era, 1880-1930. Morgantown: Institute for Labor Studies, West Virginia University, 1977.

Rakes, Paul H. “Casualties on the Homefront: Scotts Run Mining Disasters During World War II.” West Virginia History 53(1993): 95-118. http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/ wvh53_6.html

Rice, Otis K., and Stephen W. Brown. West Virginia: A History. 2d ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993: 235-37. This provides a summary of legislation sparked by the mine disasters.

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Activities Note: The numbers in parentheses correspond to the West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives for 8th-grade students. The bold numbers denote activities or topics that align closely with that particular objective; the objective numbers in regular type apply less directly.

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Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry

1. Map the Coalfields (Social Studies: 16, 17, 30, 35, 39, 55 Science: 16, 17) Research which counties have coal deposits. Have students shade these in on a map of West Virginia, using color coding to indicate the various coalfields.

2. Map the Railways (Social Studies: 38, 51, 55, 59, 60, 62, 64 Science: 19, 13, 10, 11, 16 Math: 30 Language Arts: 22, 131, 142, 30, 50, 63, 135, 144 )

Using the Internet and sources in your local library, chart the C&O, N&W, and Virginian Railways on a map, showing how they connected with other lines. Then, add in towns. This will demonstrate how the new railroads influenced where towns would exist. Also, calculate the approximate distance from your hometown to Norfolk, Virginia, and the Great Lakes. Research how fast trains could travel in the early 20th century and estimate how long it might take for a train to travel from your hometown to Norfolk or the Great Lakes and then return.

Discussion questions: (1) What happened to existing towns that were bypassed by the railroads (such as Guyandotte in Cabell County)? How does this relate to the impact of interstates and other highways today? (2) Why was it important for the coal industry that the railroads connected with places like the Great Lakes and Norfolk, Virginia?

3. The Railroad Barons (Social Studies: 51, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25, 38, 39, 44, 49, 57 Language Arts: 48-61, 63, 64, 83-129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152)

Research and write a report on one of the southern West Virginia railroad barons: Collis Huntington, Frederick Kimball, or Henry H. Rogers. Have students speculate on why investors would spend considerable money on railroads? How did they receive a return on their investments? What kind of economic and political power did this give them? Many railroad and coal company owners lived out of state. Do you think this had a positive, negative, or no effect on the development of communities?

4. Communication Activity (Social Studies: 47) Since miners came from all over the world to work in West Virginia’s mines, they often worked side by side but could not speak the same language. To illustrate how challenging this can be, divide the class into two groups. Give each group a large sheet of paper and drawing materials. Have them pick a small, unobtrusive item in the room (such as the lock on the door) and draw on their sheet of paper what and where it is. During the exercise, no one is allowed to talk at any time or write any words on the paper. When finished, have each group, still without talking, try to locate the other group’s item. Ask the class what they learned from this activity. How would they have felt setting explosives with the help of someone who spoke a different language?

5. Coal Mining Melting Pot (Social Studies: 53, 18, 19, 47, 51, 54 Language Arts: 48-61, 63, 64, 83- 129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152)

Enclosed with this guide is an original census record [Handout A] (accompanied by an easier-to-read adaptation). The record provides information on the residents of an actual

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boarding house in Mingo County in 1910. When distributing the copies, point out to the students the diverse birthplaces of the individuals listed: Holland, Austria, New York, Ireland, and Germany. Have the students select one of the boarding house residents and write a first-person essay. The essay should discuss, among other items, why they moved to Mingo County, how Mingo County is different from their hometown or birthplace, what it is like living with people from different countries, and whether Mingo County is where they want to live the rest of their lives or are they just saving money so they can move somewhere else? Additionally, have students assume that the immigrants arrived in this country in New York City. Have them describe their travels from New York to Mingo County.

6. Community Survey Activities (Social Studies: 27, 55, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, 26, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 47, 54, 61, 63, 68, 70 Language Arts: 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 48-61,, 63, 64, 83-129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152 Science: 13, 16, 19, 21, 22, 25, 78, 79, 82)

Materials Provided Included in the teacher’s guide are three forms for students to use in completing these activities: Conducting an Architectural Survey [Handout B], Architectural Survey Form [Handout C], and Historic Building Worksheet [Handout E]. The guide also includes several supplemental handouts [Handout D]: a vocabulary list, drawings of architectural features, and photos of buildings featuring different architectural styles.

Teacher Background Many of us walk through our town or neighborhood every day without paying attention to the buildings and structures that surround us. Our built environment has many stories to tell if we know how to listen. The built environment consists of more than the buildings and structures within our neighborhood; it also encompasses roads, industrial complexes, farms, and bridges.

Just like the styles of clothes or cars, the shapes and styles of buildings have changed through time. The spread of architectural forms and styles follows the pattern of settlement. In general, an area that was settled early will have buildings constructed in older styles. By learning about architectural forms and styles, you can learn about when settlement increased rapidly or shifted within the town, evidence perhaps of the arrival of the railroad or coal industry.

Often, building forms and styles are indicators of the socioeconomic status of the original inhabitants. For example, old houses that existed prior to the coal industry might be built of brick and look distinctly different from coal company houses. In former coal towns, you will probably notice that miners’ houses look almost identical except for paint color or later alterations such as additions or aluminum siding. Larger houses from that same period quite possibly belonged to mine bosses or superintendents and often were distanced from the miners’ houses.

Building shapes and styles also can tell something about the nationality or ethnicity of the people who designed or built them. It was common for people, after moving to a new area, to design buildings that reflected the architectural styles of where they came from. For example, the onion-shaped dome on the Greek Orthodox Church in Gary, McDowell County, reflects the eastern European heritage of that region.

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These two activities will familiarize students with some basic architectural elements, teach them to recognize some common building forms, and encourage them to become involved in their history by exploring their built environment. Teachers and students who wish to explore architectural styles more fully are encouraged to contact the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office (304-558-0220) in Charleston to request additional information.

Activity 1: Surveying the Town

Part 1: Prior to Conducting Field Trip

1. Learn about the history of your town or community.

2. Have students take a picture of an old building in the town and bring it to class. The teacher should take some photos as well in case some students are not able to bring in photos. Pass the photos around the class and have students identify different architectural elements about each building. Have them guess when each building was constructed. How does the architecture reflect what was going on in the town at that time?

3. Discuss different elements of architecture, building forms, and how different forms changed over time. The objective of this activity is to help students realize that history is all around them and that you can tell part of the story of your community through its buildings.

Part 2: During the Field Trip

1. Before the field trip, distribute a map of your town, or have the students prepare a map, and provide them with Conducting an Architectural Survey [Handout B], Architectural Survey Form [Handout C], and the supplemental handouts [Handout D]. Assign each student a building to survey, excluding buildings that you have already discussed in class. Give the students approximately 30 to 45 minutes to find their building and complete the survey form.

2. While surveying the town, have students think about and later answer the following questions:

a. Our towns and cities have been built to fit into the surrounding landscape. How does your town fit into the landscape? Is it located on a hill or on bottomland? How are the streets laid out, in a grid or do they follow the lay of the land?

b. Our communities came into being for a reason; they did not simply appear. Why is your town located where it is? How did local geography influence the town’s placement? Where are the major roads in relation to the town? At what point during the town’s history were they built? Is there a river near town? Are there railroad tracks, and if so, where are they in relation to the town?

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c. When and why was the town built? Is it a seat of government, a manufacturing center, a commercial center for local coal mines, or near a crossroads?

d. Why did people move there? What types of jobs did they seek?

e. Look at the skyline. What stands out? Is it a church steeple, tall office buildings, a coal tipple, a courthouse? Think about why certain areas are vacant. What might have been planned for that space–other buildings, a park? Maybe buildings once stood there but have been torn down? Where do people congregate now? Has that changed over time?

f. Look at the streetscape around you. Notice the types of paving material used, such as asphalt, gravel, or brick? Do old trees shade the street? Do sidewalks and benches line the street? Are the buildings primarily older, or do they appear to be newer or perhaps remodeled older structures? What do these things tell you about the town and the people who have lived there past and present?

Activity 2: Investigate Your Favorite Historic Structures

After the students have surveyed the community, it is time to dig more deeply into the history of a particular building. Have students work in teams and choose individual buildings to investigate. Any building can be selected as long as it is more than 50 years old. You can determine the age of buildings by asking people in the community and looking at dated photos.

They will need to interview people in the community and collect drawings, photos, or any other documents pertaining to the building. The people interviewed may be anyone who knows the town’s history but should also include the current owner. The students may want to start at your local library or with your local historical society. Interviews may be tape-recorded to ensure that all the information is collected. As the students interview people, they will complete the Historic Building Worksheets [Handout E]. As the students progress, they will learn about their community in a way not captured in textbooks.

Discussion Questions. (1) What differences did the students find in the houses? Based on the style and size of the houses, discuss who might have lived in them (e.g., miners vs. superintendents). Were families of different nationalities segregated into different regions of the community? (2) What other types of buildings/businesses exist that may not have been part of the coal industry but that supported it (e.g., post office, old stores)? How did the coal industry depend upon these businesses and vice versa?

7. The National Register of Historic Places (Social Studies: 49, 19, 27, 53, 54 Language Arts: 48-61, 63, 64, 83-129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152 Science: 13, 16, 19, 21, 22, 25, 78, 79, 82 )

Using the book Historic West Virginia, review properties in your county listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Make separate charts that categorize the historic sites by time period (e.g., 1800s, 1900s) and by topic (e.g., coal-related structure, home of a famous person, bridge). Write briefly on what topics or time periods are underrepresented. Identify buildings or structures in the county that should be listed in the

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National Register. Then, conduct the historic site survey detailed in activity 6. Note that the historic sites chosen are not restricted to the topic of coal. The only requirement is that the structure must be at least 50 years old. Emphasize to the students that structures other than buildings (e.g., railroads, bridges, cemeteries) are eligible for inclusion.

8. Community History (Social Studies: 38, 40, 54 Language Arts: 48-61, 63, 64, 83-129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152)

Have students write a short history of a community in your county and read it in class. Discuss how newer towns were created because of the railroad or coal industry. Relate this to how older, more well-established towns were affected by the arrival of railroads and coal.

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Mining the Coal

9. Boys in the Mines (Social Studies: 64, 59, 60, 70 Language Arts: 48-61, 63, 64, 83-129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152)

Make copies of and distribute the enclosed Goldenseal article [Handout F]. Have students read the article and write an essay, pretending to do one of the jobs described in the background material about boys in the mines. What are the positives and negatives of having one of these mining jobs?

10. Mining: Then and Now (Social Studies: 47, 49, 50, 53) Work with your county historical society or other organization to identify local people who worked as miners in the hand-loading era. Ask them to talk to the class about the differences between mining then and now. To find a local historical society, consult this Web site: http://www.wvculture.org/history/guide2.html. Another option is to contact the West Virginia Humanities Council regarding the History Alive! program, in which actors portray people who were associated with the early coal industry: Call (304) 346-8500.

11. Documenting History (Language Arts: 2, 4, 12, 48, 49, 50, 52, 55, 59, 63, 142, 152; Social Studies: 18, 21, 39, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 59, 60, 61)

A nine-minute video in the exhibit (enclosed with teacher’s guide) portrays miner photos from the hand-loading coal era in West Virginia. It also includes actual miners’ recollections of the early days. Show the video to the students, then provide them with copies of Conducting an Interview [Handout G], which offers suggestions and sample questions for conducting oral histories. This activity challenges students to compile a presentation of their own, relating images and stories of a family or community member.

12. You Do the Math (Math: 9, 11, 13, 16, 30) In this day and age, many workers earn an hourly wage. Imagine you get paid $10 an hour to paint a house. At the end of an 8-hour workday, you will have earned $80. What if you were paid only for the amount of paint you applied to the house? The problem is that painting a house requires a lot more work than just brushing it on. You have to lay ground cloths, scrape the old paint off the house, clean the surface, and mix the paint. Only then are you ready to paint the house. Additionally, you will need to quit before the 8 hours is up in order to clean brushes before going home. If you were paid for actual painting alone, your pay would amount to far less than $80. This was the case in the mines during the hand-loading days.

Let’s say a hand-loading miner earned $1.50 per ton of loaded coal. Using that per-ton sum, complete the following problems.

1) A. If a miner could maintain a loading rate of one ton every 15 minutes and had nothing else to do, how many tons could he load in one hour? Note that most miners could not keep up this pace for very long. B. How many tons could he load in an 8-hour day? C. At $0.40 per ton, how much money would he have earned that day?

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2) Miners in the early 1900s made about $3.00 a day. At $0.40 per ton, how many tons did they mine during a day’s work?

3) Assuming that a miner could shovel one ton of coal in 15 minutes, use the answer from question 2 to figure out how much time a miner spent actually loading coal. Subtract that time from 8 hours. How much dead time did a miner have during an average workday?

4) Finally, divide $3.00 by 8 hours. How much did a hand-loading miner earn per hour?

13. Scientifically Speaking (Language Arts: 48-61, 63, 64, 83-129, 131, 135, 141, 142, 143, 145, 147, 148, 152 Science: 17, 44, 45, 46, 14, 19)

Based on the excerpt from Jubel Evert’s diary (see exhibit text on page 8 in this guide), explain from a scientific perspective the miners’ theory that the flame from the carbide lamp would burn away the dangerous methane gases.

14. Building a Monument (Social Studies: 49, 59, 60, 63) Consulting Lacy Dillon’s two books on mine disasters (see bibliography on page 26 in this guide), the Internet, and sources at your local library, select a mine disaster in your county or region and have the class build a memorial to its victims. If a memorial to this disaster does not already exist, have the class write the county commission requesting that a memorial plaque or monument be created, possibly based in part on the student’s memorial.

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Danger in the Mines

15. Debate (Social Studies: 15, 21, 52, 10, 13, 14, 18, 19, 26, 36, 40, 54) Pick two sets of three or four students. Have one group represent a coal company, the other the miners. The rest of the class will be the audience at the debate. Allow the two groups to discuss among themselves the following criteria: Have the company group discuss and decide what they think is a fair wage, good benefit package, and adequate safety conditions. The teacher should assign an arbitrary monetary value to each variable. For instance, $1 per ton could equal $700 per day; health insurance could amount to another $100 per day, with sick leave adding on another $100; and providing ventilation fans could cost $50 to operate, while watering down coal dust costs another $50. Again, all of these numbers are made up. The key is to make the students aware that the bargaining issues amount to real money. Have the miner group determine its own demands, including hourly rate, benefit package, safety conditions, and length of the workday. Once the groups have come up with plans, let them debate. If they cannot come to an agreement, have each group elect one person to negotiate for the others. In the end, options open to both sides are to hire nonunion workers and to go on strike. Allow the audience to take sides, ask questions, and vote on decisions. To get the conversation started, the teacher can ask questions like the following:

a. Do you see the advantage in appointing one person to negotiate for the group?

b. Is it fair to allow one person to negotiate on behalf of others? What are the disadvantages?

c. Why might the company group be better served financially to keep experienced union workers on the job at a higher rate than nonunion workers? If the students lean to the union side, ask what would happen to those union jobs if the company begins losing money as a result of the agreement. If they lean toward the company, ask whether workers who spend years developing skills should not be paid more than inexperienced workers.

d. Why is it beneficial to both groups to develop an agreement that benefits the company financially?

e. How could poor safety conditions hurt the company financially? (One answer would be that mine disasters, whether in the form of explosions or roof falls, took away from the time miners could load coal.) Why then would some companies ignore poor safety conditions? (Answers could include the high cost of fixing the problems or the fact that before health benefits and a pension plan came into play, companies just replaced injured or killed miners at no extra cost.)

f. One topic that can be addressed is the economic principle of cost-benefit analysis, where companies decide whether the cost of fixing a problem would be greater than letting it go and accepting the consequences. The most glaring example of this in

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recent history is the Ford Motor Company’s decision in the 1970s to ignore a known flaw with the Pinto that caused it, on occasion, to explode when hit from behind. Ford ignored the problem because fixing the flaw would have cost more than paying off eventual lawsuits. How does this example relate to decisions facing coal operators in the early days of the hand-loading era?

16. Advanced Project (Social Studies: 13, 15, 18, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 19, 22, 49) On March 27, 1880, an explosion at a Marion County mine killed two men and injured a miner named Charles Berns, who later sued the Gaston Coal Company for negligence. In 1883, a circuit court awarded Berns $2,000, but the ruling was overturned by the West Virginia Supreme Court. A. Brooks Fleming, one of the Gaston Coal Company’s principal stockholders and a West Virginia governor (1890-1893) defended the ruling, blaming the explosion on “carelessness of the miners.”

a. Have students consult Lacy Dillon’s two books on coal mine disasters. Have them break down the disasters into three categories: those caused primarily by (1) coal companies, (2) negligent miners, and (3) acts of nature. Have them write about which of the three was responsible for the majority of the disasters and for the worst disasters. Did this change over time?

b. Have students read the enclose article by Glenn F. Massay, “Legislators, Lobbyists and Loopholes: Coal Mining Legislation in West Virginia 1875-1901,” West Virginia History, Vol. XXXII, April, 1971, Number 3 [Handout H].

(1). Create a chart documenting all West Virginia coal mine safety laws passed between 1875 and 1901. Discuss why the state’s deadliest mine disasters occurred after 1901, despite these regulations.

(2). Write an essay regarding the close ties between coal companies and government leaders in the early days of West Virginia coal mining. How did this affect the passage and enforcement of mine safety legislation? Keep in mind that coal operators needed to make money to stay in business; otherwise, there would not have been coal mining jobs. Another activity is to set up a debate on the subject, letting one student represent the side of the coal operators and another argue on behalf of the miners.

17. History Hunt Provide students with a copy of the History Hunt [Handout I] to be completed while viewing the exhibit. Following are the answers:

Answers:

1. late 1800s

2. Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O), Norfolk & Western (N&W), and Virginian

3. lure of a paycheck

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4. to be courageous

5. 10 times his body weight

6. amount of coal loaded in a day

7. 12-16

8. (a) digging trench, (b) drilling blasting holes, (c) inserting blasting powder, (d) setting off explosion, and (e) shoveling coal

9. by the 1860s

10. drilled holes

11. placing blasting powder

12. automatic loading machine

13. electric

14. West Virginia

15. December 6, 1907

16. (a) produced more light and (b) easier to refuel

17. disasters pressured authorities to demand safer mines

18. check for methane

19. 67

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Discussion Topics Note: The numbers in parentheses correspond to the West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives for 8th-grade students. The bold numbers denote activities or topics that align closely with that particular objective; the objective numbers in regular type apply less directly.

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Birth of the West Virginia Coal Industry

1. Define three factors that led to West Virginia’s coal boom in the late 1800s. (Social Studies: 31, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 51, 54, 55)

2. Identify factors that determine the rank of coal. (Science: 62, 66, 22, 63, 73)

3. Identify how coal was used commercially in West Virginia prior to the Civil War. (Social Studies: 48, 16, 17, 18, 20)

4. Describe the economic theory of supply and demand in relation to the early West Virginia coal industry, detailing at least three sources of demand. (Social Studies: 57, 18)

5. Name the three railroads that opened southern West Virginia’s coalfields in the late 1800s-early 1900s. (Social Studies: 51, 49)

6. Today, West Virginia coal is shipped almost entirely by trucks, rail, and barges. Have the students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. Point out that, historically, roads were not always paved and rivers were not always navigable. (Social Studies: 51)

7. Where do superstitions come from? In what ways did society change between the late 1800s and the 1960s allowing for women to become miners? (Social Studies: 53)

8. What are two jobs that were done by boys in the mines? Describe these jobs. (Language Arts: 12, 29, 30)

9. Why were breakers not allowed to wear gloves? (Language Arts: 12, 29, 30)

10. In 1897, the West Virginia Legislature passed an act requiring mandatory school attendance for all children ages 8 to 14. Why did the legislature feel children should be required to attend school as opposed to having the option of working in a mine, factory, or store? How is school attendance important to career options–then and now? (Social Studies: 7, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14)

11. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the West Virginia Legislature enacted numerous child-labor laws that were not enforced properly. Why would the legislature pass laws and not enforce them? Do you think state officials today occasionally “look the other way” in terms of enforcing some coal mining laws? Can laws sometimes go too far if, for instance, they take jobs away from people who need money? How do you determine a fair balance between a person’s right to a job and right to a safe workplace? (Social Studies: 15, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14)

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Discussion Topics

Mining the Coal 12. What was the first step in mining a seam of coal? (Language Arts: 22, 29, 30)

13. How many pounds of coal could a miner shovel in a day? What variables would have been involved? (Language Arts: 22, 29, 30)

14. Why it was difficult for a miner to earn much money while mining? (Language Arts: 22, 29, 30)

15. How did machines initially enable miners to make more money? (Language Arts: 22, 29, 30)

16. Worker vs. machine is one of the enduring debates of labor history. As seen by this section, machines sometimes help workers rather than take jobs away from them. Eventually, however, machines did take the place of many men in the mines. This is a good opportunity to discuss West Virginia’s most famous folk legend, John Henry, who supposedly won a digging contest against a machine while building the C&O Railway tunnel at Talcott in Summers County. Have students read about the legend of John Henry. Ask what this story meant to the workers? How does it relate to what happened to hand-loading coal miners? Ask whether they think this was a true story? If not true, what purpose would people have in making it up? (Language Arts: 15-18, 20-37))

17. Discuss all the jobs associated with coal mining. Note that the term miner referred to a wide array of occupations.

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Discussion Topics

Danger in the Mines 18. Why would carbon monoxide kill a canary before affecting miners? Answer: smaller lung capacity. (Science: 45-46, 33, 35)

19. Should employers be responsible financially for workers who suffer from job-related disabilities? What is the role of employers in protecting the safety of their workers?

20. After completing any of the activities in this teacher’s guide, remind the students that they are doing the work of historians. Ask them how this work differs from their previous views of historians. With which activity did they feel the most like historians? Least like historians? Why?

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Discussion Topics

1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East Charleston, West Virginia 25305

(304) 558-0220 www.wvculture.org

West Virginia Division of Culture and History