Coal Mine Fatalities In Elkhorn Coal Company Letcher County Mines

 

Elkhorn Coal Company Accident Report Book 1942-1955

While working on a large, somewhat related research project in the Elkhorn Coal Company records at the Wayland Historical Society, Wayland, Kentucky, I located and became tangentially interested in the “Elkhorn Coal Company Accident Report Book 1942-1955.  The book is a handwritten, folio sized, expandable record book with removable stiff paper pages some of which are written on both sides and some on the front only.  For my research purposes, I was primarily interested in the fatalities only.  The book contains thirteen fatal accidents which occurred between January 7, 1943, and January 20, 1956.  These fatalities are recorded in red ink as compared to the other non-fatal accidents which are all in black ink.  The names of the victims of these accidents are Frank Adams; Bill Tilley; Charlie Russell; Stacy White; Amos G. Bryant; Charlie Johnson; Lafayette Johnson; C. D. Hampton; William Breeding, Jr.; Arvil Breeding; Riley Little; Print Bullion; and George Washington.  All were single fatality accidents. 

When I attempted to cross reference these fatalities with the list of thirty-five names of miners on the “Dedication” page of the “Twentieth Anniversary…of Local Union 5895 United Mine Workers Of America 1933-1953”, none of the names in the “…Accident Report Book...” matched any of the names in the “…Anniversary…” book.  I considered the possibility that these miners could have not been members of the UMWA at the time of their deaths and it seemed highly unlikely that all of them could have been killed before being initiated as union members.  My second attempt to locate the correct answer to the discrepancy involved searching in the individual employee records in the files of the Historical Society.  None of these victims matched any of the names of the printed list of Elk Horn employees in the historical society records for the Wayland operation. 

My next attempt to reconcile the discrepancy involved checking the online issues of the Floyd County Times in the “History” collection of the Floyd County Public Library which are available at: http://history.fclib.org/floyd-county-times   After having searched for each of the thirteen fatalities in at least two weeks’ editions of the newspaper, I still found none of the thirteen men listed in news stories relative to their accidental deaths.  Throughout its long history under the ownership/editorship of Norman Allen, the Floyd County Times was always highly diligent about covering all deaths in the county.  At this point, I knew that it was definitely unlikely that the men listed as victims of fatalities in the “…Accident Report Book…” had actually been working at Wayland at the time of their deaths. 

My next attempt to locate these men involved searching each name in the memorials section of the incredibly useful and accurate Find A Grave website which I often use and contribute to on a regular basis.  That feature of their website can be found at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial  and is highly useful to veteran genealogists and the person who is simply searching for an occasional lost friend or relative.  When I searched for the victims using the filters of full name as recorded in the “…Accident Report Book…”, correct year of death, and Kentucky as the location, I immediately found Frank Adams buried in the Holbrook Cemetery at Mayking in Letcher County. His obituary is located on page 2 of the Mountain Eagle newspaper of January 14, 1943. 

The following information is taken verbatim from the obituary of Frank Adams in the Mountain Eagle Newspaper of January 14, 1943, found online at the Kentucky Digital Library.

“Frank Adams was born October 10, 1883, in Owsley County Kentucky, and departed this life January 7, 1943, at the age of 59 years, 2 months, and 28 days.  On January 1, 1905, he was married to Nannie Burton, to them were born 10 children, 2 of them having passed away in leaving 8 today, who along with his wife and 12 grandchildren still survive him.  The children are Mrs. E. R. Holbrook, James Adams, Charley Adams, Mrs. Enoch A. Holbrook, Mrs. Elmer Amburgey, Mrs. Clarence King, Opal Adams, and Stella Adams.  Frank Adams came to this section in 1919 and has lived all that time at Sergent.  He was faithful employee of the coal company here while it was operating, and since that time has worked elsewhere.  He was a trusted and tried worker and was dependable in every respect.  He made friends with all whom he met; he was a kind hearted and friendly like fellow never saying anything of anyone else and always taking care of his own business.    He had many friends and was highly respected.  He was a devoted husband and father and always ready to help anyone in need and to go to the relief of his neighbors and friends.  As spoken of one of old, it was said of him, "He was a good man", and that speaks of his life.  In his untimely passing, Sergent has lost one of his good citizens, his wife a devoted and true husband, and his children and grandchildren a respected and loving father, and the Company for which he worked a faithful and trusted employee, and the Miners Union one among their best men.  He will be missed much but let us hope in all our loss that it has been his eternal gain.  Funeral services were held at the late home Sunday with Elders J. C. Prince, Dewey Sexton, and G. Bennett Adams and burial in the Holbrook Cemetery.  Burial in charge of Craft Funeral Home.” 

 

 When I searched for Bill Tilley and Stacy White using those same filters, I immediately found them buried in the Thornton Cemetery at Thornton in Letcher County. Amos G. Bryant is buried in the Englewood Cemetery at Christopher in Perry County.  Charlie Johnson is buried in the Halo Cemetery at Halo in Floyd County. Lafayette Johnson is buried in the Hemphill Cemetery at Hemphill in Letcher County.  William Breeding is buried in the Wright-Collier Cemetery in Letcher County which does not have a listed post office location on Find A Grave.  Arvil Breeding is buried at the Henry Meade Cemetery which also does not have a listed post office location in Letcher County.  Print Bullion is buried at the Whitaker Cemetery at Whitaker in Letcher County. I was able to locate all the listed fatalities except for Charlie Russell, George Washington, Riley Little, and C. D. Hampton in cemeteries in Letcher County, Floyd County, or Perry County.  After about the third correctly located victim, I realized that the “…Accident Report Book…” does not list employees of and accidents at Elkhorn Coal Company in Wayland.  Elkhorn Coal Company operated mines at several locations in Letcher County including Blackey, Cromona, Fleming, Jackhorn, Jenkins, Kona, Mater, Seco, Sergent, Thornton, and Whitesburg.  Basic information about all those companies can be located at:  

http://www.coaleducation.org/coalhistory/coaltowns/coalcamps/letcher_county.htm

Since I have no idea how many friends, relatives, former co-workers, or researchers might be seeking information about these men, I spent the time to send suggested edits to the person who maintains each of their memorials on Find A Grave and hopefully they will add that information to the memorials.  None of these memorials had a written obituary and none contained more than basic information.  I sent those messages in the hope this additional information would assist some unknown persons in the future to complete their personal searches of one or more of these memorials. Within twelve hours, I received a grateful and informative e-mail from a woman named Ellen Beam who is not just the manager and creator of the memorial for Charlie Johnson but also his great-niece.  Her message told me that her grandfather …”William Johnson had a picture of his brother's accident, hanging on the front room wall. It was a drawing showing how Charlie got caught by the machine and drug…my grandpa said he was there when it happened.” I know absolutely that all of these men were employees of some Elkhorn owned entity in Letcher County.  It also seems logical that all of them were probably working for a single Elkhorn entity in Letcher County.  I had thought at first that it could be likely that the full newspaper stories of their deaths can be located in the online archives of  “The Mountain Eagle” which are available at this link:  http://kdl.kyvl.org/?f%5Bformat%5D%5B%5D=newspapers&f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Mountain+eagle+%28Whitesburg%2C+Ky.%29

But due to the fact that those archives for the Mountain Eagle are not entered in chronological order and it can take considerable time to locate a particular week’s paper.  Since I began this research, I came into contact with a resident of Letcher County, Richard M. Smith, who owns and actively uses the eight volume record of Letcher County cemeteries.  He assisted me both to verify some information I already had and was able to find some I did not have.   I hope that what I have done so far will benefit others.  Good Luck in that effort!

Roger D. Hicks, M. Ed.

Some Thoughts On "Crossing The Bar" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

There was a clue on "Jeopardy" quite a while ago about the poem, "Crossing The Bar" by Alfred Lord Tennyson, which is one of the most well known poems about death other than possibly "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant. Because the language is a bit simpler and the poem much shorter than in "Thanatopsis", "Crossing The Bar" was for many years one of the most often printed pieces on the back of funeral memorial cards in Appalachia. I have a sizeable collection of such memorial cards and wrote about them in the blog post at the preceding link. I have probably seen it on the cards at a hundred or more funerals in my life. It is a great little poem and, in it's own way, a major part of Appalachian history and culture.

 

With the recent massive flooding in Eastern Kentucky and the still unfinished search for the likely dead, many more of those memorial cards in being printed in several of the most Appalachian counties in Kentucky.  One of those is my native Knott County and, luckily, so far I have not heard of anyone being among the dead from my relatives and acquaintances.  I also have deep ties to Floyd County which has had severe flooding especially in Wayland and Garrett on Right Beaver Creek and all up Left Beaver Creek, all of which lies in Floyd County.   I spent the first 6 years of my life on Steele's Creek in Floyd County just a mile from Wayland and still have many friends and relatives there.  The next 17 years of my life were spent on Right Beaver Creek at Dema in Knott County just about three miles from Wayland.  Most of my closest friends during my teenage years were from Wayland including my two cousins, more like brothers, Jack and Johnny Terry.  It is horrible to think of having anyone die in a flood and it is just as horrible to know that several thousand people in about 7 counties in Eastern Kentucky are now homeless because of this flood.  So, in memory of the dead from the Eastern Kentucky floods of July 29, 2022, here is the complete text of "Crossing The Bar".

 

Crossing the Bar

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar.

 

 

 

The Genius Of Joel Pett And The Inability Of Appalachians To Understand It

 

A few days ago, the Lexington Herald-Leader published this cartoon as part of their ongoing coverage of the Eastern Kentucky flooding and it literally caused a storm of strong, often totally irrational, comments about how horrible the cartoon was, how little Joel Pett understands Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia, and how "he done us wrong".  First of all, let me tell you about Joel Pett's resume as a political cartoonist and a little about my resume as an expert on Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia before I tell you what I think about Joel Pett, his work in general, and this cartoon in particular.  Joel Pett, after having done freelance cartoon work for about 15 years, following his graduation from Indiana University, began working as the staff cartoonist for the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1984.  His cartoons regularly appear in many of the best national newspapers including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe.  He has won the 1995 Global Media Award and the 1999 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.  But those are not the greatest awards his work has earned.  Joel Pett has actually won the Pulitzer Prize, count them, ONE< TWO<THREE>FOUR times,  and was a finalist for the Pulitzer twice more.  That's not bad, folks!  He has also been chosen at times as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prize.  

Now, let me tell you a little about myself and my qualifications to speak on the subject of Appalachia, Appalachian Culture, poverty, and Eastern Kentucky.  First of all, since Knott County Kentucky is the worst hit of the counties being discussed in the news about the flooding, I was born and raised in Knott County.  I grew up in a country store where for many years my parents dealt, on a daily basis, with a broad selection of Knott Countians.  I grew up walking up to ten miles a week to sell Grit newspapers, garden seeds, Cloverine Salve, and Rosebud Salve to my neighbors.  I graduated from Knott County High School, not the new Knott County Central High School.  I grew up in the KCHS in the photo below which was built by the WPA in 1939 on Caney Creek which just a few years before was having mail delivered by mule back.  

I attended Upward Bound for one year on the Stuart Robinson Campus in Letcher County at Blackey.  I attended it another year at Alice Lloyd College on Caney Creek in Knott County.  I also attended, but did not graduate from Alice Lloyd College.  I also attended the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College in Beckley, West Virginia, but did not graduate from that institution which was primarily a training ground for young Appalachian writers, several of whom have gone on to become respected writers on the subject of Appalachia.  I received a Bachelor of Social Work degree from Morehead State University and a Master of Education Degree in Counseling and Human Development degree from Lindsey Wilson College and served as an adjunct instructor in the same program for about 3 years for LWC.  I have worked as a door to door salesman out of Logan, West Virginia, primarily in the counties of Logan, Mingo, Boone, Lincoln, Wayne, Wyoming,  and McDowell in West Virgina, and in the counties of Pike and Martin in Kentucky.  I have worked as a mental health and substance abuse therapist in Montgomery, Breathitt, Jackson, and Wolfe Counties.  I also  have a Kentucky auctioneer license and have held auctions, several hundred actually, in Floyd, Letcher, Johnson, Magoffin, Morgan, Fayette, and Kenton counties in Kentucky.  I am a regularly published writer on the subject of Appalachia including professional articles on the subject of Culturally Appropriate Counseling in Appalachia.  I tend to believe that most judges would accept me as an expert on Appalachia and Appalachian Culture.  

Now that you know who Joel Pett and I both are, let's talk about the cartoon above, which has caused so much ire in Eastern Kentucky.  The cartoon is very simply and directly worded and drawn as a cartoon version of several well known photographs of Eastern Kentucky residents clinging to roofs during the recent flooding. The language in the cartoon is simple, direct, and a bit unnerving I will admit.  It says just eight words and they are powerful words.  "When it rains, it pours on poor people."  Since the cartoon talks about poverty, let me add one more resume line for myself to prove I am also an expert on poverty.  I worked for 8 years at the Hope Center in Lexington, Kentucky, which is a large, inner city homeless shelter.  I know poverty, both in the city and in the country.  

To help us understand what poverty means in Eastern Kentucky let's look at the reality of poverty in the counties which have been involved in this disaster.  Floyd County has a 32.4% poverty rate.  Breathitt County has a 32.5% poverty rate.  Knott County has a 32.1% poverty rate.  Letcher County has a 31.1% poverty rate.  Perry County has a 28.9% poverty rate.  Johnson County has a 25.0% poverty rate.  Pike County has a 23.8% poverty rate and yet in the 1970's was often touted as having more millionaires per capita than any other county in the country due to the coal boom. These are some of the highest poverty rates in the entire nation.  Nearly a third of the population in all these counties are below the poverty level.  So now let's look at how poverty works and just how precise Joel Pett was in this cartoon in getting directly to the point of the consequences of a major disaster in an area where such a large percentage of the population is poor.  

Poor people have little or no resources, weak social support systems, and little recourse to supportive means when times get hard.  Times don't ever get any harder than when your living quarters and every thing you own have been washed down Troublesome Creek, Squabble Creek, or Beaver Creek and you and whatever is left of your family are clinging to a tree or a barn roof in a muddy flood.  Poor people never live in the best houses in the best locations in any community. They live in poorly built houses and trailers in low lying land where the better off locals didn't want to build a house but were perfectly happy to gain some side income by placing rental property in bottom land they no longer farm.  Poor people rarely own their own homes and almost never have renters insurance because, if at the first of the month, you have a choice to pay either your rent and utilities or your renter's insurance, you pay what keeps a roof over your head and some basic food necessities for the next month.  Poor people often have poor to no credit ratings.  When everything you own has been washed down a muddy stream, you can't run out to the Ford dealer and buy a new truck or car.  You can't run down to the local bank and borrow money for a new double wide on higher ground.  You do damn well to buy two changes of used clothes at Goodwill for each member of your family.  Poor people don't have large amounts of savings and often have none. Poor people often don't have computers or internet.  If they have a telephone, it is usually a prepaid phone and often out of minutes. When you live from paycheck to paycheck, you can't suddenly find a new place to rent, pay a deposit, buy a full replacement of clothing, food, utensils, and bed clothes for a family.  You can't just get up, dust yourself off, say "well, that was a pretty bad little storm", and trot off to another set of living quarters in new Levis.  Poor people rarely have life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, or any assurance that they can survive a blowout on the 20 year old car they are driving to a minimum wage job, or a new refrigerator if the old one dies. When a family member dies among the poor, they usually have no life insurance, no savings, and no way to pay for a funeral and this flood has caused far too many funerals.  I personally know several funeral home owners who often bury people on credit with little or no down payments and hope they will be paid someday and be able to survive in business by getting paid by other concerned contributors and the profits they earn on high dollar funerals for the well to do.  I also know one less compassionate undertaker who will not touch a body until he has enough money in hand to cover the cost of his materials or has a mortgage on a piece of hillside land.  That is how the poor get treated on many occasions. The reality of poverty is that when you are poor, you are poor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and, if it's leap year February 29 is just another day of poverty.  

So that should bring us back to Joel Pett's cartoon and the reality of being poor in a major disaster.  Those eight words, "When it rains, it pours on poor people", have caused a great deal of ire in Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia.  I had one friend who, despite growing up poor in Floyd County attempted to compare Joel Pett to J. D. Vance, the worst enemy of Appalachian people since Harry Caudill.  That is like comparing Mahatma Gandhi to Adolph Hitler.  I saw another lengthy diatribe from a woman on social media who kept ranting about being a "proud hillbilly" and how ignorant Joel Pett is.  I am certain that woman has no idea that the word "hillbilly" is never a matter of pride.  It is just as defamatory, demeaning, and debilitating as the "N" word, the "K" word, the "Q" word, or the "C" word. It is a cultural and ethnic epithet and no member of any cultural or ethnic minority should ever resort to referring to themselves by the same misnomers their detractors use. When I confront people of any ethnic or minority group about their use of these cultural and ethnic epithets in reference to themselves, I frequently hear them say it is an appropriation of the words which empowers them.  By the same logic, which is deeply flawed, we could say that any suspect in a police interrogation should eventually confess whether or not they committed the crime in question. Using such a word about oneself with a note of pride in the voice is a sure sign the user is uninformed and unlikely to benefit from future enlightenment. What I have seen in the hundreds of comments about Joel Pett and his work falls into two categories.  The poorly educated, ill informed, and less fortunate commenters think Joel Pett made a personal attack on them, their families, and their pet dog.  The better educated, better informed, and more fortunate Appalachian commenters see the truth in Joel Pett's eight little words and are glad he is speaking out in defense of the poor of Eastern Kentucky as they try to pull themselves up by the boot straps one more time in the face of a horrible disaster.  The cartoon in question is another case of Joel Pett hitting the nail on the head with his art work and his words.  That cartoon is another example of why the best newspapers in the country regularly publish his work. That cartoon is another shining example of why Joel Pett has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize six times and won it four. That cartoon is a masterpiece.  Those eight little words are right on point.  "When it rains, it pours on poor people."  That cartoon is proof, once again, that Joel Pett is a genius. 

"The Law Of Pine Mountain" by Phillip K. Epling--Book Review

This book was referred to me by a friend after I had inquired about information about Bad John Hall, the former gun-happy police chief of Wheelwright, Kentucky, which is a whole other story.  The book was written by someone named Phillip K. Epling and the edition I have in my possession was printed by what I assume was a vanity press created by the author known as E & E Publishing Company, Elkhorn City, KY 41522. 

But I have also found other editions of the book under imprints including Overmountain Press McClain Printing, and Reformation Publishers.  The book is about a man named John Wright, known widely as both Bad John Wright, Devil John Wright and several other nicknames related to his ability with a gun and willingness to use it. He was born in 1844 and died in 1931 at the age of 86 which was a very ripe old age for a gunslinger in the early twentieth century.  He had a reputation for honesty despite his well known propensity for killing other men. He served several years as  a deputy sheriff in Letcher County Kentucky along with one term as a magistrate.  He was often used to hunt down wanted men and one story in this book claims he once chased a horse thief out of Kentucky, across the Ohio River into Ohio, then back across the Ohio into West Virginia, all the way into Virginia, and then killed the man and recovered the high priced race horse not far from Cumberland Gap before bringing the horse back to the rightful owner.

The book is poorly written, highly fictionalized, and questionable as to truth. I am sure it also had some influence in the ongoing defamation of Appalachian people as gunslingers, killers, and other less desieable elements of civilized society.   But, if you are into reading about  legends of the Appalachian mountains, especially those legends which involve such men, you might find the book worth reading.  For me the best, and most likely most accurate story in the book concerns the fact that Bad John Wright was a cousin to a man who was known as The Kentucky River Giant, Martin Van Buren Bates, who was nearly eight feet tall, married a woman of equal size from Nova Scotia, spent their lives traveling with circuses, and retired to Seville, Ohio where they are buried.  The book claims that Wright spent a few years traveling with his cousin and working in the circuses before returning to Cynthiana, Kentucky, where he married his own wife, Martha Wright.  After a few year in Cynthiana, the Wrights returned to Letcher County for most of their lives but he is buried in Wise County Virginia.

In addition to the weaknesses I have listed in the preceding paragraph, the edition of the book which my friend loaned me also contains several photographs and a letter written by Martha Wright which appear to have been copied on some low quality, older version of a copier which rendered them virtually useless for a reader.  But if you are dying to know more about Bad John Wright, you might enjoy the book.