"Welcome The Traveler Home" by Jim Garland, Edited by Julia S. Ardery

Jim Garland (1905-1978), the author of this book, was born in Bell County Kentucky and grew up, like several others of his family, to become an underground coal miner. He was also a well known labor leader, union organizer, and folk singer who also happened to be the brother of Aunt Molly Jackson and Sarah Ogan Gunning both of whom were also folk singers and active in support of trade unionism and worker's rights. He organized and was a member of both the United Mine Workers of America and the National Miners Union. His organizing work was primarily in Harlan and Bell counties in Kentucky where he had worked at various times in several mines. He wrote this book, or at least, wrote most of the manuscript well before his death in 1978 but never published the book himself. At some point, his wife Hazel seems to have passed the manuscript on to the Kentucky writer Julia S. Ardery (1889-1977) who edite the work but also failed to get it published in her lifetime. Ardery wrote one other major book, " The Temptation: Edgar Tolson and the Genesis of Twentieth-Century Folk Art", which is a masterful biography and work of art criticism which was also not published in her lifetme. I have written about the Tolson biography at this link.When we consider that "Welcome The Traveler Home" was not published in the lifetimes of either the author or editor, it is a miracle that the book was ever published at all. However, Ardery was from a prominent Bourbon County Kentucky political family and the mother of a US Army Major General; a second son who worked for a time in Washington, DC, as a journalist before joining the University of Kentucky which published this book; and a third son who was an accountant who died by suicide four years before his mother's death. It seems likely that one of her sons was instrumental in the effort to have this book by Jim Garland published as well as Julia Ardery's book about Edgar Tolson. Rarely in the world of book publishing do manuscripts survive long enough to published after the death of the author. Yes, I acknowledge that it does sometimes happen, but it is as rare as hen's teeth. Garland's style of writing was exemplary of his lack of education but still strong writing. Ardery said in her Introduction that she had done as little as possible to alter Garland's original work with only minor edits for clarity of meaning, some organizational work since his manuscripts appears to have been less than well organized. But the content of the book is what makes it more than well worth reading. While I do believe it has some significant historical inaccuracies in it, it is still a fine first person discussion of the effort to unionize the Kentucky coalfields in the 1920's and 1930's. It also provides some interesting glimpses into the lived of he two famous folk singing sisters of Garland. But, sadly, it is devoted almost entirely to the time he spent in Eastern Kentucky as a coal miner and union organizer with minimal discussion of his life as a folk singer afer he was forced to leave the coal fields because he believed he had been targeted for death by coal operators. Two absolutely minimal references are made to two other very important figures in the effort to unionize the coalfields, Don West and Sam Reece. in the case of Don West whom Garaland says replaced him in the organizing effort when he was forced to leave Eastern Kentucky, the reference is only one sentence long. In the case of Sam Reece who was the husband of Florence Reece who wrote the classic labor ballad "Which Side Are You On?", Garland uses about three sentences to say that at some point in the union effort, he had borrowed Sam Reece's car to make a trip out of town. Both Don West and Sam Reece were major figures in the effort to organize the coalfields. I knew Don West quite well from about 1974 until his death in 1992 but never heard him mention Jim Garland in any of the many discussions I heard him give of his life as an organizer, miner,labor activist, and educator. I was also able to spend two days in the company of Florence and Sam Reece at Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, which Don West and Myles Horton founded. I spent roughly a year living at the Appalachian South Folklife Center in Pipestem, West Virginia, which was founded by Don and Connie West. It would have been very educational if I had been able to hear and cross reference all those people's memories of the organizing efforts Harland and Bell counties including their discussions about each other. Such complete knowledge from all of them would have vastly improved my knowledge about Jim Garland and his work. The book is full of references to Appalachian social customs, mores, and history as Jim Garland chose to describe it all. It is a fairly well written book, extremely well edited by Julia S. Ardery, and well worth the time to read by any student of American Labor History, Appalachian Studies, or Kentucky History. It is very minimal in its discussion of folk songs despite the addition of the lyrics of several songs across the length of the text. My particular copy which I bought at a Goodwill Store for $1.59 plus tax is also inscribed by Suzy Roy and Betty Garland Roy, the daughter of Jim and Hazel Garland. A third signature is signed simply "Mrs. Jim Garland". It appears that all three signatures were made with the same red fine point marker. Due to the length of Betty's inscription which refers to Jim Garland as "Daddy" and to Sarah Ogan Gunning as "Aunt Sarah", I believe the signatures are authentic. I have added a scan of the inscription page below. I hope you can find and read your own copy of the book if you are a student of Appalachian Studies, Union Organizing and History, or Kentucky History. It is a fascinating read!

The Music Of Coal

 

Few professions have ever generated the amount of music about their industry which has been generated by coal and coal mining.  The music of coal has been around in the United States nearly as long as coal mining itself.  Several important musical artists have recorded complete albums of coal mining songs in tribute to the industry and the men and women who do the work of coal.  There have also been numerous anthology albums about coal and coal mining with widely varied artists being involved in those productions.  The music of coal has been recorded by singers from nearly every genre of American music.  But the majority of coal mine music has come within the related fields of country and Bluegrass music both of which can arguably say they are the music both  of the Appalachian Region and of the working class.  There are numerous songs from the greater body of coal mining music which are among the most popular songs in all of American music.  Nearly everyone who has ever lived, worked, or been descended from anyone who lived or worked in the coal industry has their own list of favorite coal mining songs.  So do I!  I will begin this blog post with my own top ten list of coal mining songs which does include a couple of those which nearly everyone in America knows and will also include a few of which many of you readers might have never heard.

I cannot clearly state which is my favorite coal mining song of all time but I will begin this list with the songs which mean the most to me as the son, grandson, nephew, and brother of coal miners.  I never worked in the coal industry but I grew up in Knott County Kentucky about three miles from Wayland, Kentucky, a classic company owned coal mining town in Floyd County Kentucky.  I also grew up only fifteen or so miles from Wheelwright, Kentucky, and only ten miles from McDowell, Kentucky, both of which were also classic company owned coal mining towns.  My father and several other family members worked in the Elkhorn Coal Mine at Wayland, Kentucky, and two of my uncles worked for years at Wheelwright and McDowell.  I grew up in a country store and coal miners were our neighbors, customers, and friends.  My oldest half-brother, Hewie Hicks, died in a coal mining accident.  I knew and was mentored by several people who worked as union organizers in the coal industry including Don West, Hosea Hudson, and Florence and Sam Reece.  I was also mentored by William Howard Cohen, one of the first high profile opponents of strip mining, and by Bill Blizzard, whose father led the UMWA miners at the Battle of Blair Mountain.  In addition to growing up in Eastern Kentucky coal country, I also spent a total of about seven years in Raleigh, Logan, and Mingo counties in West Virginia and also worked as a salesman in Boone, Lincoln, Wayne, Wyoming, and McDowell in the West Virginia coal fields.  I know coal, coal people, and the music of coal.  

My Favorite Coal Songs

1) Which Side Are You On? by Florence Reece.  Almost anyone who has ever been around a union coal mining area or known even one United Mine Workers member has heard this song.  It was written by Florence Reece on the back of a calendar page in a Harlan County coal camp during the seminal organizing effort of the Harlan County Coal mines in the 1920's.  I am very proud to say I heard the story of this song directly from the mouths of Florence Reece and her husband Sam. This is arguably the greatest union organizing song ever written and has been adapted by numerous other unions in addition to the UMWA. 

2) Red Wing Blackbird by Kathy Mattea whose two grandfathers were Italian immigrant coal miners in West Virginia. This song comes from Kathy Mattea's incredible album "Coal" which is one of the three best coal mining albums ever recorded.  The song was written by Billy Ed Wheeler who actually wrote at least two of the best coal mining songs ever recorded.  This song fits squarely into a subgenre of coal mining music which I call "Music of Death and Danger In The Mines".  It is a beautiful piece of writing and masterfully sung by Kathy Mattea.  

3) The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore by Kathy Mattea.  This song also comes from that wonderful album by Mattea but was written by Jean Ritchie, the famous American folk singer and writer who grew up in a coal camp in Perry County Kentucky, and was the first graduate of the social work program at the University of Kentucky although she never used her degree in social work to earn a living.  It falls into a sub-category of coal mining music which I call "The Demise Of The Coal Mines".  It has been recorded by numerous musical artists but, in my opinion, no one does it as well as Kathy Mattea who is the granddaughter of two Italian immigrant coal miners in West Virginia.  

4) Last Train From Poor Valley by Norman Blake. This song is probably one of the least known yet best songs in all of coal mining music.  It is also a classic number in that sub-category which I call "The Demise Of The Coal Mines".  Norman Blake did an incredible job of describing and immortalizing the death of a coal mining valley in this song.  And the song also fits into a general category of music about lost love.  "I saw the last train from Poor Valley takin’ brown haired Becky Richmond bound."

5 Dark As A Dungeon by Merle Travis.  This is just one of the great coal mining songs written by Merle Travis, the classic country music singer and native of Muhlenberg County Kentucky, the heart of the Western Kentucky coal fields.  Travis also recorded my other most favorite album of coal music called "Songs Of The Coal Mines".  This song fits squarely into the sub-category "Music of Death And Danger In The Mines". 

6) You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive by Patty Loveless.  Patty Loveless who sings this song on her incredible album "Mountain Soul" grew up in the coal mining country of Pike County Kentucky and is a key artist from that amazing group of people from the Big Sandy River Valley who have changed the face of American music and popular culture with their work.  The song has now been recorded by a large number of other singers and would be singers but nobody can equal the job Patty Loveless does on it.  It is clearly  one of the songs about "Death And Danger In The Mines". 

7) Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Earnie Ford. This is another of the wonderful coal songs written by Merle Travis and is found on his "Songs Of The Coal Mines" album.  But Tennesse Earnie Ford's version of it is the one most people remember and is also my favorite version.  This song falls into a sub-category of coal mining music which I call "The Hard Life Of The Coal Miner".  The line "you load sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt" personifies the life many coal miners led all across the Appalachian coal fields of the twentieth century.  

8) Black Waters by Kathy Mattea. This song was written by Jean Ritchie, the second of her compositions which I have placed on my list of favorites, and it well deserves to be better known than it is.  This song is not on Mattea's "Coal" album as she says in the narration before the song on this link since she was not aware of it when she was recording that album.  I love Jean Ritchie's writing but I love Kathy Mattea's style a bit better.  If you are into folk music, you might want to listen to Ritchie's version of the song.  These lines from the song place it squarely in the category of "Environmental Protest Music In The Coal Industry" which, in my opinion is the second most important category of coal mining music just behind union organizing music: "Now there's scenes of destruction on every hand And there's only black waters run down through my land Sad scenes of destruction on every hand black waters, black waters, run down through the land."

9) Joe Hill by Joan Baez. Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson wrote this classic union organizing song which actually originated in the Colorado copper mining country.  But it quickly became a favorite of union miners in all types of mining all across the country.  Other than "Which Side Are You On?", this is probably the best union organizing song ever written.  In its own way, it memorializes every man and woman who ever died in an organizing effort whether that effort was in the coal, copper, iron ore, garment, or farming industries.  No one can equal Joan Baez's vocal work on this song.  These lines from "Joe Hill" are one of the strongest statements ever made about the importance of determination and unceasing effort in the union organizing effort: "From San Diego up to Maine, In every mine and mill, Where working-men defend their rights, It's there you'll find Joe Hill."

10) Coal Tattoo by Billy Edd Wheeler.  This is the second Billy Edd Wheeler written song I have put on my favorite list although numerous others have recorded excellent versions of it including Kathy Mattea on that incredible album "Coal".  But I really like Wheeler's version and so will you if you like coal mining songs.  This song fits squarely in that sub-category of coal mining songs called "Music Of Death And Danger In The Mines" and utilizes a very unique approach to the subject matter with a living miner, instead of a dead miner, as the narrator. "Somebody said "That's a strange tattoo You have on the side of your head" I said "That's the blueprint left by the coal A little more and I'd be dead".   

Categories Of Coal Mining Music

There are several sub-categories of coal mining music and I will discuss each of them separately and give a few more musical examples of each. Those sub-categories of coal mining music include 1) Union Organizing Songs; 2) Environmental Protest Songs Of Coal; 3) Death And Danger In The Mines; 4) The Hard Life Of The Coal Miner; 5) The Demise Of The Coal Industry; 6) Songs Which Glorify Coal Mining; and, 7) Songs Supporting Strip Mining.  

Union Organizing Songs

Obviously, the most important, but not always the most popular, of these sub-categories of coal mining music is "Union Organizing Music".  Without coal miners and the United Mine Workers Of America, life for the entire American working class would be very different.  The coal miners and the UMWA played a very important part in gaining many of the most important rights of workers in America.  And without unions, it would not be many years before these basic rights would be gone as has been demonstrated in the worst possible manner by the widespread proliferation of Right To Work laws in many states. In addition to the UMA, in the early days of the coal mine organizing efforts, the National Miners Union and the International Workers of the World, aka the Wobblies, were also important to the orgganizing effort.  Among those rights which coal miners and the UMWA have helped win for American workers are the forty hour work week, company paid health insurance, minimum wage, paid vacations and holidays, sick pay, the entire body of work place safety laws and regulations, collective bargaining, the right to strike, and numerous others including major environmental laws and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.  These rights were gained by the joint activities of many unions both within and outside the coal mining industry and numerous unions played a part in the effort including the Industrial Workers of The World (Wobblies), the National Miners Union, the United Auto Workers, the Teamsters, and the entire AFL-CIO.  

I have already listed a couple of the best union organizing songs in all of American labor and coal mining history: "Which Side Are You On?" by Florence Reece and "Joe Hill" by Joan Baez.  But there are several other very important union organizing songs which arose from the effort to organize the American coal mines, especially the Appalachian coal fields.  Among my favorites of these songs is "The Harlan County Boys" by Merle Travis which is another of the songs on his wonderful album "Coal" and which immortalizes those early union organizing efforts in Harlan County Kentucky in the early twentieth century.  We can always use one more good Harlan County song and one more good coal mining singer.  So I am adding to this list "Harlan County Blues" by George Davis, The Singing Miner, who was not only an Eastern Kentucky coal miner but also a performer, recording artist, and disc jockey at WSGS, 101.1FM, the best radio station in all of the Appalachian coal fields.  Another of the songs of George Davis belongs on this list, "When Kentucky  Had No Union Men", which is a fine example of union organizing music.  Billy Bragg's song, "There Is Power In A Union", also deserves to be on nearly any list of union organizing music.  Woody Guthrie's "Union Burying Ground" also is a fine example of union organizing music and far less well known than it deserves to be.  From the mines of Nova Scotia, we must also include Greg MacPherson's "Company Store" which commemorates the occasion on which union miners burned a company store to the ground in protest.  The lyrics are powerful, unflinching, and brave: "I haven't worked in 40 days  For 23 I've had no pay  In a week I'll have no place to stay  In an hour they'll have to kill me.  Half the town'll die from the mining of the coal  The other half'll leave when the mine decides to close  The people who are left will starve to death at the hands of the company store."  While this listing of coal mine union organizing songs is incomplete, it is a start for any of you readers who are interested in learning about trade unionism in the coal fields and how coal miner's unions have often led the union organizing movement in America.  

Environmental Protest Songs Of Coal

"Black Waters" performed by Kathy Mattea and written by Jean Ritchie is the only environmental protest song of the coal business I included on my personal top ten.  But there are numerous others I love including "Paradise" by John Prine.  "Paradise" is one of the few coal mining environmental protest songs to become widely popular and few people even stop to realize that it is such a song.  But the lyric lines from the chorus leave no doubt about it: "And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County  Down by the green river where Paradise lay?  Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking  Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away."  If the town has been hauled away and it is too late to go back to Muhlenberg County, the song can only fall into one sub-category, coal mining environmental protest songs.  Mike Morningstar's "The Buffalo Creek Disaster" is a fine example of a coal mining environmental protest song about one of the worst manmade disasters in the nation. These lines from the song cover two different aspects of that disaster which killed more than 130 people.  They confront both strip mining and the disastrous flood which was caused by a combination of factors, all rooted in corporate greed including mismanagement, denial of the damage caused by coal mining, and the avoidance of regulatory intervention.   They strip off all the topsoil and uproot all those trees, They killed those folks in Buffalo Creek, and then shrug the blame with ease.  Don't give a damn for life or land, just roll on like they please." If you are interested in written documentation of the Buffalo Creek Disaster and other negative outcomes of the coal industry, I would suggest that you read this book edited by Wess Harris, "Written In Blood". 

THIS IS A BLOG POST IN PROGRESS! IF YOU LIKE THIS INCOMPLETE VERSION, PLEASE COME BACK IN A FEW DAYS AND I WILL TRY TO HAVE IT COMPLETED. IT IS A LARGE SUBJECT AND JUST KEEPS GETTING LARGER EVERY DAY WITH NEW SONGS APPEARING FROM THE COALFIELDS ALL THE TIME!

"Yondering", A Short Story Collection By Louis L'Amour-Some Thoughts On How My Reading Has Changed...and changed my life

   

In my teenage years, I read a lot of Louis L'Amour westerns along with some by writers like Zane Grey and Luke Short among others.  I was also reading a lot of science fiction at the time.  About the time I got into high school at 13, I had begun a lifelong shift to primarily what we sometimes pompously call "GREAT Literature", the masters of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.  Between the time I was 14 and 18 or so, I met Albert Stewart, William Howard Cohen, Harry Caudill, and others in the field of Appalachian Literature and Appalachian Studies and made a deep commitment to work for the rest of my life to improve the lives of Appalachian people while also studiously preserving Appalachian Culture.  At that time, I began a lifelong dive into Appalachian Literature, primarily non-fiction but also a lot of fiction and poetry which has also been coupled with full fledged efforts to improve Appalachian life.  But still, once in a while, I will briefly revert to some of the older styles I was reading including science fiction and a rare western. 

Long ago, I also developed the habit of frequenting used stores like Salvation Army, Goodwill, and others, both privately and corporately owned, to buy used books, and I have found a bunch of authors and books I never would have read otherwise.  I also have found some relatively rare and collectable books that way.  But on a recent trip to a Goodwill store in my area, I found that some recent contributions must have come from a devoted reader of westerns.  The shelves were stocked with a wide variety of western paperbacks from numerous authors and the pile included at least 20 or 30 by Louis L'Amour.  I really had no intentions of buying and reading any of them until I saw this collection of his short stories and a couple of others of his books which I had never seen.  One of those was a novel called "Last Of The Breed" which appears to have been prompted by the story of Francis Gary Powers, the US spy pilot who was captured by Russia in the 1950's, and I bought it but haven't started it yet.  It is set in Siberia where the protagonist is imprisoned in the Russian Gulag and eventually escapes. That character is of Native American heritage and, after escaping, he is chased by a Russian who is of Native Siberian heritage as the American pilot attempts to make it across Siberia to Alaska which is the fastest, but most dangerous route to safety.  I ca't wait to read it.  The other L'Amour book I bought was an epic western called "The Lonesome Gods" which I had never seen.  It is almost 450 pages and much longer than the standard, well formatted, medium sized western novel that made L'Amour's reputation and fortune.  I will eventually read it but not anytime soon.  

The book we are actually discussing here is the collection of short stories called "Yondering" as I said in the title of this blog post.  I had never read any of L'Amour's short stories and definitely wanted to try it.  I was surprised to find that, just like the "Last Of The Breed", it is about subjects which were not standard subject matter in his novels.  As a native of Appalachia who had several relatives who worked in coal mines, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that it contains a short story which is one of the best I have ever read about men trapped in a mine by a roof fall.  The story is not set in a coal mine but, rather, some form of hard rock mine, maybe a gold, silver, or copper mine, and L'Amour actually had worked in such mines for a short time in his early years.  It is a fabulous story of men trapped underground who know they have long odds of ever seeing the light of day again.  The ending is maybe a bit impractical but it is a story well worth reading.  There are also stories about sailors, which L'Amour was also employed as for a short time,  and a couple of good to better stories about life in Asia, in particular, Asian seaports.  One of those is an excellent, well written story about a sailor and his crew mates who befriend a poor local family who are among those who live on small boats in the harbor and make a living by both salvaging and begging. 

This is a book which many people who would not bother to read one of L'Amour's westerns will enjoy.  And, I believe most of you will be pleasantly surprised, as I was, to learn that Louis L'Amour was a better than average author of short stories in several genres he was not well known for.  Years ago, I had read his autobiography and was still surprised by this collection. 

"Storming Heaven" by Denise Giardina, Notes On Reading A Classic Appalachian Novel

 

 

I have often lamented in this blog that I frequently end up reading books far too late which I should have read long ago.  This is another of those instances.  I had known of Denise Giardina and her work not long after this novel was published in 1987 and had never read it.  In fact it is not even the first of her novels which I have read.  I had read her fine historical novel "Saints and Villains" a few years ago and, sadly, I have never written about it on this blog which I will try to do in the next few days.  But, in my opinion, this is the first Giardina novel anyone unfamiliar with her work should read.  Now, after having read three of her books, I don't consider this novel her best but it is the first of her novels about the struggles of coal miners along the Tug River and the border between Kentucky and West Virginia and it should be read before moving on to "The Unquiet Earth" which is the sequel to this novel and the book which I consider to be her best.  And, Yes, I will write about that one soon also.   

"Storming Heaven" is a fine novel about the coal field wars of the 1920's in West Virginia and Kentucky, and is based on actual events during those incredibly difficult times when many brave Appalachian men and women were fighting and dying in the effort to organize the Appalachian coalfields.  While it is based on that epic struggle, Giardina used her poetic license extensively in terms of place names, and rarely mentioned any historical figure by their actual names which I have to assume was at least in part a defensive action which she felt was necessary by the still extant willingness of the enemies of unionization to become overly and unnecessarily litigious in their defense of coal operators to treat their employees as being worth less than a mule since they had to buy mules and could always hire another man if their anti-labor practices killed or disabled another. 

This novel is written by a woman who is descended from some of the Italian immigrant workers who were imported to the coal fields during the early days of the coal industry in Appalachia and she knows her story well.  I would bet that she heard much of the content of this book at the feet of her older relatives on long winter nights in or near the coal camp towns in which they had worked.  Her consummate knowledge of her material is refreshing at a time when it is common for other writers to grab one or two reference books and produce a second rate novel about some aspect of life in America about which they know little other than the probability that a book about their current topic might sell a few thousand copies.  She knows the region.  She knows the dialect.  She knows the coal industry and its absentee owners.  She knows the pain, death, and diseases which have befallen coal miners and their families ever since the first underground mine was opened in some remote hollow of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, or Tennessee.  This is a fine, honest, sometimes painful book and has easily taken its place beside other novels such as James Still's "River of Earth" and Davis Grubb's "The Barefoot Man".  And this book proudly joins Grubb's work in support and admiration of the men and women who fought and died to build a union work place in Appalachia.  

The book is written in a somewhat unique style with several different characters being utilized in alternate sections or chapters as the narrator.  It is first person writing in multiple voices and it works quite well.  Major characters include a pro-union mayor C. J. Marcum in Giardina's mythical town which is based on Matewan, West Vitginia.  There is native Appalachian union man Rondal Lloyd who devotes more of himself to the union effort than he does to the woman who loves him deeply.  That woman, nurse Carrie Bishop loves both Rondal Loyd and the mountains of the region.  She devotes her life's work to helping heal the sick, treat the wounded, love the starving children, and support the union miners and their families in any way she can. But  the one thing she cannot do is to maintain a consistent relationship with Rondal Lloyd.  He comes and goes, fights every day to win union recognition for miners somewhere in the coal fields and usually returns to Carrie when it convenient for him.  Many of the characters in the book are purely fictional but quite a few are clearly based on important figures of the union effort such as murdered Police Chief Sid Hatfield who died on a West Virginia court house steps because he supported the miners and fought by their sides in their effort.  The book ends at the Battle of Blair Mountain in the only instance in US history when the federal government used the army to fight American citizens.  

This is a fine novel by a writer who knew her subject matter as well as any child of a coal miner can.  It is an incredibly well worthwhile book to read.  Don't pass it up, especially if you live in the coal fields of America and need a little refresher course on how good men, women, and children died to build unions and fair labor practices in this country. 

Coal Mine Disaster-July 7, 1935-Van Lear, KY-Consolidation Coal Number 155

Throughout the history of coal  mining in America, there has been a long history of coal mining disasters from a multitude of causes including roof falls, explosions, dam failures, electrical causes, and asphyxiation by lethal gases. For many years in the early days of coal mining, lethal cases killed so many men that canaries were actually used as early warning devices of high gas levels in coal mines, hence the expression "a canary in the coal mine" as a descriptor of an early warning device. While the number of deaths due to coal mine disasters has gradually declined over the last several decades, that decline has been more due to automation and increased strip mining in all its forms having decreased the number of working miners than to widespread improvements in the working conditions in the coal mines.  Total fatalities were generally more than 1,000 per year from 1900, when the US began to keep well organized statistics about fatalities, to about 1948 when only 999 miners were killed and the number finally dropped below 1,000 for good.  At least 40 states have had miners killed although there have been several types of other minerals involved in the mining in the states outside the typical coal mining areas of Appalachia and the Western United States.  But, just as the most tonnage of coal has usually been mined in those two areas, the most miners have also been killed year after year in those Appalachian and Western states.  I have never written on this blog about coal mining disasters although I have lived most of my life in coal country and came from a coal mining family with my father, one grandfather, and several uncles all being coal miners.  I also had one brother, Hewie Hicks, killed in a coal mine in a single fatality accident.  

The photo above is of the death certificate of  Virgil Clay in the Van Lear explosion.

Over the course of the next several months, when I have time, I will write about some of the worst coal mine disasters in Central and Southern Appalachia, the area I know best and the area on which the majority of this blog is focused.  I have decided to begin by writing about a disaster at the Consolidation Coal Company Number 155 Mine at Van Lear, Kentucky, in Johnson County which occurred on July 17, 1935, and killed 9 men.  This disaster is covered in both the Floyd County Times newspaper archives in the Floyd County Library local history collection and on the website known as "US Mine Disasters" which I have used for my own reading and research for several years and which is the website to which I have provided several link earlier in this blog post.  I will also refer from time to time to the websites of the official state and federal agencies which supervise and regulate mining in America.  When I can find local news coverage of these disasters available online, I will also use some of that coverage.  But, sadly, the Floyd County Times archives cited earlier are the best and best organized of all the newspapers in Eastern Kentucky.  Many of those newspaper archives have been completely lost.

The photo above is of the tombstone of Virgil Clay.  

The July 19, 1935, edition of the Floyd County Times in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, covered the Number 155 disaster in neighboring Johnson County with a front page story which carried a banner headline and three subheads.  The opening paragraph of the story began 

"Thursday morning saw nine men, all dead, removed from Number 5 Mine of Consolidation Coal Company, Van Lear, in which they were trapped by an explosion at 9o'clock Wednesday morning. 

I will note here that the Floyd County Times refers to the mine as "Number 5" instead of Number 155 which is the designation used by the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines in their official report on the disaster which is undated  and authored by John F. Davies, District Engineer.  I will accept and use the designation of the mine as "Number 155" since that is the designation used in the official federal report.  

 The photo above is of the Roy Murray tombstone. 

The Floyd County Times listed the victims of the disaster as "William Kretzer, 42; and, Charles Kretzer, 50, brothers; James Vaughn, 42; Frank Tutzy, 45; Hantez Gould, 60; Deerwood Litz, 28; Roy Murray, 38; Virgil Clay, 23; and, Shirley  Hereford, 35."   The official report from the Bureau of Mines does not list the men by name at all.  According to the Floyd County Times, two other men inside the mine escaped and "...company officials immediately began a relentless drive to rescue the men."  The newspaper also reported that rescue squads were brought in from as far away as Jenkins in Letcher County where Consolidation Coal Company also operated mines.  But according to the newspaper story, " tons of rock formed an impenetrable barrier to freedom for the imprisoned men, and this barrier was negotiated, foot by foot, by would be rescuers equipped with oxygen tanks.  As early as Wednesday afternoon, it was conceded that little less than a miracle could save the men."   I will note that I have located burial sites for several, but not all, of the men on the excellent website Find A Grave and have still not located the burial sites of the rest.  But I will continue to search for them since one of the memorials I located does contain a screen shot from an unknown newspaper which lists rough locations for where all nine were buried.  However, that screen shot does not identify the newspaper from which the screen shot was taken.  

 The photo above is of the Charles Kretzer tombstone. 

The July 19, 1935, story in the Floyd County Times goes on to describe the disaster as "the worst disaster in the history of Eastern Kentucky Coal Mining."  However, that statement by the newspaper is not accurate since just three years before on December 9, 1932, at Yancey, Kentucky, in Harlan County an explosion had killed 23 men.  Another disaster in 1925 in Harlan County had killed 17 men.  The newspaper lists the two men who escaped as Anse Wilson, water pumper, and Fire Boss Stanley Crane.  Wilson apparently gave an interview after the explosion and stated 

"I realized what had happened and I ducked behind a pile of rails.  Slate and rock hailed about me.  Then, when it was all over, I started for the outside.  I crawled about 300 feet through smoke and dust till I reached good air.  Mr. Crane was on ahead of me, that is, nearer the opening.  Is it good to be alive?  You don't know how good it is.  I only wish the others were here--they'd say the same." 

The following week on July 26, 1935, the Floyd County Times carried a front page story under the headline "Daniel Charged With Six Deaths", and with the subhead "Warrant Sworn Out by Miner Accuses Department Chief in Disaster".  John F. Daniel was the Department Chief of  the State Department of Mines and Minerals.  The warrant was signed by John B. Mollette, the secretary of the Van Lear local of the United Mine Workers of America.  Mollette accused Daniel of failure to enforce state mining regulations, failure to order the company to furnish sufficient fire bosses to inspect the workings, and that state regulations required at least five such fire bosses and at the time of the explosion only one was on duty.  It appears that the single fire boss on duty was Stanley Crane who survived due to having been quite some distance from the work area in which the men were killed.  The newspaper article quotes Mollette as stating that the warrant was turned over to the local constable, Brown Wells, who would serve it as soon as John F. Daniel returned to Johnson County.  "We have made charges that Daniel is responsible for nine lives in the explosion and we expect to prove them."  The news story about the warrant is continued from the front page of the paper to page six where it is found in the extreme right hand column of the page and that area of the page used to create the digital record of the paper in the Floyd County History Collection has some damage which makes it difficult to read.  But the gist of it is that John F. Daniel and attorneys for the coal company both disputed the claims contained in the warrant.  But the local Judge B. F. Conley stated in the paper that he had issued the warrant and had turned it over to Mollette.  The county Sheriff Fred Adams is also quoted as saying that the warrant could be served by any peace officer in the county.  A search of the Floyd County Times for the ensuing month after the warrant was issued for John F. Daniel does not contain any further news about the disaster or the service of the warrant or of any failure to do so by the Johnson County law enforcement community.  

The photo above is of the William Kretzer tombstone. 
 

The Find A Grave memorial for Virgil Clay and those memorials of at least one of the other victims contains a screen shot of a short news story about the disaster and the burials of the nine victims from some unnamed newspaper under the headline "27 Orphaned By Disaster At Johnson County Mine".  Since the headline uses the words "Johnson County Mine", it seems likely that the paper must have been published in an adjoining county but I have not been able to verify which paper carried the story.  The story states that Deerwood Litz was buried at East Point in Johnson County. I also note for the record that the name of Litz is spelled "Derwood Litz" at times and that is  most likely the correct spelling.  This news story states that the Kretzer brothers were buried at Hitchens in Carter County.  The cemetery in which the Kretzer brothers are buried is listed on Find A Grave as The Kretzer Graveyard but the address is now listed as Reedville.  James Vaughn and Shirley Hereford are both listed in the news story as having been buried at Ashland in Boyd County but I have been unable to verify the locations of their burials.  Roy Murray is listed as having been buried on George's Creek in Lawrence County.  Hantes Gould is listed as having been buried at Van Lear.  Frank Tuzey is listed as having been buried at Paintsville.  I note for the record that Tutzy, Gould, and Murray have also had differences in the spellings of their names in the various records which makes it more difficult to locate accurate burial information.  But it is somewhat simplified by the common date of death for all nine men and I will pursue their burial sites further by searching a variety of phonetic spellings of the names.  The last paragraph of this little news story states 

"Tuzey, last of the men to be taken from the mine, was caught beneath tons of slate.  His body and that of Gould were the last to be recovered, and were not reached until Friday.  Some of the bodies were badly burned, it was said."  (Unknown News Source Taken From Screen Shot On Virgil Clay's Find A Grave Memorial)

Virgil Clay's death certificate which is signed by Leon Spencer, presumably the Johnson County Coroner, listed the cause of death as "Traumatic External Violence Mine Explosion".  I have located the Find A Grave Memorials for the Kretzer Brothers both of which also contain the screen shot of the news story and photos of their tombstones as does that of Virgil Clay.   Roy Murray's memorial on Find A Grave shows that he was buried in the Murray-Young Cemetery at Lowmansville in Lawrence County and also contains a photo of his tombstone and the same screen shot of the news story.  I cannot locate a memorial or a definite burial site for Frank Tutzy under any phonetic spelling of the last name which is presumably Italian.  If Frank Tutzy was actually one of the many immigrant miners working in Eastern Kentucky at that time, it is possible that he was still single and may well be buried in an unmarked grave.  

On February 24, 2023, I received the following additional information from a person named Jon Bellomy who is related to the Kretzer brothers through his mother and also related to Virgil Clay through his paternal great-grandmother. 

"William and Charles Kretzer were brothers of my maternal grandfather (Ernest August Kretzer). They were so badly burned that their caskets had to be placed in front of the Kretzer farm cabin for the wake. Wax representations of their faces were placed upon them; as they were already in an advanced state of decomposition—because it took awhile to get to them. Granddad Kretzer had lost another brother — Louis Kretzer — four years prior in yet another mine: he was crushed when the roof caved in on him. Virgil Clay was a kinsman of mine through my paternal great grandmother Clarinda née White Bellomy (her mother was Julia Ann Clay, and her father was John White ((Shawnee lineage all the way back to Pekowi Shawnee Chief Meaurroway Straight Tail White Opessa — and many generations beyond him; all the way to a Mohawk Turtle Clan Chieftain who married into the Pekowi line)). My mother, Kathleen Evelyn Kretzer Bellomy, dearly loved her Uncle Bill and Uncle Charlie. She was a couple-three weeks shy of eleven years old when the tragedy hit. She spoke of them often up to the day she died at age 91; a few days short of 92. Her mom lived to be 94. Good genes."

Murder And A 25 Cent Piece Of Scrip(1)

I have been doing some work related to a cemetery in Wayland, Kentucky, where several of my relatives are buried including one of my great-grandmothers, a great uncle, an uncle, and an aunt.  During the course of this effort, I have added obituaries for several of the people buried there to their memorials on Find A Grave.  During that effort, I found not an obituary for one man but rather two sizeable news stories in the archives of the Floyd County Times which are located on the website of the Floyd County Library which maintains a fairly large and very useful local history collection containing newspaper files, historic photographs, a few sound recordings, and assorted other items of interest to both amateur and semi-professional genealogists and researchers.   

The man whose obituary I found contained in those two news stories was named John Franklin "Frank" Collins who died on May 27, 1934, at the age of 40.  Frank, as he was known, died at the hands of a local store owner in Estill, Kentucky, just a few miles from where Frank worked, lived, and has been buried for nearly ninety years. Frank was shot on a Saturday which would have been his day off from his job at the Elkhorn Coal Company mine in Wayland. He died the next day on a Sunday and a warrant was issued for the charge of murder against his assailant on Tuesday due to the fact that it was also Memorial Day on Monday.  Below is the full text of the article from the front page of the Floyd County Times edition of June 1, 1934.  It is interesting that the story about Frank's death is one of three stories about murders in the area that week.  Another story details the news of a shooting in which the victim survived. Admittedly, Frank Collins died almost twenty years before I was born in the area at Lackey in Knott County about a mile from Estill where Frank died.  I spent the first six years of my life on Steele's Creek. About a mile from the store in which I spent those first six years is the mouth of Steele's Creek, the site of the town of Wayland and the Elkhorn Coal Company mine where Frank worked.  I spent the next 14 or so years living in a second store my father had built at Dema, Kentucky, in Knott County about three miles from Wayland.  I have extensive knowledge of the area and its history. 

 Under the headline "Murder Warrant Issued For Craft" with the subhead "Estill Merchant Charged With Fatal Shooting Of Frank Collins Saturday", the news story/obituary about the murder of Frank Collins appeared in the June 1, 1934 edition of The Floyd County Times.  

"A warrant charging John Craft, Estill merchant, with murder was issued here Tuesday, following the death of Frank Collins, 40 years old, from the effects of a revolver bullet fired into his neck Saturday afternoon by Craft.  Craft had already been arrested and brought here Sunday morning when he was booked on a charge of shooting and wounding.  He executed $5,000 bond.  Collins died in the Beaver Valley Hospital, Martin, later Sunday.  Craft's bullet struck him low in the neck, ranged downward, and emerged from his back.  The shooting took place in Craft's store.  According to the merchant, Collins came into the store where he engaged in an altercation with Sol Bradley, who knocked him down.  Craft ordered the men outside, he said.  In the meantime, he stated Collins' small daughter had made a 15 cent purchase at the store offering 25 cents in scrip(1) as payment.  The merchant said he  had no scrip(1) change and soon after Collins and the child returned to the store, the father starting an argument over the change.  When Collins advanced on him with a knife, the merchant said he fired.  The other version of the affair, as told to Tbe Times, says that Craft was drunk and Collins was being taken from the store by his wife and a man when Craft leaped across a counter and fired.  This statement claims that Collins was unarmed.  The victim was a son of Mart Collins.  He is survived by his widow and five children.  Funeral rites were conducted Tuesday under the direction of G. D. Ryan, in the Collins Cemetery, three miles above Wayland.  Ministers officiating at the funeral were M. C. Wright and Earl Howard of the Regular Baptist Church. 

 

The photo above is of the Beaver Valley Hospital in Martin, Kentucky, where Frank Collins was treated before his death. The building no longer exists. It was typical of many small, privately owned, small town hospitals in the coal fields in the first half of the twentieth century.  It had only minimal surgical and little or no intensive care capacities and would not have been capable of providing appropriate care, by today's standards, for a victim of a serious gunshot wound. It was also not common for anyone to be transported to other larger, better equipped hospitals in the 1930's.  The hospital sat at the upper end of the town of Martin at what is now the location of the Nelson-Frazier Funeral Home.  I have actually received minimal outpatient care there as a teenager.  

When we read the newspaper story of the shooting and death of Frank Collins, we are struck by several aspects of the story.  First, Frank Collins was murdered in the sight of his small daughter.  I have little doubt that the child, who is unnamed in the newspaper stories, was traumatized by that event for the rest of her life.  Second, there are clearly two very conflicting stories about the shooting.  The shooter, John Craft, claimed he shot Frank Collins in self defense when he was threatened with a knife.  Mrs. Collins and one other person, the man who was helping her take Frank out of the store, both apparently claimed that Frank was unarmed and suffered the  gunshot as they were taking him out of the store.  Third, Craft claimed that Frank had been knocked down by a man named Sol Bradley during some sort of altercation.  Yet, the news story contains no statement from Sol Bradley.  I cannot say that I ever really knew Sol Bradley but I knew in my childhood who he was and never heard a negative word about him regarding brawling or any other sort of violent behavior.  But it would be interesting to know if there was some sort of family, business, or friendship connection between Sol Bradley and John Craft.  Fourth, and this is the most striking aspect of the entire story, the 25 cent piece of scrip(1) and the 10 cents of change owed seems to have been a key element of whatever happened.  It would be shocking to think that John Craft was willing to kill a man over 10 cents in change owed on a 25 cent piece of scrip(1).  It would be just as shocking to know that he was willing to kill a man over the entire 25 cent piece of scrip(1).  And, of course, there is also the accusation by Frank's widow and the unknown man who was helping her take Frank out of the store that John Craft was drunk.  There is a great deal left unsaid in that news story which we do not know and which would have given us a far better understanding of why John Craft was willing to shoot and kill Frank Collins.

 

In the September 21, 1934, edition of the Floyd County Times, a single sentence is tacked onto the end of a story about another man from the area who had been convicted of an unconnected murder.  That sentence reads: John Craft was on trial Thursday, as The Times went to press, charged with the murder of Frank Collins at Estill.  

There is another news story in the Floyd County Times the following week on September 28, 1934, under the headline "Craft Draws 21 Years In Prison".  The subhead to that story refers to a different murder case and the two stories are discussed in alternating sections of the single story covering both.  The opening paragraph of the story discusses Craft's conviction for the Frank Collins murder.  

"For the second time within a week, a jury in the Floyd Circuit Court gave a 21 year penitentiary sentence to a man accused of murder.  John Craft, accused of the murder of Frank Collins at Estill a few months ago, received the last sentence. 

The next two paragraphs in the story discuss two completely unrelated murder cases before resuming the discussion of the sentence given to John Craft.  

"In the trial of Craft, the Commonwealth gave evidence showing that he had shot Collins after the latter had been knocked down in an altercation with a man named Bradley and after Craft, a merchant, had ordered Collins to leave his store.  This testimony claimed that Collins was offering no resistance and had turned to leave when shot.  The defense sought to show that the merchant fired, thinking that Collins was armed and fearing that he would kill Craft."  

And that is the entirety of the newspaper coverage of the murder of Frank Collins and the trial and sentencing of John Craft for that murder.  Just as the first newspaper story left unaddressed several issues the disclosure and discussion of which would have made the coverage far more enlightening, this story also leaves several unanswered questions about the case.  First, who testified in the trial?  Were the only witnesses John Craft and the Widow Collins, who is not named by first name in either story?  Did Sol Bradley or the man who was helping Mrs. Collins take her husband out of the store testify?  Did the prosecutor and judge force Frank's small daughter to testify?  Did the police officer(s) who arrested John Craft and interrogated him testify?  Second, was medical evidence presented to the court by the doctor in charge at Beaver Valley Hospital which could have proven where Frank Collins was standing in relation to John Craft when he was shot?  Third, who was John Craft's attorney?  Fourth, was the issue of a 25 cent piece of scrip(1) and 10 cents in change owed ever raised in court?  Could that issue, if it was raised, have increased the jury's willingness to set a lengthy sentence in the case?  

Since I first became aware of the murder of Frank Collins and began writing this blog post, I have not had time to drive to Prestonsburg, Kentucky, the county seat of Floyd County and search for the Circuit Court records at the Circuit Court Clerk's office.  I will do that in the near future and, if those records exist, I will obtain copies of them and add the information they contain to this blog post.  I also have easy access to whatever employment records are still extant for the Elkhorn Coal Company which are now in the possession of the Wayland Historical Society and I will also search those records to see what pertinent information they might contain about Frank Collins. It is also possible that John Craft might have worked for that company for some time before owning his store just as my own father did before owning his.  I will also search for John Craft's employment records.  This is a very interesting small town Eastern Kentucky murder case from the heart of the Great Depression and the involvement of a 25 cent piece of scrip(1) in the events makes it even more intriguing.  Did John Craft murder Frank Collins just because of a 25 cent piece of scrip(1) or the 10 cents in change which he did not have in scrip(1)?  Was either amount of coinage worth the price of a poor coal miner's life? 

 

 

(1) I just cannot pass up one very necessary opportunity to act as a member of the Grammar Police.  The word "scrip" does not have a "t" at the end.  It is spelled "SCRIP" not "SCRIPT".  Scrip is a form of corporate currency which is rarely used in the world today but was common in the early 20th century in America especially with large coal mining and timber companies.  A "Script" is a written communication such as a "Script" for a play, movie, speech, or oral presentation.  "Script" can also be used to describe a general form of type face either on a computer, typewriter, or printing press.  

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.