Mining TidBits File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives Virginia Burke. vyburke@earthlink.net USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations.
_________________________________________________________________________ Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Deep Mine Safety P.O.Box 8463 Harrisburg, Pa. 17105-8463 Eastern Regional Coal Archives Craft Memorial Library 800 Commerce St., Bluefield, W.V. 24701 tele: 304-325-3943 ======= Here's a short poem, written by Louis Untermeyer, date unknown, from an old newspaper clipping from the Fortune/Izett family.: Caliban in the Coal Mines God, we don't like to complain We know that the mine is no lark -- But -- there's the pools from the rain; But -- there's the cold and the dark. God, you don't know what it is -- You, in your well-lighted sky, Watching the meteors whizz; Warm, with the sun always by. God, if you had but the moon Stuck in your cap for a lamp, Even you'd tire of it soon, Down in the dark and the damp. Nothing but blackness above, And nothing that moves but the cars -- God, if you wish for our love, Fling us a handful of stars. Submitted by Virginia Burke vyburke@earthlink.net ======= A Coalminer's Account of Mining in Richmond, Missouri This was given to me by Sherri Nichols, written by one of our ancesters, Jerry Fortune. I found it a very interesting personal account of what working a mine was like at the turn of the century, and thought it of interest to others who also had ancesters working the mines: "To Whom It May Concern: I would like to write about Richmond, Missouri around the 1900 hundreds when it was a coal mining town and there were 2000 (more or less) coal miners here. I don't want to write about myself but I am a part of it so I might appear quite often in it. My name is Jerry Fortune, the son of Mary and Taylor Fortune. I was born in 1896 the 28th day of April. My father was a small farmer and was a charter member of the United Mine Workers Local 248 when it was organized in the early 1900 hundreds. The coal miners had a hard time getting organized but before they were organized they worked like they wanted to work as long as they wanted to work and climbed up and down the shaft at night to get their coal ready for the next day. They did not have any regular hours and didn't make much money, $2.500 a day was good wages for maybe 12 or 14 hours work. There were 25 mines give or take a few around Richmond and they were all pretty much the same so I will write about the one I worked in for about 17 years. It was No. 6 Mine, the Pickering Coal Company. There were about a hundred men worked there and the capacity was about 600 tons a day. After the miners were organized they had an 8 hour day and $2.500 was considered a good days wage. The Richmond Track was long wall work and each miner had 35 feet of "face" that was his "room". It was all "pick" work, the miner had a pick and would dig the clay out from under the coal and when he got "dug up" and the coal would fall or maybe he would have to "sledge" it down, he was ready to load it out. They worked by the ton, over the years the price per ton got better on new contracts. I will try and write about a typical day for a coal miner. The mines all had steam whistles which they blew for work at 7'O'clock starting time and it was quite a thing to hear all those whistles blowing. The miners got to the mine or "pit" and sat his dinner bucket in front of the cage to hold his turn to go down. Six men got on the "cage" and were let "down" to the bottom, stepped off onto the "flat sheet" and went down the "jey" and got en "empty" and "kicked" in when they reached the "road head". They had to get down, the road head was where the rock had not been shot to make the "entry" where you could stand upright. They went around the road head and were at the face, then went down the face to their rooms and put their dinner buckets and tools in the "entry". Then loaded the empty they "kicked in" with coal then dug until the "wheeler" took their load away and put in another empty. The miners day consisted of digging, loading, shoveling dirt into the "gob" and setting props after he "pulled the track". Near quitting time, 5 or 6 cars was considered a good "turn". Light was the all important thing in the coal mines, you don't know what darkness is until you have been in the dark of the mines. Up to about 1910 the miners used oil lamps, just a small lamp shaped similar to a tea pot. A string wick was put through the spout and the rest of the wick was down in the lamp. They burned lard oil, each miner had a can of lard oil, maybe a pint or a little more. They wasn't such a good light but they later came out with a carbide lamp, these were much better. They both had a hook on them that fit a hole in the pit cap. The "pit pants" were made of canvas and padded at the knees, they cost around $1.00 or $1.500 each. The miner brought his "picks" out every night to have sharpened...each mine had a blacksmith to sharpen "picks". His pick was about a foot long and sharp at both ends, some of them were fastened onto the pick handle and some were "patent picks" that fastened on the pick handle with a belt and could be changed when a pick got dull. The rest of his tools consisted of an iron bar about three feet long, a shovel, a sledge and several wedges. The Richmond vein of coal was roughly 100 feet deep and a shaft was dug down to the coal and shaft was big enough to have two "cages", one going up while the other was going down. The cable attached to the cage, went over the "cher wheel" and was attached to the drum on the engine. The engine was steam powered as was the "fan" which kept air circulating through the mine. The fan was down another shaft not so large as the main shaft. There were many transient miners who would come to Richmond when the mines were working and leave when they "slacked up". There were numerous boarding houses for them and the board was around $20.00 a month, and that included packing their "bucket". The bucket was a little bigger than a gallon and the lower part held water and the "deck" held the food and could be taken out of the bottom part. Of course, those days coal was king and you could get your winters supply for coal for $5.00. The switch engine would come up from Lexington Junction and Henrietta around 4 o'clock and bring empties and start getting the loaded cars from the mines and putting in empties for the next day, when they got done they had 50 or 75 cars of coal. The switch engine was steam powered". Posted by Virginia Burke vyburke@earthlink.net =========