The Elk Horn Coal Company

When businesses, such as the Elk Horn Coal Corporation, found large reserves of coal in places like rural Kentucky or West Virginia, they built what were known as Coal Patch or Coal Camp Towns near their mines. Of course this was to bring in workers for the mines, providing them housing, a general store, a bank, churches and schools. Generally, these towns were not incorporated, did not have elected officials and were wholly-owned by the coal company.

Wayland, Kentucky, circa 1914

Unfortunately, this meant the company controlled everything in town and charged the workers for everything they needed. Thus, the miners were paid in scrip that could only be used to pay rent or to buy items at the company store. A monopoly’s monopoly! Little wonder that my paternal grandfather urged his children to leave those Kentucky hills and find employment elsewhere.

A $1 Scrip token issued by Elk Horn Coal Corp.

Note it says, "Payable in Merchandise Only"

The following is a brief history of mining in the area around Wayland, in Floyd County, Kentucky:

When Elk Horn Fuel and Elk Horn Mining (including Mineral Development Co.) merged in 1915 to form Elk Horn Coal Corporation, there were already 18 mines in operation - seven in the Wayland Division, seven in the Fleming Division, and 4 in the Wheelwright Division.  The total capital stock of Elk Horn Coal upon completion of the merger was $27,045,000 . On November 30, 1915, just 12 days after its birth, Elk Horn Coal acquired all the property of Elk Horn Fuel and Elk Horn Mining including all mining camps and appurtenant mine works and equipment, the 205,452 acres of land they jointly controlled, and an option to buy 50,000 acres more from Beaver Creek Consolidated Coal.

Stock certificate --- 50 shares of common stock

Getting down to business on December 1,  1915, Elk Horn took control of mine works already set up by Elk Horn Mining and still in progress.  At one of these locations, up on Right Beaver Creek at Steele's Creek, there had been confusion as to what to call the mining town under construction.  The nearest post office was at the town of Allen. Letters were addressed to 'At Camp, Steele's Creek, Allen P.O.', or 'Watsontown, Allen P.O.', or 'Wayland, Allen P.O.'. A courier for the company would be at Allen to receive mail when it arrived, then ride the train (or a horse) up to Stonecoal and Steele's Creek where the mail would be distributed.

On May 18, 1914, however, 'Wayland' was established as an official U.S. Post Office (named after Clarence Wayland Watson) and mail rode the train under its own power to this destination.

Elk Horn's coal fields and towns in southeastern Kentucky,
near the Virginia state line.

The towns built at Garrett and Wayland were large mining centers until the last mines closed in the early 1950s. At Garrett, mine postings indicate mine 326 closed in 1927, mine 327 in 1943, and mine 325, the most extensive one on Stonecoal Branch, lasted until January, 1956.  At Wayland, mine 330 was shut down in 1928, mine 331 in 1936, and 332, 328, and 329 held out until 1954.

Tipple at Elk Horn mine No. 329, Wayland, 1914

A company report from 1937 states, the Wayland mine is operating the Elk  Horn No. 1 seam which has a general average thickness of about 42 inches of coal.  The underground equipment includes 26 electric cutting machines, 25 electric locomotives, 500 new steel mine cars, 1 mechanical loading machine and 23 underground conveyors.  These conveyors are arranged to load from 12 working places and to gather the coal to 4 separate points where trips of mine cars are loaded.

       ~from http://www.elkcoal.com/ History by Jeanette Knowles (former Elk Horn Coal employee)—November 1990. All information for this article was obtained from documents on hand or from two books: "Kentucky's Last Frontier", by Henry Scalf, and "Theirs Be the Power", by Harry M. Caudill

Never Felt Better

One of the many things I love about my Kentucky heritage is the abundance of such wonderful, flavorful, sometimes comical but always meaningful phrases. When spoken with that special accent, comments like Uncle Edgil's oft-uttered phrase, "this area is so poor, even the crows carry a lunch when they fly over," can be both comical and painfully true.

There are many others, but I was recently reminded of a reply my father often used when asked, "how are you, Greene?", he quite often responded,

I've never felt better, needed less or expected more. 

I often wondered if that phrase was due to his humble upbringing in a poor, rural Appalachian coal town, his job working at the Elk Horn Coal Company Store (Tennessee Ernie Ford was right*) and how he was able to move away to quasi-affluent living in Detroit and suburbs. I should have asked him when I had the chance.

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*Mr Ford's popular song, Sixteen Tons, included the refrain I owe my soul to the Company Store. The miners were usually paid in "scrip", that could only be used to purchase items at the Company Store, thereby trapping those folks in that hard, dangerous life. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip)

Sixteen Tons

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood

Muscle and blood and skin and bones

A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal

And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain

Fightin' and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion

Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside

A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died

One fist of iron, the other of steel

If the right one don't a-get you

Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

King Coal

As I’ve mentioned before, the past three generations of my family lived and died in southeastern Kentucky, the area that is now known as Appalachia. It is an absolutely beautiful place with the Cumberland Mountains and plateau, part of the great Appalachian Mountain chain, its most striking feature.

Back in the early 1990s I began a genealogical search that took me to those mountains and the people that still inhabit that area. Coal was king in those hills for generations, until automation and regulation dried up the only type employment those folks had ever known. You can see a photo of my paternal Grandfather in an earlier post–http://paul-griffith.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-rootsmy-foundation.html–in his mining hat, complete with carbide lamp.

My genealogical search revealed my great-grandparents, on my grandmother’s side, also lived and worked those hills, eking out a living in one of the most difficult and dangerous occupations one could find. Here they are posing for a photo, circa 1920, sitting in the front yard of their Floyd County Kentucky home. They raised ten children in that home; no wonder they look a bit tired in this photo.

John and Rosa Campbell

I love this photo…from the wide-brimmed hat on Grandpa’s knee, to his bushy mustache, to her long white apron, and of course the stone pipe I’m told Grandma Rosa always had close at hand. Then, look at the lay of the land behind them; a house carved into the Kentucky hills to be sure. John (1849-1934) and Rosa (1855-1930) were the epitome of the hard-working and hard-living folks I call my own.