!!!!!!COAL!!!!!
(Condensed version)
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At one time Richmond/Ray County’s main industry besides agricultural.
In l868, the first train route came through Richmond. The St. Louis& St. Joseph Railway. This opened a whole new venue to Richmond and the surrounding towns. It not only meant people could travel, it was mainly a way to distribute products From Richmond to bring income into the town, which meant employment and much needed and necessary business and people.
In l868, several of the town’s leaders got together, decided the railway could be taken advantage of, and sunk the first coal mine shaft in l868. Most of the coal in the area was ’shaft’ and loaded into rail cars. Richmond boasted a very high quality coal and was always in demand country0wide. By l907, there were 5l active mines in Ray County. Horse power and steam were used to hoist the coal out and the miners using oil lamps, (lard) fastened to their caps, would spend most of their working lives in these dark and treacherous holes.
The ventilation was always very poor, as the there was no way for the air to circulate down there. Huge furnaces were built, attached to the sides of the mines, and the fires that were kept stoked, would cause the air to go up the draft, making ventilation for the men down below. **
If you’ve ever noticed the little twisty-curving streets around the depot area, up water tower hill and the surrounding neighborhoods, those had once been dirt paths that the men took to their jobs on foot. There was so much foot traffic from the mines, natural ’streets’ were made. Later years, they were covered in asphalt. Several houses there were originally coal miner’s family homes are still there and still being lived in.
(insert picture of the streets here)
Because Ray County mines were, for the most part, given good inspection reports, few major accidents occurred.
The hired labor consisted of any male from the age of l2 or l3 willing to go down these shafts day after day. After all, it was the only ’steady’ paycheck around and kept the families employed. It wasn’t unusual for boys to be working along-side their dads.
My father-in-law worked the mines in Elmira, as did his father and the rest of the men in the family until the mines closed. He came home at night, coated black with coal dust, and had his bath in a large wash tub outside (in the summer) so he wouldn’t bring in the nasty, oily grime from the mines with him.
It was a hard, dirty and dangerous job. But, it made the area a very large source for coal for the whole country. Because of the railroad, there was a way for distribution. Because of the mines, there was employment and that meant population growth for the area.
The last mine in town was closed in the late l950’s. Not because of a lack of coal, there still IS coal down there. But, because of natural gas and the expense of mining, the fact it was having to be dug deeper to reach it, they closed down and all the shafts were sealed.
Look around the town. Especially the main square in town. A lot of the buildings and businesses were thanks to the miners.
LITTLE BIT OF TRIVIA
** In l974, I was ‘recruited” by Clara Chenault and Virginia McBee (of the newly formed Ray County Historical Society) to help in restoration of the old County building and constructing some sort of Library. This was basically done Before the actual opening of the museum.
While we plastered walls, stenciled walls, furnished rooms, argued, laughed and basically Loved every minute of the initial work, we also needed to catalog books that were given/donated/ found for our library. Among those were ledgers of the coal miners Union Ledgers. I raised my hand to take on that feat. On 3×5 cards, it took a good part of the summer to record all of these miners names, employment dated, union dues, etc, This came in Really handy when the Federal Government finally passed the law for compensation for “Black Lung” disease for the coal miners and their families.
After getting them cataloged, and still in the phase of ‘building’ the library, the representatives from the Mormon Church in Utah, offered to help. They put all records and obituaries on micro-fishe for us! What a BOON, and, at the time, Very high-tech! Now, they’re on file forever and safe.
Any coal miners, or families out there reading this, Please submit any stories, or history you have! I’d love to add it to the page!
Images scanned from Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, vol. III, no. 1, Jan. 1877, pp. 116-126.
http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/lessons_us/gilded_age/coal_mining/leslie1877/
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