Mercer Memories: A look at the history of the Pocahontas coalfield

This segment of the history of the Pocahontas coalfields by Corbet L. Helmick as printed in the 1984 edition of the Mercer County Historical Society's ”History of Mercer County" begins with a look at the harsh reality faced by the miners.

Miners used oil lamps with an open flame. Coal dust, methane gas and black powder all are highly explosive. The combination of all those factors led to very high death rates from explosions and roof falls, along with poor ventilation. The same ventilation was also a factor in exposure to coal dust which led to many cases of black lung.

The West Virginia Department of Mines Annual Report for 1981 indicated only two coal mine disasters from 1984 to then, with disaster defined as an incident in which five or more people killed at the same time, in Mercer County,

An explosion at Thomas on February 4, 1907 killed 25 and an explosion at Arista on March 2, 1923 killed 10. A burning refuse pile exploded at Pinnacle on June 9, 1924 and killed seven members of the DeWeese family,

A combination of much improved mining laws and better trained miners has greatly reduced mining fatalities. All coal is mined by machines. Wages have risen from a few cents a ton for hand loading to an average of $101.96 per shift union scale as of 1983, plus fringe benefits,

Due to a number of factors such as mines being worked out, mergers , bankruptcies and stock purchases, there were only three coal companies operating in Mercer County in 1983: Consolidation Coal Company at Crane Creek and Turkey Gap; Matoaka-Pocahontas Coal Company near Matoaka; and Kitchekan Fuel Corporation near Dott.

Most mining companies built their own coal camps with houses, churches, company stores and company doctors. Miners were paid in cash every two weeks and, for those not affluent enough enough to wait to payday, there was company scrip which only could be spent at the company store. All the companies had their own metal scrip usually in denominations of one , five, ten, twenty-five and fifty cents and one dollar. It was a common practice for miners to get scrip from the payroll office and sell it at a discount for cash. There was quite a bit of truth in the line from the song "16 Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford when he sings that he owes his soul to the Company Store.

Much of the progress in pay, safety and so forth came from the involvement of the United Mine Workers through collective bargaining. Granted, things have changed but the UMW role should be noted.

Of the 424 square miles in Mercer County, about 60 or 14 percent is coal-bearing, Almost all the land is west of the Bluestone River.

Mercer County, as of December 31, 1981, ranked 12th in total coal production in West Virginia behind McDowell, Logan, Fayette, Raleigh, Marion, Kanawha, Monongalia, Harrison, Wyoming, Boone and Mingo counties.

The seams from which coal had been mined in Mercer County were the Pocahontas No. 2,3, 6,9, 11 and 12 and the Sewell seam, The most productive was No. 3 which ranged from eight feet at Bluestone to three feet near Egeria. It was almost pure coal at The southern end of the county but was parted by a three-foot thick layer of shale to the north

No. 3 was nearly mined out as of 1983 with the Consol mines at Turkey Gap near Dott having the remaining reserves. The No. 2 seam, which is only about three feet thick at its thickest, has more potential reserves lying about 60 feet below No.3.

There will probably always be some coal mining in Mercer County but greatly reduced from its heyday,

According to the 1954 book by Joseph T. Lambie ”From Mine To Market", by 1901, about two-thirds of the coalfields was owned by the Flat Top Coal Land Association including portions of the original 500,000 acres and most of Mercer County's coal lands.

The FTCLA holdings were purchased by the Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1901. The N & W deeded the holdings to its subsidiary Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company headquartered in Bramwell. In 1904, the company moved to Bluefield and in 1939, it became the Pocahontas Land Corporation.

Jeff Harvey is a freelance reporter and columnist at the Princeton Times. Contact him at delimartman@yahoo.com or at Mercer Memories P.O. Box 781 Athens WV 24712.