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Poca Man Recounts His Family's Tribulations in the Coal Camps; Disasters Part of the Legacy of Mining

Posted on: Thursday, 19 January 2006, 03:00 CST

By Shelby Young

syoung@cnpapers 348-4806

Stanley McClanahan recently noticed a photo in Metro Putnam entitled "Long Onery Apartments at Raymond City."

It reminded him of anecdotes he heard long ago.

"I think that's a misprint," McClanahan said, and with that began his story that covered the legacy of coal mining in Putnam County for the last three generations.

He began collecting his family's oral history long before he ever heard that phrase, the 63-year-old Poca resident said.

"I always like to hear the stories my grandmother Molly would tell me about living in the coal camp at Raymond City," he said. "And I remember them all."

Stanley's grandparents, Sam and Molly McClanahan, lived in one of apartments referred to as "Long Onery" in a photograph at the Putnam County Courthouse.

"That's not what Grandmother called it," Stanley said. "She said everybody called it the 'Long Laundry Apartments' because of the way all the miners' wives hung out their laundry on a long line in front of the building."

Usually several of the wives would choose to do their laundry at the same time, he said.

"There were several of those row apartment houses spaced out going up the Poca River from Raymond City," he added. "My mother lived in one of them 'til she was about 10 or so."

Stanley's parents, James and Nina McClanahan, lived in Raymond City, too.

"My granddad worked in the mine and so did my dad," Stanley said.

Life in the Raymond City mines was, like life in most coal mine towns, the heartbreaking story of working in the mines for a living while knowing how unhealthy and dangerous it was, he said.

There would be roof cave-ins and then an ambulance would come and maybe someone would have been killed.

In spite of the virtual death sentence pronounced upon them, the men who entered the mines for a livelihood developed a strong devotion and love for the land and the mountains where ribbons of black gold promised prosperity.

The demand for miners depended on the prosperity of the coal company that was in operation at a particular place and time. The Putnam County mines began to be peter out in the 1930s.

Some families moved elsewhere, others found different kinds of jobs.

"It was a hard kind of life in the Long Laundry Apartments," Stanley said.

His mother and grandmother told him about trying the keep the winter wind from howling through the cracks in the walls.

"I think they used old newspapers as wallpaper, and cardboard ... whatever they could get," McClanahan said.

"They bought everything from the company store there in Raymond City," he said.

"Every time my granddad got paid, the coal company deducted the rent for their apartment from what he was due," Stanley continued. "Then they took out what they were owed at the company store. If there was anything still due Granddad for his work, they would pay him in scrip."

According to information compiled by the West Virginia State Archives, the miners worked with company tools and equipment, which they were required to lease.

The company-owned stores themselves charged over-inflated prices, since there was no alternative for purchasing goods.

To ensure that miners spent their wages at the store, coal companies developed their own monetary system.

Miners were paid by scrip, in the form of tokens, currency or credit, which could be used only at the company store. As a consequence, even when wages went up, coal companies simply increased prices at the company store to balance what they lost in by paying more to the miners.

The consequences for a miner who lost his job were immediate and dire, McClanahan said.

"My granddad got fired and the company men went with him to get his pay," he said. "They took out what he owed at the store and took out what he owed for rent."

Then coal company employees went to their house and brought out all the family's furniture, as well as clothing and other possessions, he said.

"The company men piled everything up in a big pile in the front yard and locked the door as they left," he said.

McClanahan believes that the family finally found a tent to provide shelter.

"They lived in the tent until they found a place to live back up the river where Camp Virgil Tate is today," he said.

He never went into the mines himself, he said. He worked in the construction industry, instead.

In addition to the poor economic conditions, safety in the mines was of great concern. West Virginia fell far behind other major coal- producing states in regulating mining conditions.

Between 1890 and 1912, West Virginia had a higher mine death rate than any other state.

West Virginia was the site of numerous deadly coal-mining accidents, including the nation's worst coal disaster.

On Dec. 6, 1907, an explosion at a mine owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah, Marion County, killed 361 miners.

And the legacy of the coal camps along the Pocatalico and Kanawha rivers in Putnam County continues to surface now and again, even into the 21st century.

In 2002 Robert C. Carter filed suit against several coal companies, Monsanto and the City of Nitro concerning the use the old coal company lands were put to.

Carter alleged that Nitro allowed Monsanto to dump toxic chemicals into the Heizer Creek landfill. Carter maintained in his suit that Amherst Coal Company allowed Monsanto to dump toxic chemicals into the Manila Creek landfill. Other coal companies were also named in the suit.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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