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- Great-Grandpa was a PA coal miner
- ... My great-grandfather (a Lithuanian immigrant) was also a coal miner in the Hazleton area right around dthis same time frame. I'd love ... PA is in the "hard coal" or anthracite region of PA mining country. I grew up in Windber, in southwestern PA, in the "soft coal", ... Posted by gmr2048 - 02/01/2008 - 1:18pm -
![Miners from near Hazleton, PA. Exact year unknown (probably early 1900s). My great-grandfather is the bottom-left miner. View full size.
Great photo! Where isGreat photo! Where is Hazleton?? My Gr. Granpa and Granpa were from "Six Mile Run". Also miners. don't think they are in your photo, but really looked. Gayle
[The caption says Hazleton is in Pennsylvania (as opposed to Hazelton, in West Virginia). Google Maps shows it near Scranton. - Dave]
PA CoalminersMy great-grandfather (a Lithuanian immigrant) was also a coal miner in the Hazleton area right around dthis same time frame. I'd love to know more about the people in the picture, or at least your great-grandfather.
PA CoalminersI just happened to stumble onto this site and boy, the memories are flooding! My grandfather and greatgrandfather were both minors from Hazleton. Both are long gone but I still travel from Connecticut to Hazleton on a regular basis to visit family there. We have 5 generations going there.
PA CoalminersI too had a grandfather and greatgrandfather from Hazleton who were coalminers. They came from Czechoslovakia around 1910. I still make trips from CT to PA to visit family there.
PA Coal MinersMy grandfather came from Poland and also worked in the mines in Hazleton, PA. I seem to remember the family saying it was the highest point in Pennsylvania. I had relatives who lived both in Freeland and Highland not far from Hazleton. - Chris
PA coal minersHazleton, PA is in the "hard coal" or anthracite region of PA mining country. I grew up in Windber, in southwestern PA, in the "soft coal", or bituminous region. My uncle worked in the mine. I remember the "strike breakers" going to work, and more than that, I remember the BIG men with BIG guns who prevented anyone from interfering. I was about 5 or 6 yrs old. I still have a dear friend who lives there. (We are octogenarians). Has anyone else noticed the 3 or 4 very young men, boys really, in the picture?
My great grandfathers tooMy great-grandfathers both worked as coal miners in northeast PA, not sure if it was Hazleton or another town though. One was from Poland and the other was from Romania.
Pa. CoalminersMy great grandfather. grandfather, and great uncles were all coalminers in western Pa. One great uncle was killed in a cave in in 1927. Back then mining was done with picks and shovels and work was sporadic at best.
Mines in BelgiumI had too a grandfather and others in my great grandfamily who were miners here in Frameries - Borinage - Belgium.
Some of them and many other coworkers and friends died in the many coal mines installed in Borinage in the 19th and half part of the 20th century.
They worked hard and live wasn't very pleasant everyday.
A link to the last mine in Borinage closed in 1961, now a museum.
http://www.pass.be/index.jsp
Other links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frameries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage
http://www.google.be/search?hl=fr&q=borinage+mines&btnG=Rechercher&meta=
PA CoalminersMy grandfather and great grandfather were coal miners in NE Pa (Plymouth, near Wilkes-Barre, which is of course near Hazleton). They were of Irish descent, and lived very hard lives. My great-grandfather lived in a home owned by the coal company, as did most of his time, and died in a mine collapse in 1895. His son lived into his late forties, and succumbed to 'black lung'. Fortunately, the family line continued and are all living much healthier and longer lives, some of them still in the NE Pa region.
coal dust in our veinsAlthough no one in my family was a miner, I am from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvcania and grew up with the consciousness of coal. I recall vivdly being a very small girl in the early 50s and hearing every morning on the radio the announcements of which mines wouild be working, and which, idle. Presumably, if the mine didn't work, you didn't get paid. Mining was the only economy of the area, and when the mines finally closed, the Wyoming Valley -- probably never ever a real boomtown, certainly never for the miners--sank into depression from which it has never recovered.
Our house was heated with coal; the truck would come periodically and empty its load into the chute. I would take the dark, hard crystals that had spilled in the driveway and try to draw on the sidewalk with them. As the 60s and 70s wore on, obituaries in the paper were filled with notices of old, and not so old, men who had succombed to anthracosis--black lung--the miner's scourge.
The men in the mines were taken ruthless adventage of by mine owners, who exploited them and offered them shacks to live in which, even into the 60s, had no indoor plumbing. I would like to recognize all of the souls who worked so hard for so little, many of whom met their deaths deep underground. Benetah those smudged faces were proud and hardy men.
Plymouth PA CoalminersMy Mother was born and raised in Plymouth, moving away in 1936-37. Her Father, and other relatives were miners. I'd like to hear from others with similiar backgrounds from the area. I still drive thru Plymouth a couple times a year. bb1300@aol.com
coal miner's granddaughterGreetings from another NE PA native. My great-grandfather, great-uncles and grandfather all worked in the coal mines of northern Schuylkill County. Other relatives worked in the factories, foundries and mills in the area. This part of the country was also the birthplace of the American labor movement and I am proud to say I'm a union member.
Does Anyone Have?My mother told me that we had an ancestor who was killed at one of the Southwestern PA coal mines in the early 20th century. Where might I find a list of those who lost their lives in the PA coal mines long ago? Please contact me at pje6431@hotmail.com. Thanks.
PA CoalminersMy step-grandfather was also a miner in Western PA in the period 1910-1920?? I don't know if it was Hazelton. His name was Dominick Demark or Demarco. He and my grandmother and my father came from Canada, but my father and grandmother were originally from Chaleroi, Belgium.
Hazleton, PA CoalminersMy great-grandfather and great-uncle worked as coal miners in Hazleton, PA. Both were born in Kohanovce, Slovakia. Great-grandfather, George Remeta, immigrated around 1892. How would I find which mine he might have worked in? I keep thinking I might be looking at a picture of him and never know it! Also, does anyone know if payroll records or employee records exist?
Mine near HazeltonThe Eckley Mining Village is located near Hazelton and Freeland PA. It is an interesting village and informative as well. Some of the homes are still lived in but when the occupants die the homes belong to the village. Well worth a visit. There are some names available and the museum and churches are very good.
Dot
Great-grandpa was a PA coal minerGreat photo...my grandfather was too a Lithuanian immigrant and worked in the mines in Scranton Pa. I cherish the stories my mom told me of her father during that time. I once took a tour of the Lackawanna Mines..it was an experience I will never forget. My hats off to our forefathers!
grandpa worked in the mines.My grandfather worked in the mines in the Hazleton area also, he kept journals, the year 1946 he speaks about working in tunnel 26 and such....hard life.
HazletonHazleton is in east central PA, near Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Wilkes Barre and Scranton. Upstate, as my grandparents called it. They were from Welsh coal miner stock and were born near/in Hazleton. These are hard, anthracite coal mines that had been worked heavily since the first railroads went through in the 1840s.
mining accidentMy great grandfather was killed in a mining accident at Highland #2 colliery in Luzerne Co. PA on 2/13/1888. Would anyone know how I could get a newspaper article/obit/any info available on this accident????
Anthracite mining recordsI don't think they are available online, but the Pennsylvania Archives has microfilm of old PA mine accident records http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/Coal%20Resources.htm
I'm pretty sure the coal region county historical society libraries have them too.
Re: Mining accidentTry newspaperarchive.com. What was your great-grandfather's name?
anthracite mining recordsFound some online. They even have 1888. Try here:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~paluzern/mines.htm
Throop Coal Mine Disaster of 1911I see you are from Scranton. I am from Pittston. I put together a booklet on the Throop (Pancoast) mine disaster. I included a few Scranton Mine accidents. If interested the booklet sells for $12. I will pay postage.
Jim Bussacco
1124 Main St.
Pittston Pa email bing1124.1@netzero.com
Anthracite coal miningI always like logging onto your site. My father and three brothers were coal miners in the Pittston region. I worked as an outside laborer in the tipple of a mine. In 1943, I left the mine to go into the US Navy. When I returned after the war. I worked in strippings.
Pittston was the greatest town in anthracite mining and had plenty of accidents. The last being the Knox mine disaster in 1959. I wrote a book about coal mining in Pittston, including most of the major disasters. I also have a great collection of coal mine pictures, including the Knox Mine Disaster.
I hope more people with coal mine connections log in your site,
Thank you
Jim Bussacco bing1124.1@netzero.com
PrepselsLooking for info on Prepsels, late 1800s early 1900's. My grandfather Raymond Prepsel (spelled Prepsal on some papers) came from Austria/Hungary to work the mines in the Hazelton area. On his certificate of competency issued by the Miners' Examining Board of the Fifth District of Luz. Co., Pa. dated July 16, 1898, his name is spelled Bribsel. He resided in Deringer in Luzerine [Luzerne?] County. My great-grandfather Paul was also living in the area and in Lost Creek, Pennsylvania. I'm doing my family tree and hope someone who reads this can help me. I only know that Elizabeth Prepsel (Raymond's sister ) married a Leo Witkowski and lived in Lost Creek. I'll keep checking back on this site.
This is the names of the people who signed his competency certificate are Anthony Reilly, Isaac Williams and William Dinko.
My Great Grandfather is in the photo too!John Yuhasz, the tall gent in the back row, fifth from the right (including the boy) is my great grandfather. He migrated from Hungary to work in the mines. He built a home on Goodman Street in Throop by the ball field just before he was killed in the accident. His wife never remarried, but his son, my grandfather Louis, worked in the mines until he was in his early 30's, then moved to Detroit, where he worked for Packard Motor Cars. My mother has this photo too. Louis passed away in 1994 at the age of 87, but he still had his carbide lamp.
My Great-Grandfather was a Coal Miner too!He lived near the Hazleton area and actually died in a mine collapse in 1928. I have tried to find records of this mine explosion, but all I can find is a list of mine explosions, and there was one where 10 men died in Parsons, Pa. There was no article attached. I'm thinking that might have been the one where he died. According to family stories, he died during a rescue attempt. Anyway, on the upper right hand corner of this picture is a young man standing in the background who has a strong resemblance to some of the pictures I have of my Great-Grandfather. I would love to be able to find out if that was him.
Looking for CoalAnyone know where I can order/buy a sample of anthracite?
Mine AccidentGo to www.nytimes.com, and do an archive search for the 1851 to 1980 archives. Put WILKES BARRE MINE in the search box, and confine your search to May 25, 1928 to May 31, 1928. You will come up with three articles about the Parsons mine disaster. However, you will only be able to see the headlines. If you can find a public or college library that has ProQuest, which gives you free online access to the NY Times, you can read and print these articles. Good luck! Joe Manning, Lewis Hine Project.
Johnny DeVeraMy dear father passed away one week ago. he and my mother are both from Pittston. PA. while going through his things, we came upon a story about a coal miner who never wanted his 11 year old son to follow in his footsteps, but rather wanted him to find a new life. Unfortunately, as the story goes, he found a new life, only to return to the old and meet his death. it is a two page story. beautifully written. my grandfather was a great writer. the story has no author. we are trying to locate the author. could be my father too. we wonder if this is a true story, regarding the outlaw, Johnny DeVera, the son of a coal miner in PA
Hazleton, PennsylvaniaHazleton is near where the Luzerne, Carbon, and Schuylkill County lines meet. It is about 28 miles South or Southeast of Wilkes-Barre.
PA Lithuanian Coal MinersMy grandfather was a Lithuanian miner sometime before 1960. He lived in Pittston. I'd like to find out more about the Lithuanian miners and their families.
Pancoast mine disasterMy grandfather (Joseph Urbanowich) and perhaps his father worked the Pancoast mine .. I was wondering if your information includes the names of the 72 people who perished in the disaster. My grandfather was only 12 at the time, and I cannot find any information about his father. My grandfather was Lithuanian, lived on Bellman Street in Throop (Dickson City) in 1917 .. and then a couple of other places in Dickson City. I vaguely remember him saying something about being born around Wyoming Pa as well .. In any case, I'm interested in your booklet .. do you take paypal ??
Belgian minersDoes anyone have information on Max Romaine or Alex Small from Primrose Pa.? Alex was my grandfather and Max my great uncle. We are trying to build a family tree and don't have much information on the Romaine part of the family. I know for sure Alex worked in the mine for 50 years and helped get benefits for black lung. I believe Max was also a miner.
Throop PAI was just reading your reply regarding your greatgrandfather being in the photo. i was born and raised in Throop and both of my grandfathers worked at the pancoast mine and also my wifes grandfather. Do you have any other names of people in the photo? I hae a lot of info regading Throop and can be contacted at sandsroad1@hotmail.com. thanks
Anthracite coalYou're asking about a chunk of anthracite coal. I can sell you a 5 or 6 pound piece for $5 plus postage. I live in Pittston.
Jim Bussacco
bing1124.1@netzero.com
River ferries & PA coal minesMy grandfather ran a river ferry at Frank, Pennsylvania, also called Scott Haven (name of the post office). The name of the coal mine was different and I have forgotten what it is. I would like to know if anyone knows where this place is today. I have pictures of the ferry and the school. Granddad moved the family in about 1920 to Crooksville, Ohio to a dairy farm. The mine either closed or was a strike and he had a family to keep. Any help is appreciated.
Judy
Langsford PAI am also interested in confirming a Lithuanian miner of No. 9 mine in Langsford, PA. Any help would be appreciated. Michael Lucas or Lukas or Lukasewicz. Thanks!
Lance Lucas
Amherst, MA
Scott HavenScott Haven is on the Youghigheny River south of McKeesport.Coal mines in this area were Shaner,Guffy and Banning.Many other small independent mines.There is not much left in Scott Haven now.I'm not sure there is even a post office left.
Knox mine disasterMy grandfather was the last one pulled out. Next Jan 22 is there any talk of a get together?
Hazleton MinesMy great grandparents Stephen and Mary Dusick came to this country in 1888 from Spisska Nova Ves in Slovakia. They knew the place as Iglo Spisska Austria. They had a one year old son also named Stephen. My great grandfather and my grandfather worked in the mines. On the 1900 census I learned that my father, a 13 year old boy, was working as a slate picker.
Perhaps George Remeta or his children knew my family. :)My grandfathers 1917 draft registration gives the name of the mine but I find it hard to read. Looks like Pzeda Bros. & Co Lattisonee Mines PA. I know I'm not close but maybe someone will recognize a few letters.
correction: Lattimer Mines is place where my grandfather workedAfter doing more research I now know the place was Lattimer Mines but I still cannot read _____ Bros. & Co ____
Lattimer Mines and Mine RecordsPardee Brothers and Co. Ario (Ariovistus) Pardee was patriach of one of the three prominent families (Markle and Coxe Families are the others)who first developed the mines in the Hazleton Area also known as The Eastern Middle Anthracite Field. Pardee operated the Lattimer Mines where my great grandfather worked and where my grandmother was born.
For those looking for mining records, look for the Annual Report of the Inspector of Mines. These reports cover PA's anthracite and bituminous mining districts from 1870 to present. The reports from 1870 to 1920 or so are particularly detailed. If you had an ancestor who was killed or injured in an accident, his name, age, and a description of the incident will be included. You can find some years for some districts online at rootsweb. Otherwise if you know the area where they worked, the local library may have copies. If not the State Library and PA Geologic Survey Library in Harrisburg have the complete set.
Lansford PAIt's Lansford, not Langsford. The No. 9 mine is now a tourist attraction. It also has a museum which has lots of history and photos.
WOW!Wow! I haven't been back to Shorpy for a while now, and it's cool to see that this photo has sparked such a discussion!
I'll take a look at my original scan when I get home tonight and see if there is any other info on the back of the image. I scanned both front and back. (The original photois in the possession of my Uncle). As I remember it, tho, the only person identified is my great-great grandfather. I'll post back if I find anything else interesting.
Your grandfather John YuhaszDo you know the names of the other miners in the photo? I'm still looking for information on my great grandfather, George Remetta and his son, also George, who were coal miners in Hazleton or Freeland during that time. Also, what was the name of the mine?
Stephen and Mary DusickIf you could let us know the exact name of the mine it would help! Not sure if my great grandfather, George Remetta, knew your relatives. If there were Slovak Lutherans, there is a great chance they knew each other. My great grandparents attended Sts. Peter and Paul Slovak Lutheran church in Freeland. Church records are available through LDS Family centers and are complete although they are written in Slovak! Let me know...I'll be checking back with this site from time to time!
Deb Remetta
DusickThe 1900 census just says that my great grandfather worked in a local mine. Doesn't help. They were Roman Catholic as far as I know. My grandfather's 1917 draft registration form gives more clues. He worked in the Lattimer mines and lived on 992 Peace Street Hazleton.
When my great grandfather was 60 in the 1920 census he said he worked with a timber gang. Does anyone know what that was? My grandfather worked as a slate picker when he was 13. Those poor young boys.
John McGarveyMy grandfather died in a cave-in in 1887, before my father was born in late November 1887. Name John McGarvey. wmcgarvey@tampabay.rr.com
Great-GranddadMy great-grandfather John Davies was a coal miner from Milnesville. I believe he's in this photo, bottom right hand corner, second from the right. He came to the U.S. from Wales between 1880 & 1895.
Hello from WindberHello from Windber, Pa. I am writing stories at the present for our new quarterly historical newsletter for the Windber Area Musuem, it is being mailed out to museum members as a thank you for their support, membership is only $5 per yr, if interested in receiving it. Your story of remembering the guns, etc. is one of the few I have heard from someone who actually still remembers that period of time in Windber's coal strikes., etc. If you have any photos, or a story of interest, small or big, memories, etc. that I could put in our newsletter I would be happy to receive it. Also if you happen to have served in the military service we are planning to honor the men and woman from this area by having their photos and service records displayed during the month of July in the museum. thank you for your interest in our endeavor. Patricia M. Shaffer, dstubbles5@aol.com
No. 9 MineMike Lukas was my grandfather from Lansford, Pa., and worked in the No. 9 mine until it closed in 1972.
- Mike Futchko
badkarmahunter@yahoo.com
No 6 mine LansfordI am looking for any info on # 6 mine in Lansford. My grandfather was a miner there and suffered a massive stroke in the mine. PLEASE if you have any info or pictures of this mine, PLEASE contact me papasgirl@verizon.net. Thank you very much.
Lithuanian Miner George NeceskasMy grandfather George Neceskas was a miner in Scranton PA at the Marvin Mine. (His Army discharge papers list his name as George Netetsky). Some of his relatives still live in Scranton, although I am not personally acquainted with any of them. None of us ever went down in the mines after he did. He had 4 children. 3 of those 4 had a total of 6 children (including my brother and I) and those 6 children had a total of 8 children. 2 of those 8 children have 2 children each. None of those 4 bear his last name anymore, although there are still some Neceskases living in New England now. Only his children spoke Lithuanian. None of his other descendants were taught the language.
Pa. MinersHi! My family (from Plymouth) were all coal miners. They were McCues, Burnses and Keefes, from Carver Street and Vine Street and Shawnee Avenue. My Uncle Fritz (Francis Keefe) was blown up in a mining accident in the 1950's, and nearly killed, but left with a green freckled face on the left side.
The early relatives were Hugh McCue and Peter Burns from Ireland. County Cork and County Downs. Do you know anything of that? My mother's father, Patrick McCue, born in the 1870's, worked as a breaker boy starting when he was 9. He was orphaned that year.
Please respond to Turkeyfether@aol.com
Thanks, Kathy
My great great grandfather My great great grandfather worked in the PA coal mines. He died in 1906 in Scranton when he failed to heed his helper's warnings to not go back and relight the fuse. He was 46. I have his obituary and death certificate. He suffered a crushed hand, fractured skull and a fractured radius and died from shock. There were reports that his eyeball fell out but I'm not sure. His wife had a ride to the hospital but did not have a ride back so she had to walk 15 miles back home to tell my great grandfather and his siblings that their dad had died. So, my great grandfather and his younger brother started working in the mines when they were 11 and 10, respectively. He was born in Switzerland and only spoke German at home. He's buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Taylor. I think my great grandfather started working Pyne Breaker in Taylor and my aunts at the Economy Silk mill in Taylor.
Coal miners in the 1920 CensusI'm researching family in VA and WV. I found in a 1920 census in column 13 (normally for year of immigration) the letters BWF and sometimes MH and these men were coal miners. Can anyone tell me what the initials stand for? I'm aware of the UMWA, a union. Could they be the initials of the company name of the mine? Also the birth state has USW above the state name. Am I on the right track? Thanks for any help.
Carol Caf1b2h@cox.net
[Googling those initials gives this answer: The census abbreviation BwF means boy living with father; MH means a miner is the head of the household. - Dave]
Two Lithuanian GGF's were Coal MinersOne was naturalized in 1892. He lived in Scranton, Nanticoke or Sheatown at various times.
I suspect he was brought over as "Contract Labor". That was the story from Grandfather, supposedly it was a German firm. Anyone know the names of the companies that did this sort of thing, in those days?
Does anyone understand what the immigration process was at that time? I'm trying to work backwards from the Naturalization to establish the year he came over.
His last name was Lastauskas (which morphed into Lastowski).
Underwood CollieryI am looking for pictures, information, families that have relatives that lived in Underwood Village near Scranton that are interested in sharing photos, etc. My grandfather was a mine superintendent there until they tore the village down. Thanks.
[How are people supposed to get in touch with you? - Dave]
Underwood Connection?I recently found a photo of breaker boys on a site called "100 Photographs that Changed the World" by LIFE. My grandfather and G. Grandfather worked in the mines in PA and W.V. The 4th boy from the left, in the front row I believe is my grandfather. If you took my nephew, put him in those clothes, and smeared coal dust on his face, you would not be able to tell them apart. Even the way he stands to the look on his face (we call that the Underwood scowl, my dad had it, my son has it, and my granddaughter has it.
In researching the picture, it was breaker boys from South Pittson, PA. If any one has any information on Clyde or Fred Underwood, I would be excited to hear from you at: kenginlaz@comcast.net.
Thanks!
Mining disaster 1911I live in the uk and have two family members with a date of death/ burial 13/5/1911. Can you tell me where I could find a list of miners killed in Throop disaster in 1911. My email is caroleh1@hotmail.com
Mining disaster infoI would recommend contacting the following for starters:
http://www.pioneertunnel.com/home.shtml
After that, try the Pennsylvania Archives at:
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=2887&&leve...
One other area is the Luzerne County website.
http://www.luzernecounty.org/living/history_of_luzerne_county
These people are an excellent resource at the Osterhout Library:
http://www.osterhout.lib.pa.us/
Last but not least. Go here first:
http://www.luzernecounty.com/links2.htm
I do not think you will be too successful in your quest. I hope I have been somewhat helpful to you and not caused too much confusion.
Good luck.
Williams Coal MinerMy great-grandfather and great-uncle both died in a coal mining explosion near Scranton. I am not sure where though. My dad says it was before he was born, prior to 1928. He thinks it was in Taylor, PA. Anyone have any info on Williams? rcanfield4@yahoo.com
Davis miners of Schuylkill Co. PAMy David ancestors were all coal miners from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. John Davis, my great-great-great grandfather, came from Wales as a small child. He married Ann Hanna and died in 1902. One of their sons, David David Davis [??] (my great-great grandfather), and Charles Garfield Davis (great grandfather) were miners. I don't know if at any point they spelled or changed their name from Davies to Davis. But there were so many Davis and Davies miners during that time. This was such a huge family with so many children from each generation and I know there were other John Davis'/Davies in the family. Do you have any further info about the family I could research and maybe help? Please email me, froggy3538@msn.com
Lithuanians in the PA minesMy great grandfather and great-grandmother worked in the Scranton mines during the early 1990s [1890s? - Dave]. My grandmother was born in Scranton in 1915.I am interested in finding more info especially documentation of their existence. Their names were August and Anna Palukis. Have you found any similar info?
My email address in barthra@utrc.utc.com
Thanks
Bob Barth from CT.
Taylor Borough Mine Disaster 1907I now have more information regarding when and where my Great GF and Great Uncle were killed. It was the Holden Mine in Taylor Borough, PA. Any information would be great!
rcanfield4@yahoo.com
dot2lee@yahoo.com
Hazelton MinesMy mother's father, Conrad Sandrock, worked the mines around Hazelton most of his life. They lived in a small town just out side of Hazelton called Hollywood. There were strip mines across the road when I was young (1950s and '60s). I always love looking at the pictures on this site and wondering if my grandfather worked with any of these men. I know I have never worked a day in my life that would compare to one day in these mines. I take my hat off to all the men who fed their families do this kind of work. Would love to see the average kid nowadays try that.
G-Grandfather Lithuanian coal miner in Hazleton.Apparently my Lithuanian G-Grandfather was a coal miner in Hazleton, PA around 1900-1915. Haven't been able to find out much more information than that. Anyone know where I can find census records, by chance?
Information pleaseMy great-grandfather immigrated from Hungary to work the coal mines at Derringer and Tomhicken circa 1887. I welcome any information you may have about how they were recruited, how they were transported from the port of entry to Tomhicken.
The Pennsylvania Historical society record of Lucerne County said miners paid for a plot of land to bury their loved ones. My great-grandparents lost three of their children and I would like to locate where they are buried. Also I am interested in knowing if their deaths were recorded by the State of Pennsylvania or some other agency (Town, County) that existed at the time.
Finally, I want to know of any stories that were written about the life that they and their families endured during this time.
Please contact me at mtkotsay@gmail.com
Thank you very much.
[Your great-grandparents -- what were their names? - Dave]
Taylor, PA, Coal Miner RelativesMy mother's family is from Taylor where her father, George Zigmont was a coal miner. They lived in a neighborhood called "The Patch." The houses were built on top of the mineshafts while they were digging the coal out underneath. Years later the abandoned shafts started caving in and the houses became unstable. The entire community was condemned and the homeowners forced to move.
My grandfather, his daughter, my great-aunt (who owned Rudy's Bar at the top of 4th Street) and her daughter were among those who had to give up their homes and got virtually nothing for their property or houses. I believe this was in the 1960s or possibly early '70s.
George's father, Anthony Zigmont, immigrated from Austria/Poland in 1893 and settled in Taylor. How did these immigrants wind up in Taylor from Ellis Island? Did someone direct them there? Did they already have relatives in the area? Was there a group who immigrated from the motherland and settled together in Taylor? If so, does anyone know where in Austria/Poland they came from?
Slovakia, miners fromOne looks like my grandfather. Second row down on left in white shirt and tie. Mikula is last name. He came to PA mines after death of his father in mine accident. Also Mikula. GF left mines to work in auto plant in Detroit.
Greenwood Colliery & drifts behind Birney Plaza, Pa.Information received.
Immigrant coal minersMy grandfather immigrated from Slovakia and worked the coal mines in Coaldale, Pennsylvania. Does anyone know what year this might have been?
My great-grandfatherMy great-grandfather was also a coal miner for Moffat Mines. His place of employment was near Taylor in Lackawanna County. I recently retraced his steps and wrote about it here. What a challenging life they led.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/miners.thumbnail.jpg "Great-Grandpa was a PA coal miner")
- Rolling Coal: 1942
- ... (vicinity). Champion No. 1 cleaning plant. Loaded coal cars ready for market." Photo by John Collier, Office of War Information. ... cared if they smoked cigarettes back then.
CLEAN coal??? This has nothing to do with modern claims of cleaner (less ... was fired with pea coal.
(The Gallery, John Collier, Mining, Pittsburgh, Railroads) ... Posted by Dave - 04/03/2024 - 7:00pm -
- Coal Goes to War: 1942
- ... 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Champion No. 1 coal cleaning plant of Pittsburgh Coal Company." Photo by John Collier, Office of War Information. View full ... name is coal-related
(The Gallery, John Collier, Mining, Pittsburgh, Railroads, WW2) ... Posted by Dave - 03/27/2024 - 11:35am -
- Clean Energy: 1942
- ... 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Champion No. 1 coal cleaning plant. Loading cars with clean coal." Photo by John Collier, Office of War Information. View full size.
... fella to break it up.
(The Gallery, John Collier, Mining, Railroads) ... Posted by Dave - 03/30/2024 - 4:22pm -
- Mantrip: 1942
- ... 1942. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (vicinity). Westland coal mine. 'Mantrip' going into a drift mine." Acetate negative by John Collier ... football program pays tribute to the West Virginia coal mining industry with the “Mountaineer Mantrip” before each home game at ... Posted by Dave - 03/31/2024 - 5:20pm -
- Let's Eat: 1942
- ... (vicinity). Montour No. 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. Andy Piatnik, miner who is an Office of Civilian Defense ... Everyone seems uptight and uncomfortable. I grew up in a coal mining town neckties and white shirts at dinner were really rare. Even during ... Posted by Dave - 03/29/2024 - 12:22pm -
- Copper Hopper: 1942
- ... Lodge County, Montana. "Anaconda smelter, Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Cars containing 50 tons of copper ore are dumped by an ... car can be rolled out of that area. This is same way that coal cars are emptied at electric power plants. In most cases the cars have ... Posted by Dave - 11/30/2023 - 2:29pm -
![September 1942. Deer Lodge County, Montana. "Anaconda smelter, Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Cars containing 50 tons of copper ore are dumped by an unloading mechanism into a 200-ton hopper." Acetate negative by Russell Lee, Office of War Information. View full size.
Waste notI've never seen such sight. What happened to the cart that rolled into that chamber on those tracks? Did it just roll off the tracks down into oblivion along with its load of copper? And look at the flimsy housing they built around such a powerful impressive machine. Strange.
[That "cart" is a fifty-ton railcar. It goes back on the train tracks after being emptied. - Dave]
NOW I see the railcar still in there. I didn't realize I was looking at the back of the railcar. I thought it was just the back of the chamber. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
STAND BACK!That is one nasty pinch-point.
The car on the tracksis actually still on the rails. The mechanism which rolls the car over clamps the car and the tracks together, and as soon as the car is empty, it rolls on over so that the car can be rolled out of that area. This is same way that coal cars are emptied at electric power plants. In most cases the cars have couplers which can swivel so that a car still in a train can also be emptied, one car at a time.
Impressions ProgressFirst - What are we looking at?
Second - Ok, now we get what's going on.
Third - Still scary.
(The Gallery, Mining, Railroads, Russell Lee)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY-8d08614u.thumbnail.jpg "Copper Hopper: 1942")
- Swiping Coal: 1917
- "Swipin’ coal from the freight yards." Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. April 1917. Photograph ... Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Swipin' Coal My father told us that he would look for coal along the tracks putting ... steam locomotives ran the rails until the 1970's. In the mining village where I lived the last steam locomotive was retired in October ... Posted by Dave - 09/30/2020 - 2:36pm -
- Rescue Methods: 1917
- ... Mine rescue methods. There were 750,000 men employed in coal mining in 1915, and of this number 2,264 were killed -- 190 less than in 1914 ... Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 11:05am -
- The Rest Is History: 1914
- ... it is Obviously (or maybe not) this is some sort of mining conveyor designed to travel on a track in the tunnel behind the ... out what's happened to their baby carriage, bicycle and coal scuttles.
Snowplow It's a early electric snowplow. Not only did the ... Posted by Dave - 03/27/2022 - 1:10am -
!["Man, possibly William B. Greene, with model for a machine that appears to be designed to scoop up material." Circa 1914-1918, an inventor and invention that scarcely need introducing to anyone born in the 20th century. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.
It's either
It's either inspired by monkeys at the zoo, or some form of travelling fan. Such a fan might be used in orchards on cold nights, to stop a frost settling on the fruit.
But, I'm going with the monkey device.
Back to the drawing board"1914. George Ferris's famously unsuccessful first attempt at a carnival ride."
Salt Water TaffyI agree it's a taffy puller by Peter or a peter puller by Taffy.
I know what it is ...It's a waterway power generator. An advanced form of the old-fashioned waterwheel.
Obviously.
Unless it's a power ice cream scoop.
ContraptionThe machine could never be an excavator since the buckets are located in line with the wheels. Also, because of the chain arrangement, the buckets would never tilt over to dump anything. A friend of mine who has a M. E. degree says it must have been some sort of windmill. Be nice if someone could run down the patent application. At the time of this photograph, it was not necessary to have a model of an invention with the exception of those for perpetual motion machines. Maybe as has been suggested, it was intended for removing bats from mine tunnel roofs?
[No one said it was an excavator. We said it's the conveyor that follows the excavator. If the buckets were full and not in dump mode they'd be facing up, side by side. - Dave]
Well of course.It's the prototype of the machine that would eventually add two scoops of raisins to Raisin Bran. This one could do two boxes at once.
How longare you going to keep us guessing? It's slowly driving me crazy!
You can build this!My first thought was an early Erector Set.
Another way of looking at it
What it isObviously (or maybe not) this is some sort of mining conveyor designed to travel on a track in the tunnel behind the excavator. The buckets are shown here in the dump position. The electric motor would be for demonstration purposes.
[I think you're on the right track. So to speak. The archive caption for these is "unidentified machine model." - Dave]
Wensleydale ExcavatorQuite clearly a young Wallace. But where is Gromit? He can explain everything.
Drive TrainI'm still not sure of this device's intended purpose, but based on the two images, I'm pretty sure this is how it operated. Perhaps with this sketch, someone might be able to come up with the intended application.
The sketch shows the chains and sprockets in bold and the electric motor at left. The "buckets" on the end of each arm are kept synchronized in the shown position relative to the floor based on the evidence supplied by the second photo. Only one of the two arms is shown in this sketch and the "phantom" arm is provided only to show the synchronized orientation of the "buckets" as the arm rotates. The chain was intentionally disconnected in the first photo so that the arm could be manually rotated to show the construction details. The second photo show both arm aligned parallel with each other. The relationship of the buckets with respect to the floor could be varied depending on how both "bucket" sprockets were initially aligned with their sprockets on the drive shaft. Based on the small number of teeth on the motor sprocket, this was a low-speed device (less than 100 RPM). My guess is that this is a working model that was submitted along with the patent application.
Scoop?With the open sides of the buckets it doesn't seem that it would be a very efficient scooper of anything unless that which it was scooping was larger than the openings. I can't imagine what that would be. For that matter, I can't imagine what this is.
Maybe we need to think larger scale. Perhaps this is a small scale model of what is intended to be a much larger contraption. If the sides of the buckets were closed it could scoop just about anything. I think the key here is the two sets of buckets on either side. Maybe this was for a farm for digging rows for planting. Maybe it was an early ditch witch for burying power lines - a hot and a neutral.
[I'd say our 3:36 commenter pretty much nailed it. - Dave]
I am the energizer bunny of waiting DaveI think Dave has gotten our expectations too high, and now he will not be able to deliver.
To say that anyone born in the 20th century will instantly go "oohhh...so that's who/what he/it is" may be a promise he can't keep.
Universal recognition of a piece of mining equipment, and by anyone born during anytime of a whole century?
No, sad to say, I think Dave realizes his mistake, and is delaying, hoping to wait and tire us out.
But I will be here Dave...waiting...waiting...waiting.
[Did we not read all the comments? The answer, such as it is, is down below. - Dave]
Dave cracks me upIts his witty comments that make the difference as we ply around in the dark trying to figure out some goofy photo. Its Dave who makes it such fun. What a goof!
Well of course.It's a taffy stretcher. Am I warm?
Car.It's simply an automobile that moves by pushing air.
The scoops are obviously less practical than propellers, but perhaps the idea of a propeller wasn't as obvious then as now. Or the inventor was just dumb.
That's Peabody, famous in West VirginiaExperimental model of a dragline or bucket conveyor.
SprocketsI've got no idea what this is, but it's never going to work as long as the crucial middle chain remains off the sprocket.
If the inventor spent less time looking fiercely proud, in his obviously used-to-ridicule way, and more time hanging all his chains, we'd have guessed what this is by now.
Not Scoops or ScrapersEach pair of hoppers is facing in the same direction at all times, as controlled by the chain drives when the central shaft rotates. So it can't be intended to operate as a set of scoops for wind or water, or scrapers, or conveyor buckets. This inconvenient arrangement shot down my pet theory that the device was intended to clear roosting bats from the ceilings of railroad tunnels.
Generator, tooI see it as a generator, too, but a hydro-electric one. Small scale, for use in a stream, or at a small waterfall. Wheels just for display purposes?
CannibalizationI dunno what it is, but Mrs. Inventor is going to be plenty ticked off when she finds out what's happened to their baby carriage, bicycle and coal scuttles.
SnowplowIt's a early electric snowplow. Not only did the electric cord do it in, but it didn't have anything attached to it to knock over roadside mailboxes or pile up snow at their driveway entrances.
A flying machineThe scoops take up air at a constant aspect angle as they rotate.
My guessA generator, perhaps wind-driven.
Obviously"Harry Reese's early attempt at making machinery for use in combining and cupping chocolate with peanut butter."
If it was intended for useIf it was intended for use in a mine, it wasn't well designed. That motor would not last more than a day or two if that in the dust of a mine. All those friction points would be dangerous in a gaseous mine environment. And if it's a miniaturized model, full size it would be too big to operate in the tight confines of a mine.
Maybe it was a prototype that never went into production.
[As noted below, the motor would be for demonstration purposes. As for "friction points," just about any coal conveyor would have had zillions.- Dave]
You may laugh now......But just wait 'til you wake up to see an army of those things marching down your street!
Following in Grandpa's Footsteps...It's Eli Whitney the Fifth, and his Patented Gin Cottoner
Medical technology setback"This well-intentioned but ill-conceived invention thwarted doctors' attempts to encourage regular colonoscopies for almost fifty years."
Sound effectsIt's clearly a "clip-clop" sound effects machine for the movies. Unfortunately, the inventor failed to realize that talkies were still several years away.
Congressional Sanitation DevicePrototype device, designed to patrol the Congressinal aisles, scooping up massive amounts of government waste and depositing it in a trailing container for recycling. The practical Dual Scoop System permits it to work both sides of the aisle. A fleet of them were subsequently manufactured and work diligently to this day.
Road Apple CleanupThis is a nice Electric Rolling Pooper Scooper.
This inventor would have been a household name but for the phasing out of horse-drawn carriages.
WowNicest apple peeler I've ever seen.
Please, introduce us!Well, yeah, gee that thing sure does look familiar, I had one in my backyard growing up, but even then I wasn't sure if it was to rock the baby or pick the corn or thresh the wheat. I'm sure I'll slap my forehead and feel real dumb when you tell us, but what the heck is that, if not a ferris wheel with finger-removing gearwheels?
It's a KlugeAs the story goes, a Navy captain wanted to know every man aboard his ship and what they did. All went well until one sailor came before the Captain, gave his name, rank, and serial number followed by "Kluge maker, first class."
After some discussion among the officers, the Captain said he would certainly like to see a kluge in action. The young swabbie said he would demonstrate the next day. And sure enough, at noon sharp the sailor wheeled an ungainly object to the rail, and threw it overboard.
As it hit the surface it went "Kluge."
Obviously this is a prototype kluge.
Another Fine Acme ProductNew! Acme Little Giant Spilz-All (Pat. Pend).
Despite the helpful drawing, I'm still mystified by the orientation of the hoppers, since the very simple gearing and chain drives appear to keep them rotating to preserve the same angle (i.e. dumping only, as shown) through the full rotation around the main horizontal shaft. UNLESS the gear on each hopper is actually rotating it 360 degrees as it circles the shaft. Even with a fixed rate of rotation there might be a point in the rotational cycle in which a hopper is on the horizontal to receive loose material from one source and then, as it rises and turns, dump it onto a receiving conveyor positioned at a higher level. The device might then function as a sort of elevator from one conveyor to the next. But this still seems pretty whack, since the usual way of doing this is by ramping pairs of conveyor belts one above the other. This device may be so mysterious because the inventor offered a solution to a non-existent problem, and it never got beyond the demonstration model stage.
Holy bucketsThe "buckets" can't be for holding anything because they are open at the sides.
Maybe the "working" side of the bucket is the outside. Perhaps it's an automated skein for winding yarn or some other textile manufacturing process.
[The buckets in this coal or ore conveyor would be closed in a working example. The near end of the bottom left bucket shows how it would look. - Dave]
Maybe & Maybe NotSome seemed convinced that this is a coal or ore conveyor designed to ride behind a coal car, but I'm not convinced. If it was meant for that task, wouldn't the scooping buckets clear a wider path than just over the rails? This design would account for a lot of waste. If that is what it is, then perhaps that is why the design failed, but I don't think so.
Since it is only scooping over the rails, perhaps it was designed to ride in front of the cars and was meant to clear debris off the rails to keep the cars from derailing. Perhaps it is (also) meant to run in front of a train to clear heavy snow off locomotive tracks.
[It would have nothing to do with railroads or trains. The conveyor travels on a track behind the excavating machine in an underground mine to get the coal or ore out of the tunnel, moving its cargo both horizontally and vertically. Or it might move along a track in an open-pit mine. Whatever it is, it looks mining-related. Designed for carrying and dumping. - Dave]
Ok I don't want to give up...Thank you for this one, it has been one of the most entertaining posts I have witnessed. You need to do more mystery objects/people often.
Ok but...This will be my last comment because I'm obviously not understanding the explanation that you seem so sure of.
There is a large gap between the 2 buckets. If this is the design then it would only scoop coal or ore off the two sides and leave a large gap in the center. Unless I'm missing something - which is always a possibility - that does not make sense.
[I think you are confusing the excavator (the machine that does the mining) with the conveyor. Which conveys -- i.e. it is designed for carrying and dumping. Not scooping. - Dave]
Ummm, no.You're grasping at straws.
[Below, an electrically powered excavator. The coal is carried to the left along the conveyor belt on top and dumped or dropped or shoveled into coal cars or buckets, which are on a track. - Dave]
Beating a dead horseNo, I'm not confusing anything about the terminology. This "conveyor" that you are imagining this thing to be, if it runs behind the excavator, as you claim, only conveys material that is sitting on top of the rails. There is a huge gap between the rails that is left untouched. Nothing is conveyed between the rails. This is the issue I have with the explanation being given.
[The excavator fills the buckets of the conveyor from above. The coal is not "sitting on top of the rails." - Dave]
Re: Ummm, no.Yikes. Nightmares!
Sing along now...It went "zip" when it moved
and "pop" when it stopped
and "whirrr" when is stood still
I never knew just what it was
and I guess I never will
What's the nameof the inventor?
[We don't know. At least not yet. - Dave]
The buckets always face the same waySo it must be a seed spreader. (A person pushes the device along and the seeds spill out of the openings in the side of the buckets as the buckets move gently up and down.)
Barber-GreeneIt's a bucket loader, invented by Harry H. Barber and William B. Greene. I don't know which of the two is the guy in the picture.
[I think you're onto something. Among Barber-Greene's early products were a coal conveyor and a mobile bucket loader for use in cement plants. Who are you and how'd you figure this out? - Dave]
Founding Barber-Greene
Barber-Greene was founded in 1916 by Harry Barber and William Greene, co-workers at Stephens-Adamson, a conveyor company. Interested in embarking on a business venture of their own, the two became partners – Barber would handle product design, while Greene would be in charge of finance and business administration. The partners were interested in mechanizing small jobs "out of the shovel and wheelbarrow stage."
The First Conveyor Orders
Initially, Barber and Greene operated their new company from a makeshift office in a guest room at the Barbers’ residence. They subcontracted W.S. Frazier and Co. of Aurora, Ill., to manufacture the products Barber-Greene designed. In October 1916, the partners established credit with General Electric, and ordered the supplies they would need to make their first conveyor, the "No. 1," in the Frazier workshop. Before long, the company had received an order from Lilley Coal Co. With the profits made from this order, the partners began advertising in the Retail Coalman, a Chicago-based publication. As a result, the company began to receive multiple orders, and began to grow.
Harry H. Barber, William B. Greene
(The Gallery, Curiosities, Harris + Ewing)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/08196a.thumbnail.jpg "The Rest Is History: 1914")
- Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910
- ... of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
... started in the mines at age ten. He worked for Tennessee Coal and Iron in Jefferson County, Alabama. After his back was broke in a mine ...
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining) ... Posted by Dave - 02/14/2022 - 3:03pm -
![December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Shorpy storyThe story about this boy makes me so sad. The photo is so strong. Esthetically - wonderful - artistic movie like.
Thanks for sharing it with all of us. Tamara Razov.
His armsThose are the roughest part--it appears that they're rather permanently in that position.
Notice His Hands...You can tell Shorpy worked very hard. His hands look like the hands of a 40 year old man, not a 14 year old boy. His arms do appear to be permanently bowed out and his shoulders are sloped from carrying the heavy buckets.
How we could ever have gotten to this point in our society is beyond me. Thank goodness for the progressive people back then who put a stop to such practices and gave kids like Shorpy their childhoods.
omg. after seeing theseomg. after seeing these pictures, its so hard to believe how far we have gone and what todays world is like compared to back then. The question is, what would they think if they saw what the world was like today and how people are living?!
(perfect example, we now have cars that drive for us!!!)
Shorpy and child laborThe pictures were taken only 30 years before I was born.
When I was 14 I needed a State of California Work Permit in order to get a summer job (picking cotton).
We could quit school at 16. I didn't do that but many did.
Thank God for the reformers in the early 20th century!
"The golf links lie so near the mill that almost every day, the working children can look out and watch the men at play."
Don
Lest we forgetIt is easy to forget from the perspective of our comfortable North American lifestyles that in many places in the world, child labor still runs rampant, not because families want their children to work endless hours in deplorable conditions, but because their very existence depends on the meager income the children earn. Let's not become too complacent and self-satisfied that we've "progressed" beyond the conditions of the early 20th century until we've globally eradicated those same conditions that continue to exist today.
picture from a greaser kid... ... cause of his size he was able to easily go inside all the mechanics stuff.. they see it as a game... some great technologics developments were the outcome of that work-players boys... thats the good one... the bad one is that some of them never play again...
So great wonder!Really I'm so scare about you beautiful eye-moment, serious, I think in a lot of stuff's, that amazing like a time capsule... Don't have the exactly words for tell you my reasons... make my day theses snaps.
I hope back soon.
Carlos "Cx"
Shorpy's contemporariesA ten-year-old working in the mines was not unusual. My grandfather was born in 1896 and started in the mines at age ten. He worked for Tennessee Coal and Iron in Jefferson County, Alabama. After his back was broke in a mine accident and suffering from years of black-lung he lived to 84.
This was before welfareAmerica is still the greatest place in the world to give. I have traveled to a lot of countries. Yes, they have their pluses, but even the poorest americans live better than 99% of the worlds population.
Shorpy HigginbothamI wonder if anyone knows where Shorpy Higginbotham's grandfather, Robert Higginbotham, is buried.
Robert Higginbotham is my Great Great Grandfather.
Kenny Brown
twotreesklb@aol.com
Shorpy, descendant of Revolutionary War SoldierShorpy was my father's (Roy Higginbotham's) uncle, a younger brother of my grandfather, John W. Dolphus Higginbotham. Their ancestor Robert Higginbotham was a Revolutionary War soldier who fought in the Battle of King's Mountain. He died in Huntsville, Alabama, where he farmed for many years. He is buried on his farm and the Huntsville D.A.R. had a ceremony a few years ago at his grave site. There is another Robert B. Higginbotham (also a descendant of Robt. Sr.), buried in Remlap, Alabama, I think, but I don't recall him having an intact headstone.
[P.H., thanks for the information. You have a fascinating family history. - Ken]
ShorpyI found him, he is one of my cousins. Henry Sharp Higginbotham b 23 Nov 1896 d. 25 jan 1928, son of Felix Milton Higginbotham and Mary Jane Graham. We descend from the Amherst Co. Virginia Higginbothams. my line was Benjamin Higginbotham who m. Elizabeth Graves and d. 1791 in Elbert Co. GA. Then his son Francis Higgginbotham m. Dolly Gatewood. When they were in old age they moved with with their sons to the new Louisiana Territory, E. Feliciana Parish. My gggfather was Caleb Higginbotham and gggmother was Minerva Ann Bryant of the Manakintown, VA hugenot BRIANT. All the Higginbothams and Bryant sons fought in the Rev. War. My gggg William Guerant Bryant and his brother John, his father, James and Uncle Isaac and Isaac's son James and His Uncle Thomas were all in the battle of Guilford Court House NC 25 Mar 1781. Thomas was killed and Isaac wounded in the head.
Bessie Mine?One of the first posters said that Bessie Mine may still be operational. Is that true? When I look it up online, nothing much comes up. I'd love to see some more pictures of the mine, though, and learn a little more about it!
Bessie MineBessie Mine appears to be closed. Information available online shows that the current owner, US Pipe, has filed an application to use the area as a landfill.
My grandfather worked at Bessie and other mines in west Jefferson County. He would have been about Shorpy's age but didn't start to work there until he was 18 or so. After a couple of years working in the pits, he was able to get a position tending the generators and never had to work underground again.
Then and NowI don't want to go back to the "good old days." But everybody should "work" at least a few days (e.g. move a lot of force through a lot of distance all day while either sweating or freezing, dirty, dog-tired, with something aching). Maybe a kid who did some of this stuff will better appreciate the real things in life rather than Britney, American Idol, text messaging, and Fifty-Cent rap.
I'm glad i did - but not too much! In my younger days, I harvested tobacco, hauled hay, milked cows, moved gravel from a creek bed to the barnyard in a mule wagon, picked potatoes behind a mule plow, budded peach seedlings and harvested nursery stock on cold rainy January days. These are cherished memories working with my kinfolk on their farms. I'm glad I did it!
I've rolled cement up a hill in a wheelbarrow and finished it, framed and built buildings, plumbed and wired, and swapped greasy motors in cars. It all pays off as I can save money as a do-it-yourselfer. And it paid off as an incentive to study and go to college so I didn't have to do it for a living!
Looking at these pictures, I don't feel sorry for the people in them as I don't think they knew how "bad off" they were. So they were not! However, I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for our hard-working ancestors, my aunts and uncles, and cousins.
Roy HigginbothamWas your father the Roy Higginbotham who was principal of Minor Elementary School in the 60's and 70's?
martyshoemaker@hotmail.com
Bessie Mine Locationhttp://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=33.657286~-87.03305...
Clyde Donald HiggI am also related to the Higg from Va, and also the ones from Ireland. I just loved this about Shorpy Higg. I am still trying to locate more information on the Higg from Ind. where my father was from, his father was Luther, and his father was George. My father's name was Clyde Donald Higg.
cindykpiper@aol.com
[So you mean Higg, or Higginbotham? - Dave]
Feel sorry for us!>> Looking at these pictures, I don't feel sorry for the people in them as I don't think they knew how "bad off" they were.
I don't feel sorry for them either. I feel sorry for us, the younger generations. We have no idea what real, consistent hard work is. With the way things are going I desperately want to know someone who has lived the hard life, maybe lived through the Depression but no one is around to glean from. I just turned 33 years old but I see the wisdom in searching out the generation. I have even written my husbands Grandmother for advice but she is too busy to share her knowledge. I don't wish evil for our great country but it might do us some good to have to experience hardship to get our act together. For me, I grew up without hot water, sometimes the electric was shut off, rarely a car and I can tell many a story about cleaning clothes in a wringer washer in the middle of Missouri's wicked winter temps - outside at that. But I still know I have so much more to learn.
Roy Higginbotham>> Was your father the Roy Higginbotham who was principal of Minor Elementary School in the 60's and 70's?
That particular Roy Higginbotham was not my father, although I had heard about him from my cousins who still lived in the area. No doubt he is related in some way. My father (Roy) was also a coal miner in his younger days like his father and uncles. He died in 1961 at the age of 46. I remember my grandfather John talking about his brother "Sharpe" and how someone "took his picture" when he was a young boy working in the mines. Sorry it took so long for me to reply.
Bessie MineI live a few blocks from the mine. It was just off Rt 150 in Bessemer. The mine complex was left intact and abandoned since the 1950's until the buildings were cleared in 2009. I did photograph it before it was destroyed.
Happy Birthday Shorpy!Thank you for diligently updating and uploading. I know it takes a lot of time to run a website like this, and I for one am grateful for your efforts, Dave.
Thank you!
Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. For those who have not seen it, here is my story of Henry Sharp Higginbotham.
http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/henry-s-higginbotham-page-on...
Happy Birthday, Shorpy.com!I've been visiting since day one, so what else can I say? I love this site! Keep up the great work!
Daily DoseHappy Birthday Shorpy! You are a part of my daily ritual since you began and I look forward to checking this site as often as time permits. I've learned a great deal since you began these wonderful posts. Thanks gang, and many more!
My 2 cents worthI'm just a pup here, having only been on board for a year and a half. Thank you Dave, Ken, tterrace and all who do such a great job on this site.
To all the Shorpyites who add so much extra via comments, links and other added information, you all get a big "Attaboy". Thanks to one and all.
Happy birthday!
Thanks for a Great Five YearsYour very skilled and hard work, along with your thoughtful selection of the right moments from the past is greatly appreciated, Thank You!
George Widman
A treat each and every dayA great website that really is quite a treat each day,and I never can wait until another post,and the comments are always entertaining. Thank you for 5 years of hard work. I know I used to blog and I know it's something you dedicate yourself to.
The best photo blogI'm so glad you've kept it going. Yours is the best one out there. I enjoy how your selection of photographs cover the gamut. They may be from a particular era but not from a particular style or emotion.
RemindersThanks to you all for these incredible photos--wonderful work! Some remind me of my own childhood in the south and I have photos, too. My grandmother worked in a textile mill when she was 12, around 1912, never had much schooling, and married at 16. She told me stories of the Depression, when she had 6 children to raise by herself. A wonderful person who was a huge presence in my life, esp when my mother died in 1948, poor and in ill health. In 1955, my first job was at the five and dime at age 14 on Fri night and all day Sat for a grand total of $4.50.
Thank you again for the reminders of how it used to be, although I wouldn't want to repeat history.
Thanks!Thank you Shorpy and thank you shorpy.com
Fast Math"photographed by Lewis Hine 117 years ago"
107 plus 10 years of blogging, er, fast-forwarding gets you 117. Still the best site on the web.
Shorpy is my Great UncleHi my name is Timothy Williams, great grandson of Joseph James Williams, who was husband of Susie Higginbotham-Williams, sister of Henry Sharp "Shorpy" Higginbotham. Oddly as it may sound; although, probably not shocking, I think my family might have married into the Higginbotham's more than once. My father was a Williams and my mother was a Higginbotham too.
Anyways, It is my honor to share this with you all and I am happy to have found this website and I am so happy to look upon these pictures of one of my family members. I am proud to know he is my kin. While I am not a historian, I have majored in enough history classes, that I could probably teach it at some level. My family ancestry dates back to England and Scotland. I have a Robert B Higginbotham in my family that the Daughters of Revolution, found a grave marker years ago. He was a Revolutionary War hero. I don't know how they would be related, even if they are.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28768283/robert-higginbotham
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/01097u2.thumbnail.jpg "Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910")
- Behind the Scenes: 1938
- ... have showers in the basement so that they don't spread the coal dust/dirt through the house.
Basement Shower My grandfather built a ... of land. This picture is every bit of familiar to me.
Mining Photos One of the most extensive collections of Mining Photography ... Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 10:38am -
![September 1938. Westover, West Virginia. Marion Post Wolcott and her intrepid camera head downstairs: "Miner takes shower, which he built in the cellar of his home." View full size. Medium-format negative, Farm Security Administration.
Who'll Hold the Camera?And the next photo shows Marion wedged under his chassis.
Bargain BasementAre you sure this is not Montana? I see Butte.
At least we are not seeing junk this time.
Seriously, why put a shower downstairs? This has to be one of the oddest pictures you have unearthed yet.
[Probably because there's no bathroom upstairs. - Dave]
Basement ShowerMany miners, farmers and others who get very dirty at work have showers in the basement so that they don't spread the coal dust/dirt through the house.
Basement ShowerMy grandfather built a shower in the basement of his family's farmhouse in New Martinsville, WV back in the 40's. Until the late fifties that was the only bathroom plumbing in the house. A two-tub sink and a full mirror, along with a medicine cabinet and shelf for towels stand beside it. It's still where we're instructed to go when we get dirty working 365 acres of land. This picture is every bit of familiar to me.
Mining PhotosOne of the most extensive collections of Mining Photography and mining artifacts is located within the West Virginia State Archives and State Museum Collection at the Cultural Center in Charleston. I have compared the faces of miners in the hand-loading era with those of sailors in the sail era. They are strikingly similar. I guess the stress and strain of an extremely dangerous, and physically demanding job took its toll all who were there.
[Was there something memorable about this face in particular? - Dave]
(The Gallery, M.P. Wolcott, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/8c29836u.thumbnail.jpg "Behind the Scenes: 1938")
- Pony Island: 1904
- ... they got out of hand they'd be forced to work in The Great Coal Mine.
You'd be unhappy too If you had to go back to work in ... by the ruffians riding the ponies.
Adventures In Coal Mining That sounds like a fun attraction.
Edward VIII Is that a ... Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 7:15pm -
![New York circa 1904. "The ponies, Coney Island." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Um, kids, do you not like ponies?What's with the grim expressions here? Every last one of them looks like they hate being on a pony -- not what I'd expect from little kids ... Or are they just not reacting well to being photographed?
The Good Ol' Days?Wow! Not a smile to be seen in the whole crowd. Must be a lilliputian funeral procession.
No grinning in public!My old English grandmother taught me that. She thought that people who did were idiots. She was VERY English middle class. She was born in 1904.
Work Will Set You Free?Shorpy and his workmates look happier than these kids. The attitude of society at that time was that children were just small adults and no one was interested in children being carefree and happy. Even the ponies aren't too happy.
Stay golden pony boy.Maybe the pony riders were getting blown raspberries from the peanut gallery.
Goin' down down downI think the kids have such dour expressions because they were told that if they got out of hand they'd be forced to work in The Great Coal Mine.
You'd be unhappy tooIf you had to go back to work in The Great Coal Mine.
A rumble?This seems like more than normal stoicism. Half the pony kids as well as the two older boys in back are glowering at something or someone to the left of the cameraman. And the boy in the dark suit to the very left is looking pretty angry too. A dispute or argument over something happened here right before the picture was taken.
If you think we're having fun nowwait until we go down into the Coal Mine.
It would be decadesbefore little Timmy Dorfmann, standing front center, would benefit from the fledgling science of psychotherapy.
A caper in the worksThese two are planning something.
Mama's boyMy best guess is that the boy in stripes, holding his mother's hand, was beat up often by the ruffians riding the ponies.
Adventures In Coal MiningThat sounds like a fun attraction.
Edward VIIIIs that a scowling Prince of Wales standing at the extreme left?
That's no "Mama's Boy"Look closely and you’ll see there is a smaller child behind the boy in the horrible, pin-striped, matching short-pant and shirt outfit.
And I'm sure he'd box your ears for calling him a mama's boy!
Goat CartsCheck out the goat-pulled wagons to the right!
I believe pony rides are long gone from Coney Island now.
Say Cheese! With the relatively slow film, and a bunch of kids being held up for a, no doubt, publicity photo, what with the increasingly annoyed lens-man growling 'Hold still, you little buggers, and you lot, clear out of frame!', I'm surprised the photographer didn't have a stampede on his hands!
[By this time, photographic emulsions - in this case on a glass plate, not film - were sensitive enough to permit exposure times of a fraction of a second in sunlight. Note the lack of motion blur where you'd otherwise expect it, for example, the ponies' heads. - tterrace]
(The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Horses, Kids)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a11810a.thumbnail.jpg "Pony Island: 1904")
- Bean-Stringers: 1909
- ... that would be at the junction of Wolfe and Fell?
Beats coal mining. This looks like fun compared to the poor kids working the coal ... Posted by Dave - 08/14/2011 - 9:09pm -
![July 1909. Baltimore, Maryland. "Workers stringing beans in the J.S. Farrand Packing Co. Those too small to work are held on laps of workers or stowed away in boxes." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
No Strings AttachedWhat they are really doing is cutting/breaking off the pointed tips of the string beans prior to cooking and canning.
I live in Baltimore. The J.S. Farrand Co. was located in the Fells Point section of Baltimore City. I was unable to get a specific address.
The Good Old DaysWow. A hundred is not that long in the big scheme of things. Scenes like this help us remember that real human progress can and does happen from time to time. Hopefully the folks on Shorpy a hundred years from now will have some similar reminder to marvel at.
Stringing, Snapping and ShellingOne of the things that went on when I was coming up in '50's was that moms would get green beans, snap beans, string beans, butter beans and field peas, either from the grocery or peddlers or a trip to the farm. Several neighbor ladies would sit on a porch in the cool of the evening and string and snap the beans or shell the butter beans and peas. And chat. The kids who were able and willing would help out.
CheatedWhat?!
Children were paid for this sort of thing? I feel cheated! I stringed bushels and bushels of green beans, shelled peas and snapped beans when I was a little girl for my Grandmother in the cool of the shade of her back porch.
Oh, I take that back. The homemade pie and ice cream I was rewarded with after my diligent bean efforts was priceless.
HappySome of those kids look happy, and it's probably not just for the camera.
I work in a court. Everyone looks miserable all the time. Maybe I should bring in beans to string, or maybe we're all just too spoiled today. Well, no maybe about it.
Cannery LocaleThe Baltimore City Directory for 1909 says:
"Farren, J. S. & Co., Inc., ft of Wolfe"
So presumably that would be at the junction of Wolfe and Fell?
Beats coal mining.This looks like fun compared to the poor kids working the coal mines. Plus, if you ever get a little hungry ...
My grandma made me do itIn the home canning season in the 40's, I did a bushel or so. Not hard work but boring and harder to do if they were not fresh. Hard to break a limp bean.
Stringing green beansWith modern varieties of "string beans: such as Blue Lake, you almost never find any strings in the shells, but I have broken the beans in half, actually threaded them on strings or threads,and hung them up to dry for use later in the year. They taste quite good and somewhat different when re-hydrated and cooked.
Goin' to Work with MommyI wonder if maybe some of the kids felt special that they got to go to work with their parents. Obviously it wasn't hugely exciting, but I always felt important if my mom or dad ever had to bring me to work with them.
[A lot of the tots with crate-cribs were little brothers and sisters. - Dave]
Great memories over a bowl of beans. I too was called into service as a child to help snap bushels and bushels of green beans, and shell peas. I don't know about you all but I miss my grandmother and her porch. I sure miss the food she would turn out from that little tiny kitchen. I miss the cool of the evening and the shade of her back porch in the summer. Learned all about the neighbors and every member of my own family. Somewhat biased from time to time but never mean-spirited.
Just girl talk over a bowl of beans.
(The Gallery, Baltimore, Kids, Lewis Hine)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/00031u.thumbnail.jpg "Bean-Stringers: 1909")
- The Carbon Kid: 1938
- September 1938. "Coal miner's child breaking up large pieces of coal to take home. Pursglove, Scott's Run, West Virginia." Photo by Marion Post ... spelling wise ;-)]
(The Gallery, Kids, M.P. Wolcott, Mining, Railroads) ... Posted by Dave - 10/14/2015 - 1:34pm -
![September 1938. "Coal miner's child breaking up large pieces of coal to take home. Pursglove, Scott's Run, West Virginia." Photo by Marion Post Wolcott for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Coal miners' kidsThis was apparently very common in coal country in the early 20th century and before. My mom was a coal miner's daughter born in 1910 in Bradenville, Pa. where her father worked the mines and she and her three brothers were often told to take burlap bags to the railroad tracks and pick up as much coal as possible that had fallen off the train cars as they rattled along. They used it to heat their homes in the frigid Pa. winters and her mom would cook with it. When I was very young and went there to my grandma's funeral, I well remember the miles and miles of the most train tracks I've ever seen and coal scattered everywhere. We who are living today have no real idea of how very hard life was in earlier times.
He's going to look sharp in dress bluesWe grew up hearing the family was so poor that Grandfather would pick up coal off of the train tracks. Fast-forward 85 years, through the wonders of newspaper archives digitization: a 15-year-old Grandfather is arrested for picking up coal in the rail yard after he pushed it off of a rail car. The following month, Grandfather's name appears on a U.S.Marine Corps muster sheet at Marine Barracks Port Royal, South Carolina (now Parris Island). The beginning of the Sergeant Major's 40-year adventure.
Fred FlintstoneThe early years.
They almost arrested himthen they found out he had squatter's rights.
ShortsI had an outfit like that as a child. Get up, get in and that's it!
Coal cars rumblin past my door...Both of my parents grew up poor in western PA "coal patch" towns.
Every time I hear the song "The L&N don't stop here any more" I think of the wonderful stories of the hard luck years they endured. How I would give anything to be standing along the "sulfur crick" with rusty old Pennsy H21 and GLa hopper cars of coal (like those in the W Va picture) rumbling by.
"I was born and raised in the mouth of the hazard holler...
Coal cars rumblin past my door..
Now they're standin in an empty row all rusty
And the L&N dont stop here anymore"
Not Only CoalIn the post-war 40's my brand new parents lived in a little rental house on a 15 MPH curve of the local highway. Hundreds of produce trucks would make that turn every day - most at speeds exceeding the recommended 15 MPH limit. This usually caused anything loaded above the top of the truck bed to roll off and into our yard. Late afternoon would my folks and most others from the neighborhood gleaning the assorted veggies FOB.
Thrown in jailMy father got thrown in jail for picking coal off the tracks, Easter Sunday 1928. He was 15 - Delano, Pennsylvania.
Not just yesteryearSpringfield, Missouri has a coal fired plant and it is illegal to pick up coal along the tracks. Seems they had a problem with people getting too close to the trains.
Marion Post WolcottMarion Post Wolcott never seems to disappoint. She really had a great eye and fabulous technique.
Not just "roadkill"It was (and probably still is in the dirt-poor parts of the world) common to glean traffic lanes for "roadkill", so to say. The even harder version is people going though mine tailings for tidbits of coal, ore, or whatever may be useful.
My dad recalls gleaning fields for wheat, rye, whatever ears the farmers' workers had lost or missed during harvest.
[edit: not my best day, spelling wise ;-)]
(The Gallery, Kids, M.P. Wolcott, Mining, Railroads)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY-8c29763a.thumbnail.jpg "The Carbon Kid: 1938")
- Carnival Ride From Hell: 1911
- ... 'Breaker boys' remove rocks and other debris from the coal by hand as it passes beneath them. The dust is so dense at times as to ... Spargo:
Work in the coal breakers is exceedingly hard and dangerous. Crouched over the chutes, the ... attack did him in.
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining) ... Posted by Dave - 06/24/2021 - 11:31pm -
![January 1911. South Pittston, Pennsylvania. "A view of the Pennsylvania Breaker. 'Breaker boys' remove rocks and other debris from the coal by hand as it passes beneath them. The dust is so dense at times as to obscure the view and penetrates the utmost recesses of the boys' lungs." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
From the 1906 book The Bitter Cry of the Children by labor reformer John Spargo:
Work in the coal breakers is exceedingly hard and dangerous. Crouched over the chutes, the boys sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past to the washers. From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men. When a boy has been working for some time and begins to get round-shouldered, his fellows say that “He’s got his boy to carry round wherever he goes.”
The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. Clouds of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for asthma and miners’ consumption.
I once stood in a breaker for half an hour and tried to do the work a 12-year-old boy was doing day after day, for 10 hours at a stretch, for 60 cents a day. The gloom of the breaker appalled me. Outside the sun shone brightly, the air was pellucid, and the birds sang in chorus with the trees and the rivers. Within the breaker there was blackness, clouds of deadly dust enfolded everything, the harsh, grinding roar of the machinery and the ceaseless rushing of coal through the chutes filled the ears. I tried to pick out the pieces of slate from the hurrying stream of coal, often missing them; my hands were bruised and cut in a few minutes; I was covered from head to foot with coal dust, and for many hours afterwards I was expectorating some of the small particles of anthracite I had swallowed.
I could not do that work and live, but there were boys of 10 and 12 years of age doing it for 50 and 60 cents a day. Some of them had never been inside of a school; few of them could read a child’s primer. True, some of them attended the night schools, but after working 10 hours in the breaker the educational results from attending school were practically nil. “We goes fer a good time, an’ we keeps de guys wot’s dere hoppin’ all de time,” said little Owen Jones, whose work I had been trying to do.
From the breakers the boys graduate to the mine depths, where they become door tenders, switch boys, or mule drivers. Here, far below the surface, work is still more dangerous. At 14 or 15 the boys assume the same risks as the men, and are surrounded by the same perils. Nor is it in Pennsylvania only that these conditions exist. In the bituminous mines of West Virginia, boys of 9 or 10 are frequently employed. I met one little fellow 10 years old in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, last year, who was employed as a “trap boy.” Think of what it means to be a trap boy at 10 years of age. It means to sit alone in a dark mine passage hour after hour, with no human soul near; to see no living creature except the mules as they pass with their loads, or a rat or two seeking to share one’s meal; to stand in water or mud that covers the ankles, chilled to the marrow by the cold draughts that rush in when you open the trap door for the mules to pass through; to work for 14 hours — waiting — opening and shutting a door — then waiting again for 60 cents; to reach the surface when all is wrapped in the mantle of night, and to fall to the earth exhausted and have to be carried away to the nearest “shack” to be revived before it is possible to walk to the farther shack called “home.”
Boys 12 years of age may be legally employed in the mines of West Virginia, by day or by night, and for as many hours as the employers care to make them toil or their bodies will stand the strain. Where the disregard of child life is such that this may be done openly and with legal sanction, it is easy to believe what miners have again and again told me — that there are hundreds of little boys of 9 and 10 years of age employed in the coal mines of this state.
-- John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children (New York: Macmillan, 1906)
A little researchOne little search on google answers the question of if this is still allowed to exist.
http://hrw.org/children/labor.htm
Think Outside the USIt may not be happening here, in the US of A but that doesn't mean it isn't happening...
http://hrw.org/children/labor.htm
how trueI agree totally with the previous comment. But serious, this is a fantastic photo-- how incredible that this was (and probably still is) allowed to exist!
Breaker BoysThere haven't been any kids in American coal mines since the child labor laws were passed around 80 years ago. Plus of course coal-sorting is automated and done by machines now.
Breaking..The little boy in the center of the photo looks to be about my son's age. Thinking about my son living that life tears me up. I can't fathom what it would be like to send your child off to that, much less having to work it.
That dangerous line of work made for some amazing photos, and some serious thought...
This picture has me wondering..I realize that children had to work hard to survive back then, but even my generation had to help our parents as soon as we were able to. Aren't we now raising a bunch of lazy kids that will never grow up. First you worked when you turned 6, then 9 or 10. It's getting so that we are letting children stay children way too long today, and parents are spoiling them to the point that often they are still living at home as adults. There has to be a happy medium here somewhere. I expect that in coming years we will still be taking care of our "children" well into their twenties! Don't get me wrong, my heart breaks to see these tiny children in these photos having to do the things they did to survive!
Required School SubjectPerhaps a required course about child labor should be taught in schools. Maybe today's children would gain an appreciation of what they have rather than lamenting what they do not have.
Children staying children....Quote "...we are letting children stay children way too long today, ....." Unquote.
Pray tell....at what age should a child cease to be a child?
BK
Canberra
Children staying children...At what age should a child cease to be a child? That's easy. The answer in America is 18. If you're old enough to go to war or vote, you're an adult and it's time to get with it.
I started working part time (with a work permit) at 15, and my father made it clear I had to be self sufficient or in college at 18, after graduating high school. It worked out pretty well, and I think that vast bulk of children today would benefit from a few deadlines.
Children staying children....I remember my US Marine son saying "I'm old enough to vote and to die for my country, but I can't legally drink a beer." He was age 20 when he said this.
Coal Miner's DollarThis may be a foolish question, but where did the boys put the rocks and debris they retrieved? Was there some kind of separate "trash" channel within the chute? Did they just toss it somewhere to the side?
The text description of the work is chilling. And these children endured this hellhole for less than Loretta Lynn's "miner's dollar" - 60-70 cents a day.
Maybe not in Americabut people who aren't Americans are still human beings, right? Still people with souls and hearts and, as Neil Gaiman wrote, entire lives inside every one of them.
And we all tend to think of them as lesser beings, or their troubles as less important to us, because they were born on the other side of an artificial border.
Mine Owners BurdenDo you believe that any of the folks who profited from the work of these children every set foot in one of these mines? Do you believe THEIR children ever had to even lift a finger to get whatever they needed or wanted ? Just the same old story, the elites living on the backs of the majority. Don't think it isn't going on right now, and that it couldn't happen here if the moneyed elite (left and right) could just get their way! Ah, the good old days!
[Yes, they did set foot on the premises. They also provided a livelihood for the thousands of people who chose to work there. - Dave]
What beyond bare subsistence is a livelihood?Directed to Dave's response to "Mine Owner's Burden":
Perhaps the owners did set foot in the mines, perhaps they did support "the thousands who chose to work there"; but what choice did many of these kids have? Many were either orphaned or born into families without the means to survive if their children did not go to work in the mines. The fact is that the mine owners DID NOT pay a wage that allowed for the families to live above poverty level, even with their sons working beginning work at age 7 or so.
[As Lewis Hine documented in his report to the National Child Labor Committee, hardly any of these children were orphans (back when orphans were usually committed to orphanages). Most of them came from two-parent households that, as Hine took pains to point out, didn't need the extra income. And there were other employment opportunities for boys their age -- work in agriculture, fabric mills, markets, etc. - Dave]
From Bad to WorseJust when I thought Tobacco Tim had it bad, Shorpy's comes up with this. Unfortunately I'm quite sure that things have been even worse for some kids.
Something to ponderBehind every "endowment for the arts", "trusts" that built museums and public venues and all originating from the money made in that era there are proverbial hunched shoulders of the boys as on the photo.
AirI feel honored to join a line of comments that stretches back over 14 years to the time of the original posting of this photo. This is a piteous sight indeed, these children performing appalling work in such cramped and hunched-over positions. The text by Spargo documents the numerous horrible features of the job, not the least of which was the dust in the air. Which makes me wonder: couldn’t the overlords at least have opened that window? Sure, it was January, but wouldn’t the chill have been worth it for the sake of fresh air?
Constant reminderI live in Northeast Pennsylvania not far from old coal breakers, plus the mountains of culm and coal waste. I was told that the probably the hundreds of thousands tons of this stuff was picked by boys just like these.
110 years laterThis photo is heartbreaking. However, it struck me that today a group of children would have the same posture - all bent over their phones. That is heartbreaking, too, in a different way.
Gramps Survived ThisMy granddaddy (1891-1969) was a breaker boy in Pennsylvania. He had to help support a large family. I remember hearing that he got $2 a week and a box of groceries. Then he went off to Europe and fought in WWI in France. He must've been a tough guy but never showed it. He lived a long life but finally black lung disease and a heart attack did him in.
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY-05473u.thumbnail.jpg "Carnival Ride From Hell: 1911")
- Consumers Coal: 1940
- July 1940. "Coal company. Benton Harbor, Michigan." Medium format acetate negative by John ... Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Big coal pieces It would be really hard to get some of those coal chunks in a ... me of the pyramids at Giza.
(The Gallery, John Vachon, Mining) ... Posted by Dave - 12/28/2019 - 8:50pm -
- Coal Hole: 1938
- September 1938. "Coal mining community near Welch, West Virginia." Medium format negative by Marion ... electrified only through the tunnel. Lengthy tunnels and coal fired steam engines ain't a good combo. Has anyone pinned down the ... Posted by Dave - 03/26/2019 - 12:17am -
- Coal Country: 1938
- September 1938. Osage, West Virginia. "Mining town. Coming home from school." Medium format nitrate negative by Marion ... 1930s and '40s in West Virginia, where his father was a coal miner. I always imagined him coming home from school almost just like ... Posted by Dave - 04/15/2010 - 11:08am -
![September 1938. Osage, West Virginia. "Mining town. Coming home from school." Medium format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.
Hey you guysWant to see a dead body?
OsageIn the Northern WV coalfields.
MatewannyWith the possible exception of the paved road, it's striking how much this view of the town resembles the set of "Matewan."
Over the riverMy dad grew up in the 1930s and '40s in West Virginia, where his father was a coal miner. I always imagined him coming home from school almost just like this. His stories included rowing across a river to school as well as walking down railroad tracks. Thanks for posting!
Down The RoadA photo of a town that is about 10 minutes away from me. Pretty cool.
Spring or Fall?What a beautiful composition. You can tell it's either spring or fall because they're all carrying the jackets they were probably wearing that morning when it was cooler out.
[Another clue to the season would be the first word of the caption. - Dave]
Heh - clearly I was so taken with the photo that I didn't read the caption. --H
You damn kids!Get offa da tracks, what are ya, an eejit?
Main Street RROsage! I've passed through here all my life. Many of the old company towns have been demolished but much of Osage survives. As with many WV coal towns, macadam and rails share the main passage through town.
Coal Miner's Granddaughtermy mother, Ruby, grew up in Logan, West Virginia, and would have been 12 in 1938. She was a towheaded little girl like the one here. I have never seen a photo of her as a child. This picture lets me imagine that little girl is my mother. Thank you very much for that.
A better time to be a kidAbout the only vivid memories I have of grade school is the walking or bike-riding to and from. The classroom time is all a fog.
We could go home for lunch. We had time to build relationships with the kids we went back and forth with. We had time to explore our surroundings.
Some schools are just now discovering students get better grades when they start the day with Phys Ed. It's supposed to rev up the brain.
We got our brains revved by just by getting there on foot instead of on a bus.
And we didn't run away scared if an old guy in a floppy hat was walking along the road, too.
Everyone's WalkingEveryone's walking rather than being driven home -- a big reason why you don't see any chubby kids in that photo.
Contrast that with West Virginia today, which now ranks second in the nation in obesity rates.
Did the same thing myselfin the early 1940s in "Idyllic Larkspur, California." Not too many trains by then, but got scared more than once by hobos.
That echoing refrain of parenthood Sukie! Don't you be walking on the road, you know the tracks is safer, just listen for the whistle!
(The Gallery, Kids, M.P. Wolcott)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/8c29896u.thumbnail.jpg "Coal Country: 1938")
- The Great Coal Mine: 1901
- New York circa 1901. "The Great Coal Mine, Coney Island." From the book Coney Island and Astroland : "The Great Coal Mine was a 1,500-foot-long dark ride that enabled visitors to travel on ... up. Casing the joint?
(The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Mining) ... Posted by Dave - 05/17/2014 - 10:38pm -
![New York circa 1901. "The Great Coal Mine, Coney Island." From the book Coney Island and Astroland: "The Great Coal Mine was a 1,500-foot-long dark ride that enabled visitors to travel on coal cars through several levels of a dimly lit simulated mine. It opened in 1901 on the north side of Surf Avenue at West Tenth Street, was not very popular, and was soon replaced by L.A. Thompson's Oriental Scenic Railway." 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Re: Fire in the Hole!JimmyLee-I have ridden that ride several times. I you sit in the front car, you can see the big drop before the steam jets blow.
(The steam jets were there to hinder your view as you went straight down a 40' to 50' drop!)
I'll bet Coney Island was blast back then. I've been enjoying the close-up viewing on the pictures of it that have been posted these past few days.
Wild guessI'm thinking that Pennsylvania was just a few hours from N.Y. and since so many Pa. people worked in the coal mines every day, they probably did not choose to go on this "ride" while vacationing at an amusement park, since they knew well the misery of the real thing.
Long pants vs. short pantsDoes anyone know at what age boys began wearing long pants? These guys look pretty close in age.
[Reaching puberty was usually the point. In this closer view, it's easier to see that one has, and one hasn't, quite. - tterrace]
Hop to itBoth the lady in the street by the Zoo, and the man passing by the scenic railway seem to get along fairly well, considering they're both missing a leg.
"Fire in the Hole"This reminds me of a ride in Silver Dollar City outside of Branson, Missouri. Built in 1972 it is a dark roller coaster ride that takes you through a simulated burning mine town. Still in operation and another one like it at Dollywood in Tennessee.
Rip off: Belle Epoque styleI don't understand how the luncheonette can charge as much for Lemonade as Ice Cream Sodas and Milk Shakes. Similar to to-day's coffee being $1.49 a cup--is outrage!
Digital Sign? In 1901!At the peak of the uppermost roof there seems to be an early example of some kind of nine character display sign. Behind the glass there looks to be a fourteen segment display.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_segment_display
I'd sure like to see a night photo with the sign lit up! Surely advanced technology for its day!
[According to the article, not so much advanced as costly: "Multiple segment alphanumeric displays are nearly as old as the use of electricity... a complete set of commutator switches, drums and lamps would have been required for each letter of a message, making the resulting sign quite expensive." A related display is the carriage call. - tterrace]
Chicago Coal mineAt the age of 12 or 13 I was traveling with my family out to Kankakee, IL. One of the places we stopped was the museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. They had a replica of an operating coal mine there, as well as the U-505, a captured German U-Boat. I know that the U-505 is still there, but I am not sure about the coal Mine. This would have been circa 1959-1961
I wonder if any other Shorpyites remember this exhibit.
Other unsuccessful rides at Coney IslandOther unsuccessful rides of the general era at Coney Island included:
"Ride with Custer, Hero of The Little Big Horn"
"A Trip through the Spanish Influenza Ward", and
"Journey with the Majestic New 'Titanic' and Back"
Remember it wellGreycat, the coal mine at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry was just one of the many wonders of "The Pushbutton Museum." I also visited a couple of times around 1961 during our layovers on train trips to Denver, even though it was a $12(!) cab ride to get there. As I recall, the walls on both the elevator and the mine tram portions were on moving belts to make the rides seem longer.
Another favorite was the Santa Fe train layout with functioning Central Traffic Control. At the time I saw it, a female museum guard was overseeing it. She told me the male guards would try to run it manually, and derail the trains.
What this country really needsThere's a wagon full of them, parallel parked in front of the L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway, though I can't say if they were any good.
The coal mine ride, while less than enthralling to anybody who had been inside the real thing, must have thrilled the kids. I well remember the mine exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry when I was eight.
Funny, if the fourteen segment display was so expensive, that they would put it on such a combustible building.
Photographer at largeIt looks as if that fellow is whispering in the policeman's ear about the photographer. The cop is wondering what's up. Casing the joint?
(The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY_4a11808a.thumbnail.jpg "The Great Coal Mine: 1901")
- Just Up: 1905
- ... guys were just coming up from their shift, deep copper mining must have been a lot cleaner than deep coal mining, even if not more safe.
Two granddads This photo brings to ... Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 6:13pm -
![Calumet, Michigan, circa 1905. "Just up, Hecla Shaft No. 2." Copper miners topside. 8x10 inch dry glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Six Flags Over CalumetIt looks like the start/stop point of the Unhappy Log Flume.
E ticket ride.That looks like one heck of a steep ride. Even if these guys averaged 150 pounds each, that would be over two tons of meat heading down that hole on every trip.
Splash MountainShouldn't someone be playing chess?
Back at the StationThe guy all the way to the left is saying, "Please keep your hands, feet and arms inside the car until the ride has come to a complete stop. Please exit the ride by using either stairway. Enjoy the rest of your day at Hecla World."
These guys look pretty happyMore smiles here than in 90 percent of most old photos. Considering what they do for a living that's rather remarkable!
Time to play hookyI love this photo so much that I am going to take the afternoon off work just to look at it. Thank heavens for self-employment!
Shining FacesIf these cheerful guys were just coming up from their shift, deep copper mining must have been a lot cleaner than deep coal mining, even if not more safe.
Two granddadsThis photo brings to mind my two grandfathers, both from Poland around the turn of the century. One became a coal miner in Pennsylvania doing this same kind of hazardous, back-breaking labor and had both legs broken in a mine explosion but did eventually return to work the same job. One worked in a copper foundry in Ct. and died at work on a horrendously torrid July afternoon in 1925. Like these men pictured, they never complained but did what they felt they had to do to support their families and become Americans. Their children met in N.Y.C. and the rest is history, but none of their grandchildren ever had to work as hard as they did. I suspect we are all beneficiaries of our ancestors willingness to give all they had for our better lives. Be thankful for the sacrifices made by your ancestors and give them a grateful thought occasionally.
Obviously a management spyThe guy at the right of row 6 seems to be the only one missing the obligatory mine worker mustache.
I willnever complain about working again and this was the best part of the day!
Kilroy is thereLook at the guy peeking over the hat 2nd row from the top and far right seat.
WHAT A RIDEThe man off to the side looks like Tom Edison and the lever next to him looks like the lever to start an old roller coaster, boy are those guys in for a ride. On a more serious note the miners are wearing oil lamps on their helmets, this picture is pre carbide lamp which was a heck of a lot brighter. Also that appears to be a speaking tube next to the standing gent, probably used to talk to the engine operator who could not see the mine car as it came up.
Clever NicknameI'll bet that huge guy in the third row was known as Tiny.
Big John"And now there's only one left down there to save."
Middle row, third up from the bottom.
'StachedMustache, mustache, mustache!
Your mustacheMust be this wide to go on this ride.
Who's your daddyIt would be really difficult for family members coming down to the mine exit to find the correct husband, father or brother to pick up since nearly everyone there has such similar facial hair, clothing and accessories.
Cans?What are they carrying in their cans or buckets? Is this an authorized lunch container or some device related to their work?
[Those are lunch pails. -Dave]
Eight years laterOn July 23rd, 1913 the miners at the Calumet and Hecla Mining Co. went on strike. On Christmas Eve of that year the striking miners and their families gathered on the second floor of the Italian Hall in Calumet to attend a party sponsored by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Mineworkers.
Somebody yelled "Fire!" In the ensuing panic, seventy-three people died, including fifty-nine children. There was no fire. They never found out who yelled "fire" but it was commonly believed that it was an anti-union provocateur who wanted to disrupt the party.
The strike was not settled until April 1914.
Lunch BucketI'll bet every one of those lunch pails has a Cornish Pasty in it.
I can't help itI keep imagining the feller on the left has a voice like Walter Brennan. "Aww, get on with it an' take the pitcher already! We got work ta do here ya know!"
I reckon it must beMovember!
Clone WarsThe early years.
Middle row, sixth from bottom, see me after your shift!We got us a wise guy here.
Inside the Dinner PailWould likely be a pasty -- a staple in the U.P.
Pasties have a flaky-type pie crust filled with a mixture of ground meat (usually beef) with carrots, potatoes, onion and rutabaga. They were wrapped in newspaper to keep them warm.
If you ever visit the U.P. make sure to sample a pasty!
Lunch Buckets, etc.The buckets are similar to the one I carried in the mines and still have. There is a tray that fits into the top of the larger bottom can. The miners carried their lunch (usually a "Pasty" meat pie) in the tray. The bottom held tea. The miners would take several nails and drive them into a timber or lagging board in a ring pattern, put a candle stub in the center, and sit the bucket atop the ring of nails to warm up their tea.
I am betting the shift is getting ready to go below, not just coming up .... they are pretty clean. Even hard-rock mines result in dirty miners! Hoist signals were sent by electricity to the hoist room. Great photo!
Skip
(former miner and hoistman)
Where's the Gipper?Calumet is where the great Notre Dame football star Ron, er, George Gipp was born and is buried.
PastiesMost likely the lunch pails contain some pasties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty
The pasty remains a very popular U.P. staple, though I'm sure the fellows in the photo enjoyed pasties too.
U.P.?You need to explain what U.P. is to us non-Americans.
[As well as non-Yoopers. - Dave]
The PastyThe Pasty (pronounced with a short "a" like "pass" rather than like "paste") has an interesting history. It is the national dish of Cornwall, and a standard in the diet of Cornish miners. The copper country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula had an influx of Cornish miners in the 1860s followed by a small wave of Finnish miners. The Finns adopted the Pasty as their standard meal so that when a larger wave of Finnish migration arrived in the 1890s, they found pastys as the standard dish for their Finnish brethren.
Last Train to FarkvilleFarked again!
The UPThe UP is on the south shore of Lake Superior. It is part of Michigan, sometimes to the irritation of its inhabitants, who are known as Yoopers. There have been movements for statehood since the Peninsula became a mining and timber bonanza in the mid 1850's; this was not long after the local Ojibwa showed early explorers where the iron was. I remember tee shirts with "The State of Superior" on them in the 1960's!
The Mackinac Bridge connects us with the rest of Michigan. The UP has Lake Michigan to the south and the big lake (Superior) to the north.The peninsula is about 300+ miles long, east and west with smaller peninsulas on both coasts that jut out into their respective Great Lake. The Keweenaw Peninsula, where this photo was taken, is on the Lake Superior side and it is about 100 miles to Copper Harbor on its northern most point from the main Peninsula. US-41 runs from Copper Harbor, Michigan to Miami, Florida.
(The Gallery, DPC, Farked, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY_4a13086a.thumbnail.jpg "Just Up: 1905")
- Old Coal King: 1940
- ... More specifically, the Old Company's Lehigh Navigation Coal Co. Lansford Colliery. Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for ... to other railroads and concentrated on anthracite mining. In 1940 though, Lansford Colliery was served by LC&N-owned Lehigh ... Posted by Dave - 04/10/2020 - 4:49pm -
- Incendiary: 1938
- September 1938. Capels, West Virginia. "Coal miner waiting for lift home." Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion ... up before leaving work. I knew him only after his coal mining days. Even after he was retired, he would take a long shower, shave, ... Posted by Dave - 09/12/2012 - 6:02pm -
- Coal Country, Cont'd: 1938
- September 1938. "Coal mining community near Welch, West Virginia." Medium format acetate negative by ... of an exquisite model railroad layout, right?!?!
As coal patch houses go These are not bad, the porches are a nice touch.
... Posted by Dave - 03/26/2019 - 11:25am -
- Drift Mouth: 1908
- ... thing for WV.
TAYLOR COUNTY
GRAFTON COAL AND COKE COMPANY.
No. 145. Sand Lick Mine, Pittsburg Seam, ... is well looked after. This is a pick mine and the coal is hauled by mules and lowered by gravity plane to the tipple. There are ... here hain't no fun."
(The Gallery, Horses, Lewis Hine, Mining) ... Posted by Dave - 11/12/2022 - 4:36pm -
- Tipple Boy: 1908
- ... .
October 1908. "Tipple boy at the Turkey Knob coal mine in Macdonald, West Virginia." Says the LOC: "Patron identifies this ... or economic connection to the working conditions in the mining industry. It was one of those moments for me, as a naive kid, when I ... Posted by Dave - 06/09/2018 - 3:45pm -
![ UPDATE: The historian Joe Manning has more on the life of Otha Porter Martin here.
October 1908. "Tipple boy at the Turkey Knob coal mine in Macdonald, West Virginia." Says the LOC: "Patron identifies this as her grandfather, Otha Porter Martin, born July 3, 1897." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Shorpy IIHe resembles our Shorpy...there is a genetic sameness to a lot of these boys in Appalachia from this era...my father said in WW II it was easy to pick out guys from central Appalachia...they all looked very much the same, in a time when people were not as mobile as now.
Tipple DefinitionWhat is a Tipple boy? I tried looking it up on line, but all definitions of tipple I could find had to do with alcohol.
[It's a boy who works in the tipple. - Dave]
Work UniformClose-fitting clothing was very important for a job like that.
From the photos, they must also have worn goggles at work.
[No goggles. - Dave]
What's on his head?What is on his head?
[A miner's headlamp (examples below). More information here. - Dave]
TippleTipple refers to the superstructure above ground that housed the draw works (hoist engine, cable drum, gear head etc) and the conveyor that took the ore away when the ore cart was tipped when it reached the surface.
Tipple BoyI'm not sure what you mean by genetic sameness. Inter-breeding? Let's break out the 'ole genetic charts from WWII Germany and compare notes. I believe all the Jews during that time were also subjects of genetic sameness. Re: the mobility theory. Why do the indigenous Peruvians resemble the Indians on the islands of San Blas? I would think mobility would be a bigger issue for these two groups but they must be inter-breeding because they have the same features. I think the people from NYC are inter-bred because they sound alike. What a silly conclusion. The miners of Central Appalachia came from many ethnic backgrounds during this time.
[It's a typo. He meant "generic," not genetic. - Dave]
Miners lampThe lamp is a carbide lamp. One used solid carbide in the lamp body and added water to it and lit the carbide gas that it produced.
SadThis picture makes me incredibly sad! I want to give him a big hug. He looks old beyond his time. He reminds me of Shorpy! These boys reslly never had a childhood. What a waste! Hopefully they grew strong and had a happier life later~
Otha Porter MartinThis is another photograph I recognized from my time spent on the LOC website. Another visitor identifies him as her grandfather Otha Porter Martin, born July 3, 1897. So nice when you can put a name to a face!
[Thanks! I've added that to the caption. - Dave]
Rock StarI recognize this from a wildly different source. Celtic rock fans will know this picture as the cover of the Seven Nations album "The Factory."
Open lights in a coal mine?Yuck!
And considering that safety mine lamps have been invented almost 100 years before the time of that photo, even a couple of competing designs within a few years, making those people work with crap like that was not just callous, but criminal.
By the way, electric isn't all that popular in coal mines if it's not batteries. An ex colleague of mine who had been a mechanic in a mine, told me that stationary lights there were run on pressurized air. Air turns turbine, turbine turns generator, generator runs light. All in a noisy, compact, gasproof, sparkproof package. Ventilation free of charge.
Bankers & MinersThe Tipple Boy and the additional images supplied in the comments took me back 30 years when I was a teenager working as a teller in a northern Indiana bank. The first time I saw a government check from the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, it was an eye-opener. I had previously assigned black lung disease to a bygone era, and furthermore didn't feel a geographic or economic connection to the working conditions in the mining industry. It was one of those moments for me, as a naive kid, when I started thinking about the big picture.
To think Shorpy could have beenTippleBoy.com
First photo I thought ofUntil I found Shorpy, the first photo I thought of when I heard a reference to child labor laws was this one. I'm glad to know that this boy at least lived long enough to have a family.
So many of those boys photographed during this period were of an age where they might have served in WWI (like Shorpy did). I'd be willing to bet that those young men tended to complain much less about the drills, the facilities, the food, etc., than those who grew up more privileged. I'll bet even those who made it to the trenches in France complained less. Those boys in the coal mines even saw death, regularly.
Story of Tipple BoyThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I just completed my story about this boy, Otha Porter Martin. I interviewed some of his grandchildren. It's quite a story. He lived to be 87 years old. You can find the story at this link:
https://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2018/01/22/otha-porter-martin-macdonal...
(The Gallery, Bizarre, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/05361u1_1.thumbnail.jpg "Tipple Boy: 1908")
- Shorpy and His Friends
- ... of young fellows.
Fate and time . . . We sons of coal miners can only reflect on what might have been if born a 100 years ago. ... much! - Dave]
(The Gallery, Birmingham, Lewis Hine, Mining) ... Posted by Dave - 04/28/2019 - 3:00pm -
![December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, an oiler on the tipple at Bessie Mine" -- near Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Entire uncropped image.
CropCan I ask why you cropped the photo?
CropTo make Shorpy stand out more.
shorpy's armsNotice how even in the photos where he's not carrying buckets his arms are permanently out away from his body?
How sad for those kids back then.
But sadder today that kids have gone so far the other direction that they consider setting the table & cleaning their rooms a form of child abuse!!
Oiler? or Oilee.Sure looks like he got more oil on him than on or in the equipment. Good quality on the resolution.
Shorpy's PosseThe crop looks good. The other boys look like Shorpy's posse, and Shorpy is the greasiest of them all.
[The white kid on the far right is Dave, also pictured here. - Other Dave]
ShorpyThey all look set with grim determination. It's a character asset that not many of today's youth share. Considering what people went through back then I would wonder if it's even appropriate to call them "kids". Pictures like this really make me consider that ... Thanks for posting these!
CapsThanks for that.
CapsAny idea what the cards or ?? are on the front of the caps?
[Lamp holders - Dave]
Miners' capsThose are lamp holders.
https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/01076u.jpg
CarltonYour site is perfect!
[Aw shucks. You are most perceptive! - Dave]
AwesomeI found your site via Thomas Hawk's blog and I love it. This one is my favorite photo of Shorpy.
[Thanks! And thanks to Thomas Hawk. - Dave]
What an amazing site.And what an amazing bunch of young fellows.
Fate and time . . .We sons of coal miners can only reflect on what might have been if born a 100 years ago. Now I know why my parents were stalwart Democrats . . : >)
Shorpy's ArmsI don't think his arms are "permanently out away from his body." I think that the thing he's counterbalancing the weight of that thing he's holding. His arms do look weird though.
ShorpyWhat is he holding?
[An oil can. - Dave]
He Cannot Tell a LieBefore reading "What We Think We Know" about Shorpy, I assumed, from Hine's caption, that Shorpy was younger than 14, and lying in order to work. But he was born in 1896, so at the time of this picture he WAS 14! I am very glad to know that Shorpy was telling the truth.
Happy Birthday!Today is Shorpy's birthday! 112 years old today! Happy birthday!
[OMG. Thank you for remembering! And Happy Birthday, Shorp! - Dave]
Records of the PastI love this quote by Lewis Hine:
"Perhaps you are weary of child labor pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you and the whole country so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labor pictures will be records of the past."
Which is what his pictures ended up being.
[I wonder if he'd be surprised at all he accomplished. - Dave]
It's that time of year again...Shorpy's birthday is today! Happy 113th birthday, Shorpy!
I have never seen thisI have never seen this picture by Hine. This is brilliant, everything about this picture just captures me! The look of pure disgust and determination on the boys faces just kills me! There is something about the way the way Hine decided the capture them in this triangular formation with the point coming at the viewer. The dirt and grime that covers the boys as well adds another dimension to the work. The position and the way Shorpy is holding his harms along with his gang of followers behind him make it seem as if they are going to come out of the picture and attack. They are ready for anything that anyone throws at them, on moment away from strike! Once again this is fabulous!
Happy birthday ShorpyGlad to know about Shorpy, this worked kid, who served to his nation at the First War World, today in his birthday I give my sincere greetings to him.
[Thank you very much! - Dave]
(The Gallery, Birmingham, Lewis Hine, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY_01099u2_812.thumbnail.jpg "Shorpy and His Friends")
- In the Tunnel: 1908
- ... 1908. Gary, West Virginia. "Drivers and Mules in a coal mine where much of the mining and carrying is done by machinery. Open flame on oil headlamps." View ... Posted by Dave - 07/27/2012 - 10:12am -
- Happy Birthday Shorpy!
- ... of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Shorpy was ... photo was taken, he lived 17 more years until he died in a mining accident at the age of 31. This Thanksgiving, let's raise a toast to his ... Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 9:56am -
![December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, Alabama, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Shorpy was born 114 years ago on November 23, 1896. After this photo was taken, he lived 17 more years until he died in a mining accident at the age of 31. This Thanksgiving, let's raise a toast to his too-short but memorable life.
Happy birthday ShorpyHappy birthday!!! You are not forgotten
Shorpy rememberedWhat a singular thing it is for an otherwise forgotten life to be remembered, even memorialized, this way, via Shorpy, the site. Combined with that, the poignant story of Shorpy the person, his childhood and abruptly shortened life - I gotta say, it brings a tear to my eye.
Happy Birthday Shorpy!Shorpy is one day older than my Dad who was born 11-24-96 and died on 1-24-64.
Another milestoneNext month will mark the 100th anniversary of this picture and the other photos of Shorpy taken by Lewis Hine.
I wonderif Shorpy was related somehow to my 6th grade teacher Mr. Higginbotham, because I remember thinking what an unusual name he had and had NEVER met anyone who had a name like that ... until now!
You do honor to his memory.And thank you for running an important historical site.
Shorpy, we celebrate your birthday,Yet we are the ones who receive the gifts, not just once a year, but every day that we visit this always interesting and sometimes incredibly moving blog that Dave created and named for you.
Thanks to you both and here's to another year.
Here's to Shorpy - The hard-working young man, and the fascinating website. Cheers!
Happy Birthday and Cheers Shorpy I think it's great that Shorpy Higginbotham (by the way, I know a Higginbotham) is remembered presently as the name and face behind this site that shares our history through "family photographs" for us to enjoy and enrich each other with our posted comments.
I hope any one of us has this remembrance decades after our passing.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Remembering ShorpyDown here in the southern hemisphere we are mourning the loss of 29 miners in a mine explosion in New Zealand. I think it is fitting we remember Shorpy and all the nameless ones like him.
www.rwyoung.com.au
Possible genealogyI think I've found the 1900 Census record for Shorpy:
His real name was Henry.
Unfortunately the name has an inkblot over it but all the details work out. His father was a miner. He would have been about 3 years old in 1900, and lived in Graysville, Jefferson Co., which is where Bessie Mine is.
[His birth name was Henry Sharpe Higginbotham. The basic facts of his life are recounted on Shorpy's Page. Scroll down for the genealogical details. - Dave]
Thank You ShorpyFor being there every day ... Thank you Dave for this fantastic website. I wish we had one like this in the Netherlands. Very pity we don't. May you live on forever and ever. It would be nice if Shorpy H. could see these beautiful photos on his own PC up there in Heaven!
Happy Birthday ShorpyThanking God today that children don't have to endure what Shorpy did. Yes, I realize children were tougher then, but life was so dangerous. Thanks Shorpy for your legacy.
A toast from meRaise your glass to Shorpy
Who worked at Bessie Mine
He lives on in our memory
Because of Lewis Hine
Happy Thanksgiving, Shorpsters
A glass for ShorpyAnd I don't even drink.
There is much that is haunting about many of the photos that you post, but especially Shorpy's. I'd like to think that somewhere, somehow he's aware of this site and marvels that people know and remember him a hundred years later.
Happy Birthday Shorpy!And many thanks to Dave for always providing a great way to start each Morning with visions from the past!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Recognitionof Shorpy's lot in life serves to enlighten all of us of with unvarnished looks at the way this country developed. Thanks to Shorpy (who might be a relative) and all who make this site the success it's become.
No Joy in MudvilleIt is true that the future of these innocents was inevitable if they were born into the mineworkers' families in small towns and hollers in which mining was the only work available. There were few choices and to earn a living, they just had to 'man up', take the high risk jobs of (literally) backbreaking labor, accept that any day could be their last and were glad to have any job. These strong and courageous men and boys were not seeking fame and admiration, just struggling to support their families and do their jobs well. Like many people, even today, they were probably considered "nobodies" by the upper crust of society but to their families they were saints and saviors. My mom told me that when her father finished his day at the mines and walked home, his wife had a warm bath ready (with hand-carried, stove-heated water), then started every meal with soup (to clear out the throat and lungs of soot) and made it clear that he was appreciated by his kids all helping and serving him. I can't speak for everyone but in his case, they never got wealthy (owed their soul to the company store), suffered many family tragedies and his work-related injuries stayed with him for life. Things were so different then, it is hard to believe it was just about 100 years ago, but people truly struggled to survive. We don't know how lucky we are today. Happy birthday Shorpy, we hardly knew ye.
I never realizedin all the time I've spent here, that the site was named for a real person. Thanks so much for giving us this great place to visit and expand our views of history, and special thanks to Shorpy himself.
One for ShorpyI will raise a glass high and take a long drink in his honor.
A question for Dave or Ken. What prompted you to choose Shorpy's name and face for this site?
[The three photos of him just reached out and grabbed me for some reason. Poignant, I suppose. And the name "Shorpy" was appealing -- unique as far as Google was concerned (just one hit), and available as a domain name. - Dave]
Daily remindersEvery day, without fail, includes a visit here.
Young Henry Sharpe, aka "Shorpy," looks out at me every time as a reminder of my blessings. I do hope he had some in his short life.
Another lowly worker, of a different kind, Green Cottenham, brought through exploration of his life a detailed look at oppression, in Douglas A. Blackmon's unforgettable book, "Slavery by Another Name."
I am grateful for the images I see here each day, which serve to reinforce the great faith and effort to achieve true freedom and justice in this country.
I am more grateful for the support which makes this site continue its important contribution to the understanding of what we had, what we have, and what we still must achieve; and for authors such as Mr. Blackmon, who "keep going," to bestow honor on the lowly heroes of our past.
Happy Birthday ShorpyGotta say, when i was 20, I was out partying, now that I'm 50 I've found a better way to spend my nights, and that's with you dave, and especially SHORPY.
Shorpy Higginbotham's story This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. For Shorpy readers who haven't seen it, here is the sad story of Shorpy Higginbotham.
http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/henry-s-higginbotham-page-on...
Little MenThere's a heartbreaking lot of little men in this picture. Look at those expressions. It was a different world, and we have it way too easy, now--for which I am thankful!
Thanks for the site, Dave. It was an inspired idea.
Happy Birthday Shorpy!I love the great history of the U.S. Thanks for the site.
Land of Equality Who says that America isn't integrated???
Glad to know nowthat this excellent website is named after someone who would have otherwise been forgotten by history. I find Shorpy's story fascinating and the website a great part of my every day. Thanks for this site and keeping Shorpy's memory alive. A guy who worked hard and served his country.
Lunch is on meShorpy is my lunchtime friend. When the the boss comes around, invariably when I'm eating al desko and asks what are you doing, I answer either "a BLT" or "Shorpy."
Salute!All my respect goes to the hardworking miners of the world.
Always center stage.I can't help but think that although he was short of stature, he was someone to reckon with. Everytime he's in a picture somewhere, he is in the middle of the picture.
A real handful. The strange things you deduct from pictures.
Happy birthday Shorp!
Happy Birthday, Shorpy!This was a rather poignant entry, Dave; thanks for all your fine work on here. Shorpy and I share the same birthday, and had his luck been better he probably would have been alive when I was born in 1959 on what would have been his 65th birthday. I think it is wonderful that an ordinary hard-working guy is memorialized on this site, and I hope he's is aware of it, somehow, somewhere, and is amused by it. I also hope that short and hard as his life was, that Shorpy had moments of joy and laughter that outshone the tough times. Happy 114th, Shorpy!!
Training, sort of?Not trying to justify the working conditions that Shorpy and his pals had to work in, but I guess it was good training for the trenches of France where many of these guys would be a few years later. Heck, one might say that Army life was a vacation compared to day-to-day at the Bessie Mine.
Thanks to Shorpy for his inspiration and to Dave for taking the ball and running with it.
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/01099u1.thumbnail.jpg "Happy Birthday Shorpy!")
- S.S. Rotterdam: 1910
- ... allows I'm not able to see the details of how they get the coal into the scuttles on the ship's side, but my guess is from there it just ... of New York City, 1892.
The Berwind-White Coal Mining Company was incorporated in 1886. … The company own and operate ... Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 7:28pm -
![Hoboken, New Jersey, circa 1910. "S.S. Rotterdam at Holland America docks." The full panorama made from three 8x10 inch glass negatives. Landmarks of the Manhattan skyline include the Metropolitan Life tower. View full size.
This Pano Blows My Mind!And with 8x10 glass plates you say?! I do not have the best eyesight in the world be I tried unsuccessfully to find any hint of joining or places slightly out of register. This is fantastic to me because I can't imagine how it was done.
[They're combined using Photoshop's Photomerge tool, which does most of the heavy lifting. But there are discontinuities and rips in the fabric of spacetime that must be repaired with something called Puppet Warp. With tweaking, it took me about an hour. - Dave]
Before FrankieThis pier was at the foot of 5th Street, northeast of Hudson Park. Today, instead of a pier, you would see Frank Sinatra Park and (on the far left) Frank Sinatra Drive.
This particular SS Rotterdam sailed between 1908-1916, and 1919-1940, with a self-preservation break to avoid mines and u-boats during WWI.
Rotterdam IVRotterdam IV was built by Harland & Wolff Ltd for the "Holland-Amerika Lijn," as the Dutch company is called in the Netherlands. Completed in 1908, she made her maiden voyage in 1909 from Rotterdam to New York.
During World War I the ship carried soldiers and weapons from the US to France. Because of the Dutch being neutral, Germany did not suspect.
She was scrapped in 1940 in Rotterdam.
Coaling ShipAt first I suspected those men dangling over the side on platforms were painting the topsides -- they could definitely use a fresh coat. However, more careful scrutiny revealed the barges alongside are piled high with the period's favorite fuel. In fact, the crew is getting the stuff into the ship's bunkers, by all accounts a laborious, dirty process. Even zoomed in as far as my equipment allows I'm not able to see the details of how they get the coal into the scuttles on the ship's side, but my guess is from there it just tumbles down a chute into the bunkers.
The white superstructure, high above the waterline, is being painted with the mop-like devices I remember from my time as a frequent passenger on the last of the ocean liners from 1963 to 1972. The painting crew is doubtless waiting for the coaling to be over so they can start applying the darker color to the topsides without having the black dust settle on their work and ruin it. Ocean liners were the queens of the ocean. Their brass was always polished and their brightwork always flawless. This photo reminds us why they needed such big crews.
Where to BeginWhat a great image this is. Add color within the mind and actually be there, in 1910. What's astounding is how much the Rotterdam resembles much more contemporary vessels. Then look over to Manhattan and see -- shocked: only three prominent towers, which are the Plaza Hotel (1907), the Times Building (1901), and the Metropolitan Life Tower (1909).
You'd have to wonder how the Dressed Meat Company delivered fresh meat in that wagon to the passenger shipping lanes, from its "model abattoir". And how did the wagon get to Hoboken from 11th Avenue in Manhattan -- ferry boat?
Berwind's Eureka Coal
King's Handbook of New York City, 1892.
The Berwind-White Coal Mining Company was incorporated in 1886. … The company own and operate extensive coal-mines in the Clearfield and Jefferson County [Pennsylvania] regions, and are mining what is known as the Eureka Bituminous Steam Coal.
The Berwind-White Company own 3,000 coal cars and a fleet of 60 coal barges, used exclusively for the delivery of coal to ocean steamships in New York harbor. The coal is of the highest grade of steam coal, and is supplied under yearly contract to nearly all transatlantic and coasting lines running from New York, Philadelphia and Boston, among these steamship lines being the Inman, the North German Lloyd, the Cunard, the Hamburg, and the French lines, whose gigantic and palatial ocean greyhounds have a world-wide reputation.
What a Great Picture!The Pennsylvania RR tug, the sidewheeler in the river, the coaling operation -- stuff, stuff and more stuff. Could study this picture for days and keep finding interesting tidbits. Great find.
Good Job Dave!Ok, I got it now. What "blew my mind" was I thought printed this way a the time! Whew, what a relief, you really had me going. Again, nice job!!!
[A century ago, the people at Detroit Publishing combined these images into panoramas the old-fashioned way. I wonder what they would think of Photoshop. - Dave]
Former HAL headquarters in Rotterdamis now called Hotel New York.
"Trolley" TracksThe tracks in the street and the box car sidings with overhead wires are not for passenger trolley cars, but for the Hoboken Manufacturers' Railway, later the Hoboken Shore RR, which hauled freight until about 1976, using electric locomotives until about 1947.
(Panoramas, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)](https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/Holland_America.thumbnail.jpg "S.S. Rotterdam: 1910")
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