McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
Coal mining and miners did not bring pleasant pictures to the minds of most McLean Countians in the early days of the twentieth century; the farming and timber industry was interrupted with the new industry of coal mining bringing hundreds of outsiders to the area. The newcomers were a hard-working bunch with skills that most had gained through their ancestors.
Coal mining began in this country in the state of Virginia around 1700 by people who knew how coal was mined in England and with workmen who had worked there as miners.
According to an article in the Times-Argus, Central City, Kentucky newspaper dated June 4, 1959 Thomas Hardy Blades, age 22, and his sister Mary Jane came with William King from Durham, England to Mud River in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky in 1864; there Thomas Hardy worked in the Mud River mine.
After the death of their parents Thomas Hardy and Mary Jane had lived in the home of Mr. King. At the age of twelve Thomas Hardy learned mining while working with Mr. King in a mine in Durham.
In Mud River Thomas Hardy married Elizabeth Foster and they had four children, Robert, William, Mary Jane and Thomas Edward. The boys grew up and like their dad, became miners.
At that time the method of mining had changed little from the time it began. Men blasted, dug the coal and shoveled it by hand into coal cars down in the mine. The cars were pulled from the mines by mules. Coal cars each held one ton and the men were paid by the number of cars they loaded.
Thomas Edward Blades met E. S. Randle in Mud River and moved to Island where they formed the Green River Coal Company. The articles of Incorporation for the company were filed on April 25, 1902 by E. S. Randle and John W. Love of Nashville, Tennessee and Thomas Edward Blades of Island, Kentucky.
The miners in Island working for the Green River Coal Company in 1915 were Robert Newton, Ed. Hughes, Dan Gilliam, A. Wilkes, Charles Divens, C. W. Weightman, Mike Weightman, James Cox, Green Ball, R. D. Simon, George Weightman, Alf Bolton, R. H. Redfern, Ed. Harvey, Aaron Gardner, R. H. Hiley, John Harrison, Louis Weightman, and Ed Lynch. According to an old company ledger in March of 1915 those men loaded 553 tons of coal and received a total of $340.74.
Those working in 1916 were Thomas Blades, superintendent, Robert Stanley, Ed. Howard, John Staton, Will Blades, Clark Taylor, Edgar Lloyd, John Harrison, Henry Taylor, Charles Wright, W. T. Howell, Ed Wood, Virgil Lott, Pete Stevens, William Pollack and Bill Blades who began mining in March of 1916 when he was fifteen years old. Claude Brown worked for the company hauling powder and coal.
If you have pictures or newspaper articles of any of the coal companies, the company stores or any of the men of McLean County who worked as miners the museum would be glad to have them. The museum will be open Thursday and Friday July 23rd and 23rd from 11AM until 4PM. Stop by and see the exhibit “Businesses of Yore.” There is a small exhibit of mine artifacts.