Jan Owens of
Greenwood, AR and I have been communicating about coal mining in
Franklin County. She suggested I post this information, which I shared with her.
My boyhood home was in
Alix, and located in the NE 1/4 of SE 1/4, Sect. 23, Township 9 North, Range 26 West. The coal mine map you sent me a link to, Blue
Hills Mining, is located in the NE 1/4 of NW 1/4, Section 31, Township 9 North, Range 25 West.
Only 1/2 of Range 26 West, Township 9 North, is in
Franklin County, the rest being east in
Johnson County. Since the Blue
Hills mine (and also
Rafter Mine, Hill Mine, and Douglas Mine) (all shown on same map) are in Range 25 West, Township 9 North, that means all of those mines were located just east of
Alix, (
Franklin Countyy) in Western
Johnson County. Going by local towns and
communities, they would appear to have been located southwest of
Coal Hill, and east of a small community locally called Norton Town.
(It seems that I've read somewhere that the
Rafter Mine was first owned by Abe Stiewel and his brother, and perhaps just first called the Stiewel Mine.
The Stiewel
Brothers also had a mine at Spadra, called the Eureka Mine. Abe Stiewel opened the first sizable coal operation in the
Coal Hill - Western
Johnson County area, (east of
Alix) back in around 1877. The Stiewel brother's pit boss at the Eureka Mine, in Spadra, was ambushed, shot and killed during a strike, in 1893.
My dad, James (Jim)
Primm, born 1897, started working in the coal mines in and near
Alix at age 14. My dad joined the
Arkansas Militia (now National
Guard) at 16 (lied
about his age). By 19, he joined the army and left
Alix. During World War I, my father's lungs were seriously injured with Phosgene poison gas. After the war, he twice attempted to return to mining, but was unable to do it and
would "break down" and have to be sent by the army to a public health service hospital (there were no V. A. Hospitals at that time). He lived in
Alix the rest of his life, though, until he died in 1971. His father before him had taken up coal mining, but died in an epidemic at age 28. His step-grandfather, James Monroe (Uncle Jim)
Primm, who raised him, mined for many years. My maternal grandfather, Ervin A. Burchfield, had been an underground miner in
Birmingham, AL, but after being injured in a rock fall, in 1906, (had surgery and a small plate of silver put in his skull) he was never allowed to work underground again. He moved from there to the
Denning, AR area, though, and worked top side at Western
Coal and Mining No. 2, in
Denning, for about 10-years.
There were a few underground mines still operating in the
Alix and
Denning area when i was a kid. Jim Lewis had a mine just west of the
Johnson County Line, in Southeast
Alix. It was called the Soupbone. Later, he sold it to four brothers named Kranc, who renamed it the Big Four. It closed in around 1947. Western No. 2, at
Denning, was the longest running mine in the area, and closed somewhere around 1949 - 51, as I recall. There was one smaller mine, located southeast of
Denning, and west of
Alix. I don't recall what they called it. In addition to Western
Coal and Mining, out of St. Louis, several mines around
Alix were owned by local people with names like Dotson,
Weishaupt, Melton, Lewis, and then--for a short time--Kranc. There were other smaller operations, from time to time. By the late 1930's and 1940's, when I was born and
growing up, all of our underground mines were union mines. The United Mine Workers of
America Hall at
Alix was originally a two story building, but a storm destroyed the upper story and it was re-roofed as a one story building. In the 1940's, the union local still had meetings there, but it was also used on Sundays and Thursday nights as a church, by the
Alix Assembly of God. I can recall a lot of people just calling it "The Church at the
Hall" or "The
Hall Church." After mining ended in
Alix, and the local disbanded, the union hall became the full-time home of the
Alix Aseembly of God Church, and the Assembly still meets there to this day. Although it was before my time, in the heyday of
Alix mining, there were a number of camps operated by Western
Coal and Mining Company, and each spring itinerant miners would arrive, often on freighcars, and live in the mining camps. The camps were known by the number of the mine to which they were attached: No. 1 camp, and so forth. A lot of the itinerant miners, as well as their families, were rough people who lived crudely and were bad about drinking alcohol and fighting. These were a strong contrast to the year around miners, who were fine citizens, kept their modest homes up well, raised nice gardens, and usually also farmed a little as a sideline.
There was a mining operation at Philpot Valley, north of Altus, that was non-union. The non-union men came down to Altus one Saturday, in trucks, and them and the Altus area union men had a big fight in the city park.
Quite a bit of interesting history of the mining in Western
Arkansas. I find it quite interesting. Unfortunately, I waited too late to ask questions
and record stories, so my information is limited.
While he was alive, I failed to record any of the stories my dad told me, but i know he first began mining, working with his step-grandfather, who'd raised him, as a team. They were paid 50-cents per car load and, worked together
as a team, loading and firing their own shots, breaking, loading, and doing all the work. Together they could blast out, dig, and load out four cars of coal a day and earn $2. My dad turned all but about a quarter a day of his part of the earnings over to his step-grandfather.
While I don't remember the mines my dad and his step-grandfather worked in, I know the first one was a slope mine. It may have been The Packet Slope, but I'm not sure. While talking to an older
Alix man, John
Workman,about 15-years ago, he told me that my dad worked awhile at the
Rafter Mine (which, according to the
map) adjoins Blue
Hills, and was just a short distance east of
Alix, in western
Johnson County. The last mining in the area where Blue
Hills,
Rafter, etc. were located was strip mining of the coal closer to the surface. Some of that stripping also occurred in the extreme eastern part of
Franklin County, in
Alix, but close to the
Johnson County line. That strip mining occurred in the late 1940's, around 1947-49. It seems I remember hearing of a couple of guys doing a little underground mining a little later than
that, in a very small "dog hole'operation, just across the
Franklin County border, in
Johnson Countyy. I sure wish I'd had the interest in this, when I was young, that I do now. We
had old guys around
Alix and
Coal Hill who could have given me every detail. A little of the coal mining history of western
Johnson and Eastern Franklin
counties was recorded by a retired teacher, native of
Coal Hill, Mary
Maude Gallagher. I'm not sure whether she's still living or not. If anyone reading this has any more details on the mines or mining in
Alix or nearby
Denning, I'd love to hear from them.
Gerald
Primm (now of Mulberry, but raised in
Alix)