Does anyone know where the Central Coal and Coke company was located at in Fleming? If so, would you be kind enough to point it out on a google map?

If you haven't already, you might try contacting the Ray County Historical Society. They have an entire room devoted to the mining industry in their museum and I'm sure they could tell you where it was located:

http://www.raycountyhistoricalsociety.com/

Thanks Heather, I'll do that.

Jenn,

I had volunteer duty at the Ray County Genealogical library yesterday. We had a person visit yesterday who is very much involved with Ray County coal mines and is familiar with Central Coal and Coke, knows the location, and more. He does not do email, but he is willing to chat with you on the phone and will provide information you requested and possibly more. If you will contact me by email directly, carterandbev@yahoo.com, I will reply to you with his name and phone number.

Carter Rogers

Are their any lists or books with the names of miners? I am looking for William Nelson born about 1861 in Lawson. I think I have found him in Colorado in 1900 working as a miner, so it could be that he worked as a miner during the time he lived in Ray County which would have been from about 1861 to 1893. Any help appreciated.

I don't think there is much on miner's names, but I will check on Thursday when I volunteer in the library and I will let you know.

Carter

Camracrazy,

We do have journals from the UMW with names of member miners. The journals were indexed a number of years ago. The earliest date I found in the index was 1926 which may be much later than your William Nelson. I did find a William Nelson in the index with a start date of June 10, 1938 and a note that he was suspended on Sept 1, 1939. I don't believe that we can be of further help, but I will keep your query in mind and if I am able to find more information, I will let you know.

Thank you for checking.

The earliest date that the Ray County Historical Society has for the union mining records is 1904. Basically what these are, the pay records. Not every mine in Ray County was union, so we do not have every record of all miners after the union was started. Another thing to remember is that gold mining was something that people left the farming life to try to make good money for their family.

Rod