Sipsey Portraits, a book of poems and essays about Sipsey and its

· by
Rose Mayer Ftes'
and
by
.
Milton H. Fits
Ala.
818.52
Fie
STATE Of ALABAMA
PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE
MONTGOMERY,
P,L
1111/~~ffl~~~~I~~r~illl~~~lllimM~~III~
85-05835
3 1291 00141 2277
SIPSEY '. POR TRAITS*
.
by
Rose Mayer Fies
'':'..
*The verses which follow were published in 1943
in a private printing under the title "Sipsey
Portraits
and Other Poems ", Those included here
refer only to Sipsey and its environs in Wallc~r
County.
••
'.'
"
IMPRESSION
",
A white house, dreaming in the gallant shade
Of oaks, long old and ivyed,
"
A gate, a tawny road,
An orchard,
April's lace upon its boughs,
A lilac twilight. and a whi te star bur ni.ng,
Unstirring
night of silver,
And a bird's bold ecstasy.
These etched the'i.r spell so deep upon
my soul
"
None else 'could so much love their loveliness!
.,
'BELLE
c
,
"
'RUSSELL
. "
Small head, white face,
,
And slim with tho rough=br-ed slimness,
A coat of chestnut s a.ti.n,
Eyes, clear-deep,
as a doe ts ,
As deep-but wiser, mo r'e ac ceptjng ,
Wher e quiet woods shut out the dissonant wor-Ld;
,
When April's, on the hills,
I see youI earring lightly on the wind,
I feel your flexing grace beneath me,
I see yo~r soft ears flick!
It cannot be that you are quiet, cold.
You of steel limbs. and ribs of steel,
You , fleet and fierce as wind and fire.
And sweet as Spring!
It must be s ril.Lyou rac'ebeside
the
wind
'
In wide Elysian meadow;
Or idling. pat~ent, stand at pasture
- 1 -
bars!
STATE Of ALABAMA
PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE
f\10NTGOMERY, AL
PINES AT SIPSEY
What mighty wedge did cleave these hills apart
Gashing to reedy river?
..Old wounds that bared a rock-Iedged heart
Are long, long healed, and glisten now
With laces, and the pale brocades of Spring.
Naught. but the stream IS low song
Or frightened foot of wild thing
Severs the silence •.
Pillared with lordly pines, these hofl ows are
:w'h0se heads upreaching
Dwell in .the calm, sweet sunlight.
P~le fern, uncurl in shade of slaty-brown trunks
And gnarled roots shelter smoke-blue violets.
Splendid and calm, they watch the :stars wheel past
These trees, that fe ar not fire or tangling tempest.
Splendid, they dream the centuries away
In silent benediction
•.
r
"MR. SQUARE"
./
Had slavers let his jungle grandsir.es be
A chieftain he Id have been - the chi~ftain type,
Laconic, shrewd, aloof, in wisdom ripe,
Elder in council-no bush-beater
he!
Singing a low chant, he faced summer IS sun,
Black tor scLean and glistening through the tatters,
Sun-down, the task V?as done, an:d nothing matters,
His pitying Lord .ha.d heard, cool rest is won!
One day he arnbl ed slowly to the door
Gr-eat shouid,ers slumped? a pinchedandpalsiedlook
Eyes-reddened,
and the strong limbs almost shook!
Fever, I saw, FO need to question more.
"Missus, I knows you+s sorry"-this
with grace,
"But a SIck nigge.rls no use on di s place! If
- 2 -
•
••
85-05835
MARY ROGERS
Could those eyes once have raptured to the rose
The snuff-blurred
mouth known pink a~d pearl of
youth
Before the years' defection had scared the heart?
Matter not rain or sun, she scuttled by
In slatted bonnet and bedraggled skirt
Seeking day work from those a shade less poor,
To tend the sick, or pick the cotton;
Hoarding the pitiful, few perice
To stay her clear of whining beggary
And hush the hunger of her nall1:eless brood!
She said, one day sno hint ..of bitterness"Lor', bread and water's al lT'e ve r ia.sked l "
I watched the lacquered 'continents of sunset
Shrink to grey isl~ts.
The sting of life's immitigable scourge.
That night" tormented sleep!
JOE' ROBERTS.;
A giant's sinew arid a glant+s stride
And litheness such as swinging ax strokes make.
When, with deft hands, the embers he would rake;
"You got to git back, Misti s ;!' hewoul'd chide;
Fix a patina'd back-log in its place
And pile the acrid oak -wood chimney high.
Le api.ng Lazul i.ne, red flames would defy
'A fro'zen world in winter IS still embrace.
One Spring, his childless Julia looked ?- ghost
.A. wailing infant in "their hous e brought strife,
-The mother,
simple Lena, ca sual wife.
Joe beamed his fatherhood, impenitent boast,
Standing within the doorway of his shack,
Said: "Cap In, I had to see what my
Chile would look lak. "
- 3 -
CHARLIE AMOS
Hi s face was coppered by relentless heat,
'
Being a fireman at the power plant.
His job to keep the turbines' tireless chant,
His job to keep the engines' constant beat.
When March was shouting, with a. boisterous mirth
He'd beg a day off-trivial holiday And set small cabbage seedlings" and would say
He loved the coolness of. the mo.ist brown earth.
One dawn, before the dew' had steeped to musk
There carne a gentle tapping on the pane
And frightened an.swer, eager to expl.ainz
"Amo s , Boss -Tn a Ir ac a s 'long bout dusk,
Snagged :myoId lady, wid:my knife, you see!
Wants you ter keep" de she r Iff .pff er me! "
RED-BEARD
I could not pass aga.infha.t lonely' house
Crouched in the hollow, sheltering beeches bare,
But I must see her -s m ll lng , friendly there,
Children about her skirts, his patient spouse,
She churned and cooked and gardened, quilted, spun,
Had trained a honeysuckle by the door
And through the leaden years, twelve children bore.
She had earned rnor e fr orn life than she had won.
He was a 'grave and silent rna.n, red-shocked
Master of children, woman, house and land.
When Death led his worn, tired wife by the hand
~ith shdeking la:mentations, fate he :mocked.
But-she
a legend. must she shadow life?
Two crescent moons -a girl he took for wife!
- 4 -
THE MELON MAN
.,
l
'.
There "was the grey rail-fence
that zlg vz agged by,
There, the high pasture,
mullein stalks wool-flecked;
I see the nail-stained
bo use , drab with neglect
And tall dark pines against a, saffron sky,
How many gerie r a tioris had ·known bounty
From this, his land, I cannot surely say,
But the rich loam di d still abundant 'pay,
He grew the finest melo'~s i n the county,
When crops were in, th e-c ir cui ts he would ride,
Thin-lipped
and impe r tunba.bl e as stone;
But. in July, he'd hitch his flea-bit roan
And peddle melons', old wife by his s ide ,
"TomW~tsons!
Kleckley Sweets! " at hot noon-tide.
"Fine wate r me lon.s ! Kleckley Sweets! " he cr ie d,
KATRINA
, Youth vanished seemed so lustered,
seemed so fair
'To her - tranquil,
accepting miner's-wife.
Stone -cleated poverty had trampled life
But only eyes told, as'eyes'sometimes
dare!
Often a welcome guest at my hearth-side,
Settling her huge hulk in an easy chair,
With fragrant,
warming cup, forgetting- care,
Would tell of .Spr i.ngs long gone, thus fortified.
And' hez-e , as knitting needles glinted bright
She+d pictur-e her far home beyond the sea,
Icy ca.nal a , gold tulips blooming free,
Ardent and guileiess,
with a sharp delight.
, "And on our wedding-day'" - she would ::epeat,
"Hans bought me all the cherries
I could eat. "
- 5 -
•
COMMISSIONER
The ord~red furrows quilted his brown field.
First time I saw him
Limply astride his weary nag
Corning in from the hill's rim,
As day to darkness wheeled.
Pale Spring's fleet loveliness was turning.
Jonquils, defiant, phalanzed the swept yard.
He was lean. with a bi r d !s "eye, beady and hard
His clothes reeked of wood+smoke
From the winter's bur nirig,
One year his lumbering oxen
Drew great loadsThe glory of the forest, hewn to ties,
The ancient wilderness" hewn to cross -ties.
That year the spur was built-the coal railroad.
But mostly, ,season in and out," he 'd wait
On trivial business at the County e se at ;
His was a world of slow, unhurrying feet;
The prisoning hills had waited-he could wait.
We met right often, where upsurged the trail,
Always the day' was brighter.
He 'd not fail to wave this greeting
With feigned sanctimony,
And eyes that laughed:
"L'zn br aggin I on your pony. II
-6 -
•
by
Rose Mayer .Fie's
'.
ii
f,la,e
m,ll-It:
w.ith
4
and
£, itjkt
by
Milton H. Fits
Ala.
818.52
Fie
'"
6n
His e4p" ,.
STATE Of ALABAMA
PUBLIC LIBRARY SEHVICE
MONTGOMERY,
1111~~lliilul~~~)liliili~III--
PIt
85-05835
3 1291 00141 2277
SIPSEY ~~POR TRAr"TS~:'
,
','.
by
Rose Mayer Fies
.
'
"
*The verses which follow were published in 1943
in a private printing under the title "Sipsey
Portraits
and Other Poems It. Those included here
refer only to Sipsey and its environs in Walke r
County.
IMPRESSION
A white house
dreaming in the gapant shade
Of oaks, long old and ivye d,
A gate. a tawny road,
An orchard,
April's lace upon its boughs,
A lilac twilight, and a white star burning.
Unstirring
night of silver,
And a bird's bold ecstasy.
These etched their spell so deep upon
my soul
,
None else could so much love their loveliness!
1
BELLE
RUSSELL
"
"
Small head. white face
And slim with thorough-bred
slimness,
A coat of chestnut satin.
Eyes, clear-deep,
asad<!>e's,
As deep-but wiser, rno r'e ac c ept ing ,
Where quiet woods shut out the dissonant wor l d;
When April's, on the hills
I see you leaning lightly on the wind,
I feel your flexing grace beneath me,
I see yo~r soft ears flick!
It cannot be that you are quiet, cold,
You of steel limbs, and ribs of steel,
You, fleet and fierce as wind and fire,
And sweet as Spring!
It must be s tfl Lyou race beside the
wind
In wide El ys ian meadow,
Or idling, patient,
stand at pasture bars!
- 1 -
STATE Of ALABAMA
PUBUC LIBRARY SERVICE
~40NTGOMERY, AL
PINES AT SIPSEY
What rrrighty wedge did cleave these hills apart
Gashing to reedy river?
..Old wounds that bared a rock-Iedged heart
Are long, long healed, and glisten now
With laces, and the pale brocades of Spring.
Naught but the stream's low song
Or frightened foot of wild thing
Severs the silence.
Pillared with lordly pines, these hollows are
Whose heads upreaching
Dwell in .the calm, sweet sunlight.
P~le fern, uncurl in shade of slaty-brown trunks
And gnarled roots shelter smoke-blue violets.
Splendid and calm, they watch the stars wheel past
These trees, that fear not fire or tangling tempest.
Splendid. they dream the centuries away
In silent benediction.
"MR. SQUARE"
Had slavers let his jungle grandsires
be
A chieftain he'd have been - the chieftain type,
Laconic, shrewd, aloof. in wisdom ripe,
Elder in council-no bush-beater
he!
Singing a low charrt , he faced summer's
sun,
Black torso lean and glistening t~rough the tatters,
Sun-down, the task ~as done, and nothing matters,
His pitying Lord had heard, cool rest is won!
One day b.e arnbl.ed slowly to the door
Great shoulders slumped, a pinched and pals ied look
Eyes reddened, and the strong limbs almost shook!
Fever, I saw, no need to question more.
"Mi s sus , I knows yours sorry"-this
with grace,
"But a s i ck nigger's no use on di s place! "
- 2 -
85-05835
MARY ROGERS
Could those eyes once have raptured to the rose
The snuff-blurred
mouth known pink a~d pearl of
youth
Before the years' defection had scared the heart?
Matter not rain or sun, she scuttled by
In slatted bonnet and bedraggled skirt
Seeking day work from those a shade less poor,
To tend the sick, or pick the cotton;
Hoarding the pitiful, few pence
To stay her clear of whining beggary
And hush the hunger of her na~eless
brood!
She said, one day eno hint iof bitterness"Lor'. bread and water's all' T'eve r asked!"
I watched the lacquered continents of sunset
Shrink to grey isl~ts
The sting of life's immitigable scourge.
That night., tormented sleep!
0
JOE' ROBER TS
A giant's sinew and a giant's stride
And litheness such as swinging ax strokes rna.ke ,
When, with deft hands, the embers he would rake;
"You got to git back, Mi sti s ;" he' would chide;
Fix a patina'd back-log in its place
And pile the acrid oak -wood chimney high.
Leaping Ia zul i.ne , red flames would defy
'A froo'zenworld in winter's still embrace.
One Spring, his childless Julia looked ~ ghost
f>. wailing infant in "their house brought strife,
The mother,
simple Leria , casual wi fe ,
Joe beamed his fatherhood, impenitent boast,
Standing within the doorway of his shack,
Sa idz "Cap 'rr, I had tc:>see what my
Chile would look l ak , "
- 3 -
CHARLIE AMOS
Hi s face was coppered by relentles s heat,
Being a fireman at the power plant.
His job to keep the turbines' tireless
chant,
His job to keep the engines' constant beat.
When March was shouting, with a boisterous mirth
He'd beg a day off-trivial holiday And set small cabbage seedlings," and would say
He loved the coolness of the moist brown earth.
One dawn, before the dew had steeped to musk
There carne a gentle tapping on the pane
And frightened answer, eager to explain:
"Amos, Bos s -Tn a fr a ca s 'long bout dusk,
Snagged my old lady, wid my knife , you see!
Wants you ter keep de she r lff off er me! "
There was th
There, the hi
I see the nail
And tall dark
How many
From thi s, hi
But the rich I
He grew the f'
When crops
Thin-lipped an
But, in July, h
And peddle mel
"Tom Watsons
"F"i ne watermel
RED-BEARD
I could not pass ag a.inLha.t lonely house
Crouched in the hollow, sheltering beeches bare,
But I must see her smiling, friendly there,
Children about her skirts, his patient spouse,
She churned and cooked and gardened, quilted, spun,
Had trained a honeysuckle by the door
And through the leaden years, twelve children bore.
She had earned more from life than she had won.
He was a "grave and silent man, red-shocked
Master of children, woman, house and land.
When Death led his worn, tired wife by the hand
~ith shrieking lamentations,
fate he mocked.
But-she
a l ege nd , must she shadow life?
Two crescent moons -a girl he took for wife!
- 4 -
Youth vanished s
To her - tranqu
Stone -cleated po
But only eyes tol
Often a welcome
Settling her huge
With fragrant,
w
Would tell of Spri
And here, as k
Sbe+d picture her
Icy canals. gold t
Ardent and guilel
"And on our weddl
"Hans bought me
THE MELON MAN
that ~ig -zagged by.
There "was the grey rail-fence
There, the high pasture,
mullein stalks wool-flecked;
I see the nail-stained
house, drab with neglect
And tall dark pines against a saffron sky.
How many generations had known bounty
From this, his land, I cannot surely say,
But the rich loam did still abundant pay,
He grew the finest melons in the county.
When crops were in, the- circuits he would ride,
Thin-lipped and imperturbable
as stone;
But,. in July. he'd hitch his flea-bit roan
And peddle melons, old wife by his side.
"Tom Watsons! Kleckley Sweets! " at hot noon vti de ,
"Fine wa te r rnel on s ! Kleckley Sweets! " he cr ie d,
KATRINA
Youth vanished seemed so lustered,
seemed so fair
To her - tranquil,
accepting miner's-wife.
Stone -cleated poverty had trampled life
But only eyes told, as eyes sometimes dare!
Often a welcome guest at my hearth-side,
Settling her huge hulk in an easy chair,
With fragrant,
warming cup, forgetting" care,
Would tell of Springs long gone, thus fortified.
And her e , as knitting needles glinted bright
She+d pictu.r e her far home beyond the sea,
Icy canals, gold tulips blooming free.
, Ardent and guileiess,
with a sharp delight •
. "And on our wedding-day"
- she would ~epeat,
"Hans bought me all the cherries I could eat. "
- 5-
BROTHER HUGGINS
He trampled the village roads in snow and sun
With high concern, his good deeds never done.
Sought all unc1eansed of tears and sin and pain
Washing away with prayer and love, each stain.
The code of eye for eye, he could not preach
His God loved mercy and was .near to reach.
His words the strength of sil errt hills disclosed
The calm of stars and quiet falling snows.
No desert coul d have dried "his heart's sweet springThese hills, his name with blessing long will ring.
THREE
Mary and Bert and Rags":"
One a black sprite with wrapped hair,
One in a starched pinafore,
The other, a dog with an air.
''I met Brer Rabbit in a snow -bal l fiel'
'Bout a mile and a half fr1pll town
And I said to Brer Rabbit, ef you doan watch out
I'll ketch you '.£0 de sun go down. "
Dancing in sun-split shade
Life was .a long holiday
Life was a tinkling harp
Singing of dolls and play.
<
Mary and Bert and Rags One a black sprite wi th wrapped hair,
One in a starched pinafore,
The other, a dog with an air.
- 7 -
LOST BIRD OF PASSAGE
Blown down a windy sky, wing -weary,
Seeing the stretch of sward
As the ern er al d surface of a lake, pe r haps,
It sank onto the 'grass
Lost fr orn its fellows, in search of reedy refuge,
It lay spent - the wild heart racing.
Friendly hands gave sanctuary!
Then, a child's hand freed it,
Flashing to the blue
The wild heart quivered
As it arrowed to the blue
And tilted toward the 'north.
Burnished Bird .of Passage.
River sedges beckon,
Reedy refuge beckons.
We, too, are 'birds of passage
Searching for a refuge.
ANOTHER GARDEN
And there's a garden hedged a!:>outwi tlr dr earns ,
Far fr orn these dissonant years' bewildering din;
What honeyed wealth its ancient rnoul d did win,
Of succulents,
of early corn's pearl glearn ,
Of rubied fruits.
I see its flower -edged walks,
The sentry J:1ollyhocks at low-swung gate,
A whip-poor -will cornpl.ai.ne at evening late,
Night lillies breathe pe r furne on slender stalks.
Blythe children, played at ladies in this close,
High heels, and veils, and dolls-procession
fair;
And one with deep-fringed eyes and shining hair
Did so her guileless -grace on rne impos e ,
Did so ensnare rrie, with her elfin art,
Both child and garden now live in rny heart.
- 8 -
•
TRAM BRIDGE -SIPSEY
COAL MINE
I watched a bridge rise once
From incohesive sands, prone length of girder,
With purr of stearn and strain of engine,
To thing of rooted stone, with low-swung truss
And certain beauty, sweeping a rock-trimmed
river.
Then, from the bank, secure and high
.
ledges.
Where laurel,
leaning, bloomed 'on grey-green
I watched the motors,
built like battleshipsThough instruments
of peace ~
I watched these drawing sinuous length of tram,
Herculean rosary of shining j et ..
Roar from the tunnel black, l arnps saffron stars,
And in mad clip, dang on the, bridge.
A titan-sinewed
youth sat at controls,
Unmindful of the couchant terror snarling
And spitting sparks above his bright, blown hair.
Trip-riders
.• bantering negroes,
guarded couplings
Their pliant bodies r~cking to the movement
And hum of steel on steel
And windy curve attained,
Then, rigor from end to end of dying motion
Moiling of men, to sure the stop with apr ag s ,
Irascible.
last sputter of blue sparksThe splintered
coal is safe upon the tipple.
A sleeping giant, born of the primal fusings,
Wakened to do man IS will.
- .'
- 9 -
NEGR 0 SINGING
The church-house
windows are gol.den,
Are gold, at the sunset time,
And the clanging bell in the belfry.
Rings out its clumsy chime.,
Dusk creeps over misty meadow,
And folds her soft wings about;
A silence sinks on the weary world,
And the first faint stars ac-e out.
Then a haunting, minor music.
Its cadence vibrant and strong.
Floats out, over misty meadow
And wakens th~ night with song.
A chant of hallelujahs
Ecstatic chant of praise,
The low hills e cho the Afric'
As the wailing voices raise~
dirge
Then slowly the singing ce a s e s
The throbbing hymn is s tifl ed,
Orion strides in the blue-black sky,'
And the night with peace is filled ..
- 10 -
UNCLE CHARLIE
I know 'tis true that black skin
May cover a heart of gold;
Charles Nettles had coal black skin
And he had a heart of gold.
His folks were gentle white folk
From Carolina's
shore; "
They gave him gentle rnarme r s ,
Their courtliness he bore.
,
Lover of children was he,
Patient and jocul a.r;
My picture of him and a" smal.l girl
Is clear as 'a new-cut sta.r ,
A court ~as held each evening,
A court on the corn-crib stair,
An elf of a girl was the Princess
And he was the Jester there.
Lover of dumb things was he,
Hostler superb, I'd say.;
Just a lowly black man was he
Hearts ached when he died-that
- 11 -
day!
THE HUNT
<
"Missus, ' fa Gawd
You hadn't ought ter skeer me, lak yo doe s ,
Again off, s 'fer in de deep woods, .
Jes you 'n yo hoss!
You ain't hyeard? Well-a black rapscalion
Done broke de prison camp dis mawnin,
Hot-footin twow'd de river!
High Sher Iff "n Cap 'n done rode off together
More 'ri a hour gone!
No'm-dey
ain't huntin da t nigger.
Dey's huntin - you!
I been a settin here dis ve 'y minute
Studin 'bout saddlin Jeems, "n takin de big road!
Now, look he~e Missus-·
T'ain't lak us was living on our pl.ace
Shet off-lak us belongs,
Den, you .co ul d roam fur es you pl ea s e ,
But, Mis s us , I ca in tt trus de high -road,
Sense de .Cap'n brung dis coa~ camp here!
Too many tramps -a progin 'round,
Jes changin scenes -dat's
all.
I ax yer, Mis sus 'Suppose "n dat run-a-way
Needin' yo hoss ter fetch him to de river,
What gwine hinder him from takin' hit?
Night a 'comin on-you a ploddin thru de bresh?
Hi.ts s can Tous !
I'se pow'ful glad yer didn't meet up wid him!
Well-dis
pony sho needs rubbin down.
She's lathin hot.
Missus - a good night to ye! "
I did not say, that in the shuttered wood,
Nearing the river,
I met (poor wretch), the. black rapscallion,
A boy, barefoot, and breathless.
.
He passed me, cowering,
With a "Good evenin', Missus, 11
Heading straight for - -I hope he reached
The river!
- 12 -
•
..
INCIDENT
A meek sun , in a brittle skyof blue,
.
Air, frosted wine, after the Autumn's fever.
The long road lured me.
.
My mare stood ready, eager to ?e off,
Yet munched contentedly the sugar lumps.
Which eyes and garnet nostrils,
quivering, begged.
Down snake -fenced lan~, we ha.un.ched ;:
Then, upland, in a canter through the camp.
Passed tidy houses. watching .cl os e the road,
And winter gardens;
,
Passed. rambling store, where the casual menloiteredMen from the coal pits,
Last shift's grime upon them;'
Old grime and a wea r ine s s' upon them.
Turned in "Square Phillips'
Way" .
Where a new babe , three days befo r e ,
Had joined a plenteous brood.
Splendor of sumac, edged the .dust-grey road,
The beeches flaunted 'tattered cloaks of gold,
A cardinal dipped swiftly, 'caus'e the 'path
Like a bright blossom tossed.
"
Crows clattered in the stubble.
My mare stopped at the brimming branch to drink
In deep-drawn dr aughts;
Then, always as her way. raised high her head,
Posed, momentarily,
a thing of bronze against low
p~~es;
Turned and skimmed lightly on the road again.
I thought upon the mother of the babe
A,s .on I -r ode ,
~ife burns to blossom ear-ly in these hills
And early withers,
old.
Girl-wife she was, when youth had scarce begun,
Clearing the land and hewing logs
For their first horne, beside her manShe oft had, told me-
- 13 -
\
.
Goaded the steers to rip the furrows deep,
Knowing so well her part;
Bore many children,
spun arid wove and baked
Through barren winter and relentless
spring.
Now, hope and fear was lulled in tir~d face,
Leaving it ashen-wistful.
I reached at length the weathered house
Set close against dark wood.
Out a door, into a wind - swept hail
A woman started.
1 thought to find her tended by her neighbors
And resting,
after birth-pangs.
Her dark eyes with .an agony burned fierce,
The pallor of her travail still upon her.
"Corne in, " she said, ''1 'rn glad you come,
You h 'yeard about rn ' boy', Ill' first-unHow sick he is -lung fever!
O-the lest-un?
.Hit's toler 'bl.e, I reckin,
I haint had heart ter rrrind hit. "
"The doctor -I rnus t fetch him! ".
I turned to go.
"Naw, . corne on in 'n see him. ,*
I followed the frail form
Into the sick-room
I heard the rasp of breath
Through fevered lips.
I
"
"
Men Iol l edby the great logs, in rnuddy boots;
F'r om shadowy corner,
wide -eyed children gaped.
Hounds doze din cornfo r t by'the wide hearth's cir cle ,
Where lard was rendering in huge iron pots.
A"cry like anew l arnb+s
Carne from the bed, where, swathed in cotton quilt,
The infant lay , beside the sick boy!
"I must not steal the precious air, "
I said, pressing the worna n+s hand,
"I'll send the doctor. "
- 14 -
•
-----r~------------------------------------------------------------------------
With more than usual haste
My knowing mare covered. the tape of road,
Splashing through Sipsey' branch'
Into the quiet village.
Befo r e the next moon waned
I sought the farm-house.
Bronzed children played about the clean-swept yard.
My horse's
whinny brought the woman,
Smiling, to the s tep " 'Light and rest a spell, ", she called.
Some gaudy quilt scraps Lay about the floor in disarray,' beside the cradle.
"He's hearty now-a s common, "
In answer to my query.
"He and his Paw is s ta.rti.n' winter plowin'The least-un's
prety, haint she"?
- 15 -
CAP
How well do I recall the day
This boy carne to the gateA stripling,
bronzed and weathered,
In faded clothe s and horne -rriade shoe s ,
A certain freshness
of the woods about him.
The blue eyes prisoned laughter.
They were the blue of waves
With sunlight through them.
The breeze ran its fine fingers
Through his hair
,
Bright and of tousled thickness.
Hedge -r ow and wayside said the year was old,
With amethyst fruit, and aster •.
Love's lamp befor e me,
1 had corne , stranger,
to this still land,
A sanctuary from the peopled ways
Of city, and old sorrow's chastening.
Here, brave adventure
Peered from jet-ribbed hills,
Old, old adventure,
and youth's spangled dream
To make more tolerable
The simple world
Of men who wrested treasure
From these hills!
This _child's grave greeting,
somehow,
Made the silence of the hills more f'riendl ye
"I hyeard about you comin' out from town
And 'lowed you'se lonesome.
I'm dri vin' up the cows,
I thought I'd stop.
Maw sent a mess er crowders
In this poke.
They're sorry, hits a 'ben s ' dry.
And on he chattered:
- 16 -
II
---------~---=---=-----------------
I
CAP
I·
How well do I recall the day
This boy carne to the gateA stripling,
bronzed and weathered,
In faded clothe s and horne -rna.de shoe s ,
A certain freshness
of the woods about him.
The blue eyes prisoned laughter.
They were the blue of waves
With sunlight through them.
The breeze ran its fine fingers
Through his hair
,
Bright and of tousled thickness.
'I
Hedge -row and wayside said the year was old,
With amethyst fruit, and aster ..
Love's lamp before me,
T had corne , stra.nger, to this still land,
A sanctuary from the peopled ways
Of city, and old sorrow's cha s teni.ng,
Here, brave adventure
Peered from jet-ribbed hills,
Old, old adventure;
and youth's spangled dream
To make more tolerable
The simple world
Of men who wrested treasure
From these hills!
This child's grave greeting,
somehow,
Made the silence of the hills more friendly:
"I hyeard about you comin' out from town
1,1
And 'lowed you'se Ione sorne ,
L'rn drivin' up the cows,
I thought I'd stop.
Maw sent a mess er crowders
In this poke.
They're sorry. hits a 'ben s ' dry. "
And on he chattered:
- 16 -
•
------
"Septernbe r gales will soon be here,
You ought ter git the gyarden
Broke right soon.
Pap seys I'll go to school
When craps is in.
This porch is nice,
We has so little 'ti.rrie to set
We don+t need none.
And Pap he says when I grows up
Mebbe fill run a motor
At the rrrine a, II
Sweet youth, how unaf;aid,
How unbew'il.de r e d.
How wide the sky,
How bright ~e dr earn l
Gales ca me , and slanting rains
And me.ll ow weather.
Auturnn flashed c r irn son on the hills
And winter turned.
IICap1s sick, II the lllessage carrie
One sullen day.
Per ched on a slant' of hill
The cabin stood in sodden fields.
Clay-chinked
and windowless.
A buttre s s of rude chi rrm ey
Flanked one end.
Old wooden wash-tubs on a shelf,
'The other.
Sorne dangling gourds
And strings of withered peppers
Swung by the open door.
Th.e zmo th e r stood within.
The years had winnowed
All of youth and beauty
Leaving a burnt-out husk,
Li rnp, leaden-eyed.
- 17 -
"Aint doin no good.
I brought him back this evenin
To his bed. I co:me on in
From washin. late, and missed
I found him'neath the floors.
Cap's head's a 'wander in. "
The child lay on a rude bed
Dressed as always
In faded jeans and jacket;
The small, limp feet
Still wore the heavy shoes!
him
By feeble fire-light's
flicker
I sensed the altered eyes' unknowing stare.
The anguished form,
A smiting fear pos"'sessed me lo pitying God! 0, childhood's dream!
The next day I held a smoky lamp
For city doctors,
Who shook their heads
And left the shadowy cabin.
On a wind-bitten hill
'Midst lurching head-boards
There gaped a shallow grave.
Nothing of comfort near,
No mothering grass, no flowerOnly a wilderness of stones,
The .gashed· earth-waiting,
An anguished singing surged,
A keen pitched prayer;
Th e grate of spades,
-A woman moaning.
The swaying wagons
Lumbering toward home
Against low-flying clouds
And tortured West.
- 18 -
•
-------------
----_
...
_-
---
PENELOPE
Slow-,dyi~g autumn lingered.
The distant hills were blue veils in the west,
Southward the wild duck a r r owed., crying scorn,
And late br onz ed pears hung heavy.
A figure spare, unvanquished by the years,
She ruled the old scrubbed kitchen's fragr.ant world.
Which looked beyond the patches' of gold sedge
Onto a lonely road.,
'
Forever singing, pl a.i.ntd ve at her work,
An alien chant,
She seemed a sorceress
with magic flame.
"No+m I couldn't lak no black man,
But look at "YhutI' s come to!
He's s "bl a ck , de coal dus kinder velvets him
Da's all, it can 't make him no blacker.
But t'want' no livin lef me; .
I look out on de do-step, dar he -s e t
Plagin me, night 'n day.
I's 'bliged ter ~a~ry him, .\1.
Ter git shut uv him.
Well, one day's lak de yuthe r , enyhow •.
Sence Swinger's gone.
.
I say, Miss. you aint yet h 'yeard bout Swinger?
Well-'twas
this a-way:
.
.
My daddy was puore Injun,
My mammy's Paw , a white man,
,My mammy a Mulatta.
New, whut would you call me?
But, enyhow, das .how-c orne my bright skin
And straight,
black hair.
Plaits way down rn ' .ba.ck when fus I knowed h irn,
Winged in from South Ga'lina
When I was jes a chile.
Us'ter tell me bout his home
Where all de water's brackish
'N alligaters
bellered in de swamps.
- 19 -
We'd meet up on de creek banks.
Both loved ter fish.
I'd beg off cleanin house rno s ev'y time
'N Mammy 'd send me fishin.
Big part Injun he wus,
I called him a 'red nigger. '
Sandy-haired
'n s tr appi n;
I rech up to his arm-pits
In high heels.
We lived in Georgie sand flats •.
He was a pitch-pine wucker.
Sometimes
sawyer -good at enything he tried I
I turned fifteen, we married'.
A pretty place our horne,
Plenty e r clare.
swif water 'n.brown pine straw
'N Lawd, de Bob-Whites 'n de Mockin birds!"
Quiet winds a "hlowl.ng over level
Bringing scent of pine and peach
Shifting stir of shadow, patterns
There is no land so lovely as my
mead,
and tall mint weed.
the gold sand.
Georgia land •
.
''1 had a sight to do to keep things tidy
My shack 'n gyarden. a grove e r pecans,
Cows 'n, chickens 'n a passel er houndsI loved 'ern-so much comp'ny.
We treed a. many a fat possum in de moon-light •.
I called ern "chil.l.un, I allers right behin' me.
r had rno s everything I wanted.
Pieced quilts after dark; In quilted tooMy frames is packed down now.
He never spoke a hard word ter me, Miss.
Pay days he'd go ter town In stay a spellMostly de boss's
business,
he would say.
Bring back a length uv calico or muslin,
- 20 -
An once he brought to me
Some red-top shoes!
N'om, dey want no chillun,
Scusin his outside gal I raisedI thought de whole world uv her, bein his 'n ,
She's settled now in Jefferson.
'Bout ten year gone, one day
A notion tuk him, 'Wanderin foots",
I called hit.
He hye ar d a 'bout des Alabama
coal minesNothin could t e'rn him,
Pack our things,. we mus , 'n, rnove.l
I allus thought de pitch-pine camps
.In Geor gie had er holt on him, lak Satan.
I didn't know. So, ,in a mislin"
rain,' we comes
,/
ter Mulga.
Lawd, a diffunt land fum Georgie!
I thought de win would ren me
Dat fus winter, so keen 'n vengeful,
Roarin thu dem hollers.
'N Spring, s ' slow.
Dogwood s ' late a whitenin.
I looked ter hear de owls
Hoot in de day time,
De wood s' wild.
'N berry bresh s ' thick
A wild hawg could a tangled.
But twus pritty 'n I got ter lak hit.
Houses on de hill-slopes,
Mud-cat a plenty in de creeks.
'N den de sto!
Dey had mas erry thing you wanted
In dat sto.
'N near -by wus de doctah 'n tooth dentisHe set dese gold teeth fer me.
- 21 -
'N skerry es I wus , I didn't study 'bout
Dat deep shaf mine.
Swinger wus smart 'n he larned fas.
T'want long befo de bank boss
Say he wus a fus class miner. "
Where diamond drill had marked it
For man's very own,
Ea.rth disgorged her treasure
Through a maw of age -ol d stone,
Fragile fern stirred ove r rhe ad and pale ane rrroria'e
And grim unconquered pines that had stood a
century.
Change of shifts, the whis tle 's 'shriek
Rips the ambient a{r,
Grimy cyclops trek toward horne
And s impl e fare •.
The clanging cage rests not,
He must stretch upon ,his bed
.I
And arm his soul with sleep
To earn tomorrow's
bread.
"We had a fus class house,
A hoss and buggy 'n wus doin well.
I run de boardin house ter keep me busy.
I never see'd de lak er hongry folks
T' want never too much chicken, pies 'n cat fish.'
Well'm, fus thing I knowed,
Swinger, he turned up rni s s in-eMin.ers is odd simetimes.
Stayed off two weeks, den back at horne.
I wus s 'glad-I didn't ax no questions.
He never did set any sto by talkin.
One day dat fall, when "s irnrnons gittin meller,
In he comes
Right early from de mines.
- 22 -
I thought he, gwine ter town
He slicked up so",
Hooked up his rig an down de road:
A little later -pas s he dri v
A bright skinned gal beside him.
I didn't pay no '.tention,
Had rrry supper pots ter rrrin ,
I's fr achus when I' s cookin!
In late dat night,
I didn't say much to h irn , 'cep
'Honey, how you lak dis red bow i.nzny hair '?
He jes looked in de fire
'N didn't answer.
I didn't lak his eye s Dey sorter chilled rn e ! .
Things rocked on a spell;
Den-sho's
yo' bawn
One day, after de fus blak fros,
He COITleon in right early;
Bathed, et, pu sb.ed back his chair
And said di s ter rne s
.J
'Honey, lis leayin here tornor r er ,
lis takin dat bright gal wl.d rrre,
Yo rent is paid fer six months
'N here 's enuf ter tide >youover.
He thowed a roll e r bills across de table
'N looked right out de winder.
I didn't speak.
Felt kinder blind
'N: went out-do's ter ketch SOITleair.
COITleter rrie fus ter git rny knife,
But nO'ITl, I couldn't do dat to h irn !
.1 je e set on de steps a while,
'N got still inside.
Den, COITleon in 'n say:
'Swinger, whut tt me y'awl Ie a.vi.n"?
He say: "Twix five 'n six. l's arrrin
Ter ketch de Dude ter town. '
'Awright, bring de gal roun', l.say-
- 23 -
'I'll cook yo brekfus-'
-'~nd he say, 'Sho'.
I 'In up 'bout fo , ben studin
All night long. Fixed brekfus,
Fried chicken, biscuits,
coffee
'N s orne uv rny bes jelly
I sets out fer ern ,
De gal-no older 'n his chileShe wan't hongry.
He cleaned his plate.
r see'd ern to de do '. De gal looked cold.
Her coat wus thin •.
I say, 'here's rrry old dog bed coat.
You better take hit,
You'll nigh freeze ef you don't • .'
He put it round he r , he l pe dhe r in de rr ig ,
'N waved "g ood=bye",
I sawein round de bend
'N Honey-'fo
Gawd-«
Sorn ep 'n busted in rny brain.
Lak a bat fr urn tor-rnent ,
In dat house I shot.
Snatched down de winder curtains,
To 'e up de bed, r ak ed dishes off de table
'N in de £10 I piled things
"
Lak a rabbit's house, fer shoo •
Den it corne s ter rne ter burn ern ,
'N sho nuff , I drags ern thn de do'.
Makes up a bon-fireEven de piarie r I busts. ter kindlin,
"Twant nothin lef dat day
When I got thu,
Den" in de hous e I goe s , ca lrn as you is,
'ries Up'InY tlrirnbl eful e r cl o s '
'N straight ter Mr. Bob's.
Stays on his place a good long spell,
Corne s over me ter keep on mo vin,
'N here 1 is.
- 24 -
•
, ''1 keeps my quilts washed up an sunnedHe all us wus perticular
'bout his bed.
I know, some day, when he is plum wor e out
He'll come back home. "
Ulysses, recreant wanderer,
Wherever you may be
Circe must guess that sea-cold gaze'
Speaks of Penelope.
Your Spring's long gone, UlyssesIt was Penelope's.
,
Turn home-.she listens for your stepPenelope.
- 25 -
PLAINT
Lawd, how long dis freeze gwine las I?
Mah sperits sho is droopin fas '.
Got on so much dat I crowds de do,
Yit lain "t never ben so cold befo:
Mah wood is low, en dey ain It no coal;
Folks say de railroads
can lt hardly roll.
De water hydr ant+s fr iz , en ma:h collard IS burned
black
IDo I kivered ern 'over wid rnarry a sack.
Mah hands is ashy and mah foot's fros -bit
Mah coal-oil lamp jes wont stay lit.
I can't hep wishin hit was water -melon time
'Do Ilse hurtin lak I won't see water-melon
time.
Lawd, Yo chillun is sho beset!
It don' hep none but I.frets 'n fret.
Lawd, please Sir, melt dis mess er snow
I promises,
Jesus, to vex you no mo.
SNOW INTER VAL
Today. stricken world woke, hushed
To a feather's
fall from the wing of a thrush;
The _charted homely world I know
Was blurred out, with a new-laid snow.
An alien world, swathed head to feet
In a swan's -down winding sheet.
"Sati.n=s mooth bride cakes on bird-bath and post,
Dark pines turned into herded ghosts.
And a bewildered cardinal, bright,
Snow-blind-stained
the relentless
white.
Lltsr ?,4-~tJ?
B'1 Mp..~TteS -
PbeJl1S
26-
•
•
r--------~-------------------
..
and
lfe~'i./N/~
"f,ke man: w-itk
a
IJF/l1A
£itkt
by
Milton H. Fies
Gn
His
FIttS
eGt;'
THE MAN WITH A LIGHT ON HIS CAP**
Being a Brief Chronicle
of Coal
Mining in Walker County
1912-1·960
by
Milton H. Fies
**This bit of history of coal m inl.ng in Walker
Cou~ty was cornpi.l ed at the request of Congress~ Inan Carl Elliott of the 7th District of Al abarna
for Volume III of the "Annals of Northwest AlabaInat of which he is the editor. The rna in purpose
of this printing,
however, is for distribution
among
SOIne 150 to 200 mine workers in Walker County
who were the author's associates
in the DeBardeleben Coal Corporation
SOIne forty to fifty years ago.
- 29 -
FOREWORD
History, which Abraham Lincoln, admonished
us we "cannot escape ", is a record of men and
events.
The interpretation
of the exploits of men
and- the implicatiop. of events in any given period,
are not always made .wi.thout bias by a contemporary of the men and the events recorded.
The reader should be forewarned
that this narrator has
never been classed as neutral' on any important
is sue relating to men or cl r-cumatance s ,
In the modest chronicle offered in the following. pages. the concern of the writer is directed
toward men and worneri rather than toward events
or sta.ti ati.c s rela't,ing to the deposits of coal in
Walker County and the economic mining thereof.
The choice of emphasis is not to be taken as a
denial of the importance of coal in the area during
the past half century' or of the value that will come
from the deposits during the riext fifty years.
What
has been accomplished
in coal mining is set out
in a general way in the narrative,
and what the
future will likely hold i~ for e'ca s t,
These factors
are vital, and there is no intention to disparage
them.
'
During his lifetime this chronicler has been
affected, animated,
and ins pi r ed mo s t by men and
women of Walker County whose lives he has, touch-.
ed daily during half a century - - men and women
~ho ha've struggled with unflinching determination
. to maintain those principles
of life that are all~prevading and.everlasting
and who made that
struggle under condittons that at times seemed
insurmountable.
'.
So. if this writer be s tow s Hls=hornag e. on these.
men and women.to the extent that this history may
- 31 -
be regarded as overly personal, he trusts that he
will be forgiven.
The individuals mentioned, some
of whom may have no claim to gr ea.tnes s as greatness is commonly regarded,
serve only to point out
the character
of the thousands of people he has met
during his years in Walker County. Those people
were builders,
and they built well, in such manner
and by such methods that we today might indeed
emulate.
I cannot conclude this foreword without expressing a deep sense 'of homage. and devotion to Rose
M. Fie s , my wife. Of the many debts I owe. to her,
I choose to a ckrrowledg e here a debt particularly
pertinent to this narrative:
she gave me, and perhaps others,
some: simple' lessons in human relationship; for with the men, and particularly
with
the women, who lived in the hills of Walker County
she maintained the most natural and,spontaneous
relations and, above all, held those neighbors in
great affection, which "age cannot wither nor custorn stale ",
Milton H. Fies
Birmingham,
Alabama
May 1960
- 32 -
THE MAN WITH A LIGHT ON HIS CAP
Hedge -row and wayside said the ye a.r was old,
With amethyst fruit and aster.
Love 1 s lamp before me J
I had corrie , stranger,
to this still land,
A sanctuary from the peopled ways
Of city. and old sorrow's
chastening.
Here, brave adventure
Peered from j et+ r ibbed hills,
Old, old adventure,
and youth's spangled dream
To make more tol er abl e
The simple world
.Of men who wrested tr e a sur e
From these hills!
*
More than forty-seven
years ago, on September
and I moved into the old Phillips
home in Walker County, in the area that we later
named Sipsey. ** 1\t that time the crossroad
just
west of the Phillips farm wa s js'hown on the United
States Geological Survey topographic map as Janesville; the location is about ten miles .southea.s t of
Jasper.
12, 1912, mywlfe
When we began our journey to our new hoine,
we left Birmingham at 7:00 a. m , on the Frisco
accommodation
train commonly referred to as "The
Dude , 11 We arrived at Dora bout 8:45 and found Nath
Grace waiting for us with a surrey"with a fringe
on top" ~ drawn by two good horses.
On our drive
, to the- Phillips home we passed through areas that
=F'r om Sipsey Portraits
by Rose M. F'i e s ,
and Other Poems$
**1 was
told that "Sipse'y" is a Choctaw Indian word,
meaning poplar tree.
Many pop'la.r trees grew along
the banks of the Sipsey River.
- 33 -
••
later became Summit, Hull Mine, and Dilworth. We
crossed the river at Philli.ps' Ferry,
just below the
confluence of the Sipsey and Mulberry Forks.
I had been in and through this territory
many
times before with Henry T. De Bar del eben, with
whom my father, my brothers,
and I became associated.
Mr. DeBardeleben and I prospected the
coal property along the outcrop. of the Black Creek
Searn all the way from 'I'ornm.ie Dr-ummond-s land in
the Piney Woods, seven or eight rni.Ies above or
north of Phillips' Ferry,
all the way down to a point
on the river .opposite the old Sloss Cornparry ste arn
pUlllp. which furnished water for the Ivy Mine operated by that company,
Throughout that distance there
were test pits not over one-half rnfl e apart, all of
which were s arnpled and analyzed.
Then. before
rne mbe r s of llly farn il y and I bought Into Mr. DeBardeleben's
cornparry (then known as the Maryland
Coal and Coke Company}, several dialllond drill
holes were, at our request. put .down to the coal
within the property.
We then purchased one-half
interest in the cornparry and agreed to finance it.
The only other stockholder in the company other
than Mr. DeBardeleben was Mr. Newton Hanson,
an uncle of a former owner of the Birmingham.
News.
The c orrrparry owned s orne 12,000 acres of
rrri.ner aI rights. plus a substantial portion of the surface ove r l-y ing the rni.ner al.,
In late spring, several rnonth s before we 1ll0V:'
. ed to the old Phillips h orne , Rose went to Sipsey
- 'with llle to inspect the old fa.rmhous e and de te r rrrine
what should be done to rehabilitate
it for our horne ;:
We spent the night at J'irn Burton's house, which
was a good one on a good farrn about two miles east
of the Phillips place.
A :most unusual custo:m was broken on the ni.ght
we had supper at the Burton horne; Rose ate at the
- 34 -
table with the men! I have been told that never before in the history of the rural areas of Walker
County had a woman ever been pe r mttted to eat with
men.
At the supper hour, perfectly unmindful of
the prevailing custom of gentlemen first, Rose
came to the table and was s er ve d along with her
host, but her hostess and the young daughters waited and had their suppers later.
This practice,
certainly a relic of a dark andIong voutmode d day,
was generally accepted,
especially in the eastern
part of the county.
In early, days this custom was
observed throughout the South. It is in keeping
with this custom, 1 later discovered when I went
to-the Kentucky Derby, that the swanky Pendennis
Club in Louisville provides a side doo.r for ladies
to. enter the club." No woman, even when escorted
by men, is permitted to enter the' club through its
front door.
When I visited the Pendennis Club with
Lnfl.uerrti.a.Imen and lovely women, L was amazed to
find out that this r el i.c of authority persisted.
The conclusion may well be drawn that when
women were accorded the right to vote through the
21 s t Amendment to our Cons ti.tuti on , the feminine
inferiority
complex, which resulted from the practice I have reported,
was gradually and fittingly
cured.
_ .Sh-ortly thereafter,
I was Vice President of
the Maryland Coal and Coke Company (later named
the DeBardeleben
Coal Co, , Inc , ) and had charge
"of the' construction
of the mine and the railroad
.and, after they were completed, operated the prop-:e r ti e s ,
At this time the most difficult task I had
in dealing with people was to determine whether
Methodists or Baptists should use the one church
built by our c ornparry-In the com,munity arid to decide on what Sunday each would have it. In those
days Methodists and Ba.p'tists were always at one
- 35 -
••
...
-
1""""""-------------------------------
another's throats,
and I had to act as referee,
umpire, field judge, and head lineman.
Here
was a most unusual and delicate situation for any
individual, particularly
for one of my religious
persuasion.
I finally devised a plan which worked
amiCably-quite
amicably until
month rolled
around with five Sundays.
To decide who would
occupy the house of the Lord on that fifth Sunday,
a Solomon with all his. sense or judicial discretion
was needed.
a
With this denominational dilemma, which
affected Sunday School as well.as formal worship,
Rose fortunately supplied the .help I needed. Wisely she de te r m ine d that it was senseless for the
children of the par-ents of one Christian denomina.tion to be denied knowledge of the Bible on one
Sunday while' the children of anothe r denomination
were in the Sunday School learning. from this s arne
Bible.
For the chil.dr en of all Christian de norni.«
nations, she organized a Uni.on'Surida.ySchool, which
was. I suspect, the first of its kind in all the history
of Walker County. I doubt that there-has been
another since.
I often thought th en , and Iofteri think now ,' about
the differences between men in their approach to the'
Creator of the Urriver s e , When I walked underground
thr.ough the mines and considered the origin of the
coal bed surrounding me, I began to reason about.
creeds.
Geologists estimate that the coal beds in
Walker County were deposited not less than two
hundred and fifty million years ago. I felt reasonably sure then, and 1: arn more strongly convinced
today, that that Force or Power or Creator gave
little heed to what would come to be recognized as
marrs incongruity in his approach to God: Soon,
though, I found out that this subject was da.nger ous
for discussion,
and I never raised it, But the Union
- 36 -
•
Sunday School flourished; indeed, with box suppers,
fish frys, raffles,
and the help of the PTA, it gained gr eat momentum as the years rolled by.
Late r in my life when I came to know the fine
poetry of William Alexander Percy, I discovered
that he too was ";'ware of this 'same age -old problem
of the fierceness
men show in their stand on religion. Percy wr ote z .
"How blistered is the earth with outpoured blood'
Which on the ground has but a human lookNot Chr is ti anv Jewish, qr Mohammedan!
They slaughter each. the other in the name
Of Allah, Chz-ls t, Jehovah, that one god
Who needs' a name to be distinguishable •
o e c The
Christian sj.ns if rne at '
Is eat on F'r tdayj the Jew 'if any day
He eats of pork; the Prop'h~t's follower
If anything ~n any day he eats
With Jew or Christian at his friendly table.
Fools, fools, and serio~s fools who die
For imbecilities
diverse but equal! II
."
One of our first interests
at Sipsey was the
erection of a school building.
The school bui.ldirig
that was in use when we first went to Sipsey was a
rain'shackled,
one -room structure,
quite small,
and not even painted red.
It was ahumHiating type
< of str-uc tur-e , providing
one teacher,
benche sand
crude desks, and dim light from kerosene lamps
on dark days.
A new school building became our
. first objective.
And in this sphere, Rose and the
women of the community, including the wives of
our neighboring fa.rme r friends, rendered unceas ing and Indi s pens abl e service.
When the school
was built, outfitted and occupied, it immediately
- 37 .:'
became
area.
..
a source
of pride to all the people of the
Our company supplemented the salaries paid
the teachers by the county and extended the school
year.
As far as I know, this school was the one
school in the county that had a nine months' term.
The faculty consisted of a principal and a sufficient
number of teachers to teach all 'the courses prescribed for an elementary
school through the eighth
grade,
The classes were limited in the number of
pupils assigned to each 'class, and where necessary
the teaching staff was increased.
Professor
Amos
Waldrop was one of the effective principals
of that
school for many years.
I;Ie and his splendid wife,
whom Professor
Waldrop met as a teacher the r e ,
raised the standards of that school toa position of
eminence among the schools of the county.
Miss Ila Dean Gr iffi.n of .Jasper was one of the
outstanding young women who gave so freely of their
talents and training to the courses of study in, the
institution.
Mrs.' Gilbert, who-now has charge of
the Red Cross activities in Walker County, is the
Ila Dean Griffin of those days so very long ago.
Time has augmented her capacities and her cha'r m,
Another splendid young woman who became a
m ernbe r of the teaching staff at the Sipsey school
was Miss Vista Redfern, who carne from Parrish,
where her father ran a locomotive for the Southern
Railway.
She was attractive and capable.
Miss
Redfern married Mr , To Go Fortenberry,
who came
to Sipsey from Irondale as a raw, country boy. He
later became chief clerk at th e mining operation
and was promoted into the sales department of the
company, in which he was successful and contributed much toward the company+s sales policies and
achievements
0
- 38 -
We had playgrounds for the children; and
each Friday afternoon during the summe r when our
school-age niece came as a visitor to Sipsey for
her vacation, the young boys and girls from the
school enjoied a story-telling
hour with refreshments on the lawn at our horne , which we named
. "Pineywood. ~1
Almost simultaneously
the Negro school was
completed-the
largest of its kind in the county
with the exception of the' Cor ona Industrial School.
Mr. Musgrove had the Corona School built at Patton
Junction for the group of'Negroes he had brought
in.from Mississippi
to mine ~oal for his company,
which was named the Corona Coal and Iron Company.
The faculty for the Negro school at Sipsey
was strengthened
by the coming to our community
of a very fine teacher,
R. W. Taylor, who will be
referred
to again in this narrative.,
The schools iIi that community did more to
strengthen community pride and accomplishment
than did any other impulse or fa cto r, Many children walked three or four miles or came in buggies
or on mules. for buses were unheard" of then.
In
discipline and In s tr-uc'ti.on there was more austerity,
which I think almost a.ll schools of the present have'
lost to their detriment,
and none of the so-called
"services,
II which
some of our -h ighe r institutions.
and even some secondary schools, boast of providing. In those days teachers meant business and
the pupils recognized it,
As th e school was 'being erected, the company
store was in course of construction.
For our first
store, we used an ~ld tool house near the Phillips
home, 'where I was living; later we transferred
the
merchandise
to a new dwelling as soon as one was
cornpl ete d; When completed, the large store was'
- 39 -
••
We,had playgrounds for the children; and
each Friday afternoon during the summe r when our
school-age niece came as a visitor to Sipsey for
her vacation, the young boys and girls from the
school enjoyed a story-telling
hour with refreshments on the lawn at our home) which we named
, "Pineywood. ~1
Almost simultaneously
the Negro school was
completed-the
largest of its kind in the county
with the exception of the Corona Industrial School.
Mr. Musgrove had the Corona School built at Patton
Junction for the group of'Negroes he had brought
in.from Mississippi
to mine coal for his company,
which was named the Corona Coal and Iron Company.
The facUlty for the Negro school at Sipsey
was strengthened
by the coming to our community
of a very Hrie teacher,
R. W. Taylor, who will be
referred
to again in this narrative.,
The schools in that community did more to
strengthen community pride and accomplishment
than did any other impulse or factor! Many children walked three or four miles or came in buggies
or on mules. for buses were unheard' of then.
In
discipline and 'instruction there was more austerity,
which I think almost all schools of the present have'
lost to their detriment,
and none of the so-called
"services,
" which some of our -hi.ghe r institutions,
arid even s?me secondary schools, boast of pr o-vid «
ing. In those days teachers meant business and
the pupils recognized it,
As the school was 'being erected, the company
store was in course of construction.
For our first
. store, we used an <?ldtool house near the Phillips
home, where I was living; later we transferred
the
merchandise
to a new dwelling as soon as one was
completed.
When completed, the large store was'
- 39 -
a great boon to the people in the immediate vicinity"
who previously had been compelled to travel to
Empire or Dora. Cordova or J'a sper ,for supplies.
The company's policy in the operation of the store
was unselfish:
the store's profit was limited to not
more than 100/0,and since the overhead was negligible. the prices of all commodities were reasonable and satisfactory
to our people.
The installation of an Ice machine added much
to the comfort and convenience of the people.
So
did the company dairy, which was established about
1917 with thirty cows, service being restricted
to
our own employees.
Strangely, the local farmers
had been una.ble, to furnish milk to the community
during World War 1. The community nurse, the
first in the county, strongly r-ecornrnende d that we
provide a dairy. and Rose supported her.
The dairy,
although operating at a loss, was maintained for ,
several years, unti,l milk became available through
truck delivery.
The first village physician employed at Sipsey
was Dr. E. L. McCalip.
Asid~ from his great
competence in medicine, he was the most presevering, long-suffering
doctor I have ever known .. In
those days all employees paid a monthly stipend,
which in its entirety was paid to the doctor.
It
rna tte r-ed+not the nature of his complaint, when an
employee wished to have the doctor pay a pr-ofes s iori-.
al call, the employee phoned him, and the notion
usually hit the employee during the dead of night.
But, Dr. McCalip was uncomplaining and, in a real
sense, was one of the most popular men in the entire
area.
He had a splendid wife, born in Cullman, and
an attractive daughter.
Dr. McCalip resigned in the
twenties and moved to Texas.
- 40 -
Proudly I look back on what we provided for
our e:mployees: the liberal sales policy at the
co:mpany store, a :medical clinic -..yitha nurse, a
helpful stand for good schools, play grounds, .a
dairy. and other advantages.
One further progressive :measure, although urged, was never :made
available,
and that was e:mployee insurance and
pensions.
The failure to adopt these, along with
the great decline in the coal business i:m:mediately
after 1929. and other funda'merrta.l causes,
such as
political expediency. paved the way for co:mplete
unionization of the mtne.wor ker s in the county.
More is to be said about this phase of the county's
. history.
,
The store manager in the early days was Mr.
A. J. McDanal.
He ca:me to us fro:m Irondale and
was one of the fore:most :men in the area.
He was
instensely and sensibly religious and beca:me one
of the rrios t Infl uent.ia'l Baptist lay:men in Alabarna ,
We found hi:m gentle and uncomplaining,
quiet but
persevering.
and unfailing in his support of every
worthwhile effort.
He and Mrs. McDanal and their
fa:mily were a:mong the :mo'st highly respected people
of the co:m:munity. One of his sons, Hayden McDanal,
is presently in charge of social co:m:munity work in
Jefferson County. A. J. "Junior, will be re:me:mbered
as a great halfback at the University of Alaba:ma,
whe r-e he was graduated.
.
.'
The construction work for the develop:ment of
the Sipsey Mine began in late Septe:mber 1912. The
first coal was shipped. on August 13, 1913. The
:mine operation required the building of about seven
rn il e s of railroad fro:m the E:mpire Branch of the
Frisco at E:mpire to Sipsey.
For the railroad we
had to build a bridge, which, crossing the river below the old Phillips Ferry,
still serves the corrr-.
:munity and the barge-loading
station at Coyle. The
- 41 -
••
village at Sipsey consisted of a large commissary,
school buildings. a church, .and two hundred houses
erected with lumber sawed from the ·property. The
saw mill operations required for these facilities
were of considerable
size and i:r,nportance. Oxen
with "durgens II l ogg ed the mills, and large 1500-lb. mules hitched to heavy wagons hauled the material for the housing and the h~avy trestle timbers for
the railroad.
The slabs from the big logs for the
railroad timbers were of.Long-Ie af pine dried in the
sun and finished by our pl.aner s for the dressed
lumber used for the interior of the houses. There
was an. extensive belt of long-leaf pine in the Piney
Woods about seven'miles
north of Sipsey near a
place marked Powe Il.vil.Ie on the old maps.
Jim
Bird Powell, who later became circuit
solicitor,
was reared in this locality.
This a r.ea now contains
the Lewis M•. Smith Darn built by the Alabama
Power Cornparry on the upper reaches of Sipsey
River.
I.n the course of the timber operations I was
associated with
man ;by the name of Copeland,
who erected the two hundred houses.
He was an
.honorable gentlemen.
A Mr. Hannon"operated
several saw rrriLLs , and Uncle Tommie Drummond
cut all the heavy t irnbe r for the railroad.
Uncle
Tommie was one of the quaintest men in the area
and one o'f the highest in character,
dependabtl ity,
and resourcefulness.
a
Later. a doctor I s clinic and a miner I s bath
house were constructed.
This village, when first
completed in 1913. was one of the show places of
the State as a mine village •. Being located on flat
farm land and laid out in streets and avenues, it
was unlike most mining towns, whose dwellings
usually are erected on a hillside,
along a hollow, ,
in close proximity to the mine opening.
- 42 -
--------------------------------
The construction
work at the mine property
included the erection of a second bridge across
Sipsey River (the mine drifts were on both sides
of the stream) for the transportation
of coal with
electric locomotives;
the driving in of ten drifts;
the construction
of a stearn generating station
with boilers; the building of a washing plant with
pi.cking belts, which was the first in Walker County;
and the ins tall ati on of electric 'undercutting .ma.chines. These machines" .too~ were the first of
their kind in the county.
Until that time (1913) all
under -cutting machines in, the county had been air
punchers,
which were in use at Empire,
Carbon
Hill. Coal Valley, Patton, and a few other ope r a «
tions.
Ninety days after the mine began to produce coal. the dai.Iy tonnage reached 1500 tons in
one shift of ten hours in a seam of high quality
coal averaging 28" to 3011 in thickness.
At the start, the labor rates for a ten-hour
day were approximately
as fo~ldws: all outside
labor including tipple men, $1. 50 per day; track
men, brattice men, etc •• $20 75 per day; electricians, $3.00 per day; ~achihe men, $3.00 per day;
motormen,
$2.75 per day; trip riders' and helpers
underground,
$2.50 per day. The cost of living
was on a comparable low basis: house rent, $6.00
per month for a four-rodm house; white meat, 5~
peJO'.poundt lard, 5¢ per poufld; flour, 75~ per 24lb. sack; and other cornrnodi.tte s at comparable
prices.
Every family had a garden; some families
kept a cow; and the adjoining woodlands were replete with squirrels,
rabbits,
quail, and dove. The
river provided fish and an occasional duck.
The residents
of the area were of the most
friendly and kindly type.
Those good neighbors
welcomed the industrial development of that section.
There were Jim Burton and his family;
- 43 -
•
Uncle Billy Fields and his boys; Lennox and Felix
Fields; TOITl. Dan and Barlow Dr-umrnond (the latter
two were Republicans and sturdy rnen}; John Dan
Meyers, a rnari of high principle and keen i.ntel.ligence, who lived in the forks of the rivers; old rnan
Buzbee and IPUITlITly"Fields, who lived in the bend
of the river to the south; and Bruton Phillips,
oneof
the rno s t lovable rn.eriI ever knew and the ITl08t patient.
In later years Brother Huggins', a well known rrrirris
ter recognized throughout all Walker County, threw
his lot in with u,s and became a powerful influence
for good in our cornrnuni ty, My wife and I admired
and loved him for his breadth of understanding and
for his heart, which embraced all men. And there
were others too,numero~s
mention here-all
worthy men and WOITlen. Never in all the years of
our life at Sipsey was there one incriminating
word
spoken against a single WOITlanwho was native to
that part of the county.
»
to
At Blackwater Creek, five rni.le s from Sipsey,
lived a colony of excellent Negroes.
Men fr om this
cornrnuni ty walked to their jobs in. the morning and
back home in the evening.
Among th ern was a YOUD,g
Negro lad eighteen years old, Oliver Fields, who
sought the job and was employed as house boy'Ln
my b.orne at Sipsey in Septernbe r 1912. He has been'
in my home continuously since that time, with the
exception of about seven years during World War II,
when he worked for the Southern Railway. A rno r.e
loyal, patient, kindly rnan never lived or one more
trus tworthy.
Among the residents of this Negro colony. some
of whom carn e f r orri the Stouts Mountain area in
Cullman County, were Joe Roberts, Sidney, Monroe
and Columbus Davis, Amos Gibbs. Squire Hull, and
Wiley F'i el ds , the brother of my house servant.
"
These were all unusual rne n , law-abiding,
industri-
- 44 -
•
Among the Negro employees,
ous, understanding.
of the company" there were two remarkable
men.
One was Uncle Charlie Nettles,
who had been a
"ho s tl er II at Mulga for me when I ~as General
Superintendent
of Mines for .the old Birmingham
Coal and Iron Company, who s'e properties
now be»
long to the Woodward Iron. Company. ,Uncle Charlie
could r erne mbe r that, while plowing a field in South
Carolina as a boy. he s toppe'd to wat ch the Yankees
come through the atate., He was a Negro of the old
school-cou.rteous
•. respectful,
diligent, almost
galla.nt, and always Ioyal , His prize .animals were
Mrs. F'i e s' standard-bred
saddle mare and a giant
of a mule named ,IIJemes. ". The influence Uncle
Charlie had 011 all arairrial s was startling and, to
my mind, mar-ked his soul as great, even though
1 knew and recognized his other splendid qualities.
He remained with me until his death, and he lies
near the; Negro church at Sipsey •.
The other remarkable
~an was Robert W.
T'ayl or , .who was principal of the Negro school.
Taylor had ser'ved as a Hnarrci.al secretary
to
Booker To Washington andIiadrtr avel ed throughout
the country soliciting funds for Tuskegee Institute.
This native of Alaba~~ was a graduate of Tu'sk egee
and of Ha.r var-d , and a fine upstanding man •. Being'
a splendid speaker,
he was sent during World War
I} .by' the committee
in charge of War Bonds,' to
speak to the Negroes in Walker and adjoining
counties.
Taylor exercised
a fine influence throughout the county, particularly
in the Sipsey community. In 1960, at the ripe age of eighty-six,
Taylor
passed away at the home of his daughter in Los
Ang.efe s , Cal ifo rriia , I had kept in touch with him
during all the ye ax s , and valued his friendship.
Another fine Negro citizen,
He first worked as a teamster,
- 45 -
was John Wfl.Ii.ams ,
then as a miner
.-~~----~--
.------
underground,
and finally; during the remainder of
his active life, as a porter for the store at Sipsey.
Every man, woman, and child in the village knew
him, and he was especially devoted to the children,
and they to him. He is spending his old age at
Sipsey, where he has been fOTnearly fifty years.
But on Christmas each year he finds time to corne
to Birmingham and have dinner at my home.
The opening of the mine brought good work for
all these people, whose dai1y previous wage had
been 75'; to $1. 00 per day when they could find work
to do, which was difficult.
At first, almost all the
jobs were given to' these local citizens; but, as the
work expanded,and the undergroun:d workings were
extended, men from the entire eastern portion of
Walker were brought to this new and progressive
mining operation.
Among those who chose to make
Sipsey their horne were men whose service and
sense of devotion were of the highest quality.
I
cannot :recall them all, and do not have space in
which to describe them or even list them.
But
those who were' outstanding made an everlasting and
forceful impression on me:
One of the rare kind was C. P. ("Buddie")
Phillips.
Buddie, a native of Walker County, had
operated a shaft-hoisting engine for me at Mulga
Mine in Jefferson County. He first attracted "my
attention because of two qualities ideal in any man
who has to do with the operation of engines: he
never lost his sense ofequilibriurn
and was always
cool and thoughtful.
He followed me to Sipsey and
there worked at various jobs during the construction period.
Later, when Buddie developed asthma,
I turned over all the concessions and the operation
of all the amusement features to hizne he ran the
pool room, managed the picture show, in an enclo s
ed building in winter and in an air -riorn.e in summer,
- 46 -
«
and assisted in the management of the baseball
team.
He was a prime factor in maintaining good
employee relations,
for he was kindly .and mildmannered,
but possessed of an inner strength that
made him a real man. He had had little or no
educational opportunities in his life, but he was
keen and practical.
and had a heart that errcornpassed all humankind.
L. V. Harvill. who came' from Blocton in Bibb
County, became our first mini-ng engineer and served in that capacity 'for many years.
Later he took
over the engineering work for Walker County. He
and his wife were excellent citizens of our community. He was a thorough and capable man. He is now
retired and lives i'n Jasper.
His daughter. Mrs.
Ed Hamilton. who was reared in Sipse.y and received her elementary school education there. also resides in Jasper,
with her family.
Two young men with their :q.ewbrides came to
Sipsey soon after the rrririe began to function.
They
were brothers -Charles
and Guy Lagr-erme -who
had previously been employed at Brilliant in Marion
County •. Those two rugged, staunch, plain, and
sparse -spoken men were my hunting companions
through the years.
In the woods they were most at
home, being marvelous marksmen,
perceptive and
k.een, of sight.
Guy+s wife was often disgruntled," to
put it mildly, at the attentions he showed his hunting
dogs, which he trained and looked after with great
care. Bob Payne came to us about 1915. He began as
a foreman and later became th e superintendent.
Bob
was a Mississippian
and an excellent man with those
who worked with him.
The NRA and Wagner Act so
demoralized him because of one of his convi ct iorrs
that he finally gave up his work as superintendent
- 47 -
,..--------------------_
..
_-_._---
-
---
'.r===========,.",..",..,"""""""'------
and became a night watchman at Coal Valley, a mine
which later came 'under our charge.
Bob believed
firmly that unionl am as practiced generally in the
South would sooner or later lead to the integration of
the races.
Bob was born in Mississippi.
He was a
fine friend, possessed of inexhaustible energy and a
sense of duty the like of which I have not known in
any other man.
Toward the end of World War I, Bob Payne
brought a young man to me for a job. He was Alf
Julian. just out of the Army, having served as sergeant in the Alabama regiment that was a part of the
famous Rainbow Divlsion.
AIf saw it all, had fought
with his regiment at Chateau-Thierry,
and had carried
on until Armistice -Day in 1917. But he never would
discuss his war experiences with me,' even though
he always called me "Captain. r; He married in Sipsey, raised a fine family, and finally passed away
in the hills that he loved.
One of hi s sons is now an
engineer with the Alabama Power Company. an excellent young man, capable and dependable;
During 1913, a boy just ~ut of high school became the first weighman at the tipple-J.
R. McGowin.
He was alert, intelligent.
eager. and good. He "later
became assistant timekeeper at Sipsey and then chief
clerk at Empire after we purchased that mine •. He
mar-ried a Sipsey girl of rare beauty-Miss
Alma
Ennis.
They had a fine family.
One of their boys,
Dick McGowin, became an All-American halfback at
Aubur-n; he is now the backfield coach at his Alma
Mater.
When he was no more than fifteen years old,
I once watched him punt a football fifty yards.
Frank Kelley and his family moved to .Sipsey during its early days.
He was the best mine track man
I have ever known in my half century in the mines. He
was a hard worker. genial always and good humored.
- 48 -
••
He too had a splendid family.
One of his boys, Jim,
became an exceptional motorman on one of the electric locomotives when still in his teens.
Jim rose
to be an excellent mine foreman.
One' of Frank
Kelley's grandsons is an assistant mine foreman at
Gorgas and performs his job with sk i ll ,
Among the other men who were my close friends
were John Hill, whose son is Vice President
of the
Crandall Engineering
Company -of Birmingham;
and
Jodie Smith, whose wife was a,lovely person and a
valued friend of my wife. Jodie's son Paul is now an
affluent resident of Birmingham,
President of the
Smith Coal Sales Company, and has a beautiful home
in Mountain Brook.
Pa.ul is educa.tion. was completed
when he finished Si'psey High School , He had wonderful forebears,
and he has always been persevering
and honorable.
.
S. S. Shor e s became our Local peace officer.
He had been a chief de'puty she r iffvin Jasper under
John Gray.
He too was a high type of map., always
frank, emphatic,
and upstanding.
He had a fine
family.
One of his boys. 'J. L.. Shores, was first employed as a rodman in the mine erig ine er s .eor pa, He
is now Head of the Safety Department for the Alabama
Power Company.
D~ring the earlier years at Sipsey, a man and
his wife from Holland came into our community.
They
were Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Kempgens.
Where or how
th~y made a landing at Sipsey I never knew, but Kempge'ns was an excellent coa.l miner, having worked in
the mines on the continent, either in Germany or
Belgium.
His wife. Katrina, was a most wonderful
and splendid per son. Dur ing the war she brought her
skill in knitting into prominence by teaching many of
the women of the community.
She became a close
friend of Rose's and on many occasions would come -
- 49 -
••
to our house and talk over old times in the old
country.
The Kempgens reared a family in Sipsey.
Some of the children live here· in Bi r m ingharn and
others in Florida.
Both the man and the woman
were kindly people, but Mrs. Kempgen, particularIy , was a very unusual person.
As the operation progressed,
it was encumbent
on me to meet and as sociate with people in other
sections of the county, but more importantly in Jasper.
John H. Bankhead, then "Junior 11, was our
Walker County attorney.
Be be carne one of my
closest friends; my affection for him was deep,
and no individual 'has missed him more than 1. He
felt toward me, as he once told Ro s e ; as he did toward a brother,
and I returned this feeling.
We inherited our friendship,
so to s pe ak, When John's
father, in the 1890's.as I recall,
decided to run for
Congress,
he sought help of my father, who operated a large livestock business i~ Birmingham;
Mr.
Bankhead, who was not then. as affluent as he later
came to be, told my father 'Ofhis intentions to run.
Then he said he needed a horse, a set of harness,
and a buggy for his campaign.
He agreed to pay
for these necessities
if elected and had it understood'
that, if he failed, my father was to take back the
b.ors e , harness,
and buggy and accept as full payment whatever salvage 'value was in them.
My fathe r
accepted Mr. Bankhead's proposition.
When Mr.
Bankhead was elected, he paid my father for the outfit and, besides,
sent my father a gold split-second
watch, which today is an heirloom in our family. So,
John, Jr.,
and I had common grounds for mutual
faith and understanding,
which never wavered during
the years.
In late
1933, John appointed
- 50 -
I>
me to the PWA for
Alabama. of which 1 was made chairman.
I am
fearful. though,
that my activities in that post were
not as tactful as he had wished, though he never
complained.
I was not a New Deal adherent,
and 1
sometimes think that, on his account. I should not
have become entangled in the policies of the Public
Works Administration.
Yet, he never criticized
me.
There was a gentleness in John Bankhead not
appreciated
by many of his as soc iate s , That gentle •..
ness, along with his capability and legal wisdom,
made him outstanding as our -Uni te d States Senator;
more than that. those qual.ijf e s made him a great
gentleman.
When I first moved to Walker County, William
B, Bankhead was' $ till a young man, although he had
already been solicitor
for the circuit, and a member
of the State House of Representatives
and was recognized for his extraordinary
attai nrnent as an or a «
to r , Furthermore.
~e was companionable.
capable,
and earnest.
His first electio~ to Congress in the
Seventh District of the State carne after .orie of the
most intense political struggles that the district had
ever experienced.
His opponent was Capt. Richmond
P. Hobson. of Spanish-American
War fame.
Because
Will Bankhead won that election by less than sixty
votes, r was particularly
proud of the box at Sipsey.
which gave him ni.nety-se ight solid votes.
Will Bankh ead s er ve'd continuously as Congressman until his
death in 1940 and was Speaker of the House of Representatives when ,he passed away. He was a distinguished. Alabamian and won National recognition as
statesman.
a
William Bankhead was the father of the famous
Tallulah Bankhead and her sister,
Eugenia Bankhead.
These two daughters of Bankhead were schoolmates
of Miss Ila Dean Griffin, to whom reference has been
made herein.
- 51 -
•
44
The friendship between the Bankhead family
,and my family, which began ill- the 1880's, meant
much to the DeBardeleben Coal Company in the
early days.
The Bankhead family had long been
among- the most prominent and constructive in our
State, and their contribution to Alabama ts progress
cannot be rne a sur ed,
John, Jr. and I, on aHahing trip as I recall,
planned the raising of Lock 17 an additional twelve
feet, which, when completed, made the Mulberry
Fork navigable to the barge -loading station at Coyle
immediately below the junc ti orr.of Sipsey and Mulberry Rivers.
We planned a: dam at Sanders Ferry
which woul.d.have rna.de the two rivers navigable
some eight or ten :miles above the present Coyle
barge-loading station.
This plan was ,somewhat too
ambitious for the time.
Alabama's influence in National affairs reached its great height when Will Bankhe ad became
Speaker of the 'House at the same time that John,
Junior" was a s'tr ong , respected and powerful member
of the Senate of the United'States.
John was without
doubt the one, Senator who did most to obtain farm
legislation and thus to aid all the farmers in the
,
Nation.
Cotton was' King in his thinking and planning.'
. Will Bankhead was an exceedingly popular man
in his journey through life from Lamar, County to
Washington because he was affable, generous, kind
and responsive to the nobler impulses.
When we bought the Phillips Farm, I became
acquainted with Jake Phillips; and, although he out",
traded me at the time, we became close friends. I
still hold his friendship dear in my memory.
He
was one of the most unusual men I have ever known.
His education was limited to the rural school near
- 52 -
the family horne; nevertheless,
he had one of the
keenest minds with which I ever carne in contact.
He was capable, practical,
unde r s tandi ng , and
when he pledged his word, nothing ever changed
him.
He advised me in the early days' as to the
policies of our company in its relationship
with the
people of the county, in land trades,
and.indeed on
whatever subject I chose to consult him about, and
there were many.
I frequently carne in ciose contact with Mr.
Jack Cranford.
then Pr e s ident of the First National
Bank. He was a unique individual,
sound in his approach to business affairs and ,generous of his time
and talent in matters
of publ i'c Concern.
There was'
Judge Sartain., aRepubl i.can who was judge of probate a wise, earnest,
and r eas onabl.e man.
Arthur Sartain,
his son, was employed in Senator
Bankhead IS office and later wen.t with. the Senator to
Washington as his ch ief clerk. , Judge Curtiss was
an exceptional rna.n, Norman Gunn , a lawyer, was
the debonaire Beau Brummel of Ja spe r ; he, too, was
a dependable marie There were the McCutcheons,
the Conwells, the Bur-tons who were merchants,
five of them all told, and all possessed
of public
spirit and pride.
There was Ed Long. who late-r
became probate judge, an excellent,
affable rrian ,
and his brother.
Pope Long, a Republican,
who was
s tur dy as an oak. And then there were Judge Sowell
and Dr. J. Alex Moore, County Superintendent
of
Education.
of whom r shall have more to relate.
Tom Long, the brother of Pope and Ed, was a
friendly,
happy individual,
possessed
of fine understanding.
He envisaged the tremendous possibilities
of the Tennessee Valley as one of the great areas of
the State years before the TVA was conceived.
Tom's
dream as to this rich area of the 'State contemplated
its development by the business interests of our State ,
- 53 -
••
and he dwelt upon the resources of the Tennessee
River in Alabama on every occasion.
Judge Acuff, who was for years the County
Solicitor, was an upright, dete r rniried man of the
old school.
During the First World War he had
some administrative
connection with the National
Fuel Administrator.
He was always scrupulously
conscientious and honorable in h.is dealings with
the coal operators of the State;
The Kilgores were in the Livestock businessJohn, the father, and his three boys , John, Brack,
and Grady.
My father and the"elder Kilgore had
been friends for rnor e than. twenty years before I
moved to Walker County, 'I'Iie boys and I became
"buddies" and John. particularly,
became my lasting friend.
Charles Wiggins, a very ca-pable and clearheaded lawyer. who later became a circuit judge,
was a vigorous. hale, and companionable young
man at the ti~e.
As the ,years have passed, he
has retained all these excellent qualities.
Whenever Judge Wiggins comes to mind I recall a young attorney who graduated from the University of Alabama in the early 30's, came to
Jasper in the late 30 "s , and began his first work
in that area in the office of Judge Wiggins. I refer
to the general editor of these annals: the Congressman from the Seventh District of Alabama, Mr.
Carl Elliott. Carl Elliott· has been a dedicated man
in his service to Walker County. to his district,
and
to the State of Alabama.
He served with the Infantry of the United States Army in World War II and
then began his rapid rise to prominence as an
attorney, a public servant, and a 'dis ti.nguiahe d and,
effective member of the Congress of the United
- 54 -
Sta.tes , He married a Jasper girl-the
granddaughter
of one of the most prominent merchants in that area, .
who was my close friend during my early years in the
courrty, Mrs. Elliott's grandfather· was Mr , Sylvanus Hamilton.
His wholesale grocery business,
the
Hamilton Grocery Company, wa s. one of the largest
and most valuable in West Alabama,
Mr , Hamilton
was a good friend and a sterling man.
There were many more .rnen , too many to list
here. who were substantial citizens,
eager always
to advance the progress of th~ county and its pe opl e,
They were always kind •. sympathetic.
and understandirig, I suppose that ~, like rno s t individuals growing
older. am disposed to compare the present with the
past, particularly
as to customs and people, often to
the disadvantage of the pr es errt, ·Even so, I doubt
that, in all the history of Walker Comity or of any
other county in our State, there ever lived a finer
group of citizens than lived in Jasper, Alabama, and
its environs during the period from 1910 to 1930.
In those days the Republican party was strong
in Wafke r , The probate judge, one or'two members
of the county commission,
one of the circuit judges,
and various less important county officers were. Republicans.
Here was an excellent situation, promoting competition,
constructive
criticism,
and .friendly
rivalry.
Unfortunately,
the situation deteriorated
when the New Deal carne into being with all its largess.
Even Winston County men became Democratic.
It is a
s tr ang e truth that men will sacrifice conviction for
expediency.
Too few recognize values other than
money values.
In "The World Is Too Much with Us"
Wordsworth was criticizing men of expediency, whose
chief end is material gain alone and who are not mov-ed by Nature or great events.
To them Wordsworth
addresses
this strong plea for a change of direction:
- 55 -
,----------------
11 •••
I'd rather be
,A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn, So might I standing on this pleasant Le a.,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 11
During the early years of. World War I, or just
prior to those years, both Democrats and Republicans in the county decided that education in the area
should be removed from politics and kept bipartisan.
Accordingly, two Republicans and two Dernocrats
were norninated and then el ecned to constitute the
Walker County Boar-d of Education •. Dr. Giles Jones
of Arnerica Junction and Pope Long were the Republican mernbers,
and Mr. "Breck'! Musgrove and
I were the Democrats.
Mr. Musgrove served as
Chairrnan for four ye a.rs , and at his 'death I was
elected to the post.
Altogether I served ten years
on the Board. six years as Chair-rna n, Dr. J. Alex
Moore was Superintendent of Education and a great
educator.
I doubt that in all the years since his
tenure have we had a Superintendent of Education
who was his equal. Highly trained as an educator,
he was erudite.
honorable to the highest degree
and deeply conscientious.
During his regime. the
new high school was built in Jasper, one in Parrish,
Car-dova , Dora, Curry and Oakman,
An unusual incident occurred during the building of 'one or probably two of these high schools at
- either Parish or Cordova or both. When the funds
available to the board had been exhausted for the
year in which the incident occurred. the rnernbers
of the board. as individuals, signed a note to carry
on the building prograrn until recurrent funds becarne available.
- 56 -
My colleagues on that board were profoundly
concerned in the cause of education in the county
and were completely unselfish and devot.ed in their
duties.
No dissention,
no bickering "developed in
the Walker County Boa r d, The incident I have just
related served a good purpose, riot only in Walker
County but throughout northwest Alabama.
Later some individuals with ulterior purposes
had a bill introduced in the legislature
providing for
the election of the superintendent by the people.
Dr. Moore held the corrvicti.on that any individual
who would serve as the head of. the Department of
Education in the county should not be fettered by
pol ici.ta.l considerations
but should be free from
pressureo
Accordingly.
lie resigned as County
Superintendent
of Education, and the J?eople of the
area lost the s er vi ce s of one of the ablest Illen
who ever held public office in the State;
Circuit Judge J: Do Sowell was a man who had
the same elevated moral convi crion, Back in these
days, one circuit 'Judge, J. L. Sowell, was a Dem.ocrat; the other, Judge J. J. Cur ric e , was a "Repub-lican.
For a period there was no pOlitical partianship
in the election of the two circuit judges. \Winston
County was in the circuit and in those days was very
strongly Republ.i can , The two political parties shared certain "public offices according to agreement,
just
as the'y shared the representation
on the County Boa:rd
of Education and for the same good reason.
But the time came when rivalry between the two
parties supplanted the harmony
and compromise of
past years, and several Democratic candidates offered for these two judge shi ps , Judge Sowell held the
high principle that a judge, who dispensed -jus ti ce ,
should not solicit votes; and for that reason alone,
in my judgment,
he was defeated for re -election.
- 57 -
••
My colleagues on that board were profoundly
concerned in the cause of education in the county
and were completely unselfish and deyoted in their
duties.
No dissention,
no bickering de vel oped in
the Walker County Board.
The incident I have just
related served a good purpose, not only in Walker
County but throughout northwest Alabama.
Later some individuals with ulterior purposes
had a bill introduced in the legislature providing for
the election of the supe r Irrteride nt by the people.
Dr. Moore held the conviction that any individual
who would serve as the head of the Department of
Education in the county should not be fettered by
pol ici.tal considerations
but should be free from
pressure.
Accordingly. lie resigned as County
Superintendent of Education, and the people of the
area lost the s er vi ce s of one of ~he ablest rrie n
who ever held public office in the State;
Circuit Judge J. D. Sowell was a man who had
the same elevated moral conviction.
Back in those
days, one circuit Judge, J. L. Sowell. was a Democrat; the other, Judge J. J. Cur ti ce , was a 'Republican.
For a period there was no pOlitical partianship
in the election of the two circuit judges. \Winston
County was in the circuit and in those days was very
strongly Republican.
The two political parties shared certain 'public offices according to agreement,
just
as they shared the representation
on the County Board
of Education and for the same good reason.
But the time came when rivalry between the two
parties supplanted the harmony
and compromise of'
past years, and several Democratic candidates offered for these two judgeships.
Judge Sowell held the
high principle that a judge, who dispensed justice,
should not solicit votes; and for that reason alone,
in my judgment,
he was defeated for re -election.
- 57 -
,--------~----------------
,..
These incidents were unusual, and the results
were deplorable.
Two good men, Superintendent
, Moore and Judge Sowell, terminated fhe i r superb
publ ic service and retired to private life.
These
events in the lives of these two good men made a
forceful impression
upon many thinking people of
the county, men and women.
The truth of Sowell's
judgment, . as expressed in his conviction that any
official whose duties required i.rnpar-tlal decisions
should not place himself under obligation to any
individual, is abaol.ute.ly intrinsic for the preservation of a government for a free people.
Many times
in life 'men instinctively
perform outstanding service
without knowing at the time the real significance of
their action:
"Daj.l.y, with, souls that cringe and plot;
we Sinais climb and know it not. "
I
Walker County in.1913. when Sipsey Mine pr oduced its first coal, was a flourishing,
growing
county-largely
because of Us easily accessible
coal deposits.
The coal in the Mary Lee Seam mined at Dora, Burnwell. Red Sta r , Cordova, Barney,
and Ruby and on the North Alabama Railroad between
Parrish (Railway Fuel Mine) antJaspe~
at Calumet
and Bankhead and north of Jasper at Gamble made
up the largest proportion of the county's production •.
At that time, the coal from the Black Creek Seam
was produced at Sip s ey and Empire. Later. Dilworth
was. developed on the same seam, near Phillip's
Ferry.
The coal mined in the Nauvoo vicinity has been
- determined by many geologists and mining engineers
to be the Jefferson Seam; but, since some doubt existed, the coal was sold as Black Creek, although
some of its physical and chemical characteristics
are different from the 'coal then mined at Sipsey and
Empire.
Aside from these differences.
the hor lz.on
of the coal as to strata determined the seam to be
- 58 -
"
Jefferson.
Later on, Hope Mine between Carbon
Hill and Nauvoo was opened in this same seam.
At Carbon Hill, Townley, arid Hol.l.y Gr-ove , the
Jagger Seam was mined.
Later the mine at Howard
was brought into operation.
Mr , A. B. Aldridge,
one of the finest and rarest souls in all our State,
operated the mine on the American Seam at Aldridge for the Stith Coal Company" in which he was a
large stockholder.
Later he .sank a shaft, the
deepest in the country. to th~ Mary Lee Seam. A.
B. Aldridge was' a devoted friend. a South Alabamian from Catherine, near Selma, and a man of
high purpose and s te adfas t loyalty.
This same A.
B. Aldridge purchased for the Alabama Power
Company the large acreage ~n which the Gorgas
Coal mine was Ia te r developed.
He opened the
first drifts in the vicinity of Gorgas for the Southeastern Fuel Company. as sister company of Alabama Power Company and one of the components
of what was then Commonwealth and Southern
Company. Ab Aldridge should' always be remembered as one of the progressive
men who. contributed
greatly to the growth of 'VaU.er County.
The Galloway Coal Company. whose operations
were located largely in Walker County at Carbon
Hil1, was one of the most successful and efficiently
operated mining companies in the State.
James
Nicol, Sr , , who still lives at Carbon Hil1, was the
operation executive of this company. He spent his
entire, professional
life as a mining engineer with
the Galloway organization.
Always a quiet, capable,
forceful man and a splendid public -spirited citizen,
he was especially highly regarded by the company's
employees.
He served as a member of the County
Board of Education for many years and was prominent in much of the needed welfare activities in the
area.
His son, James Nicol, Jr. is a vice president
- 59 -
in charge of the mining operations of the U. S.
Pipe and Foundry Company. andis one of the progressive,
effective mining engineers of Alabama.
The early predecessor
of the, Corona Coal
Company was organized in 1873 by Vlrginia and
Mississippi
interests
when the Georgia Pacific
-Railway Company, now .the Southern-Railway,
was
extended through West Alabama-to the Mississippi
State line.
It was one of the first large coal producers in Alabama, with fine'quality reserves.
It
was acquired by the Adler family from Mr. L. B.
Musgrove and then passed i:qto the DeBardeleben
ownership.
The- Corona Se arn was first among the better
coals mined in Alabama, and the Cor ona mines at
Coal Valley.
Oakman, Patton, Mountain Valley,
and Corona: did much to establish coal mining in
this state.
In 1923 DeBardeleben
Coal Company. Inc ••
purchased the Empire Goal Company and the Corona
Coal Company and in this manner I became the
\ operating head for all these properties:
which
consisted of some 75.000 acres of mineral Iands ,
With exc epti on of Sipsey. Empire, Nauvoovarid
the -dornesti c sizes of: coal at Corona, Coal Valley.
Townley and Hol Iy Grove, all the coal in Walker
County was stearn coal, and the railroads-Frisco,
Southern, 1. C. and Seaboard-were
by far the
largest consumers
of the product of the co unty-ts
mines.
The coal production in Walker County during
the year s mentioned was as' follows:
- 60 -
Year
Tonnage
1913
1917
1922
1926
1930
1'935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1959
3.935,301
4,839,28'9
5,822,738
6,275,868
4,483,726
1,919,556
2,984,962
5.736,388
1, 618,346
'2;067,087
2,802,754
F'r orn the year when Sipsey Mine first began
to produce coal until the year 1930, the production
of coal i.n Walker County arncurrted to fr orn onequarter
to one -third of the total tonnage' for the
State.
The industry flourished and was prosperou s , Most of the coal was hand-Loaded, but undercut
with so-called
short-wall rnachirie a, Electric
Io cornot ive s carn e into use rno r e 'or less generally,
although rnul e s were us ed as power for J:aulage in
rrririe s around Dora and Cordova .and in the rrriries
( on the North Al abarna above Jasper.
F'r om 1915 "
\Jil1 1929, and particularly
during We r Id- War I, coal
operations
we re at their zenith.
Then carne the
crash in the fall of 1929. The effect of the crash
was the chief factor in reducing the output of Walker
County+s coal rrii ne s , But the Depression was not
was not the only factor.
In 1931, natural gas. began its inroads as a cornpe ting fuel.
In 1934 the
U. S. Gove r nrrrerrt entered the business of producing and distributing
subsidized electric power in
Al abarna+s rna r ke t area; later.
in the 40's, the outstanding and particular
cu.s torne r of the county's
m ine s , the railroads,
began to change over f'r orn
coal-burning
engine s to diesel Lo cornot ive s , The
large production of coal in 1945 was the result of
- 61 -
World War II and the export
countries.
of coal to European
During the periods of greatest production,
the
county's coal mines produced twenty-six to thirty
thousand tons of coal per day, which 'would fill
thirteen hundred to fifteen hundred 50 -ton capacity
.'railroad cars.
Bergen (a railroad yard serving
Sipsey, Empire,
Parrish
arid Hul.Lmines), Dor.a
and Carbon Hill on the Frisco were centers of great
vigor, as were Cardova, Barney, Burnwell, and
the area north of Parrish
on the Southern Railway
and the Flat Creek area, where, the L & N served
the mines.
During the enti;e histo,ry of Walker County
coal mining, the coal seams •. with few exceptions,
were easily accessible
th~ough drifts or shallow
slopes or shafts. ' Most of the mines were drift
mines, where the outcrops of the coal seams, being
exposed, could be attacked most readily and at
minimum cost.
At the height of the industry's
best
years.
from five thousand to six thou sarid miners
were employed in the co unty tsvrrrine s , .
C
In 1917 the DeBardeleben
Coal Company acquired the property at Payne's Bend, just across the
bend from Gorgas, and developed a mine there, in
the pratt Seam.
At that time, during World War I,
and for a period thereafter,
the price of coal was
fixed by a, Federal Administrator
for the nation,
who 'allowed an added price, for coal shipped to
foreign countries,
of $1. 35 per ton over and above
the price pe r rni tte d in this country.
All of the
coal pr-oduce d at Payne's Bend by our company was
transported
down the river in barges to Mobile,
thence across the Intercoastal.
Canal to New Orleans.
where most of it was shipped abroa.d for export use.
During the war period and the r e afte r , the.export
'
'.
- 62 -
•
r.:::::=::::------------------------------------business was very profitable; but in 1922 or 1923,
when foreign markets became depressed,
the operat iori.of the mine was reduced; in 1944, it was completely abandoned.
Even as late as 1924 there was little mechanical mining in thin seams - not even hand-loading
on to conveyors.
As a matter of history,
the first
mobile loading machine was introduced in Walker
County by the DeBardeleben
Coal Corporation in
1935. Two loading rna chine s were operated in a
medium thickness seam at Hull Mine, beginning in
1935, and three small machi ne s were operated at
Townley Mine, loeated be.tween Jasper and Carbon
Hill.
At this Townley Mine. in 1923, the first
underground be It in Alabama was installed for the
transportation
of 'coal unde r-g r ound.. In this instance
the belt was installed in the main slope for the delivery of coal to the surface.
Had mining engineers
known in 1924 as much about conveyor mining of
coal as was known' just a few years later,
it is
doubtful vtha.t the mine at Payne 's Bend would have
been closed down , The coal produced was from the
Pratt Seam and was of excellent steaming quality,
but difficult to mind by hand methods.
Back in 1915. just two years after the development at Sipsey by DeBardeleben
Coal Company;
DeBa.r del e ben acquired W. G. Coyle and Cornpany •.
of New Orleans,
which had bunkering facilities
and
tugs in the harbors at Pensacola and New Orleans
and agencies in Mobile.
By the 20 IS, as much as
750,000 tons of coal was put on board ship in New
Orleans for bunkering purposes alone.
The .a.ctiv>
Ltie s of Wo G. Coyle expanded during the years
and became one of the greatest assets of the DeBardeleben Company.
During these
years
the transportation
- 63 -
of coai
----~-~--~
/.
on the Warrior River was initiated.
in quantities
DeBardel:eben Coal Company was granted a rail
rate of 22¢ per ton by the Frisco Railr?ad from
Sipsey to Cordova, Cordova being then just a few
miles below the head of navigation.
The company
. built a tipple across the mouth of 'Cane Creek at
Cordova, and coal from Sipsey was trans -:shipped
from railroad cars to barges.
As soon as the
DeBardeleben people purchased the towboat Volcano
and several wooden barges, the movement of coal
from Walker County to the Gulf ports began in substantial quantities.
During the war, the Government
took over the towboats and the barges, of the wooden type and of about ~OO-ton capacity, and operated
the transportation.
facilities on the river.
When
under governrnent control .• the transportation
systern was operated 'under the name of t~e Federal
Barge Lines.
This Government corporation operated on the Mississippi
River and the Intercoastal
Canal.
The towboats and barges were suppl erriented by self-propelled
barges, which had diesel engine s in the aft end; forward from the engi.ne and
the crew quarters .was a large flat de ck , which
carried from 600 to 700 ton svof coal.
These se1£propelled barges were the for e r unne r's of the small
towboat and the big barges which have since come
to the Warrior River, the big barges having been
first introduced by Mr. Thurston Crawford of
Col!lmbus; Georgia. in transporting
coal fro~
Maxine to Mobile in 1953.
- . I vividly recall that, when we were building
the tipple in Cordova for dumping railroad car s in
the transhipment
of coal, the older Senator Bankhead requested me to meet him at Cordova. When
I reached Cordova he was standing on the bank of
the river north of the 'Frisco Railroad.
After r
had introduced myself, he began to discourse on
the merits of water transportation
on the Warrior -
- 64 -
•
Rivero He spoke prophetic words, abounding in.
logic and vision.
The elder Senator Bankhead was'
a genial man, rugged in appearance.
He reminded me much of my father.
The Senator believed
firmly that the Warrior River would corne to be a
force in the development of our sta.te ; his vision
exceeded our dreams.
And while it is my belief
that we have realized only the beginning of what
he forecast,
I venture to say. that the value of the
river,
to the State and to the coal fields of the
State. particularly,
win greatly exceed anything
we picture even today.
Senator Bankhead was one
of the most constructive
me~ ever sent to Washington from Al aba.rna r the father of rural free delivery,
the promulgator
of the principle of federal development of roads. and, above all. the statesman with
progressive
views c.oncerning the development of
the rivers of this state.
The elder senator was a
loyal friend and a great one to every movement
that sought to develop the resources
and the people
of Alabama.
He served ou'r people faithfully and
valiantly until his death on March 1, 1920.
When in the early twe nti.es the DeBardeleben
Coal Company acquired the Empire Coal Company
and the Corona Coal Company. the name of the
c:ompany was changed to DeBardeleben Coal Corporation, Inc.
This corporation
then operated at Sipsey, Empire,
and Hull Mines in eastern Walker
County and at Townley, Coal Valley, and Corona
in the western part of the county.
The operation
_of these mines was placed under my supervision.
The total employmen~ was approximately
2500 to
3000 miners-about
one half of all- the men employed
in the mines in Walker County.
The largest production from these mine.s in anyone year was
1.250, 000 tons.
One of the finer
acquisitions
- 65"-
in this trade
was
a stripping operation at Corona, the first of any
size in this state.
It was located between Corona
and West Cordova on Wolf Creek; tha te tr ip mine
produced about 1500 tons of washed coal per day.
-I doubt that any stripping operation in this state
since that time-although
better and larger equipment is now in use -has
produced as much coal
per month or per year as this mine produced between 1922 and 1928 or 19290
Although this expansion of _the company's
ownership broadened my opportunities within Walker County, I returned to Birmingham in 1923, after
eleven years of residence in-S'ips ey. However. for
the next thirty years I made two to three trips a
week to Walker Co.unty and sometimes more.
,
'
Although there had been great rivalry between
Sipsey and Empire,
in athletics as well as in business, the people of ~mpire received me cordially.
and I made many fast friends there.
I recall Dr.
York, who was a native of northeast Walker County.
a wonderful man, kind, sympathetic,
and understanding.
To the people of that community he was
more than a physician.
His forebears carne from
the county line about where the Corner School is
located and where Walker, Jefferson,
and Blount
Counties conve-r ge , His horne was' on York Mount.ain , which' was named for his family.
At Empire
also I met Clarence Brasfield,
the local barber.
We became friends and hunted birds together in the
a r ea+to the north, up toward Arkadelphia.
I renewed my acquaintance with E. S. Cunningham. whom
I had met in 1904, when he was aupe r lnte nderit at
High Level for the Sloss Company when that company
operated a mine in the property now a part of the '
great Gorgas coal field.
Charlie Moore, a nephew
of Walter Moore, President of Empire Coal CQmpany, had char ge of the Empire Mine. When we
- 66 -
-----.-----.--------~------------------~
.-----------------------------------
took over the property,
Charlie stayed for a few
months and then became associated with the Pratt
Fuel Company, which his uncle 'organized and
operated around Dora and Samoset for many years.
I learned to esteem and regard him as a valued
friend.
When the three companies were merged,
the
coal mines were separated into, two divisions:
the
, Eastern Division was comprised of Sipsey. Empire and Hull, and Corona', ~oal Valley and Townley were in the Western Division.
The company
employed two capable, e.xpe r ierrce d mine executives
as General Supe r interidenta- over each Division.
William M. Lacey, a graduate mining engineer from
Auburn. of broad experience in mine oper ati ons ,: was
in charge of the Ea s te r n Divis io n, J. B. Thomas,
formerly in charge of the coal mines 'for the Woodward Iron Company, was General' Superintendent
over the Western Division.
Lacey was the engineer
type and very capable.
John B•• Thomas had the
practical,approaches,
having s'er ve d in Alabama
mines from haul age boss to General Superintendent.
He was kindly and unde r s tandjrrg: and beyond any
doubt the most able man I have ever known in his
unusual ability to work with all his associates,
.
particularly
the mine workers.
This enlarged company was blessed with three
capable mining engineers.
Mr. R. C. Montgomery
served at Empire for the mines located in the
e as te r n pa r t of the county.
Mr. R. M. Tate was
located at Coal Valley, and Mr. E. J. Mc C're s s i.n,
whose office was at Errrpi r e, "later be carrie Chief
spector of mines for the St~te.
.Th is fine. lovable young man lost his life in an explosion that
occurred in a rni ne i:n Jefferson County-an
appalling tragedy.
Mr. Montgomery is presently
engaged as a Senior Mining Engineer with the Ala - .
In-
- 67 - .
bama Power Company; his broad experience during
~he earlier years makes him a very valuable employee.
The operation to the west of Jasper brought
me in almost daily contact with the many citizens
in the western part of the county, where previously
I had visited only on occasions.
Townley was a .
thriving community in the western part.
Carter
Manasco's people were promin-ent in that area as
sound, upstanding citizens.
For several terms
Carter represented
the Seve nth Congressional
District'
which includes Walker County. A fine family
by the name of Bevill operated a merchandise
business in the 'I'ownl e'y-ar ea ; their son represented
the
county in the recent session of the State Legislature.
This young man, now a lawyer in Jasper,
is a. dependable member o'f the bar and of the State LegisLatur e .
Dr. George Lang, distinguished Professor
of
Religion and Philosophy at the University of Alabama, came from the Townley area.
'I'he Kings,
Hendons, Langs, and Bouchelles were among the'
residents
in the Townley community whom I recall,
all of them substantial people.
In the' Corona, Oakman, Coal Valley area the
out standi ng citizen was Dr. William Cunningham,
who had served the people there from the very
beginning of Mr. L. B. Musgrove's Corona Coal
Company in the 1890's.
In Corona, Dr. Cunningham
had charge of a hospital, which was one of the first
hospitals in the county. It provided incalcul'able
benefits for the people of west Walker County. It
came into the hands of the DeBardeleben Coal
- 68 -
Company through the purchase 01 that property.
Dr. Cunningham was a rrril.d=manne r ed, strongwi.ll e d., capable physician and sur geon , and I doubt
that any man in the history of the county contributed more to the physical well-being of the people.
He had a lovely family:
three cJ;1arn:ing, intelligent daughters,
who, being brilliantly educated,
added much to the life of the people in Walker
County.
There was an unusually'splendid
type of Negro
in the Corona-Coal
Valley area.
I learned later
that Negroes had been rn.oved from farming areas
of Mississippi
into /the coal" mining regions of Walker County and there trained by Mr. M.usgrove's
staff.
They were de pendabl e , earnest,
respectful,
and kind in every way. Some oftho se men. or
their descendants,
are now working at Gorgas,
having moved there via Stith Mine. :vhere Mr.
Aldridge encouraged and he.lped them.
It is my
recollection
that Mr .• Aldridge brought other men
from Mississippi.
following the plan that Corona
Coal Company had adopted in the earlier years.
Soon after we took over the operation .of the
Corona Coal Company in 1923, many of the land
owner s be.low 'Townley on Lost Creek and below
Coal Valley on Cane Creek found deposits of smallsize coal on their lands.
In the water from the '-: '
·Coal Vall-ey and Townley washers.
this coal passed- down the creeks and settled on certain farm
lands.
A firm of lawyers in Jasper,
representing
these land owners, had taken action in the courts.
asking redress
for damages caused by the settled
coal.
The claim of 'these farmers was for alleged
damages to growing crops -mostly
corn.
For
several years,
there was a suit,' each year for
- 69
•
•
.
~---------------------------------------each land owner , and the farmers
ing damage s ,
were
collect-
After we acquired the propertie s , it carne to
our attention that some types of coal had been used
in Germany as a fertilizer
in special soil situations.
We went to Auburn and prevailed on the Department
of Agronomy to investigate the effect coal dust has
on growing crops.
This department of the State
Agricultural
College reported ,that coal dust had no
harmful effect.
We verified these findings by planting corn and other crops on our own lands along the
creeks in question.
Our nexf step was to offer three
prizes for the largest number of bushels of corn
raised per acre, without the use of fertilizer,
on
the banks of the cr eek s where fine coal had been
deposited.
The first prize was $500, and the second
and third were reduced in arnount , The outcome was
the largest corn crop in the history of farming on
those creeks.
As I recall,
the winner raised over
forty bushels per acre, which was not a bad yield
for Walker County fa.r m land at that ti~e.
Experi:ments are presently being conducted on the use of
fine coal as fertilizer
and, I under stand, with satisfying results.
After we awarded the prizes,
no .
person in Alabama. so far as I know. has entered suit.
for damages to his land caused by settled coal.
During the mid-1920's,
after DeBardeleben
Coal Corn parry acquired the Empire and Corona
companies.
mine safety groups were organized at
each of the company mines.
Monthly safety meetings were held in Jasper at the motion picture theater,
which was operated by John Johnson.
Men with outstanding safety records and the supervisors
of each
:mine attended these conferences and participated
in
discussions
relating to safety problems and pr ac ti ce-s ,
- 70 -
Each mine accident was examined and discussed.
At the luncheon following the meeting. held at the
Collins Hotel or in the basement of the Methodist
Church. the group heard interesting' addresses
by
distinguished
engineers.
members of the staff of
the Bureau of Mines and the State Mine Inspector 's
office, and other prominent men in many fields of
endeavor.
It was during these years that the Hull Mine
of DeBardeleben
Coal Company won the famous
"Sentinel of Safety Trophy" as recognition for
having operated one year without a lost-time
accident. Thi s was the' fir st mine 'in Alabama ever to win
this award. In the intervening 30 years or more it has
been pr e s ente d onLy2 or 3 tin;t.es to coal mine s in this s ta.te .
During this, period, once each year a Walker
County "Fir st Aid II conte st was held at the old
Jasper Fair Grounds.
Teams from all the mines
in the county participated,
and rivalry was strong.
AS' a result of this safety work, interest in safety
conditions in the mines
and ,safety measures were
greatly improved.
The people of Jasper were at
all times interested
and encouraging.
and they
joined in our pride at the success of these worthy
efforts.
The competition between the "First Aid II
teams was almost as keen as between the basebail
teams of the Walker County League.
This League
in the early 20 IS consisted of teams from Sipsey.
Empire,
Dora, Cordova. Coal Valley, Carbon
Hill, Jasper and Parrish.
Dixie Walker, the famous Washington pitcher,
coached the Sipsey team.
Dixie's sons, Fred. Dixie, Jr •• and Har r y , were
reared in Sipsey and became famous Big League stars.
- 71 -
,-
The maximum production of coal in Walker
County -~6. 250. 000 torrs
was attained in 1926.
'three years after DeBardelebe'n Coal Co r po r-at io n
acquired the Corona and Empire properties.
At
that time the railroads
consum.ed more Walker
County coal than any other custom'er.'
The bulk of
the great tonnage came from the. Mary Lee Seam
at Sarno s e t, Dora, Hull, Red Star, Burnwell. and
Cordova, and from the mines from Parrish
to Nauvoo
on the North Alabama Railroad.
The high grade coals
from Empire to Sipsey were u.s e d for domestic purposes and for coking coal.
The' battery of beehive
ovens ope r at ing in 1922 at Empire continued to produce as late as 1923 or 1924.~ Other beehive ovens
were operated at the old Ivy Mine of the Slos s
Company. which later becam.e Hull Mine.
The mines
at Corona, 'I'ownl e y ,'. Carbon Hill and Holly Grove
furnished steam coal in the small,size:
Lump. egg,
and nut coal ~ere considered middle -grade domestic,
coal, which moved toward the west and southwest in
the Memphis area of Tennessee and in Louisiana.
r
r-
Then carne the .finan cia.I debacle which struck
our entire country in 1929 and extended 'with severity
through 1930 and 1931. . The effect of this financial
crisis shows in the marked reduction in the tonnage
produced in Wal;ker County.
Production slipped to
1, 9l9~ 556 tons in 1935 and did not recover untii the
war period between 1940 and 1946 or 1947, when
there was ?-n extremely large demand for coal for
export to Europe.
The increase
came when Eur-opean
countries laid waste by wa r were beginning to restore
their economy.
But the financial crisis of our country in 1930
was not the only cause of the devastation which finally overtook the coal industry in Walker Co~nty. In ~
- 72 -
•
1931 natural gas .rriade its first appearance in the
State.
Because gas at the wells sold for two to three
cents per thousand cubic foot and pipe lines were
limited to those areas close to the gas fields, notably. in Louisiana,
the Alabama coal fields were
the first fields in the United States to feel the effect
of competition from natural gas.
The readily available customers for natural gas were the stearn boilers of manufacturing
plants.
Those same steam
boilers ~in sugar refineries,
cotton mills, power
plants, all in Alabama's rrra.rk.e t area-had
been
heavy consumers of steam coal from Walker County.
The Monroe Gas Field in"Louisiana was among
the very first large gas fields -that were brought into commercial
production and distribution by means
of pipe lines.
The area first served 'by the producers .of gas from this field was the area that required
the shortest pipe lines to be laid from the fields.
The natural gas industry was a new and untried
venture; accordingly.
the industry experienced difficulties in the initial financing, as is. common
enough in new businesses;
and the. pipe lines were
limited to those communities and manufacturing
facilities located in closest proximity to the gas
field.
Because this service area happened to be
the same one that purchased Alabama stearn coal, the
Alabama Goal industry suffered Jirst and suffered
more than any other coal-producing
field.
But the
outlook is not altogether gloomy; for. as gas r e «
s er.ve s are depleted by the increased corraurnptton ,
which is now the trend, those markets that are at
greatest distance from the gas fields and therefore
command the highest delivered price for the gas
will be the favored areas,
whereas the markets in
closest proximity to the gas fields will be supplied
by coal. especially
coal for steam -producing purposes.
This should redound to the benefit of the
- 73 -
•
The fact that British ThermAlabama coal industry.
al Units can be transported
at less cost in pipe lines
·than .B T U's in coal in railroad cars enhanc e s the
advantages of gas in distant markets.
For the producers of coal, the markets close by offer an oppo r tuni.ty,
..
When the railroads.
which were the only remaining customer for steam coal. became die s el i.zed,
the outlook was indeed bleak. Commercial coal
operators,
who were largely Alabamians making a
fair return on their investment,
were not inclined to
reinvest their money in coal property or mechanization after the mines which were then in operation
became exhausted •.
Befor-e 1930,· all of the Walker County coal
properties
were exploited by means of mines opened on the outcrop of the seam or ,by means of mines
whose coal bed was reached with shallow slopes or
shafts.
During this very period, when prices and
demands were depressed and mines were becoming
exhausted, the only roanner in which the 'production
could have been maintained, had there been a market' would have been by mechanization of the mines
or by the development of new mines at depth. Ei~her
pr oducti on inethod necessitated
expenditures of
millions of dollars and a development in areas where
the coal searn could be reached only through more
expensive and costly means of attack such as rock
slopes and rock shafts.
And so the output waned,
and rn err, becoming idle, sought work in other coal
fields and other vocations.
One mine after another
was abandoned until the Walker County production
dropped to a minirouro in 19500 The
600;000 tons
of that year was the lowest since 1913.
The Alabama Power Company produced or purchased
1:
- 74 -
70% to 75% of the
1950 tonnage.
In general,
the culture of a people is dependent upon their economic well-being.
If the culture
of Walker County people is evaluated solely in
terms of their economy, one of the most important
events in the history of the· county was the corning
of the Alabama Power Company to its confines. The
county's vast deposits of fine quality coal is indeed
a great blessing from Proyidence.
When the
United States Government,
in need of explosives,
erected the stearn plant at Gor ga.s in' 1918 or 1919
to supplement thevpowe r necessary
to produce nitric
acid at Muscle Shoals, an important step was taken
to insure the expl ot.ta.tion of the Walker County coal
fields.
The ne~t step was' 'the final. acquisition of
the stearn plant by the Alabama Power Company.
The steam plant along with the coal property in the
High Level, Gorgas area, which the Alabama Power
Company bought from the Sloss -Sheffield Steel and
Iron Company, gave a.ssur arice that the culture of
Walker County, if dependent on e coriorrric well-being,
would be supported by great natural resources.
Within the confines of the county, Mr. T. W.
Martin finally established
a giant growing i.ndustr'y ,
which carries
with it an assured future.
The judgment and the vision which brought about this development w:ere entirely Mr. Martin's.
In the acquisition of these properties,'
he utilized the services of
Mr. A. B. Aldridge of the Stith Coal Company, to
whom reference
has already been made.
Mr. T. W.
Martin's life has been dedicated and consecrated
to
the upbuilding of Alabama; through him more than
through any other, Walker County has gained much
and will gain more.
- 75 -
Here is an illustration
of the way the policy
of the Alabama Power Company has affected the
'people of Walker County.
Toward the end of World
War 1, when Mr. Aldridge began to operate the
property of the Southeastern
Fuel Company, he
carried on the mine operation at Gorgas under the
name of the Southeastern
Fuel Company and operated
another mine in the Pratt Seam near the present
steam plant under the supervision of the Winona
Coal Company.
In 1930 and,1931. when business
was depressed
owing to the pa.ni.c, and natural gas
was competing with Alabama coal, the Alabama
Power Company chose to close down its own mining
operations and buy coal f r orrr-op e r a.tor s in Walker
County.
This action enabled the coal producer s of
Walker County to rna irrta in their business during the
Depression.
The mines at Gorgas did ..not resume
operation until 1941, when the sho.rtage of coal,
caused by another 'war, necessitated
a change in
policy.
It requires
nq prophet to predict that the
growing section of Walker County will be in the
area to the south and southwest of Parrish.
extending down to the Tuscaloosa line.
There the Alabama
Power Company and its associate company, the
Southern Electric Generating Company, 'possess
enormous reserves
of workable coal. .
.The Louis Smith Dam above Sipsey will provide an ample flow of water during the hot summer
months; and the restrictions
due to the heating of
water, which formerly limited the number of generating units at Gorgas, will be greatly reduced.
The
spirit of liberality and sincere interest which the
Alabama Power Company has manifested in the wellbeing of the county make it one of the county I s
greatest physical and moral assets.
- 76 -
•
r-;:::=-------------Harry M. Johnstone was the first superintendent when coal was again mined at Gorgas.
Harry
was born in Carbon Hill, was graduated from Auburn •.
and had broad experience in coal mining, having
served as a young mining engineer with the old Galloway Coal Company at Carbon Hi.II and for several
years as a mine inspector for the State of Alabama
and as superintendent
of a large coal mine in Jefferson County for Republic Steel Cor por a.tion, Mr.
Johnstone was a good mining man, highly regarded
by his associates,
especially the mine workers; being greatly irrte r e s te d in s afe ty, he initiated many
preventive
measures which contributed to the excellent safety recor,d the Alabama Powe r Company
has maintained for many year s ,
One of the more difficult oc cupat ion s to fill in
connection with a mine operation in an isolated
community is that of deputy sheriff.
I recall vividly the difficult experiences which were mine during
prohibition days. 1 have found through the years
that it is unusual to find a representative
of the law
who has the faculty of maint.aining good relations
with other employees and at the same time maintain a high standard of law enforcement.
Usual.Iy,
if a man is congenial, he has great difficulty in
drawing a line as to where his congenialty should
end. And, too, it has been my experience that if
he "i s unnecessarily
unyeilding in his application of
the law, his relations with his fellow employees
~re strained.
During the years, a man who has
adequately met my standards as a deputy sheriff
is a man at Gorgas by the name of Joe Moore. Not
only does Joe understand his fellow workers,
but
his sense of human relations is splendid.
At the
same time, no man -ever encroaches upon his legal
authority.
The best measure
of this man is his
fine attitude towar.d his wife and his lovely daughte-r,
- 77 -
who was graduated from the University of Alabama,
and \.\h0 is presently employed in the Welfare Department of Walker County.
The good residents
of southwest Walker, who
have long highly valued the great industry within the
county, have cooperated without reserve in the development of it. The Winns, who operate a general store
at Good Springs, are of the t ypeT have in mind. One
of the brothers was a player on the famous Sipsey
ball team, which was coached by the original Dixie
Walker.
The Cr umps , the Da.vis e s , the Woods. and
other men of such caliber were .arnong the splendid
citizens of the area. '. These are only a few.
Men like John' Forem~n.; who wqrked with A.
B. Aldridge, and Jack Wilson, who succeeded John,
labored unflinchingly for the advancement of this
part of the country.
Back in the early days at Sipsey,
a Mr. Burke and his wife were efuployed in the
company store.
They now live near Gorgas, and Mr.
Burke is the succes sful proprietor
of a thriving merchandise business.
One of the outstanding accomplishments
in the
southwestern part of the county in recent years. was
the er e ct ion of a .rrio de r n , attractive Junior High
School building, deservedly named Thomas W.
Martin High School.
The first principal of the new
schobl was Raymond Faught; he is now County
Superintendent of Education, and the new principal
is W. T. Brakefield,
who comes from one of the
outstanding families at Carhon Hill.
Professors
Faught and Brakefield have served the school admirably and the community too. In recent years the
science classes and the laboratory in this school
have been rated among the best in Walker County;
~ 78 -
•
Schools impart a great and lasting good to all
communities.
This is especially true in mining
communities.
where the home has not, generally
speaking, been the influence for good that it has
been in so many communities.
But the school can
never supplant the home. nor should .we expect
teachers to be substitutes for parents.
The home
of any family, regardless
of the vocation of the
breadwinner.
is the corner stone of Democratic
society-the
first great influence.
Everything which
is good, every phase of our e,xistence must emanate
from the home.
This is one Ie's s on , one doctrine,
that I have striven to bring home to men-mostly
coal miners -during
my half century of direct association with them.
Although' I 'cannot tell what infl.uence my doctrine of the home has had, I can say,
and proudly say, that I have many warm friends
among coal miner s and the children 01 miner s .
If I may be pardoned for this observation,
I
would impress upon management,
management not
only of coal mining but of all industry, that employee
relationship
does not end at the checkout card.
It
is better for management to be accused of pate r naleizm than for management to fail to show normal:
human interest in men and women and their homes
and children.
The inner satisfaction that comes to
those who practice this relationship knows no bound s ,
.My experience is that some unions seek to discredit this interest that management should have in
employees.
Because many unions fail to show interest in the home life of their members,
it is all
the more fitting that .employers should practice the
fundamental principle of altruistic
and lofty human
relationship.
- 79 -
My interest in Alabama Power Company's
coal property began in 1935 when I made a report
to Mr. Martin setting out the possibilities
that a
highly mechanized mine could be developed in the'
Gorgas property.
My report revealed the recoverable tons and the thickne s s of the' coal in the pr operty,
calculated for. each seam and for ea ch forty
acres.
A renewal of the mine operation began in
'1941, and the first coal was produced on December
11th of that year.
From 1941 through 1959, the
property,
includi,ng lands pur-cha s ed from Alabama
'Fuel and Iron Company, has produced approximately
,15,500, 000 tons. all of which has been consumed at
the Gor gas Steam Plant.
In 1951 or 1952 the Aiabama Power Company
acquired fro:m the Alabama F'ue Larid Iron Company
the lands known as the Empire Land Company property.
which c on.sis te d of some 12, 000 acres and
contained roughly 100. 000, 000 .tdns of recoverable
coal in three explored, workable, super.imposed
s earn s , This purchase made the Alabama Power
Company secure in the possession of adequate reserves im:mediately adja.ce nt to its great steam plant.
The Alabama Power Company riowhol ds this favorable position in the utilities field: it owns a large
steam plant located on and adjacent to a splendid
coal property; the water resource is ample to supply
a great electric utility.
The Company's favorable
position cannot be duplicated in many ins tarice s in
this country, or, for that matter,
throughout the
world.
One of the interesting historic events at Gorgas
was the experi:ment we conducted.in 1947 on the underground gasification of coal.
This experiment,
the _
first of its ~ind in any country except Ru s s ia., evoked
- 80 -
•
national
and international
atte nti.on.
The experiment was conducted jointly by the
Alabama Power Company and the U. S. Bureau of
Mines of the Department of the Interior.
An International meeting of engineers to discuss the subject
was held at Birmingham,
including a symposium
and an inspection of the Gorgas' works'.
U. S. engineers attended in large numbers; many engineers
came from France,
Belgium .• England. ltaly, and
other foreign lands.
The experiment,
which had shown great progress
and enc our-ag ing results,
was terminated in
July 1959. owing t~ a reduction in the funds budgeted to the Bureau of Mines by the Federal Government.
The Bureau held .the opinion that other work of current interest and public demand wa s-rnor e vital than
!'he onat:rgroona gasIncacfon of coaL, whfch
cae
Bureau regarded as a matter for' the future.
Also,
the Bureau of Mines was convinced tha.th ea t units
could be presently pr-oduced at a lower cost from
highly mechanized
underground mines than by
underground gasification;
the Bureau believed, further, that we should await the results of the experiments in England and those from the installatio~s
in Ru_ssia. But those who disagreed with the Bureau
of Mines felt that we in this country were not a.c+ '
customed to follow in such undertakings and that the
delay' was an error in judgment.
Since that time, and within the year, authentic
information has been received that the Russians have
several successful commercial
installations
producing large quantities of gas from c.oal burned in place
for the generation of electric powe r , Enginee~s from
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the Arnerican Society of Mechanical Engineer sand
fr orn the American Institute of Mining Engineers
are now considering an inspection trip to Russia to
exarrri ne the Russian e s tabl ishmerits ,
Exarnination of the data received through
English engineers who have inspected the Russian
plants and of data obtained from a neutral source
in Switzerland reveals that the work at Gorgas and
that in Russia were conducted in al mo s t identical
rriarmer s , The difference is that the Russians I
experirnents were rrruch rnor e extensive; the Russians empl oye d 400 technicians and 3000 workers
in their experirnents,
whereas. the Gorgas experiment employed no -rnor e than 50, including engineers
and chemists.
The ac cornpl ishrnerrts -of the Russians
will no doubt revive and enlarge the work in our
country, as they should.
In 1955 the production at Gorgas Mine, including strip coal, was 54% of the total production
of the county.
In 1956 it was 59-1/2%; in 1957 it
was 62%; in 1958 it was 57-1/2%; and in 1959 it was
65% of the total production.
It is not unreasonable
to conclude that this proportion will grow as the
year s pas ~ if the production of coal fr orn the new
SEGCO operation near Parrish is added to the production of Gorgas Mine.
The annual estirnated tonnage of coal that
will be required fr orn Walker County m ine s in
1964 will be greater than that produced in the year
of rrrax.imurri production,
which was 1926, when
nearly 6,500,000 tons were rrrined, Two iarge utility cornparrie s , it is estirnated,
will require 6,000,000
tons; and, if the present tonnage sales to consurners
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other than utilities are maintained, the estimated
production of Walker County coal in 1964 will exceed 7, 500, 000 tons.
The day of the hand-loaded
coal .i.nmines of
limited capacity is largely a thing of the past. Such
mines have been replaced by large capacity, highly mechanized operations developed at a cost of
millions of dollars.
For example, to develop and
provide facilities for a mine ,that produces 1, SOD, 000
tons annually costs no less than $9, 000, OOO-or
$6. 00 per ton of annual production.
Forty-eight
and one half percent of all the coal produced in the
United States in 1957 carne from mines that produce
annually more than 500,000 net tons each.
This
trend has increas~d since 1957.
*
In all of the coal fields of the United States,
particularly
in the Eastern and more thickly populated area, the seams now being w orke d are thinner
and more inaccessi.ble than were the !?eams that
were being worked in previous years.
This trend
forecasts the ma gni tude of the cost of future operations.
"Walker County operators.
foreseeing the cost
of mining thinner and more inaccessible
seams and
being al er te d to the competition from natural gas,
have not reinvested large sums in deeper mines and
thinner seams.
The future will bring, as I see it,
* See
Volume II of the Annals of West Alabama for
an article on "The Future of Coal in Walker County
and the Underground Gasification Experiment. "
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•
,-greater
concentration
of mine production in large
corporations
that make use of more and more autorna.ti on , The number of men r equi r ed to produce
this coal of the future will be fewer than those called for in 1926. Wages, however, are already four
or five times what they were in 1926;
.;-
The men of the county have proved apt mine
pupils in acquiring the skills essential to the working of these machines,
c orrrpl i cat ed as they are.
The younger men, particularly,
have shown their
mechanical
skill and understanding.
In the future
.there should be an arripl e s uppl.y of fine, upstanding,
dependable men who will be prepared to operate the
coal mines of the ~c;>unty.
But what of the coal itself?
In southwest
Walker County, in the American and'Mary Lee Seams,
lies a vast tonnage of reserves. of coal.
In the
Black Creek Seam, which underlies the. whole of
Walker County, there is an enormous,
although unproven, amount of coal.
The 'Coal is thin but of
high quality.
It was mined at Empire and Sipsey
and has been sufficiently explored from Dora to the
river and in the vicinity of Barney for one to say
at least that its existence is proven.
From Parrish
to the west in the Coal ValleyCo r ona surroundings,
the Mary Lee Seam lies
largely
unexplored.
Where it has been drilled,
the
seam was found to be good steam coal but less than
36" thick.
I am convinced that no one needs to
worry about whether there will be an adequate supply
of coal to meet future demands made on Walker
County.
The coal is there under the ground.
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•
r.:==:::-::----------~~-~-. 'I'hat portion of Walker's coal field. that adjoins
or is close to the river lies in a favorable location.
I have information
that by 1970 one electric utility
holding company alone will require an estimated
27,500 tons per day, for t r aris po r ta ti on only by water,
five days a week.
The corrrpa.rry.w i.Llvrno ve this coal
by barge on. the Warrior River to the coast and along
the Intercoastal
Canal.
For twerrty vni.ne years,
1905-1934, Ihad been
in charge of rrrine ope r attons' in Alabama.'
During
this entire time the operations had not lost as much
as five minutes because of a strike.
Shortly after
Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated,
the Administration established
a policy of collective bargaining.
As a method of making contracts,
collective bargaining, .with its many claims to merit,
could not be
withstood by Indus tr y in the face' of governmental
sanction.
.That pensions,
ho spi tal izati on , increased
.:wages. and many other accrued. benefits brought a
better lif~_to the mine workers in Walker County
cannot be denied, and I doubt that anyone would now
advocate a return to the old methods by which management controlled labor.
During the years,
I had witnessed many inexcusable .acts of injustice on the part of the coa.l
ope-rators in Walker County.
Some operators
reduced wages to reclaim lost business from other operator_s.; depressed
living conditions among the miners
usually followed such unforgivable bad judgment.
When in the early thirties the operator of a coal mine
in Walker County reduced the pay of a skilled worker
- the track man - to $2.50 fo r a ten-hour day, the.
men at that mine went on strike.
Two othe r operators in Walker County raised sufficient money among
their friends to feed and maintain the striking workers
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for two weeks or rrior e , until their wages were restored and the wage -price cutting stopped.
This
act of kindness ca:me too late.
The narrow views
of many operators
or their indifference to human
relations were serious short-co:mings in judgment.
These faults of m ana.gerrie nt were not limited to
Walker County; they were common throughout the
nation.
It is no wonder, then, that coal miners
finally joined unions, which forced the operators
into
contracts :more favorable for the miners,
who needed pensions and hospitalizatio~,
now provided by
unions.
Power, either'. in the hands of big government
or big labor unions or big business,
if abused, can
bring the wrath of. the people down upon all.
1£the
unions of the courrtr y continue the abus e s which
Senator McClellan of Arkansas has found to be more
general than the public ever suspected,
they will
surely da:mage themselves.
The pension funds of
labor organizations,
now amounting to tremendous
amassed wealth, should be as gr eat a r.esponsibility
as the money paid into insurance companies by the
policy holders for the protection of their families.
Every legal means should be invoked to see to it
that those pension funds are adequately guarded
for the men and women and children, and pa r ti cul.a.r>'
ly the aged, who are dependent upon this s our ce of
suste naric e entrusted to union organizations.
The history of labor relations in Walker County
was changed in 1930 from what had been :more or
less traditional in the county before that year. According to my rne mo r y , the first labor organizational strike occurred in Alabama in 1904; there was
another in 1908. Most of the State was affected by
these strikes in those years, but not Walker County,
which was generally regarded by all of the citizens
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of the State as being non-union in attitude. After I
moved to Sipsey, my first experience with labor
dis sention came in 192O. During a period of great
prosperity,
most of the mines in the area became
organized,
but the workers at Sipsey and at a few
other mines remained steadfastly on their jobs.
The steadfastness
of Sipsey miners was not due to
any lack of sympathy for their fellow workers
on.
strike but due, I think, to the close relationship
existing between the management of the company
and the men; the close r-e.la'tion.shi.p was strongly
supported by the great interest my wife had in
school and church and other phases of village life
as well as by her sincere friendship with many of
the women in the community.
After the economic crash in 1929 had prepared
the way and the New Deal had corne with its NRA
and Wagner Labor Act , and natural gas as a competitor was depressing the coal market, then the mines
of Walker County became unionized.
But the miners
at Coal Valley, Hull, Townley, Empire, and Sipsey
were among the last to join the United Mine Workers
Union.
When Rose and 1 moved to Walker County j n 1912,
we .transplanted
ourselves into the age of the oneroom log schoolhouse,
the circuit riding minister,
and a terrible benightedness.
Although many of the
pe-ople were indeed "children of a darker night. " they
taught us much.
They were generous, kindly, and
uncomplaining.
They accepted Rose and me ho spi tably and wholeheartedly •
•.
As the years have passed, I-have realized mOl;e
and more my great sense of gratitude to these people
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who taught me so much during my formative years.
Although I had read more and traveled more and
.' observed more, I doubt that I had thought more or
felt more deeply.
I doubt that attitudes of mine
were superior to theirs or my imagination livelier;
and I doubt, too, that I could discriminate
between
the true and the false, the tawdry and the genuine,
the trappings and the r eal iti e s of life better than
these plain. God-fearing men and women.
.'
With the advent of the automobile and better
roads and r adi o and television,
the people of Walker
County changed; .good schools helped them broaden
their outlook.
Still, their basic sense of righteousness and their devoti.on to fundamentals were already theirs when Rose aridT rnove d Into the old
Phillips house.
Those virtues in. Walker County
people must go back to pioneer sto ck , And I see the
same virtues in the present generation,
who are
just as frank, just as strong, and"will be just as
enduring as were their forebea~s.
whom I knew half
a century ago.
If I were possessed of a talent for' poetry I would
have made an epic of this insufficient history of -onl.y
one phase of the life of a single county in Alabama.
And this would have been the epilogue:
The, subject
of my verses would not have been "The Man with the
Hoe" or "The Man with the Bull Tongue Plow", but
"The Man with a Light-on His Cap."
And I would
have 'sung here, not of the judges and the s ena.tor s or
the merchant princes and other affluent men. Rather,
I would have laid my poor words of praise at the feet
of the average man and woman, the miner and miner's
wife, whom I encountere-d in Walker County and learned to love.
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