Welcome to Gary Hollow
Introducing a book
published in August 2005 that traces the history of Gary Hollow, its communities
and the 28 commercial mines found on the Tug Fork Branch of the Norfolk &
Western Railway. While the book is predominately about how United States Coal
& Coke Company built the largest coal mining operation in the world, each
community and mine is covered from Havaco to Jenkinjones.
The contents of
this website will tell you about the book, how to order it, and provide us
feedback at Two Mule Publishing. The
site will be updated to provide different information and pictures on the mines
and communities of Gary Hollow.
Contents
Only 2000
copies of Gary Hollow were printed.
Order yours now before they are sold out.
About Gary Hollow
Gary
Hollow is a 480-page hard cover book published by Two Mule Publishing.
The author, Alex Schust, writes in the
introduction:
“The book is about the communities, their coal
mines, and the coal companies more so than about the people who lived and
worked in the communities. It is about
USC&C building a corporate community in Gary’s Hollows for the purpose of
mining coal. It is written from a
readers’ perspective rather than a researchers’ perspective. My purpose is two fold. First, I wanted to capture the essence of the
history of Adkin District in a single volume rather than let the history
languish in unpublished notes, multiple books and newspaper articles with only
parts of the story and a few fading memories.
Second I wanted the story of Gary to be documented in some fashion
before all of its history disappears.”
“While I have written about all of Adkin
District, in the main, the book is about Gary Hollow and the United States Coal
& Coke Company’s operations. After
all, what was at one time the largest coal operation in the world deserves to
have its story told.”
Gary Hollow Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. v
Part 1 - Before
the Land Companies
Chapter 1 – The Indian Lands............................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2 – The Land Companies and the
Indians....................................................... 7
Chapter 3 – The Indians and the Early
Settlers.............................................................. 9
Chapter 4 – The Land Speculators.................................................................................. 19
Chapter 5 – Gary Hollow(s) in the Years 1814 -1902................................................... 23
Part 2 - United
States Coal & Coke Company
Chapter 6 – The Discovery of Coal and the
Pocahontas Coal Field....................... 33
Chapter 7 – 50,000 Acres of Coal..................................................................................... 39
Chapter 8 – United States Coal & Coke
Company’s Corporate Life....................... 43
Chapter 9 – Company Workers........................................................................................ 49
Chapter 10 – Prelude to Unionization............................................................................. 73
Chapter 11 – United Mine Workers.................................................................................. 87
Chapter 12 – Safety the First Consideration................................................................. 99
Chapter 13 – Work Years.................................................................................................. 103
Part 3 - The
Railroad
Chapter 14 – Tug Fork Branch....................................................................................... 131
Part 4 - Gary
as the Corporation Community
Chapter 15 – In the Beginning........................................................................................ 147
Chapter 16 – A Community of Immigrants................................................................... 153
Chapter 17 – Housing....................................................................................................... 157
Chapter 18 – Water and Sewage.................................................................................... 173
Chapter 19 – Electricity..................................................................................................... 175
Chapter 20 – Medical Services....................................................................................... 185
Chapter 21 – Company Stores and Other
Shopping Places.................................. 195
Chapter 22 – Adkin District Schools............................................................................. 219
Chapter 23 – Churches..................................................................................................... 237
Chapter 24 – Recreation................................................................................................... 251
Chapter 25 – Transportation Systems.......................................................................... 267
Chapter 26 – Plant Security............................................................................................. 271
Chapter 27 – Cemetery..................................................................................................... 273
Chapter 28 – Incorporation.............................................................................................. 275
Part 5 – The
Communities of Gary Hollow and Adkin District
Chapter 29 – Tug Fork Branch - Havaco to
Gary
Havaco................................................................................................................................ 281
Talman Village................................................................................................................... 285
Wilcoe Yard........................................................................................................................ 285
New Town.......................................................................................................................... 285
Wilcoe.................................................................................................................................. 286
Kiffenville............................................................................................................................ 290
Alpheus............................................................................................................................... 297
Gary..................................................................................................................................... 311
Chapter 30 – Tug Fork Branch - Venus to
Thorpe
Venus.................................................................................................................................. 337
Thorpe................................................................................................................................. 344
Negro Country Club........................................................................................................ 357
Nassau Coal Company................................................................................................... 358
Chapter 31 – Tug Fork Branch - Black Wolf to
Tug
Dearing............................................................................................................................... 359
Black Wolf.......................................................................................................................... 359
Whites Camp..................................................................................................................... 360
The
Country Club............................................................................................................. 361
Moses.................................................................................................................................. 365
Pageton.............................................................................................................................. 366
Effler.................................................................................................................................... 372
Taylorsville......................................................................................................................... 372
Jeanette.............................................................................................................................. 372
Anawalt............................................................................................................................... 372
Leckie.................................................................................................................................. 378
Tug....................................................................................................................................... 379
Chapter 32 – North Fork of Tug Branch
Lila........................................................................................................................................ 381
O’Toole................................................................................................................................ 382
Conklintown...................................................................................................................... 385
Jenkinjones....................................................................................................................... 385
Chapter 33 – South Fork of Tug Fork Branch
Skygusty............................................................................................................................ 395
South Fork......................................................................................................................... 395
Tilson................................................................................................................................... 396
Munson............................................................................................................................... 396
Chapter 34 – Sand Lick Branch
Ream................................................................................................................................... 399
Elbert................................................................................................................................... 409
Filbert.................................................................................................................................. 426
Sand Lick Sportsmans Club......................................................................................... 445
Part
6 – Memories of Coal Camp Life
Chapter 35 – The Typical Community............................................................................ 449
Chapter 36 – A Rhythm of Life.......................................................................................... 451
Chapter 37 – Some Milestones Along the Way............................................................ 467
Selected
Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 473
Notes
on the Author.............................................................................................................. 474
Ordering Gary Hollow
The total price of Gary Hollow is $65 that includes $5 for postage
and packaging anywhere in continental USA
Please make out checks or money orders to Alex Schust. Send to:
Please include your telephone number with your return address in
case the first printing is sold out.
Contact Two Mule Publishing
Gary Hollow as written is only part of the Gary Hollow story. The other part is in the minds of the people
who lived there. I would like to hear
what you think about Gary Hollow or tell me your Gary Hollow story. Send a picture so at some later point we can
tell the rest of the story. Contact Alex
Schust at:
Two Mule Publishing was created to capture the coal mining history
of Southern West Virginia. The company name
was based on the image in the photo.
(Photo
courtesy of Eastern Regional Coal Archives)
A Gary Hollow Coal MIne
(From page 420 of Gary Hollow)
United
States Coal & Coke Company – Operation No. 8
The USC&C No. 8 Mine was a
drift mine located at Elbert on Murphy Fork of Sand Lick Creek. The No. 8 mine,
started in 1905, was assigned 1,420 acres of Pocahontas No. 4 seam coal. The operation was a drift mine with a coal
seam that averaged 6 feet 4 inches thick with a BTU of 15,332. Reports on No. 8
noted that the No. 3 seam was about 75 to 80 feet lower than the No. 4 seam but
was only about 3 feet thick. The mine shipped 17,760 tons of coal in the second
half of 1905 that was its first year of operation. The coal seam was at an
elevation of 1,700 feet.
Like No.
7, No. 8 was built as a coke plant. By
1907 it had 172 working coke ovens that required a coking time of 48 hours to
produce coke with a carbon content of 89.51%.
The coke was shipped to Chicago, Illinois and Columbus, Ohio. Before the coke ovens were shut down in 1921
they produced 675,000 tons of coke.
In
1917-1918 the No. 8 works was upgraded with a new steel tipple to increase
capacity with the intent of producing coal for the by-product ovens at
Cleveland and Lorain, Ohio. In 1931 a
completely new cleaning plant was erected at No. 8. The air flotation plant had a capacity of 150
tons per hour with coal one-quarter inch to three inches in size. The plan was to mine the coal from No. 9 east
side and all of No. 11 and load into railroad cars from the No. 8 cleaning
plant. The plan never worked out and the
cleaning plant operation and mine were shut down in 1932. No. 8 mine was re-opened in 1936, but then
shut down again in 1938.
A Gary Hollow Community
(From page 386 of Gary Hollow)
Jones was one of the founders of
the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company that eventually became the
Pocahontas Fuel Company and operated 26 mines in McDowell and Wyoming County.
The
following was written about the community of Jenkinjones in “Annual Report of
the Department of Mines for the year ending June 30, 1914” by the mines general
manager, James Ellwood Jones (son of Jenkin Jones)… “Two years ago, work was
begun to slash and cut out for the town of Jenkinjones, which is located at the
head waters of Tug Fork, a branch of the Tug River, 22 miles from Welch. The town is the most modern up-to-date town
in Southern West Virginia, and has a population of 5,000 inhabitants, with
schools, moving picture show, and several churches of different
denominations. Each house has its own
yard and garden, a board walk is laid the entire length of the town and all of
this has been done in two years.”
An
application for a post office for Jenkinjones was filed on January 27, 1913 and
the post office was established soon after.
The
United States Coal Commission filed its report on Jenkinjones on April 5, 1923
giving the operation an overall score of 62.15 out of a 100 for the No. 6, 7
and 8 works. The report noted the three
operations employed 704 men with an overall population of 1,743. The population was 40% American white, 40%
Negro, 10% Hungarian and 10% other. The
camp was made up of 265 houses of which 31 were double houses, 224 were single
houses, 9 were boarding houses and 1 was other.
House rents were generally $4 although some were $6. There was no charge for water; electricity
was 40 cents per month per light. Coal
could be had for $1 per month with an extra 50 cents for haulage. Single men paid $1 per month for the doctor and
families paid $2.
The
nearest town of Jeanette was 2 miles away.
The roads were fair. They were
constructed of dirt, but they were crowned, ditched and passable all year. There were two trains a day each way and you
could call a taxi.
About
25% of the houses were located objectionably near the tipples and 30% did not
have room for a yard or garden. Twenty-three of the houses were constructed of
stone and plastered inside with a double floor, 162 houses were clapboard with
plaster inside and about 40% had double floors and the remainder with single
floors, and 80 houses were clapboard and wood sheath with single floors. All had composition paper roofs, no cellars
and no indoor water.
Last revised: August 1, 2005