Greene County native dedicated to preserving coal history
This ribbon belonged to Edward Varesko. It's two-sided and coal miners wore this side to funerals for fellow miners.
Brice Rush of Khedive poses at his log cabin, where he houses the majority of his coal memorabilia collection.
Samantha Karam
Lanterns once used by coal miners are displayed in rows at Rush's log cabin.
Brice Rush of Khedive has a history enriched with coal mining.
He married into a family of coal miners. His father-in-law helped him get a mining job, which he worked for 23 and a half years. He has been a member of the King Coal Association, which hosts the King Coal Show each August, since 1978. He became treasurer for the association in 1982 and still holds the title.
“(Coal mining) gave me a good job to acquire the things I have and raise three kids,” Rush said. “It also got me started on my mining collection.”
Rush has been collecting coal mining artifacts and memorabilia since the mid-70s. His collection, which consists of more than two thousand pieces, is a product of his lifelong passion ofcollecting and his ties to the mining industry. Rush said it all started with swapping hard hat decals with other miners. Then his collection expanded to all types of mining artifacts.
He recalls, as a child, accompanying his mother to auctions. The auctioneers would give him the books they couldn’t sell. His love of collecting stemmed from that. Throughout his life he’s collected furniture, pottery and wooden items, but mining memorabilia is his favorite.
His collection consists of paintings, drawings, books and magazines related to mining and tools like mining lamps and anemometers, which measure air velocity.
“It’s something I enjoy doing, collecting and preserving the history of it,” Rush said. “Every piece I got has a story, whether it’s mine or someone else’s. It’s priceless because of the stories.”
One of Rush’s most recently acquired pieces belonged to Edward Varesko, his wife’s grandfather. It’s a United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) ribbon with two sides. One side displays the UMWA logo, which miners wore during marches or to union meetings. The other side, Rush said, is all black and states “In Memoriam.” They wore this side up to funerals for fellow miners.
Rush obtains his pieces from “anywhere and everywhere,” but mostly flea markets and antique shops. He buys items off eBay, as well, and receives them as gifts or donations from friends, relatives and neighbors.
“People drop stuff off,” Rush said. “They know I (will) take care of it and display it.”
Rush said his oldest piece, a poster auctioning off a drift coal mine, also called a bank, dates back to pre-Civil War times.
Drift coal mines were used to collect smaller amounts of coal to heat homes and provide blacksmiths with heat to run their shops, Rush said. This method of mining into hills is now considered obsolete but, like all the other items in his collection, Rush isn’t letting it be forgotten.
“It’s a way of honoring coal miners, past, present and future,” Rush said of his collection. “If we don’t preserve the history and how the artifacts were used and how it evolved over the years it’ll all be lost.”
Rush is very attached to his collection and rarely sells the pieces.
“If I can afford to buy it I can afford to keep it,” Rush said. “I keep it because it’s personal. Family and friends gift them to me. I won’t sell anything that someone gave me.”
More than 100 pieces from his collection are on display at the Greene County Historical Society in Waynesburg. He presents in schools, displays at the annual King Coal Show and, each year, he shows his collection at the Kirby Welcome Center, which is the site of a mine explosion in 1962 that killed 37.
“It’s there for people to appreciate it,” Rush said.
He’s participating in the Brownsville Steam Show on Aug. 12 and 13 and at the 65th annual King Coal Show, on Aug. 21 through 25. Each year at the coal show, he displays a different theme.
This year’s collection is focused on the people behind his collection. He will present items either given to him by families or from individuals.
He will also display at the Eastern Mining Collectors Show in the Carmichaels-Cumberland Fire Hall on Aug. 25, which is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Rush said he has collected his whole life and plans to continue as long as he can.
“I will stop (collecting) the day after I die,” Rush said. “In fact, I hope to buy something the day I die.”