Life and Struggles of the Coal Miner and his Family
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Aimee Zinn of Uniontown and a visitor to the Abel Colley Tavern Museum, looks over display cases with artifacts displayed as part of the coal-mining exhibit at the Menallen Township museum.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
John F. Brothers/HeraldStandard.comcomcom A breathing appliance used to protect miners if poisonous gases are in a mine is one of the items in a exhibit called “The Life and Struggles of a Cole Miner and his Family,” on display at the Abel Colley Tavern Museum in Menallen Township.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Christine Buckelew, president of the Fayette County Historical Society, holds a canary cage used by miners to carry a canary into the mine. Canaries would react to the presence of dangerous gasses and alert the miners.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
The role of the United Mine Workers Union is also featured prominently in the mining exhibit at the Fayette County Historical Society’s Abel Colley Tavern Museum.
Chris Buckelew of Uniontown walked around the Fayette County Historical Society’s new coal-mining exhibit and her own family’s history immediately came to mind.
“I’ve told the story of my dad, who was born in 1911 and forced into the mines when he was 13,” she said of her father, William Colbert, a Fayette County resident who mostly worked mines in Washington County. “From his pay, he was allowed to keep one nickel. The rest went to his family.”
Buckelew, who is president of the historical society, recalled her father broke his back, leg and nose in different accidents on the job in a time when there was little worker’s compensation. One of the accidents occurred when the section of the mine he was working in collapsed.
“He was lucky to have survived,” said Buckelew. “His best friend died in a collapse. I only saw my dad cry twice — when his best friend died and when my brother died in Vietnam.”
In an area with many coal-mining ties, visitors may be recalling their own family histories when they visit the exhibit, titled “The Life and Struggles of the Coal Miner and His Family,” on display at the Abel Colley Tavern and Museum, located on Route 40 in Menallen Township, about a mile west of Searight’s Tollhouse. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Tuesdays for the exhibit, which runs through Dec. 16. Appointments can also be made by calling 724-439-4422.
The exhibit covers the time period from mid-19th century through mid-20th century and seeks to inform visitors about the impact that mining had on local and national history, including the need for coal production during both world wars.
Highlights of the exhibit include artifacts from the collection of member Dennis Ballas of German Township, who is an historian and retired teacher. They include mining lamps, dynamite boxes, canary cages, a rescue basket and union memorabilia. A pay stub that belonged to Jas (James) Brown for a two-week period in June 1892 showed that Brown dug 63 tons and 36 pounds of coal for a pay of $22.68. After deductions, including rent, tool sharpening and, oddly enough, a cow, Brown’s net pay was $4.48.
The exhibit also contains paintings by local artists Frank Melega on loan from the Melega Art Museum in Brownsville and Alex Varnak on loan from the collection of Joe and JoAnn Monovich. The vivid images show the hardships of the mining life. Buckelew pointed to a Varnak painting that depicts a group of crying widows, presumably following a mining disaster.
Tom Buckelew, husband of Chris Buckelew and also a member of the historical society, prepared information sheets that are displayed for visitors to read as they walk through the exhibit.
Visitors to the exhibit will learn that the Coal and Iron Police was enacted by the state assembly in 1865 but soon became employees of the coal companies. Tom Buckelew noted they were ruthless and overzealous in performing their jobs. Miners called them Cossacks or yellow dogs. Gov. Gifford Pinchot disbanded the coal police in 1926. Canaries were carried in small cages into the coal mines by miners to warm them about odorless toxic gases. Birds are more sensitive to the gases, so if the bird acted sick or died, the miners knew there was poisonous gas in the area.
Other interesting reads at the exhibit include information about company stores in coal patch towns that were owned by the coal company. Miners were paid with scrip that could only be spent at the company store. The miners also rented their homes and tools from the company and had to pay for sharpening services as well as a doctor. Deductions were made before the miner received his pay.
The late Walter J. “Buzz” Storey in his book “Stories and Uniontown and Fayette County” reported some 40,000 Fayette Countians worked in the mines in the first decade of the 20th century and that the Connellsville Coking Coal was the best metallurgical coal in the world.
Storey wrote, “The great coal boom of 1880 to 1950 has left memories of thousands of men working the mines and manning the ovens, sooty and sturdy, plying a dangerous trade, many of them killed or maimed, or victims of black lung, the respiratory ailment caused by coal dust. The population exploded and the culture was transformed, immigrants poured into the area to work the mines, while the coal barons made billions and left behind their mansions on Uniontown streets. It was hectic, brawling, sometimes sad but mostly glorious heritage.”