The coal companies owned the mineral rights to the coal underground, the

ground itself, and the homes that were built on the ground.  In other words,

they owned the whole kit and caboodle.  They coal company even owned the

grocery store, so that when miners were out of work they shopped on "tick"

at the company store and when they went back to work they owed their future

paychecks as well.  Remember the song "I Owe My Soul To The Company Store."

That's how it was, a never ending story.  Coal mining was a very hard life,

but I have never met a coal miner who didn't love his job.  My Grandfather

began working in the coal mines at age 6 (he lied about his age).  At age

85, his eyes filled with tears as he related some of his favorite stories.

He would have been happy to go back into the mines, even at age 85.

The coal miner and his family were a "hardy" lot.  They had to be to survive

that kind of life.



I come from 10 generations or more of coal miners and have heard these

stories many times.  I wish I had paid more attention to the stories and the

people that told them.  They are all gone and can't tell those stories now

so I can write them down for the family history.



Strip mining came into being because the coal companies could get the coal

out faster and cheaper and didn't need all of the miners to do the job by

hand.  The scars of strip mining still dot the once beautiful landscape of

the coal regions.  The coal companies weren't responsible for "filling in"

the gigantiac holes they dug.  They put the people out of the coal company

homes and dug up the ground to get at the coal.



The coal company homes that clustered around the coal breakers were called

Patches (not Villages). The homes were of clapboard. They had no heat except

for the kitchen coal stove; only cold running water; no toilet facilities

inside (ever hear of the outhouse) and until the mid 1930's no electricity.

In some Patches the road were surfaced until the mid to late 1930's.

Oh, the good ole days!  How we miss them.