Coal Creek history lesson from a Welsh
mining engineer who lived it...

Clairfield Elementary School
Clairborne County, TN
17 November 2015

Dutch Valley Elementary School
Anderson County, TN
23 November 2015

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My name is David R. Thomas.  I am a mining engineer with Provident Insurance Company.  I work with mine operators to reduce the risk of accidents at mines insured by Provident.  In my youth, I was a coal miner in Wales and later in Coal Creek when I came to Tennessee after the Civil War.  I lost my job at the Knoxville Iron and Coal Company Mine to convict labor in 1877.  In a way, it was a blessing because I then went to work in the Fraterville Mine where I got the opportunity to be an apprentice to Engineer C. G. Popp, which qualified me for my current position.    

Thomas asked, “Do you see me standing against the elm tree in this photograph from 1891 where Coal Creek miners and businessmen are all wearing waistcoats and jackets even though the photo was taken in July?  Men wore waistcoats back then to hide their suspenders, which we considered underwear.  After all, a gentleman should never be seen in public with his underwear showing.” 

David R. Thomas time-traveled to Clairfield and Dutch Valley Schools
to teach Coal Creek history to their students.    

These lessons encourage students to purse careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  After all, a career in STEM is not just a job, it's an adventure!

Prynhawn Da (good afternoon). 

Thomas took students back to the time when miners captured convict stockades in Briceville, Coal Creek, and Oliver Springs to disrupt convict leasing and raise public awareness about the practice, which saw primarily young black men being arrested for petty crimes so they could generate revenue for state coffers as convict labor leased to mining operations.

Students then got to travel through time to Fort Anderson on Militia Hill, which was built by the Tennessee National Guard to restore order to Coal Creek during what was later called the Coal Creek War. 

According to Engineer Thomas, “It was a strange war because in those days, we had no TV, Internet, or smart phones.  In fact we didn’t even have dumb phones.  In those days, men belonged to lodges that met weekly.  At the end of a day’s fighting, soldiers and miners laid down their weapons and attended lodge meetings together in the 300-seat Coal Creek Opera House.” 

Thomas continued with his story by saying, “The current generation thinks it invented all the latest fads, which is not necessarily true as illustrated by this selfie I took at one of our lodge meetings in 1892.  After the lodge meeting concluded, soldiers and miners resumed fighting.” 

Thomas added, “We lost the final battle, but won the war when the TN Legislature appropriated money to build Brushy Mountain State Prison, Coal Mine, and Coke Ovens.  Prisoners were used as laborers in the state-owned coal mine until it closed in 1938 when coal reserves were depleted.” 

Students then got to travel through time to the Great Fraterville Mine explosion of 1902. Engineer Thomas said, “I served on the rescue crew with Philip Francis, exploring in advance of the other crews, searching for survivors.  We had almost given up hope, when we found where a barricade had been built.  We tore down the barricade, but found we were too late.  Several of the miners were in a praying position.  We found 14-year old Elbert Vowell being held by his father Jacob.  In Jacob’s field book he used to tally how much coal he mined, we found a farewell letter to his family.”

 Students then traveled back to the 1911 Cross Mountain Mine explosion to learn that although 84 died, five were rescued in the first successful mine rescue by engineers and apparatus crews of the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

Thomas concluded by saying, “In 1915, I donated my father’s library of Welsh language books to Harvard College.  Those books later served as references for the 2012 publication of “The Welsh of Tennessee” by Dr. Eirug Davies.”              

The Coal Creek Labor Saga is now part of the Tennessee education curriculum for fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders.  Here is a recap of the state standards for fifth graders covered during the lesson.
 

Here is a recap of the state standards for eighth graders covered by the lesson:

Explain the movement of both white and black Northern entrepreneurs (carpetbaggers) from the North to the South.
 

Contact Carol Moore
at 865-584-0344 or 865-660-2620
or email her at clmoore@geoe.com

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