BOSTON STUDENTS GET A
HISTORY LESSON IN COAL CREEK
A youth group and advisors from St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Boston
visited Coal Creek on Saturday, May 26, 2001. Students living around
Revolutionary War sites at Bunker Hill, the Old North Church, and the Old South
Meeting Hall visited Coal Creek War sites at Militia Hill, Briceville Stockade,
and Thistle Switch. Students familiar with the writings and deeds of
Adams, Hancock, and Revere learned of the writings and deeds of Vowell, Harmon,
and Drummond. They also learned about the advances in mine safety in the United
States that came after the Fraterville and Cross Mountain mine disasters in Coal
Creek. For comparison, the U.S. and China each produced about 1.1
billion tons of coal in 2000. About 7,000 miners died in China in the year
2000, whereas, 38 miners died in the U.S. in the same year.
|
 Site
of the old Odd Fellow Opera House with the old Briceville Methodist Church
in the background.
|
Click on image to enlarge
|
|
 Drummond
Bridge at the spot where Dick Drummond was lynched during the Coal Creek
War.
|
 Militia
Hill at the site of Fort Anderson built during the Coal Creek War.
|
 Drew
Justice from Boy Scout Troop 120 telling the visitors about his Eagle
Scout project at the Miner's Circle in Leach Cemetery. |
 Andrew
reading the farewell message of Jacob Vowell at the common grave with
Jacob's son Elbert next to the headstone of his other son, Little Eddy, in
Longfield Cemetery.
|
 Charlotta
reading the farewell message of Powell Harmon, written before he perished
in the Fraterville Mine Disaster of 1902, at his grave in Longfield
Cemetery. |
The last line of Powell Harmon's farewell message, "My boys, Henry and
Conda, never work in the coal mines" surprised the students when they
realized that Conda Harmon, whose headstone is next to that of his father's,
died in the Cross Mountain Mine Disaster of 1911. One of the students
asked, "Why would Conda become a coal miner when his own father died in a
mine disaster and his father's last words advised against it?" The
answer....back then, if you wanted a job in Coal Creek, you mined coal.
Today, students who get a good education have unlimited options for careers.
The tour was coordinated by St. Francis Episcopal Church in Norris,
Tennessee.
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Copyright© Coal
Creek Watershed Foundation, Inc. 2000 through 2021
CELEBRATING OUR 21st YEAR!!
Site
of the old Odd Fellow Opera House with the old Briceville Methodist Church
in the background.
Drummond
Bridge at the spot where Dick Drummond was lynched during the Coal Creek
War.
Militia
Hill at the site of Fort Anderson built during the Coal Creek War.
Drew
Justice from Boy Scout Troop 120 telling the visitors about his Eagle
Scout project at the Miner's Circle in Leach Cemetery.
Andrew
reading the farewell message of Jacob Vowell at the common grave with
Jacob's son Elbert next to the headstone of his other son, Little Eddy, in
Longfield Cemetery.
Charlotta
reading the farewell message of Powell Harmon, written before he perished
in the Fraterville Mine Disaster of 1902, at his grave in Longfield
Cemetery.