Treasure Chest Thursday: Our Brick Walls, A Coal Miner's Prayer

You know how it is: when something comes up on your radar as a pleasant surprise and a little while later a similar thing pops up again? Well it was like that for me recently when someone who is helpful and a genea-pal to all posted "The Coal Miner's Prayer" to the Allegany County, Maryland RootsWeb mailing list. Then in a couple of days Genie Regan who is "editor by default" of the wonderful web site of all things Allegany County, Our Brick Walls, posted another Coal Miner's Prayer!

I can't decide which I like most, and why should I, because each has its charms. If you have coal mining ancestors, especially those who were coal miners over The Pond and came here seeking a better life for their families only to find hard work and difficulties here, then your heart will melt just a bit (or maybe a lot) reading the following.


From Our Brick Walls:

Allegany County ~ 1845
A COAL MINER'S PRAYER

Take a look at these hands, Lord.
They’re worn and rough.
My face scarred with coal marks. My language is tough.
But you know in the heart lies the soul of a man.
Who toils at a living that few men can stand.
There’s sulphur and coal-dust and sweat on my brow.
To live like a rich man — I’d never learn how.

But if you’ve got a corner when my work is through,
I’d be mighty proud to live neighbors with you.
Each dawn as I rise, Lord, I know all too well
I face only one thing — a pit filled with Hell.

To scratch out a living the best that I can.
But deep in this heart lies the soul of a man.
With black-covered faces and hard calloused hands,
We ride the dark tunnels, our work to begin.
To labor and toil as we harvest the coal.
We silently pray, "Lord, please harvest our souls!"

Just a corner in Heaven when I’ve grown too old.
And my back it won’t bend, Lord to shovel the coal.
Lift me out of the pit where the sun never shines,
‘Cause it gets mighty weary down here in the mine.

But I’d rather be me, Lord, Tho’no riches I show,
Though tired and wary, I’m just glad to know
When the Great Seal is broken the pages will tell
That I’ve already spent my time in Hell.
 ~Author Unknown
(Courtesy of Marion Chappel)

From Shawn McGreevy posted to the MDALLEGA RootsWeb email list.

The Coal Miner's Prayer

Each dawn as we rise, Lord we all know too well,
We face only one thing - a pit filled with hell.
To scratch out a living the best we can,
But deep in the heart, lies the soul of a man.
With black covered faces, and hard calloused hands,
We work the dark tunnels, unable to stand
To labor and toil as we harvest the coals,
We silently pray "Lord please harvest our souls".

The Coal Miner's Prayer, By: W. Calvert

 

 

Some of the coal miners on our tree, and some other photos:



 

My great grandfather Daniel Williams (1852 - 1920), second from left and a mine supervisor.

Standing, my Grandpop Kelly, a coal miner who contracted black lung disease.

John Lee Kelly (1892 - 1969)

 

Above, the interior of a typical coal mine interior in the George's Creek mine fields,

at the Frostburg Museum, Frostburg Maryland.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/07/treasure-chest-thursday-our-brick-walls.html

175 Years Ago: The start of the Thomas family in America

Wait, I thought as I looked at that ship's register transcription on USGenWeb by Pat Thomas, that's 175 years ago! This week! My Thomas ancestors sailed on the Barque Tiberius from Newport (or New Port) Harbor in Wales headed for Baltimore exactly 175 years ago this Sunday. At 109 feet long, it carried 76 passengers and took 46 days to reach Baltimore, Maryland, which they did on 11 Sept 1838.

When I visited Mom last fall we went to the Frostburg Museum in lovely little Frostburg, Allegany, Maryland, and I took a photo of their replica of the ship's passenger list. When I got back home and looked very carefully at it, it jumped to life. Imagine what their journey was like!

Benjamin Thomas, my 3rd great grandfather, head of the family and 45 years old at the sailing, had been recruited out of the coal mines of South Wales by the George's Creek Coal company, which is referenced on the manifest, as you can see below. He came with wife Hannah (Evans), and eight children ranging from an infant, Jane, to four boys who were colliers (William, Benjamin, James, and John) as well as my 2nd great grandmother, Diane (or Diana) age six. Joseph, age three, and Phillip, age two, were also listed. That's a family of 10 people.

George's Creek Coal Company had its headquarters in London and Baltimore and was the owner and operator of their mine in Western Maryland, near Frostburg. They recruited skilled miners from Wales and then paid for their passage with the proviso that the cost was to be deducted from wages. There were 29 "colliers" on that ship and that would mean 29 good and strong men who were immediately available, well trained and experienced, who could go to work in the coal mines. And that strong work force would be tied to the company for however long it took to pay off the cost of the passage.

There were two Thomas families on that ship who came and worked in the mines and prospered. Lewis, Watkins, Reese, two Williams families, two Davis families and a Treasure family were there as well. I'd love to find out more about them all, especially that other Thomas family. Were they related?

The legacy of our Benjamin Thomas is broad and deep, and there are many avid genealogists amongst their descendants. And all of my Thomas cousins are the nicest folks! Benjamin and Hannah would be proud, I think, to know that here we are 175 years later, scattered from coast to coast, all communicating and sharing what we know of them... and wishing we knew much more!

I recently was enticed to find out more about the South Wales coal mines, especially those of the Rhondda Valley, when I came across a web page by one of the descendants of the Lewis family, also on the Barque Tiberius sailing, Debbie Lewis Allen. You can see her blog here. Debbie's posts about the Lewis surname, the preponderance of Welsh surnames amongst African-Americas, and especially the coal region of South Wales got me thinking and googling around. Debbie has some nice information about where her Lewis people lived and maybe worked and I got to thinking that all of the coal mining families who were on the Barque Tiberius were likely recruited out of close-by mines. And, that I should probably know more about where exactly that was if I ever hoped to make any progress in finding locations for my Thomas ancestors. More on that in a later post:)

Here's what Debbie posted about her ancestor on the Tiberius, and note that she has a birthplace for him:
John F. Lewis, Born October 31, 1802 - Died November 7, 1885, He was born in Merthyr-Tidwil Wales.

Hey, what's a "barque" anyway? Off to Google. It's a three masted sailing ship. Interestingly, the barque was also used as a collier or coal ship. Now I'm wondering if the Georges Creek Coal company owned it? The barque was faster and required a smaller crew than other vessels of the day. There were even four-masted barques and they were faster still. San Diego's own Star of India was a full-rigged ship converted into a barque.

Typical three-masted barque.

 

Star of India, the oldest active sailing vessel in the world.

(Both images above, Wikimedia Commons.)

 

So today I'm imagining my Thomas ancestors of 175 years ago, saying their goodbyes to family and friends knowing that they would never see them again. Leaving loved ones behind, that would be the hardest part. Then packing up what they could in trunks, gathering the children, little Diane and baby Jane, too. The older boys hoisting the trunks to start the journey. Did they take a rest in Newport before the journey? I do not know. There is too much that we do not know. But we do know that on the last day of June 1838 the Thomas family sailed out of Newport Harbor set for Baltimore and a brand new life in the coal mines of Western Maryland. And Mom still lives there, and Aunt Betty and Cousin Daniel, and all the rest! Ahhh-mazing!


Here are two other posts about the Thomas Family. This first is mostly about the Barque Tiberius and the second is a Surname Saturday post tracing back from me to this Thomas family.
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/02/treasure-chest-thursday-barque-tiberius.html
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/04/surname-saturday-thomas-family-from.html
UPDATE: Next blog post about the Thomas family in America here:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-about-thomas-familys-new-home-in.html

In the Frostburg Museum, The ship's register of the Barque Tiberius!

(Here's a link to the transcribed version of the manifest on the Imigrant Ships Transcribers Guild.)

 

The heading for the ship's register mentioning the George's Creek Coal company.

 

My Thomas ancestors on the ship's list.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/06/175-years-ago-start-of-thomas-family-in.html

Treasure Chest Thursday: Best Dressed Miners

Digging in the Olde Treasure Chest this week, my pick is a book by Katherine A. Harvey, Best-dressed Miners, Cornell University Press, 1970. Because so many of my male ancestors worked in the coal mines of the Georges Creek mining area in Western Maryland, this book was a must-have for my book shelf! And I've not been bored reading it.

As you'll see from the photos of the pages, below, there are statistics to back up the strong narrative Katherine A. Harvey beautifully weaves together. I read it and re-read it. Can't get enough of it! So take a look at this treasure:)

Title page with detailed map of the mines.

I can trace where each ancestor lived and if in doubt which mine he worked for, look at the map to see which ones were closest.

Salaries by year and days typically worked.

Not everyone worked all the time. If the mine management liked you, you worked.

Salaries by mining company. Some paid better than other, with larger operators paying best so as to attract the best workers.

Costs of common goods with years.

Strikes were rather common and a trial for the miners and their families.

Old illustrations show the area as it was.

 

Treasure Chest Thursday is a blogging prompt of GeneaBloggers.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/03/treasure-chest-thursday-best-dressed.html

Let's Explore Some Local History!

Am reading "Best Dressed Miners" by Katherine A. Harvey. It's a real treasure for me because, as I've said before, there's a lot of coal dust on my ancestors. It paints a detailed picture of the life and times of those mining coal in the Georges Creek area of Western Maryland, one of the richest mining fields anywhere, simply called The Big Vein. In 1892 it secured over 3 million long tons from the area mines, all mined by hand. Down from the previous year! I don't know much about coal mining but that sounds like a lot to me.

Before the Harvey book I read, "Allegany County - A History", by Stegmaier, Dean, Kershaw, and Wiseman, 1976. It's a wonder and treasure chest of information about the area compiled on the occasion of the county's Bicentennial. It traces the long history of the county and eventually gets around to mines, miners, and the economy of the area. AC - A History also underlines the importance of mining to the area and how the entire economy changed as the mines got mined out in the early decades of the 1900s.

Harvey gives an interesting picture of the miners and their work in her book, which is increasingly scarce as it was published in 1969. She contrasts the miners and their families of the George's Creek area with miners elsewhere. In reading it I've come to a better understanding of the area, the work, and my ancestor's relationship to it. And I've come to see yet again how important history is to a deeper understanding of genealogy!

One of the things I've often wondered about is why my ancestors all stayed so long - for generations - in this one small geographical area contained within about 15 square miles. Now I know: good work at a fair wage.

The earliest of ancestors arriving in the late 1780s were in search of farmable land and they found it in abundance. Then in the early to mid-1800s the ancestors came in dribs and drabs, often making their way from eastern parts of Maryland or Pennsylvania. The final wave came in the mid-1800s. They all stayed until work in Western Maryland became scarce after WWII. Then family members increasingly moved away. Today the cousins reside from coast to coast.

So here's a recap of salient points that shed light on my own ancestors. And I have both of those books, as well as Mom and Aunt Betty, to thank for it!

The miners of the 1800s were Welsh, German, and Irish. Some had their passage paid for by the mining companies who recruited them from mines fields in their native lands. While the various nationalities tended to live and worship with their former countrymen, they shopped and entertained together, thereby smoothing the assimilation process.

My Welsh miner ancestors lived near Welsh Hill in Frostburg and worshiped at the Congregational Church that was known early on as the Welsh Congregational Church.

Ladie's Aide Society of the

Welsh Congregational Church
Of Frostburg, Maryland
Their Picnic, about 1932.

My Irish ancestors were mostly railroad men. Interestingly, the RRs ran on Georges Creek coal. And of course they all worshiped at St. Michaels Catholic Church.

My grandfather wasn't lucky enough to be higher in the birth order so while his older brothers worked for the railroad, he had to go work in the mines. He eventually suffered from "black lung disease". Uncle Delbert remembers him coming home with 25 cents for  a day's work during the Great Depression. Good thing his father in law was the town's prosperous barber and had trained him how to cut hair in the little shop in back of the house. The income from haircuts given to miners on Saturday night carried them through the Depression.

My Grandfather,
John Lee Kelly, right,
and his brothers,

With their father the railroad man,

about 1912.

Employment in the mines was steady so miners often bought their own homes and put down roots, married and had large families. My GGF Daniel Williams was a mine supervisor and owned his own home... as well as two mines, which is another story I'll save for another day:)

This was not the case for the vast majority of mine fields. Workers tended to roam from mine to mine and sometimes state to state. They had no vested interest in the community and tended to be single and drinking men.

I keep reading and learning, soaking up as much as I can. It gives me a fuller picture of my ancestors.

If you'd like to peek into the daily lives of those living in the Georges Creek mine field in the late 1800s visit the Frostburg Mining Journal, some of which is now online through the gracious and wise auspices of the Maryland State Archive's state newspapers project. Find it at:
http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/newspapers/cfm/dsp_number.cfm?id=1024
Click here to find the microfilm now online: http://speccol.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/speccol/catalog/cfm/dsp_film.cfm?speccol=5130&newsid=1024

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/07/lets-explore-some-local-history.html