Vigo County Historical Society

Coal mining a dirty job, but somebody had to do it

Much of the Terre Haute economy a century ago was dependent on the coal mines of the area. There were underground soft coal mines in Vigo and surrounding counties, employing hundreds of men.

The hours were long and the work was hard and extremely dangerous. Many of the miners were immigrants and first-generation American sons of immigrants of the coal-producing countries of Europe.

In the early years, the miners and their families lived in village houses owned by the mine owners and bought their groceries and supplies from the company store. There rent and grocery bills were deducted from their pay, not leaving much for extras, and the miners had to supply their own black powder, shovels and tools.

John L. Lewis, who worked in the mines at an early age, became active in the United Mine Workers Union in 1910 and was elected vice president in 1917, becoming president on the resignation of Frank J. Hayes due to illness in 1920. Lewis was duly elected president later that year at the regular election.

In the late 1920s and early ‘30s, John L. Lewis organized the miners into a cohesive powerful force and was able to secure a raise in wages, shorter hours, a five-day week and safety measures for which the miners had only hoped and died for.

In 1924, the American Federation of Labor presented a resolution for Lewis to be appointed Secretary of Labor in President Coolidge’s cabinet and later that year, upon the death of Samuel Gompers, president of the AFL, he was asked to run for the post..

He turned both offers down, feeling he could work best for the miners by staying with the United Mine Workers.

Several of the mines were along the Wabash River, with coal veins and excavations extending under the river. Yes it was a dangerous occupation. The soft bituminous coal was found in 4- and 5-foot-high veins in this part of the county, the 4-foot veins having less sulfur and used for heating purposes and the higher sulfur content coal was used for powering trains and other industry.

As the vein was emptied of its coal, the floor was dug out deep enough for tracks to be laid for the cars, pulled by mules, used for hauling the coal to the shaft where it was removed from the mine. Later, electric motorized cars were used and the mules retired.

In a display in the Vigo County Historical Museum are carbide lamps, a miner’s dinner pail, pictures of the men active in the union local and statistics of the coal production of the area.

The carbide lamp was attached to the hat of the miner and was the only safe light used in the mine. Before modern instruments were invented to locate gas, canaries were used for detection. They were very sensitive to the gas and if they were found dead, the miners were able to escape before being overcome or an explosion ensued.

The aluminum dinner pail was in two parts. The top part, called a deck, held the miner’s lunch, and the bottom held his drinking water for the day. Many a miner taught his children about centrifugal force of swinging his dinner pail rapidly half full of water, upside down and not spilling a drop.

The pictures and statistics tell the story of the mines and their influence on the valley. Visit the museum to see this display and other artifacts pertaining to the early life in Vigo County.