In a message dated 8/21/2008 8:36:33 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Maybe you could add your father, grandfather and uncles' names to the Smithdale database when you figure out the name of the mine. On the census records where they are listed as miners, does it say anything in the occupation category to suggest the name of the mine? I thought there was just one mine in Smithdale. I was just a kid but I remember only one mine. It may have changed owners over the years. I remember the kids I played with and went to school with. Not their parents' names. I'll look through the 1930 Smithdale census. I know the kids were too young to be on the census, but perhaps their parents were. And by chance, perhaps the mine's name is, as well. I can see the village yet. Where they sat, the company store, the post office, the tavern, the church, the school on top of the hill next to a burning slag heap,the ferry over the Yough River, the houses and outhouses, the RR track, and the mine, and the town pump that wasn't needed anymore when I was young. It's burned into my memory. Especially the disaster siren that sent us all running over the tracks and up the hill to the mine entrance. I heard it again as the emergency vehicle siren in Europe and it sent shivers up my spine. Grandpap Harry Moore had a slate wall fall on his head and it broke a bone in his neck that wasn't discovered until he was an old man. He suffered horrible headaches all his adult life. My dad, Harley Drake, suffered his last years with coal miners' lung. My Uncle Harry Moore was disabled by a ruined lung. >From my years of breathing the coal dust as the train cars passed within 20 feet of my front porch I have had lung problems. There were mine injuries the records will never show. Indian Territory doesn't have the same sort of miners site. They have a statue with names on it, none on line. That's too bad. My aunt's father in law lost his life in those mines, T. A. Drake. My grandmother's first husband was killed in those mines, Lee Williams, and her father, John Hasty, was injured. My grandfather Joe Drake was a union organizer, deported out of the territory by federal troops, but he returned and continued with his union activities. My father was blackballed at age 15 when his father died...he could never work in those mines, they said, because of his father's union activities. It is a fascinating subject. My first cousin, Daniel Moore, was a coal miner who was laid off. To pass the time, he enrolled at a community college near Smithton. He wrote such compelling history papers on the coal mines that he was encouraged to continue and now has his Ph.D in mining, but Central America, not USA. I sent those articles to the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society. I think our family has a speck of coal dust in our genes. Gr.grandpap Jim Moore somewhere near Chestnut Ridge, his sons whereever they could find work. Gr.grandpap Charles Alexander Sholey somewhere near Derry Station. His dad, Cyrus John Sholey of Ligonier, in Sutersville. Shirley Maynard Hampton, VA **************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here. (http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)

-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 11:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [PAWESTMO] Coal miners In a message dated 8/21/2008 8:36:33 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Maybe you could add your father, grandfather and uncles' names to the Smithdale database when you figure out the name of the mine. On the census records where they are listed as miners, does it say anything in the occupation category to suggest the name of the mine? I thought there was just one mine in Smithdale. I was just a kid but I remember only one mine. It may have changed owners over the years. I remember the kids I played with and went to school with. Not their parents' names. I'll look through the 1930 Smithdale census. I know the kids were too young to be on the census, but perhaps their parents were. And by chance, perhaps the mine's name is, as well. I can see the village yet. Where they sat, the company store, the post office, the tavern, the church, the school on top of the hill next to a burning slag heap,the ferry over the Yough River, the houses and outhouses, the RR track, and the mine, and the town pump that wasn't needed anymore when I was young. It's burned into my memory. Especially the disaster siren that sent us all running over the tracks and up the hill to the mine entrance. I heard it again as the emergency vehicle siren in Europe and it sent shivers up my spine. Grandpap Harry Moore had a slate wall fall on his head and it broke a bone in his neck that wasn't discovered until he was an old man. He suffered horrible headaches all his adult life. My dad, Harley Drake, suffered his last years with coal miners' lung. My Uncle Harry Moore was disabled by a ruined lung. >From my years of breathing the coal dust as the train cars passed within 20 feet of my front porch I have had lung problems. There were mine injuries the records will never show. Indian Territory doesn't have the same sort of miners site. They have a statue with names on it, none on line. That's too bad. My aunt's father in law lost his life in those mines, T. A. Drake. My grandmother's first husband was killed in those mines, Lee Williams, and her father, John Hasty, was injured. My grandfather Joe Drake was a union organizer, deported out of the territory by federal troops, but he returned and continued with his union activities. My father was blackballed at age 15 when his father died...he could never work in those mines, they said, because of his father's union activities. It is a fascinating subject. My first cousin, Daniel Moore, was a coal miner who was laid off. To pass the time, he enrolled at a community college near Smithton. He wrote such compelling history papers on the coal mines that he was encouraged to continue and now has his Ph.D in mining, but Central America, not USA. I sent those articles to the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society. I think our family has a speck of coal dust in our genes. Gr.grandpap Jim Moore somewhere near Chestnut Ridge, his sons whereever they could find work. Gr.grandpap Charles Alexander Sholey somewhere near Derry Station. His dad, Cyrus John Sholey of Ligonier, in Sutersville. Shirley Maynard Hampton, VA **************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here. (http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ============================================================================== This communication, together with any attachments hereto or links contained herein, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is confidential or legally protected. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, disclosure, copying, dissemination, distribution or use of this communication is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail message and delete the original and all copies of the communication, along with any attachments hereto or links herein, from your system. ============================================================================== The Travelers e-mail system made this annotation on 08/22/08, 13:31:18.