Diamonds in the Rough: A History of Alabama's Cahaba Coal Field

4. Coal Towns: 1881–1919

4 Coal Towns 1881–1919 One of the first bona fide coal towns of the Cahaba field developed at Blocton in north Bibb County in 1881. Established as the home of Truman Aldrich’s Cahaba Coal Mining Company (CCMC) in 1883, “Blockton” opened its first post office in March of the following year. By the fall of 1884, the CCMC had constructed one hundred houses and projected another one hundred dwellings for the near future. At that point, Blocton contained a union church, a schoolhouse, an Odd Fellows Hall,andapproximatelyathousandresidents, thereby gaining distinction as the county’s largest community.1 Situated among a series of hills and valleys known as the Cahaba Ridges, Bloc­ ton faced numerous geographical challenges in its early years. Dubbing the rugged terrain as “The Uglies,” four hundred workers bridged Caffee Creek ten times in order to establish a rail link with nearby Woodstock. Completed in Janu­ary 1884, this eight-­mile connection with the Alabama Great South­ern Railroad enhanced miningoperationsimmediately.Otherraillinksfollowed.TheBrierfield,Blocton, & Birmingham Railroad (the “Old BB&B”) connected Blocton to points eastward after completion of its Cahaba River trestle in 1890. By 1898, the Georgia, Mobile, & Ohio Railroad ran northward from Eoline to Blocton and facilitated other mining operations at Moffat, Red Eagle, and Lucile.2 As its transportation network improved, Blocton experienced considerable growth. By 1890, the town contained more than four hundred family dwellings and company structures, and its population swelled to 3,600. Success built on success , and, as noted previously, Aldrich sold the CCMC and his Blocton mines to the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company (TCI) in 1892. Local historian Charles Adams contends that this merger with TCI marked “the end of an era in the young community’s history,” but growth continued even with the change in company leadership. Within two years of the TCI acquisition, Blocton’s population exceeded five thousand, twenty trains serviced the community daily, and the mines produced more than five thousand tons of coal per day.3 Ultimately, Blocton mining operations encompassed ten distinct mines. Opened for operations in 1883, each of two slope mines employed a 100-­horsepower engine Coal Towns / 67 to hoist coal cars from the mines to the tipple. A wire rope or cable worked around a series of spindles to move “trips” (consisting of five to ten cars) along the slope. At Number 1 Mine, the railroad yards, depot, and tipple occupied a level area near the mine entrance. Here, top-­ side workers weighed, recorded, and dumped coal cars to fill rail cars positioned below the tipple. A double track extended the full 875-­foot length of the slope, thereby providing for coal trips and the less frequent “mantrips.” A ventilation slope ran parallel to the “manway,” and a ten-­ foot diameter fan circulated fresh air through­ out the mine. In addition, a steam engine pumped water from the mine floor. At Number 1 Mine, miners worked a seam that included four distinct veins of coal.4 Most of these miners lived in Number 1 Town, a settlement connected to the mine entrance by a footpath. In addition to their homes, the community included Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches; a school; and homes for the preachers and doctors. Company offices, the mule lot, and the harness shop lined the footpath, and the superintendent’s house occupied the highest point overlooking the entire operation. An additional row of upscale houses provided residences for the switching engineer, the mine inspector, and other supervisors. Similarly, Number 2 Town consisted of forty houses constructed in four rows along two streets. Situated between the company store to the north and the entrance to Number 2 Mine to the south, this community represented a quintessential model of late-­ nineteenth-­ century company towns.5 In fact, mining operations in the Cahaba field generally followed the same developmental pattern manifested in other coal regions. Typically, three types of mines—drift, shaft, and slope—characterized underground mining efforts. Initially ,minersdugintooutcroppingsandfollowedcoalseamsalongarelativelylevel path. These drift mines provided easy accessibility, but produced relatively small amounts of coal. In contrast, deeper and thicker seams required more deliberate means of access. Miners dug vertical shafts and used elevators to tap the deepest seams, but slopes offered access to seams closer to the surface. Laying track from the mine entrance to the coal face, workers transported cars along the length of the slope. All three types existed in the Cahaba coal field, but slope mining represented the most common configuration.6 Four other Blocton...