Letter from John A. Williams of Algoma Mine to Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas of Brynawel, Aberdare, Wales, 1895

In November 1895, John A. Williams, a Welsh immigrant who had been in the United States for about one year, wrote a long letter to his mentor William Thomas (1832-1903) of Brynawel, Aberdare, Wales. A portion of this letter relating to Williams's observations on native whites and African American miners in McDowell County, West Virginia, was reprinted in Alan Conway's collection of letters written by Welsh immigrants to friends and relatives back home in Wales.² Since then this portion of the letter has been quoted many times in a variety of venues. While conducting research at the National Library of Wales I read the original letter in its entirety and realized that scholars should have ready access to the complete document rather than just one section of it. Care was taken to create as accurate a transcription as possible. For historical reasons there are relatively few surnames among the Welsh, and William Thomas of Brynawel should not be confused with William H. Thomas of Algoma mine who is introduced below.

On a visit to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1895, William H. Thomas, the general manager of Algoma Coal and Coke Company, near Keystone, McDowell County, West Virginia, met John A. Williams, recently arrived from Wales. He was working as a timberman in a local mine, a job for which he was overqualified. By Williams's own account, Thomas offered him a job at Algoma, which he readily accepted, and, after an unknown period of time (probably several months) at Algoma, Williams wrote a highly descriptive letter to his former mentor. The letter is unique because it comes from the perspective of a knowledgeable outsider whose observations were less culturally predictable than if they had been made by an American. Williams describes the conditions at Algoma, one of the first operations in the smokeless coalfield of southern West Virginia. Williams's commentary on the geology and work relations at the mine, and his colorful description of native whites and African Americans provide an insight into how British bosses viewed the labor force being assembled in southern West Virginia, and why they actively recruited southern blacks.

Williams had served articles with William Thomas of Brynawel, one of the most accomplished professional mine engineers in Wales. Thomas was born in Merthyr Tydfil, but a cholera epidemic took the lives of his father, brother, and grandmother when he was six, leaving Thomas and his mother to live in dire poverty. Consequently, in 1840, at the age of eight, he entered the underground world of the collier, and over the years steadily climbed the occupational ladder from collier lad to engineer and then managing director, the very epitome of the self-made man in the coalfields. Although his formal education was meager at best, he acquired extensive practical experience at all levels within the laboring and managerial ranks, and won the confidence and friendship of the most powerful of coal mine owners in South Wales. Thomas's marriage to the daughter of the chief mechanical engineer of the Aberaman Ironworks and Collieries no doubt helped with his training and ascent.

In 1873 Thomas took management of several collieries near Aberdare, subsequently was appointed general manager of the Maerdy Collieries in Rhondda Fach, the Glyn and Collena Collieries, International Collieries, Penrhewceiber Collieries, and others. Thomas was also a shareholder and managing director of the Mardy collieries of Locket's Merthyr Steam Coal Company, his major business interest.³

Few men in the nineteenth-century British coalfields could have hoped to succeed along the path taken by William Thomas. Such examples were rare indeed, and confined to the early period of development before large-scale capital enterprise consolidated control over the industry. While his rise in the coalfield hierarchy was exceptional, Thomas exerted his greatest influence on the profession through the numerous boys who served articles with him at the school and engineering consulting business which he operated out of his home in Aberdare and then went on to become colliery engineers and managers. In 1872 Parliament...