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

8. Decline and Demise: 1929–1976

8 Decline and Demise 1929–1976 Elizabeth Lowery married Edgar Frost, a trained barber, around 1927, and the couple moved to Dogwood in Shelby County. With a father who worked the mines atAldrich,LizziefeltnohesitationwhenEdgarbeganworkasaminerattheLittle Gem Coal Company. After two years in the mining camp, Edgar and Lizzie moved to her family’s land located about halfway between Montevallo and Calera. Edgar ate breakfast each day at 2:00 a.m. before riding his mule or horse to work. If the animal threw a shoe, Edgar walked the five miles to ensure that he arrived at the mineopeningbeforethemantripdepartedat7:00.Returninghomebetween7:00 and 9:00 p.m., he repeated the routine three or four times per week. By 1945, Edgar operated a coal-­cutting machine and netted about $45 per two-­ week pay period after stoppages. His wages for that year totaled $1,855.83 with $45.10 withheld for federal tax, and union dues amounted to $1.50 per month. Other stoppages included school and doctor fees even though the Frosts resided outside of the mining community. Lizzie shopped in Calera and Montevallo, so the couple reaped no real benefit from the company’s paternalism. Unfortunately, when a falling timber struck him in the chest in 1947, Edgar was forced to quit work.Althoughdisabledanddiagnosedwithblacklung,nohealthcareormedical payments materialized. Apparently, the company accepted no responsibility for his injury, and union officials offered no help either. Later, after Edgar’s death in 1968, union representatives claimed that, because Lizzie was not physically present when Edgar paid his dues, she could not collect any pension payments. As she relates, the union “treated me dirty.” Fortunately, the couple relied on their farm for income after Edgar’s accident.1 Otherminingfamiliesexperiencedsimilarcircumstances.Forexample,anofficial study conducted by the U.S. Coal Commission (1922–1923) reported that the median annual income for a family of four equaled $930 for full-­ time employees and $800 for workers paid by the day. Full-­ time miners were paid by the ton, but they purchased their own tools, powder, and timbering materials. During the Depression , miners at Hill Creek, Belle Ellen, and Klondyke pursued “idle-­work”— digging coal on “off days” to maximize production on official “work days.” At the 150 / Chapter 8 same time, the commission calculated that annual costs for food and clothing averaged $724 and $167, respectively. Thus, coal mining became a family occupation . Boys of­ten started sorting slate at a young age, but they entered the mines as soon as practicable. Also, companies frequently hired boys (ages twelve to fourteen ) who proved themselves strong enough to shovel coal and sturdy enough to endure a ten-­ hour day. By 1920, 1,384 children (ages ten to seventeen) mined coal in Alabama.2 Life was hard for coal miners like Edgar Frost and their families. Ironically, union recognition and collective bargaining arrived at the same time as a reversal in the fortunes of the coal industry. The Great Depression, market changes, and technological factors precipitated three decades of decline from the late 1920s to the mid-­ 1950s. Shifflett considers this paradox when he observes that “the miners ’ hour of triumph in the late 1930s was also the moment of their greatest loss.” In effect, the combined efforts of capital and organized labor resulted in unemployed miners.3 His­ tori­ cal perspective reveals that downturns in coal markets actually began before the Great Depression. The industry experienced steady growth for the first quarterofthetwentiethcentury,butemploymentdeclinedafter1927.Fortunately, miners habitually supplemented their industrial pursuits with agricultural production . Many families survived the Depression by maintaining gardens and canning fruits and vegetables. In many ways, miners reverted to the rural traditions of mutual aid and community assistance instead of relying solely on company largesse . As Shifflett reports, “company paternalism continued, but, only as a temporary expedient in dealing with an economic crisis, not as a means to attract and hold labor.”4 Piper historian James Walker reports that peoples’ lives were filled with poverty , hunger, disaster, and uncertainty. He states: “Poor working and living conditions were taken for granted by the miner, and were, in many cases, the causes of illness and disease.” Families ate garden vegetables, churned butter, drank buttermilk ,andobtainedeggsandmeatfromtheirchickens.Peddlerspliedthestreetsin wagons or buggies, selling beef, fish, and other food items. Walker also mentions a group that formed the lowest socioeconomic stratum—poor, uneducated people who drifted from one town to another. Meanwhile, company officials continued to live on different streets and in better houses, in an area frequently called “Silk Stocking Row.”5...