Brave strong men from many walks of life, from fearless soldiers to daring astronauts, explorers and coal miners who ventured into the deep bowel of the earth the miners who worked the Appalachian coalfields were no less heroic. They were a special breed apart. My dad baptized Kazimierc Gliniecki but known as Charlie Glinski was such a man a quiet proud dignified man who I so admired and loved.
. Sometime around the year 1930 my family consisting of mom, dad and 5 sisters moved to McKinleyville from Providence, Ohio a coal town just below St Clairsville, Ohio in Belmont County living conditions there at best were poor. Our company house in McKinleyville was located on the bank of Buffalo Creek just next to the railroad tracks on the side facing Wellsburg.
I enrolled in second grade in the elementary school at McKinleyville situated on a knoll across the creek adjacent to a baseball diamond several sisters also enrolled at the elementary school while the eldest girls went to school in Bethany.
Dad entered the mine approximately in 1930 after being equipped with tools and other related miners equipment purchased from the company store. Included were hard toed shoes, leather gloves, helmet, carbide lamp attached to the front of the helmet, and a cylindrical aluminum bucket. His daily lunch consisted mainly of a piece of salt pork and home made bread on the top of the lunch bucket while water was poured into the bottom. Payment was in script. The company encouraged one and all to do their shopping at the company store. It was pick and shovel work. Coal cars were loaded by hand. No automation here. Continuous mining machines were not yet introduced so as yet and there were no massive lay offs because of that automated machinery
My early recollections were of happy times. McKinleyville in the early 30's was a vibrant bustling community, there was a baseball team made up of young talented miners. The elementary school had wonderful dedicated teachers, no school discipline problems here, so woe to the young child if the parent was told by the teacher that their child was misbehaving. Families were close, friendships were made and endured. There were no crimes committed in this town, doors of homes stayed unlocked. My mother had some boarders all bachelors, who treated children with candy and affection. "Albert the Greek" one of our favorite boarders who entertained us children by turning his eyelids inside out. Often times he would go into Wellsburg or Steubenville and bring us bags of treats we loved him dearly. Most of the miners were of ethnic origin. The African Americans who worked side by side with dad lived around the hill across the creek behind the company store. In a little community called "Black Bottom". I always felt that this was at one time years before perhaps a stop on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves.
Mother was a wonderful cook and a strict no nonsense homemaker and boarding house captain. Whoa to anyone who got out of line, she was tough. A huge pot of soup was invariably on the dinner table with whatever mom could find off the land would be stirred into the soup a staple was always meaty soup bones obtained from the company store. We had a cow that helped provide milk, we had chickens and ducks and a small garden, and food was always on the table but no extras like cookies or cake.
Dad never drank, but made moonshine, which he sold to some of the miners. He had also several customers outside of town and that added to our income and well-being. Several times we were raided by law enforcement officers, but dad was always careful to hide the moonshine in a safe hideaway place so no one was ever arrested.
As previously mentioned when the mine was producing times were good, my older sisters every fall would have corn roasts in our wash house with other girls and boys of their age, or together with their cousins from Bellaire they would meander to the top of the hill in late summer and surreptitiously steal into a farmers cherry tree orchard for a bucket of the sweet fruit. Innocent thievery once a year was a constant. During the spring and summer season we would find our ball team up there next to the elementary school playing baseball several of the players tried out for major leagues, a few succeeded.
By the mid thirties however problems developed within the mine. Unionization efforts by the United Mine Workers of American under John L. Lewis, throughout the Appalachian coalfields and the coal mine operators resistance to such efforts resulted in wildcat strikes. Lay offs, black lists, picketing and even violence. Towns like Matewan in southwestern West Virginia was one example where blood was shed, when strike breakers called "scabs" were brought into that community accompanied by Pinkerton and law officers.
Safety conditions in most mines were poor, hazards were commonplace, eventually like so many, my dad, contracted black lung. Black lung was silicosis, that was when gob as a mix of coal and rock dust coated your lungs. Another hazard feared by the miners was fire damp, the colloquial term for methane an odorless explosive gas that seeped out of exposed coal. Some miners called it "black damp" or "black diamond". It would not take much, perhaps no more than a spark from a motor to cause an explosion.
The good times began to give away to hard times in the mid thirties. Families got a little food from government commodities, called by us "relief". Cheese, potatoes, perhaps a little peanut butter from time to time were staples. Mother and other parents volunteered for the elementary school soup kitchen, so as to insure we school children had a hot lunch. There was no help from union funds, no unemployment compensation or social security to tide us over. There were no social support or welfare programs like those of today.
Approximately six years after moving to McKinleyville we were forced to move. First to live with friends one summer in Wellsburg behind the tannery, then on to North Warwood. We lived in a company house one hundred yards away from a tipple in a company house owned by the Costanzo Coal Mine Company. When in 1940 my dad suffered a near fatal accident. When a portion of the slate roof collapsed on him. He was fired shortly thereafter. Dad started work at 13 in the Appalachian coal mines he died at age 62 in 1953 thirteen years after the serious coal mine injury left him incapacitated for some years. Mother died at age 96, and survived on black lung benefits and social security. My dads brightest moment, proudest moment in life came when he gained American Citizenship on Sept 19, 1940 at age 49. His second proudest moment came when I acquired a college degree under the G. I. Bill. I was a World War II Army Veteran, who served 24 months overseas.
Dad died illiterate but was awfully grateful to this great land of freedom, equality and opportunity.