Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

West Virginia and Regional History Center

West Virginia & Regional History Center
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6069
1549 University Avenue
Morgantown, WV 26506
Primary Collecting Areas:
West Virginia and Appalachia History and Culture
Description:
The West Virginia & Regional History Center preserves and provides access to the records that document the history and culture of the state and the central Appalachian region. The Center is part of West Virginia University Libraries.
POC: Lori Hostuttler
Phone: (304) 293-3536
Start Over Repository West Virginia and Regional History Center Subjects Coal miners

Miners for Democracy Papers, 1972 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1 in. (photocopies)

Miners for Democracy
The collection consists of the "Proposed Rules of MFD Caucus", from District 3l, UMWA, and the transcribed testimony of Charles M. Culp, a West Virginia miner, given in Washington, D.C., on 18 February 1972 in an investigation of his retention by District 31 as campaign worker for the Boyle-Titler-Owens international slate in 1969. Culp's handwritten statement and other evidence are included with the testimony.
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Miners' Treason Trials, Records, 1921/1923 0.88 Linear Feet Summary: 10 1/2 in. (6 reels of microfilm, 1.75 in. each)

Jefferson County, West Virginia. Circuit Court
The collection consists of case papers for the trials of coal miners and UMWA leaders, indicted for treason in connection with the armed march into Logan County, West Virginia, during August and September, 1921. The main part of the papers concern the trials of Walter Allen, William Blizzard, C. Frank Keeney, Rev. J.E. Wilburn, and John Wilburn. There are also photocopies of an indictment dated 17 September 1921 and an indictment dated 12 January 1922, as well as other court records concerning the trials, collected by Prof. Festus P. Summers of West Virginia University.
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Mother Jones Typescript Memoir, 1938 0.25 Linear Feet Summary: 3 in. (1 small flat storage box)

Burgess, Lillie May (Fowler)
Typescript memoir of the life of Mother Jones, entitled "Mother Jones: the Life Story of the Irish Immigrant Girl Who Became the Most Unique Character in the American Labor Movement, Living Past 100 Years," written by Lillie May Burgess of Hyattsville, Maryland, and copyrighted 8 February 1938. The manuscript is in two parts, several pages of which are missing. The first part (241pp.) is entitled "The Life Story of Mother Jones: American Labor's Joan of Arc," and is a narration of events in Mother Jones' life. It includes a description of her early years, before she became a labor activist, and some of the highlights of her labor career. Her activities in organizing miners in West Virginia and Colorado receive most emphasis, but also included are her activities among women brewery workers, her participation in the 1919 steel strike at Homestead, Pennsylvania, her interest in the Mexican Revolution of 1911, her views on woman suffrage and prohibition, her meetings with various presidents and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and her friendship with Terence V. Powderly, fellow labor activist. The narration follows closely that of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MOTHER JONES, published in 1925 by Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago, Ill., with the addition of some chapters on her life after 1925. The second part (106pp.) is entitled "The Last Years of Mother Jones (Personal Reminiscences)." It is a narration of the later years of Mother Jones' life, ca.1927-1930, most of which she spent under the care of the author, Lillie May Burgess, at the Burgess home in Hyattsville, Maryland. Mrs. Burgess relates the circumstances under which Mother Jones and she became friends, how Mother Jones came to live with the Burgess family in 1927, and what these years of her life were like.
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Paul Nyden, Collector, Five Unpublished Manuscripts Dealing with Coal Mining, Miners, and Unions, 1932/1975 0.77 Linear Feet 9 1/4 in. (1 document case, 5 in.); (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Nyden, Paul

Five unpublished manuscripts relating to coal mining, miners, and unions, in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
(1) Tom Myerscough, Bloody Hell in Kentucky, circa 1932, a fictionalized account of the National Miners Union strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1931. Myerscough became an organizer and then president of the National Miners Union.
(2) Adam Getto, Autobiography, 1975, an autobiography of his experiences as a union section leader at Bethlehem Steel's Ellsworth Mine in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania.
(3) Miriam Schultz, Bread Upon the Waters, circa 1970, a novel about coal miners in western Pennsylvania.
(4) Miriam Schultz, "Larry Corcoran," circa 1970, a short story about a coal miner in western Pennsylvania.
(5) Tony Sabo, Stripped Naked in Public, circa 1971, an autobiographical account about his life in coal towns in northern West Virginia and his work in the Welfare Rights Organization.
Microfilm contains copies of Autobiography, Stripped Naked in Public, and "Larry Corcoran."

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Steve Nash, Miner, Pay Statement and UMWA Card, 1906/1912 0 Linear Feet Summary: 2 items

Nash, Steve
Two photocopies of material relating to the coal mining career of Steve Nash. The first is a pay statement from the Hitchman Coal & Coke Company, July 1-16, 1912. The other is a United Mine Workers of America transfer card, August 31, 1906, giving a brief statistical description of Nash as well as mentioning the local from which he is transferring.
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Thurman I. Miller Papers, 1907/2017 2.4 Linear Feet 2 ft. 5 in. (1 record carton, 15 in.); (2 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 flat storage box, 1 in.); (3 rolled oversize items, 3 in. each) 12.4 Gigabytes 5849 files, formats are primarily .jpg and .tif but also include .doc, .rtf, and .pdf among others

Miller, Thurman I., 1919-

Papers of Thurman Irving "T.I." Miller (1919-2017), a native of southern West Virginia who served in the Marine Corps from 1939-1945, worked as a master electrician in the coal mining industry, and authored multiple books about both those experiences later in life.

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United Mine Workers of America, Health and Retirement Funds, Records, 1915/1989 183.71 Linear Feet 183 ft. 8.5 in. (2 document cases, 2.5 in. each); (314 document cases, 5 in. each); (39 records cartons, 15 in. each); (1 oversize box, 3 in.); (1 oversize box, 6 in.) (6 ledgers, 3 in. each); (2 document rolls, 5.5 in.); (3 motion pictures, 4 in.)

United Mine Workers of America. Health and Retirement Funds

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) archives consists of the records of the first industry-wide pension and medical care plans for coal miners and their families in the United States. The archives comprise approximately 156 linear feet of records from the years 1946-1974, and include minutes, resolutions, correspondence, memos, reports, transcribed speeches, lawsuit documents, construction plans, contracts, statistical reports, newspaper clippings, photographs, microfilmed reading files, sound recordings, and movie film.

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United Mine Workers Records at Cornell University, 1899/1927 0 Linear Feet Summary: 1 item

United Mine Workers of America
Guide to the microfilmed records at the Labor Management Documentation Center of Cornell's M.P. Catherwood Library. Includes the early joint conferences of coal miners and operators, 1899-1920, the District 12 (Illinois) conventions, 1899-1916 and grievance adjustment proceedings, 1899-1927. None of Cornell's holdings pertain directly to West Virginia.
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