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Dorothy Copus Brush A look at the Coal Creek War It is amazing what a tale one simple question
uncovered. When I asked if anyone knew the location of the Coal
Creek Co., I knew nothing of the fight for freedom that went
on there. It was an almost forgotten chapter in Tennessee history
until one man, Chris Cawood, remembered the family stories he
had heard. After much research, he wrote the historical novel
Tennessee's Coal Creek War: Another Fight for Freedom. Judith
Steepleton of Fairfield Glade brought the book to my attention. In 1891, in what is today Lake City, was a
settlement named Coal Creek. There were two mines in the Briceville-Coal
Creek area, the Tennessee Mine and the Knoxville Iron Co. They
worked 20 or more mines in the surrounding mountains. Coal mining
or farming were the main options for the men in the area to provide
for their families. Miners worked 10-20 hours a day inside those
dark tunnels and were paid 50 cents a ton. They were paid once
a month in company scrip, which might be paper certificates or
brass tokens. First, the rent for their company house was taken
out and then anything that was owed the company store. In late December 1890, the miners asked two
things of company officials - two things already guaranteed by
state law. They asked to be paid in real money, and they proposed
hiring one of their own men as a check weighman to work beside
the company man who weighed the coal as it was brought from the
mine. Their request was refused, and they were told they either
followed company policy or they had no job. Confederate veteran John P. Buchanan had just won a two-year term as governor in 1890. Very early in his term, he was presented with a request for prisoners to work in the Tennessee Co. mines to replace the miners who disputed their contract. Nearly 1,000 convicts were already working in southeastern Tennessee. This system was called the prison lessee contract,
and it stated that prisoners could be leased out anywhere in
the state at any lawful occupation they had worked in before.
In truth, it was a thinly veiled kind of slavery, but for the
state it was a money-saving bonus in that they did not have to
feed, clothe or house the prisoners, or provide guards. In Tennessee's early days as a state, law
breakers were punished at the county level. Gov. Sam Houston
signed the bill to build the first state penitentiary in 1829.
In 1866 Gov. William "Parson" Brownlow began the practice
of leasing out prisoners for 43 cents a day. At first, most of
the work was done at the prison in Nashville. A study was done
in 1868 revealing the fact that about half the prisoners were
convicted of petty larceny amounting to less than $5 each. The
cost to the state for keeping them under lock and key was much
greater, up to $11 a month. By 1870, the lease allowed prisoners
to work outside prison walls building railroads and doing mining.
So-called branch prisons - really stockades - were built at these
sites. The Knoxville Iron Co. had leased 135 convicts,
of which only five were white. Many of the miners tolerated the
practice but silently disapproved. As they left their back-breaking
day's work, they passed the mine superintendent's home. Surrounded
by a stone wall, the nine-room house boasted orchards and gardens.
Author Cawood described it: "The house was like a pearl
sitting forlornly lost in a bowl of dried India ink." It
was a daily reminder to the miners of their lowly status. The locked-out miners had heard prisoners
had been placed in mines at Inman, Tracy City and Oliver Springs.
There were rumors that the Tennessee Mine Co. was asking approval
of the state superintendent of prisons to lease about 40 prisoners
to replace the miners with the hope that many would return, but
if that did not happen they would need another 100 prisoners. |