|
|
Dorothy Copus Brush A look at the Coal Creek War, Part II Today we know it as Lake City, but in 1891
it was the small town of Coal Creek, populated by unemployed
coal miners. They had been locked out of the mines because they
had asked to be paid in cash rather than company scrip. Now,
they were struggling to feed and house their families. The companies continued mining operations
with prison labor. The state began the practice in 1866 and called
it the prison lessee contract, which allowed companies to use
prisoners at any lawful occupation they had worked in before.
The Knoxville Iron Company Mine had used the prison release since
1877 and had more than 130 convicts. The practice had been tolerated,
but the miners silently disapproved. When prison labor was brought to the Briceville,
TN, Mining Company, just south of Coal Creek, in July 1891, tempers
flared. With so many miners locked out of work, bringing in more
prisoners to replace them was just too much. On July15, 300 miners,
armed with old guns, marched in the dark of night to the stockade
holding the prisoners at Briceville. They surprised the few guards
and demanded the prisoners be released to them so they could
be sent to Knoxville by train. At a signal from the leaders, torches blazed,
and the size of the group was too large to try to stop. Their
demands were met, and prisoners and guards were marched to Coal
Creek and put aboard the train to Knoxville. The Anderson County
sheriff declined to intervene and turned it over to the Knox
County sheriff. In Nashville, Gov. Buchanan received telegrams
asking for two or more military companies at once because local
law enforcement was unable to handle the situation. Shortly,
the governor, his labor commissioner and Col. Sevier were on
a train headed for Knoxville. The train stopped in Chattanooga
to pick up two companies of Tennessee militiamen, young, part-time
soldiers who had used guns only for target practice. Arriving
in Knoxville, the train added the boxcar filled with the prisoner
laborers and another small group of militiamen before proceeding
to Coal Creek. Col. Granville Sevier, a direct descendent
of John Sevier, was in charge of the troops brought to guard
the mines. From Thursday, when they arrived, to Monday all was
quiet, but in the dark of Sunday night more than 1,000 miners
from as far away as Harlan County, KY, were headed for Coal Creek
on foot and horseback. Before sunrise Monday, they had surrounded
the mine stockade and, when Sevier realized their strength, he
surrendered and again the convicts and the militia made the march
to the boxcars at Briceville. In the next few days, a 60 day cooling off
period was agreed to. This allowed the governor to call the
state legislature into a special session to wrestle with the
subject of prison lessees. During this period, the state prison
authority visited the Coal Creek-Briceville mines and found the
deplorable conditions the convicts had to endure. A state senator described the situation as
a rebellion and urged that a military force be used to suppress
it. Another legislator foolishly questioned the citizenship of
the miners. In truth, 75 percent were Tennessee natives and descendents
of Sevier, David Crockett and Isaac Shelby. Little was accomplished in Nashville and,
as the 60 days neared the end, the miner's committee recognized
a violent element was taking control among the miners. They held
a final meeting where they, as a committee, resigned. The miners
were turned loose to be guided by their own consciences. |