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Dorothy Copus Brush More on Coal Creek Few travelers along I-75 know that Lake City
was Coal Creek in the 1890s. Only three miles from the interstate
is Militia Hill, where the earthen embankments of Fort Anderson
can still be seen. That is all that remains of the Coal Creek
War, which began July 15, 1891. On that day, the miner's committee sent a
telegram to Gov. John P. Buchanan. It read: "We, the miners,
farmers, merchants and property owners of Briceville and Coal
Creek and vicinity assembled to the number of 500, who have come
together to defend our families from starvation, our property
from depreciation, and our people from contamination from the
hands of convict labor being introduced at the Tennessee Coal
Mining Company, do beg you, as chief executive and protector,
to prevent their introduction, and thus avoid bloodshed, which
is sure to follow if their taking our livelihood from us is persisted
in." The governor responded by sending several
groups of state militia to guard the mines. Miners outnumbered
the guards, and they acted immediately to take the prisoners
from the mines to be sent back to the Nashville prison. All was
done without violence. A 60-day cooling-off period was agreed
to while state legislators considered the question of the prison
lessee contract. Nothing was accomplished in Nashville, and the
violent element among the miners urged that the time for talking
was over. On Oct. 31 - Halloween - miners released prisoners
and torched the stockades and other buildings at the Briceville-Coal
Creek mines. More armed miners on horseback headed for the mines
at Oliver Springs, where more convicts were freed and buildings
burned. The Knoxville newspaper's headline next day was, "Liberated!
A clean sweep has now been made. All branch prisons gone. And
every convict in East Tennessee freed". Then on New Year's Day, 1892, 84 troops of
the state National Guard arrived by train at Coal Creek. The
train carried tents, supplies and provisions for a long encampment.
A flat car carried a Gatling gun and mountain howitzer. In the
following days, the ridge just below the crest of Vowell Mountain
was cleared and earthworks dug for a fort. By April, Fort Anderson
under the command of Gen. Sam Carnes of Memphis was in place,
and convicts were once again replacing miners By August 1892 prison workers in the mines
had increased and taken the jobs of miners at Inman and Tracy
City. Following the example of the Coal Creek miners, the prisoners
were put aboard trains and sent to Gov. Buchanan in Nashville.
The state prison overflowed with over 600 returned prisoners. Fellow miners from Kentucky joined the local
group to try to take Fort Anderson. Now, the fighting was serious,
and shots were fired and deaths resulted. More militia and posses
were rushed to the scene. Gen. Carnes started arresting every
man ages 15-75 in Coal Creek and confined them in boxcars. He
threatened hangings. Trials were held, but there were few convictions.
In mid-October, Gen. Carnes and most of the soldiers left. A
small group of militiamen stayed at Fort Anderson. In the November 1892 election, Peter Turney
won the governor race and a trusted miner from Coal Creek - Jake
Drummond - was elected a state representative. Drummond was a
one-issue representative. He wanted to end the prison release
system which would also rid his town of the soldiers. Both outgoing
Gov. Buchanan and incoming Gov. Turney recommended the abolition
of the convict lessee and the construction of new prisons. Both
measures passed and, in September 1893 the remaining militia
at Fort Anderson left. The Coal Creek War was over. Jake Drummond had accomplished his mission,
and he did not run for re-election. Instead, he returned to the
mines, to the job he loved. In 1902, he was killed in a mine
explosion but lived long enough to write his wife, Betsy, a note: "I love you. Take care of the children.
Tell them not to be miners." · · · |