Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 26, 1994 TAG: 9404260113
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MCCOY LENGTH: Long
When will the ceremony begin? How do I get a meal ticket? Where's the food line? Is Loretta Lynn coming? Have you met my great-uncle Harold?
Throughout, Price was harried but happy. At one point during the day, he caught my eye, and smiled just as brightly as springtime.
"Isn't it amazing what people can accomplish when they work together?" said the Rev. Price.
Amazing, indeed. From a notion to reality, Montgomery County Coal Miner's Day sprouted like a wild dandelion.
Back in February, the concept of having a day to memorialize the county's miners was an idea I expressed in a column printed here in the New River Current.
Lo and behold, two months later there's 1,000 happy people at the biggest reunion McCoy's ever seen, all ex-coal miners or their kinfolk or other folks who want to learn more about this heretofore overlooked chapter in the county's history.
Also, over on what used to be a bare hillside stands a grand monument, made of field stone and mortar, inlaid with tablets of black granite.
When six retired miners unveiled the monument, applause swelled, and tears mixed among the cheers.
An old debt had finally been repaid.
It's not accurate to call the history of coal mining in Montgomery County a forgotten story. Memories of that era have been cherished and stored in the hearts of many since the larger mines closed about 40 years ago.
Yet the tale hadn't been told recently. Over the years, the earth reclaimed the mines, the ex-miners found other work, and lots of new people moved into the county.
When I wrote my first story on the subject, a brief history of the local industry that ran Jan. 2,I assumed many of those "newcomers" would be surprised to learn that coal was actively mined here .
However, I had no way of anticipating the smoldering memories about mining held by so many. Nor could I have guessed how that story and later articles would relight the fuse.
There's been - as the miners say - fire in the hole since then.
Jimmie Lee Price, Kenneth McCoy and others formed a committee, and applied a lesson they learned from their mining ancestors - namely, that if you work together, you can move a mountain.
First they got the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors to declare an annual coal miner's day. Then they began to meet and plan a celebration.
The committee grew steadily in numbers and enthusiasm as weekly meetings were held during March. Those get-togethers occurred at churches in each of the old mining communities - Merrimac, McCoy, Wake Forest.
Folks began to dig through trunks in the attic, and found treasure troves of old photographs, newspaper clippings and journals. They'd find pictures of someone else's father, one his offspring had never seen, and bring them to the meetings.
The cause brought together those who shared a mining heritage. It was heartwarming to see retired miners Oscar Sherman and Lee Linkous greet one another like long-lost brothers, reunited after many years apart.
Sherman lives in Wake Forest, a community of black miners and their families. The McCoy ballfield sits next to a small black cemetery, where Issac T. Eaves is buried.
Eaves died in a 1953 mine accident. His name is enscribed on the new memorial alongside other men, black and white, killed while working in the mines.
In a time of our nation's history when many are discouraged about the tone of racial relations, blacks and whites toiled together in planning the coal mine memorial, just as they did underground many years ago.
The entire effort was touched with that kind of grace. All were elevated by the aim to honor the most selfless act known, that of sacrificing one's life for others.
That is what the miners whose names appear on the new monument did. It is Montgomery County's version of the names hewn on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, a scroll of honor.
Remembering them, relatives placed white carnations on a wreath. It was the day's most poignant moment, particularly when feeble, 91-year-old Ethel Sheppard rose to place a flower for her son.
Alford Sheppard was 12 years old on the day he died in 1932. While bringing his father's lunch to a Price Mountain mine, young Alford was killed when a boiler exploded.
He is the only nonminer listed among the monument's dead.
Balancing the sorrow was the Rev. Holly Phillips' homily, delivered at the day's end as this ex-miner stood before the new monument.
It is true that the mines caused death and injury, but they also gave many families life, Phillips noted. Miners earned money to build houses by digging coal, and made fast ties of friendships that still bind.
Also celebrated was the characteristic independent streak that miners - and now their offspring - carry.
Larry Linkous and Ira Long, members of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, congratulated the committee for organizing the event and raising funds for the memorial without governmental help or funding.
Linkous said there's probably no way things would have gone so smoothly had government been involved.
In all, it was a radiant and memorable day. So many folks came for lunch that the McCoy Ruritan Club ran out of green beans and mashed potatoes. So much needed to be said that the event ran about a hour longer than expected.
In a day or so, the memorial comittee plans to re-gather, count the proceeds and talk about what to do next. Perhaps the day will become an annual event.
My crystal ball says there's still work to do, to join with the area's universities and work on preserving this unique era of history, to give college students another reason to come to McCoy rather than sit on an inner tube in the New River.
Meanwhile, there's a beautiful new monument down at the McCoy ballfield, constructed of stone and brass and a lot of love.
Robert Freis has written two stories and a column in the Current about the county's coal-mining history. Saturday, he was one of the featured speakers at the dedication.
by CNB