Memories From
Dante:
The Life of a Coal Town
by Kathy Shearer |
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"It was a very friendly,
close-knit people, and if you was in trouble, they was in trouble with
you. And if gladness come along, they was there, too."
~Thelma Lee Crowder
"Back in Hoover's day,
you worked all day for a dollar and ten cents a day from daylight till
dark, loading coal. They didn't have no machine to cut it."
~Emory Cook
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Hardback,
8.5" x 11", 525 pages, complete index
Illustrated with over 800 black and white pictures and maps
ISBN 0972515402
People Inc. 2001
$50.00
Print Order Form
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Alex Szakacs with the
tools of his trade, c. 1910. |
The coal town of Dante,
Virginia, grew from the tiny crossroads of
Turkey Foot
into a bustling, multi-cultural mining community
of several thousand people, working to fuel the
nation's economy through two world wars. By
1959, the last mine had worked out and most
people had left the town to find other
employment. However, strong connections to the
past persist.
Residents and former residents
share
their memories of life during the heyday of this Clinchfield Coal Corporation company
headquarters town --
both the hardships and the joys. This comprehensive book of oral histories
and over 800 photographs grew out of the three-year-long Dante History
Project and involved several hundred contributors.
Chapters include: The Miner's Work, The Danger is Double, We
Are Union, Life in the Hollows, Life on the
Hill, Courtship and Marriage, School Days,
Life's Pleasures, Getting Religion, The Doctors
Made House Calls, Dark Days, and Changing Times,
and many more.
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Tom and Dick Milhorn in
Straight Hollow, Dante |
Men digging coal in the Upper Banner seam, Dante.
Clinchfield Inn |
Lucille Milhorn Whitaker, who lived in
Dante most all of her 82 years, assisted in the development of the
Dante History Project and the research for the book that followed.
She passed away in December of 2007. She was a warm, caring person
who never met a stranger and she is missed by all who knew her. |
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