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My Great-Great-Grandfather’s Matewan Story: Life and Business After the Massacre
My Great-Great-Grandfather’s Matewan Story: Life and Business After the Massacre
This is a photograph of my great-great-grandfather, E.R. Meadows Sr., taken in 1927, about six years after the Matewan Massacre occurred. E.R. Meadows operated a watch and jewelry repair store in the town of Matewan. To this day, I have not been able to locate any official documents confirming the existence of his business. It is speculated that the business was located in the Coleman Building. It is possible that records, photographs, and other evidence of the establishment were lost during the devastating Flood of 1977, which destroyed countless historical materials throughout Matewan, Williamson, Kermit, and surrounding communities.
E.R. Meadows Sr. became a father later in life, having his son, Edward Robert Meadows, at the age of 50. Edward Robert Meadows was born two years after this photograph was taken and was named after his father. In the years leading up to the Great Depression, E.R. Meadows Sr. closed his business and purchased a large piece of farmland in Varney, West Virginia, where he raised his family until his final years. He passed away sometime in the mid-to-late 1930s.
Following his father’s death, Edward Robert Meadows helped raise his younger brothers and sisters through some of the most difficult years in American history, including the Great Depression and both World Wars. Through this family story, we get a glimpse into everyday life in Matewan during a time of great change and hardship.
Original Photograph
Colorized and Remastered Photo.
Historic Artifact: 1981 Allburn Tipple Mine Sticker.
Historic Artifact: 1981 Allburn Tipple Mine Sticker.
I recently purchased this rare sticker on eBay with the help of a colleague.
McCarr, Kentucky deserves a section of its own because of the area's largely forgotten history. Once a thriving coal camp, McCarr looked very different than it does today. Much of its original appearance was lost during the Flood of 1977. At one time, the community was home to a post office, a three-room schoolhouse, a supermarket, and a large company store that served the families living throughout the coal camp.
The area's coal industry began with the Allburn Coal & Coke Company, which developed several mines throughout Allburn Holler during the early 1900s. The company later became the Allburn Coal Corporation before the properties were eventually acquired by the New Alma Coal Company, which continued mining operations for decades. The mines employed hundreds of local miners and supported much of the community's economy. Like many Appalachian coal camps of the era, many miners lived in company-owned houses, shopped at the company store, and often depended on the coal company for nearly every aspect of daily life.
A typical workday began before sunrise, with miners traveling into the hollows to work long shifts underground. Coal was loaded into mine cars and transported by rail to a large tipple, where it was sorted and loaded into railroad cars bound for markets across the region. McCarr featured an extensive railroad system with sidings and loading tracks that served the mines of Allburn Holler. A concrete railroad underpass, still standing today and bearing the carved date 1915, is one of the few surviving reminders of this once-busy industrial landscape. The tipple and the railroad bridge above the underpass remained landmarks until they were removed in the mid-1990s.
The community's original post office was later relocated to the mouth of Hardy, between McCarr and Blackberry.
During the 1920 Matewan Massacre and the broader mine wars, newspaper accounts noted that miners working across the Tug Fork River in the Allburn Holler mines routinely carried firearms while traveling to and from work. With labor tensions running high throughout the Tug Valley, many feared ambushes as conflicts between union supporters, coal operators, and hired detectives spread across the region.
This is the sticker I purchased on Ebay.
Newspaper advertisement for the McCarr Super Market. The Hatfield-McCoy park now stands on the former site of the store.
As far as I know, this is the only known photograph of the interior—or even the exterior—of a mine in Allburn Holler. It dates to the late 1920s. I discovered it about six years ago but unfortunately failed to record the newspaper source. I hope to identify and properly cite the original publication in the future.
Train Underpass and Old Tipple Stands At Mouth of Peter Fork
Train Underpass and Old Tipple Stands At Mouth of Peter Fork
Built around 1915, the area once thrived as a coal camp filled with company houses, small communities, and mining operations. Within only a few miles of each other, at least four one-room schoolhouses served the families who lived and worked throughout the area.
According to oral histories from longtime residents, often referred to as "old timers," one schoolhouse stood at the mouth of Peter Fork near where an old wooden tipple once operated. Other schools were located at the mouth of Allburn Holler, in Buskirk, Kentucky, near the current Buskirk Mini Mall, and near the mouth of River Road. Another school may have existed farther up the holler, but its exact location and operating years have not yet been confirmed.
The remaining concrete supports shown in these photographs once held the area's coal tipple, a structure used to process and load coal onto railroad cars. During the height of mining, the hollers would have been filled with the sounds of mine machinery, coal trains, and hundreds of workers traveling to and from the mines. Railroads were essential to these communities, connecting local mines to larger markets throughout the region.
While documenting the site, I discovered a small piece of living history—a mullein plant growing inside an old, dry-rotted coal truck seat that had been abandoned for decades. I transplanted the plant to my grandmother's yard, where it continues to grow today.
Today, the area is listed on Google Maps as NAMPA, which local sources believe refers to New Alma Mining Permit Area. The region was shaped by more than 80 years of coal mining, beginning in the early 1900s. Companies such as the Allburn Coal & Coke Company and the New Alma Coal Company developed mines, railroads, tipples, and company housing that transformed these remote hollows into active industrial communities.
Before coal, Peter Fork and the surrounding areas were rural farming communities connected to the larger Tug Valley region. The area also sits within the same landscape associated with the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, which took place primarily during the late 1800s along the Kentucky-West Virginia border. As the region transitioned from farming to coal, many families with roots in the feud era became part of the mining communities that followed.
Today, much of the original coal camp has disappeared, especially after flooding, mine closures, and population decline. However, the remaining structures, photographs, and oral histories preserve the story of a once-thriving community hidden within the hollers of Pike County.
The Old Tipple Stands
View from an old mine site. The property owner granted permission to access the area but requested that the location remain private.
The old concrete structure that once supported a railroad crossing bridge. A black steel train bridge once stood above this structure before being removed in the mid-1990s. The date "1915" is carved into the upper left corner of the concrete.
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