People moved into the southern part of WV to hunt and settled in to get away from the cities in the colonies on the east coast. Most of them subsisted on hunting until the mines came along over a hundred years ago.
My grandfather came into NY then Columbus then Logan Co specifically to work in the mines, as did many Europeans. It was hard work and he never complained, but when a large chunk of coal shattered his leg he and my dad got out and opened a store.
These are people who had hard lives but didn’t complain.
Complaining, welfare and government handouts are a recent phenomonen in WV where people wanted to be left alone by the government.
My dad moved us out in 1959 and for two decades after WV lost population. So many people did leave for a better life.
People moved into the southern part of WV to hunt and settled in to get away from the cities in the colonies on the east coast. Most of them subsisted on hunting until the mines came along over a hundred years ago.Exactly.My grandfather came into NY then Columbus then Logan Co specifically to work in the mines, as did many Europeans. It was hard work and he never complained, but when a large chunk of coal shattered his leg he and my dad got out and opened a store.
These are people who had hard lives but didn’t complain.
Tennessee Ernie Ford, “Sixteen Tons” told the story, and “Big John” supplied another chapter.
Apparently these people could not walk far enough to escape the daily reality that surrounded them from birth. But if you never knew anything else, even owing your soul to the company store doesn’t sound like too bad a bargain.
By the standards of life - today, in the United States - the conditions were terrible in the coal mines of Appalachia.
But by the standards of that time, they were fine. Even better than fine. People found ways to survive and be happy. There was no barbed-wire fence around West Virginia, to the best of my knowledge. Anyone who stayed, stayed voluntarily. Anyone who wanted to go and seek something "better" was perfectly free to do so.
When we judge the conditions of life in our own country by the standards of 100, or 200, or 300 years ago, we play right into the hands of those who wish to destroy us.
>>My dad moved us out in 1959 and for two decades after WV lost population. So many people did leave for a better life.
My grandfather left his WV mining family in 1918 when he signed up “for the duration” in WW1 (and fortunately for me and a multitude of his descendants, he never even got on a ship to France before the Armistice was signed). His older brother left a few years before, but he was murdered when he had lived in Baltimore for less than a year.
You are very correct that the welfare and whining safety nets have destroyed that kind of hard-working spirit.