Coal Creek history
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Students from Briceville School's fourth and fifth grade classes got a lesson on Coal Creek history from Welsh miner/engineer David R. Thomas, who was born in Carmarthen, South Wales in 1839. Mr. Thomas told how he came to Coal Creek after the American Civil War as part of a contingent of Welsh miners who developed a coal mine to fuel the mills of the Knoxville Iron Company. He lost his job to convict labor in 1877, but found work in the Fraterville Mine where he later became an apprentice engineer to C. G. Popp, which qualified him for his job as an engineer with the Provident Insurance Company. Mr. Thomas explained how miners met at Thistle Switch, located between Briceville and Fraterville, in 1891, to devise a plan for ending convict leasing. After the meeting, the miners captured the convict stockade in Briceville. Miners marched the guards and convicts along the railroad tracks to the train depot in the town of Coal Creek and put them on a train to Knoxville. They then learned how Governor Buck Buchanan visited Briceville at a meeting with miners in Tennessee Hollow to justify convict leasing. Miners did not buy his explanation, which led to additional hostilities. |
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NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Do you know that three of the sites
visited today -- Fort Anderson on
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Our first stop today was at Drummond Bridge where students saw the notch in the bridge from where Dick Drummond was lynched during the Coal Creek War. Students learned about Dick Drummond this year when they studied Chris Cawood's book, "Tennessee's Coal Creek War: Another Fight for Freedom." |
At Fort Anderson on Militia Hill, students got to see the breastworks dug around the fort where the Tennessee National Guard had its base of operations during the Coal Creek War. They also did a re-enactment of the siege on Fort Anderson with fourth graders portraying the miners and fifth graders portraying the soldiers. At the cannon atop Militia Hill, Thomas told how miners lost the final battle, but won the war to abolish convict leasing in Tennessee. |
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At Fraterville Miners
Circle in Leach Cemetery, students heard stories about the worst disaster in
the history of mining in the South where 216 men and boys died on May 19,
1902. Thomas told of being on the rescue crew that found 26 miners trapped
behind a barricade. Ten of those miners wrote farewell letters to their
families before suffocating. All the letters had two common topics—God and
family—which tells you all you need to know about life’s
priorities in 1902.
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To learn more about the Fraterville Mine Disaster, you can watch reporter Amanda Hara's recent story on Knoxville's WVLT CBS Channel 8 News: |
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At Longfield Cemetery, students read the farewell letters of Jacob Vowell and Powell Harmon over their headstones. After lunch at Cracker Barrel, students visited Briceville Church, built in 1888 by Welsh miners, which served as a classroom where Thomas described the 1911 Cross Mountain Mine disaster and rescue.
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Students then competed in
the 2016 Dixie Eisteddfod for the best historical fiction essay. The
original Dixie Eisteddfod was held in 1890 in Knoxville, which was attended
by Welsh miners from 10 states. It was how they preserved their language
and culture at a time when it was illegal to even speak the Welsh language
in Great Britain. Students rang the church bell in honor of those who
perished during the Fraterville and Cross Mountain Mine explosions.
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2016 Dixie Eisteddfod Winners (shown above L to R) Madison Daugherty (Fifth grade -- 2nd place), Jonathon Brown (Fifth grade -- 1st place), Emily Fairbank (Fourth grade -- First place), Alexis McCoy (Fourth grade -- second place). The competition was adjudicated by David R. Thomas, whose bardic name is Gwalch Gwalia (Welsh Rascal). | |
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The field trip ended at Briceville Public Library where students learned about the historical markers there—The Legacy of Condy Harmon and the Welsh in Coal Creek. |
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CANARY IN A COAL MINE AND RED BANDANAS!
Most people have heard the metaphor,
a
canary in a coal mine,
which
refers to any advanced warning of danger. What most people don’t know is
that the first use of canaries in a coal mine occurred in 1911 during the
rescue of miners after the Cross Mountain Mine exploded in Briceville.
The caged canary is the symbol used on the tee-shirts distributed to
Briceville students during the 16th annual Briceville School
history field trip. Miners wore red
bandanas as their uniforms during the Coal Creek War, which explains why
students wear red bandanas during our field trips.
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Reading the farewell message of Jacob Vowell over his grave and that of his son Elbert |
Powell Harmon's great, great, great grandson at the graves of Powell and his son Condy Harmon |
Carol Moore takes a selfie with students at Cracker Barrel with their teacher (Center) Ms. Peyton Stooksbury and their Principal Mr. Travis Hutcheson (back right) |
![]() Very special thanks to Geoff Trabalka (Anderson County Solid Waste), Chief Avery Johnson (Anderson County Sheriff's Department), and volunteer inmates for clearing the overgrown railroad tracks leading to historic Drummond Bridge. |
![]() Accompanying us on the tour were Sandee Sharp Saverese (part-time director of the Coal Creek Miners Museum) and Robert Gregory (President of the Briceville & Anderson County Public Library Foundation, Inc.) |
![]() L to R: Fifth grade teacher Ms. Jackie Byrge, Library/Technology teacher Janis Bishop, Principal Travis Hutcheson, and one of our fine bus drivers from M & R Bus Company |
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Creek Watershed Foundation, Inc. 2000 through 2021
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