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Earnest T.Fleshman worked in the mines until
he moved his family to Pennsylvania (but
that is another story), as did my father
work in the mines until he also joined the
Fleshman family, moving to Pennsylvania.
Dock Sloan and Earnest Fleshman both died
of Black Lung from their years of breathing
coal dust
Earnest was born on July 09,
1907 in Rainelle WV, the son of Addison Perry
Fleshman and Olivia Susan Brown. There were
13 children born into this family, 5 boys
and 8 girls. He married Lillie Pearl Siers
on April 21,1927 in Greenbier Co. WV.
On Earnest's military record it is
stated that he only had four years of schooling,
putting his age at ten when he left school,
although there is no actual proof that he
entered the mines to work at ten years of
age, the times would indicate that this is
what happened, as many a child was sent off
to work in the same mines that their fathers
worked in, to help supplement the family's
income. The age by law to work in the mines
was twelve but there were many boys working
there as young as nine years old, having
been told to say they were twelve by their
fathers. The mine owners knew that this was
going on, but turned a blind eye to it.
Coal Miners
are a special breed,
they knew the risks they
faced each time
they left home, maybe never
to return, knowing
each time they entered
the black hole, that
it might be the last time
they felt the warm
light of the sun on there
faces.
A man had
to make a living
and coal was big industry,
sometimes the
only way a man could make
a living. Each
miner would leave for work
carrying a metal
lunch box, I have seen
my grandfather's lunch
box and wonder why it had
a secure latch,
almost like a lock, to
fasten the lid shut,
when I ask that question,
I was told that
there were rats down in
the mines, these
rats were smart, many a
miner would come
for his lunch and find
it gone if the lid
wasn't securely latched.
They also wore their
miners hat, the
one my grandfather had
was metal with a lantern
attached to the front.
These lantern
were equipped to burn a
gas produced by mixing
carbide and water. A miner
always made sure
he had a good supply of
carbide and flints
before starting his shift
underground. Should
his lamp fail he would
find himself in the
most total darkness known
to man, a mile
or better underground with
nothing but coal
to surround him.
There was no chance
of feeling his way to another
area where
other man might be working.
He could
only hope they would come
to look for him.
The life
of a coal miner was
hard in the early years,
every thing was
done by hand. A man had
to dig the coal from
the vein, break it up,
hand load it into
mule drawn cars, prop up
the stone roofs
above them with wooden
props, load the rock
into another car and get
the cars to the
bottom of the shaft where
it was hoisted
above ground. At
50 cents a ton and
nothing for the stone,
he seldom made enough
to meet the most basic
needs of his family.
Most men
never escaped the
hardships of the mines,
but my grandfather
did. Ernest left
the mines and moved
his family to Pennsylvania,
sometime between
1946-1947 where he made
a better life, many
of his family still live
in the area of York
Springs where he first
settled.
Yes, Earnest Tensley Fleshman
left the mines, but not without the constant
reminder of his years working there, for
you see he contacted the miners disease,
Black Lung. He died in 1977.
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