Black Miners in the West

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Dr. Janice Lovelace was the featured speaker this afternoon, October 24, 2021, at a joint meeting hosted by the Black Diamond Historical Society and South King County Genealogical Society, on Black Miners in the West.  The event was well attended with people from all over the United States who have an interest in the heritage of the Black miners who came west in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Notes from the meeting: https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Society/message/1934 .

People who live in South King County, especially on the eastern side are familiar with the coal mining communities of Newcastle, Renton, and Black Diamond; some may even remember the names of Franklin, Cedar Mountain and other towns from long ago.

Franklin WA ~ Cemetery ~Abandoned Mining Town by vikisuzan, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

I've had an interest in the mining operations at Franklin ever since I discovered the names of the 37 men who died in the mine fire of August 24, 1894.  That lead to other stories about Franklin including the 1891 import of Black miners from the Midwest.  My limited research has been among newspapers on Chronicling America and the 1892 Washington State Territorial Census (available at Ancestry.com) and the R. L. Polk Seattle City Directory of 1892 (available at Digital Archives of Washington State).


Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 23, 1891

Dr. Lovelace's presentation and the interaction that followed has  inspired me to look at other avenues of research.  I remembered seeing the name of the man who went back east to recruit the Black miners.  I need to get that name and do some research in newspapers in the Midwest.



Someone asked about mining in South Dakota which set off more bells and whistles in my brain.  I grew up in Weston County, Wyoming, which had a history of coal mining.  The county seat, Newcastle was named for Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.  I should go back and do more research about that area.

In conversation the other day, Alexis Hacker Scholz looked for maps of coal mines and found this:

According to the Washington State Coal Mine Map Collection website, "About 1,100 individual maps representing about 230 mines comprise the Washington State coal mine map collection, which is held at the Washington Geological Survey. "

"A catalog, index, and user's guide for the collection has been published by the Washington Geological Survey:

https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/ger_ofr94-7_coal_mine_map_catalog.pdf

To find the Franklin area mines, open the above link and search on the word Franklin. If using a PC, press CTRL + F keys and type the word FRANKLIN and press Enter key.

Valorie found this which promises to get to the actual maps: 

https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/interactive-atlas-coal-mine-maps-washington


Oh, so many opportunities; so little time!


But, are you aware that SKCGS has a Black Heritage project in cooperation with the Black Diamond Historical Society?  We are concentrating on the Black miners of Franklin, putting them on trees at Ancestry and Wikitree so they will be discovered by living descendants.

At present we have about 300 names of miners and their wives and children in a spreadsheet.  If you are interested in researching a miner or two, let us know and we will make a copy of the spreadsheet available to you.

Join the online group and help us research! https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Black-Heritage-Franklin




MaryLynn Strickland  







Comments

  1. elizpstewartOctober 26, 2021 at 8:48 AM

    The gentleman you're looking for is James Shepperson. See the Renton History Museum newsletter on the arrival of Black miners to King County here: https://p1cdn4static.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_7922657/Image/City%20Hall/Community%20Services/Museum/Newsletters/2018-03_sm.pdf

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