This article, written in 1974 by Homer Butler, notates typical wages received by local coal miners and the effects of striking for higher wages on the miners and their families from just after the turn of the century to the depression.

“My father came home from the mines one day in the spring of 1910 wearing a pair of new elk hide shoes, and bearing the news that the miners were going out on strike. The shoes had cost $3 which was more than a day’s pay for a miner. They were the cheapest shoes available, not much good for rough work, but they would do for wear while hunting work to tide the family over during the strike which would last nobody knew how long. Continue reading →