Himlerville: Hungarian Cooperative Mining in Kentucky - The Filson ...

THE FILSON CLUB 

HISTORY QUARTERLY 

VOL. 66 OCTOBER 1992 NO. 4 

HIMLERVILLE : 

HUNGARIAN COOPERATIVE MINING IN KENTUCKY 

DOUG CANTRELL 

Much has been written about American immigration and 

Appalachian coal mining. With the exception of a few articles 

by Magaret Ripley Wolfe, Constantine Bellissary, and Rose 

Fields, however, scholars have yet to link the two topics.I Yet 

despite the oversight, immigration was an important part of the 

Appalachian coal industry. Coal mining in southern Appalachia 

developed about the same time as millions of southern and eastern 

European immigrants entered the United States in search 

of industrial employment. Between 1880 and 1930 thousands of 

new immigrants settled in the coalfields of Alabama, Virginia, 

DOUG CANTRELL, M.A., teaches history at the Elizabethlown Community 

College. 

1 The following articles by Margaret Ripley Wolfe, "Aliens in Southern Appalachia, 

1900-1920: The Italian Experience in Wise County, Virginia," Virginia 

Magazine of History and Biography 87 (1979): 455-72; "Aliens in Appalachia: 

The Construction of the Cllnchfield Railroad and the Italian Experience," in 

Emmet M. Essin, 111 ed., Appalachia: Family Traditions in Transition (Johnson 

City, Tenn.: East Tennessee State University Press, 1975); "Aliens in Southern 

Appalachia: Catholics in Coal Camps," Appalachian Heritage6 (1978): 42-56: 

and "Putting Them in Their Places: Industrial Housing in Southern Appalachia, 

1900-1930," Appalachian Heritage 7 (1979): 27-36, discuss, to a limited degree, 

the new immigration in the southern coalfields. A recent article on the subject 

is Doug Cantrell, "Immigrants and Community in Harlan County, 1910-1930," 

Register o/ the Kentucky Hist6rical Society 86 (1988): 119-41. An article by 

Constantine G, Belissary, "Tennessee and Immigration, 1865-1880/' Tennessee 

Historical Quarterly 7 (1948): 229-48, relates the efforts of Tennessee to attract 

immigrants. An early article on the subject is by Rose C. Fields, "What 1 Found 

in Lynch, Kentucky," Success, March 1926, pp. 58-61, 114-19. Brief passages 

dealing with new immigrants in Appalachia are found in Ronald D. Eller, Miners, 

Millhands, and Mountaineers (Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee 

Press, 1983) and Harry.M. Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberlands (Boston: 

Little, Brown & Company, 1963). In general, literature on the new immigration 

into the southern coalfields is limited. 

The Filson Club History Quarterly 

Vol. 66, No. 4, October 1992 513

514 The Filson Club History Quarterly [October 

West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. According to a fortytwo-volume 

report of the United States Immigration Commission, 

immigrant workers made up thirty percent of all mine workers 

in these states in 1908.2 Hungarians constituted one of the largest 

of the ethnic groups. Hungarians were found in virtually all 

southern coal-producing regions. They were so numerous, in 

fact, that they established a cooperative mining town in the hills 

of Martin County. This town, named Himlerville after Martin 

Himler, the group's leader, was America's only experiment with 

cooperative coal mining. 

Martin County, chosen by President Lyndon B. Johnson to 

launch his war on poverty, had not always been one of the 

poorest counties in America. In the 1920s thick seams of coal 

were mined daily, and Martin County was one of the most 

prosperous and progressive areas in America. In 1925 the 

county's mines produced 438,076 tons of coal) At that time, 

Martin County boasted of a prosperous bank, two widely read 

newspapers, and a variety of enterprises geared to support the 

mining industry. This burst of economic activity during the era 

of Prohibition centered around Himlerville, a coal-mining town 

on Buck's Creek, a tributary of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy 

River) Today hardly anybody remembers this mining community 

which nestled in the hills of eastern Kentucky from 1919 

until 1928. Even though it has been largely forgotten, Himler- 

2 U.S. Senate, Reports ol the Immigration Commission, Immigrants in Industry, 

The Bituminous Coal Industry, Doc. No. 533, Washington, D.C.: Government 

Printing Office, 1911, 3, pt. I: 139 (hereafter Immigration Commission). Other 

sources which discuss immigration and American industry include: John Bodnar, 

Immigration and Industrialization (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 

1977); David Ward, Cities and Immigrants (New York: Oxford University 

Press, 1965); Daniel Nelson, Managers and Workers: Origins o] the New Factory 

System in the United States, 1880-1920 (Madison, Wiaconsin: University of Wisconsin 

Press, 1975). Immigrant communal institutions are discussed in Humbert 

S. Nelli, Italians in Chicago (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), From 

Immigrants to Ethnics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983); se¢ also 

Thomas Kessner, The Golden Door: Italian and ]ewish Immigrant Mobility in 

New York City, 1880-1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977). 

3Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1925 (Frankfort: State 

Journal printing Company), 82. 

4 Ibid., 1923, p. 267.

1992] HimlerviUe 515 

vine remains a unique Appalachian coal-mining town. The town 

was unique because it was based on an experiment with cooper- 

ative capitalism by a group of Hungarian immigrants,s 

The idea for a cooperative mining enterprise in southern Ap- 

palachia was conceived by Martin Himler, a Hungarian immi- 

grant, journalist, and philanthropist, .who was owner, editor, 

and publisher of Magyar Banyaszlap (translated as the Hun- 

garian Miners' Journal), a foreign-language newspaper which 

began publication in New York in 1916. Himler, a Hungarian 

Jew who was born at Prazsto, Hungary, on 2 September 1888, 

emigrated to the United States in 1907. Himler successfully 

adjusted to a new life in America after he found employment in 

a coal mine at Thacker, West Virginia. He worked several years 

at various mines in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia be- 

fore returning to New York where he was employed as a clerk 

in a Hungarian-American import company. In 1916 he quit 

clerking and went into business for himself. Since he was edu- 

cated as a journalist, he decided to begin publication of a Hun- 

garian-language newspaper. With little financing he founded 

Magyar Banyaszlap on New York's lower east side. Because he 

had worked in coal mines, Himler's newspaper focused on the 

mining industry. When he named his paper the Miners' Journal, 

editors of other Hungarian-language publications .scoffed at the ' 

venture, dubbed Himler a parlor miner, and cynically inquired 

why common Hungarian miners needed their own industrial 

publication,e The skeptics did not realize that within a few years 

Magyar Banyaszlap would circulate among "more subscribers 

than any other three Hungarian papers in the United States" 

and that it would be received by more than 14,000 homes in over 

1,100 mining communities.7 

5 Ibid., 1922, p. 286; Eugene S. Bagger, "Himler of Himlerville," The Survey, 

29 April 1922, p. 146 maintains that Himlerville was perhaps the only cooperative 

coal mine in the United States; Eller, Miners, 191; Iudge Watson, "The 

Economic and Cultural Development of Eastern Kentucky from 1900 to the 

Present" (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1963), 48 also discusses the cooperative 

nature of Himlerville. 

6 Bagger, "Himler," 146-47. 

7 These claims were made on the masthead of Magyar Banyaszlap. See any


Because he had worked alongside other Hungarian coal miners 

for several years, Himler realized that thousands of his country- 

men were employed in the industry. As a former miner Himler 

understood the problems Hungarian miners faced and the needs 

they had. He realized that they had, in the words of Oscar Hand° 

lin, been "uprooted" in coming from Hungary to America and 

that they were forced to relinquish an agricultural lifestyle in 

favor of an industrial one to earn a living. 8 Himler also recog- 

nized that immigrants were often hapless and destitute. The 

search for economic opportunity and the spirit of independence 

that drove them to America were often extinguished by indus- 

trial employment. For months Himler thought about the uprooted 

condition of his countrymen as they searched for the American 

Dream. Eventually he realized that a solution to the problems of 

the uprooted involved combining Hungarian culture with ideas 

of American industrialism. As scholars have since documented, 

Himler knew the importance of immigrant reliance on Old-World 

habits, values, and lifestyles to forge a meaningful life in Am- 

erica. Himler's vision of Himlerville was that of a community 

that would unite the Hungarian peasant's landowning, home- 

making agricultural instincts with American ideals of industri- 

alism. Although the Hungarians would work in industry (a coal 

mine), this work would take place in a rural setting (the hills 

of eastern Kentucky), on land the immigrants owned. While 

coal mining was dirty and tiring work, it kept the immigrant 

in touch with the land much as agriculture had in the old coun- 

try. Unlike factory employment, which alienated immigrants 

issue of this largely Hungarian-language paper that was printed at Himlerville, 

Kentucky, from 1919 until 1928. The paper is on microfilm at the Midwest 

lnterlibrary Center in Chicago, Illinois. 

8Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1954) 

proposes the idea that immigrants were uprooted during the transition from the 

old country to America. Bagger, "Himler," 147 also states that the Hungarians 

were "doubly uprooted." 

9 Nelli in Italians in Chicago demonstrates conclusively that immigrants relied 

on Old-World customs to adjust 1o life in America.


from the land and their past, coal mining kept the connection 

between land and immigrant intact.1o 

It was 1916 before Himler could begin to establish his rural 

industrial community. With a group of associates he organized 

the Himler Coal Company and advertised the formation of a 

cooperative mining company in Magyar Banyaszlap. Stock was 

offered for sale only to Hungarian natives. The idea of a mining 

corporation where workers would be major stockholders and 

where company profits would be paid as dividends to workers 

was an entirely new idea within the immigrant community. The 

concept, however, was not without its problems. Selling stock 

through advertisements in foreign-language newspapers was a 

popular way of swindling unsuspecting immigrants out of their 

savings. Because of the dangers of losing their money, many 

immigrants were afraid to invest in Himler's scheme. But a large 

enough number trusted Himler's reputation for honesty within 

the immigrant community to enable him to raise $50,000 to 

capitalize a mining company,n 

Aside from its primary purpose of mining coal and enabling 

the miners to experience the Hungarian culture in an American 

environment the company's objectives were to test the theory of 

cooperation between labor and capital in American industry and 

to Americanize .Hungarian immigrants. In order to be consistent 

with these goals no one owned a majority of the company's 

stock; all miners working at Himlerville owned stock in the 

company. Martin Himler, company president, owned less than 

three percent of the corporation's outstanding stock. 12 The rest 

was owned by 1,500 shareholders, many of whom were miners 

employed at Himlerville. Those holding stock who were not 

employed at Himlerville were generally on waiting lists hoping 

10 Eller writes that, "Mining, unlike factory employment, continued to provide 

contact with the land" (Miners, 175). 

11 James R. Haworth. "Huntingtonians to Take Charge of Development," 

Huntington-Herald Dispatch, 22 May 1921; Bagger, "Himler," 147. 

12 Mary Lucille Chapman. "The Influence of Coal in the Big Sandy Valley" 

(Ph.D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1945), 233; Bagger, "Himler," 146; Eller, 

Miners, 191.


that jobs would soon become available. Many stockholders re- 

mained in Hungary, waiting until the mines were developed to 

capacity and houses could be built to accomodate them.Is As of 

July 1921 the Himler Coal Company's 5,000 shares of common 

stock, priced at one hundred dollars each, were held by miners 

in such small allotments that it took 450 holders of the largest 

lots to form a fifty-one percent majority. 14 By 1923 the com- 

pany's stock had risen to 130 dollars per share. Steve Balazs, 

a former resident of Himlerville, recalled that "that was about 

the time I bought 20 to 21 [shares], and it was about 130 to 

140 dollars a share....-15 

Virtually all inhabitants of Himlerville were Hungarians who 

had recently emigrated to the United States. The only exceptions 

were mine superintendents, foremen, and bank cashiers em- 

ployed from time to time. J. D. McLaughlin, C. A. Peoke, L. A. 

Bowes, A. L. Toshie, E. M. Brown, John F. Ballough, and J. A. 

Schuster served at various times as mine superintendents and 

foremen,le These Americans worked for salaries because they 

were prohibited by the company's bylaws from owning stock. 

Only Hungarian immigrants were allowed to buy stock in the 

Himler Coal Company. Every Hungarian miner was required to 

file naturalization papers if he had not already done so or if he 

was not already an American citizen. Only permanent settlers 

were encouraged to come to Himlerville, and t hey were explicitly 

told that their lot in life could be improved only through hard 

work and perseverance. These immigrants had no delusions of 

getting rich quick. A former resident recalls that the Hungarians 

in Himlerville were a close-knit group who "try to figure out 

what they're going into and if it don't work out.... it stops 

13 Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1922, p. 286. 

14 Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 233; Bagger, "Himler," 146. 

15Steve Balaza* interview, 20 July 1978, by Floyd Parrish for the Kentucky 

Oral History Commission. Transcript in possession of the author. 

16 Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1926, p. 53; 1922, p. 286; 

1923. p. 267; 1921, p. 52; 1920, p. 201; 1925, p. 51.


right there. There's no moaning and arguing about it, if you 

made a mistake that's the end of it. ''17 

The company was governed by an eleven-member board of 

directors elected at an annual convention. Except for Himler, 

who was chairman of the board, general manager, v.nd mine 

superintendent, and Eugene Lang, a young Hungarian businessman 

working on salary as secretary-treasurer, the directors were 

all common miners. Company profits were divided three ways: 

one third was paid as a wage/bonus to the stockholders employed 

at Himlerville; the second third was paid as dividend on the 

5,000 shares of stock; and the final third was added to the 

corporation's reserve capital. 18 

Actual mining operations began in 1916 when the Himler Coal 

Company purchased a small mine at Ajax, West Virginia, with 

funds from the original stock issue. Although this mine had a 

tipple from which to transport its coal to market on the Twelve 

Pole branch of the Norfork and Western Railroad, the property 

was not large enough for a mining operation on the scale envisioned 

by Himler. So the Hungarians sold the Ajax property 

for $150,000 and, after increasing the company's capital stock 

to $500,000 with the sale of a second issue of stock, moved across 

Tug River to Martin County, Kentucky. 19 Here the Himler Coal 

Company leased 3,000 acres of prime coal land on the Kentucky 

side of Tug River near Warfield, directly opposite the presentday 

town of Kermit, West Virginia.2° 

In 1917 Martin County was largely a wilderness area. Although 

huge tracts of unmined coal lay beneath the hills, there 

were no roads to transport it out of the county. The nearest railroad 

was the Norfork and Western at Kermit, two miles from 

Himlerville. Between Kermit and Himlerville travel was almost 

impossible. There was no bridge across Tug River and roads 

17 Balazs interview. 

18 Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 233-34; Bagger, "Himler," 149. 

19 "Tug River Bridge at Warfield, Ky.," Big Sandy News, 27 May 1921. 

20Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1920, I . 201; 1922, p. 

286.


were nearly impassable because of mud and deep ruts. Adding 

to the transportation problems was Martin County's hilly terrain 

which made travel difficult in the best weather. Mining 

equipment weighing between ten and twenty tons had to be 

floated across Tug River and then dragged the rest of the way 

by horses through the mud. Thousands of tons of concrete and 

brick had to be transported to Himlerville in this way. When the 

snows melted in early spring, conditions were so bad that it 

took six weeks to transport an extremely heavy piece of equipment 

from Kermit to Himlerville. 21 Several pieces of mining 

equipment had not been delivered when the Himlerville works 

were first inspected on 9 November 1920 by investigators from 

the Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals. Yet the im: 

migrants would eventually complete this enormous task of building 

a coal town. 

The Hungarians quickly realized that their major problem 

was transportation and that their investment would be worth- 

less unless Martin County was connected to Kermit. To accomplish 

this, Himler organized• the Kermit-Warfield Bridge Com- 

pany in 1919 to construct a steel and concrete bridge across Tug 

River between Kermit and Warfield, a small community near 

Himlerville on the banks of Tug River. The bridge company was 

capitalized at $125,000, and all its shareholders were mine operators 

who owned coal and timber lands on either the Kentucky 

or West Virginia side of Tug River. Officers of the company 

were Daniel Elmer Hewitt, a Huntington, West Virginia, lumber 

and coal baron, president; Martin Himler, vice president; 

Eugene Lang, treasurer; and M. W. Hale, secretary. 

Work on the bridge, which was expected to take ten months 

to complete, began in July 1919. By November the engineers had 

discovered a bed of quicksand eighteen feet below the riverbed. 

Only by drilling to a depth of thirty to forty feet could they 

21 Bagger, "Himler," 148; Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 227-29. 


23 "Tug River Bridge at Warfield, Ky."


Chuck Perry, Lexington 

Bridge Over Tug River 

place the bridge's foundation in solid rock. Estimated costs to 

complete the work rose to $200,000, but the foal operators wh0 

had purchased the original stock refused to increase their sub- 

seriptions. Himler was forced to borrow $125,000 on twelve- 

month bonds morffgaged on the bridge u 

Other difficulties ensued, and it soon became apparent that 

an additional $100,000 was needed; again the coal operators de- 

manded that Himler advance the money. Himler refused unless 

the Hungarian cooperative was given complete control over the 

bridge. The coal operators still refused to invest any more money 

in the project and opposed giving the immigrants control of the 

bridge because they realized that whoever controlled the bridge 

controlled 40,000 acres of Martin County coal and timber re- 

sources. Himler stood his ground, and work on the bridge stopped 

until the operators met,the immigrants' demands. Himler then 

bought out their interests and resumed construction on the 

24 Haworth, "Huntingtonians." 1; ' rug River Bridge at Warfield, Ky.; Bagger, 

"Himler," 148.

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bridge. After twenty-two months the bridge was completed at a 

cost of $300,000. Because the bridge was constructed of steel 

and concrete rather than wood, it was considered the best bridge 

built across Tug River. The Norfork and Western Railroad laid 

tracks across the bridge and on 21 May 1921 the first train 

crossed into Martin County. The Huntington Herald Dispatch 

in an eight-column, front-page story described the event in 

dramatic fashion: "The gates of Martin County, Kentucky, 

locked for countless ages, were thrown wide today, when a train 

of two coaches, gaily bedecked and crowded with men, women 

and children in holiday dress entered.''2e This special train, 

which had Hewitt as the engineer and Himler as the fireman, 

made history for eastern Kentucky. It was the first standard- 

gauge train to travel on Martin County soil. 

The arrival of the Norfork and Western special touched off a 

celebration the likes of which Martin County residents had never 

seen. When the train left Kermit a large crowd gathered on 

nearby hills to cheer its departure. Himler poured on the coal 

and Hewitt opened the throttle, and the train sped toward Ken- 

tucky. As it neared the new bridge the crowd cheered madly, 

anticipating the railroad's first venture into Martin County. 

Most realized that the hopes of thousands of Appalachian and 

Hungarian coal miners depended on this bridge. So far as resi- 

dents of Himlerville were concerned, this bridge was the only 

one in the world. After crossing it the train entered Warfield 

but did not stop to take on the big crowd that had gathered to 

board it before going on to Himlerville. Upon entering Himler- 

ville the train, its whistle shrieking, was met by a blast from a 

siren on the powerhouse at the Himler mine. The big moment 

had arrived amid cheers and happy smiles. The train halted, 

its passengers disembarked, and Frank Demjen, a Hungarian 

25 Ibid. 

26 Ibid. 

27 Haworth, "Huntinstonians," I.


immigrant, serenaded them with a rendition of "My Old Kentucky 

Home" on his cornet.2a 

Portions of the crowd then took a guided tour into the mine 

shafts. Following the visit to the mine, the crowd assembled in 

front of the powerhouse for speeches from dignitaries gathered 

for the occasion. Judge Henry Stephen Howes of Johnson County 

delivered the main speech. He was joined by other dignitaries 

such as Carl Berger who represented the Berger estate of Cincinnati 

which had leased land to the immigrants. Judge Howes 

praised the courage and foresight of both Hewitt and Himler. 

His words held hope for the future. Himler then pledged that 

although the Hungarian cooperative controlled the bridge, it 

would not be used for selfish purposes. Instead, Himler promised 

that the bridge would be used to develop the economy of Martin 

County. The celebration ended when Eugene Lang distributed 

$1,000 insurance policies purchased by the Himler Coal Company 

to its employees. 29 

Shortly after the bridge was completed, the Himler Coal Com- 

pany leased an additional 7,000 acres of land containing the Warfield 

Seam from the Berger estate and 5,000 acres from smaller 

landowners. When added to the company's original holdings, 

the leased land gave the Hungarian cooperative control of 15,000 

acres of coal property.30 

When mining operations began in 1919 the immigrants found 

a seam. of high-quality coal. It was the fabled Warfield Seam 

which, according to local lore, provided coal for steamships on 

their way up the Big Sandy River. The seam's average height 

at the mine face was five feet, and the rock above it was exceptionally 

firm which eliminated the need for expensive timbering. 

After mining had been underway for several years, however, the 

quality of the coal declined. In some areas, which miners called 

"tops," the shale above the coal was loose and immigrants could 

28 Ibid. 

29 Ibid. 

30 Ibid.; Bagger, "Himler," 150.


not control it. The company was forced to timber these places. 

When state inspectors visited the mine in 1920, they found poor 

drainage, poor ventilation, and excessive methane gas) 1 The 

coal also contained many impurities, such as sulphur and ash, 

that had to be removed. Unfortunately, the immigrants lacked 

the knowledge to remove impurities from it. The coal from the 

Himlerville works acquired a bad reputation in coal markets 

so the Hungarian cooperative found it difficult to sell. 

The estimated cost of building the plant and town was origin- 

ally $250,000. This estimate fell short by $500,000 as total ex- 

penditures reached more than $750,000. The cost over-run oc- 

curred in part because equipment used in the mine was the best 

and most modern available at the time. The Hungarians first 

invested their savings to raise the capital necessary to purchase 

mining equipment. When the savings were exhausted, coopera- 

tive members borrowed from American banks. 

Since Himlerville was to be a coal-mining town the tipple and 

powerhouse were built first. The tipple, constructed of steel at 

a cost of $100,000, was one of the best in America. It could pro- 

cess 2,500 tons of coal in eight hours. In the tipple, coal was 

automatically sorted into various sizes by the use of shaker 

screens. The tipple was constructed so that coal buggies could 

be turned 180 degrees to empty their contents without being 

uncoupled from the coal train. The power plant was modern in 

every respect. When an associate suggested that Himler con- 

struct a smaller plant at less cost, he responded with character- 

istic zeal: '°I am building not for the present, but for the fu- 

ture.''3e He realized that a small plant would become obsolete in 

a few years. Although the company was heavily in debt after 

financing the bridge, Himler went further into debt when 



33 "Tug River Bridge at Warfleld, Ky." 

34 Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1920, p. 201; 1922, p. 286. 

3S Ibid., 1922, pp. 267-68. 

36 Bagger, "Himler," 149.


$150,000 was raised to build a large power plant. This money 

was used to purchase five boilers of two hundred horsepower 

capacity to generate electricityto run the mines and light homes 

in Himlerville. Every piece of machinery in the power plant had 

a back-up system in case of emergency breakdowns)7 The construction 

of this power plant represented the first commercial 

use of electricity in Martin County. Wires were strung to most 

of the Hungarian homes, and if native mountaineers wanted 

electricity they could hook on to the Himlervine lines. While not 

all mountain homes were electrically lighted, enough were to 

change life on farms in the area. 

The perpendicular mine shaft extended seventy-six feet into 

the ground. It was fully lined with concrete for safety and sloped 

at a forty-five-degree angle through solid rock for another sixty 

feet before leveling off. An elevator, a supply track, and a stairway 

ran through the shaft. Before the shaft was completed 

10,000 tons of coal were brought to the surface through the 

elevator shaft and burned in the powerhouse or sold for local 

consumption,a At its face, the coal seam averaged from fiftyfour 

to sixty-six inches in thickness.4° This seam, which geolo- 

gists called Number Two Gas or Buck Creek block, was worked 

by the slope-mining method as the coal lay below the tipple 

mouth. Three of the newest models of fifty-horsepower Goodman 

shortwall machines were used to undercut the coal seam. Highpowered 

drills were used to bore holes in which explosives were 

placed to blast the undercut coal loose from the mine face. 

Miners then loaded the coal into special buggies which were 

conveyed to the tipple by Ironton Storage Battery locomotives. 

Workplaces were ventilated by electrically driven fans. The mine 

was electrically lighted, and all heavy equipment was operated 

by electricity.41 


38 Bagger, "Himler," 150. 

39 Ibid. 

40Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1923, p. 305; 1926, p. 53. 

41 Ibid., 1920, p. 201; 1922, p. 286; 1923, pp. 267-68.


Although the Himler mine was classified as a machine mine 

by the Kentucky Department of Mines in 1919 and 1920, coal 

was shot from the solid and hauled by mules to Warfield where 

it was floated across Tug River to Kermit, loaded into railroad 

cars, and shipped to northern factories. After the Goodman 

shortwall machines and the Ironton Storage Battery locomotives 

arrived in 1921, the use of animal labor was discontinued. 

Large numbers of men were required to operate the mining 

machinery, load coal into the buggies, transport it to the outside, 

and work the tipple. In 1921 the Himler Coal Company employed 

ninety-five men, twenty-five of which worked outside and seventy 

inside. That number rose to 226 in 1923. Of this number 180 

were inside workers. After 1923 the number of men employed 

fluctuated from 165 in 1925 to 207 in 1926 and 198 in 1927.43 

For the miners who worked in Himlerville, the work was hard. 

The Hungarian miners generally worked in excess of two hundred 

days a year. In 1923 the Himler mine operated 204 days, 

in 1925 246 days, and in 1926 277 days. Workers entered the 

mine at 4:00 A.M. to make preparations to load coal. The workplace 

was first coated with "rock dust" (crushed limestone) to 

prevent the coal dust from exploding. Then miners bored several 

holes in the coal seam for the explosives used to blast the coal 

loose. Because the Himler mine was not well ventilated, miners 

had to wait approximately two hours for the smoke to clear 

before beginning to load coal into special buggies until the work- 

place was completely cleaned up. When no coal remained, the 

42Ibid., 1920, p. 201. "Shot from the solid" is a term miners use to describe 

a method of blasting coal from the seam within the mine tunnel. Normally, a 

special machine (called a cutting machine or simply the machine) is used to 

undercut a coal seam to make it easier and safer to blast coal from the seam 

with explosives. In the early days of mining, miners undercut the coal seam with 

picks. If coal is shot from the solid it is blasted from the seam without the 

seam having been undercut. This is a dangerous method of mining and one in 

which miners are frequently injured or killed. Even today, some small mines, 

usually illegal wildcat operations, will shoot coal from the solid because they 

cannot afford to buy an expensive cutting machine and because it takes too long 

to undercut the coal seam with hand picks. 

43 Ibid., 1921, p. 52; 1923, p. 305; 1925, p. 167; 1926, p. 177; 1927, p. 162. 

44 Ibid., 1923, p. 305; 1925, p. 167; 1926, p. 177.


workers were free to return home until the next morning. A 

typical workday usually ended around 7:00 P.M. If a miner was 

exceptionally fast at loading coal he might be able to leave the 

mine several hours earlier. Before leaving, however, they were 

required to clean up the workroom. "You cleaned that cut up," 

says one miner, "or you wouldn't have anything to do the next 

day, you'd have to cut back that night.''4s Most miners loaded 

about six or seven buggies a day. Each buggy held three tons of 

coal. When a miner loaded one car he rested until the motorman 

(the worker responsible for bringing empty cars into the work- 

place and taking filled ones to the tipple) picked up the filled 

cars and left the empty ones.47 

Not only was work in the Himler mine hard, it was also dan- 

gerous. There were numerous ways workers could be killed in 

underground coal mines. The Himler mine was not immune from 

such disasters. Several fatal accidents occurred in the Himlerville 

works. On 15 April 1925 Charles. Soos, a thirty-six-year-old 

miner was killed by a slate fall. Two miners were killed in 1926. 

On 16 August, Steve Halaiz was electrocuted and on 1 December, 

W. M. Patrick was crushed by a roof fall. On 19 September 1927 

Joseph Vilieies, a miner with twenty-seven years experience, 

was killed by the motor used to haul coal to the mine tipple:4s 

Although the work day was long and hard, life was more 

pleasant 'bnce miners returned home. The town of Himlervil]e 

45 Eller, Miners, 175-82 discusses the miner's work day. Traditionally, miners 

set their own hours at work. A miner blasted coal from the coal seam in the 

early part of the day. When the miner had loaded all the coal he had blasted 

from the coal seam that day into special buggies, he was free to leave the mine 

until the next day. However, before leaving the miner had to clean up all the 

rock, dirt, and other debris that was shot down alongside the coal. If a miner 

did not clean up his workplace before leaving the mine, he hadto waste valuable 

time the next morning cleaning up the rock and dirt before he could begin to 

mine coal and make money. Since most miners were paid according to the amount 

of coal they dug, it was important to clean up the workplace so that the miner 

could immediately begin to dig coal the next morning. 


47 Eller, Miners, 176-77. 

48 Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1925, pp. 238-39; 1926, 

pp. 244-45; 1927, pp. 228-29.


was a planned community. Modeled after Consolidation Coal 

Company's town at Jenkins, Kentucky, each house contained 

five rooms, two of which measured fifteen by thirteen feet and 

two more fifteen by eleven feet. Each room was plastered and 

contained two windows. All houses had a bathroom complete 

with tub and shower. Each house, built of fireproof material, 

had two open fireplaces for burning wood or coal and were also 

equipped with facilities for gas or electrical heating. Electricity 

was used to light all rooms and each house had a front and rear 

porch, a wash house, a vegetable garden, and pens for cows, pigs, 

and poultry.49 If they preferred, residents could build houses 

according to personal taste. As a result of this lenient policy, 

homes of the most unusual shape and color perched on the hills 

surrounding Himlerville. A few of the immigrants purchased 

existing log homes from mountaineers in the region.5° 

The main town consisted of a headquarters building which 

housed the company offices in the second story and a feneral 

store in the first. Like most company stores, the one in Himlerville 

sold a variety of merchandise, ranging from clothing and 

tobacco to food and magazines. The store contained modern 

refrigeration equipment and provided a bathroom for use by 

customers. Unlike company stores in other coal camps, the one 

in Himlerville did not monopolize retail trade. Other stores were 

permitted within the town's limits, and workers were free to 

buy from private stores in neighboring communities. Often, 

Syrian pack peddlers would come through Himlerville selling 

clothing and cooking utensils. Workers were paid in cash every 

month; the Himler Coal Company did not issue scrip to keep 

employees in perpetual debt. Employees were allowed to spend 

their wages as they saw fit, except that they were pI:ohibited 

from buying alcoholic beverages.5 

For America the 1920s was a time of prohibition. Although 

49 Bagger, "Himler," 150; Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 230. 

50 Ibid. 

51 Ibid.


the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages 

was forbidden bY the Eighteenth Amendment, illicit trade was 

big business. Kentucky, from the earliest frontier days, had a 

tradition of drinking. Moonshine stills were prevalent in the hills 

and hollows of the state. However, Himler, unlike many Ameri- 

cans, took prohibition seriously. He rigorously banned alcohol 

from his town. In 1921 he discovered that one of the immigrants, 

who operated a boardinghouse for men, was selling moonshine 

whiskey to his boarders. Himler immediately summoned the 

immigrant to the company's offices and threatened to turn him 

over to revenue agents unless he sold his property and stock in 

the company, renounced all association with Himlerville, and 

left the community within forty-eight hours. Before the time 

had elapsed the man was far from tIimlerville. Himler later 

explained the offender's absence at a meeting of the company's 

board of directors: "I kicked him out. He was selling liquor to 

my miners.'' 

Because of Himler's hatred of liquor, Himlerville did not have 

a big problem with drunkenness. Steve Balazs remembers that: 

We never had no too many people that drank, and got drunk, not that 

they was a lot of people who drank whiskey, now don't get me wrong, 

but they knew when to quit. Ever once in a while somebody might have 

too many drinks, didn't want to fight, or do anything wrong, they just 

got helpless, and was ashamed the next morning, didn't want anybody 

to look at them.53 

A bachelor's hotel was erected in the center of town..Like the 

single-family housing units, the bachelor's hotel was modern in 

all respects, having electrical lighting, running water, and indoor 

bathrooms. This facility was built to counter the moral and 

hygenic dangers of the boarding-boss system, an institution that 

developed among immigrants in other Appalachian coal camps. 

52 Bagger, "Himler," 187. 


54 Immigration Commission, 229-32 discusses the boarding-boss system as it 

appeared among immigrants in the Appalachian coalfields; Bagger, "Himler," 

150; Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 231.


Immigrants in southern coalfields, as they did in northern cities, 

tended to congregate under one roof. To save money immigrant 

families often kept boarders. It was not unusual for a married 

couple to keep from six to ten boarders in a small house. These 

boarders were usually single males of the same nationality as 

the boarding boss (the name given to the head of the family 

keeping boarders) and had usually just arrived in the 

United States. Beds were placed in every room of the house except 

the kitchen. Investigators from the United States Immigration 

Commission determined that such overcrowded living 

conditions were inadequate, unsanitary, and totally deplorable, s5 

Himler realized that this practice, more than all others, was 

criticized by natives, and he was determined to, prevent its establishment 

in Himlerville. 

Himlerville also contained other features that were unique 

for an Appalachian mining camp. A two-story clubhouse was 

built for use by all the town's inhabitants, and the town bakery 

specialized in Hungarian breads and pastries. Himlerville had 

its own printing press where Magyar Banyaszlap was publishe d 

weekly. 56 Advertisements, items of interest from Hungary, local, 

state, and national news were printed. Accounts of Himlerville's 

success were carried to virtually all Hungarian communities in 

the United States through the pages of the Miners' Journal. As 

a result, many Hungarians wanted to migrate to Himlerville 

where they could live in an alien land surrounded by a veneer 

of Magyar culture.5T 

To meet the recreational and educational needs of Himlerville's 

residents, a library was housed in the clubhouse. It contained 

a fine collection of classic and modern English along with 

Hungarian literature and scientific works. A combination opera 

house and theater was also built on a hill near Himler's own 

55 Immigration Commission, 229. 

56 See any issue of Magyar Banyaszlap from 1919 until 1928: Watson. "Eastern 

Kentucky" 48; Chapman. "Influence of Coal," 231; Eller. Miners, 191. 

57 Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 231.

1992] Himlerville 531 

home. It was the biggest building in the town, measuring eighty 

feet by forty feet. In the auditorium, which had a seating capacity 

of eight hundred, Himlerville's residents watched the latest 

motion pictures. Inhabitants sometimes staged amateur theatrical 

productions of their own, and upon occasion famous Hungarian 

actors and actresses touring the United States performed 

in the Himlerville theater. These performances were especially 

welcomed by the immigrants because the dialogue was almost 

always in their native language. The Hungarian literary society 

in Himlerville sponsored the plays. Many young people in the 

town belonged to this organization, which charged monthly dues 

in return for season tickets. Sometimes native mountaineers 

would view the plays, and quite often natives were given parts in 

the plays staged by Himlerville's residents. After a play was performed 

the Hungarians, joined by their mountain neighbors, 

would get together for a dance. These dances were usually either 

the native Appalachian square dances or the Hungarian grape 

dance. In the grape dance, pods of fruit were suspended from 

the ceiling of the dance floor. Girlfriends and wives tried to 

entice their dancing partners to "steal" a piece of the hanging 

fruit. If a male was caught taking fruit he was required to pay 

a fine which varied according to his economic means. The fines 

were paid in good spirit because the money was donated to 

charity. In Himlerville, mountaineers and Hungarian immigrants 

frolicked together. In addition, Himlerville contained a pool hall 

and a meetinghouse for use by all residents. The immigrants, 

for the most part, enjoyed these activities following the work 

day when they would congregate at public places dressed in 

native costumes and converse in their native language.5s 

Perhaps the most popular form of recreation in Himlerville 

was baseball, an American sport the Hungarians quickly adopted. 

58 For information on the Hungarian grape dance, see Verona Smith, Steve 

Andraiga, and Margaret Andraiga interview, 20 June 1986, Coal Mines Oral 

History Project, University of Kentucky Library; EIler, Miners, 191; Watson, 

"Eastern Kentucky," 48; Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 231; Bagger, "Himler," 

150.


The Himler Coal Company, like most other coal companies in 

southern Appalachia, fielded a baseball team that played against 

teams from Red Jacket, Williamson, Kermit, and other neighboring 

coal camps. Miners took baseball seriously. Often the 

games ended when fights broke out between opposing teams. A 

former player on the Himlerville team recalled that racism often 

provoked the fights. Other teams did not want the "Hunk team" 

(a derogatory name given to the Himlerville team) to defeat 

them. Racial emotions sometimes got out of control, and a brawl 

broke out if Himlerville was leading in the late innings. Residents 

of Himlerville formed a band to travel with its baseball 

team. This band always contained several accordion players and 

held public "showings" to inform residents of the progress the 

band had made. 59 

Himlerville's school system was one of the best in eastern 

Kentucky. A modern building was erected and classes were offered 

at both the elementary and high-school levels. The school 

term was one of the longest in Kentucky. The Martin County 

Board of Education funded a seven-month term for the Himlerville 

district as it did for all school districts in the county. In 

addition, the Himler Coal Company paid for three more months 

of schooling. While the average school term in most of Kentucky's 

rural districts was between seven and nine months, the Himler- 

ville term was for ten months. Only people holding college de- 

grees were employed as teachers in Himlerville schools. This is 

significant because most teachers in Kentucky lacked even a 

high-school diploma. Each child was required to study the Hun- 

garian language and culture for two hours each day so as not to 

lose touch with their Hungarian heritage. Like immigrants in 

northern cities, Himlerville's Hungarian population wanted to 

perpetuate their native culture. Primary classes in English and 

American government were also taught. Half-day sessions devoted 

to the study of Hungarian culture were held throughout 

59 Balazs interview.


the summer for adults. Evening classes in English and American 

history were taught for residents too old to attend the public 

schools.6° 

More Hungarians wanted to move to Martin County than 

Himlerville could accommodate. In the 1920s there was a waiting 

list of 1,500 people in the United States and in Hungary who 

wanted to come to Himlerville. The waiting list was long because 

Himlerville was an attempt to create a little Hungary in 

a corner of Appalachia. In Martin County the immigrants found 

a land rich in mineral resources that provided abundant economic 

opportunity for poor peasants. The hills of eastern Kentucky 

reminded the Hungarians of their native land. Officials 

of the Himler Coal Company were aware that the powerful homemaking, 

landowning instincts within the European peasant attracted 

immigrants to Himlerville because of a desire to remain 

close to the land. The urban lifestyle most immigrants experienced 

in American Cities alienated them from the land. Because 

Himlerville enabled Hungarians to remain attached to the land, 

most immigrants who came to Himlerville intended to remain in 

eastern Kentucky permanently. Since Himlerville's residents 

owned the ground upon which their houses stood, they, unlike 

immigrant miners in other southern Appalachian coal camps, 

did not move from mine to mine because of dissatisfaction with 

company control within the camps, prejudice, or working conditions. 

Although Himlervine was an attractive community, life was 

nonetheless difficult for its residents. The Hungarians Often had 

to endure racial prejudice and discrimination. Native mountaineers 

perceived the immigrants as being inferior to everybody 

but the Negro and frequently called Hungarians "hunkies," or 

"hunks." Himlerville was known throughout Martin and surrotmding 

counties as "Hunkie Town," "Hunkieville," or "Little 

60 Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 232; Bagger, "Himler,'" 187. 


62 Bagger, "Himlcr," 187.


Hungary." The hollow in which Himlerville is located is still 

referred to as "Hunkie Holler. ''63 

The Hungarians disliked the prejudice. Himler blamed the 

coal operators' insistence upon the open shop for inflaming 

public opinion. Coal operators in the area equated the non-union 

open shop with Americanism and blamed immigrants for carrying 

radical beliefs into the coalfields. Immigrants were blamed 

for causing the strikes that erupted in West Virginia and Ken- 

tucky. The Hungarian cooperative, however, did not take the 

prejudice passively. In a flaming editorial in Magyar Banyaszlap 

entitled "Dirty Hunky Son-of-a-Bitch? Warning!," Himler 

wrote: 

"Dirty hunky son-of-a-bitch," said a State Trooper to Steve Kurepa, 

Secretary of the U.M.W. at Harwick. "Dirty wop son-of-a-bitch," said 

another State Trooper to Mrs. John Barnabes, a respected business womon 

of the same place. There is entirely, too much of this attitude in lh 

United States. The Coal Operators are inflaming the public against the 

foreign-born American, by branding the open-shop system "American 

system." The petty judges are threatening the foreign-born American with 

deportation. The U.M.W.A. is de-barring the foreigner from local offices 

and the locals are discriminating against the foreigner in every respect.... 

What is the matter with the foreign-born American or with this Country? 

Are we to be poisoned against another class now? Are we to repeat the 

mob violence of the seventies [1870s] against the forelgner? 

Himler's editorial did li le good. Local politicians, judges, 

mine owners, the UMWA, and native mountaineers continued 

to discriminate against Himlerville's Hungarian population. Immigrants 

were often accused of fostering criminal activity in 

Appalachia. In one particular instance, Himler fought a "war 

of words" with the police chief of Logan, West Virginia, in the 

pages of Magyar Banyaszlap. The chief blamed Logan's serious 

vice problem on its immigrant population. According to the chief, 

all Logan's speakeasies, houses of prostitution, and bootlegging 

operations were run by its foreign population. The Hungarian 

population of Himlerville was understandably offended. Himler 

63 Willis Haws interview, 18 June 1986, Coal Miners Oral History Project, 

University of Kentucky Library. 

64 Martin Himler, "Dirty Hunky Son.of-a-Bitch? Warning!" Magyar Banyaszlap, 

27 October 1927.


responded by writing a series of articles in English in Magyar 

Banyaszlap exposing all the "dens of iniquity" in Logan oper- 

ated by immigrants or natives. He then challenged the Logan 

police department to "save the decent foreigner from these 

sharks and to eliminate this curse." Vice, Himler told his readers, 

could not survive without the knowledge of the police depart- 

ment. "Each and every one of the brothels and speakeasies is 

paying regularly to some one for protection." If the Logan police 

did not "clean-up" their town, Himler threatened to organize 

immigrants in the area to combat criminals, who, Himler said, 

were "cheating and fleecing the foreigner and infecting him with 

gonorrhea and syphilis. ''65 

Himlerville's Hungarian population had problems with the 

United Mine Workers of America. Apparently the union discrim- 

inated against immigrants. Himler warned the UMWA that it 

would have to "mend its ways." Foreign-born miners, observed 

the writer of "A Friendly Warning to the United Mine Workers 

of America," are being treated unfairly. Strike benefits were 

not distributed evenly among union members since immigrants 

received much less than did native Americans. Local officials 

and committee members were mostly American; they played 

politics and distributed union funds, clothing, and groceries on 

the basis of nationality rather than need, even though foreign 

members assumed the same obligations and risks that natives 

did. They paid the same dues, struggled and fought when called 

upon, and were always in the front lines of a strike. Justice, 

however, was not even-handed. Immigrants also suffered more 

at the hands of local officials during a strike. While natives 

were usually only fined for picketing, foreigners were fined and 

then made subject to deportation. 

65 See the following articles written in English by Martin Himler in Magyar 

Banyaszlap at various dates: "To the Civic Association of Logan and Williamson," 

26 January 1928; ''To the Chief of Police of Logan, W.Va.," 15 December 

1927; "Is Logan Cleaning House.'?" 19 January 1928; "Big Burlesque Show in 

Williamson," 2 February 1928. 

66 Martin Himler, "A Friendly Warning to the U. Mine Workers of America,"


Since Hungarian and other immigrant communities in New 

York, San Francisco, Boston, and Florida raised money to support 

the IJMWA's strike fund, why discriminate against immigrant 

miners? Why create a breach in the UMWA's unity? Himler 

warned union officials that unless the discrimination stopped 

immediately, all Hungarian-American societies would stop contributing 

to the union's strike fund, and Hungarians would help 

only their own during strikes,e7 

Despite the prejudice, a limited degree of assimilation occurred 

in Himlerville. Occasionally Hungarians and native mountaineers 

married. Steve Balazs was a Hungarian who married 

an American woman. His wife, whose family name was Damron, 

came from a traditional Martin County family. In her childhood, 

Mrs. Balazs learned the Hungarian language well enough to 

converse with Himlerville's population. Balazs recalls that when 

he was first married, his wife and mother spoke Hungarian because 

his mother could not understand English. "Between the 

two languages," Balazs states, "one would speak part Hungarian 

and part English, and one would speak part English and 

part Hungarian, and they got along real well. ''m Mrs. Balazs 

was not the only mountain child to learn Hungarian. A girl 

named Violet Smith learned the Hungarian language well enough 

to land parts in Hungarian plays. s 

After several years of intense struggle it appeared that the 

Hungarian experiment with cooperative mining might succeed. 

The mine produced thousands of tons of coal from 1920 until 

1927. During the first year of operation (1920) the cooperative 

sold 14,685 tons of coal. The next year production increased to 

51,871 tons. In 1923 production increased five fold to 288,043 

Magyar Banyaszlap, 9 February 1928; Numerous articles which appeared in the 

United Mine Workers Journal at various times were anti-immigrant. See, for 

exampte, "Shifting Populations," 26 July 1917, p. 5; "Immigration: Beneficial 

and Injurious," 30 March 1916, p. 4; Scott Nearing, "Immigration and Wages," 

7 December 1916, p. 14. 

67 Himler, "A Friendly Warning to the U. Mine Workers of America." 


69 Ibid.


tons. In 1924 production slightly decreased to 226,237 tons but 

increased to 234,076 tons the following year. In 1926 the mine 

produced a record 325,581 tons of coal, the cooperative's peak 

production. In 1927 production fell to 240,822 tons and in 1928 

the immigrants produced no coal.T° From 1924 until 1927 the 

Himler Company ranked in the top one hundred coal producers 

in Kentucky -- forty-eighth in 1924, sixty-first in 1925, fortyninth 

in 1926, and seventy-sixth in 192731 

Himlerville was a model community free from problems that 

faced many c0al camps. There were no strikes or labor trouble 

because each miner owned part of the company he worked for. 

There were no demands for higher wages because any wage increase 

would lower dividend payments to the workers/stock- 

holders. There was no trouble over arbitrary company domination 

because each miner owned the ground upon which his cot- 

tage stood. The atmosphere in Himlerville was not as foreign 

to the Hungarians as was life in northern cities. Former Hungarian 

peasants were not alienated from the soil as were their 

urban cousins. Himlerville's residents were bound together in 

an alien land by common ties of culture, history, ancestry, and 

economic enterprise. It was difficult to find a community anywhere 

in America that was more of a "Little Hungary" than 

Himlerville. Within the town's limits residents spoke their na- 

tive language and lived according to their native lifestyle. These 

things made it appear that Himlerville would survive, but unfortunately, 

Himlerville was unable to survive the coal slump 

of the 1920s. 

Himler's dream of a model community in which workers were 

truly the owners of the means of production was not to be re- 

alized permanently. Officials of the Himler Coal Company made 

a grave mistake when they underestimated the expense of build- 

70Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1920, p. 29; 1921. p. 52; 

1923, p. 305; 1924, p. 325; 1925, pp. 82, 269. II1; 1926, pp. 83. 116; 1927, 

pp. 75, 104. 215. 

71 Ibid., 1924, p. 325; 1926, p. 232; 1927, p. 215.


ing a town and a bridge across the Tug River. When all the 

costs were totalled, the company had spent over $1,500,000. Most 

of this money had been borrowed from American banks.72 

Creditors demanded payment, and the Himler Coal Company 

was forced to file for bankruptcy. On 22 May 1925 company 

holdings were placed into receivership pursuant to orders from 

the United States Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The 

cause of the bankruptcy is complex. Himler had organized the 

cooperative in 1916, shortly before the United States entered 

World War I. During World War I the Appalachian coal indus- 

try thrived because American factories placed huge orders for 

coal to meet demands for increased wartime production. During 

this wartime boom period, however, the Himler Coal Company 

purchased much of its mining equipment and building materials 

at inflated prices. Company directors failed to realize that the 

coal boom would end when the war ended. Within a year of the 

war's conclusion demand for coal became extremely light, and 

the price offered on the spot market was far below the cost of 

production. The mild winter of 1920-1921 compounded the prob- 

lem because consumers were able to carry over coal stockpiles 

to the next year. This coal slump, which began in 1920, continued 

for the next two decades. So sick was the industry that almost 

no coal was sold on the spot market, and mines with long-term 

contracts were forced to cut back production by two or three 

days a week. In all mines of the Big Sandy Valley (the coal- 

producing region in which Himlerville was located), coal production 

averaged only twenty-eight percent of what it had been 

in 1919.73 

Further compounding the Himler Company's problems was 

the expense of the company's move across Tug River to Martin 

County because Himler wanted to open a larger mine. This 

move, undertaken shortly before the end of World War I, neces- 

72Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 235; The demise of Himlerville is also 

discussed in Watson, "Eastern Kentucky," 48 and Eller, Miners, 191-92. 

73 "A Himler Coal Company Osszeomlon," Magyar Banyaszlap, 21 June 1928; 

Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 234-37.


J 

Remaining buildings in HimlerviUe: left, company store; house 

on hill, home of Martin Himler; right, Martin-Himler State 

Bank 

Chuck Perry, Lexington 

sitated a large expenditure during a time Of war-induced, artificial 

prosperity. When the coal industry collapsed in 1920, the 

Himler Coal Company was left with large debts and no market 

for the coal it mined. Making the coal more difficult to sell was 

the reputed impurity of the Himlerville coal. These factors contributed 

to the cooperative's bankruptcy.74 

For three years the receivership tried to improve the Himler 

Coal Company's financial condition and pay its debts. By 1928, 

however, the indebtness was insurmountable. Three difficulties 

faced the receivers: coal prices below the cost of production; 

short working time; and heavy, fixed operating costs. s In 1928, 

$24,500 was owed on the first mortgage. The interest, at a fixed 

rate of seven percent, had been paid until 1 March, but the 

mortgage was due to be paid by 1 September. Tax liens on the 

74 Ibid. 

75 Ibid.

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,,,- ,(,S . )!,ira, ,t /Lf!,'rtl%. l'/m! ! .,W '/:./) t )l IdrN, --, )'.,' ,.! . ' .< , h 

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tidal p]- :t:,


company were $4,500 owed to Martin County and $4,000 owed to 

the federal government. The receivers had only $12,382 to meet 

these obligations. The bankruptcy court, after considei'ing the 

depressed state of the coal industry, decided that the Himler 

Coal Company should be sold to pay the tax liens and first 

mortgage. A date of sale was set for 10 August 1928 at 10:00 

A.M. 76 

Adding to the cooperative's difficulties was the closing of 

the Martin-Himler State Bank on 24 June 1928. Bank affairs 

were placed in the hands of H. H. Shanks, deputy state banking 

commissioner for Kentucky. Shanks was ordered to liquidate 

the bank's assets. Depressed coal prices were blamed for causing 

the bank's failure. At the time of its failure, the Martin-Himler 

State Bank, which was also a cooperative institution, had capital 

stock of $25,000, a cash surplus of $6,000, and deposits of 

$80,000. According to the New York Times, no depositor lost a 

penny as a result of the bank's failure. 

The sale of the Himler Coal Company was delayed until 10 

January 1929 to provide opportunity for the Hungarians to pay 

off the indebtuess. After all efforts failed, the company was 

purchased at public auction by Arch Hewit, a West Virginia 

coal operator who changed the company's name to the Martin 

County Coal Corporation. The $65,000 he paid was a fraction 

of the company's actual worth. Two days after the sale Hewit 

sent a work crew to repair the property in preparation for 

resuming operations which had stopped in July 1928. American 

workers moved into Himlerville; most of the Hungarians moved 

away. Himlerville's residents scattered throughout Appalachia 

and beyond. Some went to New Camp, West Virginia; South 

Williamson, Kentucky; Red Jacket, Kentucky; Covington, Ken- 

76 Ibld. 

77 "Kentucky Bank Closes," New York Times, 25 tune 1928, p. 33 states that 

Himlerville's bankruptcy was caused by "conditions in the mining industry on 

which the town was dependent." For an excellent discussion of the effects of 

the boom/bust coal cycle on eastern Kentucky, see Harry M. Caudill, Night 

Comes to the Cumberland$, 141-215.


tucky; Detroit, Michigan ; Chicago, Illinois; New York City; and 

Cleveland, Ohio. By the.beginning of 1929 more than half the 

Hungarians had left Martin County. At the beginning of 1930 

only five families remained; they lived out their lives near 

Himlerville. Ts 

On 30 August 1929 Magyar Banyaszlap moved from Himlerville 

to Columbus; Ohio. With its exit and the sale of the cooper- 

ative's assets, Himler's dream of establishing a worker-owned, 

• coal:mining community faded. Himlerville was a "Little Hungary" 

no longer., Gone were the days of prosperity and with 

then vanished the hopes of hundreds of hardworking Hungarian 

immigrants in search Of the American Dream. Symbolic of the 

town's demise:was oiie Of the largest floods in Martin County 

history which washed away much of Himlervine in the fall of 

1929. it seemed as if nature wanted to wipe all traces of the 

• co0perat!ve from the land. Shortly after the bank failed, the 

schoolhouse burned. The houses "not destroyed by flood were 

sold and later torn down. The name Of Himlerville was changed 

to Beauty. Several reasons have been advanced for the name 

change. One:is that Hewit chose the name Beauty for his town 

because the "Hungarian settlement was kept so clean and beau- 

tiful. Another is that the name comes from the Beauty-Hysteam 

coal: seam near Himlervine. Steve Balazs maintains that Hewit 

went bani rupt !n the 1930s and that the operation was pur- 

chased by J. H. Mann, another West Virginia coal operator. Because 

iof the bad reputation of Himlerville coal, Mann legally 

changed the name of the town because he thought he could sell 

morecoal if buyers were not aware that the coal came from 

Himlerville. g Mann also failed to succeed in mining Himlerville 

coal, however, and toward the end of the 1930s he suspended 

0perations and boarded up the entra ice to the mine shafts. 

Mann's mining technique was one in which he "pulled pillows" 

• 78 Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1929, p. 36 lists the name 

of the new company as the Martin County Coal Company; Balazs interview. 

79 Chapman,. "Influence of Coal," 236; Balazs interview.

542 The Filson Club History Qudrterly [October 

(a block of coal left within the tunnel to l revent the roof from 

collapsing) to get the huge blocks of coal 16ft by the Hungarians. 

When the pillows were removed the roof collapsed, which made 

it impossible to ever again mine in the Himterville works,so 

The Hungarian effort at cooperative mining in Kentucky 

ended in failure. That the enterprise survived throughout most 

of the 1920s was a testimony to the immigrants' willingness to 

work hard in search of the elusive American Dream. If the coal 

industry had not experienced one of its recurring periods of bust 

during the 1920s, it is quite likelY, that Him|erville would have 

survived. 

80 Balazs interview.

Himlerville: Hungarian Cooperative Mining in Kentucky - The Filson ...

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