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

1992] HimlerviUe 527
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.
46 Balazs interview.
47 Eller, Miners, 176-77.
48 Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1925, pp. 238-39; 1926,
pp. 244-45; 1927, pp. 228-29.