From the keepsake box - My Grandfather, Earl Mason

Another thing from my Keepsake Box. Written on this in my mother's handwriting it says, "Cara---this is yours". 

I know it was typed on my old typewriter. Funny I don't remember doing this or when it was written, but it was obviously a school assignment. I don't remember the things in it about my grandfather. Guess that is why it is good to write things down. Not very well written and the punctuation is horrible, but I found it interesting enough to post.

Earl Mason, born 1894, first worked at Mine #17 west of Dugger, IN. He left there to work at old Oak Grove, located east of Cass. Mine #17 put in joy loaders, which had replaced the pick and shovel. When they conveyed coal into small cars, Earl went back to #17 to work. Oak Grove moved to just north of Dugger and was called New Oak Grove. Some members of his family started this mine so he went to work there. One morning they were drilling on the face of solid coal, and red water started to run through. They had mined into old Kielly, this resulted in the closing of this mine.

Before machinery most of the mining was hand work--holes were drilled into seams of coal, a powder was put into cartridges with a long fuse and forced into openings with a tamping bar with a brass head and steel would hit a sulfur ball and the spark would cause an explosion. Often the fuse was lit with carbide lights, which were worn on the miners' heads. Often the lights ignited with gas which was then put out with a handful of slack.

Mr. Mason remembers trains with miners coming from Linton. Many area men walked to work in freezing rain, their clothing frozen when they arrived. There were different shifts and with so many mines the men walking across the countryside at night with their carbide lamps on their heads looked like fireflies.

Some of the mines had blockhouses built near the mine for families to live in. The mines at this time had no bathing facilities and the miners' clothing and faces would be black. They bathed at home in wash tubs and their clothes were scrubbed on washboards by hand. Many of these families would have friends or relatives from other countries living with them, often ten or twelve people in a small dwelling. They would save money to send for their families back home. Here, many nationalities were working together.

In the early thirties, a wagon mine was sunk on Mr. Mason's farm. There were mines worked underground with most of the coal sold to individuals for home heating and usually customers would come to the mine with a wagon or small truck, saving delivery costs. Also the initial cost of the coal was much less. There were many of these across the area.

Mr. Mason worked at Littly Betty Strip mine for several years. He had a daughter, Lorene, and two sons, Lloyd and Russell. Another son, James (Juke) died December 18, 1978.