Bringing Coal Creek history to life at Lake City Middle
Barry Thacker dresses the part of historian while sharing the history and traditions of Coal Creek to Lake City Middle School students.
“We have a gentleman here who will come back from the past to tell you about some of those old characters, but first you have to clap your hands really loudly to make him come back,” said Moore.
Obligingly, the students clapped, and from behind a closed door emerged David R. Thomas, a Welsh miner and engineer from Coal Creek, dressed in true to fashion 19th century men’s wear (dress pants and shirt, and suspenders) to tell students about the story of Coal Creek in its heyday when it was once a thriving mining town.
Barry Thacker, director of the nonprofit organization Coal Creek Watershed Foundation, was dressed in character as Thomas to give students a more authentic view of what life was like at the turn of the 19th century in Coal Creek.
Thacker visited Lake City Middle School in Rocky Top Friday, Nov. 17, and spoke to all four 8th grade social studies classes about Coal Creek history.
“My name is David R. Thomas. I am a mining engineer who works with mine operators to reduce the risk of mining accidents. The coal we dug in Coal Creek fueled the Knoxville Iron and Coal Company, which was the first major industry in East Tennessee following the Civil War. We also provided fuel to heat homes and businesses in the region, and, in the process, we built a community out of the wilderness,” said Thacker.
Thacker taught the history lesson to four eighth-grade classes on Friday and related how David Thomas and fellow miners lost their jobs in the mines to convict labor in 1877, explaining how the convict labor system became corrupt.
“By the mid-1880s, young black men were being arrested on the streets of Nashville and Memphis, often for petty crimes, to enrich state coffers as convict labor,” said Thomas.
Tennessee was the first to end convict leasing because of the Coal Creek War, he said, and went on to explain how the Tennessee Guard was called in to restore order.
“We lost the final battle but we won the war when the Tennessee legislature appropriated money to build Brushy Mountain State Prison, Coal Mine and Coke Ovens. Prisoners were used as laborers in the state-owned coal mine until it closed in 1938 when coal reserves were depleted,” explained Thacker.
Thacker also detailed the tragic mine explosions - the 1902 Fraterville mine explosion that killed an estimated 216 miners and the 1911 Cross Mountain Mine explosion that killed 84 miners. Five miners were rescued from the latter explosion, thanks to the upgrades in mining technology.
The Coal Creek Labor Saga is part of the Tennessee education curriculum for fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders.