GenevaSteele.txt

-n -n -n Unknown Speaker 0:05 Testing 1234 March 19 1994 We're in Caretta West Virginia interviewing Geneva steel address h hotel Charlie 61 bucks 37 B boy Painesville West Virginia 24873 phone 304-967-7840 being done under the auspices of the Kentucky historical societyUnknown Speaker 0:43 if you would just give us go ahead and tell us who your grandparents were and whether you live in the region with a firstbornUnknown Speaker 0:52 son of the first Yes. My grandparents was Robert Okay. Okay was Robert Dawson and Lori road Elson? There wasn't too many, Dawson's. I think they came out of Kentucky. Downtown Pikeville, I believe and the rows also the rows are all Derby II I know more about the rows and EDM becauseUnknown Speaker 1:25 the Dawson's they do you remember proximately when they came up hereUnknown Speaker 1:30 would have been in the early 1900s late 1800s or early 1900s. Yeah. Bob Dawson and Laurie row Dawson.Unknown Speaker 1:46 Rose you sayUnknown Speaker 1:47 yeah. Oh, they came I believe out of Kentucky out around Pikeville. Or somewhere that whiteUnknown Speaker 1:59 sea in my grandmother's parents was George and Southie Davis row they're all very their own mountain Raleigh. So that's how come I know of rock reach.Unknown Speaker 2:17 You sit at your grandparents, your great.Unknown Speaker 2:19 My grandparents and my great grandparents both are buried there. Okay.Unknown Speaker 2:23 And so again, you already have Okay, now your parents or your parents andUnknown Speaker 2:33 everything awesome. And Victoria Blankenship Dawson.Unknown Speaker 2:38 Before we get to working with grandparents, what did your grandparents do? Were they minors or farmers.Unknown Speaker 2:45 They were farmers. And I know My great grandpa had a great meal. And I guess they farmed and maybe timbered. My grandfather tampered and worked in the mines My grandfather worked on loosely and lakes. That was when they had to breast auger and all that and all the men had to have their own tools and they shot from a solid and all that. They shot from the solid meaning they didn't have all the mining equipment I got today they drilled, drilled hole tank to the dynamite and shot it and then yeah, they had to furnish their own tools. I remember my dad saying grandpa differenti is on tools.Unknown Speaker 3:36 So your grandfather was a coal miner and the father was a coal miner and when when did that when did your father startUnknown Speaker 3:44 and coal mines? He was born in 19 I have the all written down I think 23 like it yeah, like the 1920s the reason my mom was born in 1920 Aw,Unknown Speaker 4:10 okay, and then you remember when they gotUnknown Speaker 4:14 and 43Unknown Speaker 4:18 So during World War Two they got there. Yeah. And then you were you were bornUnknown Speaker 4:23 in 4545Unknown Speaker 4:24 right at the end of World War Two. So what was it like for you? Drawn and what? What town did you live in? What town did your grandparents live in? And then your father they all live in the same place?Unknown Speaker 4:39 Well, like it's not what talents what mountain? Oh, my grandma and grandpa Nelson lived on Bardstown Creek, and that's like you go to go up to the top of the mountain. You're on Rock Ridge. Okay in my other grandparents live don't usually Creek. So Brad Charles about three miles. Yeah my grandparents lived on a piece of land that was given to her given to her by her grandparents, my great grandparents. Okay. My grandma Dawson ad, I think is 86 acres of land when they were married. My grandma and grandpa Dawson like had 12 Kids 10 of them live to be grown. And they give each one of those kids I think seven acres. Some of them took it, some didn't because a lot of the girls would marry and live somewhere else. But they was 42 acres of that land that nobody ever claimed. And when my grandma Dawson died, it's still her name. She died in 57. And since then, somebody in the family has always paid tax on that. And it's still in grandma's name. And your before last when my cousin was in hospital, and he didn't pay tax on it. And I went to pay tax on it. Somebody that had sold on the courthouse steps a week before. So that land had been in the family for so long. I didn't want to lose it. So I went and protested it and found the person who bought it refunded their money and got him sign a paper to get back to the courthouse and had him put the send me the tax papers. So now I'm paying tax on 42 acres of that that originally belonged to my great grandparents. Now it's down in the heart. That's where lightly at first times oh. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, what did you ask me?Unknown Speaker 6:47 Why did ya? There's no electricity and there's no water was thereUnknown Speaker 6:51 was there's water on it. There's no like, now call Rice was sold out years ago. So it's just the fact that it belongs my great grandparents. I think maybe because of the timber because it's my dad's right at 70. And he said he can never remember ever being tampered.Unknown Speaker 7:12 So there's so there's some promise the first 10 protected.Unknown Speaker 7:15 Yeah, at least 70 years old. That the courthouse will make Am I clear Dean did that. But as long as I keep it as Irish, if I won't get it cleared into it, I could pay tax on it. 100 years is still I can't sell it or do anything.Unknown Speaker 7:32 So, so but you still keep it. Keep it the family. Okay, so you grew up in Baltimore, right at the end of World War Two. What was your I guess what community did you grow up in and you identify with a particular community or orUnknown Speaker 7:50 bar town Rock Ridge. And we we live down in that tower up till I was about nine years old, and there was no electricity in our land. In my mom, well, my grandparents moved out, up close to topple hill because he was hard to get in there and out. And then my mom and dad lived in there and they lived there until I had six kids.Unknown Speaker 8:18 I think you got five brothers and sisters. No, I've gotUnknown Speaker 8:21 six sisters and one brother. Okay, as myself, I'm the oldest. David as my brother. He's next to me, Judy. Chris, Sharon, gay, current and dreamer. And my younger sister is younger than my daughter. After they actually moved down holophone mountain my mom had two more kids. But when we lived in Ohio, I remember that we didn't have electricity. We didn't have TV. We didn't have had a radio had a battery. But every now and then when Daddy got charged up, we listened radio. Like I had, he was a former he was a coal miner. But you didn't live in coal here. Now. I never lived in coal paint. I'd always RGB or did you go to school? What school did Roosevelt school and it was there on the mountain? Not too far from where I live now. So it was mostly now kids? It was Yeah, we went dark in sixth grade. And then after sixth grade, we went math easily, which is rhetoric when you go into Bradshaw.Unknown Speaker 9:28 And it was how long you're still there.Unknown Speaker 9:32 Three now three years, then. I didn't go anywhere.Unknown Speaker 9:36 Was there a high school?Unknown Speaker 9:38 Yes. No, no high school though. You had gone to Jaeger. That's next town down about 60 miles down.Unknown Speaker 9:43 So So ninth grade was as far as your formal education. Okay. So what was it like growing up in the in the holler that your father was a coal miner? Or how did you feel forced to get to live in the coal camps?Unknown Speaker 9:58 Well, I didn't know anything like that. junior high because it was just such a everybody around me was cousins. I mean, we're only have now there's seven or eight houses in there. And we're all related. We're cousins my mom and dad and my brother my sister my niece to my cousins we all you know it's all the same land that's been the family for so long and we're all cousins so I really didn't know any cocaine kids. So I guess I went to junior high that time didn't matter. I mean, it didn't matter before they really leavesUnknown Speaker 10:32 isn't that one way or no? Okay, what was it like growing upUnknown Speaker 10:37 in LA lot differently?Unknown Speaker 10:40 What was it like then and what's it like to have the differencesUnknown Speaker 10:43 Okay, when I was growing up we didn't have a lot so you had to make your own entertainment we made wouldn't we will wagons and swung Great bunch swings and did things like that? For nowadays the kids is leaving there now. Their entertainment is videos and all the modern things.Unknown Speaker 11:06 So things have changed if you did when you didn't have electricityUnknown Speaker 11:11 up to us nine years old. We moved down the hall. Okay, when we have a holler back lived Yeah. moved up to the top of the mountain which is about Yeah.Unknown Speaker 11:21 And And did you have indoor plumbing? OrUnknown Speaker 11:25 was that last one until those grown?Unknown Speaker 11:31 So okay, what was your life like growing up? I mean, were it was it it was a good life was it? Did you you know, there are those that would look at that and say you've been deprived?Unknown Speaker 11:41 Did you did you did you feel that? What was going on? Whenever do we report on the government? TellUnknown Speaker 11:49 us about it? I didn't know I was a southerner. I went to Ohio. They kept calling me a southerner. They kept saying I thought I'll talk funny. Well, I went up about seven or eight months and worked I probably got out of school. Did youUnknown Speaker 12:07 know I I've been in a lot of places not Mount Vernon. It was outside of Columbus are kind of workers. I worked at Eastern Star home. I was working in the kitchen Eastern Star homeUnknown Speaker 12:25 So was it a good lock up came about? Well, youUnknown Speaker 12:31 know, at that time, I was like,Unknown Speaker 12:34 when did youUnknown Speaker 12:36 when I was 20. And you married to coal miner Malika Okay. Harold's Do you want your daughters? Yeah. They they keep Virginia steel. No, she's Vicki Virginia Hagerman. Now she got married.Unknown Speaker 12:58 And yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And this is all in one place. And let's see. So it says here on you're gonna see something about coal miners. Sorry,Unknown Speaker 13:20 sorry. Sorry. Sandy River District action Corp.Unknown Speaker 13:23 Okay. Now what I want to find out is what's the coal miner said?Unknown Speaker 13:27 It's a coal miner statue. It's a six foot bronze statue of a coal miner. And it's an honor of all McDowell County Coal miners.Unknown Speaker 13:36 Already been concerned. Yes.Unknown Speaker 13:40 Is it Rachel? I've got pictures. That little statue of it out there at least.Unknown Speaker 13:47 You have the instigating figure to get that and created that.Unknown Speaker 13:51 Oh, well, why do they haveUnknown Speaker 13:55 it down year by year?Unknown Speaker 13:57 Look out the council knocked on doors. And I went to meetings and I talked and I talked and I made phone calls. Yeah,Unknown Speaker 14:04 were you say that branchUnknown Speaker 14:07 is just inside the city limits? Route 83 going towards Oh, how far is Russia? It's not. It doesn't take quite longer. Maybe 30 minutes. Maybe it's it might be might be 16 miles.Unknown Speaker 14:31 I was thinking JP, she's she's helped create this coal miner saying she was six feet tall. And it's a Bradshaw that will make a good shot at firsthand. xante But it's 60 miles away. And if Rachel on our way out of here.Unknown Speaker 14:49 Oh, how do you before you go to you going toward Welch going toward brandy. Well,Unknown Speaker 14:58 we'll be going towards UConn. You can't,Unknown Speaker 15:00 okay, it's down that way.Unknown Speaker 15:05 We get out here by dark, we go out there and take a picture. So, we're trying to cut down into rich oak RichlandsUnknown Speaker 15:12 rich lands. Okay, then you'll be going to branch out. You want to.Unknown Speaker 15:18 Okay, good. That's a great shot. Okay, well, we'll put the statue on both right. So you helped create the statue? And how long did you start doing that? I must get a call.Unknown Speaker 15:29 Okay, who does it work? Okay. We started as David started having these meetings and community meetings. And the idea was to get something started for this county because it's such a depressed area, you know, very low unemployment. And I thought, all outside to go so I started going to these meetings. And after about a year, your husband was working? Yeah, well, on and off. Coal mines was iffy, you can't have a job today. You You got got a job. He's retired now. But at this time, he was working in the mines. And I mean, I heard he was going to a meeting and she had this idea that we we need something to, to for the coal miners to, I guess, to honor the coal miners. And first idea was to have this coal miner made out of coal, which is a little ridiculous now when you think about that. And so that stuck in my mind, and that must have been an 87. And so we kept going to meetings, and then kept talking about it. And then we didn't have any money to do it. We didn't know a sculptor, we didn't have a place to put it. So we kept having meetings and one thing led to another. And through Addy Davis, she found a sculptor, James Bailey and Mercer County. And he did theUnknown Speaker 17:07 law of money starts taking off is a good loan balance. It's working. Yeah. It just keeps one good. You don't want to kick them out. Because then it twice. It Like It's gotten to the end of the tape, but it's not. Okay. Okay. Okay. This was a 1989.Unknown Speaker 17:29 Yeah, I'll add it, I was somehow found a sculptor, you know, James Bailey. And we invited him to a meeting and he brought some of his work, and we liked his work. So we said, Let him do the sculpting. Then we had now figure out why it's pay forward. $22,000 When you got to zero bank account as allowed money. So somebody suggested that we put this coal miner on a base, then we put coal miners names on that base. So we wouldn't start to do that. And now, if I worked 10 years or longer in the mines, or if they'd go, so you got a lot of names? Oh, yeah, we got a lot of mines. So to pay for it. We charged $100 to put a coal miners name on that monument. And that's how we raise the money to pay for it. AndUnknown Speaker 18:25 I'm working with both people are building a stanchion right now, let's say right, yeah. And they call that events, a very common way of raising money for African Americans. Okay, it's called doing a register, registry or register. It's like when you sign when you get to put one of your kids names to having your wife's name, or your husband, or whatever, is put on a plaque kind of thing. And we're thinking about doing that and charging $100 and it's great. You and your kids and their grandchildren don't say they're,Unknown Speaker 18:58 and this thing was paid for by the whole county, so it belongs to the whole county.Unknown Speaker 19:02 So are you well, let's see how many names did it take 20Unknown Speaker 19:07 We've got we had to have money for other things. See, we first decided we would put it on a concrete base and put the names on metal. Well as we get the topping and things with somebody said well, it looks nicer if we put granite around it or Yeah, and then so I had the I went to North Carolina to meet people down there to get the granite and as you're talking with them, the base we wanted would have to be good size. And so we decided to go with a solid piece of granite so we thought well, it was 12 time and it was over $10,000Unknown Speaker 19:48 So we're now up to 32,000 bucksUnknown Speaker 19:50 yeahUnknown Speaker 19:55 we had to pay for the that was included. Oh my Have aUnknown Speaker 20:01 general wondering. Yeah,Unknown Speaker 20:03 I think right now we've got probably 40, some $1,000 in debt there because it went on. And every time we have something in the paper about it, I will get more calls and more people want names added to it. So we run out of space around this. And we had to buy another. We got what I call a dedication stone depart, you know, I wonder what group did it and who done it and why. And then on the back of that we had coal miners names.Unknown Speaker 20:30 Was that was that done? Under the SAR?Unknown Speaker 20:36 Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, the Sandy River District action Corporation, but it was Sandy River District. Yeah. We got stuck with that. We wasn't Sandy River District action Corporation. And it was a newspaper editor thought that was too long to write. So he shortened it to that we got stuck with that everybody knows this. Is that so?Unknown Speaker 20:58 And but but the biggest project that you've done up to this point then is the coal miners. Yes. Okay. And it's now exists. Yeah. Okay, so everybody in the community got all fired up. I guess you had people call you to California.Unknown Speaker 21:14 I did. I've got we got from California, Texas, Florida. From 23 different states. We got money and letters and things. Yeah, they have their bad. Yeah, that's that's come for husbands. Yeah, it was a woman as she would have her daddy's name put right before her husband.Unknown Speaker 21:45 Yeah, did you? So what is the statue? You actually had an invader?Unknown Speaker 21:50 Yes. We had a dedication July the fourth 1992.Unknown Speaker 21:56 The statue actually so it only took you a couple of years to do it.Unknown Speaker 22:00 Oh. from 87 up to 92. Which, but they was first three years as well. Thank andUnknown Speaker 22:10 then you came up after you came up with the idea of $100?Unknown Speaker 22:14 Yeah, yeah. Because up to that time, we only had a couple $100 we'd sold some cupcakes and some for hats, T shirts piatti stuff.Unknown Speaker 22:25 As a result of the group working together on this project, did you did you feel like did you move on anything else after that? Oh, are you going to use this group effort this experiencesUnknown Speaker 22:44 well, okay, the latte was about 12 of us it worked really hard and those 12 It was older people to have the means paced away that helped me and while the women it was able to really they're not able to get out so I'm about the only active one left. I've killed in the hall. Now, we've not had we're just kind of dormant right now. But there's some more work which we're going to do up here this summer. Yeah, we need to have some dirt removed and a wall made in front of it. And just just general maintenance. Yeah.Unknown Speaker 23:23 Let's see the let me ask you this. The one thing that I remember people when I interviewed she said all these people that were killed in one of the things that I've not heard people talking about much have there not been a lot of money names. Yes, they are people just not talk about it orUnknown Speaker 23:45 there's been playing it daily at Bartley largely monument there for 93 me and got killed back in. That must be in the 20s There's other places in the county but I'm not familiar with that had real bad man accidents.Unknown Speaker 24:02 But by and large them by people not mentioned. Yes, definitely talked about right.Unknown Speaker 24:08 Yeah, a lot of miners get killed. But if just one of them gets killed a time it was no big deal minor, whichUnknown Speaker 24:14 is unfortunate, but it's not since or what? 93? Yes. Okay, let's get this one on. If you had one. Then you wanted to talk to you know, you could quote about the statue or aboutUnknown Speaker 24:30 I don't know, I guess anything that you'd like to mention that you'd like to say summing up your whole life and what do you see for the future? IUnknown Speaker 24:39 think the future is a lot brighter than the last 30 years of being on Everybody keeps saying it's going down here but I see so many groups in the county now. This is doing things to move it forward. I see nothing but good things in the future. I'm very optimistic about the future. I I think I would rather be born today than I would have 30 years ago. Yeah.Unknown Speaker 25:09 Do you see? Do you see women taking these? It's very obvious to us.Unknown Speaker 25:15 Oh, yeah, I think. Yes. I think that that's what's moving the county forward now as the women is getting involved nowadays. I mean, we got right now we got the TN incorporated towns, we got two women mayors, and a lot of women on the boards.Unknown Speaker 25:36 Why do you suppose? Do you think that these leadership positions that women are taking is that an outgrowth of just a natural outgrowth of the things that are happening in the country in general? Or is it a is it a power bank, and it's been created by men not doing the jobs or for? Are we evolving in different political ways? And men haven't adapted to that women have? What do you see the the reasons for that as well? I guess,Unknown Speaker 26:07 well, the second one, I think women is just enough men that wanted me to do it. I guess Yeah. I think women I think if it's going to get there are women, that's hard. Wait, no man to do it, I think we can probably do it if you wait long enough. Whoever wants to do it now.Unknown Speaker 26:39 So you see, the, the idea of of immediacy is being created by the women, rather than byUnknown Speaker 26:48 that, yeah, we're more apt to say, well, you sit, lay the table for too many things, you know, they take up two evenings next meeting. We'll table that from my own. way, I'm also not gonna sit down and work it out. Now.Unknown Speaker 27:07 This is something I was talking to some of the other other ways about? Do you think that that women, a lot of these projects that women are involved with, tend to be kind of non traditional kinds of things, the water development district and all these, whereas the men still seem to maintain control of the county commission and traditional power bases? Do you think that a lot of this is because women have gone into some of the areas that that are maybe perhaps not as exciting and, you know, like sewage controls, and those kinds of things, and, and they're better at working on committees and doing the involving themselves in committee work and stuff that tends to get this thing done? You think men tend to not be as good at that kind of thing as women? Or, you know, like, like you say, we'll do it next meeting? Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is, do you think the things that women are naturally good at, in general? are what's helping them? They're kind of gravitating towards those areas, and it's helping them be successful in those areas? And or is that just something I've created, my own mightUnknown Speaker 28:14 not? Be? Well, I think women are better at at meetings, they're more apt to sit down and work things through. And try to see both sides of whatever the issue is.Unknown Speaker 28:36 They don't necessarily come to the table with I want this and I want they're more willing to look at the overall picture. TheyUnknown Speaker 28:43 don't, I don't think they come with a preconceived value, how it has to be. Right? I mean, I know youUnknown Speaker 28:50 have a big idea of this is what we want, and let's figure out how to get there. Whereas men show up and say, This is what I want. This is the only way you can doUnknown Speaker 28:59 it. Yes. There might be 25 ways to get into the same point.Unknown Speaker 29:05 And women are more willing to explore alternative ways of gettingUnknown Speaker 29:09 Yes, I think so.Unknown Speaker 29:12 Let's see your last last big book then about what what do you want to say about the statue or about any of your life here or? Oh, that was a pretty good book that you had a while ago about I'd rather be born now the 30 years Well, yeah, you know, that you can go with that if you want that to be your your Summing up, quote.Unknown Speaker 29:43 That's how I feel. You're born here. Now. You're a lot gonna be a lot better off than he was 30 years ago. I mean, we've come a long way. And this countyUnknown Speaker 29:59 that's, that's Good.Unknown Speaker 30:01 Are you from the city or from rural area? Well, IUnknown Speaker 30:04 happen everywhere. I was born in I was part of the great out migration from Tennessee to all my relatives still live in Cleveland, Ohio, Michigan. And I grew up until I discovered and then moved back to Tennessee. And I graduated from high school where I went to college there that I went to graduate school in Ohio, and back to raising my son and daughter in Tennessee. In a town that's about the size of six or 7000. It's a rural.Unknown Speaker 30:35 Oh, gosh. This whole counties only 30,000. You got 30,000. And the whole countyUnknown Speaker 30:44 gospel is a Cumberland County. Oh, you're from Crossville? Tennessee. Yeah, right on the BLANCO Right between Nashville and Knoxville. So it's in a lot of ways, we're, we're a really strange little place, because we were right on the interstate. So we we, you know, got easy access to the cities, but at the same time, we're basically a rural county in our attitudes. And so that's what why you asked the question.Unknown Speaker 31:10 But I don't think you'd get more role in this area. I mean, Brad, Charles got this is 700.Unknown Speaker 31:15 This is pretty, pretty rough. Crossbow isn't? Now the thing that I'll say about prosper. That's different from here. It may be as rural in lots of respects as in this area. But it isn't as difficult to get to different parts because it's all flat.Unknown Speaker 31:28 Yeah. Well, you say on us easy access to the four lanes. If you've got a good mutual sled, you've got easy access. We in this county, we have no four lanes, and we have no shopping centers.Unknown Speaker 31:42 Well, now that would be the difference is that that we're a big retirement area? You. So we have a huge program stored at Walmart store, big hospital, and it is setting itself up to service all of the retirees that are coming in from from Ohio and Indiana.Unknown Speaker 32:02 We have that too. But it's in the next countyUnknown Speaker 32:06 somewhere over? Well, I tell you, I think we've pretty much done this interview.Unknown Speaker 32:13 I didn't know how so I started collecting all this information. And now if I'm working on the coal miners whose name is on that monument, the oral history of those coal minersUnknown Speaker 32:28 sort of interviewing thoseUnknown Speaker 32:29 know what I would do when they would send me the money for a name, I would send them back a questionnaire and tell them what I want to do. And when and some of them thought they had fill that out your name on that. So they've seen that back and write me the history of that comment. And I got some really good.Unknown Speaker 32:45 Yeah, you're doing a book that will go along. He also has pictures.Unknown Speaker 32:51 But now I've got to go back and call them and ask for pictures because they'll send you pictures.Unknown Speaker 32:58 And I'll tell you where you can you want to know where to get that. Now?Unknown Speaker 33:03 Well, I joined the Historical Society, and we decided to do a book, this last County, Virginia, but we're gonna do a book like yes, on the county, in the middle of it is oral histories. So I'm also being everything that I got on these coal miners to this list.Unknown Speaker 33:19 History conditions, does this and say,Unknown Speaker 33:23 Oh, now this the county, we've got a contract with walsworth publishing company, and they do this, how much do they charge? These books? Gosh, I don't know. But these books are selling for $47 piece that I give almost 60 for this one. SoUnknown Speaker 33:38 what's going to happen is you're going to turn around and say, Oh, you're gonna be in this book and for $47. And so it will pay for itself the same way? Well, I started to say if you were looking for money that humanity's Commission said, Well, that's what they told me. I'm certainly be interested in in here. See what they pay for it is not the doing it. But the the disseminating the information. So if you had say letters from every library in the state that said, Yes, we would like a copy of this, then they might pay for the funding in order to provide each one of the librariesUnknown Speaker 34:16 we'll ask like, the lady told us that they would would be sending letters to other librariesUnknown Speaker 34:21 and things. Yeah, well, that's already got that'll work the way we're doing so, but you might be able to get some funding to help with postage and phone calls and all those people, particularly if you say we're going to put one in every library, every high school library, every elementary library, you know, theUnknown Speaker 34:36 kids are going to say, well, we would if they wanted to pay for it.Unknown Speaker 34:40 If they're willing to if they're saying they'll they'llUnknown Speaker 34:48 give us one for the elaborate Welsh, but it can't be checked out. It'd beUnknown Speaker 34:52 reserved. Yeah. Well, that's wonderful. That's okay.Transcribed by https://otter.ai