Eveline’s Senior Year – In Search of a Back Story

Posted on August 13, 2022 by Kathy Morales

I shared a photo of my grandmother Eveline Coates’ high school graduating class in Mystic, Iowa a few weeks (now months!) ago. Along with the photo and her diploma, a couple of other mementos were saved. One is the program for the Junior-Senior Banquet in honor of the graduating Seniors. It was interesting to see how World War I seemed to be the overarching theme of the festivities. I decided to take a deeper look at what her life may have been like during the 1917-1918 school year. There was a lot going on, a war and the beginning of an influenza pandemic to name the two biggies. The list of related posts is getting long, so I’ll link them at the bottom.

Three Faces In Search Of A Back Story : Edited Detail of Third Party Print (See 2013.09W.12) Sepia Saturday 634 Theme Image

Alan’s prompt photo and title provided the perfect words to describe this series: “Three Faces In Search Of A Back Story.” This series about my grandmother during her senior year of high school has been a search for the back story to the military-themed senior reception her class celebrated in May 1918. I dived in deeper than I initially planned or expected and I have certainly learned a lot. Not so much about Eveline and her family in particular, but the family in the context of their time and place. I think today is a good time for me to look back at what I have learned so far. I have read a lot and searched so many news items, that I think I need a mini refresher as I begin to close the series.

I expected to read about the influenza epidemic hitting Eveline’s home town. I didn’t find cases of influenza. Instead, the prominent infectious disease was smallpox. Eveline had it in November 1917.

Eveline’s older brothers, Carl and John, were required to register for the draft in June 1917. As a married man with a child expected any day, Carl was exempt from service. John awaited his draft number being called.

Eveline became an aunt for the first time when Carl’s daughter, Pauline, was born in late June 1917.

Eveline hosted her classmates for a party in July at the covered bridge.

I learned a little more about the town of Mystic. The population was about 2700, the streets were unpaved, and it was experiencing a boom due to the increased production of coal. A large percentage of the population were immigrants, as were Eveline’s parents. I located photos of several of the buildings in town and learned more about the Interurban, which ran between Mystic and the county seat, Centerville. And I learned about some of the entertainment and community gatherings of the time.

I had always wondered what mines Eveline’s family worked in, where the mines were located, and where their home was located. I was able to map their locations. Carl and John worked mine #12, which was pretty close to their home. Brother Joe worked at Twin Mines. I was not able to determine where her father worked, but I would guess the #12. I learned that the town ran on “mine time,” arising and eating and ending the day according to the mine whistles – the last one of the work day indicating if there would be work the following day. I could not find lists of union membership, but the miners had an active union, there were walkouts during this time, and I was surprised to learn that Mother Jones came to speak to the miners.

Some of the political issues of the time were enforcement of the “blue law” in the county, the national push for suffrage, and the temperance movement. Once the United States joined the war, things changed for everyone. The young men enlisted and the people of Mystic watched their “boys” leave for training and for France. Although I assume there was already a fairly strong commitment to civic life, once the nation joined the war, people were called upon to show their patriotism and support in new and numerous ways: through financial and volunteer support of the Red Cross, the Y.M.C.A., Liberty Bonds, War Stamps … And some immigrant populations, especially German immigrants, came under suspicion as possible supporters of the enemy.

There remains another likely influence on Eveline’s life during her senior year that I have yet to write about – the politics of food.

I’ll close with a postcard I recently acquired of Walnut Creek in Mystic.

I have a couple of undated photos taken at Walnut Creek, several years later than Eveline’s senior year of high school, I think.

Eveline Coates Wading in Walnut Creek, Mystic, Iowa

The cursive handwriting is Eveline’s. The printed handwriting is my mother’s.

And this one of Alice Tingle. Alice is next to Eveline in the class photo at the top. Alice married Eveline”s brother Joe.

Alice Tingle Coates at Walnut Creek, Mystic, Iowa

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Eveline’s Senior Year: The Weight of Mining

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Kathy Morales

When I wrote my last post, I completely forgot about Eveline’s brother Joe! When Joe registered for the draft in 1917, he reported that he worked for Thomas Lee – not the same employer as his brothers.

Thomas Lee was one of three brothers who owned the Lee Brothers Coal Company. Thomas managed the Twin Mines, where he employed 300 men in 1916. Twin Mines had two 40-feet shafts, one on either side of the railroad tracks that led to long tunnels to two mines. I updated the map I shared last time to indicate the two mines where Eveline’s brothers, and probably her father, worked. The Coates family lived southeast of the #12 mine, less that 0.3 of a mile away.

Red = Diamond Block/Lodwick Mine #12
Purple = Twin Mines
Arrow is an approximate of location of the Coates’ home

During the days while the mines were operating in full swing, the lives of the miners’ families were practically ruled by the mine whistle. At 6 a.m. the whistle signaled the miners should be up and getting ready for the days’ work. The 7 a.m. whistle meant it was time for the day’s work to begin. The noon whistle signaled lunchtime for both the miners and the school children. The 3 p.m. whistle signaled that the miner would soon be home and that it was time for his wife to start the evening meal. One long blast at 4 p.m. meant that there would be work tomorrow, and three blasts meant no work.
HEUSINKVELD, W. M. 2007, THE HISTORY OF COAL MINING IN APPANOOSE COUNTY, IOWA, P. 20.

One can imagine the Coates home – and most of the community – rousing with the 6:00 whistle. Although I suspect many of the wives and mothers were up earlier, preparing a hearty breakfast and hot coffee for their miners and packing lunches for them too. For Eveline’s mother, that meant breakfast, coffee, and lunches for the four miners in the family plus feeding Eveline and her five younger siblings and getting them off to school. With no electricity, no running water, and a coal stove. As the oldest daughter, Eveline may have had some morning duties before leaving for school, perhaps helping the younger children. Joe had a longer walk to work, so he likely left home earlier than the others. As a side note – when Eveline married, her husband (my grandfather) also worked in the coal mines. Even long after retirement in another city, she seemed to keep that early schedule. Up very early (I never ate breakfast with them when I lived in their home), the evening meal around 4:30, and off to bed at 8:00.

Eveline’s father, Joseph Coates, is sometimes listed in the census and other records as a miner and sometimes as a carpenter. I was always told that he was a carpenter in the mines, although I now know that there were years that he was shoveling or picking coal. After some time working at both mining and carpentry, maybe he was hired to do carpentry work in the mine. His own father was a joiner (carpenter) in a coal mine in Durham, England. In the 1910 federal census, Eveline’s brother Carl is listed as a mule driver in a mine. In other years, he is listed as a miner.

When the whistle wailed day or night, it was a frightening sound because it was a danger signal. It might be a warning of a fire so that everyone would grab a bucket and rush to the scene. At night the wailing sound might warn of an approaching storm so that people could seek the safety of their storm caves. However the sound that was seldom heard, but could send shivers up one’s spine was the six long, sad wails that told that a miner was dead. All the women came out to find out if their loved one was a victim of one of the many underground dangers.
HEUSINKVELD, W. M. 2007, THE HISTORY OF COAL MINING IN APPANOOSE COUNTY, IOWA, P. 20.

The quote above implies that the whistle signaled a death only when the death occurred in the mine. Many injuries would have been minor and not requiring a stretcher lowered into the shaft to bring up the injured miner, but that was obviously not always the case. Living in a small mining community, everyone surely knew everything that happened in the mines – and not just the mines in Mystic. The miners had a union and the newspaper reported injuries and deaths throughout the county. My limited research found some serious injuries and some deaths in Mystic during Eveline’s senior year of high school. Fortunately none in her family.

In June of 1917, a Mystic man died of injuries sustained at the Horridge Mine. Did the whistle wail six times? Probably not, as he was alive when he was pulled out of the mine and died in the hospital three hours later.

Semi Weekly Iowegian, Centerville, Iowa
18 June 1917

Charles Mickey, also of Mystic, was injured at the Porter mine in January of 1918. He died in April.

Semi Weekly Iowegian, Centerville, Iowa
04 April 1918

Another death at the Horridge Mine, this time in April 1918.

Semi Weekly Iowegian, Centerville, Iowa
15 April 1918

There were also reports in the news of more minor injuries and a couple of lawsuits brought by miners for injuries sustained at work.

Not only was coal mining a dangerous job – there were other difficulties. Wages were low; there was not always work, especially during the summer; there were layoffs and strikes. The war also impacted the work and wages of the miners. I’m not going to attempt to delve into any of that.

Below is an undated photo of my grandfather, Thomas Hoskins (Eveline’s future husband), and Miles Bankson (her sister Blanche’s future husband), sitting atop some structure along a track at one of the coal mines. They are not dressed for work – looks like their Sunday best.

Thomas Hoskins and Miles Bankson, undated, Mystic, Iowa

Another mining related family photo – Eveline’s sister Blanche, who married Miles Bankson. Were they on a date?

Miles Bankson and Blanche Coates, undated, Mystic, Iowa

The video below offers a glimpse into mining in Appanoose County. The New Gladstone Mine was in operation until March 1971, when it closed for highway reconstruction. The Gladstone Mine was the last pony mine operating in the United States. Shetland ponies were used to haul coal from deep shafts to the surface. Before the mine was completely closed and sealed, Iowa State University in Ames made a 23-minute documentary of the mine. Mine workers re-opened the mine and started the machinery long enough to make the film. One of the miners said that he began working in the mine in 1916. He is the man with an accent that differs from a typical Iowa accent – and is a reminder of the many immigrant families who migrated to Appanoose County to work in the mines. There is electricity in the mine in this film – lightbulbs strung throughout, which was not the case in 1918. There may be a few other improvements that occurred over the years, but it looks like it must have operated very much like it did when it first opened, even into 1971.

Miners were paid by the weight of coal they produced each day. Everyone bore the weight of potential injury or death of themselves or loved ones. Often that injury was caused by the weight of a large piece of coal falling. Coal mining families bore the weight of little, or no, income. Needless to say, coal mining was work that could “weigh” on a person.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday, where the prompt photo suggests we consider weight.

Eveline’s Senior Year: Miners, Mines, and Maps

Posted on July 9, 2022 by Kathy Morales

I shared a photo of my grandmother Eveline Coates’ high school graduating class in Mystic, Iowa a few months ago. Along with the photo and her diploma, a couple of other mementos were saved. One is the program for the Junior-Senior Banquet in honor of the graduating Seniors. It was interesting to see how World War I seemed to be the overarching theme of the festivities. I decided to take a deeper look at what her life may have been like during the 1917-1918 school year.

Eveline’s Senior Year, Part 1
Eveline’s Senior Year: The Draft and a Carnival
Eveline’s Senior Year: A Look Around Town
Eveline’s Senior Year: Musical Notes
Eveline’s Senior Year: Smallpox
Eveline’s Senior Year: What are you Serving?
Eveline’s Senior Year: Root Beer on the 4th

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, sign up to the link, try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and have fun.

The prompt image this week highlights two boys atop a rock that has carvings of letters and dates. This was a nudge for me to dig into coal mines and miners and maps.

In an earlier post in this series, I included the 1917 draft registration cards for Eveline’s two older brothers, Carl and John. The brothers worked as coal miners for Diamond Block Coal Co. John’s form clearly indicates that he is employed at mine #12.

It has taken me a while to locate the mine and where it was situated in relation to Eveline’s home. I’m not the most efficient researcher, but I can be persistent. Now that I think I figured it out, it seems simple. Sigh.

Fortunately, I visited the Appanoose County Historical and Coal Mining Museum several years ago and purchased most of the available booklets. I could not have pieced much together without those resources. The first is an untitled booklet that must be copies of a larger book as the cover page is page 16. I’ll include an image of the cover because it also includes a legend for understanding the enclosed maps and shows the location of Mystic in the county.

My scan of a copy of a copy isn’t great, but the arrow points to the relevant designation for an underground coal mine.

The page below is opposite a map of the mines in Mystic and here I found the notation for Diamond Block Coal Co. No. 12.

14. Diamond Block Coal Co. No. 12
SW1/4 of Sec. 13 #040514

The town of Mystic is on the bottom portion of the map. Coal mines are located within the town limits and most, but not all, are underground mines. I have highlighted 14 on the map, the Diamond Block Coal Co. No. 12.

In the late teens of the 20th Century, Mystic had between 18 and 23 mines operating at once, with each mine having access to the railroad for the hauling of their coal. And at one time there were three switch engines that stayed in Mystic just to pull loads of coal, and they hauled 35 to 40 carloads a day.
History of Mystic, Iowa: 1887-1987, pg. 25.

Another book I picked up includes this map (which I found somewhere on the internet for a better copy). But here the mine is identified as Lodwick No. 12.

Mystic Block Coal Co. No. 12 – Lodwick Bros.
Location: NE SE SW of Section 9, T-69N R-18W, Walnut Twp., northwest part of Mystic
Lodwick Bros. Coal Co, 1889-99, Diamond Block No. 12, 1905-14, Mystic Block No. 12, 1907-20
Slope & vertical, longwall and room & pillar, 123 acres, unknown depth
David Lodwick was General Manager with 400 employees producing 170.000 tons in 1916.
Heusinkveld, W. M. 2007, The history of Coal mining in appanoose county, iowa, p. 85.

One source says the mine is located in Section 9 and the other in Section 13. This confused me, but when I place these two maps side by side they match pretty well, accounting for the difference in scale. Mine 3 on the left map is identified as Twin Mine (Lee Brothers) just as on the map on the right.

Everyone apparently knew the mine by its number, no matter who owned it. The Heusinkveld book states that it was the Diamond Block No. 12 only until 1914. It gives the years the name Mystic Mine was used as 1907-1920. At least that’s the way I read it. Maybe there is a typo in the dates? In any case, Carl and John reported that they worked at the Diamond Block mine when filling out their draft registration cards in 1917. Joseph Coates, their father, also worked in a coal mine. He didn’t have to register for the draft in 1917, so I don’t have that record for confirmation, but it is likely that they all worked in the same mine.

One of the best known mines in Mystic was the Lodwick Mine, pictured here. It was drilled in 1889 three years after the Milwaukee Railroad came through Mystic and two years after the town was platted. … The Lodwick Brothers, David and Llewyn, established their Lodwick Bros. Coal Co. in 1889. A third brother, Gwelyn S. Lodwick was an engineer and invented much of the equipment for the mines, such as the dirt dump car and possibly the mining machine.
Heusinkveld, W. M. 2007, The history of Coal mining in appanoose county, iowa, p. 85.

Often the local boys went to work in the mines after completing 8th grade, possibly looking just a bit older than the boy on the left in the prompt photo. It was my understanding that this was true for Carl and John. However, the 1910 Federal Census shows Carl working as a miner, but Johnnie, age 15, working as a delivery boy for a store.

The Atlas of Appanoose County, Iowa, 1915 contains the plat map for Mystic. I located Joseph Coates in the upper right corner. His plot of land is larger than I expected. I have not yet found any deeds or land transactions for more details. The map image file is too large to include here, so I’ll just include the relevant portion. There are a few street names on the map, but no streets adjacent to the Coates property are named.

My mother and her siblings grew up in Mystic. Her brother Roy provided me with a sketch of how he remembers the location of the Coates home. He located the house between Clarkdale Rd. and Log St.

A look at these two maps side by side …

The map on the left shows the location of the #12 mine to the west of E. Lodwick St. – not far from the Coates home. I got out my ruler and looked at the scale on the map on the right and it came out to about 1200 feet, or less than 0.3 of a mile. The mine was within walking distance, although they could have taken their buggy.

In 2016, I made a trip to Iowa and my Uncle Roy gave me a quick tour of Mystic. He located the property where his grandparents lived – and where his mother Eveline had grown up. All that remained was a chimney.

Remains of Coates house in Mystic, Iowa, 2016
by Kathy Morales

The Heusinkveld book also has this photo and mentions Joe Coates (Junior), the son of Eveline’s brother Joseph Robert Coates.

I’ve dug up a little more, but it is this end of this miner’s work day. Please visit other Sepia Saturday bloggers and see what summit they have topped. Sepia Saturday

Abbie and Eveline

Tag Archives: John William Coates

Eveline’s Senior Year – In Search of a Back Story

Eveline’s Senior Year: The Weight of Mining

Eveline’s Senior Year: Miners, Mines, and Maps