N&W in 1908 -- Fatality

[NW Mailing List]

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of nameless graves in the coalfields holding black, white and shades in between of American and foreign families.  This is partially because the grave may have gotten a wooden marker if it got any marker at all.  And with no one to care for the grave the marker would disappear quickly.  More than likely there was no marker since there was no relative and hence a nameless grave.

My great-grandmother lies in the Pocahontas Cemetary in one of those nameless graves because the family could not afford a permanent marker.  Once my grandmother died, before she could afford a marker, no one knows where the grave is located.  Same is true of an uncle in the Pocahontas cemetery.  Grave records were destroyed when the Pocahontas funeral home burned some years ago.  I expect there are more graves in the Pocahontas Cemetery without markers than there are with markers.

When the Jed Coal & Coke Company mine blew up in 1912 most of the 80 men killed were put in unmarked graves across the river from the coal company in a place called Little Egypt.  Today you can't even find the graveyard at Havaco, WV.  I expect this is also true for the two Lick Branch explosions of 1907 at Switchback,WV

US Steel had three cemetery's in the vicinity of Gary, WV.  The company recorded who was buried and when, but not where in the cemetery.  So again if the family could not afford a permanent marker than it is another nameless grave. 

In many of the older cemeteries in the coalfields you might find a rock with no markings marking where a grave is.  That is considered a marked grave.

Alex Schust
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 6:54 AM
  Subject: Re: N&W in 1908 -- Fatality


  It could be that in 1908 "social services" meant only burying the unfortunately fellow.  The marker would be at someone else's expense.

  Gordon Hamilton
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: NW Mailing List 
    To: NW Mailing List 
    Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 10:28 PM
    Subject: Re: N&W in 1908 -- Fatality


          If they knew his name why would they put him in a nameless grave?  Thoughts anyone.

          Charlie

          --- On Wed, 12/3/08, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

            From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
            Subject: N&W in 1908 -- Fatality
            To: "2N&W Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
            Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 1:46 AM


            Bluefield Daily Telegraph
            November 11,1908

            IN CITY AND COALFIELD
            ------
            Colored Man Killed
                John Watson, colored, was killed at Iaeger on Monday night about 7:20, by engine No. 760, about two hundred yards of the depot.  Watson was employed as a pumper by the railroad company and was walking along the track when the engine suddenly came upon him and struck him before he could get out of its way.  His body was taken in charge by the railroad people.  His home is at Iaeger, but it is not known where his relatives live, and he will probably go to a nameless grave.
            ------
            [In view of today's social security and other employment records it is hard to believe that there was a time when so little would be known about an employee that he would be buried in a nameless grave.]

            Gordon Hamilton
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