Fire in the Hole: Deep Shaft Coal Mining - Paperback

by John Kekec (Author)

In Europe a poster outside a coal mine office read: Wanted- Coal Miners for American Mines- providing ocean steam passage, keep en-route, and railroad transportation- regular departure dates from the Antwerp Port. On that New Year's Day two Austrian miners responded and embarked on a great adventure to America, that great land of opportunity for the huddled masses, where they found jobs, wives, and happiness regardless of all the dangers, narrow escapes, and disappointments. In the late 1880's these two Austrian coal miner brothers were among the thousands of Europeans that immigrated to America to work in one of the many booming underground coal mines as replacement workers for the striking miners. They were looking for a better life, but instead found the same dangerous and unhealthy working conditions they had already been accustomed to. In addition they found the new adversities of foreign prejudices, squalid coal camp conditions, austere mining company practices, and increasing labor disturbances. Despite all this however they found plenty of excitement and adventure in the surrounding rip-roaring coal camps and mining towns. With the help of their steadfast friends, romantic encounters, and moonshine whiskey sedative, they eventually found a measure of happiness before a series of tragic events intervened. While the story unfolds in this authentic historic horse and buggy period and venues, the real flavor of this era is resurrected; and in addition to providing real insight into deep shaft underground mining and the miner's families, it spins a gripping action/adventure story. The two brothers get separated when one of them is accosted by some disgruntled striking miners during a mining dispute and has to go on the lam after an unfortunate triple murder in his own self-defense. He evades the pursuing posse and escapes to the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks to find work. All through the book the parallel stories are told of the two brothers in their often desperate situations. The one brother, failing to make a living off his farming, mining, and tie hacking for the expanding new railroads in the Ozark Counties, finally turns to riding with a renegade band of Bald Knobber raiders in Taney, Christian, and Ozark Counties. The other brother remains in Southeast Kansas Coal Belt. While enduring their difficulties and working their long hours for short pay, the coal miners and their families also managed to find time to enjoy their Saturday night adventures, and holiday celebrations- experiencing everything from dreary coal camp life to fancy mine convention ballrooms- from such activities as box socials, family gatherings, and quilting bees to saloon brawls, waylayings, and murders, and from pastoral picnics and hunting trips to flights to elude a pursuing posse, and riding with the Bald Knobbers. The families were saddened by the worsening of their family member's chronic 'black lung' condition and dreaded the day they might feel the rumbling earth after an explosion and the continuous wail of the steam whistle signaling trouble at the mine in the middle of the afternoon. Historic accounts are important because they create a dialogue across the generations. Readers drawn in by such stories also learn the related history along on the journey. Today who would ever know that deep shaft miners and their families had ever once lived and worked here? It is now no more than a dream remembered; a civilization buried and gone in an era that has almost disappeared into the past. Yet some of us in these succeeding generations can still hear those voices calling to us from across the years. Whatever our ancestors were, they are ours, the only ones that we will ever have. The link that follows will take you to his updated website, which will give you more details about both the author and the book. (http: //johnkekec.wordpress.com/about/). The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other local or online bookstores.

Author Biography

The author is an avid reader and writer, especially of historic fiction, and a longtime member of his regional writer's societies, which are affiliated with the Missouri Writer's Guild. His complete writing profile can be viewed on the Missouri Author's Directory Listing- (http: //www.books.missouri.org/author). Although having lived in the lead mining districts of Missouri for many years, he was born and raised in the coal fields of Southeast Kansas, and is a second and third generation descendant of several of the deep shaft coal mining families of that era. John is a retired Mineral Area College instructor with considerable graduate work past his master's degree from Kansas State College of Pittsburg and the Universities of Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Arizona. John and his wife now reside in Bonne Terre MO and have been blessed with four children, twelve grandchildren, and seven greats.