Clifford Holt, Forrest Holt, John Holt, Mary Alice Lee Campbell Holt, Clara Campbell

photo submitted from family of John Holt c. 2000

The Diary of a Murray City Resident and Coal Miner

John Holt

John Holt was a coal miner and early resident of Murray City, Ohio. He kept a journal of his daily life which can give us a glimpse into what life was like in the early 1890's to the early 1900's for a coal miner. The complete journal was transcribed by his descendant Bill Garrett, and I was given permission to place an excerpt on this website. I, a relative of the John Holt family, Sandy Mitchell-Quinn, have tried to condense the journal to it's highlights. John had a tough life, and he was a very hard worker. Life was complicated in 1900, and John records in his diary the harsh realities of life as a coal miner. A copy of the complete journal can be seen at the Ohio University Archives library compliments of Bill Garrett. The John Holt diary is the sole copyright owned by Bill Garrett 1999-2000. It may not be reproduced or copied by any individual or commercial entity without written permission from Bill Garrett.

Legacy of a Coal Miner

John Holt was the son of William W. Holt and Lydea McCoates, they married in 1860. John was born soon after. They lived in Gore Hocking county where John went to school at the Terell school house. His father worked horses in the oar mines there.

By 1887 his father had died and his mother moved to Greendale Hocking county where John went to work at the Furnace when he was 17 years old. He worked taking the hot iron away from the furnace. He got good wages for the very hard work he did, but he failed to save any of it. In 1889 he worked some on one side of a mine owned by his brother in law Almer Simons at Redfield Perry County.

In 1889 he worked at the New York Furnace situated at Shawnee, Ohio. It was there that John got hurt when his head was crushed above the left eye. Doctors said he would not live but he did. He could not do any work in 1890 but in 1891 he was ready to work again and went to work in the Mine known as the Syndicate Mine at Sand Run in 1891. He joined the POS of A Patriotick Order of Sons of America, the organization broke up in 1893 or 1894.

Marriage and Trying to Find Work

In 1893 , John met his first wife Miss Jane Davis. Her father lived near Greendale. He married her in 1894 and took her to live with his mother in Greendale. After marriage they joined the Donaldson United Brethren Church and he worked at what was called the Lost Run Mine. The work was very poor and he could hardly exist on it.

His first son was born William Clifford Holt. He was very happy in his family with his wife and son. He left the Lost Run Mine and went to work at Sand Run at what was called the Big Four Mine operated by Jacoby and Green Brothers. The work was worse and he left and went back to Redfield to work for his brother in law Almer Simons. He did not do any good there and quit and went to Clarksburg WV, but did not like the mines and did not go to work. He instead visited relatives and then returned home and went to Shawnee and worked at the Furnace and it stopped in February. He could not get any work so in May he went to Indianna to work at an oil field for Jay and Black Company. He could not get any work and came back home. He did not get any work until July when he went back to work at the Lost Run mine. He did not. make more that $8.00 in two weeks working there and worked there until Nov. 26, 1896

Wife Ill, and Wife Dies

Things were not well at home. His wife Jane had a baby girl Forest Jane Holt. They did not know if the baby would live. Then his wife was ill for a long time with child bed fever for nine days.

His wife then got pneumonia. John was with her day and night but got wore out, he had no help and he did all he could for her but she got worse and departed this life in Feb. 1897. "My wife died as she had lived a true hearted Christian singing praises to the Lord."

Trying To Find Work and Get Ahead

John moved to Longstreth in what is known as the hollow and lived in a company house. This was in 1897 and he worked in what was known as Fire Hill. Coal had caught fire in the old works and was about to burn into the solid coal. We took everything out for the space of 40 feet wide from fire clay to the rock clean through the hill ahead of the fire then filled it full of water by turning the creek into it. It cost the company a lot of money but we got very small wage considering the work danger.

The next spring 1898 he got a contract cleaning up a fall of slate on main entry on what is known as Rock Hill belonging to Buckeye Co. Rail Road by Ed Shute. Then afterward he worked in the Mine at Sand Run as filler. He met Miss Clara Booker who worked for him for a while, but then she married John Gears.

In the spring of 1899 the Sand Run Mine shut down and he went to work for Johnson Coal Co. in the Hawthorne Mine. While there he saved $40 dollars and bought property in Longstreth what was know as the Baker house. It had been a store house and dwelling. He paid $40 dollars down and $60 dollars a year. In August he went back to Sand Run to work until the summer of 1900 when the mine stopped again, and then he came back to Jobs to work for two months until the Sand Run mine started again.

With good work John was able to pay in full for his house and for the repairs in total $250 dollars for the property. In 1901 Mrs. Alice Campbell came to work for him to care for his mother and children. Miss Clara Brooker had previously helped him but she married John Gears in the fall of 1901. In January of 1902 John's mother died. He paid her funeral expense with the $125 dollars he had saved and now he was broke again. Mine officials Samuel Hannah, Charles Cooper, Zell Buffington, Milton Sweezy, James Hensil, James Nixon and Samuel Shuttleworth at Sand Run Mine owed him $60.00 at the time of his mothers death.

With no means to care for his children he took his daughter to his Aunt Nancy Nuzum's in Harrison Co., WV to live and his son was left with his brother in Sand Run. Six weeks later he had to borrow money to go back and get his daughter. I worked at the Sand Run mine until late in the Spring when said mine officers Samuel Hannah, Buffington and others had him turned off. He then went to work for H. C. Funison selling in Maps and other Charts. He made a great success and made lots of money but the company was not prompt in their shipments which caused me trouble and strike levy for an article region making times hard here. John quit selling for the Maps company and went to work in Mine No. 7 mine situated at New Pittsburg operated by Johnson Co. He did not do any good here on account of not getting track and failure to get water out of the mine, it appeared to be very poor management.

Back to Jobs, Ohio

He went back to Jobs to work. He was able to pay on bills he owed to Dr. Roads $5 dollars for waiting on his mother, and Dr. Donaldson, he owed him $85 dollars at 6 percent interest for taking care of his wife. He began renting rooms in his house. He rented the downstairs to Boom Hutchinson who was a widow, and Mrs. Little. A man by the name of Cooksey moved in when Hutchinson moved out.

His father in law died leaving a will for a new United Brethren Church to be build on his place and divided up his land. He left the children $10 a piece.

The last six months John had spent boarding at the widow Alice Campbell's house. Others boarding there were Joshua Mower, Alonzo Denny, and William Brooks. She had a daughter Clara aged 10 years.

In Feb. of 1903 it was pay day but he did not get to draw any money because of a mistake in the store account. He was in Murray City and got a certificate of $150 dollars from the Murray City Bank which he gave to Mrs. Campbell to keep for him.

The Small Pox Epidemic

March 10th of 1903 Small pox was very bad, an epidemic in Nelsonville and one case in Greendale. People are getting very excited at this time over the small pox.

April 13, 1903, John quit mine work and went to day labor. He did not like it, he was getting paid $2.36 cents for 8 hours of work.

John Marries the Widow Alice

May 30, 1903 John married the widow Mrs. Alice Campbell of Jobs. He quit work outside of the mines in August of 1905. After he was working inside the mine filling coal and getting 48 dents a ton for loading and drilling.

In Jobs in Jan. of 1906 John paid Dr. John Donaldson administrators $70 dollars leaving a balance of $34 dollars. For Christmas John had bought his wife a water and berry set, and also a coat for nine dollars. He had a note or Certificate of Deposit in the Murray City Bank for $150 dollars. Since work was good he also bought a house from Mr. Witham that adjoined the house he already owns there. It was a one story and a half 6 room frame house with a slate roof and rented for eight dollars a month and he had no trouble renting it.

My Family

My wife Alice is the daughter of Peter and Lydia Chaney Lee. She was previously married to John Campbell of Scotland who died in Murray City. She has three children by him, Harry Campbell who is married and has three children of his own and lives in Murray City; a son John Campbell who has very poor eyesight and drinks hard not being able to work; and a daughter Clara. My family also consists of my children by my first wife Clifford and Forrest Holt.

Mike Dunkle works with John and rents in one of John's houses. Also renting from him are Lewis Evans and Rothie Dixon. He rented the vacant part of the house at Longstreth to John Spence.

Jan. 26, 1906 Jobs, John tried to rent a farm from Jackson heirs but could not agree on a price. Dr. Cox of Murray City came to see Alice who was sick with pnuemonia.

The Coal Mine Strikes

April 1906 to June 1906- there was a coal mine strike. Miners and operators failed to agree. The Pittsburg mines have been working as they paid the price from the start, since then some others have gone to work. He heard the mines in Indianna and Illinois had signed up and gone to working except the mines of Ohio. In Ohio none of the mines were working except the Pittsburgh coal mine and in eastern Ohio who are not paying, there they are known as scab mines or are operated by non union labor. There are Pinkerton Guards there guarding the men working. There have been trouble with the miners there and the guards got the worst of it. The company appealed to the Governor and he sent in the state militia or soldiers. Miners and operators are having a convention right now, he thought they would settle and he could go back to work.

April 1907- The strike was over in June and a settlement was reached for two years until April 1908. The miners here are getting 57 cents a ton for screened coal and $2.56 for day work I side of mine and $2.36 for outside work for 8 hours work to be equal to one days work. John went to work at day work in Mine no. 2 but only worked a short time until he got a contract of picking up coal at Mine number 1, 2, and 3. He had to furnish his own horse so he bought one for $60 dollars from the company. He also bought a cow for $30 dollars, a two seated surrey for one horse for $50 dollars, and a one horse wagon and buggy for $25 dollars. John was making 90 cents a ton for picking up coal and cleaning the rail road tracks. He made $70 dollars in the first half of July. In the month of August with Clifford working with him he made $203 dollars. When Clifford went to school he could only make $120 a month.

The Flood of 1907

April 14, 1907-John states that the flood commenced about 7 o'clock on the 13th of March and thundered and lightnening'd like summer time and the rain fell fast until the streams and rivers were running wild. Several houses and part of the trestle washed away at the mine. Some mines were filled up with water and towns along the Hocking River were flooded bad. Buildings washed away and people drowned. Towns that suffered the most were Nelsonville, Athens and Logan. It took peoples furniture and caused lots of suffering and would have been worse except for the warm weather. The rail road was damages something like $100,000 dollars. Mail was unable to be delivered for a week.

There was a new coal mine boss at Mine No. 2, the one that was here Mr. Thomas Bradley taking charge of a new plant in Guernsey Co. and Mr. Ferrel took his place here.

John sold his house in Longstreth to John Galantin for $350 dollars in payments of $14 dollars a month. He sold the other one to James Davis. He failed to pay and wanted John to take the house back.

John Builds a House in Murray City

March of 1909, John bought a lot and a half in Murray City and he built a 6 room house there and an outhouse, it cost him lot and all $1100 dollars. They were able to move in at the end of May. John sold his horse and quit gathering coal outside of the mine and went to work on a machine. His brother Samuel Holt of Sand Run was crushed to death in the coal mine. There were protracted meetings held in Murray City by one Holiness preacher by the name of James McKee. It was held in the skating rink, John and wife Alice joined with about 50 others. John helped organize a class and also a Sunday School since the preacher left. They were hoping to build a new church by his house and Mr. Bryan's the next door neighbor. They were both going to donate a piece of their lot for the new Holiness church. Clifford Holt his son was in his first year of high school at Murray City at this time.

John's daughter Forest Holt married Edward A. Watson in Murray City in 1914. They lived in Murray City for about 1 year and then moved to Dayton, Ohio until 1915. They moved back to Murray City and lived there until 1919, after her father John Holt died she moved back to Dayton. John Holt died and was buried in the Murray City Cemetery which overlooked Murray City coal mine #5.

John Holt can also be seen in the Murray City coal miner photo's on that webpage.

copyright 2000 Sandy Mitchell-Quinn