Coal Company Stores


The interior of the Mabscott Coal & Coke Company Store. Shown Ollie W Dixon, manager (left behind counter); H. Gill, butcher (on right behind counter); and an unidentified customer. Picture taken in 1920's

Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/cstores.html

 

Sixteen Tons

Sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake* by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you, then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

This song could definitely be the battle cry of the American Miner. Miners were usually paid monthly. By the end of the month, they owed the company for the company house they were living in, for the tools they used to mine, for groceries to feed their family, and for any doctor bills. Miners had no choice but to buy from the companies. They were paid in scrip, not real money and this could only be spent at the company store.
Naturally this enabled the company to charge the miners whatever they wished. Most miners with families were constantly in debt to the company. When the miners did get paid at the end of the month, if there was any money left after they paid their employers, it was certainly not enough to last them another month. So it was a vicious cycle, and the next month, they again had to pay the company first and were lucky to have anything left for their families.

Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/sixteen.html


In West Virginia, where there was a coal mine, you would almost always find a Company Store located nearby. The Company Stores were stores owned and operated by the coal mining companies. Typically, during the early years that the Company Store was the only store in the coal mining town, as the town itself was quite literally owned by the coal company.

 

Cabin Creek WV

A town outside the gates of company property. Workers could not go there. They were prisoners of the company so long as they owed the company store. And the company made sure that you owed them!

Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/spencer6.html

 

I remember my parents buying groceries and clothing at the coal company store in Montcoal WV (Raleigh County).