B.D. Oglestree

Published on December 30, 2018

"Put it in the cart, run it on through, a lot of improvement. Kinda like it is now. You mash a button on it now. You used to have to get it. A man’s strength."

Chapters

Childhood

B.D. Oglestree describes his early life and his children.

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Jobs in the Coal Mines

B.D. Oglestree recalls some of the jobs in the coal mine and what it was like to work there.

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Life in Docena

B.D. Oglestree recalls day to day life in Docena.

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May Day

B.D. Oglestree describes the annual May Day festival.

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Children’s Activities

B.D. Oglestree describes some common activities for children, especially boy scouts.

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Docena Churches

B.D. Oglestree recalls the different denominations of churches in Docena.

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The Docena Economy

B.D. Oglestree describes the quality of the commissary and buying groceries on credit.

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The Union

B.D. Oglestree recalls the formation of the union and strikes.

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Wages

B.D. Oglestree clarifies the details of wages and salaries for mine work.

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Union Politics

B.D. Oglestree recalls race relations and politics within the union.

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Health Care

B.D. Oglestree describes the company-provided health care.

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Changes in the Mine and Safety Concerns

B.D. Oglestree describes some of the changes in mining work.

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Hours and Wages

B.D. Oglestree explains the shift system in the mines and recalls changes in wages from the Depression to the Seventies.

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TCI Services

B.D. Oglestree discusses the support that TCI offered while the mine was closed during the Depression, as well as other forms of employment during that time.

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Transcript

RONNIE BOULWARE: This is an interview with Mr. B.D. Oglestree for the
Samford University History Department, by Ronnie Boulware, at 302 Fifth Street,
their residence, on February 28th, 1979.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Mr. Oglestree, where and when were you first born?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Born in Blocton, Bibb county, October the 5th, 1904.

RONNIE BOULWARE: How many were in your family when you was growing up?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well there was five of us children, and I was the youngest.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, did you have a chance to get an education?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, yeah I had the chance if I'd have took it. But you know
how boys are. When they get up to about 16, like that, especially out on a farm,
well they don't want to go to school. And I had to rode about six miles to go to
school, so I just quit. Fell out.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What about your brothers and sisters?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh, they didn't either. They finished about the seventh and
eighth grade. For regular.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Where are your children and what are they doing now?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, I have one in Pennsylvania and one in Panama City. Two
here in Birmingham, and one in Fairfield, Tuscumby.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, now, when did you first come to Docena?

B.D. OGLESTREE: In '26.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I remember you told me the other day that you'd never forget
that day.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, 30th day of July, 1926. That's the first day I went to work.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay...uh, you came here trying to get on?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: In the mine?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What kind of jobs did they have that were open?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, there was just loading coal was all they had, or company
work. You could rocktipper, they called it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What is that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: That's just doing anything, any kind of work, you know. Moving
rock or helping the braddish man, or anything like that. You know, common labor.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay. What kind of hours did you work?

B.D. OGLESTREE: From 7 back down, from 7 o'clock till 4:30 I believe
it was.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What was the average day's work, say in tons of coal? Or...

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, according, it was on tonnage back then, and according to
how you, if you worked pretty hard why you'd make pretty good, seven or eight
dollars a day. And the company work was four dollars, that was lowest pay. Four
dollars and half a cent. I don't know how come them have that half a cent. But,
that was common labor. Of course, the braddish man, he got a little more. I
don't know...and machine man, running the machine, cutting the coal. He, he got
seven dollars and eleven cents. And I remember they used to call it
seven-eleven. If he go down there, why, he was on company work, see. And if he
went down there he got seven dollars and eleven cents, whether he cut any coal
or not. He didn't care. (laughs) He wouldn't cut none.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Well, I'll be dog.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Sometimes, oh, you know, some them sorry fellows, fell bad or something.

RONNIE BOULWARE: They just wouldn't cut it, huh?

B.D. OGLESTREE: No, they didn't care. Then they put that on tonnage. And they
had to go to work sure enough then.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What was it like when you first started to work in the mines?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Light?

RONNIE BOULWARE: What was it like?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Ohhh.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did you have, uh, any particular fear or anything like that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, no not too much, except didn't want to be by myself.
'Course, I was grown, I was twenty-one year old, but I still didn't want to be
by myself. Afraid I'd get lost I guess or something. But as long as I was with
someone, you know, I was alright, 'Cause I figured that they, they knew what to
do, and wouldn't get in no danger so I was alright.

RONNIE BOULWARE: It was dark down in there wasn't it?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh yeah, it was dark a'right. We had carbide lights, you know,
to go on the head and you could see all around where you were, but that light
didn't shine too far.

RONNIE BOULWARE: About how many people were working in the mines where you were?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, when I first started I guess it was at least...300 down
there. You know, all coal rollers they call it, and company men and everybody.
About three hundred something.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did y'all get paid on Fridays?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Twice a week.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Twice a week?

B.D. OGLESTREE: I mean, wait a minute, twice a month. Every two weeks. Yeah,
back then.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Say, I got off of work and I wanted to get in on a good card
game, where would I go or who would I see? Or did they have any people from
Birmingham come down here during that time?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Nah, not that I remember.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What about convict work? Did they have any convicts working
down here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Not then.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Not then?

B.D. OGLESTREE: They had it before, before the free labor started to work here,
I know way back in the old works. I used to have to make the old works
sometimes, you know and you could see them their dates was one of those old pit
lamps. You know they used to burn oil in the mines, they call 'em a pit lamp.
They could take it and write on those rocks, and they'd make a real sooty
black...marks, you know. And they'd a lot of dates wrote back then, way back in
1912 and 13 along like that. Have their initial on these, but I, that's all we
ever put in the mines, you know, when you made a place you put your initial up
there. But everyone knew each fellow's initials. But I didn't know any of these
convict's initials.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Well, who did you know when you first came here to get on in
the mines?

B.D. OGLESTREE: My brother.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Your brother.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, and his wife and family. That's all I knew.

RONNIE BOULWARE: How did he, or how long did he work in the mine?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, he come in '20... '22, I believe it was, or maybe '21 and
that was in '26 and he worked till '29. He got killed in a car wreck. But my
oldest brother, he had worked here. But he quit in '23. He left the mines and
went back, he was a mechanic, and he went back working in an automobile place
and selling cars. And he never did go back to the mines.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, when you first came to Docena sort of reflect back and
describe the town. What was it like? Or, you know the landscape and buildings
and all.

B.D. OGLESTREE: It was real nice, See, the company owned it and they rented the
houses and everything. They kept them up. They painted them about every two to
three years. They had a nice school up there and the company furnished teachers.
And, uh, I don't know, it was real nice, nicer than it is now.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Really?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yes sir, it was (laughs) and you had to keep it nice, you
couldn't let your yard get messed up. If you did they sent a man around to clean
it up and then make you pay for it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Really?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, it was, I don't know, but I liked that part about it
because nobody couldn't, couldn't just let their yards, you know, get messed up,
like some of them are now. Of course, mine's not in too good a shape itself.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So the company paid for improvements like painting and...

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh, yeah, they kept everything up.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Alright when you first came here and moved into the, your home,
go back and describe in greater detail the inside of your home. The furnishings
and stuff like that.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well it was in the '30s before I moved here, I lived outside. In
fact, I boarded until in '28. And then, '28, yeah, I moved over here and down
around Adamsville, and then in '30 we moved up here. And all the house were a
four-room house, built just like this one, except this one's got a bathroom,
back then, the other room on the back. But this is nice inside. It's sealed and
papered. Them good houses alright.

RONNIE BOULWARE: And they furnished them for all the workers?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yep. And they had running water and lights. You didn't have but
just one drop in each room. And the house rent for a four-room house was nine
dollars and fifteen cents a month. That's lights, water, and house rent all combined.

RONNIE BOULWARE: OK. Since we are on the subject of village, sort of give me
something of the life of the village people, the entertainment and stuff like that.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, we had a clubhouse down here and the company run it. Had a
man that stayed, you know, worked in there and we called it the dope stand. They
had candy and ice cream, and coca-colas, and just little stuff like that. And
they had two pool tables, a dance floor upstairs. And, I don't know, a library.
Then they had tennis courts, all the right out there was tennis courts, back
then, with the fence around them, And the ice house was right out there
(indicates). Had a commissary up there (indicates). Had anything you want.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did they have any athletic teams from this area?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, yeah we had a baseball team was all. Now, way back yonder
they used to have a soccer team. But that was before my time. But when I come
here they had a baseball team.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Who did they play?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Played the rest of the villages, like Wylam and Ishkoda and
Muscoda, and Fairfield, Hamilton over here, Edgewater, Bayview. Each village had
a team.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did the team consist of the miners who worked in the mines
right here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: That's the only ones that could play, was the miners, ones that
worked here at the mines.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did y'all develop any real good rivalries, like Alabama and
Auburn? (laughs)

B.D. OGLESTREE: (laughs) We had...well, Edgewater had one to go up. Somewhere
down...I don't know, Fairfield, somewhere down in there I believe they had one
to go up but Docena didn't anyway. They had one to go to Mobile and try out, but
he didn't make it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What about on special occasions like Thanksgiving and
Christmas? What was it like then?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, we didn't have any special...you know...parties or
anything like that. Everybody they like...you know, had the lights and the
company let you put up all the lights you wanted, and it didn't cost anything.
Anything that you wanted to do.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did you have a chance to see your family very much, during
times like this, Thanksgiving and Christmas?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh, you mean--my family?

RONNIE BOULWARE: Mmhm.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh, yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, ah--

B.D. OGLESTREE: So I worked dayshift, you see, I was with 'em every night and if
I worked night shift I was with them in the daytime, unless they was in school.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, describe a typical supper after you come home from work,
your wife would fix.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, different things, just like...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Just like today?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah. We all lived pretty good. Of course, they had the
commissary out there, you could get anything you wanted. Sometimes we'd have
steak, and sometimes it'd be butterbeans and black-eyed peas and pork chops. I
don't know, we had everything we wanted.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did y'all have a garden?

B.D. OGLESTREE: No... I didn't, but some of them did.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh, what about children's activities? Did they have things
going on at school, or...

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, the school had different things for the children. And they
had a good playground up there. Then on, they had the "Mayfester." I don't know
they had a whole lot.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Mayfest? What's that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, they'd have a big to do up there on the first day of May.
I believe is it, or, they call it the Mayfester. I don't know (laughs). We
had... It was all the children you know... They'd get out there and dance and
cut up and play ball and do everything else. That was a big day. Sometimes
they'd... All the schools would get together and go over on...well they call it,
let's see, (unclear) or something now. It's some kind of hill over there.
Anyway, they had a big park over there, ball park, football or baseball,
anything. It was a nice place. Down in a valley, or I...it looked like a
sinkhole to me. But it was a big place and they had concrete seats all on the
side of the hill. And shrubbery set out all back of the center field. When they
were playing baseball. It's a nice place. Called it the Stadium, TCI stadium, I
know that.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did your children have any specific chores they had to do
around here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: You mean here at the house? Or out, oh--

RONNIE BOULWARE: Right here at the house.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Bringing in coal or kindling or something like that was all.
Wasn't anything else to do, unless it was cut the grass in the summertime.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did they have boy scouts and girl scouts?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, Had boy scouts. We didn't have any girl scouts back...back
then, I don't think.

RONNIE BOULWAREL Did your... Did you have a son?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Was he in the Boy Scouts?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What, what did they do?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, I don't know... They'd just would have Scout meetings
every week and then they'd go off on Scout trips, you know, every once in a
while. They had a Scout cabin back over here in the woods, I remember. And the
Scoutmaster'd take them over there and spend the night. I don't know they'd
pretty, pretty good for the boys.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Give them something to do, didn't it?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: How active were the churches and what was the attitude toward
the church?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, they got along fine... We used to just have one church,
Baptist, well we called it Baptist, but it was Baptist and Methodist both. And
they both went to the same church and had two preachers, you know, a different
one one week and other the next. But they didn't both of them be there the same
day. Itâ€" Got along fine...well I thought they did, I don't know. But anyway,
they split up and Methodist, they bought the old ice house out here after the
company sold it. And, of course, that that wasn't too long ago. And they built
on to it and had the Methodist Church, Well, there wasn't too many Methodists,
you know. Most of them was all Baptists. And they... finally dwindled away, you
know, and there wasn't but about four or five so they decided to just break up
and move over to Midway, over here in the country and join there, And they did,
and they sold the church to the fellow that run the store up here, now, And he
had it tore down here, last year. Ain't nothing out there now.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Well who selected the preachers? Did the company?

B.D. OGLESTREE: No. Well, now when the... It was run by the community, the
church was. The company didn't have nothing to do with that. They just furnished
the church. They furnished the building. It didn't cost anything.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Well that... Do you know what the preacher got paid, or, if anything?

B.D. OGLESTREE: No, I don't.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What kind of transportation was provided around here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: We had jitneys they called them, taxies. There was one fellow,
he'd run from here to Ensley every hour. He'd make a round trip. That was way
back you know when I first come here. I don't know, he'd been on it for a long time.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So that's how y'all got outside of the town?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah. Cost a dime to go to Ensley.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh. Alright, were the prices of the company store, were
they sort of in line with prices outside of the village?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh, a little but higher. Not too much though. It was about like
prices around now with Foodworld and Winn-Dixie or like that.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Foodworld a little bit cheaper than Winn-Dixie and they... And
you know A&P back then here was a little cheaper than the commissary. But they
had good stuff, what I mean up here, they didn't have no cheap shoddy...dry
goods or grocery...nothing. Everything was good main brand stuff.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Could you get credit there?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Good, how much, if you don't mind telling?

B.D. OGLESTREE: I don't remember about how much. They never did turn me down, I
know that (laugh). You can, you know, in the groceries oh...traded by the
estimate they called it, every two weeks or every month. I don't know...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Traded by the estimate?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Estimate--that's payday--yeah. Every two weeks see you got
paid, but if you were on salary you got once a month pay.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did you join the union? Were you a union man?

(recorder changed)

B.D. OGLESTREE: After I had to. I... Well we had two unions, and ah, they had a
popsicle union they called it. That's the company union, like. And, ah...'course
I don't know I didn't, I wasn't no roughneck, and somebody would organize a
union and they were pretty rough. Get out here and beat fellows up and this that
and the other and I didn't like that and so I didn't join them till after they
had to. Everybody had to, they made them. You know, if you didn't you'd get beat up.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Really?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Heck yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So, you had to join the union?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, I had to join. 'Course I was a union man and I believed in
it, but still, I had work and had a family and I didn't want to get messed up.
So, I went the easiest way around.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What about the popsicle union?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, I don't know, it was, it was kind of a union, a company
outfit, company union, and ah...there wasn't anything to it. 'Course if you
belonged to them, why, there wasn't no danger of you getting fired or run off.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did any of them ever get beat up?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Some of them did.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I bet they did. Well, uh, were the tension between the company
and the union, I know they got high at times, didn't they?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, well, it wasn't too bad, but I tell you the ones here in
the village, well they wasn't very bad, as the outsiders coming in here and
trying to make this bunch join the union. And they finally just kept on till
they had to. 'Course there was a few of them to join to start with. And then it
just kept building on up. And they'd strike you know, and, a fellow don't like
to be out of work two or three weeks or a month or two or three months. I know
one time we was, we was out here for about five months on a strike. And if it
hasn't been for that strike we'd have been working the whole time. And...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Well, did y'all get paid anything during that strike from anybody?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Uh-uh.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Well, how'd y'all get by?

B.D. OGLESTREE: I don't know, to tell you the truth (laughs). We made it somehow
or another.

RONNIE BOULWARE: My goodness, out of work five months, that's a long time.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, I don't know, it was rough alright. I believe I...I wasn't
in that. I'd...I was on salary when, after the union took hold you know, and got
to striking. And I was on salary and I got paid right on myself. But the rest of
them, they's... If you wasn't on salary you didn't get nothing.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Alright, I don't quite understand that, on salary.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well that's...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Being paid straight time?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Is that, that's what it amounts to?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I see.

B.D. OGLESTREE: On salary they just paid once a month and I don't know, well we
was foreman. You know, if you was on salary you was some kind of a foreman or,
or worked in the office or something like that.

RONNIE BOULWARE: You were a foreman?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, yes I was... I, well, I wasn't from the first, let me see
it was in... '39, I started as a foreman.

RONNIE BOULWARE: How many men did you have under you, or what was your job?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, I had a crew of men and 'course it was all on day rate
back then, company, you know. And I had a crew of men anywhere from 10, to 17,
20, men to look after. Carry their time and you know, make them work safe and
everything, see that they did work.

RONNIE BOULWARE: You got paid more being that than you ordinarily did?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, yeah you can get a little bit more.

RONNIE BOULWARE: How much did you get paid for being a foreman?

B.D. OGLESTREE: To start out it was $170.00 a month. 'Course back then, $170.00
was pretty good pay. But if you was on, when we was on tonnage, loading coal you
can make more than that, if you worked you know.

RONNIE BOULWARE: That tonnage stuff, it's sort of like production?

B.D. OGLESTREEZ: Yeah, the more you...more coal you load and send out the more
money you'd make.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I didn't quite understand that.

B.D. OGLESTREE Yeah, it was 70 cents a ton where I worked, I worked down in the
southwest. That was pretty good coal, we thought, it was anywhere from ah...
well...three foot coal to three and a half high, you know, thick, and that was
pretty good size coal, we could work it in alright, It was 70 cents a ton back
then, when they, when I first come here on up till they put it on company work.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Oh, well, what about the people who first joined the union,
were they secretive about it? They didn't want to tell anybody or...

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, they didn't care.

RONNIE BOULWAREL They didn't care.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Nah, they was, most of them was them bully fellers anyway. Rough bunch.

RONNIE BOULWARE: When they had union meetings, did the blacks meet separate from
the whites, or they all meet together?

B.D. OGLESTREE: All together.

RONNIE BOULWARE: All together?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did they work together in the mines too?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, yeah they didn't buddy together like when they was loading
coal. Now and then there would be a black and white together, but most of the
time they'd be whites together and colored together, back then.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, uh, who was the political figure around here? Did anybody
come around asking you to vote for so-and-so or... How did things ever get done?

B.D. OGLESTREE: We...you mean in the union or how? What do you mean, vote for
who or what?

RONNIE BOULWARE: Say, the governor or something like that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: No... Well we didn't have no special one--sometimes some
outsider would come around through here and make a speech down there, I don't
remember a name or nothing. Wanted you to vote for so-and-so, stuff like that.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What about union politicians? Did they--

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well now, they would come in here sometimes. Well, the company
wouldn't let them on their property and make no speech. But they would slip
around through here, sometimes.

RONNIE BOULWARE: They did at times?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Talked to different ones.

RONNIE BOULWARE: They did it behind the company's back?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did the company ever punish anybody for something like that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Not as I remember.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did they ever fire anybody for being a part of the union?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Uh-huh.

RONNIE BOULWARE: They didn't?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Ah, some of them say that's why they got laid off, but they
didn't have any proof of it. They was fired for something else or...that could
have been it, alright, part of it, but they couldn't prove it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What kind of health care did you have around here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, we had a doctor's office down there, we called it, it was
a company office. And we had a doctor there all the time, and...it was three
different doctors. And they took it you know in rotation, eight-hour shift
apiece, some of them were there all the time and the nurse was there all day. We
didn't have one at night.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So, the company provided the doctors?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, you paid, we called it, a paid doctor you know, I believe
it was a dollar a month. That was for you and your whole family. And you could
get any kind of medicine. You know, you needed in the way of just ordinary
sickness. And ah...didn't cost anything. They'd come to your house if you got
sick, you know, and they'd furnish the medicine.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Sounds like the company was good to you all.

B.D. OGLESTREE: They was, they was good. They had a hospital over there and,
'course, you belonged to the insurance for the hospital. Didn't cost you
anything, to go over there, I don't know well, it...yeah, I guess it did, it did
too 'cause I know our children, all of them was born over there. I don't know
anywhere from forty to eighty dollars was what I paid for the children. Think
the last one was eighty dollars. First one was forty (laugh). Kept going up a
little bit you know.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Alright, what diseases were prevalent around here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Ah, nothing but the whooping cough or measles, or something like
that. We didn't have any kind of grotesque diseases, you know, just colds, and...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Okay, uh, did the union ever have, I mean, not the union, did
the company ever have company spies?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Not, not here.

RONNIE BOULWARE: They didn't?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Nah, not that I know of.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh-uh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Nah, they was, they was pretty clean, I know at Don Bart
Laboring, you know down there if you ever heard of them, they, I heard they use
to have spies and everything, but they didn't here. If they did I didn't know it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: You mentioned something a while ago, the bullies of the union.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: And all like that, what was some of the methods they used? If
you weren't part of the union, what would they do? Would they...

B.D. OGLESTREE: Ah...they'd just talk big and what they would do and gonna do if
you didn't do so and so, join 'em, you know, stuff like that.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I see. Well, did you see any big changes in the mine work as
you...as the years went by?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh yeah, plenty changing.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Name some of them.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Try to trace it back.

B.D. OGLESTREE: You know you used to, you had to get it with a pick, the coal.
And then those machines come in there to cut the coal down at the bottom and
it'd drill it and shoot it. All you'd had to do was load it then. And then from
that they...well, 'course you had to put it in a car and push the car out to the
main track, let the motor get it. Then they got the shakers they called them.
You run a pan line on, on up as you take the coal out they'd run a pan line on
up to the coal face of it. And you'd just throw the coal on the pan and he'd
carry it on out. It was a shaker, you know...they kind of shake it like that
(indicates) and it'd bring it right on out and put it in cart and then build on
up till they got, ah...mechanical loaders, and they called it the joy loaders,
'course they was made by Joy. But it'd reach in there and pick that coal up and
put it on that conveyor belt and put it in the shuttle car and it'd carry it on
out. Put it in the cart, a lot of improvement. Kinda like it is now. You mash a
button on it now, you use to have to get it. A man's strength.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Yeah.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Man's strength.

RONNIE BOULWARE: What about safety in the mines? Were the mines safe? Did they
have a regular crew to come in and check it out or what?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, we had a safety inspector that come around. And that was
what the section foreman, he, he was in there on those, they had a crew of men
and he looked after the safety part and then, and mine foreman, that was above
him come around and check him and places every once in a while, and 'course we
had a fire boss. He went in there and run it for...run your works. For safety,
and for gas and ventilation and bad top or anything, wood or timber, and he'd
write you up, so you had to keep it in good shape. If you didn't you'd get wrote
up, then you'd get reprimanded from higher up, you know, the superintendent, you
had to go see him. So it was... Then we had our regular safety inspector, the
whole company, he went to all mines. And it was kept safe, I guess...these
company mines was the safest mines there was anywhere around in this part of the
country, 'Cause they believed in safety. That, that was first.

RONNIE BOULWARE: That's good. You were glad they did that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, it was, I don't know, they really believed in safety.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did they ever close any mines because of something happened or
anything like that?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Not with this company that I know of.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: They...something happened kind of like we had an explosion down
here...once. They just closed that entry off, of that slope...for two or three
days till they checked it all out and investigated it and stuff like that, but
as far as shutting the mine down, they didn't.

RONNIE BOULWARE: How many days a week did ya'll work?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, it was five most of the time, just regular operation.
Sometimes we worked six, I mean when they really needed the coal or...we would
work, work six. Well, we did work three shifts...three different shifts and six
shifts a week. Have done that, and then we got down...way back when I first was
here, maybe two and three days a week.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

(audio distortion)

B.D. OGLESTREE: And just work two shifts, night shift and evening shift we
called it. Ah...it was just different.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So you all just swapped out shifts and they just went around
rotating shift...something like that.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, yeah. When we worked in two shifts, most of the time, that
is we was on company work (recorder turned off) [So a night shift would work]
two weeks, I believe it was, maybe a month, an then they'd go on day shift and
day shift would go to night shift.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Swap up?

B.D. OGLESTREE: They'd swap up, that was after the union got in there, and would
make 'em do that. Seems like I believe we did that when we were working three
shifts. You know, call it the owl shift. Go to work at 12 and get off at 8.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So you think that the union did some good things around here?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, they did in some ways. They was pretty good.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Other than that right there, talking about the shifts, name a
few other things they did...they really helped.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Well, ah, right to start with they didn't. What I mean in our
wages. Ah, it cut our pay, you know. Back then three dollars thirty-five cents I
think a shift was a...that was that NRA coal, stuff you know. Had to pay you
that much.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: And the company was paying four dollars for the lowest labor,
and well they cut back to $3.35. After they had to belong to the union you know
or accept the union... And, uh, they didn't all of 'em, but...a lot of the jobs
they did cut back to $3.35.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: And then the union got to striking you know, higher wages and so
kept on and kept on till you get higher and higher. And if a foreman got it in
for somebody, why he couldn't lay him off for just anything you know. It had to
be something that he done, violated the rules, to lay him off, before he could.
The union'd keep 'em from doing that, I don't know, the union was a good thing.
I liked it, except that, like it is now they just keep on and get higher and
higher. (audio distortion) There's no need of that. Every time you get a raise
everything else goes up so what the use of doing it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: They ain't nobody worth no $50 or $60 a shift, and if you have
to work overtime, pay you double time. Some of these fellows now over there make
a hundred and something dollars a shift if they work on Sunday or Saturday.
Or if they work on the-- (recorder turned off) Well if you work,
say on Saturday, there's something that a...need to be done in the mine and they
couldn't do it during the run of the week, you know, the shifts and on Saturday,
well the mines wasn't working and you was asked to come back to work, that's
time and half. And then if you work more than six, if you work seven shifts or
more than so many hours get double time. And like I said on...your birthday you
got at least double time or double and a half. I believe it was double time...on
your birthday. Just like if you were making $55.00 a shift you'd make a hundred
and ten, work on your birthday. Now such as that, that's outrageous.

RONNIE BOULWARE: (laughs)

B.D. OGLESTREE: My notion now, I'm not...and you could lay off if you wanted to
and get just straight time an not even work. Now that's how the union...the
union asked for it and they got it. I don't believe in nothing like that. I
believe in a fellow's working for what he gets.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I agree with you.

B.D. OGLESTREE: They, they get pay now for nothing.

RONNIE BOULWARE: They get, you said $55 or $60 a shift.

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, about $47, a shift is the least paid, the lowest paid. And
that on up... $50, $52 a shift, $55 and some of them they...uh $60 the ones that
run a machine or the loaders.

RONNIE BOULWARE: When the Great Depression hit in the '30s was it really rough then?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah it was. We was off here 14 months.

RONNIE BOULWARE: 14 months?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Company was good to us, I'll say that... 'Course they didn't
give us much, but they give us... I had two children then, they just small then,
that was in, I don't know along about '32, somewhere along in there, I don't
remember exactly now. '31 or '32, '33, somewhere right along in there. And they
give us, give us, give my family and me a dollar ninety cents a week, Loaned it
to me. And you traded up here at the store. 'Course everything was cheap back
then. It was...you could take five dollars and live two weeks on it. And maybe
longer. Anyway, I don't know, we worked around different little jobs, first one
thing and then another, I made it pretty good. I had a brother-in-law over there
in town. He had a good job, he was making I believe it was thirty-five dollars a
week. And he was a good mechanic. He'd get work to be done on cars...

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: And he'd get me to come over there and do the work and give me
the money, you know. He didn't want to do it. He'd work all day and he didn't
want to... Well, he didn't have time to do it in daytime and didn't want to work
at night on it, so he'd get me to do the work. And I used to like to fool with
automobiles, and I knew right smart about 'em. So he'd give me the money along
as I made and we got by pretty good (laughs). It was still rough though.

RONNIE BOULWARE: I bet it was.

B.D. OGLESTREE: But they didn't give us, didn't say nothing the house rent or
nothing and give us that dollar and ninety cents. Some of them got a little bit
more than that. Some of them didn't get that much.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Uh huh.

B.D. OGLESTREE: So it was rough.

RONNIE BOULWARE: Did they take into consideration your family, how many were in
the family...

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah.

RONNIE BOULWARE: To...

B.D. OGLESTREE: The more that's in your family the more you got. That wasn't but
about 50 cents though...a week.

RONNIE BOULWARE: did you have to pay them back later?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Yeah, yeah, when we went back to work then why they cut us two
or three dollars a...every two week on...back indebtedness, they called it.

RONNIE BOULWARE: So the company was...really, really good.

B.D. OGLESTREE: They was...they was, they were good, sure enough.

RONNIE BOULWARE: That good...

B.D. OGLESTREE: They didn't pin down on you for that back pay nor nothing, and
they was reasonable. Two or three dollars an estimate. That was for house rent
and everything, you know. (technical trouble) Yeah, I'd say they were real, real
good, real good.

RONNIE BOULWARE: The conditions, comparing the condition when you first came and
the conditions say twenty years later, they were a whole lot better weren't they?

B.D. OGLESTREE: Oh yeah, there's a lot of difference, a lot of better, a lot
better. What I mean in...we made more money and, I don't know, well everything
just got better and better you know like it did...uh, everywhere else.

Audio Information
Attribute	Value
Interviewer	Ronnie Boulware
Interviewee	B.D. Oglestree
Repository	Samford University Oral History Collection
Accession	SUHist/TCI/005

B.D. Oglestree

Chapters

Childhood

Jobs in the Coal Mines

Life in Docena

May Day

Children’s Activities

Docena Churches

The Docena Economy

The Union

Wages

Union Politics

Health Care

Changes in the Mine and Safety Concerns

Hours and Wages

TCI Services

Transcript

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