Out of the Ashes | Sources

The purpose of my project is to uncover the forces that ultimately led my ancestors to the point where my family is now. Specifically I want to learn more about my paternal grandfather, Eddie Shotton, his knowledge of his family linage, his experiences growing up, and what caused him to leave behind the coal mining industry which has so long been a part of the Shotton way of life. This project is particularly interesting to me because it has made me realize how little I actually know about my grandparents and gives me an opportunity to learn more about them and where I ultimately come from. In order to put the puzzle pieces of the past together I will be connecting what little information I do know about my grandfather and what I was able to gather from my time on Ancestry.com, to other outside credible resources that will assist me in filling in the more historically relevant gaps. With the combined usage of these three separate components I should be able to draw a clear understanding of my family’s ancient roots as well as the routes my family has taken to get to where it is today. This page depicts those resources that I will use to draw on these conclusions.

Sources

Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers. New York: Modern Library, 1960. Print.

Sons and Lovers, written by D.H. Lawrence, was originally published in the year 1913. The latest update and republication of the novel however, appeared in January of 1960. Regarded as Lawrence’s “earliest masterpiece”, it was ranked ninth on the list of the “100 best novels of the twentieth century” by the Modern Library publishing company.

Sons and Lovers follows the story of a lower-class English family and the struggles they face in their daily lives. Such problems that arise are marital issues involving trust and deception, drinking problems, and the feelings of going nowhere or being stuck in life as if being “buried alive” (pg.14). All of these problems stemming from their unfortunate financial situation. Right off, in Chapter 1 the family is introduced as living in a region of Nottinghamshire, England known as the Bottoms, but also commonly referred to as “Hell Row” (pg.3). This is the area of cheaply made, poorly maintained, small and dirty thatched cottages which housed the “colliers” (pg.3), otherwise known as the coal miners.

It is apparent throughout the novel that coal mining during the late 19th early 20th century is not exactly the most glamorous lifestyle imaginable. With “unsafe conditions and low pay” (pg.xviii) it is in fact one of the worst occupations to be employed in at the time and Mr. Morel of Sons and Lovers states that a man “needs a drink” (pg.43) when he gets home from a day “down a coalmine” (pg.43). Despite these negative aspects, it seems that a terrible job with terrible pay may be the only thing better than no job and no pay, especially when attempting to raise a family.

This story connects quite well to my project as well as to my family’s history and their roots and routes. I have discovered that there were fellow Shottons living in the northeast region of England from as far back as 1730, but the first confirmed Shotton to begin in the mining business was one Robert Shotton born in 1850 from Durham, England, roughly 130 miles straight north of the region mentioned in Sons and Lovers. This story depicts some of the troubles that come with being a miner and suggests many reasons why one would want to move away from this practice and in search of more promising opportunities elsewhere. However, it was not until three generations later that Eddie Shotton, born 1964 in Kentucky, finally made the separation away from mining.

Raleys. “A Day in a Miners Life.” The Coal Mining History Resource Centre. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

In 1881 my lineal ancestor Robert Shotton left England en route for the United States of America. With his departure, I know longer had any direct relation to anyone else living in the United Kingdom. However, some of the brothers and the sons of my direct ancestors like Robert Shotton for example did in fact remain across the pond and continued to pass the Shotton name to their very own descendants.

The photo shown was found on the webpage that this source is taken from. Tommy Shotton, a coal miner living in Greenside, England during 1939 has no lineal relation to me. Yet, a coal miner practically since birth living only “seven miles from Newcastle” (less than an hour from Northumberland) has a fair chance of being a long lost distant cousin of mine. It seems that, regardless of relation, Shottons continued to mine the hills of England well into the 20th century if not further. This source will work to highlight the general workday a coal miner would have had in the 1930's of northeastern England in order to give me a better of understanding of how life for my family would have been had they never left.

For any coal miner, home or aboard, the “first task” any miner has when reporting to work is collecting a token which is worn “around the neck” as a means of “identification in case of an accident.” As with the identification tag, the miner also collects the “most valuable invention in the whole of mining history,” the safety lamp. With ID and lamp handy, Tommy Shotton and the other “thousands of British coal miners” being to “descend hundreds of feet below the surface.”

Once below, the miner waits for his “assigned position for the shift” then gets to work at his designated section where he will remain for the next “six to eight hours.” “Crouched into a few feet of space,” Tommy Shotton drills away at the face of the hill with his “windy pick (pneumatic drill)”, a newly implemented piece of machinery that, very similar to the statistics that will be shown later on throughout this sources page regarding mining trends, caused a 57% decrease in the labor force due to increased technology. By the late 1930’s you were either “very lucky or very unlucky to still be mining coal.”

Following a night “500 feet below” (Tommy Shotton worked the night shift), the men gather around for the daily written report, which all men are “free to examine” before leaving for the day. After cross-checking their recorded progress for the day, the men head home where they follow a very specific checklist: “a bath, then food, then sleep.” Regardless of which shift a miner works during the day, these three activities are at the top of all to-do lists. Once these three priorities are met, there is time for a “social life” which generally involves meeting up with fellow coal miners at the “local pub” for a few drinks. After meeting with friends for a time Tommy Shotton finds time for “3 more hours of sleep” before needing to be up and ready to begin the process all over again.

Despite being a day in the life of a British coal miner, this is extremely likely to follow the same routine as any American coal miner of the 1930's, specifically my great-grandfather Robert Shotton who would be mining in Eastern Tennessee at this very point in time, a possible relative to the English miner Tommy Shotton. This gives a good indicator of how the lives were for the men in the mines.

Trevelyan, George Macaulay. History of England. 1st ed. New Impressions, 1926. Print.

Trevelyan’s History of England snapshots the most significant wars, political movements, religious tensions, and European migrations in England from roughly 500 B.C. up until the 1920's. Thankfully, for the purposes of this project I will only be examining the documented events during the later half of the 19th century in an attempt to uncover what may have caused my English-bred ancestors to make the journey to America in 1881.

Leading up to the 1880's in England there was a constant back-and-forth exchange of power in Parliament from conservative ministries to liberal ministries for nearly twenty straight years. This caused competing political ideals to clash creating social unrest and impatience. For a poor mining family this was not very beneficial to my ancestors’ daily lives. During the years of 1874–1880 however, the Disraeli Ministry (Conservative) did in fact issue the Public Health Act of 1875 which did allow for a general cleanup of the more poverty stricken regions of the country and aided in improving the overall standards of living somewhat. This brief benefit was short-lived however as the Disraeli Ministry came to an end in 1880 and the Second Gladstone Ministry (Liberal) began turning their attention elsewhere.

These specific events may or may not have played a direct role into my ancestors’ lives or Robert Shotton’s decision of moving to America. They do however offer some sort of possible explanation as to why he may have immigrated. The events that were occurring in England at this time serve as examples of possible “push” factors for English immigrants to new lives in America. I will also examine events occurring in the United States at this time that may have seemed enticing to European immigrants to determine possible “pull” factors as well. Furthermore, I will be attempting to uncover what my grandfather, Eddie Shotton knows about his own grandfather and his possible reasons for leaving his home country to start anew.

Hatton, Timothy J., and Jeffrey G. Williamson. “What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century?” Population and Development Review: 533. Print.

Timothy Hatton is Professor of Economics at the University of Essex and has focused much of his attention to researching the cause and effects of international immigration as well as the integration of immigrants throughout the world. Professor Hatton, along with the assistance of the Professor of Economics at Harvard, Jeffery Williamson, explore possible reasons why Europeans may have immigrated to America during the 19th century and analyze similar characteristics that the immigrants shared with one another in their collaborative research paper, “What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century?”.

One of the first questions the paper aims to address is “who were the emigrants?” (pg.4). As it turns out, the extreme vast majority of European immigrants that came to the US between 1868 and 1910 tend to be between the ages of 16–39 years old. Only “8 percent” (pg.4) were of 40 years or older and “16 percent” (pg.4) were 15 years or younger. Also, of all total immigrants from Europe between 1851–1910, over “64 percent” (pg.4) were males, and over half of these males were “single and emigrated as individuals rather than in family groups” (pg.4). These three trends that the professors analyze in their paper caught my attention because interestingly enough my great-great-grandfather falls precisely into these statistics as he himself immigrated at the age of 31, was obviously a male, and had thus far remained single until marrying later on in 1895 in Claiborne County, Tennessee.

The professors go on to explain exactly why the trends recorded are not surprising and in fact fall in line with trends observed from other migrations around the world. It seems that when compared to all other people in the middle of a mass immigration, a relatively young, single male has the highest probability of surviving the voyage, finding work, and reaping the most benefits in a new economy due to his superior health, ability to adapt to job related skills, and lack of dependents. This helps explain why Robert Shotton was willing and able to successfully execute a migration to a foreign country and begin to establish a new life in the southern United States.

“The Tennessee Valley Authority: Electricity for All — Social Welfare History Project.” Social Welfare History Project. 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Tennessee Valley Authority as a piece of his New Deal reform in response to the Great Depression. Under the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, many jobs were created in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, and small parts of Kentucky for the construction of dams and power plants as a means to create “electricity for all” and protect the environment.

For the most part this was a largely beneficial act of legislation that is still around today. The Tennessee Valley Authority allowed many unemployed Americans to get back into the labor force as well as make a contribution for society and the environment. Nearly all benefited from this legislation, everyone but the coal industry.

The Tennessee Valley Authority Act was seen by the coal industry as an unconstitutional government infringement on the free market by monopolizing the distribution of energy along the Southeast. Although they supported the construction of dams to “control flood waters”, “improve river navigation”, and “prevent soil erosion” they highly disproved of the governments spread of energy by power plants as that would harm the members of the coal industry. With more than “400,000 men” involved in the coal industry in one way or another, the Tennessee Valley Authority would “destroy the jobs of a number of these men” as the government would take the spread of energy into their own hands.

In response to this act powerful officials of larger coal companies attempted to sue the government for violating the Constitution and many of the “400,000 men working in the coal mines” would migrate out of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s range of influence in order to continue their “only means of livelihood.” As it turns out this group of disgruntled coal miners is were my great grandfather, Robert Shotton, would fall. From my research on ancestry.com I could confirm that Robert Shotton was living in Claiborne County, Tennessee in 1932 by a record of his mother’s death at their home. However, in 1934, less than a full year after the pass of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, Robert Shotton is confirmed to be residing and coal mining in Harlan, Kentucky, a small mining town just one hour away from Claiborne, County and just outside the influence of the Tennessee Valley Authority. This one particular act of congress as it seems may have been a significant event in the history of my family as it pushed us out of Tennessee and into Kentucky where my grandfather would eventually be born.

“Trends in U.S. Coal Mining 1923–2011.” U.S. Department of Energy, 1 June 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2015

My grandfather deciding not to spend his life in the coal mines after three generations of coal miners before him seems as though he chose to break away from the norm. This is not necessarily the case however, as the number of coal miners in the United States at this time was on an exponential nosedive, with some of the highest percentages of decrease occurring in his lifetime.

The number of coal miners in the United States during the 20th century was at its peak in 1923, with “704,793 miners all across the country.” By the time of my grandfather’s birth in 1946, just over twenty years later, the total number of American coal miners decreased by nearly 50% down to just over 420,000 miners nationwide. 50% of the coal mining industry gone in twenty years was the most significant loss in coal mining in the U.S. history “to date” at that time, yet this was just the beginning of the decline of coal miners. In the next ten years, from “1943 to 1953” nearly another 50% of the miners vanished, and from 1953 to 1963 “more than 50% of miners left the industry.” By 1963, what used to be a booming “704,793 miners” was down to a mere “141,646 coal miners,” all in a forty year span. With so many cuts occurring in the mining industry around the 1940’s and 1950’s, it was my grandfather’s generation that was the first to experience this complete reduction of an entire way of life that caused him, and many others to find an occupation elsewhere, whether by choice or not.

Interestingly enough, despite the extreme loss in laborers in the mining industry since 1923, the “overall U.S. production” has “on average” increased every year, exempting rare occurrences. With over 700,000 miners in the early twenties, the U.S. produced roughly “564 million short tons of coal.” Yet, with the all time low of American mining laborers in 2011 being just at “86,000 miners” the U.S. produced nearly “1,100 million short tons of raw coal.” These numbers indicate that “due to ever increasing technology”, less and less physical coal miners are required to produce more coal and thus the jobs that once existed are removed and “replaced by machinery.” They also indicate that with nearly an 875% decrease in workers in the last ninety years and only a production increase of barely 100%, the U.S. production of coal has more than likely reached its peak and will slowly begin to decrease for the first time in U.S. history in the years to come.

Drake, Richard. “Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture.” Appalachian Heritage: 62–64. Print.

Not only do mass migrations occur internationally, from country to country, but they can also occur nationally, from state to state or from one region to another. The paper “Appalachian Images in Folk and Popular Culture” written by Richard Drake, a published historian who has authored many works regarding Appalachia and its history, addresses important traditions associated with the Appalachian region, but most beneficial for my research is the topic of the “Hillbilly Highway.”

Immediately after my great-great grandfather arrived in America in 1881 he moved south and ended up in Claiborne County, Tennessee where the Shottons stayed until 1934 when my great grandfather moved to Harlan County, Kentucky until he passed. These two men both spent their lives mining in the Appalachian region of the United States. Then came my grandfather, Eddie Shotton, who was born and raised in the mining town of Harlan, Kentucky, yet decided never to pursue this occupation. Instead he traveled north in search for a job “in the industrial sector” just like “millions of southerners from Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Carolinas.”

Drake mentions in his paper that “prior to the war” (WWII) there still remained many rural workers in the Appalachians, yet following its end there was a mass movement from this region to the more industrial north between the “late 1940’s and 1960's.” Specifically many of those workers from “Eastern Kentucky” moved to “Southern Ohio, including Dalton and Cincinnati.” This movement became known as the “Hillbilly Highway” and journalists of the time warned local city residents of the incoming “Hillbilly invasion.”

The mention of a migration from Eastern Kentucky to Southern Ohio above is particularly striking to me because that is exactly where my grandfather, Eddie Shotton, migrated from as well as where he migrated to. Born a naturalized hillbilly himself, he eventually became a part of the “Hillbilly Highway” and found work at a factory in Cincinnati, Ohio until he joined the Army and then finally the police force.

Harlan County, U.S.A. Barbara Kopple for Cabin Creek Films, 1976. Film.

Harlan County, Kentucky. Four hundred and sixty eight square miles of mountains and woods known for only two things: coal mining, and holding the world record for the largest ATV parade, and unfortunately for my research I’ll be sticking primarily to the former.

The 1976 documentary film Harlan County, U.S.A. examines the results of what happens when an area of primarily coal miners are pushed too far by “low wages, long hours, and poor working conditions.” This film, which received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% , follows a particular labor strike that occurs when the “coal miners at the Brookside Mine join a union” and begin to rally together to defend their rights as workers.

Unlike standard labor strikes, the strike that took place at the Brookside mine against the Eastover Coal Company lasted “well over a year.” In addition to the amount of time spent picketing, this particular strike was also characterized by being “much more violent” than any strike seen in many years prior due to “exchanged gun fire between the workers and the company owners” and as the strike continued on the violence became more and more “blatant.”

When this strike finally broke out, it was thought of as a “long time coming.” By the time it did occur in 1976, my grandfather had already left Harlan County, and his father had already retired from the coal industry. Therefore, my family avoided the violent strikes that unfolded, but my great grandfather, Robert Shotton undoubtedly faced the conditions that ultimately led up to the fight for better treatment and better pay.

O’Connell, Ben. “Nine Arrests during Protest at Northumberland Surface Mine.” Northumberland Gazette 28 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2015 the arrest of nine coal miners took place amidst a now two week long strike taking place in Northumberland, England at the Shotton Surface Mine involving a dispute between the faculty and the managers at the mine. This information caught my attention as I found it extremely interesting and perfectly fitting that a particular coal mine in the very region my ancestors hail from would be named the Shotton Surface Mine.

After further research of the name Shotton and the possible reasons the surface mine mentioned above would be given this name, I found that in the northeast region of England, where Northumberland and Durham are located, both areas my original ancestors came from, the surname Shotton is extremely common. Even in the late 1800’s “20% of the population” of Northumberland shared the surname Shotton as it is considered the “Smith of the northeast” in England by surnamedatabase.com. This information combined with the fact that I no longer have any living relatives in any part of England concludes that more than likely I am not the rightful heir to a coal mining empire, that instead the Shotton Surface Mine was named this way by mere coincidence.

I was also struck by how little has changed regarding the cooperation of employees and employers in the coal mining industry. Even in the modern century, with a coal mine no more than three years old (Shotton Surface opening in December of 2012) strikes resulting in police involvement continue to occur as they did many years ago much like the 1976 incident in Harlan County, Kentucky. The strike is expected to end sometime soon this week as the remaining strikers and company owners will be discussing terms of negotiation later today (October 28).

Federal Fuel Administration. Illustrations. “Mine More Coal” (1917). Print.

Following the United States joining World War I on April 6, 1917, a massive coal shortage and energy crisis went into effect due to the amount of materials required for the war effort. In less than four months after the U.S. joined the allied forces, the United States government established the Federal Fuel Administration with the use of Executive Order 2690 on August 23. This agency, according to legislation would “promote coal production, manage use of coal and oil, conserve energy nationwide, and shorten work weeks for civilian goods factories.” This particular executive order also established daylight savings time for the United States, initially known as “war-time.” The poster above is an example of the Federal Fuel Administration’s pro-coal wartime propaganda, which in itself was quite successful as they “added daily to the output of war materials.”

During this crucial time in world history, my great grandfather, Robert Shotton, was 17 years old and already married and mining in the hills of Tennessee. Too young for the draft at this time he did his service to the nation by working the coal mines to provide heat and energy for home and abroad. Even after his 18th birthday and his registration for the selective service, Robert managed to avoid having his name drawn before the war ended in late 1918. Yet even after the fighting ceased and the Federal Fuel Administration’s activities and publicity declined, Robert Shotton and thousands of other coal miners continued serving in silence.

What stuck me about this poster was the representation of the coal miner that this pro-coal propaganda delivers. Prior to World War I the coal miner never had an image, yet his work had always been hard, dangerous, and beneficial to the rest of the society. Despite these facts however, mining was always considered and depicted as a poor, lower class occupation that did not offer much incentive or benefits for joining. Then, when it was obvious that more coal and more coal miners were needed, especially in a time of war, the coal miner is presented as being a strong, heroic figure worthy of serving side by side to the American soldier. However, when the war ended and the shortage of coal and energy once again stabilized, this image and mindset about the American miner began to disappear once again while their job remained just as important as ever.

Bentley, Dierks. “Down in the Mine.” Capital Records Nashville, 2010

When searching for a song that captures the essence of life spent in a coal mine, I can across renowned modern-country music artist Dierks Bentley, recipient of multiple country music awards throughout his career, and his is 2010 hit with its ever-conveniently-titled song “Down in the Mine.” Bentley’s “Down in the Mine” addresses why a man would become a coal miner, the hardships involved, and the ultimate sacrifice that all coal miners are aware of each time they decide to go under.

The song opens by stating that “here in Harlan County, the choices are few, to keep food on the table and the babies in shoes.” This instantly rang significance to me as the “Harlan County” mentioned in the first line references Harlan County, Kentucky, the small mining community in Easter-Kentucky and the death place of my great grandfather, Robert Shotton, as well as the birthplace of my grandfather, Eddie Shotton. Bentley goes on to explain that in Harlan you can either “grow marijuana way back in the pines, or work for the man, down in the mine.” This statement is meant to highlight that in such a small town the only two options for earning an income were either illegal, or by coal mining.

Bentley further describes the experiences and conditions that the miners would all have to endure everyday stating that “you never forget your first day in the hole, there’s a pit in your stomach and your mouth’s full of coal.” He also mentions how nearly impossible it is to breathe due to the “dust in your lungs” as you loaded “hillbilly gold where the sun never shines, twelve hours a day, down in the mine.” Inevitably, the combination of having no choice but to mine, and the terrible conditions that came with it is what led to the Hillbilly Highway that my grandfather would one day join, escaping the others who spent “eternity down in the mine.”

Finally, Bentley makes sure to reference the all too common, worst case scenario that is just as much a part of mining as “dust in your lungs” which would be the unfortunate deaths involved. Despite what some may “believe, it can all go to hell at two thousand feet.” In many cases there can be collapses that occur or a fire could start within the mine itself that result in the deaths of hardworking people. My family thankfully never had a serious incident take place during their individual careers down the hole, but it would be worthwhile to ask my grandpa if his father knew any stories of such accidents. Either way it goes Bentley reminds the listener to “take out a flask and a pull of moonshine, and say a prayer for them boys, down in the mine.”

“Tennessee Farm Facts.” State of Tennessee, 2015. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

Following my grandfather’s time in the United States military and his service as a police officer, he and his wife, Sandra Shotton, left their long-time home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia and moved into the middle of nowhere of Spencer, Tennessee onto one of the “91,000 farms” located throughout the state. This is his current home where he lives, now retired, and farms on pieces of the 110 acres of forests in his name.

For many years of my life I remember my grandfather having a cabin built in Tennessee and once it was completed we would visit to ride four-wheelers and shoot on his open property. It was not until his retirement from the police force that he finally moved out there permanently where he is able to live off of his retirement benefits, as well as money earned from “loaning off chunks of land” as well as profits from his “crops and livestock.” My grandparents also try to be as independent as possible as they grow much of the vegetables that they eat themselves such as “tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash.” They also raise and manage “poultry” for eggs and chicken meat.

The information above of where my grandparents now live and what exactly they do is a combination of the little information that I already knew, and the source also depicted above. Exactly why they decided to retire there is unknown to me as is how he came to own the land that he currently does. These questions I plan to have answered during the interview because once I learn how and why my grandfather, who rejected coal mining so long ago, decided to spend his retirement working the land as an independent farmer I will have completed the search for my family’s roots, as well as their routes.