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*Did you spot the anachronism?  It’s pretty unlikely that there would be a concrete sidewalk in Paint Creek in 1903.  Yeah concrete had been around long long before this, but a modern sidewalk would be unlikely for that area & time period.  Doubt it?  Take a look at the surfaces listed on a road map for the state even sixteen years later.

Mother Jones recalled the event: “I remember when that boy (Frank Keeney) was a little fellow. I gave him a book one Sunday and said to him and a few more, “Go up under the trees and read. Leave the pool room alone. Read and study and find out how to help your fellow miners. And he did it”. (Steele [Speeches]).  It’s quite on brand for Mother Jones to call a young man of 21 a ‘little fellow’.
Bessie eventually finished school and became a school teacher. Frank became an avid reader and worked in the mines.  On Sundays while Bessie went to church with the children, Frank kept up his pool hall and drinking habits–so as far as Mother Jones’s advice, one out of two ain’t bad. While his drinking and time in the pool hall were hard on his wife, these habits, paired with stubborn determination and an ability to persuade and lead, meant he was known and respected when he decided it was time for miners to launch a more direct and desperate struggle. (Keeney, Corbin [Life], others)

We’ll see much more of Frank Keeney as the story progresses.  Frank’s contributions to the fight for labor and civil rights during the following decades impacted not only West Virginia, but the national labor debate and our world today.  Still, the contribution of miner activists isn’t widely known.

Historian and activist Charles Belmont Keeney III, who also happens to be Frank Keeney’s great grandson, explained his experience with this in the introduction to his Master’s Thesis:

During my childhood, my father introduced me to the Mine Wars with stories of Frank Keeney’s exploits and I was told that my great grandfather was an important figure in West Virginia history. In the eighth grade, West Virginia history was one of my required courses. I remember searching the textbook for Frank Keeney’s name only to find it mysteriously absent. In fact, less than two whole pages of the text dealt with the Mine Wars. They included a brief mention of Blair Mountain and Sid Hatfield. Confused, I asked my teacher, “Where is Frank Keeney?” She shrugged her shoulders. She had never heard of him. 

 

Eleven years later, in 1999 I found myself as a substitute teacher covering an eighth grade West Virginia history course. Curiously, I examined the new text that had replaced the ones in my classroom. Although the text devoted more attention to the Mine Wars, Frank Keeney, Bill Blizzard, Fred Mooney, and Don Chafin were missing from the narrative while Mother Jones and John L. Lewis were prominently mentioned. Unfortunately, West Virginians are still not the focus of West Virginia history. If outsiders consumed our state’s land and government, is it necessary for them to also consume the pages of our own history?

Knowing this history and seeing it from the perspective of those who lived it, can impact our understanding of the world and how we interact with others today–which is part of why we’re producing Bullpush Hollow.  The other part?  Well–it’s fun!

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