CONTENT WARNING
Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
Context
In rural communities across the state, local stores were often the centers of commerce and provided gathering places for local residents. In the 19th century stores, such as the Pocahontas Colliery Store in Tazewell County, were frequently found in locations that were being developed for industrial purposes and to transport raw materials. In Tazewell, that meant coal.
The success of southwestern Virginia's coalfields in the Appalachian Plateau region, including Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Tazewell, and Wise Counties, is linked to the expansion of railroads. After the Civil War, rail companies expanded westward as industrialists opened coal mines in the state's southwestern region. Norfolk & Western Railroad shipped its first coal from the Pocahontas Coalfield in 1883 and quickly developed lines through Tazewell to Norton. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad built more rail lines into Norton and the Wise County coalfields by the 1890s. A decade later companies had developed lines that delivered high-grade coke coal and steam coal from southwestern Virginia to piers at Hampton in eastern Virginia for shipment to both domestic and international markets.
Before the boom ended in the 1920s, as many as 125 coal camps, or company towns, thrived in southwestern Virginia. The coal camps brought together—often for the first time—miners of different cultures and nationalities. To meet labor demands, mining and railroad companies advertised for and brought emigrants not only from other states, but also from other countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Poland. The local general stores would carry a variety of products that would appeal to workers regardless of their countries of origin.
Pocahontas Colliery Store was a "company store." This meant that the coal company owned and managed the store. In a rural area like this, workers would not have the opportunity to shop in different places. Companies often took advantage of these situations by charging whatever they wanted for the goods in the stores and paying workers in scrip, or money only useable at their stores. They also offered goods on credit to workers. This often kept workers in a situation where they were forced to remain at their jobs because they had no money to spend elsewhere. This situation was memorialized in a 1946 Merle Travis song, "Sixteen Tons." In the lyrics the coal miner protagonist says, "I owe my soul to the company store." Although the passage of New Deal legislation curbed some of these abuses, company towns and stores did not end entirely until the second half of the twentieth century with the decline of coal and U.S. manufacturing.
Citation: Pocahontas Colliery Store, about 1883, Tazewell County Public Library Photograph Collection at the Library of Virginia. View in the Library's online catalog.
Related Document Bank entries:
Coal Piers, Norfolk, Photographs
Jozsef Estéfan, Immigration Request, 1916
See more photographs in the Tazewell County Public Library Photograph Collection in the Library of Virginia's Digital Collections Discovery.
Standards
Earth Science: ES.6
English: 4.7, 5.7
Suggested Questions
Look at It: Look at the photograph. List four observations you can make based on the photograph. Keep in mind the period (early-1880s) in which it was taken. Why do you think a photograph like this one was taken?
Post Activities
Be the Journalist: You are writing an article about the importance of stores in mining communities in southwestern Virginia for a national publication. What information would you need to write your article? Who would you interview? Write five questions you would ask a local resident about the importance of stores in their community and list five facts you know about the mining industry. The article may be set in the past or in the present.
Think About It: What dangers did miners face? Why would the miners and their families rely on local stores for more than goods?
Artistic Exploration: Examine the photograph of the store. What can you assume about how much business it may have done in the area and why?
STEM STAT: Virginia was and still is rich in minerals and other natural resources. What makes Virginia a prime location for natural resources? Use your knowledge of Earth Science, geography, and topography when answering this question.