Graham - Billygoat Wagon Used to Haul Water to Mine Families April 14, 1976, Times Argus By Agnes Harralson Photo: THE STEELE CHILDREN and their billygoat wagon which they used to haul coal and hot water. Picture was made in Graham probably just before World War I. After Robert T. (Hob) Steele was congratulated and presented a large framed picture of the giant shovel by Marion Power Shovel Co. for 51 years of continuous service in coal mining, he was visited by Larry Stone, editor and columnist for The Times-Argus, for a session of reminiscing about their work and school days at Graham. Hob had some pictures which neither could identify so, knowing I am three days older than St. Louis, they brought them to me, and, of course set me to reminiscing, too. I well remember the little Steele boys and their billygoat wagon. When I moved to Graham in January 1918, they were carrying on a good business hauling hot water to the Graham housewives. It was long before the day of running water and hot water tanks in the homes at Graham. In the early years of mining at Graham there were two mine openings with one large tipple processing the coal from both openings. The opening on the east was called Skibo and the one on the west was Graham. On the hill above the Skibo opening there was a small house, I believe it was a fan house, just back of the home of the Min Hunt family. There was an iron pipe sticking out the side of the little building and night and day, year in and year out, a steady stream of steam and boiling water dripped into several connected barrels, and the excess ran off down the hill. Mr. and Mrs. Jim Steele lived on the same hill as the hot water barrels and they and all the neighbors carried buckets of hot water to their homes. On Monday, before school time, the women and children formed a regular bucket brigade because it was washday. Mrs. Steele never had to carry water because she had a large family and someone was always on the road carrying water. The girls were Ethel, Kate, Pearl, Kathleen and Anna Mae, but it was the boys, John, Mitchell, Moorman and Hob, who carried the water. And they carried it for the neighbors, too. Finally Mr. Jim decided it would be easier on his boys if they had some kind of transportation for their business. W. L. (Ott) Cash, one of the engineers at the powerhouse, was engaged to build a wagon, and a search began to find a team of goats to pull it. It was a great day for the boys when they took old Red and Rube down to get the wagon. Mr. Cash, being a perfectionist, had made a small replica of the wagons being manufactured by the Ames Company in Owensboro. When old Red and Rube were finally hitched up to it and they started up the street, they created more excitement than Barnum and Bailey would have had they decided to show in Graham. The bed of the, wagon was large enough to hold three 100-pound carbide cans, which must have been 25 or 30 gallons of water, enough for the average housewife to do her family wash. For that amount of water the boys collected 25 cents. On Mondays and Saturdays they could hardly supply the demand for hot water, and every afternoon when the big whistle at the mine blew off the run for the day, the miners came home to take hot baths. They had no company - owned bath houses at that time. So the boys and their team worked fast to deliver on time. It was not always easy and it ceased to be fun when the road was muddy or frozen and they had to help by pushing from the back, and run the risk of getting burned when the hot water sloshed out on them. In the picture (at the top) young Hob is holding the lines and the girl in the wagon with him is not identified. The other three are Pearl, Kathleen and Mitchell Steele. The Steele boys all grew up to be decent, hard-working men, giving an honest days work for a days pay. They loved and respected their parents, knew the value of a dollar as well as the pride of self enterprise and a job well done.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:17:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015