Detail View: Colorado Coal Project: Interview with Bill Lloyd (introduction)

Colorado Coal Project

Interview with Bill Lloyd (introduction)

Margolis, Eric, 1947-

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n00101170

McMahan, Ronald L.

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no94033808

Coal miners--Personal narratives

Coal mines and mining

Coal mines and mining--Colorado--Management

Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation

http://id.worldcat.org/fast/572994

Interviews

http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1423832

William Henry Lloyd, born 1893 in Wales, was then 84. His dad was a coal miner in Wales and in Penn., returned to Britain and then to Lafayette, Colo. Lloyd worked in an uncle's mines (Blue Ribbon and Patfield) and then in southern Colo.: Raus, Rugby, Lester, Trinidad. Bill started work in 1903, trapping in the coal mine called Frisco: 9 cents/hour, 10 hours/day. He learned mining from his dad at Cokedale. By the time he was 16, he ran a motor and drew a "man's pay" of $3.25 per day. Before the strike, he didn't like working for CF&I: they required him to shop in the company store, paid him in the script, and didn't care whether miners made money. He claims that miners paid the boss for good places to work. He worked at Suffield, driving a mule for Ef Wagstaff, until the big 1913 strike. He moved to Denver and learned automotive skills; later he and his mother moved to Walsenburg during the strike, where she ran a hotel and cooked meals for Mother Jones in jail. He recalls her as a tiny-but-feisty fighter for labor; he followed in her march on the Colorado capitol. Lloyd witnessed the shooting death of striker Lepia in Trinidad, killed by Belcher (who was later shot dead). He knew well both Sheriff Jeff Farr, in Walsenburg, and Shorty Martinez, the cop. At Ludlow, shooting broke out between the militia and the miners on a hogback ridge; Major Lester was killed in town the same day. Lloyd remembers the militia as untrained men. After the strike ended, wages increased from $3.25 to $5.25 per day, so Lloyd returned to mining. Lloyd ran the car that took John D. Rockefeller, Jr. thru the Starkville mine, in 1916 or 1917. He recalls happy times in the early coal towns, under "the Rockefeller plan": lots of baseball games and modern houses for the miners. He joined the union in 1909 and left in 1923 -- he was in management positions until his retirement in 1961. He relates details about the Wobbly strike and the death of 6 men at the Columbine. Sheriff Lou Binan warned strikers to stay away from the mine; a couple tried to scale the fence and shooting began. Lloyd's company preferred the U.M.W.A to the Wobblies. Sympathizers to the Wobblies had been placing IWW posters throughout the mines. In 1918 he qualified as fire boss, then as mine foreman; later he became a mine superintendent at Boulder Valley Mine. He continued to socialize with his friends, the miners. Under his leadership, the Puritan mine produced 64,000 tons of coal in the month of February 1928, producing coal for the Denver Post. At one time, he hired 500 men in an afternoon for the Puritan mine. Over time, the mine shifted from 7 days/week, year-round, to 3-4 days/week in winter and only a skeletal crew in summer. In 1932, he moved on to the JackoLantern, Monarch, Ball, Tiger, Pine Gulch, and Majestic mines (in his "spare time", while still super at the Monarch mine). He details the design of steel-reinforced concrete dams in the mines to control water. Eventually, oil and gas development led to the decline of the Colorado coal industry (in part because coal couldn't be safely stored). He recounts details of several deaths in the mines. At those times, there were no survivor's benefits, so the miners would take up a collection for the family. In addition to single deaths, Lloyd reports there were 126 killed in Hastings, 13 in Bowen, 56 in Starkville, 13 in Cokedale, and 78 in Delawa. Lloyd discusses miners he knew from Cokedale and Boncarbo. He recalls racial and ethnic groups getting along well and living in mixed communities. He recalls CF&I field days in Trinidad -- lots of games, bands, floats in parades. He describes his wife's life, as the spouse of a superintendent among wives of union miners. The women often gathered at parties and excursions to movies. Lloyd now receives black lung benefits.

summary

University of Colorado Boulder Archives

Lloyd, Bill

1978-05-18

Text

application/pdf

narv_coloradoCoal_transLloyd1.pdf

https://ark.colorado.edu/ark:/47540/ph5h1m42j3vj

English

Title: Interview with Bill Lloyd (conclusion)

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Title: Interview with Bill Lloyd (introduction: part 2 of 2)

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Tioga (Huerfano, Colorad, United States, North America) (populated place)

1893/1978

Berwind Mines (Las Animas, Colorado, United States, North America) (mine)