0:1 L: . . .Was a City Clerk. I
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
B ill Lloyd 05188-1 Page 1 L: . .was a city clerk. 00:01 I: Yeah. That's right, he was a city clerk for a long time. He talked to us, we talked to him for, oh, hours and hours. He took us out around the old mines and introduced us around and. L: Henry? I: Yeah. He's a great old guy. L: He just died, huh? I: He did. We were very sad to heer it . He had some blood disease or something. L: Did his wife die too? I: I don't think so. His wife is in a home. L:_ She was in a home when I was up there. I: Yeah. She's s t ill in a home. She'll probably go on forever. Ok, well, le t's . .Could you start out by x telling us what your name is and how old you are? L: My name is William Henry Lloyd. And I'm 84 years old, going to 85. I was born in 1893 in England. I: Oh xxxxxx really? L: Yeah. In Monmashire County England in Wales. I: In Wales? L: Yeah. I: Oh, were your parents coal miners? L: My dad was one of the best coal miners in Colorado, good coal miner, pick miner. I: Did he start mining in Wales? L: Oh yeah. And in Pennsylvania. He dug coal in Pennsylvania too Bill Lloyd 05188-1 Page 2 in the pitching veins. And then went back, . .he was here 1:13 out in this country here and then my oldest sister was xxxxx born in Pennsylvania. And then he went back to England. And me and my sister was born in England, younger sister. My oldest sister was born in Pennsylvania. Then he came back to Lafayette, Colorado. I: How did he know to go there? How did he wind up in Lafayette? L: Well, I got a. .1 had an uncle that owned all them coal mines up there in northern Colorado like I told you. See, he owned the Blue Ribbon and the Patfield mine and the. .can't think of the mine. The Blue Ribbon and the Patfield and then my dad come out and started working for him in Lafayette. I: What was your uncle's name? L: William Patfield. Patfield. And he wowned the Patfield mine too, up there too. And then when the work slacked off up there and then we came to southern Colorado. We come to Raus, see. And my dad dug coal in Raus, over entry in Raus with my uncle Solomon Jones. And then dad left there and we went over to Rugby. My mother run the boarding house in Rugby, Colorado. And then from Rubgy, after that she sold the boarding house and we came back to Raus. And she run a boarding house in Lester. My dad was digging coal in xxx Lester, see. And then from Lester, then after the big strike, 13-14 x strike, my dad sold the boarding house out and moved to Trinidad. He owned his own home in Trinidad, see. I: Well, when did you start to work? L: 1903, when my dad went from Hastings, from Hastings we went up to Delawa in 1903 and my dad opened up the Delawa mines. He was Lloyd 05188-1 Page 3 digging coal in Hastings and the transferred up there. The 3:38 Victor American Fuel Company transferred x him from Hastings up to Delawa to open up them mines and he opened up Number 4, 5, 6 and 7, see. And then they wanted him to take general manager and he wouldn't do it because he couldn't see very good, see. My dad couldn't see very good. So he wouldn't take it so he went then over. .he quit and went over to Piedmont. 1903 when he went to Piedmont. And he started bossing in Piedmont for a man by the name of Hutchison. Hutchison was the superintendent and my dad and Mr. Hutchison come from the same place in England, see. And I went to working and trapping in the coal mines over in a little mine they called Frisco. I: What do you mean trapping? L: Trapping, taking care of a trap door to direct the air going from one place to another yoi*6ee, then the trap door is put on to block the air to xxxxxxx transfer it around to another way, see. I: Was that a job children did all the time? L: It's a job that kids always done. That was where they started in the mines, when their dinner bucket x drug the xxxx ground, see and that's the way mine done, see. And I was working over there and I was trapping and we used to pick up two mules for the drivers. They was coming over from Starkville to drive in the mine there, see, and me and another driver used to ride the xx mules from Piedmont, 3 miles over, about a mile and a half or something like that over, from Piedmont over xx to Fresco, see. And this old mule I was on, Old Beck they called her, an old Lloyd 5 : 3 0 05188-1 Page 4 red mule, she was old as Columbus. I was leading a bronco one night going home and bronco got away from me and I . next morning we was going over and I had my dinner bucket in my hand and had the rope in my hand and leading this bronco again. And I pointed my hand to show this other driver where this mule got away from me that night. And this old mule I was on, not expecting it, raised up on her two hind legs up in the air and come right down and missed my head and had my hands on the ground and she hit my hand there. Right there's a mark yet, broke that hand and see that mark there? Broke that thumb. She was both feet like that. She just missed xx my head and come down and, see. And I never lost a days trapping. I had my 6:25 hand like that and I stilled trapped. [Train passing through} I : You get a lot of trains through here? L: Oh, god, yes. I: Coal trains? L: Huh? I: Do you ever get any coal trains? L: Yeah. Pretty soon you'll see one coming down, 50 cars. 250 cars of coal went down through here one day, coming from thex western slope somewhere over here by Gunnison I guess. I: Where is it going? L: Huh? I: Wheredoes it go? L: Going east I guess, down there. There'a a lot of coal goes down through here. They got all the same kind of car. They got a big black car with a xxxxx yellow mark on the front end of them. xx Lloyd 05188-1 Page 5 I: I've seen those cars. 7:12 L: Did you? I: Yeah. L: Well we got the railroad train too. Heh, heh, heh. I: Yeah, we got everything. We even get silver in the act there for a minute here. Oh, let's see where we were. .Oh, trapping in.. L: Piedmont. Yeah, then, yeah my dad . .When my dad went to England on a trip, him and Mr. Hutchison, I was paying the rent on the house, my mother was running the boarding house there at that time, see and I paid the rent and it tickled me to death. And all I got for trapping in that mine, see, 10 hours a day. Now look what they're getting today, see. I was getting 10 hours a, day, getting 9¢ an hour, see. 90¢ a day and free oil, that's what I got when I first started in the mine. I: Free oil. You mean for your lamp? L: Yeah, yeah, I had them. .cotton in the lamp you know. Ik: You wear the old soft hat and everything? L: Yeah, yeah. The soft hat. I: Well, how did you learn mining? Who taught you mining? L: My dad. Yeah, my dad. I started when we left Piedmont. My dad quit Piedmont and we went to digging coal at Cokedale and I went with him to Cokedale. And I was loading the coal in Cokedale and he was digging it and I was loading the car. I: What do you remember about the town of Cokedale, what was it like? L: Cokedale? Cokedale was a pretty good-sized place. All cement they block houses and xx had a k clubhouse there. They had a great Lloyd 05188-2 1 Page 6 big hotel there and they had a big grocery store there and a 8:47 nice mine office, nice clubhouse and some nice houses there and they had them in rows and up in one canyon they had a bunch of baches, me and my dad was baching up there in that canyon. I: What does that mean baching? L: Well, just me and him. My mother was living in Trinidad, see. And that's where I started in the coal mining digging coal with my dad, see. And then we left there. We quit there and went over to Bone. My mother got the job running the Bone boarding house, so we left Cokedale and went over there and him and I started digging coal in Bowen, see.