WINGATE
Coal companies started producing coal with a dream of supplying an industrialized nation. With the advent of the automobile, the United States demanded steel, which steel companies needed to fire their furnaces. Robert Wingate was a man of vision. Using the proceeds from a farming business and the money gathered from investors, he opened Wingate Mining Company. After the Buffalo Creek Disaster, it changed its name to Necro Metallum Corporation for legal and public relations reasons.
Before 1920, there were over seventy mining companies in West Virginia. Investors were eager to own part of this growing business. What most mine owners should have realized was how complex the business was. Mines required workers, and workers needed places to live. Most mines were near railroads as railroads provided convenient transportation of coal. Coal mining towns were close to the railroad lines. These were not towns in the traditional sense but unincorporated communities with no law enforcement except that provided by the coal company. Many of the company towns were enclosed within a perimeter fence. Schools, health clinics, and stores were all part of the town. It was explained to the residents that the fence protected them from unsavory salesmen. These towns also had their form of money called company script. The company script was used to buy supplies from the company stores, which often overpriced items.
Safety in the mines was loosely regulated, and accidents occurred frequently. Being trapped in poverty took on a new meaning for the mines and their families. Many mines went out of business, and other coal mine owners acquired many more. Such was the case with Robert Wingate, who expanded his vision and acquired other coal mines. Wingate became synonymous with coal mining in southwest West Virginia.
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