Families: Mine and Loretta Lynn's

The Van Lear Historical Society. It houses the museum.

Wednesday, July 24, 2003 11:00 AM

We got a late start this morning, as we needed to catch up on our sleep. After getting ready and a late breakfast we ran up to Aunt Ellen’s to pick up the extra oxygen valve that we had delivered. It will make it simpler if we have one for the big tank and one for the little tank.

Past & Present Van Lear residents who served in the military. The folks in Van Lear are very proud of the men and women who served.

Van Lear is the childhood home of Country/Western star, Loretta Lynn. More importantly it was where my Dad was born and lived for the first two years of his life. The family moved to Ashland after that. What draws us to Van Lear is not to pay homage to Loretta or to revisit where Dad grew up. It is to see and learn more about the mine explosion that took my grandfather’s life.

Traveling back to July 17, 1935 we find that my grandfather, Charley Kretzer, his brother, William, and 10 other men had managed to find work in the coal mines that day.

Doctor's examining table.

The men had not been working very long when at 8:40 AM there was an explosion, that manifested itself as a low rumble on the surface. Three of the men had been working away from the heaved area, assessing and planning the work to be done.

Van Lear phone company

The fate of the men was not known for nearly a full day. But on the morning of the 18^th, the men were found. All had died from either the force of the explosion or from the roof falls that resulted.

This tragedy signaled the beginning of the end of Van Lear as a coal town. World War II demanded coal, but by the early 1950s major mining was done in Van Lear. As for my grandmother and her eight children (Dad being the youngest) there was nothing to hold them there, so they took the pittance of a settlement offered and used it to by a shack and some land in Ashland, KY.

Me in front of a painting in the museum. Miners are on either side. In the middle is a "bankmule". Bankmules are small enought to travel the mine tunnels pulling a coal cart. The Bankmule was the mascot for the Van Lear High School

I knew a lot of this before this trip, learned some while we visited this tiny town, and picked up even more later. But setting eyes on this place makes it come alive. We were here in 1994, but Dad did not join us for that trip. He never gave us a good reason, but he has hated to travel since he was discharged, after 20 years, from the service.

Continued………

We pulled into Van Lear and made our first stop the Coal Mining Museum, which is housed in the Van Lear Historical Society building.

The layers of the Miller seam

We saw a lot of Van Lear history and various artifacts from days gone by. There was an old dentist chair, and a doctor’s examining table. We were told that Loretta Lynn was examined on this table by the company doctor and diagnosed as being pregnant. There was a display of past Van Lear residents who had served in the military. The display featured the men in their uniforms and gave a bit of biographical information. There were old school pictures and old uniforms.

Nice place to visit.....

One of the most intriguing displays they had was a life size mural of the entrance to a coal mine, circa 1910 (my guess). The mural was painted by local artist Tina Butcher. She is obviously very talented. On either side of the entrance stand two coal miners with shovels. In the middle is a small mule pulling a coal wagon. That small mule is called a Bankmule. The tiny statue was necessary as clearance in the mine was not very great. The “bank” part comes from the term coal bank, which is an exposed seam of coal, the stuff the little mule eventually hauls out.

This is part of a model of Van Lear, as it appeared in the 1930s. Tina told me that former residents would come by, find their house, and when no one was looking they would take it home with them.

The tour continued over the three top floors of the building.  The uppermost floor was being used for storage and had plenty of stuff they were going to work into the museum at some point. Tina was very friendly and accommodating. She gave us plenty of details and answered any questions we had. Being used to large museum with either a self guided cassette tour, no tour, or a group tour, having your own guide was a bit intimidating. You felt like she had to have more important things to do, but in reality she didn’t and probably doesn’t on a normal basis.

The bottom floor contained “Icky’s”, a 50’s diner/soda shop recreation.

Old theater seats in storage.

The tour was no charge for us, as we were legacy members of the town. But it was obvious that the historical society could use the money, so I left $20. Tina was very pleased with that, and I ended up feeling guilty for not leaving more, for all the fuss she made about it.

Plaque at the museum. This commerates the mine accident that took ny grandfather's life in 1935. My Dad was only 2 years old at the time. He doesn't remember his father.

So she arrived introduced herself and we followed her back down to her place nearby (everything is nearby in Van Lear). We visited with her for about an hour, taking pictures of each other. I was surprised I was able to remember enough names and fact to carry on, and lead our side of the conversation.

At Louise's house. Dad, Mom, and Margo in back. Me, Jessi & Arielle in front.

Next on the agenda was to visit what was left of Mine #155, where my grandfather died. I don’t remember if we got directions from Louise or Madonna, but like I said, nothing is too hard to find in Van Lear. A mine is essentially just a hole in the side of mountain, and that is what we saw. It was mostly bricked up, but we stuck our heads in and saw enough litter to know that someone, local kids, maybe had at least been in the front area.

Louise Kretzer

We went back to Webb’s Market and got directions from the lady that flagged us down, to Loretta Lynn’s childhood home. The lady, Madonna Webb, is Loretta Lynn’s niece and daughter of Herman Webb, LL’s brother, and man who would be giving us our tour. You don’t just show up to Butcher Holler and take a tour. All are done on demand. You show up or call ahead and someone finds Herman. While we waited we visited with Madonna. She told us about her trip to our home state of Colorado. She was down in the Colorado Springs area. She drove up, as a passenger, to the top of Pike’s Peak.

This is the entrance to the mine wheere my grandfather died. In the time before the accident there were buildings and mine operations all around it. Now it's just a bricked up hole in the side of a mountain

We were on our way shortly and met Herman at the Loretta Lynn’s home. Margo, Mom, Jessi, and I had taken the tour before, back in 1994. Dad and Arielle had not. But, Dad thought it was too much work to get in and out of the air conditioned van and then the walking. Arielle is not a county music fan, so she was out. Jessi and Mom both decided that they weren’t interested enough to contend with the hot, humid Kentucky weather. It was nice and cool in the mini-van. Me, I don’t travel across the country to sit in the car. If they have two guys playing chess, I’m going to be out there watching.

Van Lear is the home of country singer Lorreta Lynn. A repleica of her child home is there, and her brother Herman Webb gave us a tour. When he found our his Dad and my grandpa likely worked together we had a nice time chatting about old times.

Mr. Webb launched into his well rehearse tour speech. It was obvious he had it down to a science. We listened and towards the end, when he paused to take a breath, I asked him his father’s name. I should have known it already, but I’d forgotten. He told me it was Melvin Webb, but he went by Ted. I told him about my grandfather and that he has one of the ones killed in the mine explosion of 1935. Everyone in Van Lear knows about the explosion, but there aren’t a whole lot of them that are still around who can remember it. Herman doesn’t remember it, as he was still a baby when it happened. His famous sister, Loretta, was only three months old. But, he had heard the stories, so we talked about that for awhile, and theorized that hid Dad and my Grandpa must have worked together for a time.

Old stove, with part of a still on top.

Margo had decided she wanted to get a copy of Loretta Lynn’s cookbook, so we figured if anyone had it, it would be Webb’s Market. But, no luck. Madonna suggested a local bookstore called Words n Stuff. She pointed us in the right direction and we arrived about five minutes later. No luck there either, but we did find some other things to take back with us. But, by now it was 5:00 PM, and we should have already been back to Ashland.

Bedroom in the Lynn home

We got back to Ashland about 6:15 and we, which included Aunt Ellen & Uncle Tom, Aunt Ann & Uncle Bill, and Aunt Ellen’s great-granddaughter, Kristen. The food was good, but twelve year old Kristen behaved like a five year old. I thought Margo was going to take her outside and given her a spanking. I can tell you neither of my girls ever carried on like that. They acted up once, each, and got taken outside. I didn’t have to spank either one, as they could tell there were now no witnesses, and decided that it would be best to straighten up, rather than risk a red backside. When the check arrived, I had a devil of time with Uncle Bill and Uncle Tom. They wanted to pay for dinner, but they had been plenty generous already, and would be organizing a reunion picnic the next day. But, in the end their wives intervened and I paid the tab.

Nothing after that. We went back to the hotel and went to bed. We had filled this day up pretty well.