Date of Graduation
1995
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The industrialization of Appalachia traditionally has been understood in terms of the penetration and exploitation of the region by outside capitalists. The role of indigenous capitalists in the development of the coal and other industries has been neglected. Most development studies have focused on the Central portions of Appalachia, virtually ignoring the northern parts of the region, including the Upper Monongahela region of Northern West Virginia. Moreover, most studies of industrialization have focused on the rural, rather than the urban, parts of the region. Furthermore, the study of the role of coal miners and the miners' union (United Mine Workers of America or UMWA) in regional development has been confined largely to Central Appalachia. This dissertation is an attempt to recast existing views of Appalachian industrialization to encompass the historic role of indigenous coal capitalists. The geographical focus of the study is the Upper Monongahela region, a ten-county section of Northern West Virginia. Particular emphasis is placed on the Fairmont Field, the six counties located in the northern part of the Upper Monongahela region. Also, the study focuses on the urban node of the region, the Fairmont-Clarksburg area. The study covers the period from 1776 to 1888 in a synoptic manner, reserving the largest proportion of space to a delineation of the labor movement and the so-called mine war in the 1924 to 1933 period. Research focused on manuscripts, including the A. B. Fleming, Van A. Bittner, C. E. Smith, and John Cornwell papers, as well as the papers of Districts 17 and 31 of the United Mine Workers of America. A great deal of time was spent examining newspapers, as well as monographs, scholarly articles, and government reports. The study demonstrates that indigenous capitalists played a leadership role in the industrialization of the Upper Monongahela region until the late 1920s, when they fell from power as a result of the Depression. It concludes that the UMWA centered its efforts to reorganize the nation's coal miners on the Fairmont Field during the 1920s, succeeding in re-establishing the union there in 1931, two years before the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act.
Recommended Citation
Workman, Michael Edward, "Political culture and the coal economy in the upper Monongahela region: 1776-1933." (1995). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 10045.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10045