Owning An Independent Coal Mine Company

Hi,
My name is Carl A Hamilton, I am 57 years old and live in Lebanon, VA. I was born in West Virginia at a place called Herndon Heights. I grew up with almost everyone I new working in some way in the Coal Industry or a business which depended on coal. I graduated from Pineville High School which was consolidated with several other Wyoming County, WV, schools into what is now I think Wyoming East. I graduated from West Virgina Tech with an AS degree in Electrical Engineering Technology in December of 1971.

I married my wife Judy in June of 1971 when I was 19 years old and still had a semester left of college. I actually started out persuing a BS degree in Elect. Engineering but wanted to get married so bad I opted to switch to an AS Degree in Elect. Tech. I was only 17 when I entered college, 19 when I got married, and just turned 20 when I finished my college.

From there I got a job with a mine in McDowell County, WV. The name of the mines was Capels and it was owned by Allied Chemical Corporation, Semet Solvay Division. I actually worked in this mine the summer of 1971. This was the beginning of my mining career, which by the way was as a general labor person in the UMWA. My mining has took me down many paths that I'll discuss in later posts.