Himlerville: Hungarian Cooperative Mining in Kentucky - The Filson ...

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1992] HimlerviUe 537 tons. In 1924 production slightly decreased to 226,237 tons but increased to 234,076 tons the following year. In 1926 the mine produced a record 325,581 tons of coal, the cooperative's peak production. In 1927 production fell to 240,822 tons and in 1928 the immigrants produced no coal.T° From 1924 until 1927 the Himler Company ranked in the top one hundred coal producers in Kentucky -- forty-eighth in 1924, sixty-first in 1925, fortyninth in 1926, and seventy-sixth in 192731 Himlerville was a model community free from problems that faced many c0al camps. There were no strikes or labor trouble because each miner owned part of the company he worked for. There were no demands for higher wages because any wage increase would lower dividend payments to the workers/stock- holders. There was no trouble over arbitrary company domination because each miner owned the ground upon which his cot- tage stood. The atmosphere in Himlerville was not as foreign to the Hungarians as was life in northern cities. Former Hungarian peasants were not alienated from the soil as were their urban cousins. Himlerville's residents were bound together in an alien land by common ties of culture, history, ancestry, and economic enterprise. It was difficult to find a community anywhere in America that was more of a "Little Hungary" than Himlerville. Within the town's limits residents spoke their native language and lived according to their native lifestyle. These things made it appear that Himlerville would survive, but unfortunately, Himlerville was unable to survive the coal slump of the 1920s. Himler's dream of a model community in which workers were truly the owners of the means of production was not to be re- alized permanently. Officials of the Himler Coal Company made a grave mistake when they underestimated the expense of build- 70Kentucky, Department of Mines, Annual Report, 1920, p. 29; 1921. p. 52; 1923, p. 305; 1924, p. 325; 1925, pp. 82, 269. II1; 1926, pp. 83. 116; 1927, pp. 75, 104. 215. 71 Ibid., 1924, p. 325; 1926, p. 232; 1927, p. 215.
538 The Filson Club History Quarterly [October ing a town and a bridge across the Tug River. When all the costs were totalled, the company had spent over $1,500,000. Most of this money had been borrowed from American banks.72 Creditors demanded payment, and the Himler Coal Company was forced to file for bankruptcy. On 22 May 1925 company holdings were placed into receivership pursuant to orders from the United States Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The cause of the bankruptcy is complex. Himler had organized the cooperative in 1916, shortly before the United States entered World War I. During World War I the Appalachian coal industry thrived because American factories placed huge orders for coal to meet demands for increased wartime production. During this wartime boom period, however, the Himler Coal Company purchased much of its mining equipment and building materials at inflated prices. Company directors failed to realize that the coal boom would end when the war ended. Within a year of the war's conclusion demand for coal became extremely light, and the price offered on the spot market was far below the cost of production. The mild winter of 1920-1921 compounded the prob- lem because consumers were able to carry over coal stockpiles to the next year. This coal slump, which began in 1920, continued for the next two decades. So sick was the industry that almost no coal was sold on the spot market, and mines with long-term contracts were forced to cut back production by two or three days a week. In all mines of the Big Sandy Valley (the coal- producing region in which Himlerville was located), coal production averaged only twenty-eight percent of what it had been in 1919.73 Further compounding the Himler Company's problems was the expense of the company's move across Tug River to Martin County because Himler wanted to open a larger mine. This move, undertaken shortly before the end of World War I, neces- 72Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 235; The demise of Himlerville is also discussed in Watson, "Eastern Kentucky," 48 and Eller, Miners, 191-92. 73 "A Himler Coal Company Osszeomlon," Magyar Banyaszlap, 21 June 1928; Chapman, "Influence of Coal," 234-37.
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