Working Class Rhetoric: An Exploration of The Mining Rhetoric of Southeast Kansas

Disability in the Mines

While working in the mines brought much needed jobs and economic relief to the area, the mines also brought uncertainty and danger. Working in the mines was fraught with the potential for accidents, which could leave miners severely disabled or even dead. The Union sought to create safer working conditions for miners, but it faced setbacks, problems, and only occasional successes. 
Advances were being made in both the Labor Union and the State regarding safer working regulations and benefits for those injured in the mines. Progress was slow. There are several letters and bulletins in the Hearl Maxwell collection that highlight the progress and uncertainty that was rampant in the era.

One interesting bit of local trivia that is featured within this site is that of the local restaurant, Chicken Annie’s. It’s still enjoyed by diners today, and few may know that it got its start in the mining era through the disability of one miner. There were not comprehensive laws in place that provided for the future of families that were facing poverty through the disability of their breadwinner. Families that wished to survive often had to turn to creative measures. Chicken Annie’s is one such story, not just of a family surviving, but of a family flourishing in the face of hardship.

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