Miners who moved to Indiana

By Scott Daily 

Growing up in the state of Indiana, I was unaware of the conection between my state and many coal miners formerly from Scotland. Quite a number moved from the Ayrshire area to work coal mines around the city of Terre Haute in the western part of Indiana. 

According to the "Coal mining in Vigo Country Indiana Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey Special Report 34",  published in 1985, Vigo county, where Terre Haute is located, was the foremost coal-producing county in Indiana. The value of the total product of the mines in Vigo County, the report states, mounted to billions of US dollars. In just the year 1918 mines in the county produced over 8.8 million tons of coal, almost twice as much as the next largest producing county, the nearby Sullivan county (a county that many Scottish miners also moved to). 

A prime example of an Old Cumnock man who moved to this area to be a miner is Thomas Nicol. Born Thomas McCartney Nicol to parents Thomas Edgar Nicol and Margaret (McCartney) Nicol on the 12th of March 1876. Thomas senior served for a time as a sheriff officer, later (by the 1881 census) working as a pawnbroker and accountant. He made several newspapers listings in 1870 when he was fined for assaulting a John Bryce Clark, listed as a writer from Mauchline. 

Thomas junior, who confusingly at some point appears to have changed his middle name from McCartney (his mother's maiden name), to Edgar (his father's middle name), grew up in a home on Lugar street in Cumnock. In the 1901 census he is listed (along with 10 other people) as living with his widowed mother. He occupation in 1901 is listed as fireman in a coal mine. Later in that same year of 1901 he married Georgina Baird, in Cumnock. 

When exactly Thomas moved to the United States is a bit confusing. His draft registration card, shown below, is from September of 1918, however his United States Declaration of Intention (also shown below) which has him living at the time in Michigan, states he first arrived in New York in November of 1922 from Glasgow on board the Assyria. It is likely he made several trips back and forth to Scotland, especially as it appears his wife and children remained or returned to Scotland, as they are shown to have lived and died in the Cumnock area. In any case, the documents show that Thomas was a miner who lived in Terre Haute and worked as a miner. 

Thomas Nicol's draft registration (above)
and his Declaration of Intention (below)

There were many more miners who moved from the Ayrshire area to Indiana, such as Samuel Shaw from Dalry, William Welsh from Auchinleck, Thomas McGuire from Catrine, and more. It is difficult to locate exactly which town or village many of the miners came from originally as frequently on the Indiana census reports and other records, they simply state they were from Ayrshire or sometimes just Scotland. It is remarkable how many miners are listed on the censuses for the area in the mid 1900's as coming from Scotland. See for example the 1910 census below, which list many settlers from the area coming form Scotland, such as David Houston originally from the Galston area. Apparently several members of the Houston family came over, many working as miners, including (though I can't be sure he was a miner) James the son of David, who was excused from the draft of the First World War because he had lost a leg, I would be curious if anyone could work out if this was due to mining?

(See zoomed in image to note the Houston family who seemed to primarily setttle around the Sullivan/Dugger area of Indiana for a time, as well as others)

Without question there were a number of miners who immigrated. Sadly, just like the mines in Scotland, those in Indiana began to decline after the two great wars. With the increase in coal mining is such places as West Virginia and Kentucky, the production of  the coal mines in Vigo county for example went from 8.8 million tons in 1918 to only 1 million tons in 1931. Many of the Scottish miners thus moved or found other occupations. 

1910 Census from Indiana, with a long list of miners originally from Scotland
enlarged section showing Houston family and others