Farewell old Bucknell and goodbye to Haydock

The coal industry continued to boom in northeast Lucas County as the 1920s moved toward their end and new mines, controlled by subsidiaries of the Rock Island Railroad Co., opened near Williamson.

But just across the Lucas-Monroe county line to the east, the Consolidation Coal Co., subsidiary of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Co. that had produced legendary Buxton, was dying.

Its last gasps --- and mighty ones they were --- had been the Buxton No. 18 and No. 19 mines, located in what was called the Consol coal field, southwest of Buxton and just a few miles east of Lucas County's eastern boundary. Here, the unincorporated side-by-side mining camps of Bucknell and Haydock with a combined population of several thousand had replaced Buxton as the focal point for Monroe County's mining industry.

But by 1929, when a reporter for The Des Moines Register visited the site, the whole operation --- mines and mining camps --- was in the process of vanishing. Today, if you turn north off U.S. 34  onto the blacktop just west of Melrose and drive north, then east a ways, you'll be at their location --- due north of Melrose.

I've borrowed this map from the web site "Buxton Iowa.com." Follow the link if you'd like to read much more about these historic sites and the people who lived and worked in them. The map is intended to direct a driving tour of these sites --- so consider that, too, this fall.

Here's how The Des Moines Sunday Register reported the situation there in its edition of Sept. 8, 1929:

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BUCKNELL --- "All God's children got wings and they've took off for greener pastures."

Those words of an old Negro here Saturday ably described the end of one of the greatest episodes in the Iowa coal industry --- the obliteration of Bucknell and Haydock from the Monroe county map.

And with this community, once known as "New Buxton," ends another of the feudalistic dynasties which have distinguished coal fields for more than a century.

Property worth $2,000,000

Old Buxton, in the north of Monroe county, has already gone --- now New Buxton, here in the western edge of the county, is fast going. Systematically, the Consolidation Coal Company is disposing of its property hereabouts, estimated in value at $2,000,000.

Company owned miners' homes are being sold at $50 each, while junk men are awaiting the results of their bids on the remains of Buxton No. 18 --- once the largest mine in Iowa.

A "Jungle" Grows Up

Like some ancient village in the jungle, the weeds and undergrowth are creeping in on Bucknell and Haydock. Today they are standing in the lobby of the movie theater; six months from now, nature will reclaim its own, and only a few foundations, a ramshackle store or two, will mark the glory which was once only Buxton's.

The decision of the Consolidation company to abandon its Monroe county properties sounds the death knell for the most colorful coal colony ever in Iowa. Two years ago, there were 3,500 persons in Bucknell and Haydock; today there are few more than 100.

Twenty-five years ago, Old Buxton was the largest unincorporated town in the United States, with a population predominantly Negro. More than 4,000 carefree men laughed, sang and fought their way through 18 years of coal history which Iowa will probably never see duplicated.

Muchakinock Becomes Buxton

The real history of Buxton starts with Muchakinock, Mahaska county, back in the 90's, and ends with Haydock. Shortly after the twentieth century opened, the Consolidation Coal Company, a subsidiary of the North Western Railroad, entered the Monroe field, then the richest in Iowa. Preparing to pull coal at an unprecedented rate, they extended their railroad south from What Cheer.

Until that time, Muchakinock was white. Later, with the establishment of Buxton, labor troubles cropped out, and to counteract a group which call themselves "Molly MaGuires" Negroes were imported from Virginia and Alabama. Paradoxically, these Negroes became the backbone of the United Mine Workers of Iowa instead of strikebreakers.

"Hobe" Armstrong Grew Rich

Labor agents who combed the plantations of the south and brought them north by the carload, promised them $20 a month and keep until they learned the mining trade. One of the men who aided the importation was "Hobe" Armstrong, one of the richest Negroes in Iowa. Armstrong, now 79, resides on the site of Old Buxton and tends his 2,000 acres of land.

Buxton was divided by "Swedetown," or the white section, where about 2,000 miners and their families lived. Adjacent to Buxton was Coopertown, said by old residents to have been the toughest town east of Dodge City, Kansas. Saloons, dives and every known vice and racket were tolerated here. Rarely a week passed without a shooting or cutting affray which ended fatally.

Law breakers often played hide-and-seek with officers. When Monroe county officers were seeking an offender, he took refuge across the Mahaska county line, and vice versa. Yet, it was said that "Billy" Griffen, then sheriff of Monroe county, always got his man without even carrying a gun.

But the work and the pay was good. Every two weeks, $125,000 in gold was dispensed to the miners, bringing unparalleled prosperity to all. A company store, the only one in town, employed 135 clerks, sold everything from caskets to pins --- and checked it off the pay roll. Thirteen wagons were necessary to handle deliveries.

And so the miners made whoopee in the mad, merry, reign of joy and terror. Over all these, as a benevolent despot, presided Ben Buxton, superintendent of the Consolidation Company. Buxton tried to keep trouble down by forbidding saloons on company property, but they merely moved to the edge and continued business.

Then Came "New Buxton"

The huge industry was a marvel of efficiency, even machine shops and railroad repair shops employing hundreds of men being located at Buxton. But after fifteen years, work began to wane.

In 1913, Buxton No. 18 was started here and a work train run across the county to the new mine.

At Buxton No. 18, Billy Llewellyn hung up his hoisting record of 3,774 tons of coal in eight hours.

No. 18 was built to last twenty years. Eight boilers were necessary to furnish steam, and an engine room filled with dynamos, steam turbines, and hoisting engines occupied almost half a block. During the war, however, the demand for coal was so great that the Consolidation company was forced to sacrifice everything for production --- and the mine fell short by six years of lasting the anticipated time.

100 Cars of Coal Still Waiting

March 15, 1927, Buxton No. 18 stopped. April 1, 1927, Buxton No. 19, a 1,950-ton mine, shut down with the declaration of the $7.50 per day strike. Today more than 100 cars of coal are waiting on the bottom to be hoisted.

The four winds called to the population, and last year it literally melted away. the banking and business houses began closing, School opened in the fine high school this year with only a few pupils and one school building entirely unused.

The houses owned by the company and which miners have occupied are being sold and moved away at a rapid rate. The finish is in sight.

Rumors are prevalent that the company will return again to Iowa fields in a few years --- but that never again will it undertake to furnish homes for its workmen and follow the feudalistic system which has long prevailed in the coal fields.

But whenever the name of Buxton is mentioned, thousands of Iowans will chuckle over that incident in an Albia court years ago when two Negroes were brought in after a cutting scrape.

"I cut him, judge, because he called me a bad name," said one in defense.

"But judge," said the other, "that's just a term of endearment in Buxton!"