Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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April 25, 2009

Former McComas residents join for walk down memory lane

By Bill Archer

McCOMAS — Memories flowed as quickly as the Flipping Branch Saturday afternoon as a group of former McComas residents — calling themselves McComas refugees — gathered at the Crane Creek Pentecostal Holiness Church for the second annual McComas Memory Walk.

“These hills were covered with houses,” Patty “Spicer” Smith said as she pointed to the hillside behind the old Pinnacle Elementary School. “Now, you can make out where the roads were, and if you go into the woods, you can see where the foundations were, but most of the houses are gone now.”

The former and current McComas residents came from as far away as across the street, Florida and both Carolinas to get together on a beautiful spring day, and walk around what was from about 1902 until the 1950s, the most prolific coal mining region in Mercer County.

“We call all of these little towns the suburbs of McComas,” Smith, who was from Thomas said. Other coal mine towns in the McComas community included Pinnacle, Connor Mountain, Pinnacle Hollow, The Station or Main McComas, Sagamore, Crane Creek, Windmill Gap, Church Hollow, Red Hollow, Thornhill, Godfrey and Crystal.”

Most of the people who attended the memory walk came from out of town. Jim Poore came back from Fayetteville, N.C., James W. Spencer returned Corryton, Tenn., Judy Cole came back from Beckley, but Margaret Davis and her grandson, Zachary Coeburn, live just across the old Coke Road from the church that served as the groups base of operations.

“I would say we fed a crowd of between 150 and 200 people today,” Donna Coeburn said. She and fellow Crane Creek Pentecostal Holiness Church member, Vickie Kennett did all the cooking for the day.

Zachary Coeburn, 11, got an A on his fifth grade project — a poster display that had included several photographs of McComas in its boom years. He titled the project, “McComas. Small Town — Big History.”

“I came to this school when they opened it in 1951,” Smith said. We played out here behind the school. When a ball would go into the creek, all of us would chase it down the stream until we found it. Back then a baseball ... Well, that was something you didn’t lose because you never knew when you might get another one.”

After the luncheon, several of the former McComas residents lingered in the church basement to share memories or look at photographs. Others broke into small groups and walked around, remembering a time when the streets were packed and the hills were alive with families.

“Last year, only 12 people showed up for this,. They asked me to promote it on my web site and a lot more people came out,” Smith said. Smith, who now lives in Walkerton, Va., is the Webmaster of a site devoted to McComas located at (www.mccomaswv.com).

Judy Cole’s father, Richard Cole, was Crane Creek mine superintendent from 1947 to 1960, She was among the group of people sharing memories and visiting with friends.

“This was a great place to grow up,” Cole said.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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