EMPLOYEES OF RINEHART & DENNIS COMPANY AND CAMP FOLLOWERS WHO DIED IN WEST VIRGINIA, APRIL 1, 1930–DECEMBER 31, 1935
This is a fraction of the Hawk’s Nest dead—almost certainly, other victims’ names were never recorded by the company, either because they died elsewhere or because their race meant they were written off. If disaster is the undoing of a star, then each of these names is a star being born. For more information, visit HawksNestNames.org.
Name
Age
Race
Place of burial
Abraham, Eugene
21
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Adams, Winfred
B
Clairmont, NC
Alexander, James
32
B
Logan, WV
Allison, Robert
39
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Andrews, Sidney
22
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Bales, Alonzo
24
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Barrot, Nathan
45
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Blakley, Thomas
B
Diamond, WV
Blankenship, Ballard
30
W
Lindsey, WV
Blankenship, Oran Mearl
41
W
Line Creek, WV
Bostic, Marshall
22
W
Elk View, WV
Bostic, (Mooney) Willie
16
B
Vanetta, WV
Bostic, Ray Ernest
28
W
Elk View, WV
Brown, James
26
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Brown, Parker
38
B
Potters Field, Fayetteville, WV
Brown, Walter Burley
21
W
Syria, VA
Browning, Fred
30
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Burdette, Rufus
51
W
Poe, WV
Caldwell, Henry
30
B
Vanetta, WV
Cashion, Richard Wesley
48
W
Ansted, WV
Chambers, Benny
23
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Chatfield, Fred
30
B
Vanetta, WV
Childers, Lewis B.
18
W
Dixie, WV
Clark, Nelson
30
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Cole, Lonnie C.
34
W
Jumping Branch, WV
Cooper, Mack
35
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Cox, Milton
32
B
County Poor Farm
Daniel, A. L.
40
W
Atlanta, GA
Daugherty, George
35
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Devine, Henry
61
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Dickinson, Frans
42
W
Mt. Carbon, WV
Dixon, James
46
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Elders, Sylvia
35
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Euill, Gaston
36
B
Amherst, VA
Evans, H. C.
26
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Flack, Dewey
21
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
German, Ben
38
B
Beckley, WV
Goines, Marvin
24
B
Not Noted
Green, Clemon
28
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Haines, D. W.
34
W
Sunset Memorial Park, Charleston, WV
Hancock, Bennie H.
47
B
Hunter Cemetery, WV
Harvey, Calvin
38
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Hendrick, Henry (Harry)
42
W
Hendrick, WV
Hicks, James
42
B
Union, SC
Hockens/Hawkins, Richard
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Hunt, Thomas
45
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Inabinet, (S) Walter
27
W
St. Mathews, SC
Jackson, Whirley
24
B
Not Noted
Jackson, Wm.
40
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Johnson, Golden Allen
59
W
Gamoca, WV
Johnson, John
57
B
Boomer, WV
Johnson, Luther
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Johnson, Raymond
38
W
On Gauley, WV
Johnson, Robert
30
B
Vanetta, WV
Johnson, Walter
42
B
Prince, WV
Johnson, William
42
B
Montgomery, WV
Jones, Cecil L.
23
W
Gamoca, WV
Jones, Charley
52
W
Gamoca, WV
Jones, Charlie
52
B
Glen Ferris, WV
Jones, Lindsey
36
B
Vanetta, WV
Jones, Owen
22
W
Vanetta, WV
Jones, Robert
37
B
Not Noted
Jones, Shirley
18
W
Gamoca, WV
Kincaid, Walter
59
W
Terry Cemetery, Victor, WV
Kube, A. L.
52
W
Roadsville, VA
Lane, Henry
26
B
Knoxville, TN
Lee, Sydney
33
B
Denmar, WV
Littlejohn, Mary
40
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Lyles, Ernest
23
B
Diamond, WV
McCalphin (McCalton), John
30
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
McCrorey, George
31
B
Chester, SC
McDaniel, Clara
23
B
Glen Ferris, WV
McDaniel, Robert
50
B
Spring Hill,
WV
McKeever, Grover
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
McKission, James
30
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Means, Charles
21
B
Vanetta, WV
Miller, J. H.
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Mitchell, Fred
40
B
Rock Hill, SC
Monagan, John
35
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Moore, James
47
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Morgan, Ellwood
42
B
Clanton, AL
Morrison, John
24
B
Summerlee, WV
Moses, Lona
25
B
Lancaster, SC
Murphy, Robert
46
B
Camden, SC
Murphy, Sam (Sim)
24
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Nelson, Alex
44
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Nelson, George
44
B
Fayetteville, WV
Patterson, Charlie
25
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
W
Not noted
Pickett, Willie T.
45
B
County Poor Farm
Potts, Jesse
73
B
Diamond, WV
Powell, Will
36
B
Mt. Holly, SC
Reed, Ernest
23
B
Lancaster, SC
Reed, W. M.
55
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Robinson, George
51
B
Vanetta, WV
Robinson, Will
60
B
Bayes Cemetery, Fayetteville, WV
Robinson, Willie
29
B
Summerlee, WV
Saunders, Walter
40
B
Diamond, WV
Sendusky, Albert
49
B
Vanetta, WV
Scott, Joe
45
B
Knoxville, TN
Shepherd, Howard
21
W
Gamoca, WV
Sherrod, John
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Singleton, Roosevelt
31
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Skinner, C. M.
47
W
Thurmond, WV
Slaughter, Hudson
25
B
Pierce’s Cemetery, Fayetteville, WV
Sloan, Mat
31
B
Vanetta, WV
Smith, Bee
29
B
Vanetta, WV
Smith, Frank
45
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Smith, H. L.
60
W
Mt. Holly, NC
Smith, John
28
B
Hot Springs, FL
Smoke, Emanuel
50
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Stokes, Willis
40
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Street, Lewis Walter
46
W
Swiss, WV
Stringer, Ralph
33
W
Cleveland, OH
Strong, John
37
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Sykes, Walter P.
24
W
Peachland, NC
Thompson, Enoch
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Ward, John
26
B
Kings Mt., NC
Ward, Sam
30
B
Vanetta, WV
Watkins, Sam
38
B
Vanetta, WV
Watts, W. A.
42
W
Not Noted
White, James
B
Diamond, WV
Williams, Joe
30
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Williams, Willie
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Wilson, James
32
B
Summerlee, WV
Woodard, Calvin
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Woods, Frank
23
B
White Farm, Summersville, WV
Woodward, Will
40
B
Lewis Cemetery, Summersville, WV
Yarber, George
18
W
Beckwith, WV
WESLEY MORRIS
Last Taboo
FROM The New York Times Magazine
These are banner times for penises on-screen. In the last eighteen months or so, I’ve seen casually naked men on The Affair and on Girls, plus casually naked robots on Westworld. Penises have appeared on Game of Thrones (where one was once violently disappeared) and been simulated by a killer drill on American Horror Story: Hotel. They were in movies like Get Hard and Unfinished Business; one was there-ish on John Cena in Trainwreck; they showed up in stunt form on a meek Adam Scott in The Overnight and through the boxer briefs of a smugly sunny Chris Hemsworth in Vacation. Ralph Fiennes spent some of this spring’s A Bigger Splash having a glorious time wearing nothing. And then there was Weiner, a hit documentary about the scandal started by the disseminated bulge in a politician’s underwear. Once upon a time, just seeing a man’s rear on television might cause a scandal; now you don’t have to go too far out of your way to encounter his front. Our cultural standards have relaxed just enough to show a man in full.
And why not? Women have long been asked to take off their clothes, out of both artistic necessity and rank gratuitousness. Isn’t it men’s turn? Even when the nudity veers into homophobia (and boy, can it), there is an “at last” quality to all of this bareness: it’s so matter-of-fact, so casual. (We’re not, to be clear, talking about erections; there’s still a line between a flaccid, out-of-focus penis attached to what’s probably a stunt double on The Affair and, say, a European troublemaker like Gaspar Noé filming aroused, ejaculating ones.) We’ve gotten more gender-neutral, more feminist, more comfortable with our various bodies, more used to seeing dudes in gym locker rooms, better at Instagram and Snapchat and Tumblr—and so, too, have we gotten more OK with penises.
Some penises, anyway.
A vast majority of these penises are funny, casual, unserious. Their unceremonious appearance—as naturalism, comedy, symbolism, provocation—is new, and maybe progressive. But that progress is exclusive, because these penises almost always belong to white men. As commonplace as it has recently become to see black men on television and at the heart of films, and as normal as it’s becoming to see male nudity in general, it has been a lot more difficult to see those two changes expressed in the same body. A black penis, even the idea of one, is still too disturbingly bound up in how America sees—or refuses to see—itself. I enjoyed HBO’s summer crim
e thriller, The Night Of, but it offered some odd food for thought: the most lovingly photographed black penis I’ve ever seen on TV belonged to a corpse in the show’s morgue. Meanwhile, the series’ most sexual black character was a rapist inmate.
The black penis is imagined more than it’s seen, which isn’t surprising. This newly relaxed standard for showing penises feels like a triumph of juvenile phallocentrism—it’s dudes peeking over a urinal divider and, as often as not, giggling at what they see. Not all of that peeking is harmless; some of those dudes are scared of what they’ve seen. And knowing that—knowing even a whiff of the American history of white men’s perception of the black penis—leaves you vulnerable to attack, even when all you think you’re doing is going to see, I don’t know, Ted 2.
Officially, there are no penises in Ted 2, the comedy written by, directed by, and starring Seth MacFarlane that was a hit last summer. And yet they’re everywhere—scary black ones. Mark Wahlberg plays a New England knucklehead named John, who swears that you can’t use the internet without running into one. When a mishap at a fertility clinic leaves him covered in semen, a staff member tells him not to worry; it’s just the sperm of men with sickle-cell anemia, a disease that, in the United States, overwhelmingly afflicts African Americans. John’s best friend, Ted—a nasty animated teddy bear—gets a huge kick out of this: “You hear that? You’re covered in rejected black-guy sperm,” it says. “You look like a Kardashian!”
The Best American Essays 2017 Page 22
