It was after the panic of 1873 that times were very hard.  Strikes occurred often.  In the years 1874 and 1875 I had been idle; at one time, seven months.  House rent and provisions were getting me down too close.  Feeling uneasy over these conditions, I decided to leave this coal field after a strike of seven months.

Primrose mine commenced operation, where I worked under a 33% reduction.  I was very eager to work and wanted to work every hour that I could as I was getting down close to my last dollar.  The few months the mine worked that year, 1875, I worked with four different buddies or partners.  Ventilation was very bad.  We had to use much powder in blast mining a Buck Mountain seam.  My first partner to fall down near me was Johnny BEVAN.  It kept him from worrying (I think he meant "working") again for six months.  Then came, next, Dave RICHARDS, then, a John EVANS.  Then my half-brother, Thomas JAMES.  All these were my sick men.  Not once did I fall, but kept on my feet and was able to carry out my men to where they could get better ventilation until they recovered.  It was quite amusing to hear them say their first words, "How did I get here?" I would explain to them what had happened.  It affected me with a very severe headache and burning in my eyes, causing me to see rings of different colors around a light.  I was anxious to work so I kept on working, doing my best to get ahead again and knowing more strikes would take place again or that slack work would come again soon.

In the year 1876, Mr. Jack JEFFRIES, a coal miner, told me he was going to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work in the mines there that his brother-in-law operated.  I at once decided to go with him.  On January 1, 1876, we left Mahanoy City for Knoxville.  My first impression of Knoxville was agreeable to me.  We left for the mines, nearly 40 miles away, on the Southern Road and came to a small town called Caryville. We worked in a drift mine and batched together in a private home and rented an upstairs room.  We could earn three dollars a day each.  We could live on less than twenty dollars for both each month.

The Coal Creek mines were only seven miles away.  One mine, the Fraterville Mine, came out on a strike.  State convicts were brought in to take the places of the strikers and it caused trouble, crowding the mine where JEFFRIES and I worked.  JEFFRIES left with many others.  I remained a month longer.  As the mines in Pennsylvania commenced to work again, I decided to go back to Mahanoy City again which I left four months before.  There were six Welsh miners at Caryville and four of them were from Mahanoy City.  The last one died more than twenty-five years ago, before 1900.  Jack JEFFRIES got killed in a Missouri mine by falling slate.

Another one of our party who was a fine looking man, died by poisoning.  He was too fond of whiskey and women.  He had a wife in Mahanoy City, but neglected to write her.  She came to Tennessee to hunt him up.  His Tennessee woman heard that Jack WILLIAMS' wife from Pennsylvania had come to hunt him up.  So she put poison in his whiskey and gave it to him to drink.  He walked a short distance from her cabin and laid down and died.  She said if she could not have him no other woman should.  As far as I know nothing was done to the woman.  It was a sad Mrs. WILLIAMS who returned to Pennsylvania.

I went back to Pennsylvania and worked in the mines until the fall of 1878.  Work was not steady enough for me, so I decided to try the West.  Railroads had many posters put up in their depots advertising the West.  Reading them I decided to go West.  So I went to Denver, Colorado.

My family had now increased.  Two children were born: Margaret and Louis.  Margaret was born December 18, 1875 and Louis was born July 31, 1878.  After carefully thinking over my plans, I purchased a ticket at the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station for Denver, Colorado.  My first change was at Buffalo, New York, at nighttime.  My only baggage was a valise and a blanket rolled up.  I had a few hours to wait there before I took the next train to Detroit.

I felt I could pass the time better by taking a short walk up the street near the depot in Buffalo.  The streets were lighted in some places.  There had been a heavy fall of snow.  The snow was piled high on either side of the pavements.  Walking slowly along I turned quickly around and noticed three men near a street light, looking toward me.  It seemed to me they had been whispering together.  They were not there when I passed a few minutes before.  I walked fast for a block and then turned on a side street, making my way back to the depot.  I felt that they were still following me.  Looking back as if I was indifferent as to what was going on, I could see them skulking in the shadows and still trying to head me off.  Every step brought me nearer to the depot.  They disappeared when they got near the station.