For many years I had no word from Tom.  He had been employed by the U. S. Government prospecting for minerals in the western states and Mexico with a crew of six men.  Prospectors had a difficult time in Mexico.  Many of them were slain.  The papers stated that their names were unknown.  I had come to the conclusion that brother Tom might have been one of them.  After many years of silence in the years from 1884 to 1924 I was then living in Kentucky, and was superintendent of three mines; one day I was looking over an engineering mining journal and I noticed an advertisement from an expert mining engineer reading, "Mines examined, complete reports made," and signed T. F. JAMES, Los Angeles, California.  I sent a letter to that address.  The reply came back to me that it was Tom.  He said he had added a middle letter to his name, the letter F, a few years back.  F meant Francis.  We corresponded for some years.  He came to Knoxville to see me, then on his way to New York to get a party to buy a silver mine in Arizona, near Chloride.

My son-in-law, J. W. WILLIAMS, and his brother, had me to go with them to see the prospect.  We looked the mine, or shaft, over and found it to contain silver, copper and lead, but it was a long haul to the smelter and just at that time the laws were about to be passed that would lower the value of silver.  So the silver mine was not taken up.  Mr. J. W. WILLIAMS hired Tom to look for a gold mine.  After several months of prospecting, Tom found a Tourquis Prospect equipment which was bought and operated for a short while and then abandoned.  Mr. WILLIAMS had spent nearly seventy thousand dollars on the operations.  Tourquis would have to be shipped a long distance for polishing.  This was too expensive.

In the year 1883, many anthracite coal miners were leaving Mahanoy City for Washington territory.  I also thought of making a change again.  Work was slowing down again.  Wages then were $10.20 per week for skilled miners, ten hours a day.  David LEWIS and his wife were soon to leave for Jellico, Tennessee, where new coal mines were opened up by the East Tennessee Coal Company.  E. J. DAVIS was General Manager, and Arthur JENKINS, Secretary and Treasurer.  JENKINS and his mother were from Mahanoy City, but now living in Knoxville.  Also her sister, Mrs. E. J. DAVIS, lived there.

E. J. DAVIS came from Wales to Knoxville.  His occupation was Slater.  He met Miss Elizabeth JEFFRIES, then a school teacher.  Arthur JENKINS' mother was her sister.  There were four sisters of the JEFFRIES family and three sons: David, John and Shadrick, the youngest.  He was an artist.  He and his sister Mary died in Mahanoy City at an early age.  Mary, the youngest sister, married Walter LEWIS, the son of David LEWIS.  The reason why Walter came to Knoxville was that he owed his sister-in-law, Mrs. JENKINS, $3,000.00.  Mr. LEWIS could pay her from his salary as Secretary-Treasurer of the East Tennessee Coal Company.

This was paid to her.

Mr. David LEWIS, wife and son, Walter, and myself arrived in Jellico in the month of September, in the year 1883, and met Harry WYNN who had come on ahead of us.  He also was from Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania.  He was in charge of the developing of the East Tennessee Coal Mine.  The mine was situated one mile north of Jellico in Kentucky, Jellico being the border town.  It was a very tough place; drinking and shooting each other were very common.  Two railroad terminals were there.  The L. and N. and the Southern Railways both were completed about the same time.  The mine had shipped some coal before we got there, but in a crude way.

Few houses had been built.

We found a place to stay at Mr. PHILLIPS' home.  Mr. PHILLIPS was a mine foreman.  A home had been built for the LEWIS family and as soon as they placed furniture in it they lived there.  They lived there for fourteen years and both of them had died in that time.  Mr. LEWIS was first to pass away.  Both of them were buried in Mahanoy City, where two sons, Tom and David, were buried.  David was crushed in the coal mines.  Tom died from a serious cold.  Their graves have markers all in one lot.

Harry WYNN and myself boarded at PHILLIPS.  Later on Thomas LEYSHON, a relative to the DAVISES, and JENKINS, who were owners of the East Tennessee Coal Company's mine and later on the WYNN family and LEYSHONS moved from Mahanoy City to Jellico.  The name of the mining camp was called after a town in Wales, named Dowlais.  Several Welsh families from Wales and Ohio who followed mining, located here with their families.