Venus, West Virginia. Better Known as Gary No.10: By Buddy French
When the U. S. Coal & Coke Company, Gary No.10 mine was opened in 1907, construction on the housing for its supporting community was already well underway. The coal company named its community Venus, but few people ever called it by that name, and it was better known simply as No.10 by its residents. Housing was first constructed along the banks of Tug Fork River, but a much larger area of housing was soon constructed on the mountainside above the railroad. Gary No.10 did not have a post office due to its close proximity to the (No.3) Gary post office. Although it did have a company store, Gary No.10 did not have a movie theatre like some other Gary Hollow communities. It did have a baseball/recreation field which was the home of U. S. Coal & Coke Company's baseball team that played other coal company baseball teams in McDowell County. Adkins District High School at Gary No.3, played their football games on the No.10 ballfield until the mid 1930's when a new football stadium was built in Gary No.3 and the school's name was changed to Gary High School, home of the Coaldiggers. July the fourth celebrations were held on the No.10 ballfield and by the 1950's, a traveling carnival would set up on the No.10 ballfield for a week every year in the spring.
On July 10, 2007, I spoke with Mr. Rudy Kelly of Pageton, West Virginia and he gave the following information about Gary No.10 (Venus). Mr. Kelly said he was born there in 1920. He stated that he began school at the Gary Grade School in 1926. All of the No.10 school kids, beginning with the first grade, had to walk a trail through the forest that joined the No.10 community with the Lovers Lane neighborhood in the No.3 Gary. From there it was another quarter of a mile on to the grade school and high school. The total distance was about one and a half miles, but Mr. Kelly said it seemed much longer when walking through snow in the winter.
I then asked him what was in the hollow behind the No.10 company store. He stated there was a powder house near the mouth of the hollow where the coal company stored dynamite. If you went about a half mile or so up the hollow, you came to portals for the No.11 mine. One portal was on the left hillside and that mine went back through the mountain to the No.11 coal tipple. There was a slate dump near that portal where slate from No.11 mine was dumped. The other portal was just a short distance away and he said that mine drove in the direction of Elbert. He said there were four land leases at the head of the hollow where folks lived. One was where his Uncle Glenn Kelly lived, and it was right above the mine portal at the head of the hollow. The other leases belonged to the Ball, Leach and Belcher families. He said there was a very nice Glen at the head of the hollow that was good for farming.
Mr. Kelly said that when you went to the No.10 company story to buy a chicken, they were held a live in a pen beside the company store. You had to catch one and put it in a sack, then take it home and kill and clean it. He said the coal company (U. S. Coal & Coke) had a farm on top of the mountain above the No.10 mine portal and said it was called the Branscome Farm. There was a trail that went up the hollow to the right of the mine portal to the farm. He recalled leading his uncle's cow up the mountain to the farm so it could be put with a Bull for breeding. The access road to the farm came in from Gary No.3 (Adkins) Hollow. He said it was a very nice farm that had lots of fruit trees, cows and vegetable gardens and it supplied the No.10 company store with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Gary No.10, like all the other communities in Gary Hollow, saw two major events occur that changed the era of the coal camp "company town" life forever. The first event took place in 1971 when U. S. Steel sold all of their company houses in Gary Hollow. Gone were the days when your monthly rent averaged about $35 a month, you had free utilities (water & electricity), and the coal company took care of all your house maintenance needs at no charge. The second major event occurred in 1986 when U. S. Steel permanently shut down all of it coal mining operations in Gary Hollow.
Today, residents are still living in the remaining well-maintained homes at Gary No.10 that began as a coal camp community of the U. S. Coal & Coke Company in 1907. From its beginnings in 1902, Gary Hollow and its communities have produced generations of memories for those who were born and grew up there.
