Joe and Gay Nell Begley, Blackey, Ky.
C. B. Caudill started the country store in Blackey, Ky. His daughter, Gay Nell Caudill married Joe Begley and they took over the store.
My friend said, "They didn't want her to marry Joe." "Why?", I asked. "Because he was a wild man", she replied. Well, he was a free spirit. I'd have to say that. After all, he quit school in the eighth grade because the history books called native victories "massacres" and soldiers actions "victories". And this had to be somewhere in the early 1940s when not too many folks thought this way. An insightful wild man.
After he quit school his granny said that now he could get an education. He got a job guiding land speculators around the county in search of folks who would sell their mineral rights to coal companies. The speculators carried bags of silver dollars with them- easy money for families in a tough spot. The pitch was, "We don't want to buy your land. We just want to buy access to the coal under your property." After a few days of this Joe went home to his granny and said, "Granny, they are stealing people's land. I have to quit this job."
Land owners only knew of deep mines where a hole was cut in the mountains to mine coal. They had no idea of strip mining where the coal company tears the place all to hell. But this broad form of the company deed gave the coal company broad rights to come in and extract coal and haul it - in any way that was possible. Joe had the foresight to know that these land owners were really signing away the rights to their land.
When Joe and Gaynell took over the store they found themselves in a tough spot. If they stood with people and their land they could face some heavy opposition. The county depended on coal. Their clientele depended on coal. It would hurt their business if they made a hard stand. Friends came to Joe and Gaynell warning them of the consequences.
Joe worried about it long and hard. One day he stood on his back porch and said, "Oh, f...k it!" Joe and Gaynell worked in resistance against unfair coal mining practices. They worked against strip mining practices that left the land destroyed. They worked against illegal wild cat mining.
Joe was a deputy sheriff in Blackey, Ky. It gave him some leverage. It was also very dangerous. Joe: " They were doing some illigal mining across the mountain. So, I would stop their hauling trucks as they came through town and fine them for some minor violation, like a cracked tail light. I stopped this one truck. He was mighty mad, you know. And he had a pistol on his hip. I looked at him and said, 'I can tell you want to kill me. Well, you got a gun and I got a gun. If you are ready for something to happen here I'm ready.'"
Joe also stopped a coal train that rolled through town. He told them to let people shovel some coal off the top of the cars to help them get through the winter. Joe: " Hell, they were haulng coal outa here by the tousands of tons, making big money....while people here were having a hard time making through the winter!"
Once the game warden was getting ready to fine a boy for fishing without a license. Joe stopped him, saying " Are you gonna fine this kid for killing a few fish while the coal company is killing fish with toxic run off every day?"
The community started a game and gun club. If there was a coal company running over people's land, folks would call the club and they would start target practicing on nearby property.
Joe and Gay Nell drew a lot attention and they kept the clientele who repected them and the stance they took. They were a part of significant legislation that protected people and their land. In 1988 they celebrated the end of the broad form deed's aggression on land owners. They lobbyed for legislative acts that required better reclamation on coal mining sites. Joe was interviewed by Studs Turkel. He was chosen to introduce Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Coalition to an audience in Hazard, Ky. He was invited to the White House at the signing of key legislation. He met with Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson and Pres. Jimmy Carter. During dinner with Jimmy Carter, Pres. Carter leaned over to Joe and said, "Joe, I hear you can be a mean son of a bitch." Joe answered back, "Mr. President, I have heard the same thing about you."
Joe and Gay Nell loved the music of the mountains. Joe told me that the song, Shady Grove, should be the national anthem of eastern Kentucky. Here it is....for you and the Begleys of Blackey, Ky. Lee Boy Sexton lived just down the road and this is his version of the old time mountain tune.
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