She Was A Doctor Who Played A Pivotal Role In Providing Better Working Conditions For American Coal Miners, Leading 350 Miners To Go On Strike In 1945
I love stories of women in history who saw something wrong or unjust in their local communities and bravely spoke out and fought for justice.
Dr. Elizabeth Hayes, also known as Dr. Betty, was one of those women, as she was a major influence in providing better working conditions for American coal miners.
Elizabeth was born in 1912 in Pennsylvania. Her mother was a housewife, and her father was Dr. Leo Z. Hayes, a physician with a history of advocating for coal miners at Shawmut Mining Company.
Elizabeth and her siblings decided to follow in their father’s footsteps as they got older and decided to practice medicine. After becoming a doctor, she briefly worked in Newfoundland before returning to Bennett’s Valley, Pennsylvania, in the early 1940s.
In 1943, after Elizabeth’s father passed away, she took over his role of being the physician for miners at the Shawmut Mining Company. She ended up treating and helping more people than she thought she would have to, as she was the assigned physician for the miners and soon became the only physician in the area.
Elizabeth spent years treating wounds, delivering babies, and offering treatments to thousands of people in the Bennett’s Valley area. During this time, she began to notice the terrible conditions coal miners had to work in and the overall poor living conditions for mining town residents.
There were terrible sewage issues, contaminated drinking water, and homes that were falling apart. Sewer water flowed throughout the town, even onto people’s front lawns where their children would play.
Determined to help the mining town community further, Elizabeth started contacting Shawmut executives, demanding they do something to help these people.
Elizabeth was often met with weak excuses for not improving these dangerous issues that were affecting the physical and mental health of these miners and their families, the most popular of which being that it would cost too much to fix everything.
martingaal – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
So in July 1945, Elizabeth led the 350 miners at the Shawmut Mines and helped them go on strike, granting their issues lots of publicity. Beginning on a Monday, none of the miners went to work, and she resigned from her position as the local physician. However, during the strike, she discreetly continued to treat people medically.
It was discovered that due to Shawmut Mining Co.’s operations, more towns were being affected and living in poor conditions.
There was a long stand-off between Elizabeth, the miners, The Pennsylvania State Health Department, the miners, etc., and even President Harry Truman became involved when the miners wrote to him, pleading for help.
Eventually, a federal hearing was finally scheduled to investigate Shawmut Mining Co.’s operations, where Elizabeth testified and advocated for the affected families.
The hearing was a great success for Elizabeth and the affected mining communities. New executives were appointed to Shawmut, who were required to help clean up the towns, fix the sewer systems, and provide these residents with the living conditions they deserved.
Today, because of ‘Dr. Betty’s’ efforts, American coal miners are being properly educated about their rights to prevent those horrors from ever happening again.
During her later years, Elizabeth worked as a civilian physician at the Cherry Point Marine Air Base in North Carolina. She passed away due to a stroke in 1984 at 72.
Elizabeth’s bravery and determination to give hard-working people a better life is nothing short of admirable. It’s interesting to think about what would have happened if she hadn’t helped those people spark change.
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