Working in a coal mine meant getting dirty. Fortunately, coal miners had one perk not shared by many other laboring jobs – a hot shower at the end of each shift. The wash house, as it was called, was a feature of almost every coal mine and had been for generations in unionized mines.
Bill McLoughry, age 54, is shown walking to the Rogers No. 3 mine wash house in Ravensdale after completing his night shift. William O. McLoughry was born in Spirit Lake, Idaho on Jan. 11, 1920. He was the middle child of five born to William H. and Essie (Mayfield) McLoughry. The family moved to Black Diamond in the early 1920s where the father worked in Pacific Coast Coal Co.’s mines. Bill followed his father’s footsteps and started work as a slate picker for Pacific in 1940. Like many young men during World War II, McLoughry enlisted in the military in March 1943, serving with the Military Police until discharged at war’s end.
After a short stint in a Renton foundry, he came back to Pacific, then Strain Company, and in 1947, joined Palmer Coking Coal where he worked most of the rest of his career. His mine jobs included rope rider, coal loader, motorman, cager, and washerman, but like many of his generation, he could perform any task. McLoughry once appeared in the Feb. 22, 1953 Seattle Times Pictorial magazine shown hitching a coal car to the main hoisting cable.
McLoughry spent four years as a union representative for the United Mine Workers of America at their District 10 local headquarters in Renton. However, coal miner employment in Washington State dropped to just 18 men, so the local was consolidated in Denver. Bill returned to Palmer in 1973 where he remained until retiring in 1981.
In 1958, Bill married Madonna (Smith) Pierotti, which ended in divorce. He married June Shipley in 1976 and the couple lived in Enumclaw. Bill McLoughry died May 27, 1998 at the age of 78. No children issued from either marriage, though a nephew, Michael Hawk became Black Diamond’s first casualty of the Vietnam War, dying in July 1969 when a dud mortar round exploded.
This April 1974 photo comes courtesy of Barry Kombol, who worked alongside McLoughry for several years. Biographical information was obtained from McLoughry’s work records with Palmer, and from Donna Brathovde, an amateur family historian who does genealogical research and lives in Ravensdale. Next week’s column will feature Bill McLoughry several minutes later inside the wash house at Rogers No. 3 mine
