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Beckley Post-HeraldHateigt)UKCKLKY, WKST VIlUiJNIA, (25801) SUNDAY MOANING, AUGUST 3, 1909*—17PMillv/'lt;////£lt;//*yy/s/rAdam and Joanna LeeRetiring Cabell Heights Miner 'Changing Careers' After 53 YearsBy EVE IS KECK Register Staff WriterA Cabell Heights man who •started working at the mines for 110 cents a day when he was 13 years old, made his final trip into the Eccles No. 5 Mine Thursday and began what he termed a “new career” hut with a little “too much bossing.”Adam Zutaut did “as much work and did it as well as any man with two arms,” his section foreman Carl Herron said when Zutaut retired. Herron presided at the traditional mine* retirement ceremony when Zutaut passed on his miner's equipment to his cc workers.His shirt went to the youngest man in this section, Buford Williams of Beckley, a 19-;, „ar-oli working as a bolt man. The hard hat went to Joseph C. Bowling, Zutaut's boots to Houston McGhee of Surveyor, with the admonition not to forget that “a good man” wore those boots, and his lunch bucket to James C. Meadows of Cool Bidge.This “exceptionally good”worker has been without hrs right arm since it was severed at the shoulder by a mine motor just three weeks after he married the former Joanna Lee Willis on Dec. 22,1920.THINGS looked pretty black right then and there have been a couple of times since when feeding an even dozen hungry children was a monstrous responsibility because o f market declines and temporary mine closings.Zutaut Says he decided he was “going to lick this thing” — the loss of his arm — and with the help of men like Ray Burxneister and Tom Morgan, who found jobs he could handle, Zutaut has made a good living ever since.What he calls his new ca: eer is taking care of their hoine while his wife is in a wheelchair recovering from a broken hip. Actually home maintenance isn’t new to this man. Soon after Mrs. Zutaut’s parents gave them the land for their home he 'started digging the basement for it, managing with one arm. just as he learned to tie his shoes and write with his left hand.WHEN TIMES were bad and the mines closed, Zutaut got a job as janitor for Crescent Road and Mabseott schools. And for a time a little earlier he was a guard while the West Virginia Turnpike was under construction.In 1916 when Zutaut got his first job in the mines he was a “trapper,” opening and closing the passage way doors to ventilate the underground ways. He retired as a ventilation^ man, using much more sophisticated equipment, and has performed a variety of tasks in the mine which gave him experience in nearly every job except those involving the exceptionally modern continuous miners.Twice Zutaut had close brushes with death. In 1926 he left the Eceles No. 5 mine 10 minute’s before an explosion from which only 10 __ men escaped alive. He was inside the now abandoned Eccles No.3 mine in 1946 when an explosion occurred but was fortunately in another area. That time he “had communication” and was obliged to remain inside for a second shift.THE ZUTAUTS bought their first car in the early 20s, but Zutaut walked to work, sometimes in snow to his waist because gasoline wa*s such a luxury for his big family. He drives a standard car with no special equipment and has had only one accident — that on a slippery road.Mining was a natural job choice for Zutaut. He was born in the anthracite coal regions of Scranton, Pa., in 1903, where his father was a miner and came here early enough to go to school at Mabseott and Mount Tabor.Both Zutaut and his wife were just 17 when they married after he had spent a year in military service at a hospital in Illinois. Ilis enlistment w a s accomplished when the recruiting officer accepted a statement that Zutaut was 21. and he entered the same figure on his application for a marriage license.Zutaut’s family of 12 is a great satisfaction to him. “They’ve all turned out well,” he says, even though some of them may bo more successful economically than others.THE YOUNGEST child isAdam Zutaut (right), a veteran of 53 years in the mines, gives his miner’s shirt to the youngest man in the Eccles No. 5 mine,19-year-old Buford Williams7*C * * *Diana, a reporter for the Register married to Roger Slone and about to provide the 23rd grandchild in the family in October. Her brother Robert is assistant machinist for The Register.John is in charge of the polico force at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., and Willis, the eldest son is in research for the Ethyl Corp. in the Detroit area.Chess Lee was valedictorianof his Woodrow Wilson High School graduating class and worked his way through Wayne University to become a chemist in the paint division of Montgomery Ward Co.Grover is with the Greenbrier Dairy in Beckley; Paul with the Ballard Sausage Co, and a minister serving a Fayetteville church; Edward is a service man with the Appalachian Power Co. in Oak I-Iill; Skip is just out of the Service and working for Oldsmobiie in Lansing, and James is in Service in Germany.ALL OF THEIR nine sons, except Paul, have seen some service with the military.Two girls make up the remainder of the family group. Betty is Mrs. Kenneth Higginbotham whose husband is in a printing plant in Englewood, Ohio, and formerly worked for Beckley Newspapers. Patricia is the wife of a minister, the Rev. Jeffry Berkley o £ Palmyra, 111., who is just finishing four years of When the Zutauts put on best bib and tucker to attend graduation exercises at WWHS, the former long time principal C. G. Peregoy would wonder out loud if he would live to see all of the family graduate. He did and is now in charge of the ESEA program for the Board of education.“We worked!” Zutaut said, telling about the gardens in which they grew food for their family, the cows, Mrs. Zutaut milked in the cold of winter,, and the canning and later the | freezing they did to preserve! food.Mrs. Zutaut had all of her children, in their spic and span home — all delivered by the late Congressman. Dr. E. II. Hedrick except one who arrived shortly before he did. Zutaut said he often rode about the country with Dr. Hedrick who liked 3ns company. One time when Dr. Hedrick was asked about the familv and whv heof Beckley (left), and his dinner bucket to James C. Meadows of Cool Ridge, following a custom established by men who retire from the industry.★ * * *Zutaut had his first job In the mine when he was 13 and continued to work underground despite the loss of his right arm when be was 17.* * * *Zutaut of Cabell Heights soon will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in the home where they have raised 12 children. Zutaut just retired from the mines, deciding to give up work so that he can take carecame from Washington to treat them, he said “If I were president and they needed me, Td come to take care of them.” There were times before he was elected to Congress when the doctor walked to their home to care for the family.Zutaut is a healthy trim man who says he hasn’t needed a doctor for himself since he lost his arm. And he likes the world as it is better than the so called good old days.“THE WORLD is changing fast and it’s hard to keep up.” he says, but he envisions “lots of benefits” from the trip tofined to a wheelchair probably for three months because of a broken hip.Zutaut’s only complaint Is that on bis first day at home he got “more orders thau I had for a long time.”* ★ * *the moon. “That was good money, well spent and making jobs for thousands,” he says,“There’s no use educating kids if you don’t have jobs for them.” Looking to the future and the time when automation will take over so that no one will have to carry pocket money, he says “This will be a beautiful world.”Zutaut has made his world a “beautiful world” and he intends to continue “doing th* best we can in partnershipwith a cheerful enterprising wife.
Newspaper Details
Post Herald and Register
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Sun, Aug 03, 1969
Page 23
Full Page
Clipped by
Elizabeth G.
AL, USA 10 Jul 2023
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