The Cooper Files: An Inside Look At The Mine Subsidence Of 1940 (Part 3)

(Editor’s Note: This series was made possible by the discovery of nearly 200 documents in the former J.W. Cooper Memorial High School building pertaining to the Shenandoah School District’s response to the mine subsidence of 1940, provided to the Sentinel by Kent Steinmetz.)

If you missed Part 2, you can read it here.

Girard Estate Tensions Ramp Up

At the Women’s Club meeting, Ratchford’s speech did not sit well with the folks in Philadelphia.

In a Nov. 18, 1941 letter from Morris Wolf, chairman of the Girard Estate, told W. P. Millington, a Girard Estate engineer in Pottsville, that he was “very much provoked at Mr. Ratchford’s statement.”

Ratchford, according to Wolf, told the Women’s Club that, if neither the Governor’s Office nor Girard Estate helped, “our only course is to sue the Girard Estate.”

Wolf instead said he would no longer consider assistance “until he withdraws this threat.”

“I will not advise the Girard Estate to do anything at all in this situation under any claim by the School Board that we are legally liable,” Wolf wrote. “If and when the threat is withdrawn in a formal and authorized manner, I am willing to continue to try to find some method of helping these people to secure better accommodations for the education of their children.”

“The citizens of Shenandoah must realize that the problems involved from the standpoint of the State and the Girard Estate are quite as difficult as the problem that they have,” Wolf added.

In a memo to the school board on Nov. 20, Ratchford said that, when asked what the state could do, he said they could not provide money to fix a school or build a new one. Instead, he said they could potentially get funds from the Girard Estate.

“I believe that throughout the meeting, we spoke very kindly of the attitude of the Girard Estate,” Ratchford said. “We at no time threatened the Girard Estate and it is unfortunate that newspaper reports of the meeting may have so construed our statements.”

In a memo to the board on Dec. 1, Ratchford said the Girard Estate requested a statement from the district stating that the Girard Estate was not legally responsible for the damages, as well as an agreement that the district would not sue.

Ratchford also contended that he has a right to express himself at a public forum, that he did not threaten the Girard Estate and “therefore, I have no threats to withdraw and I have no apologies to make for the statements I made at the public forum.” He added that the newspaper reporter had a right to interpret the remarks as they heard and understood them.

“The high schools of the community have now been closed for a period of 21 months, practically two years,” Ratchford wrote to the board. “It is a physical impossibility to finance and put the buildings in repair in less than a year’s time.”

“Therefore, high school pupils in this community will pass through their entire high school life without ever having entered a high school building” Ratchford continued. “Time does not stand still, and that which these children lose can never be regained.”

“I hope that another year will not pass by without the work of actual rehabilitation having been started.

The same day, the school board approved two resolutions, directing Ratchford not to withdraw his statements, and authorizing the solicitor to sue the Girard Estate for damages to the school buildings.

In a memo to all district staffers on Dec. 2, Ratchford described the update through a rather colorful football analogy:

“The school team is now carrying the ball. The first half of the game was disastrous for the home team. They were slugged and lulled into submission. They were beaten badly. The fans on the bleachers stood aghast while the visiting team rode roughshod over the home boys. There were no penalties for illegal use of hands, for clipping, for off side plays, and roughness.

“Following the half time period, a rejuvenated team appears on the field. Captain and Quartermaster, Dr. N.C. Brennan, President of the Board, has electrified the grandstands and those on the bleachers with a series of snappy plays. The home team is on the march. The opponents still claim they can win the game because they have the referees, the umpires and the field judges on their side. They say that they can continue the game for the next twenty years, but there has appeared out of the mist, ‘Four Horsemen.’ Our team has caught the vision. The ‘Four Horsemen’ are riding the ‘Four Freedoms’ of America.”

Ratchford went on to quote the four freedoms read by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Congress on Jan. 6, 1941: freedom of speech and expression; freedom of every person to worship God in his own way; freedom from want; and freedom from fear.

However, on Feb. 6, 1942, Ratchford penned a letter to a Pottsville attorney, George Kaercher, who he quoted as saying “The Girard Estate was ready to repair the damaged buildings until that fool Ratchford, talking to a teacher’s group, advised the school district to sue the Girard Estate.”

Ratchford contended that he did not advise such, or make such a statement, and that he resented the “name-calling.” He contended that the accusations were outright lies.

“The world winds up believing what it accuses a person of,” Ratchford wrote. “Your statements are neither fair nor tolerant. To me, they appear slanderous and unbecoming.”

Part 4: https://shensentinel.com/news/the-cooper-files-an-inside-look-at-the-mine-subsidence-of-1940-part-4/

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