MINGO COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA 
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook 
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 16, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 505
Mingo

EVERETT MCDOWELL HARMAN was born September 22,
1880, at Ennis, West Virginia, and is a son of Frank P.
and Eugenia A. (Edwards) Harman, natives of Floyd
County, Virginia, and a member of an old and honored
family of the Old Dominion. His father, one of the pioneer
West Virginia coal operators, still possesses large and
valuable coal interests, and among other interests is presi-
dent of the Lynn Coal and Coke Company of Matewan, West
Virginia, the Turkey Gap Coal Company of Dott, this state,
and the Premier Pocahontas Colliery Company. During the
greater part of the time he makes his home at Washington,
D. C., and was at one time president of the Commercial
National Bank of the national capital, but resigned several
years ago. He came into the Pocahontas District at the
time of its discovery, in 1886, and, in fact with Bowen and
Cooper shares the credit for having discovered this field.
He himself opened up all the properties of which he is presi-
dent, and turned over to his son for opening the holdings
in the Pigeon Creek District.

The education of Everett McDowell Harman was acquired
in the public school at Salem, Virginia, the high school
at Lynchburg, that state, and the Virginia Polytechnic, a
semi-military institution, where he pursued a two-year
course in civil engineering, but did not graduate. On leav-
ing school he went to New Mexico, where he spent about
one year on a ranch owned by his father, and then returned
and went to work for the Freeburn Coal and Coke Company
in Pike County, Kentucky, where he remained about a year.
His father then selling that property, Mr. Harman came
to West Virginia with the Premier Pocahontas Colliery
Company, in the capacity of assistant superintendent, a
position which he retained for two years, his next location
being at Matewan, where he took charge of the Lynn and
Allburn Coal and Coke Company as superintendent. In
May, 1921, Mr. Harman located at Burch Post Office and
opened the Puritan Mine, thus securing the credit for open-
ing the first mine in the Pigeon Creek District.

In opening the Pigeon Creek property Mr. Harman has
what is known as the Thacker seam and the Winifred seam,
both of which will ship from the one tipple. The first ship-
ment from this district was made July 30, 1921. The prod-
uct is a high volatile coal, and the property will produce
3,000 tons daily. In the operation of the Puritan Mine Mr.
Harman is on the ground daily, mingling with his men and
looking after their interests in a way seldom noted among
the proprietors. He is unmarried, belongs to a number of
organizations, and is extremely popular wherever known.