These photos are of Bonnie Blue in the 1923-1927 time frame. They were provided by Mary South, who is a descendant of the office manager of the coal company. She also he said he was the post master at Bonny Blue for 12 years. His name was Nathan E. Greear, Sr.
A photo of Nathan Ellington Greear, Jr. (1921-1952). The photo was taken in April 1923. The notation of the back of the photo reads “Coal Co. house in Bonny Blue, VA. Waiting for our house to be built.”
Note: this is a child of an affluent family, the son the coal company office manager. They were living in camp houses while their company house was being built. This picture is important because it shows the houses and boards on the ground to walk on because of the mud. That’s what life was like the the miners and their families. Shacks with no bathroom surrounded by mud.
2. A photo of Bonnie BluePicture of the coal office taken November 1927. The men are (L-R) Harry Dillard, Clerk; Nathan E. Greear, Sr., Mgr.; Henry Nolan, RR conductor. The calendar in the background is from the Bank of St. Charles.A photo of the Bonny Blue coal tippleA photo of one of the Blue Diamond mine’s entrance in Bonny Blue.
These homes built by Blue Diamond Coal Company are all that remains of Bonny Blue, Lee County, Virginia. Bonny Blue is described in Rex Bowman’s “Blue Ridge Chronicles” as “… a string of small homes along a band of asphalt that quickly turns into two muddy ruts. Dogs, chickens and cats wander across the small yards in front of the houses and along a shallow creek that runs through the hollow. Bits of rusting iron scraps litter the landscape.”
C. J. Poe General Store BuildingThe coal company security checkpoint. I have been told that in the old days, one could go as far as the coal processor shown in the upper left of the photo.A coal loader at Bonny Blue
