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Raymond Aguus "Gus" and
Mary Brown Fritts Family:
Gus was the son of Will Fritts and Alice F. Mary was
the daughter of George and Susan Brown. George Brown worked with and helped
in opening the Bon Jellico mine with Jack Taylor and others. Will Fritts
was the blacksmith for years.
Gus and Mary had the following
children:
Raymond Fritts b. 1/11/1917
Evelyn Fritts Jones b. 7/25/1918
George Fritts b.. 2/27/1920
Pauline Fritts b.. 2/27/1920
Jack Fritts b.. 11/18/1923
Raymond
Augus (Gus) Fritts and Mary Brown were one of the earliest families of
Bon Jellico. Gus’ father, Will, was a blacksmith at Bon. Gus started
work at age 12 under the supervision of B.F. (Bunyon) Brown. Gus later
attended school at University of Kentucky in Lexington where he received
his mine
foreman certificate. Tom Fritts was a mine foreman also and attended
UK; Tom died of pneumonia just after returning from WWI.
Gus
Fritts was the mine superintendent when Bon Jellico closed in 1937. Robert
Fritts
also worked at the Bon Mines as a motorman. I remember
Daddy and Mother
taking us to Sunday School in the schoolhouse and making us behave. I
remember the baseball games and how everybody turned out. George
Fritts was the
water-boy. We would sit on the (hot) railroad track and cheer the
Bon players on.
On
summer nights the men would congregate down at the commissary feed storage
house,
which was on stilts. They would sit and play
cards till dark. Some
of the women would visit and watch the children play—sometimes
catching lightening bugs and sometimes telling spooky stories until
we were afraid to
go home, especially
Bernetta Green. We often walked her home as she lived above the camp
next to the tipple and it could get pretty dark and scary going up
the railroad tracks.
Our
house, in later years, after Dr. Stonecipher moved, was across from the
commissary;
the three big maple trees that stand in front
of the
park are
the ones that stood
in our front yard. I always thought they were the prettiest trees
in the camp.
Evelyn
Fritts Jones started school at Bon Jellico in 1924 and graduated from the
8the
grade in 1932. She attended high school at Saxton,
Ky, from 1932
until 1935 where she graduated. She attended Cumberland College
in 1936-37 and attended
Union College in 1938 and 1939. She again attended Cumberland College
in 1940. She became a teacher and taught in Harlan Co. and Virginia
until 1950. She moved
to Erlanger, Kentucky in 1951 where her husband was a postal clerk
at Greater
Cincinnati Air Port. She had one son.
George
Fritts started school at Bon Jellico in 1927. He had a serious illness
the same
year. He went to school at Bon thru the 8th
grade and graduated
in 1934. He was in the Civilian Conservation Corp. and in the
Army for a total
of five
years. He lived, until his death in the late 1980’s, at
the old home place.
Pauline
Fritts Faulkner attended school at Bon from 1927 through 1934. She attended
the first year of high school at Pleasant
View, the second
year
of high school
at Bon Jellico, the third half-year of high school at Saxton
in 1937, and the 4th year at Alva, Kentucky, Black Star High
School.
She attended
Cumberland
College in 1939 and 1940. She attended medical technician school
at the State Board of
Health in London, Kentucky in 1941 and 1942. She worked for
Clark Bailey, MD
in Harlan from 1942 thru 1957. She worked at Harlan Memorial
Hospital from 1958 thru 1962 and for the Daniel Boone Clinic
from 1962 thru
1978, when
she retired.
She has two daughters and one son. Her husband owned Harlan
Paving and Construction and M&F Ready Mix.
Jack
Fritts attended school at Bon Jellico from 1929 thru 1937 where he graduated
from
the 8th grade. He attended high school
at Woodbine
in 1938.
He attended
Williamsburg City School from 1939 thru 1941. He was in service
with the Army from 1942 thru 1945. He served in Alaska for
18 months. He entered Cumberland College in 1947 and 1948;
he attended
the
University
of Kentucky
in 1948
and
1949 and graduated with a degree in agriculture. He moved
to Lebanon, Kentucky
and taught agriculture for several years. He then bought
a sporting goods store in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and managed it
for years
along with working
for the nuclear
center in Oak Ridge where he went into a man power training
program. He moved to Denver, Colorado in 1981 thru 1982,
where he retired
and
moved
to Rockwood,
Tennessee. He had one daughter and two sons.
Raymond
Fritts started the first grade in 1923 at Bon Jellico. He attended school
at Cumberland College in 1924 and 1925
and attended school at
Bon in 1926 and
1927. He attended school at Cumberland in 1928 and at Bon
Jellico in 1929. In 1930 he attended Bon and William City
School where
he
graduated
from
high school.
He attended two years of college at Cumberland in 1935
and 1936. He graduated from Eastern in 1938. He played on the
basketball teams all
four years
in college. He taught school in Whitley County and worked
for Howard Funeral Home. He taught
school in Harlan County and worked at Peerless Woolen mill
and
prayed pro ball in 1940. He was in the Air Force from 1942
through 1945.
He was in
civil
service
in Topeka, Kansas for nine months in 1946. He moved to
Florida in 1946. He taught school and coached in Florida for 25 years
and was
a principal
in
the Jacksonville
Florida school system. He has three daughters.
“My
memory of the fond times we had at Bon Jellico and the love and closeness
so many
families had and the love my dad had for the camp people and his work
are why I want my Mother’s and Father’s memories
to live on. Dad enjoyed the Bon reunions and attended
them until he became unable to attend
due to illness.”
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