Lynch, Kentucky

A 108-room hotel was built to accommodate visiting company officials and other guests. A 54-bed hospital, power plant, churches, and recreational facilities were 

The physical designs of Benham and Lynch enhanced the companies social control over their residents. The model nature of the towns kept employees in place with work, homes, stores, schools, health care, churches and recreation provided, there was little need to go outside. The natural terrain and controlled entry points, similar to modern gated communities, limited access by unwanted outsiders. Company officials were quickly alerted by security personnel when anyone new arrived in town. Partially in keeping with prevailing Jim Crow laws, but also to maintain workforce and community control, racially segregated housing was a standard practice (Figs. 106.5 and 106.6). 

Influenced by prevailing theories of scientific management and welfare capitalism, the two model towns were designed to increase productivity and maintain control over the workforce. Beyond the obvious economic potential of the housing. 

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The company towns of the Appalachian coalfields provide a telling look at the systems of social control exercised by corporate America in the early 20th century. However, their story is not one of simple historical curiosity. They are part of a continuum that runs from ancient Egypt into the 21st century. Less than 200 mi (322 km) from mine Portal 31 in Lynch, Kentucky, is the contemporary company town of Georgetown, Kentucky, home of Toyota Motor Manufacturing. 

Kelemen, T. A. (1974). A History of Lynch, Kentucky, 1917-1930. Filson Club History Quarterly, 48, 156-176. 

In this chapter we will focus on the Kentucky mining towns of Benham and Lynch as case studies (Fig. 106.2). Benham was built by the Wisconsin Steel subsidiary of International Harvester in 1910 U.S. Steel founded Lynch a bit farther... 

The opening of the Harlan County coalfield in Kentucky came when the L N Railroad completed the Wasiota and Black Mountain Branch spur into the county in the early 1900 s. By 1921 Harlan had become the top coal-producing county in Kentucky, and the coal operations established at Benham and Lynch ultimately became the largest in the county. The two towns also became thriving communities that fluctuated in size as the demand for coal, and therefore labor, rose and fell (Benham, Kentucky 2009). 

Johnson, T. E. (n.d.) A history of Lynch District 1917-1957. United States Steel Corporation, Lynch, Ky. (Mimeo) Appalachitin Archives, Southeast Kentucky Community College. 

Schertz, A. E. (1987). Harlan County Coal Camps Lynch and Benham, Kentucky Cultural Transition From Rural to Urban Communities Industrial Documentary Photography, 1912-1948. Cumberland, Kentucky Southeast Community College. Appalachian Archives. 

Wright, George C. Racial Violence in Kentucky, 186 -1940 Lynchings, Mob Rule, and Legal Lynchings." Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press, 1990. 

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