Recent additions to the Bon Air Historical Society website, Mining On The Mountain, include audio interviews with residents of the Bon Air mining communities. The interviews were conducted in the early 1980s by Betty Huehls in the process of doing research for her master’s thesis. Interviews with the following people are now available for listening online under the “History” menu on the website.
- Mrs. Ersia Black
- Lum Cantrell
- Carl Simmons
- Cora Cooley
- Herman Cowden
- William Davis
- Mattie Eller
- Vernon Hutton Jr.
- James Ziska
- John Ziska
- Cecil and Harry Chittick
- Clarence Hamby
- James Rollins
- W. E. Short
- Daisy Jones
- Kittle McBride Fulmer
Also added to the website is information about the eighteen schools that served the Bon Air Mountain communities during the coal mining years. The White County Retired Teachers’ Association granted permission for the Bon Air Mountain Historical Society to use information from their book, Schools of White County Tennessee 1806 – 2006, which was published in 2006. The schools that operated during the mining years on Bon Air Mountain were eventually consolidated into the present day BonDeCroft Elementary School.
Photos of the schools are still being identified and uploaded to the website. If anyone has pictures of the individual schools that do not yet have a photo online, please email a copy to Sue Carmichael at admin@miningonthemountain.org or send an email to the same address to arrange to have a copy made for the website.