#company town

[leesmithvibes]

Broken glass around the foundations of old miners’ homes in Nuttallburg, West Virginia

[sistersorrow]

Someone should make a hybrid colony manager/city builder/tycoon game where your goal is to build and operate a company town

The capacity for atrocities should be on the same level as rimworld and Dwarf Fortress

[palmtreepalmtree]

Ooof. They updated their initial messaging and clarified that they're not sure if their stats are accurate, but this is pretty rough news still.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"The rudimentary and primitive living conditions of many canallers and navvies at mid-century emerge from an 1855 newspaper report of "the long range of villages" on a stretch of the Nova Scotia Railway a few miles out from Halifax,

villages which like Jonah's guard, have sprung up in a night, thickly settled with men, women, and children. The villages are so new they have not received their proper names but for want of more dignified ones till they grow older and get a more popular and attractive appellation; they may be called Virgin Town, Serape Town, Scrabble Town, Bramble Town, and Slab Town. In imagination I was conducted to the morning of the world when our first parents erected a booth to shelter themselves from the rays of an Eastern sun, or to the first year when Halifax was settled by Lord Cornwallis when the emigrants leaped from the boats into the green woods The houses are stuck in among the rocks and green woods, so close together that you might hand a biscuit to your neighbor [sic] across the street, and with the other hand touch the tree which shades your home.

Nova Scotian, 17 September 1855

Even such a romanticized account of new beginnings could not ignore the poverty within these communities. In makeshift and transitory shelters, located on the works for a few months or seasons and cobbled together from resources carried to or found in the area, labourers and their families lived in buildings "constructed of the humblest materials, a few poles fastened together, the crevices filled with moss and roofed with hemlock bark." Like much else in their lives, their shelters were shaped by the transitory nature of the work and the worksites themselves and capture essential elements of living conditions among the labourers and their families.

...

...it is hard to escape the sense that many of these workers occupied a fragile place in a changing economy and had only a tenuous hold on subsistence.

The Scrabble Towns and Bramble Towns along the Nova Scotia Railway were mirrored along a sixteen-mile stretch of the European and North American in New Brunswick in 1858, where a reporter described no less than 136 railway labourers' dwellings which had sprung up, it seemed, "over night. Many other shanties were hidden from view further back from the road." Another mushrooming of three clusters of shanties on another stretch of the same railway in the summer of 1857: one group of twenty just beyond eleven mile house, another "shanty settlement" a short distance from Hampton's Ferry, and another under construction near twelve mile house.

Such makeshift and ramshackle housing was hardly unique to construction labourers and their families. Squatters reproduced similar shacks and cabins on the edge of urban communities and on unoccupied land in rural areas throughout British North America. What was remarkable about canal and railway shantytowns was the rapidity with which they sprang to life then disappeared. Intended to be temporary, some to last perhaps only a summer or winter, they were in constant flux, and when their occupants moved on they frequently uprooted and carried away what materials they could for the makings of new homes somewhere further down the line. Even in settled areas the concentration of labourers on a public work strained existing accommodation and crowded workers into makeshift facilities.

Contracts might call for the provision of suitable dwellings for the workforce; however, contractors were left to find their own definition of "suitable" for what was, after all, short-term accommodation for men and families with few possessions and accustomed to rough living. While these definitions could vary widely, contractors seem to have agreed that what was appropriate for skilled workers was unnecessarily lavish for the unskilled. On the Chats in the 1850s, for example, contractors attempted to provide comfortable "dwelling houses" for foremen and skilled workers to attract them and keep them on the works. The unskilled they packed into crude boarding shacks likely modelled on the lumbering shanties in which many of the labourers were accustomed to spending their winters. These might be as large as twenty by forty feet and house between sixty and seventy-five men, or as small as the twelve-foot-square shanties which each housed two dozen individuals on the Williamsburg in the 1840s. They might include sleeping lofts, like the contractors' shanties along the Nova Scotia Railway, or one floor of tightly packed rows of beds. The principle was to create enough room for men, and sometimes women and children, to bed down for a few months or seasons. The results were predictable. The "Man from Kent" who wrote to the Toronto papers denouncing treatment of immigrants by canal and railway contractors may not have been too far off the mark when he argued that labourers were

herded like pigs in temporary shanties, and eaten alive by vermin.

Not all contractors and subcontractors provided even this minimum of accommodation. The ethos and necessity of paternalism which had encouraged contractors in earlier decades to assume some responsibility for housing and other aspects of their labourers welfare was shaken by cycles of at times massive labour surpluses. The location or timing of construction might prompt a contractor to provide lodging and other necessities: when competition for labour was stiff or the worksite relatively remote; when the work was particularly unpleasant; or when government officials warned that rumours of illness were keeping labourers away.

However, when faced with labour surpluses, as they usually were in the 1840s, contractors frequently left labourers to make their own arrangements for housing, perhaps patching together shelter for the earliest contingent of labourers in order to ensure timely commencement of the work, but then leaving later arrivals to fend for themselves. While paternalism might have been a defining characteristic of early relations between employer and employee in the operations end of railways and canals, during the construction phase, and as early as the 1840s, relations between contractors and unskilled workers took on the qualities characteristic of an emerging order in which concepts of mutual obligations and social bonds were redefined and labourers expected to accept, with their wages, expanded responsibility for their own welfare.

Motivated by a combination of charity and enterprise, citizens along the Welland found room for a small percentage of labourers throughout the 1840s in their homes, barn lofts, and improvised boarding houses. A larger proportion of labourers on the Lachine were able to squeeze into existing housing, settling into the hovels of Griffintown, one of Canada's earliest industrial communities. Those left to their own devices begged, scavenged, and stole bits of boards and timber, dotting the landscape around construction projects with an assortment of huts. They burrowed into hills, squeezed timbers between boulders, and propped up boards against trees and fences. For more permanent accommodation labouring families with sufficient resources erected freestanding structures using turfs and rough timbers. Huts and shacks erected by the labourers themselves were much less prominent on construction sites of the 1870s. Early in the decade, those moving into the more thinly populated areas found facilities created by contractors competing for a labour force.

Along isolated sections of the Intercolonial contractors built camps such as "the clearing" on Section 21 in the heart of the forest south of the Miramichi River. Over one hundred buildings - shanties, stores, workshops, and stables - accommodated the three hundred foremen, supervisors, skilled and unskilled, and horses working on the line. Smaller encampments for between thirty and fifty men were staggered along the right of way. In more populous areas contractors might still build boarding shanties and lease or buy local farm buildings in which to house their labourers.

These various arrangements may not have matched the stark squalor of later bunkhouses along the transcontinental railways, but they did provoke complaint. When men brought out from Scotland abandoned the work on the Intercolonial near Bathurst and were later arrested in Chatham for breaking their agreement with the contractor, they argued that the contractor had voided their contract by failing to provide adequate accommodation, instead offering shanties in which they were only "indifferently protected" from the winter cold. Their complaint echoed that of the labourers brought in from Newfoundland who abandoned the work around Campbellton in 1869. In some areas local health regulations may have imposed minimum standards for sanitation." But the higher levels of government did not become formally involved in regulating housing conditions on public works."

- Ruth Bleasdale, Rough Work: Labourers on the Public Works of British North America and Canada, 1841–1882. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. p. 121-125

Photo is Alexander Henderson, Intercolonial Railway. Labourers shanty. Tartigou River, Quebec, Canada. Date between 1871 and 1875 Source Library and Archives Canada, PA-022002, MIKAN ID number 3264233.

[resonanteye]

[totto70]

A sunny Good Friday walk around the pond in the old mill town/company town/bruksort of Hälleforsnäs. Founded 1659 and closed down in 1997. 338 years of industry history.

[themilkcrate]

illuminaughtii is Taking Legal Action

illuminaughtii, aka Blair Zon, aka Blair Victoria Kristy, aka the "biggest bully on YouTube" is taking legal action against OzMedia, one of her victims. He plans to make a video about her actions, but Blair plans to (with the help of a lawyer) take Oz's house from him. She will probably try to stake a claim on the house because she used to live with him.

OzMedia set up a GoFundMe for the legal fees and posted it to Twitter. It was retweeted by illuminaghtii's other victims including One Topic at a Time, The Click, and HiI'mWonder. Since then, the GoFundMe was reported by... someone. Wonder who...

Anyway, I hope he's able to figure it out with the GoFundMe Support team and I can't wait to see his response video.

[batcities]

my drawing of mr beast as a landlord slash employer

[serix-comic]

Part 6 - Page 262

[owlsounds]

Reminder that you should burn down the company town - after running all the employees out of it.

[robinlynnemabin]

Township Business Models: Municipal ⚖️Un-Incorporated🔒 ClosedPrivate ⛺Company 💰   U Don't Have A Legal Or Racial Problem !The Civil Rights Table 108,000 = Towns in USA30,844 = Municipal77, 156 = Un-Incorporated, Private, Closed, or Company.Punkyville, KY 

[great-and-small]

christians annoying as fuck. you know bugs don't have thoughts or feeling right

Quite a few strange assumptions here all jumbled in at once

1. That I am christian?

2. That christians are morally opposed to killing insects?

3. That someone would only be opposed to eliminating an entire species because they think it will make bugs sad?

4. That animals only deserve to exist if they think or feel as we do? Fuck all the coral I guess.

5. That we can even know for certain that invertebrates do not think or feel?

This is inferior hate mail with a weak and lazy thesis. I suspect your mind is much sharper than you have presented it here.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“POLICE QUELL ANYOX PARADE,” The Province (Vancouver). February 4, 1933. Page 1.  --- Peace Restored After Demonstrators Make Dash For Town. ---- COMPANY STATEMENT --- VICTORIA. Feb. 4. (CP) Keeping their firearms in their holsters and using their flsts. thirteen officers of the provincial police stood off a body of approximately 400 strikers at Anyox on Thursday evening, repelling two attempts on the part of men to get into the town. In a third attempt the men joined up with another party at the Beach Mine. Order was immediately restored and the affair has simmered down to peaceful picketing of the plant, provincial officials were advised. 

Briefly reviewing the facts, a spokesman for the government said that the situation was well in hand and adequate measures were being taken to see that order Is preserved. It must be understood that the province would not provide relief for men who refused the offer of work, he added. 

Advices to the government showed that the majority of the large number of men at Anyox wish to continue at work. 

MAY CLOSE DOWN. Provincial officers at the scene were reinforced today, and latest reports showed that all was quiet. Representatives of the men have given an undertaking that no damage to property is intended. Provincial officials were chiefly concerned with the possibility that the plant might be permanently closed down by the operating company, which has not sold any copper since 1931 but maintained operations to give employment at the site. 

In a statement Issued today. Mr. Charles Bocking, president and managing director of the Granby company, declares: 'Recently radical agitators entered Anyox and succeeded In forming a union, known as the Mine Workers' Union of Canada, which is identified 'with the Workers' Unity League of Canada and the Red Internationale. 

"On Monday, January 30, these radicals, made up almost entirely of the foreign element employed at the mine and smelter, held a meeting and presented certain demands to the company officials, some of which were an increase in wages, reduction in board, and recognition of this union, advising the officials that if these demands were not met. they would call a strike at the mine on Wednesday, February 1, and would shut down the remainder of the plant on Friday February 3. 

WILLING TO WORK. "The company was unable to meet their demands, as the property had been operated at a heavy loss for the past two years, and has declared that under no circumstances would it recognize this radical union. As a result, the men have carried out their threats, and at this writing the plant is closed down entirely, with the exception of the heat, light and water system. 

"More than half of the employees have not joined the union, and desire to work, but. by reason of widespread intimidation of these loyal workmen and their families, they have been forced to abandon their work, and as a result over one thousand men, who have been regularly employed by the company, are now Idle. 

"There have been some clashes between the strikers and the police and at the present time a serious situation exists and the company is unable to operate.

"The plant at Anyox has, at the earnest solicitation of it local officials, operated for over two year for the benefit of its loyal workmen and the company regrets that by the actions of these foreign laborers, influenced by Communist agitators, the works have been closed down."

[AL: Again, company and provincial police hand in hand to crush a strike, and blaming Reds and foreigners for labour strife - and the newspaper publishing straight up propaganda for the company. Not a surprise - it’s a BC tradition (and Canadian tradition.)]

[macwantspeace]

The Tesla Gigaplant next to Austin...

You’re Lucky You Have a House, Peasant!

A history of company towns

by Joyce Rice and Kevin Moore

(Continue Reading)

TheNib.com

@thenib​

[bread--quest]

It's 2012 somewhere. Welcome.... to Night Vale Tumblr.

👁️ nvcr-official

Hi guys! I'm Intern Sarah! Excited to be joining you all!

👁️ nvcr-official

To the friends and family of Intern Sarah, she was a good intern and social media manager, and we are sorry to see her go. We will work to find a new intern as soon as possible.

83 notes

🦉 dark-owl-records

CALL OUT POST FOR CECIL PALMER

hes gotten away with shit for too long and im sick of it. tl;dr horrific intern mistreatment with no compensation, mountain denier, homophobic

keep reading

❌ number-one-moonhater Follow

Hey uh. Aren't you a company account? Why are you posting this

🦉 dark-owl-records

L + ratio + god forbid women do anything + your music taste is trash

🙈 seesomethingsaynothing Follow

Isn't Cecil literally gay?

🦉 dark-owl-records

he's homophobic

🪼 jeebyfish Follow

he has a husband...

🦉 dark-owl-records

yeah and he won't fucking shut up about it

2,500 notes

🤫 cecils-private-blog

Carlos hasn't liked any of my woodcarving posts in THREE DAYS!! I'm so scared what if he's going to break up with me :((

👁️ nvcr-official

Cecil he's your husband he's not breaking up with you. also this isn't a private blog you just put private in the url

🤫 cecils-private-blog

HOW DID YOU SEE THIS

4 notes

🏜️ sandeater Follow

tamika flynn spotted in ralph's dairy aisle "slaying" the milk

🦂 scorpiansscuttle Follow

op i know this is a joke but one time i was in the ralphs dairy aisle and there was some butter up on a really high shelf and someone said "don't worry, i'll get it" and i turned around and it was fucking tamika flynn

☁️ average-weather-enjoyer Follow

fake story :/

📚 isurvivedthesummerreadingprogram

No it's true I was there

🚂 traintonowhere Follow

TAMIKA FLYNN??

🏜️ sandeater Follow

what the fuck is happening on my post

8,345 notes

👁️ nvcr-official

can you guys please stop sending cecil weird shit... i don't want to have to explain to my boss what a dilf is

27 notes

🐚 mariella-shella

Hey guys!! Sorry for the lack of posts recently! I entered a hole in the wall and when I got out I realized I didn't know how long I'd been in there, or where I was, or who I am, and I'm not sure that I'm still the person who entered that hole however long ago. Anyway, the normal posting schedule will resume as soon as I remember what my normal posting schedule was, and if I'm still the person who had that posting schedule!

🌪️ sandstorm-gf Follow

omg mariella!!! missed u so much girl glad ur back!

🐚 mariella-shella

i miss me too

42 notes

😎 Anonymous asked: Response to the homophobic allegations?

🎙️ cecilpalmer

Huh??

🎙️ cecilpalmer

@nvcr-official What does this mean? Is it new slang?

👁️ nvcr-official

uhhhh dont worry about it buddy

50 notes

🧤 missy-mittens Follow

hey guys im in quarantine for eating wheat and wheat byproducts uh...send asks?? i might be in here for a while lmaooo

🧤 missy-mittens Follow

oh lights in the sky its been 5 years since i made this post

☁️ glowcloudapologist Follow

how's it going op

🧤 missy-mittens Follow

i miss my family

506 notes

🐚 mariella-shella Follow

hey if anyone remembers anything about the person running this blog can you tell me? trying to recover the fragments of my identity from the void of memory lol

🥔 potato-enthusiast Follow

you were really hot

🐚 mariella-shella Follow

FUCK YEAHHHHHH

89 notes

🦉 a-weird-bird Follow

just a reminder that new residents of east night vale are fully welcome to interact with this blog!!!! you will not be harassed and any hate will be blocked. this blog is safe even if this town isn't sometimes <3

🌻 sunflowergirl Follow

This is so sweet, thank you so much! Just so you know, even though it's officially called East Night Vale now, a lot of people still call it Desert Bluffs! Just thought you might want to know :)

🦉 a-weird-bird Follow

i'm not calling it that sorry

🌻 sunflowergirl Follow

What??? Why??

🦉 a-weird-bird Follow

just kind of sucks. as a name

🌻 sunflowergirl Follow

?????????

170 notes

🐄

⬜️ kentuckymeatshower_deactivated11051983

what does this mean....

🌌 cece-xeze Follow

another great post from huntokar herself

16,683 notes

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you don't like pine cliff? 👻 oo ooo?

👁️ nvcr-official

NIGHT VALE SWEEEEEP

806 notes

😁 the-happy-smiler Follow

Hi everyone!! Since Twitter went down, I figured I'd try my hand at this Tumblr thing! I'm so excited to meet all of you!! Hope you're ready for some pictures of CENTIPEDES!! Feel free to AMA about the Smiling God!

👁️ nvcr-official

I

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21,983 notes

[luna-loveboop]

I want. Four to get appreciation. Because

Four gave a ton of unnoticed help when Twilight was injured

The fight with Wild was difficult, and I know we're all concerned about his negative view of the shadow crystal

But Four did something that no one else really thought of to help- He took care of Twi's stuff

From the beginning he told Twilight to not worry about them

So Four took care of pretty much everything but the others (that Sky and Wars handled)

He took care of Epona

Which is so very important- he took care of Twilight's horse. After her arrival at the stable Four followed up on her

And for Epona, a horse so attached to her human, having some company can help so much for reassurance

He took care of Twilight's stuff

He got Twi's shield- his bags and equipment, and organized it into one place

And he was worried. He obviously found the shadow crystal while handling Twi's stuff, but his negative reactions to it were out of concern.

Also- because of his placement in this scene

I'm fairly convinced Four was ready to start cooking before Wild showed up (since he's beside the counter with food supplies). At the very least he had the basket of fruit out for everyone -but he was literally standing with food behind him- he thought of everything

And he did housekeeping!

Wars payed for the inn, so Four took care of the inn

Realistically these boys were probably not too concerned with tidyness. Four got all of Twi's things on one table, and took care of the room they stayed in

Organizing tables and Twi's things, having food supplies ready, and opening the curtains- overall he was the one tidying up the inn

Four helped in a huge way! He took care of Twi's horse (Epona is so important), his equipment and shield and bag, as well as the other rooms in the inn

Four filled in all the little tasks that others didn't think of. He helped in ways that were needed, but not obvious

There's a lot of problems with the shadow crystal and with Wild, and I don't know what's gonna happen in the future

But don't forget this- don't forget that Four was one who stepped up in an almost unnoticeable way

Don't forget that when everyone was barely holding it together, Four visited Twilight's horse and took care of his things

No matter what develops in the future- this amount of care shown is important ya know?

.

Art and comic from Jojo @linkeduniverse au :)))