had been chased out of mining towns in Indiana before settling in Briceville, where he was blacklisted for Union activities in 1889, and made his living operating a mercantile store. Irish, who also operated one of the community's mercantile stores, had lived in the area since 1880. Moore was a local Baptist preacher and farmer. In the spring of 1891, miners at the Tennessee Coal Mining Company (TCMC) mine in Briceville went on strike after the company demanded they sign an iron-clad contract. To break the strike, TCMC leased several dozen convicts from the state, built a stockade in Briceville to house them, and reopened its mine on July 5, 1891. On July 14, 300 armed miners attacked the stockade and marched the convicts out of the valley. This action prompted Governor John P. Buchanan to lead the state militia into the valley to restore order. On July 16, Buchanan met with the Briceville miners at Thistle Switch (just north of Briceville), where he made a plea for calm, but was shouted down by Merrell, who demanded the governor enforce the state's laws against iron-clad contracts. The miners seized the TCMC stockade again on July 20, prompting Buchanan to request a 60-day truce while he summoned the legislature to discuss the issue. The legislature rejected the miners' demands, however, and on October 31, the miners burned the Briceville stockade and freed all of its convicts. The conflict, which eventually spread across the state's entire Cumberland Plateau region, dragged on for several months before the militia launched a crackdown in August 1892, arresting hundreds of miners. Merrell fled the state, and Irish and Moore were arrested. While the uprising was crushed, it induced the state to end the convict lease system. Fraterville Mine disaster In 1902, an explosion occurred at a mine in Fraterville— which lies almost adjacent to Briceville to the northeast— killing 216 miners, including several Briceville residents. A large memorial service for the Fraterville deceased was held at the Briceville church on June 8, 1902. At least one victim of the explosion is buried in the church's cemetery. Cross Mountain Mine disaster On December 9, 1911, an explosion occurred at the Cross Mountain Mine, which lay at the end of Slatestone Hollow in the extreme west of Briceville. The explosion killed or trapped 89 miners who had entered the mine that morning, although five were eventually freed by