Ida Mae Stull broke barriers as Ohio’s first woman coal miner

Ida Mae Stull, recognized as Ohio’s first woman coal miner, was born Feb. 4, 1896, in Scio, one of 18 children of Samuel and Mary Dowdle Stull.

At age 6, she carried a lantern for her father as he wheeled coal from the mine. Around 1930, Stull moved to Cadiz, where she went to work as a housekeeper for Harry Wolfe and his young son.

In 1933, Wolfe began opening a coal mine about a mile outside Jewett. He gave Stull a partnership in the operation, and she worked alongside him cutting props and making the entry. Once underground, she regularly brought out six or seven cars of coal a day.

Trouble began when a mine inspector reported that Stull was working underground. An order followed stating Ohio law forbade the employment of women in the mines. For Stull, those were fighting words.

A lawyer was hired, and the case drew widespread attention. Stull received national publicity through Universal Newsreel photographs. The issue was contested for a year, and Jan. 24, 1935, Stull returned to the mine to dig coal.

She donned her boots and cap, picked up her carbide lamp, pick and shovel, and went back to the way of life she loved most.

“From now on,” she said, “housekeeping will be my sideline.”

“Maybe it isn’t ladylike,” she said, “but every woman to her own desires, and mine’s digging coal.”

Stull died April 23, 1980, at age 84 at Harrison Community Hospital from pneumonia and a heart attack.

Other women have since taken her place in the mines. They owe thanks to Ida Mae Stull, who led the fight that gave them “the right to their own desires.”

Information and photo courtesy of the Harrison County Historical Society.