In the early 1890s, Briceville played a central role in the Coal Creek War, a labor uprising that grew out of local coal miners' opposition to the state's practice of leasing prisoners to businesses, which reduced the need for conventional labor. Three of the conflict's chief instigators— Eugene Merrell, George Irish, and S. D. Moore— lived in Briceville. Merrell, a French-born Knights of Labor activist, 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.