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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 27, 1904
Cheswick, Pennsylvania – Sorrow and Dread at Scene of Harwick Mine Disaster
From The Pittsburg Press of January 26, 1904:
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Tag: Mine Rescue
Hellraisers Journal: Explosion at Reilly No. 1 Mine at Spangler, Pennsylvania, Claims the Lives of 79 Coal Miners, Many Injured
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 10, 1922
Spangler, Pennsylvania – Explosion at Reilly No. 1 Mine Claims Many Lives
From the New York Evening World of November 6, 1922:
-(Note: final death toll expected to be 79.)
From the Washington Evening Star of November 9, 1922:
[Emergency Crew at Work]
[Survivors at Spangler Miners’ Hospital]
Hellraisers Journal: Eighty-Three Coal Miners Entombed after Early-Morning Explosion at Jed Mine in West Virginia
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 29, 1912
Jed, West Virginia – Eighty-Three Coal Miners Entombed
From The Fairmont West Virginian of March 26, 1912:
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(By United Press.)
WELCH. W. Va., March 26.-Eighty-three men are entombed in the mine of the United States Coal and Coal Company at Jed, three miles from here.
An explosion of gas occurred in the mine at 7:30 o’clock this morning. Eighty-six men were at work and only three were able to reach the out- side.
Following the explosion after damp pervaded the entire workings of the mine making it impossible for immediate rescue work to be begun.
Deputy State Mine Inspector Arthur Mitchell arrived from Bluefield an hour after the explosion occurred.
Miners who had worked during the night and had gone home were roused and formed rescue parties.
It is possible that some of the imprisoned men may have escaped the explosion and may have reached a part of the mine not penetrated by the after damp.
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GOVERNMENT RESCUE ARE ON SCENE.
WASHINGTON, March 26.-Immediately after learning of the Jed mine disaster the United States Bureau of mines ordered two special rescue cars full of equipment to be sent to the aid of the entombed miners. The Pittsburg rescue crew is also enroute. Car No. 7 is reported to be only an hour’s run from the mine. The Pittsburg car is under the direction of Mining Engineer Dike.
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MINE WORKED DAY AND NIGHT.
The Jed mine worked day and night shifts employing about a hundred and fifty men, both whites and negroes.
The mine was worked on a non-union basis.
When news of the explosion spread, women and children gathered at the mouth of the mine and refused to leave, hysterically urging the the rescue parties to greater efforts.
It is not believed the mine workings are on fire.
It is thought some men may have reached pockets where they were working and closing up openings in the pockets of the main shaft may be safe.
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[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: From Duluth Labor World: Jury Verdict Says Mining Laws Were Broken at Cherry Mine Disaster
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 28, 1910
Princeton, Illinois – Jury Reaches Verdict in Great Cherry Mine Disaster
From the Duluth Labor World of May 28, 1910:
PRINCETON, Ill, May 27.-The coroner’s jury, which began last November to investigate the cause of the Cherry mine disaster, which resulted in the death of 265 miners in the St. Paul Coal company’s mine, has reached an agreement, and 250 separate verdicts have been returned.
The jury says the mining laws were broken with the knowledge and consent of the mine inspector.
The verdicts were in three sets, one set fixing the cause of the death of the twelve men in the rescue party who perished on the cage in the mine shaft, another set for the 187 men who were suffocated in the second vein and the third for the 51 men who were trapped in the third vein and died of exposure and suffocation.
The verdict of the coroner’s jury is a vindication of John Cowley, the engineer who was in charge of the cage on which the twelve rescuers lost their lives. The verdict says the twelve rescuers lost their lives “indirectly by a confusion of signals regulating the movements of the cage.”
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Coal Miners Killed in Explosion at Red Ash Mine in New River District
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 8, 1900
Red Ash, West Virginia – Explosion Brings Death to Coal Miners
From The New York Times of March 7, 1900:
Fire Creek, W. Va., March 6.-The most disastrous mine explosion ever known in the New River District occurred at the Red Ash Mine shortly after the miners went to work this morning. Although the most heroic work of the rescuing party has been going on incessantly all day and night it is impossible tonight to estimate the full extent of the loss of life and property.
The most reliable estimates obtainable put the number of the victims at nearly 50. The capacity of the mine is 175, but there have been only 130 on the payrolls so far this month. The manager, Superintendent, bosses, bookkeepers, and others are busy with the force of rescuers, but at the same time they are all very reticent as to the extent of the casualties and any other information regarding the disaster.
More than fifty dead bodies have already been taken out, thirty-eight of which have been identified and are lying in their former homes. It is thought tonight that at least seventy-five miners are yet entombed in the wrecked mine.
Most of the bodies that cannot be identified or recognized have been placed in the large blacksmith’s shop of the Red Ash Coal Company, and that place presents the appearance of a horrible morgue. Although the bodies are mangled beyond recognition, yet they are surrounded by those who are in distress and hunting their lost friends.
The general belief is that the explosion occurred by contact of the miners’ lights with dust when the miners entered this morning.
Those working on the rescue relays say that the scene becomes more terrible as they get further into the mine. The men become almost faint of heart when they strike a place filled with dead bodies. The work of rescue is being continued during the night, and will be kept up until the mine is clear.
Hellraisers Journal: “Catastrophe at Cherry One of Worst in History of Mining in Illinois” -Nurses Arrive from Chicago
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 17, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Nurses Arrive from Chicago to Bring Comfort
From The Rock Island Argus of November 15, 1909:
[…..]
Thousands Come to Scene.
Thousands of people came to the mine this morning. Special trains bearing weeping relatives summoned by telegraph arrived at the station and heart-rending scenes were enacted as they met other relatives and were told the worst, which appears to be the only possible outcome of the disaster.
[…..]
Nurses Comfort Bereaved Ones.
A party of nurses from Chicago, who arrived last night, today were turned into comforters of the families probably bereft. Throughout the hamlet were scattered cottages in various stages of completion. It seems likely many cottages never will be finished…..
Hellraisers Journal: Cherry Mine Disaster: “screaming women, weeping children and frantic..men crowded about the place.”
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 16, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Horror, Heroism and Heartbreak at Scene of Great Disaster.
Heartbreaking Scene at Cherry Mine Fire.
At the entrance of the shaft a scene was enacted such as is witnessed only at a disaster of this kind. Hundreds of screaming women, weeping children and frantic but helpless men crowded about the place.
A few survivors were surrounded by groups of the women, and the answers of these men to the shrieked inquiries only added to the terror of the women. Almost to a man the survivors declared that there was no hope for those still in the mine. Nearly two hundred of the men imprisoned, they declared, were in the third vein, the only entrance to which was from the second vein, almost five hundred feet from the main shaft of the pit.
[Photograph added.]
From the New York Tribune of November 14, 1909:
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Hellraisers Journal: Report Continues from Gertrude Gordon at Marianna Mine Disaster: Story of Lone Survivor
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 3, 1908
Marianna, Pennsylvania – Gertrude Gordon Interviews Lone Survivor
The heart-rending reporting of Gertrude Gordon continues from the scene of the Marianna Mine Disaster.
From the Pittsburg Press of November 30, 1908:
FEARFUL SCENES WERE ENACTED AT PIT MOUTH
[Continued.]
—–BY GERTRUDE GORDON.
Staff Corespondent of the Press
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SOLE SURVIVOR TELLS STORY OF CATASTROPHE
—–The first body taken out was that of Fred Elvarna who is in all probability, the only man living of all who were in the mine at the time of the explosion. He was badly burned and his leg was wrenched, but he was living. In a talk with him, which, with surprising vitality he was able to give within a few hours of his rescue, he described some of his sensations in the mine. He is a bricklayer and was repairing a wall when the explosion occurred.
[He told me:]
I had just put up a brick, and was putting some mortar on it when I felt the explosion coming. It was just like a cold breath from somewhere, not exactly cold, but there was something awful seemed to come and I knew that terrible danger of some kind was there. Of course the worst danger is fire damp, after any explosion that kills more than fire or the falling timbers, and I just threw myself on the ground and dug a hole with my hands to put my face in, and threw my coat over my head.
Of course I did all that in a second and I didn’t really dig a hole, but just scooped out a handful of earth to lay my face in, so that I could breathe.
After the crash I laid quiet for a little and then when I had to move to breathe I tried to look around. It was pitch dark, of course, and the air was pretty bad, but still I could get enough to keep me going.
COULD NOT MOVE.
I couldn’t move and didn’t know how bad I was hurt, but I started yelling right away so that the boys could tell where I was when they came to hunt us. I could hear the men moaning and crying all around me, but we couldn’t get to one another. The men didn’t seem able to talk, and I cannot tell how long they moaned. I guess it was hours, but one by one they stopped, and I guess they all died.
Hellraisers Journal: Coal Miners Perish in Explosion at Marianna, Pennsylvania; Brave Rescuers Battle Flames
Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 1, 1908
Marianna, Pennsylvania – Catastrophe at Rachel and Agnes Mine
From The Pittsburg Press of November 29, 1908:
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[Sketch of Stricken Crowds at the Mine]
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BRAVE RESCUERS FIGHT THE UNDERGROUND FIRE
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Crack Mine Is Scene of Terrible Disaster
-Scaffolding Hurled 2,000 Feet in the Air
—-WORKED LIKE DEMONS AGAINST GREAT ODDS
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BY OWEN A. THOMAS,
Press Staff Correspondent.Marianna, Pa., November 28 (11 p. m.)-Even worse than was at first reported is the horrible catastrophe here at the Marianna mine, where late this morning 200 miners were killed instantly by a terrible explosion.
Although officials of the Pittsburg-Buffalo Co., owners and operators of the mine, refuse to admit it, flames are baffling the attempts at rescue, and brattice clothe in enormous quantities is being rushed here by trains from Monongahela 21 miles distant.
Rescuing parties, lowered in great iron buckets, have been able to force their way through the mass of tangled wreckage at the bottom of the shaft.
Here, however, they were stopped by the great piles of stone, iron and coal, heaped there by the force of the exploding gas. The cause of the disaster, in all probability, never will be known….
Hellraisers Journal: The Shattering Grief of Monongah Illustrated by Joseph Stella and Described by Paul Kellogg
And it’s what will I tell to my three little children?
And what will I tell his dear mother at home?
And it’s what will I tell to my poor heart that’s dying?
My heart that’s surely dying since my darling is gone.
-Jean Ritchie
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 17, 1908
Monongah, West Virginia – A Town of Broken Hearted Women and Girls
New Graves for Half the Town’s Breadwinners
Within a recent edition of the “Weekly Journal of Philanthropy and Social Advance,” Charities and the Commons, we find a long article, written by Paul U. Kellogg and illustrated by Joseph Stella, which tells the heartbreaking story of Monongah in the aftermath of great mine disaster of December 6th of last year. Today we offer a brief example of the writing of Mr. Kellogg along with illustrations by Mr. Stella.
From Charities and the Commons of January 4, 1908:
Monongah
Paul U. Kellogg
…..That morning five priests had held mass in St. Stanislaus’s Church and over twenty coffins were ranged in the low-ceilinged room in the basement. They were the first of one hundred and ten whom Father Joseph Letston counted as lost. Many of his people had come early to the church, a-foot, with bowed heads, sorrowing in low voices, sometimes a woman half held up by her companions, to that basement where the coffin lids closed in on blistered, swollen faces and parts of men. Four or five widows wept convulsively. An older woman read from a religious book held to the flickering light of a candle at the head of a closed coffin. A peasant, ugly with her pitted face, but beautiful in her great sorrow, bent often and kissed the lips of her husband.
All of a sudden there was a cry more piercing than the others. It was from an old mother who had lost seven—her husband, a son, two sons-in-law and three nephews. She had come upon one of them, and the people with her could scarcely hold her. She threw her head on the casket, and spoke to the boy fondly, trying to caress the crumpled face with poor, wrinkled hands. She had moaned all the way that morning from her lonely house to the church door, giving infinite sorrow to those who heard, and here her grief had at last found vent.