Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 18, 1907
Yolande, Alabama – Many Miners Feared Dead in Mine Explosion
Broken-hearted families now huddle at the scene of yet another mine explosion, the third such this month, this time in Yolande, Alabama. The latest mine disaster has taken the lives of at least 50 husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, leaving behind widows and orphans to weep and mourn. They now face an uncertain, and likely bleak, future without their family breadwinners.
From The Gadsden Daily Times-News of December 16, 1907:
SOURCE & IMAGE
The Gadsden Daily Times-News
(Gadsden, Alabama)
-Dec 16, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/321893204/
See also:
USMRA
Yolande Coal and Coke Company
Yolande No. 1 Mine Explosion
Yolande, Alabama
December 16, 1907
No. Killed – 57
(Further news accounts available here.)
http://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/yolande_news_only.htm
USMRA, U. S. Mine Disasters for 1907
(Official count.)
December death toll:
Dec 1: Naomi Mine, Fayette City PA=34
Dec 6: Monongah 6 & 8, Monongah WV=362
Dec 16: Yolande, Yolande AL=57
Dec 19: Darr, Van Meter PA=239
Dec 31: Bernal, Carthage NM=11
Total=703
http://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/Mine_Disasters/search_all_year.asp?ACC_YEAR=1907&x=19&y=5
Tag: Mine Disasters
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mine-disasters/
Fishwrap, Official Blog of Newspapers (dot) com
“U.S. Coal Mining’s Deadliest Month: December 1907” -by Trevor Hammond
See also this study:
Underground Coal Mine Disasters 1900 – 2010:
Events, Responses, and a Look to the Future
Michael J. Brnich, Jr., BS, CMSP
NIOSH Office of Mine Safety and Health
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Kathleen M. Kowalski-Trakofker, Ph.D.
NIOSH Office of Mine Safety and Health
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/ucmdn.pdf
Re December 1907, the study states:
December 1907, known as “Bloody December”, is the deadliest on record for the U.S. underground coal mining industry. That month 703 miners died in 5 mine explosions.
History (dot) com
“Dec 6, 1907: The Monongah coal mine disaster”
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-monongah-coal-mine-disaster
Article states:
Nationwide, a total of 3,242 Americans were killed in mine accidents in 1907
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Dec 17, 1907
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9401E0DB173EE033A25754C1A9649D946697D6CF&legacy=true
75 MEN ENTOMBED BY MINE EXPLOSION
—–
Rescuers Recover 30 Dead Bodies from the Shattered
Colliery at Yolande, Ala.
—–17 MEN CRAWL OUT, BURNED
—–
Dust and Timbers Blown from the Mine Destroyed
Houses Near by-Heat Was Terrific.
—–BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 16. — About seventy-five men are buried in No. 1 mine of the Yolande Coal and Coke Company at Yolande, thirty-five miles south of Birmingham, in Tuscaloosa County, following an explosion to-day. Ninety men were checked in for work.
Within an hour after the explosion seventeen men had crawled out of the mine, all burned. Thirty-five dead bodies had been recovered up to dark….