Tag: Coal Miners

Hellraisers Journal: Report Continues from Gertrude Gordon at Marianna Mine Disaster: Story of Lone Survivor

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Fred Elvarna re Marianna PA Mine Disaster, Ptt Prs p2, Nov 30, 1908

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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
—–

Marianna PA Mine Disaster, Carry Out Corpse, Ptt Prs p2, Nov 30, 1908

—–

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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Report Continues from Gertrude Gordon at Marianna Mine Disaster: Story of Lone Survivor” →

Hellraisers Journal: Gertrude Gordon Reports from Marianna Mine Disaster: Mute Women Waiting, “Piteous Horror”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Gertrude Gorden re Women Waiting Marianna MnDs, Ptt Prs p1, Nov 29, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 2, 1908
Marianna, Pennsylvania – Heartrending Reports from Gertrude Gordon

From The Pittsburg Press of November 29, 1908:

Marianna PA Mine Disaster Horror, Ptt Prs p6, Nov 29, 1908

—–

WOMEN MUTE SUFFERERS AT MARIANNA MINE
—–
Bear Their Great, Anxious Sorrow,
in a Benumbed Fashion
-Rescuers Come From the Shaft,
to Be Followed by Others
—–

By Gertrude Gordon.

Marianna PA Mine Disaster Gertrude Gordon, Ptt Prs p1, Nov 29, 1908

Marianna, Pa., At the Mine, Midnight.-The first thing that struck my ears on leaving the train at Marianna was the hysterical scream of a woman.

With my nerves keyed to a tension by the reports I had heard all the way up from Pittsburg, and the conversations relating to the terrible mine disaster, I expected to enter upon a scene and sights of the utmost horror, but that one scream was all I heard.

“My boy,” calling her son, and that was all.

Not a star shown on the skies, even the moon glimmered but dully, the only light being the points of brightness which showed the presence of the lanterns and the smoking torches flaming in an inadequate attempt to light the darkness. At the mouth of the Rachel shaft, where formerly had stood compact machinery and rough, although completely equipped sheds, was only a shapeless mass of debris. Official-looking men in blue uniforms stood around, keeping black all the people who were pressing to get closer to the shaft.

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Hellraisers Journal: Coal Miners Perish in Explosion at Marianna, Pennsylvania; Brave Rescuers Battle Flames

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 1, 1908
Marianna, Pennsylvania – Catastrophe at Rachel and Agnes Mine

From The Pittsburg Press of November 29, 1908:

Marianna PA Mine Disaster, Ptt Prs p1, Nov 29, 1908

—–

[Sketch of Stricken Crowds at the Mine]

Marianna PA Mine Disaster Stricken Crowds, Ptt Prs p1, Nov 29, 1908

—–

BRAVE RESCUERS FIGHT THE UNDERGROUND FIRE
—–
Crack Mine Is Scene of Terrible Disaster
-Scaffolding Hurled 2,000 Feet in the Air
—-

WORKED LIKE DEMONS AGAINST GREAT ODDS
—–
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….

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WE NEVER FORGET: September 10, 1897-The Lattimer Massacre: Description of Slaughter from Trial of the Gunthugs

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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WNFLattimer Massacre, Sept 10, 1897

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From the Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine of March 1898:

EDITORIAL ETCHINGS

The Lattimer Massacre.
—–

WNF Lattimer Massacre, Philly Inq -p1, Sept 12, 1897

[…..]

The trial of Sheriff Martin is in progress at the present writing, and there are few who believe that justice will prevail. No matter that scores of witnesses have sworn to the details of the murder, but few doubt that long ago arrangements have been made by the defense for the introduction of other evidence which will defeat justice. It is known that the great detective agencies stand ready at any time to furnish “evidence” as well as thugs to further the ends of those who are able and willing to pay for such evidence,

At the beginning of the trial, John McGahren, of Wilkesbarre, one of the counsel retained by the citizens of Hazleton who hope for justice, said in his opening address to the jury:

This case has no parallel in this Commonwealth, or in this country. It is a case of highest importance, not only to the defendants, but to the people of the Commonwealth.

You are to try the case without sympathy for the defendants or for the persons slain [at Lattimer, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1897]. Their condition, rich or poor, high or low, native or foreign, must not be considered by you. There will be questions of law in this case as well as of fact. It will be for His Honor to define for you not only the rights of those who are slain, but the duties of the sheriff and his deputies.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “The Hazelton Massacre;” Report on Trial of Sheriff & Deputized Gunthugs

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 22, 1898
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Gunthugs with Badges on Trial

Lattimer Massacre of 1897, Locomotive Firemens Mag, Nov 1897

On September 10, 1897, striking coal miners were marching peacefully behind the American flag when they were shot down in cold blood at Lattimer, a mining village near Hazelton, by Sheriff Martin and his deputies. Many of the 19 miners who died in the massacre were shot in the back. That sheriff and his deputies are now on trial in the Luzerne County Courthouse.

From the Appeal to Reason of February 19, 1898:

THE HAZELTON MASSACRE.

There never was a case in which the evidence was more direct, explicit and full that men had committed unprovoked murder than that being given in the trial of the sheriff and his 67 pals for the murder of the miners. Not only is the guilt practically admitted, but the evidence shows that the deputies boasted before what they were going to do and boasted afterwards what they had done. One of the most significant things about it is that the bail was given by a Philadelphia trust company putting up $340,000 in cash! All the corporations are showing their interest in clearing the murderers. I [J. A. Wayland?] clip these bits of testimony from the trial report as a sample evidence:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “The Hazelton Massacre;” Report on Trial of Sheriff & Deputized Gunthugs” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Shattering Grief of Monongah Illustrated by Joseph Stella and Described by Paul Kellogg

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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

Monongah MnDs, Graves by Stella, Charities and Commons, Jan 4, 1908

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: Widows and Orphans of Monongah Crying for Bread; One-Half of Coal Camp’s Breadwinners Are Dead

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Quote, Paul U Kellogg, re Monongah, Labor World, Jan 11, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 16, 1908
Monongah, West Virginia – Hunger Reigns with Breadwinners Dead

Who among us could ever forget the following from journalist Dorothy Dale reporting from the devastated town after the great mine disaster:

Please letta me work, lady; gotta getta money…Please you get something for me, I can do.

A little hand touched my arm. The curl-framed face of a girl of 10 years looked into mine.

[She said pitifully:]

You know mans all dead. Boys all dead. Only girls left to work.

From The Labor World of January 11, 1908:

WIDOWS AND ORPHANS CRYING FOR BREAD
—–
Entire Burden of Every Industrial Disaster Falls
Upon the Poor Wage-earners’ Family.
—–
Bread Winners Killed By Wilful Negligence of
Their Employers, the Union Smashers.
—–

Monongah MnDs, Tots Beg for Work, Ptt Prs, Dec 10, 1907

In the appeal issued by the Monongah Relief Committee it is stated that of the 3,000 inhabitants of Monongah the mine disaster destroyed one-half of the breadwinners. Two hundred and fifty wives, 1,000 children and many unborn children are left without means of support. The company has declared that the families occupying these houses may remain in them until other provision is made for them and in other ways has been generous in its attitude, but it states that operations cannot be resumed at the damaged mines until these houses are available for the new force. $200,000 is asked for by the Relief Committee to meet these needs. Commenting on the situation Paul U. Kellogg, special representative of Charities and The Commons, says:

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Hellraisers Journal: Bernal Mine Explosion Closes Out December 1907, Most Deadly Month for Nation’s Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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“Oh, damn it, dagos are cheaper than props.”
-Mother Jones quoting a mine manager.

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 1, 1908
Carthage, New Mexico – Year Ends with Explosion at Bernal Mine

If we thought we could end the deadly month of December 1907 without further news of horror from the nation’s coal mines, that hope was tragically crushed today with the news from New Mexico of yet another mine explosion, this latest at the Bernal Coal Mine.

From the Albuquerque Citizen of December 31, 1907:

Bernal Mine Disaster Carthage NM, Abq Ctz p1, Dec 31, 1907

This latest mine explosion at the Bernal Mine brings the death toll in the nations coal mines to well over 600 for the month of December 1907, making December the most deadly month for coal miners in U. S. history:

December 1 – Naomi Mine Explosion at Fayette City, Pennsylvania
December 6 – Monongah 6 and 8 at Monongah, West Virginia
December 16 – Yolande Mine Explosion at Yolande, Alabama
December 19 – Darr Mine Explosion at Jacob’s Creek, Pennsylvania
December 31 – Bernal Mine Explosion at Carthage, New Mexico

Note: the total death toll for each of these mine disasters in not yet known, but the two most deadly, the Darr Mine Explosion and the Explosion at Monongah have, between them, claimed 600 lives, therefore the total death toll for the five mine disasters of December 1907 will very likely be more than 700. Our readers should also remeber that when miners are killed one by one, in pairs, or in small groups of three or four, that is not counted as a “disaster.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Tragic Story of Loss From Darr Mine Disaster, Mrs. Kroboth Loses Husband & Two Sons

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 27, 1907
Jacob’s Creek, Pennsylvania – Women Wait and Weep at Darr Mine

From The Pittsburgh Press of December 22, 1907:

Darr MnDs, Ptt Prs p13, Husband and 2 Sons, Dec 22, 1907

—–

A Pathetic Case of Bereavement as Result
of Mine Catastrophe Illustrated
by Mrs. George Kroboth
—–
ONE BOY A SUBSTITUTE ON THE FATAL DAY
—–

BY C. H. GILLESPIE,
Staff Correspondent.

Jacobs Creek, December 21.-In the terrific Darr mine explosion, the husband and two sons of Mrs. George Kroboth were snatched away.

She is not only triply bereaved, but deprived of all support, and her condition is most piteous. Her husband, George Kroboth, by years of thrifty living and constant labor, had provided a comfortable little home, and there today she sits alone with her great grief, mourning for her “man’s” cheery, comforting presence and shedding bitter tears for the two fine young sons so full of solace for her old age.

Her baby, George, was only 16 years old, but large and manly for his age, and Joe, aged 19 years, was a son any mother might well be proud of. But for the transient sickness of a neighbor, Max Sprecht, Joe would likely be alive today, instead of lying, charred and disfigured, in the far recesses of the mine workings.

In Sprecht’s absence, Joe took his place as a machine worker, and gladly availed himself of the chance to get a couple of days’ work. He was doing Sprecht’s work when the fatal explosion occurred.

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Hellraisers Journal: December Death Toll for Nation’s Coal Miners Continues Apace with Yolande Explosion in Alabama

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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:

MnDs Yolande AL, Gadsden Dly Tx Ns, Dec 16, 1907

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: December Death Toll for Nation’s Coal Miners Continues Apace with Yolande Explosion in Alabama” →