Hellraisers Journal: Search Continues for Body of William Fessell in Argonaut Mine; Forty-Six Fellow Miners Are Laid to Rest

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 25, 1922
Jackson, California – Search Continues for Miner Fessell; 46 Are Laid to Rest

From The Anaconda Standard of September 22, 1922:

Search for Body of Fessell, Argonaut Mine, Anaconda Stn p1, Sept 22, 1922

From The Anaconda Standard of September 23 1922:

ARGONAUT VICTIMS ARE LAID TO REST
———-
Forty-six Miners Who Lost Lives
in Mine Disaster Are Buried.

———-

JACKSON, Cal., Sept. 22.-Jackson buried 46 of the victims of the Argonaut gold mine disaster today. Preparations were made to continue the search for the 47th miner, William Fessel, whose body was not found by the federal mine rescue crew.

This little gold mining town suspended all activities for the funeral. Three processions, led by the town’s band, moved to three cemeteries, the Roman Catholic, the Protestant and the Greek Catholic, for services at different hours.

The state was represented at the funerals by Arthur Keetch, secretary to Governor Stephens. V. Filopi, consul general of Italy at San Francisco, who was among the mourners, congratulated the rescue workers after the funerals.

Searchers of the Argonaut mining crew will enter the Argonaut tomorrow to try to find Fessel, who left a farewell message in the mine. They will explore the levels previously covered by the government crews. 

The Argonaut will resume mining as soon as the workers wish it. The fire which caused the tragedy is out, with a loss of $125,000 to the mining company.

Governor Stephens will appoint a party of mining experts to investigate the disaster, his secretary announced. The investigation was requested by the mining company.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: 47 Miners, Entombed at Argonaut Mine, Found Dead; Ernest Miller Was Hero of Butte Mine Fire of 1917

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 24, 1922
Jackson, California – 47 Miners Found Dead at Argonaut Mine

From The Anaconda Standard of September 19, 1922:

re Aug 28 Argonaut MnDs, Jackson CA, 1, 47 Found Dead, Anaconda Stn p1, Sept 19, 1922re Aug 28 Argonaut MnDs, Jackson CA, 2, 47 Found Dead, Anaconda Stn p1, Sept 19, 1922

 By the Associated Press.

re Aug 28 Argonaut MnDs, Jackson CA,  Hero of Butte MnDs Among Dead, Anaconda Stn p1, Sept 19, 1922

JACKSON, Cal., Sept. 18.-All 47 of the miners entombed in the Argonaut mine Aug. 27 are dead, it was announced officially shortly before 9 o’clock tonight. A note found on one of the bodies indicated that all the men had died within five hours of the beginning of the fire, Aug. 27, officials said.

All the miners were found behind the second of two bulkheads they had built in a crosscut 4,350 feet down in the Argonaut mine. Byron Pickard, chief of the federal bureau of mines for this district, was the first man to go behind the bulkhead and discovered the bodies.

Pickard, on an earlier exploration behind this bulkhead, had counted 42 bodies and expressed the belief that there were others there.

The same note bore a scrawled figure “4,”  apparently indicating the same man had attempted to leave word for  those who might come as to the condition of the mine at that hour.

Mine officials declared that the condition of the crosscut behind the bulkhead was such that life could not have been sustained there by the entombed men for more than five hours.

The bodies were found piled one on top of another and decomposition had progressed so far that identification would be impossible, Pickard reported.

Relatives Mourn in Silence.

Jackson as a whole took the tragic news calmly and courageously. The general topic of conversation except in the immediate family circles of the dead, was arrangements for the funeral, which it was said would be held as a joint affair.

Those of the bodies that were not piled atop of one another were huddled together in little groups. Since death came approximately 22 days ago and the temperature in the crosscut where the men took refuge averages about 100 degrees, it will be necessary to wrap each body in canvas prior to its removal to the surface.

Officials thought it, likely some, but not all, of the bodies could be removed before morning.

The sad scenes customarily associated with removal of the dead from mine disasters were lacking here tonight. There was no crowd of weeping widows and sorrowing relatives at the mine mouth. Among those gathered at the entrance to the great gold workings, newspaper men and miners and comrades of those entombed predominated. For days the relatives have remained at home under persuasions of mine officials and Red Cross workers and tonight it was the Red Cross or sympathetic friends acting under its guidance that broke the sad news to them.

The time elapsing since the men were entombed had given opportunity, to all to prepare for the worst and when that came it was accepted without demonstration.

Most of the miners were of Austrian or Italian birth. Eighteen of them were married and these leave 25 orphans. The second communication from the dead was discovered near the body of William Fezzel. Scratched on a timber were these words, “3 a. m. Gas very bad. Fezzel.”

The hour indicated was only three hours after fire broke out in the Argonaut.

———-

re Aug 28 Argonaut MnDs, Jackson CA,  Miners Fot Calmly and Coolly, Anaconda Stn p1, Sept 19, 1922

[Emphasis added.]

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