Lick Branch Mine Disasters of 1908 and 1909

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 14, 1909
Switchback, West Virginia – Second Disaster in Two Weeks Devastates Hamlet

From The Fairmont West Virginian of January 12, 1909:

WELCH, W. Va., Jan. 12.-One hundred miners were caught to-day in a second explosion in the Lick Branch Collieries. Hardly had the crape been taken from the door of many humble little homes than the explosions which now promises to be more direful than the one two weeks ago in which half a hundred lives were lost occurred and brought additional sorrow. Fathers and brothers of some of those killed in the last explosion are known to have been in the mine at 8:30 this morning when the second explosion occurred. The explosion occurred just half an hour after the full quota of men for the day shift had gone to work. It is known that 250 miners were on duty at the time. The details are meagre.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

From The Fairmont West Virginian of January 14, 1909:

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Pray for the dead and fight like hell for living.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 2, 1909
Switchback, McDowel County, West Virginia – Horror at Lick Branch Mine

From the Charleston Labor Argus of December 31, 1908:

HORRIBLE DISASTER
—–
In Another “Model” West Virginia Mine
in Which Scores of Miners
Met Their Death.
—–

Another mine disaster was added to the long list that have occurred in the non-union fields of this state, on Tuesday at the Lick Branch mine in the Norfolk & Western field. Twenty-seven bodies had been recovered up to last night and it is estimated that the death roll will reach nearly one hundred.

Mine cars were shattered and debris was blown out of the entrances and a hundred feet away from the mines mouth. Eight crews or rescuers are at work and have been engaged in the search of bodies.

In a large building near the mines a temporary morgue has been established. There are many pitiful scenes about the little village. Watchers sit side by side of coffins in some homes of which there are three.

The explosion occurred in a mine that was looked upon as a “model” colliery. It was visited by the “legislative investigating committee” when that body toured the state and all pronounced it one of the “safest” and best equipped mines in the state.

———-

[Inset added from Pittsburgh Gazette Times of January 1, 1909.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Horror at Switchback, West Virginia; Scores of Miners Meet Death in Lick Branch Mine Explosion” →

Tag: Lick Branch Mine Disasters of 1908 and 1909

Hellraisers Journal: Horror Once More at Switchback, West Virginia, as Second Explosion Ravages Lick Branch Mine

Hellraisers Journal: Horror at Switchback, West Virginia; Scores of Miners Meet Death in Lick Branch Mine Explosion

HORRIBLE DISASTER
—–
In Another “Model” West Virginia Mine
in Which Scores of Miners
Met Their Death.
—–

HORRIBLE DISASTER —– In Another “Model” West Virginia Mine in Which Scores of Miners Met Their Death. —–

HORRIBLE DISASTER
—–
In Another “Model” West Virginia Mine
in Which Scores of Miners
Met Their Death.
—–