Tag: Mine Disasters

Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 8, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Cherry Mine Murders.
—–

Why Four Hundred Workers Were Burned and Suffocated
in a Criminal Fire Trap.
—–

By J. O. Bentall.
—–

[Part II of II.]

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, Despair, ISR p582, Jan 1920

Little Albert Buckle, 15 years old November 28, who escaped on the last car up, and his mother and sister stood at the ropes all day watching for “Rich,” who was 16 years the 21st of last June, and who had worked in the mine ever since his father was killed three years ago, but poor Richard was not brought up that day. On Monday I went to see the broken-hearted mother but I could not comfort her.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 7, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, ISR p577, Jan 1920

[Part I of II.]

Letter W, ISR p577, Jan 1920AS your brother one of the four hundred who perished in the Cherry coal mine November 13th? Or was it your father? Your husband? Your son? My brother was there. My father. My son. I helped carry them out. They were cold in death. They were covered with coal dust and swollen from black damp.

I am telling you this story from what I have seen with my own eyes. Not from hearsay.

I went from Chicago right to Cherry. With thousands of others I stood and looked from the outside. Then I broke through the line and joined the volunteer rescuers. I put on overalls, jacket, cap and lamp and went down into the tomb that contained over four hundred victims—a few living, most of them dead.

I helped plug the entries to prevent the fire from spreading. I had a hand in timbering where the roof was loose, or where collars were breaking. I cut legs off the dead mules so we could get them through the passageways and clear the track for bringing out the men. I was with the gang that found nineteen dead in one pile and twenty-one in another, thirty-seven in a third and one hundred and sixty-two in a fourth.

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Hellraisers Journal: Luella Twining Reports for Appeal to Reason from the Scene of Cherry Mine-Fire Disaster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Wake fr Slumber, AtR p2, Oct 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 29, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Heartbreaking Scenes Described by Luella Twining

From the Appeal to Reason of November 27, 1909:

From page 5:

MINERS MURDERED.
—–
Owners of St. Paul Mine Guilty of Manslaughter.
-Cherry Under Martial Law.
—–

BY [LUELLA] TWINING
Special Correspondence to the Appeal.

Cherry MnDs, Thanksgiving Day, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909

Cherry, Ill., Nov. 17.-To stay in Cherry, Ill., one half an hour is to be convinced that the miners entombed there were murdered as surely as though the mine owners had taken them into the road and shot them down one by one.

“Why were the miners kept at work two hours after the fire had broken out in the mine?” is the question asked by the bereaved widows. It is not put in that form. I heard it asked in many different ways. A German woman looked at me wildly and asked, “What for they no tell my man? He work two hours by the fire. Now he die. They murder my man.” These poor women do not wait for the mine owners to answer. “They care for mine and no for man,” a Lithuanian said to me and indeed one is forced to believe it. They do not state the question as clearly as Karl Marx’s exposition of the profit system, but it is equally as illuminating. If the United Mine Workers should murder 500 mine owners would they not be punished?

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Hellraisers Journal: “Catastrophe at Cherry One of Worst in History of Mining in Illinois” -Nurses Arrive from Chicago

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 17, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Nurses Arrive from Chicago to Bring Comfort

From The Rock Island Argus of November 15, 1909:

Cherry Mine Disaster of Nov 13, Rock Isl Arg p1, Nov 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…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Cherry Mine Disaster: “screaming women, weeping children and frantic..men crowded about the place.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 16, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Horror, Heroism and Heartbreak at Scene of Great Disaster.

Heartbreaking Scene at Cherry Mine Fire.

Cherry Mine Disaster, Crowd on Nov 13, FP Buck p49, 1910

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:

Cherry Mine Disaster of Nov 13, NY Tb p1, Nov 14, 1909

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Explosion and Fire Kills 78 Coal Miners at the Baltimore No. 2 Tunnel at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Thomas Dougherty re Wilkes Barre MnDs, Harrisburg Tg p1, June 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1919
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Coal Miners Perish in Flames of Mine Fire

From Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Telegraph of June 5, 1919:

Baltimore Tunnel No 2 Explosion, Wilkes Barre, Harrisburg Tg p1, June 5, 1919

—–

Sparks Ignite Powder

Survivor Describes Flames, Wilkes Barre MnDs, Harrisburg Tg p1, June 5, 1919

More than 100 mine workers were riding to their work crowded into what is known as a “trip” of mine cars, drawn by a motor. The rear car carried twelve kegs of black powder used for blasting loose the coal in the chambers. When the train had gone about 200 feet from the entrance the trolley wire snapped. The sparks it emitted touched off the powder.

There was a roar and in an instant every man and boy on the train was either dead or dying. Mangled bodies were found everywhere by the rescue crews which rushed into the mine. Fire fighters, working frantically, soon succeeded in subduing the flames which followed the blast. Those who had not already succumbed were so badly burned that in nearly every case death was a matter of only a short time.
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Hellraisers Journal: Horror Once More at Switchback, West Virginia, as Second Explosion Ravages Lick Branch Mine

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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:

Lick Branch Mine Disaster 2, W Vgn p1, Jan 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:

Lick Branch Mine Disaster 2, W Vgn p1, Jan 14, 1909

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

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

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.
—–

WV Lick Branch Mine Disaster of Dec 29, Ptt Gz Tx p1, Jan 1, 1909

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.]

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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

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

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.

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

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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