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Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 29, 1904
Pennsylvania and Colorado – Hundreds of Newly Made Widows and Orphans
From The Rocky Mountain News of January 27, 1904:
Tag: Pennsylvania Mine Disasters
Hellraisers Journal: Rescuers on the Scene of Disaster at Harwick Mine at Cheswick, Pennsylvania; Families Plead for Help
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 27, 1904
Cheswick, Pennsylvania – Sorrow and Dread at Scene of Harwick Mine Disaster
From The Pittsburg Press of January 26, 1904:
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Hellraisers Journal: Supreme Court Sets Aside Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners, Held to Be Confiscatory
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 31, 1922
Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners Set Aside by Supreme Court
From the Duluth Labor World of December 30, 1922:
COURT DECLARES LABOR ACT VOID
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Pennsylvania Mine Cave-In Law
Held to Be Confiscatory
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The United States Supreme court has set aside the Pennsylvania law which prohibited the mining of anthracite coal in a manner that would endanger the lives or injure the property of persons-occupying houses situated on the surface soil. Justice Brandeis dissented.
The court held that the law deprived coal owners of valuable property rights without compensation. Under the decision, coal owners can mine coal without any regard for cave-ins that endanger lives and property, unless the coal that is necessary for props is paid for.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brandeis said:
If by mining anthracite coal the owner would necessarily unloose poisonous gases, I suppose no one would doubt the power of the state to prevent the mining without buying his coal field. And why may not the state, likewise, without paying compensation, prohibit one from digging so deep or excavating so near the surface as to expose the community to like dangers? In the latter case, as in the former, carrying on the business would be a public nuisance.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Explosion at Reilly No. 1 Mine at Spangler, Pennsylvania, Claims the Lives of 79 Coal Miners, Many Injured
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 10, 1922
Spangler, Pennsylvania – Explosion at Reilly No. 1 Mine Claims Many Lives
From the New York Evening World of November 6, 1922:
-(Note: final death toll expected to be 79.)
From the Washington Evening Star of November 9, 1922:
[Emergency Crew at Work]
[Survivors at Spangler Miners’ Hospital]
Hellraisers Journal: Horrible Disaster at Rolling Mill Mine at Johnstown, Penn., Fatalities May Approach Two Hundred
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 12, 1902
Johnstown, Pennsylvania – Explosion of Gas Claims Many Lives at Rolling Mill Mine
From The Indianapolis Journal of July 11, 1902:
JOHNSTOWN, Pa., July 10.-Two hundred miners entombed by an explosion in a mine whose main shaft opens within the limits of this city was news to check with terror the pedestrians on the streets here to-day.
At first the rumor said that all in the rolling mill mine of the Cambria Steel Company were dead or in danger, but later reports showed that the lower figure was correct and that 400 were safe.
The mine is one of the largest in the country and to-day 600 men were at work there. When the news of the disaster reached here it spread like wildfire and in less than a quarter of an hour the Point, an open space at the junction of Conemaugh and Stony creek, was crowded with women and children. Across from them, in the center of the green hillside, could be seen the dark opening of the mine. It looked as usual, but the women who looked across the waters saw a meaning there that they had not seen before. Some cried, some moaned and little children clasped skirts and cried in sympathy.….
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[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Explosion and Fire Kills 78 Coal Miners at the Baltimore No. 2 Tunnel at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
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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:
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Sparks Ignite Powder
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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