In the 1800s, coal mining accidents were an everyday occurrence. Usually the accident reports took up the space of five lines in the local newspapers. Sometimes, the accidents were worthy of 100 words or more. Then there were the real tragedies. Unexpected deaths, bizarre accidents, and the tragedies where dozens of men would lose their lives in one loud explosion.
Whether it was one death or 400 deaths, each incident was heartbreaking and each death was needless. Safety measures in the early 1800s were pretty much non-existent. Families that lost husbands and sons slumped into severe poverty. Children lost their fathers and mothers lost sons. The life expectancy of a coal miner depended on his skill, the policies of the mine’s owner, and sheer luck.
Watchman Thrown 500 Feet In Pennsylvania
There were many dangerous jobs within the coal mines long before governments decided to step in and enact safety measures to help protect the workers. Most people, when they think of fatalities, think of the actual miners, the drillers, and the breaker boys. However, everyone in the mines were at risk if there was an explosion, including greasers, shaft tenders, and watchmen.
Coal mine watchmen were the guards of the mines. They kept watch, making sure no one entered the mines who did not belong there and they kept their eyes open for potential trouble within the mines. The following accident happened in 1874, in a Pennsylvania coal mine:
“Monday afternoon, at the Stanton shaft of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, near Wilkes-Barre, James William, a watchman, was defending the shaft, when an explosion of gas occurred, and he was thrown to the bottom, a distance of 500 feet. There are twenty-five feet of water in the shaft, and his body has not as yet been recovered.” [SOURCE]
Crushed To Death In Bulli Colliery
In the old coal mines, wood props were set up within mine shafts to help add support to the roof of the shaft or the work area. When one area was finished being worked on, men would go in and remove the props to use in new areas where the men were working. While in hindsight, it sounds not only dangerous, but rather stupid to have men remove these props, the men were ordered to do it nonetheless.
At the Bulli colliery in Australia, a coal mine that has been rife with disasters, three men were working on removing props out of an old working. Everything was going smoothly until they reached the last prop. It held fast and would not budge. One man, Hugh Dobbie, grabbed a pick and removed some of the dirt from the ceiling to get the prop loose. His last words were, “I think I have it all right.” In that instant, he knocked the prop out of its spot and a huge block of stone came crashing down onto Dobbie. The stone was estimated at 10 feet in length and about a foot in thickness.
Dobbie was crushed. It took five people to get the stone off of what remained of his body. [SOURCE]
This happened in 1875, 12 years before the great Bulli mine disaster where over 80 men lost their lives in an explosion. [SOURCE]
Falling Rocks Kill Three In Montana
When we think of mining accidents, we think of explosions, flooding, and cave ins. Just as these were prominent problems back in the 1800s, they are still very real dangers today in the mines. The only difference is that these tragedies happened more frequently over 100 years ago than they do today.
In 1899, three men were killed at the Rocky Fork Coal Mine in the state of Montana. The first victim was a 24 year old Englishman when rocks cascaded down and killed him. He left behind a wife.
The next two victims were both from Finland. One was 26 years old and had celebrated his birthday the day before the accident. The other victim had just turned 19 years old that day. Both of these young men also died from falling rock.
The invention and use of hard hats within the coal mines did not start taking place until the early to mid 1900s. Had these men been wearing protective gear, they may have survived the rock falls. [SOURCE]
Smashed To Pieces Near Newcastle
Not only did the men working in the coal mines in the 1800s not have any real safety gear, they also had to be mindful of the equipment inside the mine and hope to goodness that their fellow workers were paying attention to their jobs.
To get down into or up out of the mine, men stepped inside a cage that acted as an elevator. The cage is still in use today, but in 1889 the engine and mechanics of the cage could be dangerous. The person manually operating the cage’s engine could also make an error and cause injury or death.
In a horrible, fatal accident inside the South Burwood Sinking Pit, near Newcastle, Australia, four men “got into the cage at the bottom of the shaft to be hauled up, and all went well till the time for stopping the engine at the top came, when, for some reason or the other not explained, the engine man failed to stop the cage, which was brought with terrible force against the poppet heads. The hauling rope gave way, and the cage and occupants were dashed to the bottom, a distance of 400 feet. The four men were literally smashed to pieces, their bodies presenting a horrible appearance.” [SOURCE]
Blown Apart In Lock Haven
Pennsylvania was once a huge coal mining state with coal mining towns covering much of northern parts of the state. Many of these small coal mining towns exist today, including Lock Haven where the following tragic accident happened.
In the fall of 1888, work as usual was going on in the Kettle Creek Coal Company’s mine. Twenty-one men were at work within a new drift (an underground passageway that follows the vein) in the mine when a large explosion happened. According to the newspaper report:
“As soon as possible after the explosion, the mine was entered and fifteen dead bodies carried out. Four other men badly injured, were found, one of whom has since died and others are likely to die. The cause of the explosion is unknown, but it is supposed to have been through the striking of a fissure or pocket of gas. This afternoon the disfigured and naked body of a miner was found fifty feet from the mouth of the air shaft, through which it had been blown.” [SOURCE]
Entombed In Mine Near Newcastle
Getting buried alive inside a mine is always a very real danger in this line of work. This is especially true when miners are preparing to abandon a mine. Work must be done not only to remove the last remaining pieces of coal and the equipment, but the pillars that are holding up the roof within the mine shafts are also removed.
In a frightening incident in 1889, over 40 men were working in the Australian Agricultural Company’s coal mine, sometimes referred to as the Hamilton Mine, when the mine’s roof collapsed after support beams were taken out and tram trails removed. About several acres of the roofing collapsed, trapping over 30 men. Eleven of those men could not be located immediately after the collapse. [SOURCE]
A rescue party was assembled and an attempt to rescue the men was further delayed by a second roofing collapse. It took 78 days after the collapse to remove all the bodies from the collapse mine. The initial 11 missing men reported were found dead from lack of water, no food, and no fresh air. [SOURCE]
Fire Damp Explosion In Virginia Mine
Coal miners past and present have to learn the signs of danger within the mine if they want to survive their dangerous occupation. They must always be alert and knowledgeable about what can go wrong, even if it is not a common occurrence. Take, for instance, “fire damp.” Fire damp was more common within the British coal mines than it was in the American coal mines. It’s a highly ignitable gas that form from the decomposition of coal and other matter within the mines and is composed mostly of methane.
In the spring of 1861, three miners entered a Virginian coal mine with their lamps lit in their caps. No sooner did they enter the mine that the explosion happened. According to a newspaper article, a “strong wind had interfered with the ventilation of the mine, so that the “fire damp” had accumulated.”
About two hours after the explosion, two men arrived at the scene and, in spite of smelling the gas fumes, entered the mine and rescued the bodies of the three miners. Two of the men were shattered to pieces from the explosion. The third man was still miraculously alive. [SOURCE]
Two Explosions At A Canadian Colliery
Caledonia mine in 1899 produced about 2,000 tons of coal per day. Normally, the coal mine had about 150 workers on the night shift, but on the summer night of the accident, only about 60 men were inside the mine. The other men had already finished their work and had left the mine.
The first explosion occurred in a pit three quarters of a mile down. It was believed that gas had built up inside the pit and was ignited. A second explosion occurred when a passage door was opened and another gas pocket was lit.
Most of the men managed to escape from the deadly fumes and fires inside the mine. As rescue parties entered the underground, choking on the poisonous gases, surviving parties of men were discovered and brought to the surface.
In total, 11 men lost their lives that night from the explosion and from the poisonous gases. None of the bodies were mangled, but all of them were reported as being blackened from the explosions. [SOURCE]
Gas Explosion In New Mexico
The White Ash Mine, in 1895, was one of the largest mines in New Mexico. The mine was being worked in seven levels, which should give you an idea of just how big this mine was at the time.
It was Ash Wednesday. Many of the miners had off for religious reasons, but 70 miners did work the mines that day when an explosion was heard throughout the mine’s different levels. Roughly 2,000 feet from the mine’s entry, a miner on the fourth level entered a room with an open lamp. The room was full of gas.
Miners who were working on the second level heard the explosion and got out of the mine safely. More than 40 miners remained inside.
Poisonous gases filled the mine after the explosion, making immediate rescue impossible. About four hours after the explosion, the first body, that of a trapper boy, was brought out. Hours later a total of 25 bodies had been removed from the mine and 18 injured men had been rescued.
Had it not been a religious holiday, it is believed that the death count would have been much higher. [SOURCE]
The Dresden Coal Mining Accident
It is often difficult enough to read through all the suffering miners endured during horrible accidents within the coal mines, but even worse is reading about the families left behind and the wives and mothers who would stand outside of a mine after each fatal accident, hoping to see loved ones come out alive.
In the summer of 1869, tragedy struck inside a mine outside of Dresden where it was believed that some 400 men had lost their lives.
According to an article found in The Aberystwith Observer:
“[A]n explosion had occurred in one of the great mines belonging to Baron Burg. Two men were blown out of the shaft by the force of the explosion, but in such fragments as to be altogether unrecognizable. The gas ignited the coal, and for some hours the pit was in flames. At one p.m. a man volunteered to descend, notwithstanding several minor shocks had occurred, but when the cage returned to bank he too was gone, nor could he be rescued before three p.m., the following day…”
The volunteer was found dead at the bottom of the shaft and by that night another 15 bodies were brought out of the mine. Most of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition. There were: “crowds of poor women, some of them having lost three or four of their family, standing in the wildest grief round the pit, hoping against hope that their loved ones might still be rescued alive, the heartbreaking sobs of children, and the sterner grief of men, made the scene agonizing in the extreme.”
The next day another 50 bodies were removed from the mine and placed in a shed for identification. Bodies were charred and heads were blown off. In many cases, identification was pretty much guesswork.
As more bodies were taken out of the mine, the women were brought in to try and find the men they loved:
“A shriek in yon corner would tell of a mother recognizing her son or a wife her husband lying among the long row of unsightly corpses, while the plaintive wail throughout told of a far wider spread grief.” [SOURCE]
