Lackawanna County Pennsylvania Disasters
1869 Coal Mine Fire
Transcribed by Nancy Piper
New York Herald (New York, New York) September 8, 1869
The Coal Mine Horror
The Shaft Cleared and Air Pumped Into the Mine
Several Descents Made Without Results
Hope Abandoned of Any Lives Being Saved
Great Excitement in the Mining District
Arrival of as Engine and Fan-Air Being Passed into the Shalft - Meetin of Miners - Descent of Miners Down the Shaft - Narrow Escape of Two from Death by Suffocation - Carbonic Acid Gas and Black Damp Prevent Explorations - All Hope Abandoned of Any Lives Being Saved.
Scranton Pa, Sept. 7, 1869
The following bulletins to the Scranton Morning Republican have been received from Avondale:
6 O'clock A.M. - The train with the donkey engine and fan has just arrived. They will be hauled up the hill to the mouth of the shaft at once, and all haste made to put them in place and get ready for work.
8 O'clock A.M. - The engine is nearly ready and preparations are going on rapidly. A rope has just been stretched around the shaft and a large police force has been deputized and is under charge of Chief Daniel Brown, of Plymouth, assisted by Levi Carvickaner, constable for Plymouth township. The ground has been cleared of all not actually engaged in busy preparation. The hill side, rising abruptly back of the shaft, is crowded with women and children, and men from other localities.
9 O'clock A.M. - The most experienced men all agree that every person in the mine has perished. Preparations are hastily being made to force air down the shaft. A descent will be made within an hour. All mining experts feel sure that every man in the mine is dead.
A meeting of miners has just been convened in the woods near by, James George acting as president. He stated in a spirited speech the object of the gathering to be to organize a force of fity experienced men from amont the representatives of the several districts present to hol themselves in readiness to volunteer to descend the shaft. He stated that seventeen miners were there from Hyde Park, and called for nominations from other localities.
Thomas J. Phillips, Superintendent of the Jersey Mines, waited upon the meeting to say that when the preparations were ready the carpenters, machinists, and others would give place to the miners, who would co-operate with the officers of the company to exploring the mine.
9:15 O'clock A.M. - The engine and fan have just started, and every pulse is quickened at the busy hum they create.
9:30 O'clock A.M. - Men are pouring in from all quarters in great numbers. Mr. J. C. Wells has just arrived, with 300 miners, from Coalville.
9:40 O'clock A.M. - The fan was worked only a few minutes on trial, when it was stopped to connect the canvas air conductor, which will reach the bottom of the shaft, 297 feet. All is nearly ready; the miners are close at hand and a roll of their names is being called.
10:05 O'clock A.M. - The fan has just been started. Forty six miners have been enrolled under the superintendence of James George, of Plymouth, and Henry W. Evans, of Pittston. George Morgan, of the Nanticoke Mines, is appointed foreman of the part of the mines, and Thomas E. Davis, of Nanticoke, and John H. Powell, of Taylorville, as advisers. They are to have the direction of operations after the descent is made.
10:20 O'clock A.M. - Thomas Corwin, Superintendent of the Hampton Mines, and John I. Davis, carpenter at Avondale, are making the first descent of the shaft. They proceed only 100 feet and lower three lamps, which burn freely. The obstructions prevent the lamps from reaching the bottom within fifteen feet.
10: 45 O'clock A.M. - Carson and Davis remain in their position reconnoitering the shaft. The lamps still burn and the fan continues to force down air. The Rev. Thomas P. Bunt appeared on the ground, and after a few remarks proposed the following gentlemen as a committee to solicit aid for the families of the sufferers - E. O. Wachams(?), James McAlarney, J. Fuller, Reynolds G. Evans, Dr. Ritchards, Jacob Roberts, J. W. Eno, H. J. Tapie, Harry Bakes, Samuel Shaffier, B. J. Woodward, R. N. E. Woodward, Robert Boston, J. G. Wren, Nathan Van Horn, F. Thorner, H. Turner, H. H. Harvey, Richard Stillwell and John B. Smith. Several small books, previously prepared, were handed to all the committeemen present and the canvases of the immense multitude here is progressing.
11 O'clock A.M. - The two men have ascended and the miners' committee are getting ready to go down. They will take axes, saws, &c., to clear the passage.
The crowd has become so great as to interfere with the relief operation, and the free passenger trains are necessarily suspended.
11:15 O'clock A.M. - George T. Morgan of Nanticoke; John Howell, of Taylorville; Thomas David, of Belleville, and Thomas E. Davis of Nanticoke, a committee of miners, begin to descend the shaft. They proceed slowly and with care.
11:35 O'clock A.M. - They now ascend to the mouth of the shaft. They report that after leaving the platform on which they went down they proceeded about thirty feet into the gangway, and, finidn a great deal of carbonic acid gas and black damp, retreated, after conveying the end of the large canvas air conveyor as far into the lode as they went. The damp was between two and three feet deep on the bottom of the mine.
11:55 O'clock A.M. - Rees Evans, Thomas Carson, Charles Jones and Isaac Thomas, another miner's committee, now begin to descend the shaft.
12:30 O'clock P.M. - The second party of men returned safely, as had first. They penetrated the gangway for a distance of seventy-five feet and found the large door wide open. They then went a hundred feet further in one of the passages, and found a small door closed. After opening this door to give a circulation of air around to the entrance they returned. Had this small door been open there might have been a shade of hope, as the gas and smoke and fire would have had a free passage around the circuit and out again. As it is, the fears are that the smoke has penetrated the inner mine and suffocated all the men. The main doorway leading to the mine has not yet been reached.
12:45 O'clock P.M. - The third set of men, four in number, went down and came back in fifteen minutes, two of them so overcome with the effets of the gas that they are being restored with difficulty. The gas is coming out of the outer mine very fast since the passage way was opened.
1 O'clock P.M. - The two men are not yet revived. Drs. Throop and Everhart, of Scranton, and Wilson, of Plymouth, are in attendance. The wildest excitement prevails, and the mass of people are kept back with great difficulty.
1:30 O'clock P.M. - The two miners are saved at last. It seems idle to peril life by any further attempt to go down as long as the gas is so strong. No attempt can of course be made to reach the main door or to penetrate the mine until the outer gangway is cleared of gas. It is uncertain how long this will take. There is really no groung to hope that a single life remains of those who were at work in the mine. Everybody gives them up, and nothing probably remains to be done but to recover the bodies. What horror an suffering yesterday witnessed beneath this spot, and whether it was of long or short duration none will probably ever know.
LATER
The Air Becoming Purer - Two More Descents Made - The Fire in the Furnace Still Burning
Scranton, Sept. 7, 1869
At a quarter past three o'clock this afternoon four Men descended, returned in good condition and reported the air much purer.
At half-past six o'clock this evening four men, John Tisdale, Colonel Harkness, John Selteree and R. E. B. Jones, went down. After letting down the water hose to the bend of the air piper and over the furnace, to put water on and deaden the fire in the furncace, they returned in fifteen minutes, saving that the water hose was landed in the shaft and that they could not find the hole by which they expected to enter. They were not seriously affected by the foul air.
At ten minutes past seven o'clock this evening another relay of four men - F. Bray, Evan Morris, Evan J. Evans and William Gregory - went down. They returned in about twenty minutes, reporting that they had been at the furnace and found everything all right except the fire in the furnace, which was still burning. They could not arrange the water hose until it was hoisted up a little. They were not seriously affected by the foul air.
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