The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-02-23
ANOTHER COAL NINE HORROR!

ANOTHER COAL NINE HORROR!
TheDapid 3haw Causes . Crest Cave-in n
BraidwoS1, M, Entombing and pFown.
ing the liners in shaft-sev{ 5.fAuI
Livss lost. ty.rsasA
~ CHICAGO, February II.
x A report was received here sbis evening
from Joliet that the town of Braidwood. about
fifteen miles from Joliet, had been the scene
to-day of q great mine disaster. in which the
first report said sixty lives had been lost
A correspondents succeeded in getting con.
firmation of the reported disaster at Braid.
wood in brief interview with A. L. Sweet
President Of the Four Mines Company and the
Diamond Mine Company. -
Mr.. Sweet says that 800 men were in the va.
rious shafts this afternoon, when the ground
sagged under the weight of water that had
saturated and loosened it. Sixty-two men
were in one shaft, which caught the bulk OF
the falling debris, and which was instantly
flooded. Every one of them wes either
drowned or smothered inside of five minutes.
Their bodies are buried beneath many tons of
earth. One hundred acres have been exca.
waited, and the miners nos in the one snnfor.
tunate shaft escaped. Digging and pumping
is going on vigorously. but it will be many
hours before the first bodies can be reached.
The mine was of the ordinary kind, sup
piled with regular shafts and supposed to be
well protected from accidents.
The following is q partial list of the miners
known to be lost John Huber, who leaves
wife and four children; Adam McGuestin.
leayeswife and five children; Robert McQues-
ton, Isaac Person. leaves a wife and one
child James Carroll, b. Schalzell, leaves wife
and three children; John Boyd, leaves wife
and baby; John Neil leaves a wife and six
children; B. Harper leaves a wife and three
children; p. G. Redman leaves a wife and
three children; p. 2. Wall, Fritz Koef, Samuel
Athens, leaves q wife and six children; John
Athens, A. Hook, leaves a wife and two chill.
dren; George Butskinsky, John Butskinsky,
Tony Sullivan John hickman, leaves a wife
and four children; James Pierson, John Pier
son, Harry Unger, leaves q wife and child;
Joseph Matthews, A.. Gollinberg, Frank Motifs,
leaves wife and three children; w. A. kesser.
Joseph Smith &C. LOtlin. JohnGullock, Frank
Klass, Adam Damn, leaves wife and four chill.
dren; E. Damn, Joseph Grotes, NJ. Mjski. John
Denbrosky, Anton Denbro'ky, r. Muce, ii.
Ramsey, F. Soap, Matt Bells, p. Leck, John
Huber, Frank Huber, Will McQuestion. Adam
McQuestion, John Pierson, Mathew Redmond,
ID. NJ. Bridge, T. Costigar, A. Stewart, Jr.,
Frank Stewart Hugh Nestisit, Il. A. Babing-
ton, Simon Stump, John Smith, r. Rabbart,
George Mathew, W. C. Secor, H. q. Lemon, j.
Lens, John French, John johnson, o. o.
Sterlow, John Anderson, William Gully,
Charles Rodgers, j. o. Rusk. '|'
SiXty-eight men and six boys lie dead in
the mine, and it may be weeks before even
e
their bodies is accorded The wlfole-of Dia-
mond is devoted to mining, and this blow
carries death into a hundred families. In
family are swept away.
A section of prairie land forty by fifty feet,
over which the floods had extended until the
water stood three or four feet deep, suddenly
caved in, resulting in an instant flooding of a
mine in which 800 men and boys were work
ing. Inside of half an hour the water reached
all parts of the works, and to night it stands
within five feet of the main shaft. Seventy
four human beings were choked to death in
the gtim recesses of the mine. - All hope of
possible rescue of any of them by the open
ing of q dividing from an old shaft in the
empties was abandoned mt dusk - SIS
This was the most terrible tragedy that ever
visited the Wilmingto coal-field. 1t was in
the No. 9 shaft of the Wilmington Coal Mining
Manufacturing Company, known as the Dia-
mond Company's. The little village of Dia-
mond is a scene of desolation, calculated to
wiring the heart of even the most hardened.
The mine is in the extreme corner of Will
County. The miners live in the village across
the line in Grundy County. The Diamond
companys pits are known as Nos. ], 2, etc.
The pit in which to days horror occurred
has been operated about two years and 200 to
400 meT and boys have been regularly en-
ployed in it. This morning 300 or 800 went in.
Those who escaped did 50 bya miracle. \
Shaft No. is ninety-two feet deep, and
above, the coal Is IS to Ito feet of earth. The
coal vein ranges in thickness from two feet
nine inches TO four feet. Above it is layer
of soapstone resting on'a bed of fire-clay.
The vein winds and dips good deal, and
thus some parts of the mines are lower than
others. n NJ
From the main shaft radiate passages in
every direction. in which coal is found. These
must be four feet high and six inches wide.
The miners prop these passages with timber
and soapstone. These props-di not prove
strong enough for the superintendent mass
of soggy earth.
News of the accident soon spread and
great crowd gathered about the mouth of the
pit, workmen fishing out the almost exhausted
and nearly drowned men who were alive at
the bottom the shaft
Many a wife aud mother knelt on the ground
and prayed fervently for the safety of her
loved ones, and as the heart rendng charac-
ter of the calamity appeared, the grief of the
survivors was outspoken and painful to be-
hold.
A wife bent over the shaft and her husband
climbed up to her with the dead body of his
son in his arms She extended her hand to re-
ceive them, but was disappointed and doomed
to greater grief, for the man, worn out by the
desperate struggle for life and for the body of
his son, fell back into the pit and was life
less corpse. He has not been seen since.
Mrs. McQuestion, whose husband and Three
sons were buried. upon learning the news was
Frustrated, and now lies in a precarious con-,
dition with her mind permanently injured.
r. .Mill.Stone Explosion. =